My dog is the greatest gift I have ever received.
Here I am, on the couch upstairs, writing this blog with my Samsung slate in my lap, my dog staring up at me and my video games calling my name. My dog has moved up to the couch, laying next to me, staring at the wall. I wonder what she thinks about, day after day, week after week, month after month. She is very lazy.
I wonder what it feels like to be a dog. Is it good, or bad? Sure, she doesn't have to go to school, and she get's to slouch around the house. She doesn't have to hunt for food, she doesn't have to do chores, and she gets to sleep whenever. Wherever! But, she is skittish. She seems to worry about people coming into the house and this is because she was abused when she was just a pup. We got her when she was just 5 weeks old. So we saved her from a bad life.
Having a dog can be bittersweet.
It was Halloween, 2014. I came home on the school bus. But when I walked into the house, my dog wasn't there to greet me. I searched the house and garden. I ran outside and even looked around the whole complex, but I couldn't find her. When I called my parents, I was bursting with tears. Scared out of my mind. Worried for my dog. My parents got home and we started searching in the car. We drove around our housing complex and neighborhood. The next day, a Saturday, we printed out many lost dog signs. We passed them out to the guards, hammered them on to trees, in front of housing complexes, hospitals, and we also alerted all the pounds.
Everyday, our family felt more hopeless of finding her. Though we secretly hoped she'd be on the couch when we walked in, she never was. We were sad. Lonely. Lost without her. Our family wasn't whole with her gone.
Four days later, in the middle of class, my dad came in and pulled me out. He said a man selling bananas near a hospital had seen our dog. My mom had rushed there to get her. She called my dad and said she was coming back to school. When she drove up at 11:24 on a school day, we saw our dog, poking her small, little black head out of the car. We all started to cry again. But this time, tears of joy.
Getting her as a puppy was a good gift. Getting her back was the greatest gift!
this post was written on 10.27.14 and never published... darn technology!
It’s been over a month since I returned from the Learning2 Africa conference. I have started writing this reflection a dozen or so times, but every time I begin, the pull of my “to-do” list calls me and I end up DOING something instead of writing about what I want to do. But with deadlines looming, I am pushing the to-do list to the back, getting my act together, and sharing (or writing, rather) my thoughts on one of the most motivational professional experiences I’ve ever been part of.
My coffee addiction
Learning 2Africa. Being married to someone whom I consider, a tech visionary means that words and names like “Learning2,” “Kim Cofino,” “PLNs,” “Jeff Utecht,” “COETAIL,” and “Genius Hours” have been part of my dialogue. While braving traffic, through grocery shopping trips, or in moments stolen while watching the kids flop around the in pool, my husband and I often “talk shop.” From unit plans to integration—we push one another to try something new. But, as an elementary classroom teacher who has been working in schools with pre-determined goals that rarely include technology integration and learning “outside the box”, I’ve spent my professional development time (and money) on work that aligned more directly to my job. So attending Learning2Africa was a way for me to put my learning focus first!
Overload. For three days my head was swimming (and not just in amazing Ethiopian coffee thanks to my dear near friend Bezuayehu and the traditional coffee ceremony). I was learning inspired at every turn. The stimulating conversatations shared with like-minded educators from around the globe revitalized my enthusiasm for a profession that I have, in recent years, become rather discontented by. From the TED-type Learning2 Talks to my extended session with Kim Cofino (Developing a Connected Learning Community) and Alex Lancia (Electronic Portfolios), I could feel gurgles of enthusiasm bubbling inside of me as questions were asked and ideas were fleshed out. Touring around the word with Marcello Mongardi by using Google Tour Builder helped me brainstorm some fascinating ways to use the program across curriculum areas in my own classroom. Workshopping with Jeff Fessler was both motivational and moving. Jeff walked me through the journey he and his students went on as they used Comic Life software produce a dual-language graphic novel during a service learning project for Malaria awareness in Bamako.
Conferring. Unconferencing. Reconferencing. Poster Sessions. And any other way in which people could be paired up to discuss and learn-- at every corner I was being inundated with ideas and discussions to challenge my own learning safari. Regularly regrouping with my cohort group helped me reconnect with my Elementary people. During these sessions, we brainstormed strategies to help one another tackle tough agendas with our administrators or dialogued about how we could share authentic learning with parents.
Planning. My plane ride home to South Africa resulted in a 6-page to-do list with next-steps, people to contact, plans, outlines, and scenarios—the contacts from my cohort group and Twitter leads all tripled my PLN within hours. The top three items on my list—convince my Principal and TIC to allow my students and I to create an online portfolio for (at least) one unit of study, build a Facebook presence for my elementary class; and set up voice-activated Google on our classroom desktops.
Final Thoughts. To say that the top three items on my list are all in place and working beautifully would be a massive overstatement.I’m a teacher—life gets in the way. There are always planning meetings, parent emails, bulletin boards, assemblies, and every day student issues that get in the way of one’s good intentions. But I’m on my way. My 6-page to-do list has now grown to 13 or so pages with registering for and working towards my COETAIL in capital letters across the top. But teaching is not a race. It’s a journey. A safari, rather. One that includes exploration, innovation, and connection.
Anouk celebrated her 9th birthday in SPA style. After deciding on a theme for her party, Anouk and Mama got busy creating eye mask invitations and a relaxing spa setting for the celebration. The first step was: the relaxation zone which was full of pillows, blankets, and all the pre-tween magazines we could get our hands on.
Once that was all done, we organized a beauty zone so Mama and her two teacher buddies could make up each "client." Girls received two beauty treatments. They had an option of a dozen nail colors from which to get their manicure done. This was followed by a "facial" with eye make-up and lip glosses galore.
While girls waited for their spa treatments, they were asked to cut
small spa-themed icons and glue them on to a blank BINGO board. Once all
the boards were created, the girls played RELAX (as opposed to BINGO).
Mama's favorite event was hot nail polish. In this game,
all the girls sat on a blanket in the garden, each with their own nail
polish color in hand. While the music played, they were asked to pass
the nail polish to the next person. When the music stopped, they were
stuck with the color in their hand and had to paint one of their toes.
The game continued in this manner until all 10 toes were pained a
variety of colors. It's hilarious how unskilled these girls are at painting their own toenails.
Once everyone's nails dried, it was time to participate in Papa's annual Birthday Scavenger Hunt. This year's scavenger hunt took the girls upstairs, downstairs, outside, in the car, and ultimately, to the Master bedroom, where they found a basket full of terrific spa tools: nail polish, wash clothes, lip gloss, nail files, mints, nail stickers, and hair ties.
The party wrapped up with a heartwarming rendition of Happy Birthday that was sung with incredible enthusiasm! The girls devoured chocolate cupcakes or fruit and custard cake (though most girls tried BOTH!)
To see more pictures of this Spaaaaaaahhhh day, go to our Flickr page.
One of the worst things about living half a world away from home-- jet lag. Jet lag is a close second to other worst things... like: missing births, weddings, deaths (and all other familial and friend-centered events); not being present for joys and sorrows that permeate our loved one's daily lives; and the ever-important "hug-on-demand" that you can get when you live close to your nearest and dearest. That all said, the positives of our crazy lives still outweigh the negatives and so we continue exploring the world and teaching as we go. But jet lag is a nasty result of such an interesting lifestyle. And this year--jet lag is dreadful. Between the inevitable holiday blues, the 22+ hours of flying, and the 10 hour time change, I'm walking the halls of our summery still house at 1 am in Johannesburg reflecting on our Christmas in California.
Don't get me wrong, we've had some amazing Christmases not in California. But after the trips to Rob's family in Belgium, Jordan, Lombok, Thailand, and recruiting in Bangkok last Christmas, I was eager to go home. So... after 6 years of Christmas in California absences, I pushed and prodded, whined and weaseled my way into what is now being coined our Costly Christmas in California. But damn, it was worth it! We arrived home restless for cold weather, craving chaotic family events, and a yearning (by me) to relive the Christmas traditions of my youth through my kids' eyes. And we did just that!
We were most excited about the opportunities to play elves on
many occasions. Our first experience started on day 2 of our trip, when my dear friend
Tricia came down with stupidity and fell off a young man's loft bed
leaving her and her Spreading Christmas Cheer Projectin
a lurch! Who would be the delivery elves this year while she was bolted
to her couch with a broken wrist, smashed face, and a gloomy
disposition? Why? We would. Of course. So after some careful scheduling, loading, and Google mapping, Tricia's elves loaded vans and cars with over $6,000 of items that two very
wonderful (but struggling) families needed and wanted this holiday
season. The second such elf-like experience came just two
days after Christmas when Santa's [belated] helpers organized a living
room redecoration to accommodate a new TV and cabinet for the matriarch
of our family. Despite the white-lies and lunch cancellations, our Nama
was pretty excited about her new entertainment! Now she can watch 'Judge Judy' in HD! During this holiday, we enjoyed a girls-only trip to see the
Nutcracker,
BART-ed to San Francisco to see the Christmas displays in Union Square
(though extremely disappointing, dinner at the Ferry Building was quite
delightful), attended an adorable American/Russian Christmas program at
Katya's daycare, and made copious amounts of holiday treats with
my Nama while listening to my grandfather's old 45s crackling in the
background.
We enjoyed opening gifts on Christmas Eve at Dominic and
Anna's house, making retro Christmas ornaments from Styrofoam balls and
sequins, watching my dad finally show off his "frying bacon"
routine (what grandparents won't do for their grandchildren!), thanking
him by driving to Half Moon Bay at the start of crab season to score
some deliciousness, long and lovely dinners with cousins, as well as seeing to the health and well-being of
grandpa's chickens.
A
holiday highlight was enjoying a Christmas with little ones again! It
was great to see our niece and nephew mesmerized by the glitz and
excitement of Christmas. During a pre-departure sleepover, we even got
to take Katya and the kids to one of those outrageously decorated (and
synchronized-to-music) houses in the Bay Area. The kids got out and
danced on the lawn under the fake snow while my parents and grandmother
listened to the music from the comfort (read: warmth) of the car!
After caring for our dear friend, Tricia, Rob and I got to sneak off for a little date and caught The Secret Life of Walter Mitty while enjoying a dinner of popcorn and soda. We
even got to enjoy some alone-time with my godfather, Steve though this
time it wasn't over BINGO cards. Rob even organized an afternoon out with a former colleague who is now living in Pakistan! Whoa... reading over this list of
events makes me tired all over again!
But... one of the most enjoyable and unexpected events occurred just a few days
after Christmas when my mom (in her wonderful Annette way) concocted a
plan with an old friend and arranged a post-holiday soiree with some of
the former boys of the Golden Gate Boys Choir. Without knowing all the
ins and outs of the event, I called upon my Notre Dame girls and
included them in the mix--boy they didn't know what hit them when
they descended on our house with 30 people cramped in every corner of my
parent's house
devouring amazing Filipino food and catching up on old times. Seeing my
friend Dian pregnant made me giddy and meeting the newest addition to
Teresa's family was such a blessing.
But watching my brother sing after such a hiatus had to be one of my
personal highlights. Seeing my
brother pick up complicated sheet music and sing so beautifully took me
back to all those years of carting him to rehearsals, following him on
tour around the world, and doing my homework in many a church basement! I
was thrilled to see friends I hadn't seen in years and catch up
on the lives of people who were so vastly important in our old lives. I
know that my parents enjoyed the night tremendously--they stayed up and
gabbed until midnight! My mother, again, pulls off another one of her
crazy plans with great success!
Though our jaunt to the states was wonderful, it's
nice to be back "home" in our own beds, with our own things, and our
crazy dog in toe. Though we miss everyone desperately and long for the
next holiday, it is time to get back to reality in this new year!
Blessings for great adventures and happiness in 2014!
**to check out our picture gallery, click on the images below**
It's been a difficult week for the world as Madiba takes his final walk to freedom. But we are all much better for his presence on Earth and that is clearly evident in all we have witnessed in the last four days here in Johannesburg. Beyond the constant radio tributes and commercial spots paying him homage, the city and all of South Africa seems to be stopping to give thanks, smile more genuinely at one another, and pay their respects by striving to live his lessons. Even at 7 am on a Sunday morning, his house in Houghton (not his museum house in the township of Soweto), was teeming with people grieving for our world's loss.
At school, my students and I read Chris van Wyk and Paddy Bouma's abridged children's story Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom while trying to figure out what the zulu word, UBUNTU meant. The word ubuntu is one that Mandela referred to often and literally translates to "human kindness." During Apartheid, ubuntu developed in to an ideology called Ubuntuism but became commonly used internationally once Mandela became president in 1994.
As a philosophy, ubuntu is something we should all achieve for. To look for the virtue, goodness, and kindness in one another's human nature. To that end, my students and I reflected on how WE could demonstrate ubuntu. According to them, it doesn't take much:
"Be caring to people."
"Hug a person when they're sad."
"Say, 'Thank you!'"
"Don't judge people."
"Be principled even when it's hard to do the right thing."
For some more pictures of the way we see beauty through grief, check out my Flickr feed.
by Xavier
It was Halloween, 2014. I came home on the school bus. But when I walked into the house, my dog wasn't there to greet me. I searched the house and garden. I ran outside and even looked around the whole complex, but I couldn't find her. When I called my parents, I was bursting with tears. Scared out of my mind. Worried for my dog. My parents got home and we started searching in the car. We drove around our housing complex and neighborhood. The next day, a Saturday, we printed out many lost dog signs. We passed them out to the guards, hammered them on to trees, in front of housing complexes, hospitals, and we also alerted all the pounds.
Four days later, in the middle of class, my dad came in and pulled me out. He said a man selling bananas near a hospital had seen our dog. My mom had rushed there to get her. She called my dad and said she was coming back to school. When she drove up at 11:24 on a school day, we saw our dog, poking her small, little black head out of the car. We all started to cry again. But this time, tears of joy.
