This Night Sponsored By…

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Becky M

Gluten-free pizza (homemade)

Gluten-free toast (from the store) with Nutella

Pike's Peak Roast with Splenda & Sugar Free French Vanilla Creamer

Happy Monday Night!

Grey Gardens Tempts Me

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Becky M

I totally forgot about the ultimate guilty pleasure Grey Gardens until I saw this at the BX yesterday…

I think I need to see this...

How could I not remember a full-scale film had been made in their memory. I can honestly say this is one cult classic I am addicted to :)

Christmas Reflections

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Becky M

I’ve been reflecting on Christmas traditions recently and was inspired to write about it by Clover Lane’s post today. As the Air Force will now be determining the feasibility of going “home” for Christmas, we’ve got to be more proactive in starting our own traditions so that they are in place when we have our own kids (some day, no hints here!). Here are some things we are doing, have done with our families, and would like to do in the future:

CURRENT TRADITIONS:

Decorating the day after Christmas
Lots of baking (mostly for other people since we’re traveling)
Cloth Advent Calendar
Advent wreath (due to the chaos this year, it never got lit, but it was a lovely addition to our table)
Christmas music after Thanksgiving
Putting our gifts to other people under our own tree
Checking out the Christmas lights in the surrounding neighborhoods
Celebrating with friends in addition to family
Working with City Mission and our church to provide local people with homemade Christmas meals and Christmas parties!
Sending out Christmas cards pictures from the past year with a letter of things we are thankful for, have overcome, and look forward to!

FAMILY TRADITIONS:

Christmas Eve service at our childhood church
Braving the cold two weeks before Christmas to cut down our own Christmas tree!
Traditional Italian Christmas Eve Dinner at my parents’ house to include gingerbread house building! (I think I’ll have to write a post all about this evening including pictures)
Ornament exchange with hubby’s family including (usually) homemade ornaments based on a significant event of the last year; my mom always got us a Precious Moments ornament for each year
Hubby’s family also used to make luminaries for the church driveway and neighborhood
New PJs on Christmas Eve from my parents (now that I’m married I by myself a new pair to wear for school spirit week :)
Watching Muppet Christmas Carol when there’s only “one more sleep ’til Christmas” or when we decorate the tree
Sticky bun and/or egg souffle breakfast with leftovers from the Christmas Eve dinner for lunch
Keeping things quiet and slow – we stayed at one place for the whole day!
German pickle hunt – you hide a pickle ornament in the tree and whoever finds it gets an extra gift. Since there were only two of us, we each had our own gift
My dad would always hide at least one of our gifts and send us on a thought-filled treasure hunt!

FUTURE TRADITIONS:

Hosting our own Christmas Eve dinner
Reading Scripture and lighting our advent wreath in preparation and anticipation of Christmas
Luminaries with our own children
I just found out about this “Elf on the Shelf” thing and I can’t wait to do it – since hubby doesn’t believe in Santa anymore, I’ll have to wait until we’ve got kids :)
We’ve already got some traditions from my German and Italian roots, so I’d like to include more from our English, Scottish, and Irish backgrounds
Treasure hunt gifts
Kids decorating their doors or their half of the room for Christmas (inspired by my 2nd period class)
My dad waited until I was about 10 years old to institute the “no waking parents until 6am” rule, but I’m thinking that’s going to start as soon as our kids can tell time!
Cutting down a fresh Christmas tree when we aren’t traveling
D ecorating with Christmas cards from the past

Now I’m starting to think about New Year’s traditions – come back next week!

Halfway Through September Already

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Becky M

I realized today it was time for another post.

School has been going really well. I love being there and the kids crack me up. I’ve got a few kids that need some encouragement to behave more appropriately, but I really can’t complain. Many people have been asking about my clearance situation – my background check still has not cleared, so I am still not getting paid. While I was told it would take up to six weeks, my principal just informed me that it would take up to 12 weeks to be finalized. It’s been a frustrating fact to deal with, so I am only going into school on Tuesdays and Thursdays to work with the kids and keep up with what they are doing.

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to my classroom financially – it’s been a huge help!

Teaching the 9th grade class has not been as off the wall as I have expected. They’re so cute, but very tentative to participate and get work done – I can’t wait to see who they become by the end of the year :) This is how I feel at the end of a period with them:

Keith is doing well. He’s working on the inpatient floor of the VA hospital (in the same building as the Air Force hospital) and it has been an interesting rotation since he has been working with patients who are dealing with serious illness and economic struggles. In October he moves to the Pediatric clinic.

Otherwise, we’re anticipating the weather cooling off pretty soon and hoping to go on some fun adventures since we haven’t been hiking in awhile!

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[Read more at Our Life In Four Bags]

The Beginning of Graduation Week

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Becky M

The week started with a bang! Teachers College and Columbia University Commencements were celebrated in the rain with friends and family. It was a special way to celebrate the last two years of hard work:

my greatest cheerleader!

our Grant Hall friends!

the Columbia lawn filled with water logged graduates!

It’s time to move on, but I’ll miss Teachers College!

My April in Pictures

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Becky M

Since it’s almost time to leave New York, I’m starting to document everything I’ll miss:

I love these old buildings we live in. I love looking up and seeing natural beauty framed by architectural beauty!

I’m going to miss Teachers College – a place where I’ve been challenged to be a more creative and hard working teacher than I ever thought!

I’ll miss the diversity of this city. Last weekend we went to Brooklyn Tabernacle for church. Where else in the North East can you go to church in a re-purposed theater and hear Gospel music like you’re in the south?

And where else in the world does the view from your classroom look like this?

Two weeks left in New York – let the adventures begin!!

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[Read more at My Life In Four Bags]

In Concert with Bobby McFerrin

Posted on March 6, 2010 by Becky M

The following is a post from my science blog about a concert by Bobby McFerrin at the Celebration of Teaching & Learning I covered this weekend. His performance was just too amazing not to share.

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The United Federation of Teachers is celebrating its 50^th birthday, so this session was started with the entire audience singing Happy Birthday in unison. Then 10-time Grammy winner Bobby McFerrin unassumingly took his place on stage in a t-shirt and jeans. Honestly, I would not have known him from my neighbor. He starts singing, adding in vocal percussion, and humming, all the while asking for sound checks and reverb adjustments. I’m riveted and entertained already.

He seamlessly transitions to a vocally percussive version of “Black Bird”. If I closed my eyes, I would guess there were at least three men on stage. Yet, there is only one incredibly talented musician. Another song begins; I can’t imagine what might come next. The sounds coming from his mouth, chest, hands, and other body parts do not sound natural.

Am I really here, listening to this? Intense.

Half of the room is beedee-ing on cue while the other half beedah-s. McFerrin continues to draw the audience in. I feel like we’re in concert together. Now he’s training the audience to respond with certain pitches based on where on the stage he jumps. The audience hums the tune he dictates with his feet while he sings a harmony. I am amazed that when he adds a new pitch, even if he jumps further than the space allotted with one note, the audience sings an interval that matches his jumps.

McFerrin sings the Bach Prelude as the audience sings Ave Maria (Oy vey, Maria for the Jewish teachers). There are obviously some trained sopranos, but for the most part the audience knows the tune and, at the very least, everyone hums along.

In a question and answer session, a teacher asks how to encourage her kids to learn about classical music. He encourages her just to play every-and-any kind of music in her class. Another asks if he employs math and music together – he says not anymore, but the study of music theory is mathematical all over the place.

McFerrin says music probably came before language, but he wouldn’t know because he wasn’t there. He suggests using song for everything; he learned how to spell encyclopedia from Jiminy Crickit! For every content area, there must be a way to incorporate music into the lesson. I’ve got to think about how to do this in physics.

Someone asks if he writes down his improvisation. He says he doesn’t write it down and doesn’t remember either.

From further questioning we learning his top five composers and/or musical artsists are Mozart, Gershwin, his dad (a baritone and the first black singer to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera), and Miles Davis. He most recently downloaded the score for the movie Unfaithful.

A young girl asks how he sings like that; McFerrin makes some funny noises and she laughs out loud. Her dad asks if music says something about a generation, what does music say about our culture? Ultimately, McFerrin says, music should be redeeming; artists are responsible for saying good things about life. He doesn’t like anything that’s violent, pushy, bossy, etc. That said, he sings again.

“Baby, baby, baby, running, running, running, everywhere…” His fingers tap the microphone as though he were playing it like an instrument.

As I watch and listen, I can’t help but think he embodies everything I want to be as a teacher. His “students” are captivated: we are not captivated by him. We are captivated by his music. I want my students to be captivated by the content. An “instrumental” version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow comes next and only intensifies my captivation; I want to find a piano as soon as possible and let the pent up music out. Actually, it makes me want to bring Bobby McFerrin home.

All of a sudden he’s transformed from Dorothy to a mix of Glinda and all of the munchkins, next the Wicked Witch, a trumpeter, and every character from one end of Oz to the next.

“Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” Seriously, I’ve got to stop typing because tears are running down my face from the laughing. He’s getting us all to sing along now…

When all is said and done (and the Wicked Witch has melted), I realize that Bobby McFerrin was asked to speak because 1) his love for music oozes and 2) because he’s hilarious.

It just makes me think every teacher should ooze love for what they’re teaching.

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[Read more at My Life In Four Bags]

We Are The World

Posted on February 13, 2010 by Becky M

Last night, I fell asleep to the sound of the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I love the Olympics. I think it is such a wonderful time when athletes come together to compete, increase awareness of their sport, and share their love for their sport with people from all over the world.

As a tribute to Haiti and honoring the one month anniversary of the earthquake, Lionel Richie & friends remade the song “We Are The World”. Originally, the song was dedicated to Africa and sung by 80′s legends such as Michael Jackson and Tina Turner. This go around, over 25 major recording artists collaborated to make a video just for Haitian survivors. It’s really special when artists can get together and sing together (and not for the spotlight)!

Here’s the video they shared at the Opening Ceremonies last night: