Hey, Hey, I have been sewing my fingers to the bone. I show at ONE craft fair each year. It is a groovy fundraiser with no crocheted tissue box covers or starched doily angels. Each year the unaffiliated group chooses a local charity to sponsor. We all donate an item that is worth at least $20, then gift baskets are made and a raffle begins...my favorite kind, you put the tickets in the tin in front of the basket you WANT. Love that. Last year I won the only basket tin I put my tickets into: jam, a tin Obama altar folkart thingie, a lapiz necklace, hair doo-dahs (kids get to make stuff too and sell it!) and an amazing lamp globe that was Tom Waits themed (he lives in our county, and shops in our town). (See what what I mean...cool). I treated myself with all my profits to a messenger bag made from bicycle tires. So without further ado, a picture of the fused recycled plastic and men's shirt sandwich wrappers I will be hawking:

They are school related, right? The Giant's one is the one I am donating...that bag is a vintage booty bag from the 70's. The wrappers stay together with velcro. (I am so excited...cuz I think that baby will bring a chunk of change!)

 Okay, on to the math stuff. So we are finishing up our unit on writing equations of lines with Scatter Plots and the Line of Best Fit. (Really, who cares how many people are going to the swimming pool based on the temperature outside?) I was listening to my FAVORITE podcast, APM's Marketplace Money while walking the dog, and there was the inspiration. An interactive program on their website  starting with 2012, and $35.47 in groceries. Oh man, and they reported how much that food cost in 2002, and 1992, and 1982, based on census data and adjusted for inflation. REAL useful data.
Not enough points really for a fabulous Line of Best Fit, but enough for the students to plot and find one! (And predict what that same bill will be in 2032 when they will be 35 years old or so.) I had the kids make their predictions, then multiply that by four (family of 4) and then by four again for a month. Pretty dang eye opening. Of course if I were going it alone and I had tenure, I would have the kids in the computer lab looking up their own data. But for now I am pleased that I could make it real. Hopefully. How far will $35 go? Groceries through the decades









We woke up this morning to the patut-patut-patut of the local field hands shaking and picking the last of the apples. I was too tired to stop them, even though this year I was determined to pick and can every last apple myself. By the time I got out to the car, the beautiful folks, two women and one gent, laughing and teasing had filled their last buckets and dumped them into the crate on the back of the tracker.

 Bye apples! May you make sweet juice.

Every last apple is gone, all the rotting ones, the wormy ones, and the bird pecked ones too. A bittersweet exchange, my decomposing piles gone, the yard free from fallen apples, and no more walking outside to pick the girls' lunch apples.



I left the classroom a mess yesterday, bits of cut out paper, wads of those bits of paper, mixed in with dirt from returning from the football stadium after a real fire drill (smoke from basement, though it was not really smoke, just steam, that tripped the smoke detector, that tripped the fire alarm). What did the students get from cutting out the examples of scatter plots and correlations that they couldn't of gotten out of regular notes? Does a matching activity mean they know what they are doing, that they understand why they are doing what they do?






I share my room with a lovely teacher who has been at the
school for many, many, many years. He likes the 36
desks in 6 rows of 6. Kinda challenging to move easily in and out of group work, make stations keep buckets of supplies out and such (we are packed in!). I am up for the challenge, AND taking any and all suggestions!

I am hydrating for a run, so I have two minutes to write (Drinking watered down orange juice with Postassium Chloride Powder--yummy). Ha-ha! I also have 2 minutes to grade those papers. And two minutes to hang the laundry and two minutes to play with the dog, and two minutes to check school email and two minutes to grade the last of the trickled in INB's, and two minutes to find that resource page for rotating a trapezoid to SHOW how the area formula works (anyone, anyone?)...oops that is 20 minutes for 2 minutes and there-in lies the how the whole problem with AOADD teacher brain. (Adult Onset of Attention Deficit Disorder).

I wanted to collect pictures of the latest round of INB's, however there is nothing at all new in them, so instead I will include this amazing and silly picture of my cat helping me grade papers.

Dac isn't much help
I am in love with Mr. Wadell's (blog.mrwaddell.net) idea to forget point-slope form and slope intercept form in favor of graphing form: y=a(x-h) + k...why not have all forms of equations consistent, we make kids remember stupid and archaic stuff anyways...


This cartoon is for the Parent who came in during tutorial and stared me down as punishment to his kid when I had a zillion kids waiting for their tests to make test corrections to EARN the chance to retake the only test they will be allowed to retake this semester as quarter grades are due Monday. Oh, so that is 2 more minutes to be working on THOSE things...

The dog was mightily jealous and asked why he doesn't get a super cute picture on the website...

And while I am on the topic of AOADD, and teacher brain. I sure have fun with the Smart Board (my first year with it), but it is just the same for the students sitting there. I am NOT impressed, I like my document camera and a notebook computer (had to leave it behind, belonged to former school, dang) Last note...On Monday I tried to use one of the department hand-outs, I should know better. My brain just doesn't think in "linear equation types," it thinks in Frayer-model vocabulary and pictures.  So on Wednesday, I told the kids this would be NOTE heavy...get ready for it...get ready for it...and you know, it was so much better! And by the last class we took some notes,  watched an "up" of Giant's baseball, took some notes, watched another, "up."

 And Crap! I forgot to write down the assignment I made up on the fly from the text yesterday, and erased it off the board! Was it 3-21 every third or odd?

Lastly it is Halloween: 


Cheers, Amy



Dang, no pictures, but wanted to add:

Saturday: Ravolis with pesto and tuna melts on English Muffins

Sunday: Ginger Carrot soup with Cauliflower and Potato, Garlic Bread and Salad

I didn't want to cook Sunday. Nope wasn't going to do it! Then my Senior came home with a sore throat and wanted soup. Over to the stove I went with garlic, onion, ginger, carrots, 1/2 jalepeno, one potato, half a small head of cauliflower, and some organic chicken broth from Trader Joe's. 25 minutes later with submersible wand I had soup! None left, not even a drop! Proud mom! 

Next up, the Interactive Notebooks I am collecting Wednesday.


My very best friend in the kitchen this week is my Black and Decker Mini Chopper ( the only food processor I own). Ever since I was told by a relatively sane person that tomatoes in cans were bad for you, I have turned to my mini chopper for all recipes calling for cooked tomatoes. In goes the garlic, in goes the tomatoes, onions, zucchini, red bell peppers,jalapeños, whatever! I hid zucchini from my 14 year old using that thing!


On Monday I cooked 1.5 pounds of  organic chicken "tenders" and used them for the next two nights.
My only big "cheat" was to buy an already roasted turkey breast. Everyone in the family was just soooo excited and happy to have fresh turkey! All of us dug into it the minute we got home from school because it smelled so good...I am still thrilled every time I go to the grocery store and get to buy pretty much whatever I want. How rich is that?

I must say that I live in abundant Sonoma County. All the tomatoes were given to me, I grow the apples, zucchini, lemons, and basil. Armenian cucumbers were $1 per pound at our farmer 's market this past Sunday. The chevre is made by a colleague who milks goats in addition to teaching full time! Drool, enjoy, and leave a comment if you want any of the recipes!

Sunday: Yum Bowls: warm rice, cannelli beans, shredded cheese, carrot, cucumbers, tomatoes, wasabi sauce, tamari, avocado, vinegarette, mushrooms, steamed Swiss chard, 
Italian Chard Salad

Monday and Tuesday: quesadillas, lightly breaded sautéed chicken, cheese, corn tortilla, home made salsa, avocado, tomatoes, cabbage, refried beans, 

Wednesday: baked potatoes, cheese, carrots, chard, salsa, Zatar, steamed brussel sprouts, roasted beets, tomatoes, salsa

Thursday: fresh veg spaghetti sauce with tri- color noodles or brown rice wth radish seeds, salad, garlic bread

Friday: Italian chard salad, curried turkey salad with apples and walnuts, and roasted beets with peppered chèvre. 

All Gone--Curried Turkey Salad with Apple and Walnuts, Roasted Beets with Chèvre

The cousins from the previous Great Teaching Day got New Year's money again, however, this time, they got different amounts of money, but saved or spent at the same rate...and guess what? Wha-La! The students found out about parallel lines and I didn't "show" them anything. Phew!

This is a student with an IEP, who had a graph in last post, and this is a EVEN better!
Be sure to read his conclusion. Wow.

This next next student has about 28% in class...not anymore...well, okay, it is a step up.

And the last student I am showing off today is test-taking challenged. And her work is simply amazing.

The alternative that was given to me to me was a three page hand-out that began, "Now watch as I graph..."