My Favorite Musicians

My favorite musicians or type of music. That is a hard one...I listen to all kinds of music it because it just depends on what I'm in the mood for. I have to say that anything that has a good beat will get my attention. It seems that whenever I am just in the mood to relax and listen to music I tend to put on one of two albums. The first is Jack Johnson In Between Dreams. I really like several of his songs including Banana Pancakes and Sitting, Waiting, Wishing. All of his songs I think are really good. I started listening to him a few years ago when a student had me listen to his cd. I was skeptical at first but once I listened to the music I really liked it. The only artist is Ben Lee. He hasn't had anything out in several years but whenever I need a pick me up I like to listen to his album Awake is the New Sleep. Its really good.

Lets see.....the past few weeks I have been on spring break and my students have started turning in their African Masks. This group of masks is the best yet. I will post pictures as soon as I get them all graded. For spring break I went with a friend to New Mexico. I have never been to west Texas or New Mexico so I thought it might be a fun road trip. I spent the day in Carlsbad New Mexico and spent several hours exploring the cave. It was really beautiful and an experience everyone should try to experience. I then went North to Roswell New Mexico home to the "alleged" alien crash...unfortunately I didn't see any real aliens but it was a fun city with lots of Alien paraphernalia. They had a UFO McDonald's and the light posts down town were all shaped like alien heads. The last day I headed to Alamogordo to see White Sands. This was really a beautiful site. 300 square miles of all white (gypsum) sand surrounded by mountains. it was a completely different site than I have ever seen before. I really enjoyed the trip and can't wait to see the rest of New Mexico.

Free Topic

Lets see.....what do I want to talk about? I guess I can start by telling a little bit about the hobbies I am trying hard to develop. This summer I decided that I should learn how to cook. It started out with a goal of one new thing every week. That goal lasted for most of the summer, however, now I have not kept up with it. I did learn how to make a New York Cheesecake that everyone seems to like. There is a lot of stuff that goes into making one. I never realized how long it takes. I also learned how to make my own pizza crust, cinnamon raisin bread, cinnamon rolls, and oatmeal raisin cookies. The only thing I thought that was good was the cinnamon rolls and pizza crust....everything else was given to other people who liked it. So I think I can bake....my next challenge was learning how to actually cook. I attempted to cook homemade fries and that was a huge disaster. I also attempted steaks and baked potatoes....also another disaster. I have learned to make a good bar-b-que chicken sandwich and unfortunately that is about the extent of it. I guess I should pick up the hobby of cooking again and try to improve. So if anyone has any suggestions let me know.

Life over the past few weeks. School has been very busy the last few weeks. We had TAKs tests last week. (Not one of my favorite things to do) We have one more week until Spring break and I think we are all ready for it. We have begun to learn about Africa and we are having our first socratic seminar over Rwanda next Thursday. The students began reading the articles today and will watch the video Ghosts of Rwanda next week in class. I have to brag about my students because they always impress me when it comes to Socratic Seminars. I can't wait until next week to see what they have to say about Rwanda.

Love

Is it better to fall in love or learn to love? I think this is a tricky question to answer. There is so much evidence that arranged marriages do work but that might also be because of culture. It might be that a culture that surrounds the belief of arranged marriages helps to create a culture in which the marriage will last or that they feel like they can't seek a divorce. The same can be said for people who "fall" in love. Divorces are a part of everyday life for most people in the United States. I think we can all name at least 5 people easily that we know that are divorced. I know I personally have parents that are divorced. So is it the culture that helps a marriage to survive or is it love. Who knows. I think that there is a big difference in the initial stages of love and what makes a successful marriage. The initial feelings of love change over time and in order for a relationship to work there has to be a learning process and a growing process. No one ever stays the same and that I believe is also true of relationships....love changes and grows and adapts.

Now to reflect on what I have been up to the last few weeks. Let's see.....speaking of love I found out that my sister and her husband of five years are expecting a baby in October. This will be their first child which will make me an Aunt for the first time. Inside school I have been trying to get things ready for Advisory training which will take me out of the classroom next week. I am beginning to take an on-line class to help develop more international cooperation projects. I am really excited about this class. I hope I am able to broaden the scope of our blogging project. I think it will be great to include more international students in our blogs. We are also welcoming Mr. Prather and Mr. Powell's class to our blogs in the next few weeks. Hopefully this will allow the students more opportunities to talk and learn from each other.