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.

Global Warming

Global warming is a concern in Texas and in Austin in particular. Austin I believe is doing a lot to reduce its carbon footprint and become green.
According to a Newsweek article “The CO2 State” (Newsweek - 2008-02-28 by Matthew Philips):
“If Texas were its own country, it would be the 48th most populous in the world, right between North Korea and Ghana. In terms of landmass, at 268,000 square miles it would be the 40th-biggest. But when it comes to environmental impact, Texas is on par with some of the largest, most industrialized nations on the planet.
Were the Lonestar State to secede from the union it would be the world's eighth-largest emitter of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, just behind Canada, with 630 million metric tons spewed into the atmosphere in 2005, according to new figures released this week by the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration. That's actually a reduction of 40 million metric tons since 2003, when Texas was the globe's seventh-largest CO2 contributor. But even though the state is improving, Texas still outpaces the combined emissions of California and Pennsylvania, the states with the second- and third-highest CO2 outputs.”

I think this is a concern that many people in Austin share. Austin, has passed rules to encourage energy efficient construction. The Austin Climate Protection Plan will eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from virtually all municipal activities by the year 2020. This includes powering all City facilities with 100% renewable energy, converting the entire city fleet of vehicles to alternative fuels and electric power, and implementing greenhouse gas reduction plans in every City department.

Things have been busy the last few weeks. Unfortunately a lot of students at school have been sick and I unfortunately have fallen sick too. But I am getting a lot of rest and am ready to get back to teaching on Monday. The students turned in their Mural of a Historical on Monday and they all did a great job. I am really looking forward to seeing the rest of the presentations on Monday.

Technology

I can't imagine my life without technology. I remember the days when the internet was new and we learned to type on typewriters. It is amazing how much things have changed in such a short period of time. In my daily life what technology do I use.....well at home it would be the computer, internet, cable, tv, my alarm clock to wake me up in the morning, my cell phone (which I can't imagine not having around, even though I didn't have one just 15 years ago) and the microwave to heat things up. At school we use lots of technology from computers, projectors, the distance learning lab (which I absolutely love), internet, telephones, and who knows what else there is.

I think the biggest technology innvention of my time period would be the computer. I think that it has completely changed the way we live our life and has broadened our world. The days of relying on telephone calls and the postal service to get our point across is gone. Everything has some sort connection to a computer. I can't imagine life without it.

A reflection on my life.....
The last couple of weeks have been a bit busy. I will mention one historical thing that I think all of us probably watched together and that was the inauguration of President Obama. We used our class time to watch the proceedings and write letters to the new president expressing our concerns and desires. I was very impressed with the letters that my students wrote and how touching so many of them are. It is amazing the knowledge that students have today of world issues or even issues closer to home. It made me very proud.

New Year New Bloggers

The end of the semester was busy but the students did an excellent job on finals. I am really impressed by my students this year. They have made two movies in my class. The first was showing diversity in Austin and the second educated us on different Latin America music genres. The students went above what I thought they would do and I was blown away by the results. I think everyone learned a lot from the project. I am hoping to arrange a Cinco de Mayo celebration for the students with another teacher on campus. We have already gotten St.Edwards Ballet Folklorico to come and perform for us.

We are now starting to learn about Europe and the students are starting to settle back into a normal school day pattern again. I think we all needed a nice long winter break. I spent part of my winter break in Missouri with my family. When I left Texas is was in the upper 70s and very humid....when I arrived in Missouri it was 12. I had a very cold visit to Missouri with a couple of days when the temperature only reached 3 degrees. Its amazing how spoiled I have gotten since I have moved to Texas. I am happy that it did snow when I was back home so I got a white christmas. The rest of my break was spent in Texas. I got to go see my Missouri Tigers play in the Alamo Bowl and win the game in overtime. It was a lot of fun and I hope the Tigers do better next time. The rest of my break was spent relaxing with friends. I wish my break was longer but it was time to come back and start working again.

This semester I am hoping to bring even more students on board with our blogging project. It will be fun to have new people to talk and share with. Thats all for now I look forward to reading all the new posts.