Happy Halloween!

Unlike our kids, whose pumpkins are carved in a variety of designs, Craig and I had no problem deciding how to carve ours.

Happy Halloween!

More on Franken-

Every week my students learn two or three new Greek or Latin roots, words derived from them, and do activities with those words. On Friday we have a Spelling and a Vocabulary test over them, and as the year progresses, it is fun for me to see the kids begin to USE what they've learned and begin decoding the English language. Sometimes you actually see their faces light up as they realize they can figure out a new word simply by looking at its components. They discover Greek and Latin roots are a marvelous key to so many things, and they begin to build upon what they know and delve into new knowledge. One of my very favorite things to see happen as a teacher.

Since this week's Greek and Latin roots are actually prefixes and not roots, and it's also Halloween week, I threw in the prefix Franken-.

Oh. My. Why did I not do this before??

The kids were delighted, and we had quite an interesting discussion that covered Mary Shelley, what Dr. Frankenstein called his monster (it was so horrid that he refused to name it, calling it words such as "vile creature" etc.), and then looking at words in our language that use the prefix Franken- (Frankenstorm, Frankenfood, Frankenweenie.)

AQ LOVES words - I've written several posts about him and how he looks for words, plays with them, dissects them, and studies them. As you might imagine, today's discussion was the highlight of his day. He said to me as we were wrapping up, "You know, we're really lucky. We are seeing the creation, the formation of words that are being added to our language and our culture. That is so neat that we are alive to see it happen."

Now, I know that new words form all the time, but AQ is only eleven and just discovering the world around him. This is new to him.

 But what is truly neat to me, and most meaningful, is that AQ has become aware that it is happening, unlike so many of us who never even bother to look closely at the English language.

That is what makes teaching so rewarding.

Busy Fall Saturday

Fall Break means I can get some extra things done around our home (as well as catch up on my sleep - hah!) Today I finally tackled the garage. Normally I clean it out in the spring and then again in the fall, but I missed the spring cleaning (too busy preparing to buy Abby, I guess!) and was not able to clean it until today. Needless to say, it took some work to get it spic and span!

Almost done!  I dragged my tack trunk (the brown metal box on the floor in front of the Coca Cola cooler) outside to paint. I have been meaning to do that since May, too!

I scraped the metal rust off and put on a coat of blue spray paint. Because of the wind, I really had difficulty. It's going to take several coats (and no wind!) to complete.

I found an old friend in the garage - my first computer! It's a Macintosh Color Classic. Just look at that tiny screen! I wrote all of my college papers on that guy.

See the Red Admiral butterfly in the center? I found it in the grass as I was bringing in the bird bath to store for the winter. Poor butterfly - it was too weak to fight the wind. I put it in the snapdragons by the garage door. It soon disappeared.

Later in the afternoon I made a carrot run. Abby is growing her winter coat - look at all the white hair coming in!

Because of the extra layer of hair, she looks less sleek.

But I think she looks like a frosted sugarplum and is beautiful.

"Aw, shucks, Mom! You're embarrassing me!"

I also filled the bird feeders, planted a fall fern, swept the patio and front porch, spent two hours at Hershey, cooked dinner, and vacuumed the living and dining rooms. Oh, and ran to Walgreens and then out to the cemetery to visit my Dad.

Busy Saturday!

Crane Watching

I am on Fall Break, and the first thing on the docket was to pick up my mom and go up to the Jasper-Pulaski Wildlife Refuge and watch the sandhill cranes who are migrating through as they head south for the winter.

We were having such a good time gabbing that we actually missed the turnoff into the park and drove thirteen miles past it before realizing what we'd done! And when we finally got there, we discovered most of the cranes had already flown out into the surrounding fields for the day and very few were left near the viewing station.

 It was COLD. Mom had her winter coat and I gave her an afghan to wrap up in, but we did not last very long up there.

 One of the viewing telescopes was trained directly on the remaining birds and we got some wonderful close-up views before we headed back to the car. I think my mother looks beautiful here - her hand is so graceful and elegant, and she looks happy and fulfilled.

We both were struck by how blue the birds looked this year, rather than the pale grey of past times. We could also clearly see the bright red crests on many of them, and have not been able to see those much in the past, either.

 We hopped back into the car and then drove around the park, hoping to find some birds gleaning in the fields. And we did! Unfortunately the cranes were far away, but we could still observe them.

Many of them were hopping up into the air, and then landing on the ground and hopping a few feet forward only to repeat the behavior. A show of dominance, perhaps? Whatever it was, it reminded me of my children and this picture of them:

(One of my all-time favorite photos of my children!)

We were fortunate to find many, many cranes in the fields as we drove along some very remote country roads. (One road ended very suddenly. No warning or anything. It just stopped. We turned around, wondering if perhaps we'd mistaken a driveway for a road, but as we retraced our path, it WAS marked as a county road. Go figure!)

Another picture I love of my mom - we've stopped the car (you can do that when you're on gravel roads as far from civilization as these were!) and are bird watching. She was rapt! The cranes are those bitty whitish/blue spots in the cornfield.

The day wasn't over, though. We stopped in Medaryville (I think) at a pottery shop and bought some beautiful pieces for our kitchens, ate lunch at Reme's Cafe in Monon, and then took a side trip to Delphi so we could try out the newly opened Hoosier Heartland, finishing up at the roundabout at 25 and 65 in Lafayette!

We made some lovely memories today, that's for sure. I love you, Mom.

Jacob Returns to Job Shadow Me

It is always a treat to see a former student - when you spend all day together for a year, you know each other very well. When I taught just a single grade level, it was hard to see the children leave in May. As a multiage teacher, I cry at the end of our two years together. But two groups of children had me for three years - the kids in the original Hershey multiage class. I taught them as 2nd and 3rd graders, and then as 4th and 5th graders. When THOSE kids left at the end of our three years together, I felt genuine grief.

So, when one of those kiddos emails you and asks to job shadow you, you gleefully agree and then anticipate the day they will be joining you, even for just a few short hours. You wonder what they will look like, what they're doing for extra-curriculars, how life is going, and you hope they have steered clear of the pitfalls teens can get into.

Jacob, one of my three-year students, spent Tuesday morning with me. When in my class as a 3rd, 4th, and 5th grader, he was QUIET. Shy, even after three years together. A serious student but very sweet. And one who once made a connection between Charles Dickens' works and another, more modern book during a literature discussion that rocked me back on my heels - I'd never looked at it from that perspective. Jacob taught the teacher that day!

Well, that shy child is now a confident freshman in high school. And, he's as tall as me!

JW with a classics project on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

 All grown up, tall as his former teacher, and still a very sweet guy.

Indignant Over Classics

We do a LOT of work with children's classic literature in my classroom, and the children become quite fond of their books, sometimes to the point where they really feel a sense of ownership of the stories. They can become indignant when their favorites are "slighted" by those who either have not read the books or those who change the books to suit themselves or for financial gain (think Dorothy's slippers - ruby red in the movie; silver in the book. That one DRIVES THEM NUTS. It's also a good teaching point as to WHY do these changes happen.)

Frankenstein is another book whose portrayal in our culture is guaranteed to set them off. Most have not read it (it's a book they have to have parental permission to read), but they are all fully aware that Hollywood changed the monster into a square-headed, green entity with bolts in his neck.

"That's the HOLLYWOOD version," they cry. "And his creator was Dr. Frankenstein, not the monster." And they huff and puff about that one for a while anytime they come across a cultural reference.

Like this one:

How the prefix “franken-” took on a life of its own. . .

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As Halloween quickly approaches, Frankenstorm is sneaking up on the East Coast. Forecasters are calling the hurricane headed for New York, New Jersey, and as far inland as Ohio, “Frankenstorm” because (like the monster in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein or The New Prometheus) this storm is stitched together from three different weather systems, Hurricane Sandy from the Caribbean, a western early winter storm, and a cold influx of Arctic wind from the north.

But in this case, the application of the “Franken-” prefix, might not be the right name for this blustery monster. In Shelley’s novel, Dr. Victor Frankenstein never names his creation. Instead he disowns the monster by refusing to name it, referring to it as “demon,” “thing,” “wretched devil,” and a long list of awful aliases.

Fear not meteorologists: you are not alone in the inaccurate ‘Franken-’ ascription! With terms like ‘Frankenbike’ (a bicycle pieced together from scavenged parts), ‘Frankenfood‘ (slang for genetically modified crops), ‘Frankenbite,’ (a sound bite that’s been synthesized from many disparate quotations), or even Tim Burton’s film Frankenweenie about a dog brought back to life with electricity, the public loves to ‘Frankenize’ words. But whether or not Mary Shelley is turning in her grave, the fictional Dr. Frankenstein is definitely turning in his. Regardless of accuracy, the media has chosen to ignore the good doctor’s wishes and now Frankenstein’s monster bares his family name in popular culture, sewing the prefix onto the vernacular like the creature’s salvaged limbs.

So grab a copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and a mug of hot cocoa. Let’s weather this Frankenstorm with the source.

Read more at http://hotword.dictionary.com/frankenstorm/#zyxGMKWOOOmqSsWd.99 

"Franken-" a prefix?? OH. MY.  They are going to LOVE that! I think I may even add it to this upcoming week's list of Greek and Latin roots and prefixes they have to learn.

Let the indignation begin!

A Home of Their Own

Congratulations to Cole and Emily on buying their first home!

They closed on it today and move in this weekend.

Fungus 3

I hadn't checked out the fungus growing on my mother's oak tree for about a month, so tonight when I picked her up to go out to dinner, I checked it out.

 Sadly, it seems to be nearing the end of its existence, at least for this year's appearance. (It grows and then dies back yearly as it eats the inside of the tree.)

Gone is the beautiful pristine white flesh; now it's aging and drab.

A Dorcus Parallelus!

When I was a kid, there were many stag and antelope beetles around. We used to love to look at them with their huge mandibles and feel a thrill of terror wondering just how hard those jaws might pinch.

Sadly, due to pesticide use and urban sprawl, I have not seen one in YEARS. Until this evening, here at my home. As I bent over to take a closer look at a beetle on the ground, I saw it had mandibles! Wow!!

Naturally, I had to scoop it up in a juice glass up for a better look.

 Look at those mandibles! Notice the second "tooth" on the interior? I think this is a female.

That's my index finger for perspective. It's a small beetle, and I think a dorcus parallelus, better known as an antelope beetle.

I don't squish bugs, especially a rare one like this, so I put it outside. It makes me smile to know that horned beetles can still be found in Tippecanoe County.

For My Family

See?? I am not the only one who does this!

In this case, the kids had ridden the horse in the heat until it was all sweaty, so they brought it into the air conditioned house to cool off.

Great minds and all that! HAH!!!

"Grandma's Apron"

My mom sent me a forwarded email from Dick Freeman, one of her best childhood friends. They grew up together across from Purdue's campus on Marstellar Street, and have remained in contact throughout their lives. She still lives in West Lafayette; he lives in California.  Below is the email she passed on to me. I especially love her remarks, and also learning the history of a very unusual apron I have from my Grandmother - I thought it was painted, and I was right! Now I know about its history.

My mother writes:

You just don't know how special this post is to me!  As a matter of fact, this is

the "year of the apron" for us.  Lynn found a pattern and last summer made

aprons for her daughters, daughters-in-law,  granddaughters, and me.  This Christmas

I am embroidering butcher's aprons for the same crew.   I still have aprons Belle

Robbins made for the Arachne Club to sell as fundraisers -- she hand-painted and

personalized them.  So I'm going to feel especially happy today -- thank you!  

And the email Dick sent to her is this: 

The History of 'APRONS' I don't think our kids know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few and because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons required less material. But along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears. 

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms.Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the autumn, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

The Govt. would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.

I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron- but love... 

More "Only in My Class"

One of the things I enjoy most about teaching gifted kiddos is the things they find interesting and their thoughts about those things. Usually every morning at least one child hurries over to me upon arrival and shares something with me - about a book they've been reading, an unusual word they came across while reading  ("auspicious" was one today), or something they noticed that piqued their attention.

(And they ALWAYS assume I am just as avidly interested in the topic as they are!)

Today, AP made a beeline to my desk as soon as he popped through the door.

"I was studying about rainbows last night," he began, and he launched into an in-depth analysis of the colors of the rainbows and properties and patterns he'd noticed about the colors within them.

He lost me very quickly (partly because other children were clamoring for my attention) but I was amazed nonetheless at the amount of time he had spent studying rainbows, how much he had discovered, and that he had done it all on his free time and not as a class assignment.

Why rainbows? I have no idea. We are not studying anything even remotely connected to them.

Only in my class!

Dead Man Meatloaf

I wrapped up parent/teacher conferences this evening. I did a marathon eleven conferences after school, and came home simply  exhausted. My friend, Lisa Connolly, knowing it would be a long day, delivered dinner to our doorstep so neither Craig nor I would have to stress over what we would do for supper.

Not only is she a good cook, but she has a great sense of Halloween humor that she injected into the meal:

Nothing like a pan of dead man meatloaf to make you smile after a long day at school!

Thanks, Lisa!

I Can Walk!

In the past, hiking back to Martins' Woods behind Hershey has been an ordeal. My knees hurt terribly, and the quarter mile hike each way coupled with hiking down a trail into the woods and then back up and out again proved to be near impossible for me. The last time I was scheduled to take a class down, another teacher and I traded classes. He hiked with mine while I stayed at Hershey and taught his students. My knees just could not handle the grinding and rubbing as I walked.

Not anymore.

To my delight, today I was able to make the trip!

Looking out at the woods from Hershey was not quite so daunting today.

 I made the long walk just fine! (That clump of trees to the right of the house is the entrance to the trail.)

Descending the trail into the woods was a little hard - the owner has laid large rocks on the path that made it a little difficult to negotiate.

 But I managed it anyway. 

What a beautiful place Martins' Woods is!

 This is actually the creek, covered in fallen leaves. We did water sampling and, to our delight, discovered that pollution in the stream is nearly non-existent.

Then we had to hike back up out of the woods and back to Hershey. This is the sight you see as you emerge from the woods into the sunlight.

That's Hershey way off in the distance.

My new knees are not yet two years old, and you might think I would've had time by now to get used to them and not notice how good they feel as I am out and about.

Nope!

I don't think I will EVER take being pain-free for granted. I hurt for such a long time, I doubt I will forget it. And I hope I always continue to appreciate the marvel of not hurting, and the blessing that knee replacement surgery can be.

Classic Words

I freely admit that I am a word geek. I love words, decoding them by their Greek and Latin roots and finding meaning. Saying interesting sounding ones aloud ("ramshackle!") and so forth. Words are fascinating to me!

My students are interested in them as well, and today we spent an hour and a half (yes, you read that right) on finding classic words in the books we are reading. (A classic word is a high level vocabulary word often found in classic literature. Melancholy, countenance, pervade, and fain are all examples.)

I gave my class Michael Clay Thompson's list of the 100 Top Ten Classic Words - words that he has tallied by their appearance in classic literature. I read his compilation aloud, and we decoded those with roots, suffixes, and prefixes that we knew. (For example, -ion is a suffix that turns a word into a noun.  -ment changes a verb to a noun. Etc.) We then demonstrated a variety of countenances, pretended to be vivacious, and looked at the vivid colors in a student's sweater - all words on the Top Ten list.

And then I turned the kiddos loose with notebook paper, pencils, and their books. I instructed them to look for words that were high level and to write them down, saying that they had about five to ten minutes to work.

Forty-five minutes later, they were still going strong. Every single student. Even my four fourth grade boys who are quite immature and frequently distracted - they were delving into their books. Forty-five minutes!!

I gave a five minute warning that we would be stopping, and even with that, had a tough time getting the children to put down their pencils. And then each student shared the word they'd found that they thought was most interesting. Weal. Paroxysms. Obligatory. Impudence. Reposse. We decoded many of those by examining their roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

(One of the kids asked me what "misanthrope" meant. EP, standing behind her and with a twinkle in his eyes, piped up, "My mom!" I burst out laughing  - her name is Ms. Anthrop!!)

KO summed up the activity when he came to my desk with a word he thought was interesting. As a fifth grader, he has already had a year's exposure to classic literature and so I asked him what his opinion was on his own vocabulary growth and usage.

"The words I did not know, I am learning. The words I'd already heard, I have mastered."

Well put, KO. And I would agree.

A Rural Welcome

Hershey is a rural school way out in the eastern part of Tippecanoe County. Nestled among corn fields and the Wildcat Creek, I frequently see deer, coyotes, and even bald eagles there. I love teaching in the country and the things that brings into my life.

Such as this:

Someone decided to surprise us and decorated a post that stands along the bus lane to the building. They put up scarecrows, a pot of mums, and a pumpkin for the kids to enjoy as their buses roll down the lane!

What a nice thing to do for the school!

TPing the School - In the Name of Science, Of Course!

TPing (toilet papering) a residence or yard is commonly a celebration activity. Why? I don't know. To me it makes a mess and wastes toilet paper. But frequently during football or basketball season, you see a home somewhere in the community (usually that of an athlete on the winning team) with streamers of toilet tissue waving from tree branches, covering bushes, and obscuring yards. You smile at the sight and what it means, then thank your lucky stars it isn't YOU who is going to have to clean up the mess!

So, tell the students that you are going to do a science activity involving toilet paper, and you see the possibilities run through their mind. (As well as the delight in their voices when they later tease, "We TPed the school!")

Well, we did, and we didn't. But it WAS in the name of Science.

We made a timeline of the earth's 4.5 billion year history with the Tippecanoe County naturalist, Mary Cutler!

We used a 1,000 square roll of toilet paper, and did the math, letting each square represent 1,000,000 years. Post-its marked with events in earth's geological/biological history were placed on the appropriate square. 

Immediately the kids were stunned to see how much was crammed into that very first square of toilet tissue, including the rise of modern man.

The end was weighted down with a clipboard.

JM put the roll on a spindle to help it unwind more easily.

And we had to use tape to keep our post-its in place. (And occasionally the toilet paper when we tugged too hard!)

And the unwinding began.

As "time passed" the children were stunned by how far apart the markers were. (We marked the advent of dinosaurs, when bacterial life began, and all sorts of major milestones in earth's evolution.)

We unrolled and unrolled and unrolled. Remember, each little square represents a million years!

After the entire roll of tissue was laid out, we stood back and marveled. Then we laid ourselves end to end to see how "far back into time" we could go. (We had lots of fun time traveling and "wrinkling in time.")

After cleaning up our TPing, we went back inside and Mary taught us about Indiana's oceanic history and showed us sea fossils from its past.

Using guides, we identified different types of fossils and the ecosystems in which they thrived.

Magnifying glasses were also used for identification purposes.

A series of posters depicting Indiana's periods of times in the oceanic state.

The students were fully absorbed in what she brought.

Mary and I both kept our afternoon schedules open so that she could teach as long as the kids were interested. No surprise, they were absorbed in all she brought, and we went until the bell rang for dismissal!

Third Time's a Charm!

Every other year, I take my class to Camp Tecumseh for a two day immersion into 19th century Indiana. We go along with the fourth grade classes, stay in cabins, have a campfire, and generally have a good time.

Er, if you like to camp. And my family knows that I do not.

But, you do what you have to do, and Camp Tecumseh is a huge tradition at Hershey, so I go along that my kids can have the experience. (When the first 4/5 multiage class was preparing to open at Hershey, the second most asked question by parents was, "Will my child still go to Camp Tecumseh?")

Camp Tecumseh was Thursday and Friday, and so I packed up to traipse into the wilderness of White County and the Tippecanoe River with my class.

The first obstacle to "camp happiness" loomed almost immediately.

 A suspension bridge across the lake! 

 Even a beautiful fall day could not lessen my trepidation about walking over that bridge.

Nor the huge steel support cables securely fastened to a concrete pad. (My foot is there for perspective.)

Riding in the truck with another teacher and the first aid/medical supplies, camp chairs, and supplies solved that problem. 

The next discovery was not an obstacle, it was a plus.

Our sessions were taking place near where the camp's horses were stabled! And the restrooms were housed in the barn/indoor arena! (I wonder why the arena is hung with flags from other countries? Note to self: ask Emily. She attended Camp Tecumseh both as a camper and as a leader, so she might know.)

Female teachers and parents sleep in cabins with the girls; male teachers and parents sleep in cabins with boys. Cabins are better than tents, for sure. Knowing that  I snore and the lack of privacy make me less than enthusiastic about sharing cabins with the kids.

But when the bus with the kids arrived and the girls saw they were in my cabin, they squealed in excitement. That caught me off guard; I thought they might feel disappointed to have to bunk with their teacher (translate that as, having less opportunity to giggle late into the night or not having as much freedom as you might have if you were in a cabin chaperoned by a parent.)

 They were so excited that they asked another teacher to take a cabin group picture. (Left to right, MH, EP, LS, me, AP, and EJ.)

(Hmmmm... maybe it was because they knew I was no competition for one of the coveted top bunks.)

After settling in, campers and leaders had orientation, then (minus me who hitched a ride) crossed the suspension bridge and immersed ourselves into pioneer Indiana.

Activities involved attending school in a one room school house.

 The school marm was a parent volunteer, Dr. Fraley, who is assistant superintendent of Tippecanoe School Corporation, former Hershey principal, and mom of a 4th grade student. Since she herself was a teacher, she took to the role whole heartedly, dressed in pioneer garb, and made more than one student wear the dunce cap while sitting in the corner!

Pioneer games were another activity the children enjoyed.

 Here, Mrs. Anthrop, one of the teachers, shows her prowess on stilts. (She was good!) 

The games were coupled with the barnyard activities; kids got to meet a horse, cow, sheep, pigs, goats, and other farm animals. The ewe was a little testy and prone to butting kids when she became annoyed with the attention. Parents and teachers alike smothered their laughter when one boy commented in dismay, "That sheep just butted me in a place a boy should never be butted!" (Hey, guy, full marks to you for wording it so appropriately!)

 Learning about trapping, hunting, and fur trading.

One of the best moments was the three legged race.

The girl on my left is my student, KO. But who did she choose for a partner?

 None other than her reading buddy, S. All who watched that play out had either lumps in their throats or tears in their eyes. (That's S's father in the back, watching.)

Thursday was beautiful weather for camp; Friday... not so much. It was cold enough to see your breath and it rained throughout the day. But just as the pioneers did, we slogged through the sessions and actually got a lot accomplished despite the drab, dreary surroundings.

After lunch, each class group chose a place to have a picture. Our choice? Why, where the building's name had Latin or Greek roots, of course!

 Mrs. Anthrop joined us - not only is she a teacher in our school, but a parent of one of my boys, too.

 The teachers took one together in the stagecoach (appropriate since we're all horse owners or horse lovers.) Kris Sharp, Allyson Anthrop, Jeff Toll, Cindy Yeater, and me.

All the classes combined in front of the stage. Look closely at the back row on the left, and you will see KO is standing with S again.

As I reflect back on camp, it seems like the old adage "third times' a charm" is true. I enjoyed myself more than ever my third time visiting Camp Tecumseh, and am even looking forward to when I go again in two years.