I have been looking for some Malabrigo yarn since my last trip Missoula Children's Theatre-related trip to Missoula, Montana in Summer 2011. I'd used up what I had in my yarn stores since then and had found places in Newport that sold this fabulous yarn. On the way, we discovered this lovely shop:
and got delightfully lost inside. It was lovely, airy, and whimsical...a perfect place to visit on such a wonderful day. We then bought my yarn and having spotted a cupcakery by the name of SusieCakes, I begged to try it out.
Since December 2011, I've been looking for a special red velvet cupcake. I was directing a production of Alice in Wonderland, Jr. for Newport Coast Elementary School and the moms brought in these AMAZING cupcakes. Of course, once consumed, I could never remember where they were from. I decided to go on a cupcake hunt and have tried The Perfect Cupcakery (Orange), Casey's Cupcakes (Newport), and Merely Sweets (Brea). None were THE ONE...until we randomly walked into SusieCakes on that blissfully perfect day. 
It never ceases to amaze me that the world is such a small world: as I took a celebratory bite of the PERFECT CUPCAKE, my co-teacher from the Playground (a youth film acting conservatory in Costa Mesa) dashed out to give me a cheerful hello ("I looked at the girl holding up the cupcake and thought, I like her. And then I realized it was you!")
After such a lovely day, I felt refreshed and ready to tackle school. I often said during my theatrical undergraduate work that the reason most students went crazy with stress is due to not taking the time to smell the flowers, go to the beach, enjoy a cupcake...you know, live life. The block leader for the Master's program reminds us daily: take time to enjoy yourself. It's absolutely true, not just for the student, but for anyone living life. It's too short to confine to the pages of a textbook; and anyway, text needs life for proper context. One can learn the craft of the theatre all day long, but it is experience that sets us apart and refines us.
The first day of Week #4, my co-teaching student teacher and I started our day back in our fourth/fifth grade combo class. I'm still adjusting after starting my first week in Preppy K (transitional kindergarten), but I am learning new names, and getting familiar with the routines. After finding myself dismally behind in the fourth graders' math (rounding and place value), my co-teaching partner had me observe her teach a mini lesson to the fourth graders in their common hallway space known as "the pod." The kids had no idea, but I was acutely embarrassed. I smiled and listened politely to the lesson, and felt much improved by it. We'll see--the math battle continues...
After lunch, we attended our Foundations of Teaching class, where we broke into small groups and discussed English language acquisition and gifted learners. We made posters having to do with instruction and strategy:
(I don't know why it got labeled "Fab Phonics Folks" because this is clearly not phonics.) We also conducted an experiment with milk, food coloring, and a Q-tip dipped in dish soap. Once the Q-tip met the milk and food coloring, beautiful ripples appeared. After observing the ripples, our block leader had us write a "Windspark" poem on it. Mine was simple enough:
I dreamed...
I was a starfish
In a golden-blue pool;
Waving, floating, laughing
Blissfully.
Another poem I scribbled in later:
I dreamed...
I was a Laugh
Deep inside a heart.
Bursting for freedom,
Joyfully.
The next day, my partner and I handled morning duty (under our master teacher's watchful eye) and I joked around with the kids about their likes, dislikes, breakfast preferences, and other things. I think it helped break the ice, because the fourth graders were practically demanding my attention during math. This second go-around went much better, and I felt that warm glow that comes when you see comprehension in a child's eyes. That moment is truly priceless and I'm sure it is one of the reasons why many of us teach.
In our English Leaner Instruction course later that day, we watched a poignant, albeit painful, documentary following an immigrant family from Mexico. They were initially denied entrance as a family until they found enough sponsors and after having achieved that, they moved to Kansas, where they had a house and the children were in good schools.
The children excelled, but the mother was lonely for the community she'd enjoyed back home. She arranged for the family to move to California and their eldest daughter, Nora, was denied entry to high school because she was too old. In Kansas, that had not been an issue. Now Nora was to give up on dreams of an education--a public school education we all take for granted--in order to pick fruit in the fields to support her family.
It reminds me of author Frank McCourt's teacher in Angela's Ashes: he tells Frank to go to America, there are no opportunities for him in Ireland where "we throw our talented children on the dungheap."
I spent our Wednesday off catching up on laundry, studying, and powering through a new online class. With the addition of the online class, our total of classes is up to six.
I also picked up my marriage license, and am looking forward to getting the paperwork all changed to reflect my taking my husband's name. It seems almost old-fashioned to do that, but I feel such a clear separation between the girl I was and the wife I am aiming to be. I like closure, and changing my name will help with that. Besides, it's the name of the man I love. I have no issue with it.
In Language Arts Instruction, we covered phonics and spent the whole class period in station rotations, each station having to relate to early literacy. My group was so pleasant and easy to work with. We had an amusing and sometimes uproarious morning working with phonics. After a quick lunch, in which my Foundations group finalized our lesson plan regarding the three branches of government, we had Mathematics Instruction and put together last week's homework: math puzzles!
Our professor had scheduled a guest speaker, a young lady from Population Connection. We participated in a workshop all designed to assist us in educating our future students about taking care of Earth and its fragile resources.We went outside and made a circle out of yarn (to represent the Earth). Each of us represented a population of over 250,000 people and as we counted through the years, we added ourselves to the planet circle. There was much muttering about eugenics, population control, birth control, and the like. It's great to know what the problem is (overpopulation), but how does one go about solving such a problem? This is the director's mindset coming uppermost in me: I see a set of problems and I want to fix them. But what do you say to the people of overcrowded areas? Are they not allowed to have children anymore? Who determines that? There was talk about educating the populace, and I wish those tasked with that job the best of luck. When it is against certain religious practices to use birth control, the battle only becomes more steep and difficult. I believe in educating the populace about their choices and the consequences of those choices, and promoting sexual education facts versus fictions. We can hope and pray that educating the world will help the global family with this issue.
As you can see, our planet circle was crowded very quickly:
We returned to the classroom and worked in groups on such problems as "How tall would a million sheets of paper be?" and "How many ping pong balls will it take to fill this room?"
We all received certificates at the end of the workshop and our professor reminded us to place the workshop on our resumes.
And now, it's time for bed so that I can make it down to the Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts for my Visual/Performing Arts Instruction class early tomorrow morning.
 |
| Best, Lissa xoxoxo |
No comments:
Post a Comment