A Sobering Experience

It was a somewhat dramatic day at school today. No, my kids weren't obnoxious, nobody came to school with a gun (at least that we know of) and I didn't catch any kids going at it in the back stairwell. (I've never actually witnessed that, thankfully, but I do work with people who have...yikes...).

Today my school had a program called "Shattered Dreams". Apparently this happens every other year as they didn't have it last year. 

All seniors, juniors and those sophomores who have a parking permit were called down to the band parking lot during 3rd period where they witnessed a mock car crash. They didn't actually see the cars crashing (obviously) but they saw the aftermath of a drunk driving accident. 

I didn't get to see it but during Advisory (don't get me started on that, its a post for another day) we watched the video of the last time they did Shattered Dreams. It was probably the best Advisory period we've had all year (which isn't really saying much, but I'm looking for the silver lining in the Advisory period they came up with this year).

I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty intense. One car was upside down, there were "dead" and bloody students strewn about. Once was even coming through the windshield. 

They had cops there, a fire truck complete with the jaws of life and parents wailing. 

One student left in handcuffs in the cop car, one in an ambulance, another in a helicopter (yes, they really had a helicopter!), and one in a hearse. The blood and everything looked fake, but when you add all of the other stuff into it, it was rather realistic. 

Then starting at 10:30 they have what they call the heartbeat. Every 10 minutes a heartbeat comes over the loud speaker and then flat lines. You actually hear it flat line. The after the heartbeat a cop and the grim reaper come into a classroom and take a student. 

That student's face gets painted white and they stand in the hall for the rest of the day. It is supposed to symbolize the statistic that every 10 minutes someone dies from a drunk driving accident.

Thankfully the grim reaper didn't visit my class. Too be honest I'm not really sure I would have handled it that well. I mean, I know its all drama and not "real", but the video alone from the year before of the grim reaper going into classes was enough to make me tear up. And I'm not really that sappy of a person and rarely cry at movies. I'm sure I would've been fine, but I'm glad I didn't lose a student. Especially in my 6th period, because I really like my 6th period kids.

One of the hardest parts of the video they showed was when a parent was waiting at the hospital and their child didn't make it. You saw him hearing the news from the doctors and they went into the room and lifted up the sheet to look at his son.

Like I said it was pretty intense. Especially hearing the heartbeat those first couple times, talk about freaky! Later on in the day, it got slightly annoying, especially while I was trying give directions for the test during 6th period, but it still made you think. I wish I could upload the videos, but A- I have no idea how to do that with this blog, and B-I'm sure I'd be violating all kinds of school district policies.

Some of the kids took it hard, some didn't care, or at least didn't seem too. But overall, for me at least, it was a pretty sobering experience. I just hope that it  really makes the kids think twice about drinking and driving, especially since this is right before prom. I would love for it to make the kids to think about drinking PERIOD, but I think that's probably a long shot. 

I don't know if they do this at other school's other than mine. I've never heard of it before, but it is definitely something that EVERY student and really every ADULT needs to see. 

The right motivation.

This summer, Nathan and I were really good about working out. It was really easy. We didn't have school, and really didn't have a whole lot to do, so we worked out. 

I truly enjoyed it, and of course enjoyed the results of working out even more. 

Then school started up, and we still did okay. We didn't work out as much as we did in the summer, but we were still consistent. 

Then Ike hit and everything went to crap (including our kitchen, but that's a post for another day).  

Well, we are going to the Bahamas in July (yippee!!!) and I want to make sure I have somewhat of a bikini-worthy body. You'd think that would be enough to inspire me to get back into the gym...but alas that has not been the case. We booked our trip in January, and we didn't start getting serious until about two weeks ago.

So I have two little items that have inspired my trek back to the gym. 

An iPod Shuffle. A pink one to be exact. 

All of you know about the love affair I have with my 80 gig iPod. But I found that the 80 gig iPod wasn't a very good workout partner. It took up my whole arm, and really its kinda heavy for a jog. The arm band I used made it hard to adjust the volume, and I lived in constant fear that the constant jostling would make the iPod stop working all together. And as attached as I am to my whole music library, did I really need 6200+ songs during a 30 minute workout? Not hardly. 

So I purchased my Shuffle back in February. I filled it with my workout playlist and it sat on my desk collecting dust until a few weeks ago when I got these...

Best. Running Shoe. Ever! Nathan and I had gone to the Nike outlet where I found these. I tried them on in the store of course and loved how they felt. Plus I'm a big fan of the air bubbles. I'm sure there is an industry correct term for those, but I'm just going to call them air bubbles.

My last good pair of running shoes had them. Recon ate them, and I was stuck with my every day Nikes. They were okay, but I felt every step on them and my legs always felt sore after running. They didn't have air bubbles. 

Maybe its just all in my head, but I truly believe that the air bubbles make a huge difference. And they did not disappoint me on my first run. Of course I hadn't really run since before Ike, but man, you wouldn't know with these shoes. 

Seriously, I felt like I was running on pillows! I was so giddy I almost started giggling while jogging on the treadmill. I've been running with these shoes about 3 times a week for 2 miles each time I run and my legs feel great afterwards. Now I really look forward to going to the gym and running. 

And I'm now running a 10 minute mile! Not too shabby considering I start out just two weeks ago running a 12 minute mile.

Now I'm just trying to keep my workout playlist updated. I have songs on there that I've been working out to for the past 4 years. They are great songs, but they get a little boring after hearing them so many times.

Here are a couple of my favorite running songs. When these songs come on, regardless of what speed I'm already running out, I always kick the speed up a few notches.

1. Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
2. Cross My Heart - Marianas Trench (you've probably never heard of this band, and had it not been for emusic.com, I probably would've never heard of them either)
3. Single Ladies - Beyonce
4. Impossible - Manafest (This song inspired me to run an extra 1/4 mile after my 2nd mile and I was running at 6.5, which I think equates to about a 9 1/2 minute mile)
5. Fighter - Christina Aguilera
6. Ignition - TobyMac
7. Breathe Today - Flyleaf
8. Break the Silence - Thousand Foot Krutch
9. Boom - P.O.D
10. Your Still The One - Roper (This is a super fun punk remake of Shania Twain's song)

Feel free to share your favorite workout songs. I can always use more!

I am not my Grandma

I'm giving up on Gobs. Maybe for a very long time...maybe just for a couple more weeks, I don't know. I just know that I don't want to see the gob recipe or batter for a long time.

For those of you who don't know what a GOB is, its this delightful treat that my Grandma makes quite perfectly. Basically you have two soft chocolate cookies with a fluffy vanilla filling in between. Similar to an Oreo Cakester only much, MUCH better.

I made them WITH my Grandma back in March when I went to visit her for spring break. Then I got back to Houston and decided to try them on my own a couple weeks later. I like to bake sweet treats for my work peeps and I thought this would be the perfect new treat.

Wrong.

The cookie part turned out perfect, I mean, absolutely beautiful. I was so proud that my first Gob minus Grandma experience was going so well.

The came the filling...oh that bastardly filling. (I don't know if "bastardly" is actually a word, but I like it, so its staying in my post.)

The filling is supposed to be nice and light and fluffy. Mine was nice and sweet and RUNNY!!! Ugh, I went ahead made them that way, and wrapped them up and took them to work anyway. They are a lot of work and I couldn't just toss them. And really, they tasted pretty good, the filling just wasn't the right consistency.

Nathan ate two of them that night, and one of my mentor teachers ate a couple that next day, and then took a bunch home to his wife. So I mean, really, they were okay. But just OKAY.

My mentor teacher told me that it was a good thing I didn't get it perfect on the first try because then I wouldn't be trying it again and bringing more in a few weeks.

So it is said mentor teacher's birthday on Thursday, and I thought what better way to show my appreciation than to make him some gobs.

So tonight, I started making them again. It must be a sophomore slump or something. But this time the cookies part didn't turn out quite right. Terrible or bad? No...but just okay. And I don't like to make things "just okay".

Now onto the filling part. I had called my Grandma after that first batch and learned that I hadn't cooked the milk and the flour long enough. So I was determined not to make that mistake again.

Well, I don't know if I cooked it TOO long this time or what, but now the filling is too THICK and it just doesn't look or taste right at all.

And my hand mixer broke. I think I ran the poor thing into the ground trying to beat that stupid filling to death.

So I think its a sign folks...no more gobs until I can get back to Grandma's for another lesson. My Grandma thinks the reason its not working out is because I'm supposed to come visit her again! :)

On a funny note, when I called Grandma I told her "Grandma, I giving up on gobs." She doesn't hear very well, and she thought I said I was giving up on GOD. HA! Oh I love my Grandma, she is the coolest! :)

So Don, if you're reading this, I tried. You'll just have to make do with one of my other cookie options. :)

512 MB? What?!

I got a new computer on Friday. It...is...AMAZING!!!

I've had my old laptop for about 3 years now, which isn't really that long, but in computer years, it might as well be a decade. I was definitely past due for a new one.

You all know how crazy I am about my music, and you all know that I have LOTS of it. My iTunes library currently has just over 6200 songs on it. No, I did not add an extra zero, you are reading correctly. 6,200 songs...six thousand, two hundred songs. Actually 6,206 to be exact.

Well, all this music was really starting to bog down my laptop. So much so that it was practically unusable. It would take a good 5 minutes to boot up, and then another 5 minutes to open a program. And then another good minute or two trying to switch between programs. It was maddening, MADDENING I TELL YOU!!

There were several instances where I wanted to throw my computer out the window. Fear of losing my entire iTunes library kept me from doing so.

So I was curious as to how big my hard drive was...512 MB. WHAT?! 512 MB? Are...you...serious?! But it was true, staring me right in the eye. It was then that I decided it was time for a new one.

So I did my research and found this little dandy at Best Buy.

It is a Toshiba Satellite laptop and I LOVE IT! It has 3 gigs, GIGS for ram, and 320 gig...GIG hard drive. Its almost ridiculous how much bigger it is from the old laptop.

I'm still getting used to the speed. I turn it on and its boots in like 5 seconds, and then when I log in my desktop pops up...immediately. This is new to me since I was usually able to put a load of laundry in the washing machine, unload or load the dishwasher, etc in the time it took my old laptop to boot up.

It also has a really long battery life, which is great because my old laptop would last for about 30 minutes on the battery...yeah..not pretty.

I'm sure there are lots of people out there wondering why I didn't go with a Mac. Trust me, I would have loved to have a Mac, but to get the same specs with a Mac would have set me back a good $2500 and I got my Toshiba for less than a grand. Awesome.

And a big thanks to my sweet husband, for letting me get it!!

An Update on Reading the Directions

If you have not read the Reading the Directions post I posted earlier, go read that first.

Update:

Yesterday we revieved for a columns and tables test in BCIS. They had a handout with instructions and when they were finished they had to raise their hands so I could check their work and give them immediate feedback on what they did right and wrong.

OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS!!! Apparently threat to their lives for not reading directions had worn off. It was ridiculous.

So by 6th period I finally came up with a great idea. Bribery.

I told my 6th period that whoever raised their hand, and I checked their work and they had it perfect the FIRST time, would get a cupcake next week. They were ecstatic.

Student: "So is it like the first one who gets it done gets a cupcake?"
Me: "No! The whole class could get cupcakes. Its not a race, so take your time and make sure you READ and FOLLOW ALL of the DIRECTIONS!"

Student: "Okay, so Mrs. Wilcox, if we ask you a question, will that disqualify us from the cupcake?"
Me: "Absolutely not. As long as you are still working and if you have a question, that's great. But once you raise your hand and say you are done and that you want me to check it, that's it."

They all eagerly went about their assignment. And pretty soon hands starting going up for me to check it. It was actually quite comical because its like they were all feeling suspense...will I get a cupcake...did I do everything right?

So when I checked a student's work and got it right I would yell out "(Insert student's name here) is getting a cupcake!" I was nice enough not to yell out the kids who didn't get a cupcake.

We'll see how long this lasts.

Read the Directions

Reading the directions. It is such a simple thing really. You need to know how to put something together or how to bake a cake, all sorts of things require directions. And being able to read and follow the directions is such an important skill.

A skill in which, my dear students, have yet to learn. If my students leave my class at the end of the year, and know nothing about computers, but are perfect at reading and following directions, I will feel like I have succeeded as a teacher.

Okay, not really, but you get my point. Reading and following directions is important!

Knock on wood, but I have really good BCIS (Business Computer Information Systems -we're talking Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc) classes this year. Haven't had any major discipline issues, a couple dumbasses that shall remain nameless, but really, besides those two nameless students, my classes are great. They are fun kids, they get their work done (most of the time) and they don't talk when I am talking.

But there is one thing that they are really, REALLY bad at. Reading and following directions. Oh you could verbally tell them "Insert a section break before the paragraph and format the paragraph into two columns" and they could do it right then. But there must be something with putting it on a piece of paper, in a nice, concise, numbered list, that totally throws them off. It truly boggles my mind.

In reality, my students should all get 100's on their daily assignments, because if they aren't sure how to do something, they know that they just have to raise their hand and I'll come bounding over to help them with whatever problem they are having. And 9 times out of 10, the directions tell them EXACTLY where to go and what to do.

This is a conversation that I typically have daily:

Student raises hand.
Me: Yes (insert name of student here) what do you need help with?
Student: I don't know what to do here (gestures at the handout)
Me: What do you mean by 'here' (as I gesture at the handout)
Student: Well, just all this (and gestures at the paper again)
Me: Have you read the directions?
Student: Well...no...but...
Me: READ the DIRECTIONS

Some days, its not so bad. But the past week, I don't know if its been a full moon or what, but they have been terrible!

We started columns and section breaks on Monday. I showed them on their computers how to do it, then as a class we all practiced it, and then they started the assignment. Their assignment included detailed directions and even a picture of what the document should look like when they are finished.

20 minutes later I have 6 or 7 hands in the air. I start making the rounds and these kids have got the assignment totally screwed up. Its like they just pick and choose what directions they feel like following. Regardless, it is probably one of the most annoying things about teaching.

This proceeded throughout the end of the day. During our practice time, while I was verbally giving them instructions, they were great. They open the book, and it all goes to crap.

I have 4 BCIS classes in a row, my conference period, and then my last BCIS class. You can imagine how frustrated and exhausted I was by the end of the day.

So Wednesday rolls around and I decide to give my students a "Come to Jesus" talk (as my mom would put it) about reading the directions. This is exactly what I said, in my super serious teacher voice (those of you that know me better, yes, believe it or not, I do have a super serious teacher voice).

"You need to READ and FOLLOW ALL of the DIRECTIONS in the order that they are given. Some of ya'll, if your lives depended upon reading AND following ALL of the directions in the correct order, half of you would be DEAD where you sit."

They all kinda looked at eachother and giggled, but I think they got the point, because they all did really well on that day's assignment. Now some of them still didn't read the directions, so when they raised their hand, and I saw that they were confused because they skipped a step, I said "(Insert name of student here) you'd be dead right now. And I would never get to see you again and that would be sad!" They laughed at me.

So there you go, threaten the kids with their lives and the will read the directions.

Top 10 Things I Learned at the Rodeo

In honor of the Rodeo coming to town soon, I thought I would repost my blog "Top 10 Things I Learned at the Rodeo". I originally wrote this blog on March 15, 2006. We had gone to rodeo with our dear friends James and Christie (James is Nathan's best friend since he was THREE years old, and James lived down the street from my family in Alaska...yes, I do have some stinkin' cool history, not gonna lie.). We saw Corey Morrow and Larry the Cable Guy. Never heard of the Corey Morrow guy before, but Christie was nice enough to lend me a few of his CD's before the concert so I could fake it while we there. Ha!

So anways, without further ado, here was list of things I learned that night.

Top Ten Things I Learned at the Rodeo Last Night

10. You can wear crotchless denim underwear in public and not
get arrested (aka super super short denim mini skirts)

9. If you are female under the age of 18, the required rodeo
uniform is crotchless denim underwear, a barely there top,
and cowboy boots. Bras and underwear are optional.

8. Body weight and the size of your gut does not disqualify you
from wearing crotchless denim underwear.

7. Parents probably have no idea their daughters are wearing
crotchless denim underwear.

6. If you are a female under the age of 18, wearing crotchless
denim underwear and cowboy boots does not make you look
older, more sophisticated or like Jessica Simpson. It makes
you look like a prostitot. No, that is not a typo, I said prostiTOT
– aka a 10 year old hooker.

5. Wearing crotchless denim underwear will get you extra koozies
at the Ford tent.

4. When I was in high school, our Rocky Mountain jeans may have
been suck tight, but at least our ass was covered.

3. Prostitots wearing crotchless denim underwear always travel in
groups, never solo.

2. Our daughters (should we have any) will not be allowed to wear
crotchless denim underwear if they want to have a social life.

1. I've seen enough crotchless denim underwear to last me a
lifetime...and longer.