there are some interesting things i learn while i substitute. last week, for instance, i taught 2nd and 3rd graders Spanish. Yep. A language I know very very little about, and I was up there leading a class using very nicely put together lesson plans left by their Spanish teacher. With 2nd graders I learned (while they reviewed and practiced) animals names, most interestingly that the woodpecker is called pájaro carpintero, which literally means "bird-carpenter". With 3rd graders we went over some common Spanish food names (a lot of which we all already knew) and then I learned how to say "I like ..." And this all is very useful as I am learning Spanish on my own right now using the Nintendo DS's "My Spanish Coach" and Anki. So far I'm really enjoying the studying and am actually remembering things. Sometimes I slip into Japanese, though, which makes things a bit confusing but fun.

Another interesting things I learned about last week are tree frogs that hibernate during winter by freezing solid. That's right. Little frog rocks litter the forest floors of Northern America, as far north as the Arctic circle, and they spring into action as soon as the ice starts melting and within hours of thawing they start mating. I learned about them by watching a video along with the Biology classes I was subbing for last week. I think we were all equally mesmerized by watching a frozen solid little creature come to life. First, its heart starts slowly beating and then other organs warm up and within hours, his limbs start twitching and then awkwardly spring into action and the next second is off and hopping away. It's a very cool thing to see and I was completely mesmerized by this amazing natural wonder. How does a frozen frog rock go from solid to action ready you ask? Well. Here are a few place to check out the answers. I'd try to explain, but I wouldn't do a good job.
PBS video and Wiki link should be good places to start if you, like me, had no idea that these fascinating frogs existed.

This week just started but I subbed yesterday and once again, learned something new. I learned that a lot of us, Americans, are made out of corn because of the diet we eat. And I learned this by watching an interesting documentary with an Econ. class I subbed for, called King Corn. Two college grads decided to move to Iowa and grow an acre of corn to learn more about the process, the farmers, and how the corn they grow ends up in our food and in our hair. I didn't finish watching the film, 'cause class ended and we stopped when the guys started exploring how corn feed effects cows' digestion, so I'm hoping to catch it sometime on PBS in its full run. It was broadcast on Independent Lens so check your local listings.

Oh, and something not as fun but that did happen recently was that our lovely little dog, named Molly, ate my SD card. Sounds like a funny thing to have happened and am sure it was when it did, but I wasn't there to observe it--all I had were two shattered bits of a 2gig card and a dog full of photos from Greece and England that I didn't upload to my Mac yet. >.<

best
-e

today two of my tutoring sessions canceled on me. at first i was a bit irritated since a) i prepped and drove down there and b) i had no other plans for those 5 hours so had to think of something to do. but luckily today happened to be a beautiful sunny, warm day in Milwaukee and after striking out with a few phone calls i decided just to go to the lake alone and find something to do. i drove to Lake Park and took a windy, short road down to Lake Drive (one of my favorite roads in Milwaukee...too bad it's so short) and noticed some people walking along side it and realized that in all the years of driving down that road, i never noticed a trail. So i found a place to park and took the trail and then walked along the lake and found another short trail that took me back up from lake drive. i walked to the water tower on north and then back down to the lake and back to my car at Lake Park. I'm really glad i did it. There were a lot of people out and about enjoying the sunshine and the warmth. It was nice to see so much life and pleasure along Lake Michigan on one of the first days of spring here. It made me appreciate being back here more, but at the same it really made me miss Okinawa and the indescribable beauty of the water as it sparkles under the sun as you drive along Route 58. So, bitter and sweet today.

I discovered a new site for myself for keeping track of my reading. I decided that I needed a good way of organizing notes about the books I read, especially if they're young adult books and I think they'd be good to use in a class room at some point. I did a brief search and found goodreads.com. After a few minutes of perusal I decided that it's exactly what I needed. It's a nice, clean design and allows for writing reviews, notes to myself, connecting with friends who read, and also being able to categorize my books under numerous "shelves" which will make it easier later to exactly what i'm looking for. so here's a little widget from that site with the first book i added.

i was at schools 4 out of 5 days this week. The highlight was reading a Dr. Seuss book to 20 2nd graders. Made me consider the possibility that I chose the wrong age group to certify in. Hmm...

This weekend was the graduation and my favorite class at Ogimi JHS took their leave and I am sorry I wasn't there to see them off. Hopefully my message was read to them during the ceremony and they were glad to hear from me. Perhaps, I'll visit in 5 years or so and see them all for the 20th ceremony in the village. That'd be nice.

was subbing at a suburban high school today and during lunch time overheard an interesting discussion among some teachers. there were about 4 or 5 of them involved and most seemed to be coaches of some kind and also science teachers. it all started when an older teacher joined the table and conversation went to a recent administrative meeting in which possible measures to curb inappropriate student dress were discussed. apparently at the meeting someone made the point that if the administration were to get more strict about student outfits (nothing revealing, no ultra-baggy-hanging-near-the-knees jeans, tank tops, etc), than in order to show students a good example the teachers should also start considering the way they dress to school. bringing up of this point started up a lively discussion among the lunching teachers. only one of them seemed behind this line of thinking, the others were really disapproving. they brought up classroom temperature, comfort, not being able to wear nice clothes due to experiments going wrong in science settings, and basically not seeing why they themselves needed to do anything when it was the students who were the problem. they mentioned a particular administrator whose goal is to dress the teachers more professionally and how it was all this person's fault for this subject being reintroduced again and again. apparently this administrator specifically disapproves of open-toed sandals for faculty. gasp!
now, i know, that some teachers need to dress more comfortably for the tasks they perform but i also started to believe that the more professional the teacher looks the more respect and attention that teacher is likely to get from his/her students. if teachers treat their jobs as something they respect enough not to wear jeans and sandals then perhaps students will respect the learning process that teacher is in charge of. just something i've been thinking about going from school to school. thoughts on this welcome.

overall, i've been really enjoying the subbing experience. i've been with 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders as well as with several different high school classes, including biology and ESL. i've gotten to teach adjectives to 6th graders, fractions to ESL students, beginner genetics to biology classes, and watch over choir classes and study halls. quite a variety, which has given me a glimpse into a few schools in MPS and the suburbs and is making me think about what kind of classroom environment i'd like to eventually create for my future students. good stuff.

Minako, a friend from Okinawa, came to visit last weekend. She stayed 4 days and we drove around, shopped, ate Mexican and lots of home cooked russian, played in the snow and drank lots of Alterra coffee. It was a great visit and fun to have an opportunity to show someone from Okinawa my home and to see her react to it. I think she had a good time. I put up some pics on Facebook but here are a couple of my favorite photos from this weekend with her. And to explain them better, it's good to know that she's never seen snow until this visit to the United States.