Eola Hills 5K

This morning Erin & I participated in the inaugural Eola Hills "No Hills" 5K in Rickreall. This event was a fundraiser for the Central High School and Dallas High School Track and Cross Country Programs. It was a good excuse to get some exercise and to help out two local schools.

The weather was cold, wet and windy. But it is November, so that was expected. It did serve to motivate. My time was (walking...I don't run) 49 minutes. Not bad considering. And at the end we got pizza and beer, wine or soda, plus the nifty t-shirt above.

Soon it will be time to start preparing for a 10K in January.

Conferences...an observation

Today we had conferences in our district. I've never been a huge fan of these parent teacher meetings, mostly because I rarely saw parents at them in my previous position. That was then. Now...different story. During the first two hours I had parents at my table non stop with more waiting in line. Wow! Not my usual experience. Nor was the following scenario, which happened more than once.

Me: "Your child is doing very well. He/she is a delight to have in class and I have no concerns about their behavior or work."

Parent. "That's good to hear, but his/her grade is 90%. How can they raise it?"

Me: Unsure what to say at this point. We don't give +/- grades. It doesn't matter if if the grade is 90 or 100, it's an 'A'.

To Nano or Not....

NaNoWriMo started today and I'm still undecided about whether or not I'm going to participate. I have an idea, but do I have the time? Teaching middle school is really time consuming. Maybe I'll go for it and see what happens. Wish me luck!

Harvest Time

Today we took the kids to EZ Orchards in Salem for their Harvest Festival activities. The weather was wonderful and Logan had a great time with the tractors, petting zoo, and running through the corn maze. Addisyn slept for most of the afternoon, and the adults indulged in apple cider donuts while soaking up some sun.

What is it about boys and tractors? Logan loves them.

I write like who?

It's getting close to NaNoWriMo time. I'm not sure if I'm going to participate this year, but I've been reading about other people's preparations and anticipation. Today on the NaNo Facebook page was a link for I Write Like. It's a program that will analyze a piece of writing you enter and compare it to a database of writers. Out of curiosity, I had to try it.

First, I copied part of the dialogue I entered in the DAR American Heritage Contest in 2010. I won second place at the national level, so I figured it was a good place to start. According to the program, I write like....Cory Doctorow. I've never read that author.

Second, I entered the blog post just proceeding this one. This time, I write like...Kurt Vonnegut. Another author I've never read.

Third time, I entered the first few paragraphs of my NaNo book from 2009. At least I've read this author...James Joyce.

I had to try one more time, so I just entered this text. Now, I write like H.P. Lovecraft.

This is just too funny! Four pieces by me and the result is four different authors. Who knew?!

They're so funny!

Middle schoolers are a different breed of people. A family friend who spent 34 years teaching middle school says that "Sixth graders aren't human and seventh graders are only slightly closer." I'm not sure I completely agree, but this age group is definitely different from the high schoolers I'm used to.

Yesterday, at the end of our world history lesson it came across loud and clear that my seventh graders don't really get roman numerals. (I find this to be sad, since I've always thought they're kind of fun to decipher!) So, we had a few minutes left in class and I did a quick, down and dirty lesson in just a few minutes. We ended with translating dates. For instance, 2011 is MMXI and 1980 is MCMLXXX. Then one of the kids asked me to put my birth year up so they could translate it. As the kids were leaving one of my little lovelies stopped and said "I didn't think you were that old!" and proceeded to tell me she thought I was a good dozen years younger than I actually am! It was really cute.

Harvest Faire

My family spent the weekend in Sisters at the Harvest Faire. When I left the valley Friday afternoon it was raining, and I chased it all the way up and over Santiam Pass. My no so sunshiney mood really lifted as I broke over the pass and saw....blue sky! It was really nice to hang out with family and friends, and enjoy the sunny weather.