Somthing I enjoyed lately...

In light of all the teacher bashing we have had to endure these last several months, I found this satisfying and interesting.  It made me think about what I make as a teacher.  

Taylor Mali
WHAT TEACHERS MAKE (OR, IF THINGS DON’T WORK OUT YOU CAN ALWAYS GO TO LAW SCHOOL)
He says the problem with teachers is
What’s a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life
was to become a teacher?
He reminds the other dinner guests that it’s true
what they say about teachers:
Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.
I decide to bite my tongue instead of his
and resist the temptation to remind the dinner guests
that it’s also true what they say about lawyers.
Because we’re eating, after all, and this is polite company.
I mean, you’re a teacher, Taylor.
Be honest. What do you make?
And I wish he hadn’t done that
(asked me to be honest)
because, you see, I have a policy in my classroom
about honesty and ass-kicking:
if you ask for it, then I have to let you have it.
You want to know what I make?
I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor
and an A- feel like a slap in the face.
How dare you waste my time
with anything less than your very best.
I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall
in absolute silence. No, you may not work in groups.
No, you may not ask a question, so put your hand down.
Why won’t I let you go to the bathroom?
Because you’re bored.
And you don’t really have to go to the bathroom, do you?
I make parents tremble in fear when I call home:
Hi. This is Mr. Mali. I hope I haven’t called at a bad time,
I just wanted to talk to you about something your son said today.
To the biggest bully in the class, he said,
“Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don’t you?”
And it was the noblest act of courage I have ever seen.
I make parents see their children for who they are
and what they can be.
You want to know what I make?
I make kids wonder,
I make them question,
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful
over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math
and hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand if you’ve got this [brains],
then you follow this [heart],
and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this [the finger].
Here, let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
Teachers make a goddamn difference! Now what about you?

–from Rattle #27, Summer 2007
Tribute to Slam Poetry

Now, I don't agree with every sentiment that Mr. Mali shared in this slam, but I appreciate the overall theme.  If I had to say what I make as a teacher, I would say relationships.  I would say that I make children know that I care about them.  I make them know that I will meet them where they are and that together we will get wherever they are going.  I make sure every possible door is open for my students when they leave my care.  I also make my students wonder and ask questions.  I make them think and analyze.  I make opportunities for them to create.  I make them express themselves with compassion.  I make them listen carefully and observe critically.  These are the things I work hard to make every day, and more.   I hope I make a difference.  That's why I went into this work in the first place.  Someone once said that teachers plant seeds and carefully tend to the growth of their charges.  Being a gardener, I like that analogy.  I just have to have the patience to see the final outcome and see just what a difference I may have made.  Luckily, I live in a community where I will have the gift of watching these children grown into adults--I will get the joy of seeing the bit of difference I made in their lives. 

Sometimes, in this political climate and at other times, too, it's difficult to remember what I make each day.  At these times it's good for me to remember how to count what I make.   Teaching in a K-8 school I count what I make by the kind words I hear the middle schoolers express to the first and second graders.  I count what I make by watching the older students care for the younger students when they fall and cut their knee on the playground.  I count what I make by the little pictures and cut out hearts I find on my desk at the end of the day.  I count what I make by the little smile I see when my students leave at the end of the day and say goodnight.  I count what I make by the good morning I am greeted with when my students walk in door in the morning and the high fives we share to celebrate their individual victories.  I count what I make in the joy that I experience when my students get it for the first time, when their eyes light up and a smile spreads across their faces from the excitement of learning something new.  When I count what I make in these ways, I realize I'm showered with blessings every day, and I have a difficult time imagining another job as blessed and important as this one.  

The Girls

Aren't these some good lookin' chickens?  They were given to me by my friend Mary when they were just a couple of weeks old.  Her kindergarten class hatched them in an incubator and Mary needed someone to take them.  We volunteered and we're so happy we did.  For their first few weeks in our care they lived in a big cardboard box in my classroom where my students lovingly care for them.  One boy particularly loved the little chicks.  He would put one little chick in the front pocket of his hoodie sweatshirt and keep it warm all day long.  But babies grow up and by the end of the school year the babies were no longer babies.  They were adolescents and not nearly as cute, so it was time to move them outside into their coop.

It wasn't long before we knew we had five hens and three roosters.  Yes.  Three roosters.  We had never raised chickens before so we thought that maybe we could keep them all.  It wasn't long before their aggression towards each other made us realize we were crazy.   One by one the roosters had to go.  I tried dealing with the last guy, but when it got to the point that I needed to arm myself with a snow shovel and hit him across the chicken yard in order to get the eggs we decided he would be supper.  I had never ever had to hit something the way I had to hit him to get him to stay away from me.  It was an awful feeling.  The adrenaline and the violence--I hated it.  So, I really didn't mind when I didn't have to deal with him in the coop any longer.  I cooked him in the slow cooker and he was pretty tasty. We made several meals out of him and I can't explain how satisfying it was to eat him in an enchilada.  
Anyways, now we have six hens.  The sixth hen came from the following year's incubation that I did with my students.  Of the 18 eggs we put in the incubator six hatched.  All of the other chicks went to other broods, but I got one little baby hen.  They are an heirloom breed called Dominiques.  Aren't they pretty?  

Scritch, scratchin' around in the litter, making my garden some great compost!  

This corn is just so tasty...

A good mama getting sitting on her eggs.  If only there were a rooster around.  Sigh.  Maybe next year?  It would be pretty sweet to have some little chicks running around the hen house.  I was thinking that if we incubated more eggs this spring maybe, just maybe I would try the rooster thing again.   I'm probably nuts, but maybe the next one will be docile?   

A sure sign of spring:  Five beautiful eggs!  Thanks, girls!

It's a Roof!

When I went out to visit the house during my prep period today at 2, they were half-way done with the roof (see the photos below).  How pleased I was to see it all wrapped up when I returned to the scene at 5:30 this evening.    We're celebrating with a beer.  :)  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And.....The Other Half!

It's an extraordinary day out today!  The sun is warm and strong, a few puffy white clouds are floating in the sky and the breeze is blowing sweetly--it's spring!  And that means it's a perfect day for roofing!  Hooray!

In other news, the coldframes are 75 degrees today!  The onions are popping their heads out of the soil and the arugula has just sent up their first leaves.  The chickens have picked up their egg production so that we are now getting four eggs a day.  Sigh.  It's really spring!

Half of a Roof

I've been waiting for the next decent day so that Jason and Jim can finish the roof before posting pictures, but we just haven't been too lucky.  It's been warm and sunny, but it's either too windy or Jason and Jim have other commitments that make it impossible to get the second half of the roof done.  So, here are some photos of the house with half of the roof.  Hopefully I will soon have lots of pictures of the complete roof!

February

Here we are in the end of February again.  It was just a year ago that I began this blog, and I can't help thinking about what the end of February looked like then.  Last February spring was whispering.  We were done with snow, and the frigid cold weather had ended for the year.  Inside my cold frames spinach was growing and my baby onions were planted along with arugula, kale, and a variety of lettuces.  On the house front, Jason and I were busy in the workshop cutting, chiseling, sanding and oiling braces.  With a handful of pieces cut for our frame, I felt like we were so close to being done!

This year is a whole different story!  It's cold out there!  A thick blanket of snow still covers the ground and just last night we got another four inches!  It's a high of only 18 degrees today with a windchill below zero.  But still there is faith in my heart that spring is not too far away helped along by the promise of that sun growing stronger each day.  So,  I planted my onions in the cold frames on Thursday.  Maybe it was crazy, but I doubt it.  The soil in the cold frame was almost 50 degrees, so I think they'll come up.  We'll see, won't we?  On the house front it's a whole different scene, too!  The frame is up, half of the roof is on and we are busy making plans for the spring and summer work ahead.  We have some major work ahead of us--I'm so excited!

Right around this time a year ago I began learning the art of baking bread.  Up until then yeast and I didn't really get along.  Every time I tried to bake anything requiring yeast it turned out flat and hard, but I was determined to learn.  Since then I have come a long way on that front.  I have been baking almost all of our bread each week and learning new techniques and trying new recipes along the way.  The latest fun I've been having in the bread baking world is sourdough and bagels.  The first sourdough I made was this sour, moist, dense Danish-style rye bread filled with sunflower seeds.  Cut very thin, it is a delicious protein-rich base for an open-faced sandwich.  Jason teases me about this bread.  He says it would break through the floor if I dropped it, but I love it.  It reminds me of the breads we ate while in Denmark!  I'm making just regular old sourdough, too.  I'm still trying to perfect this style of bread.  It's a little too sour and dense for Jason, so today I'm trying to let it rise more before baking it.  I love the process of using a sourdough starter.  It's so magical to feed the starter and then watch it bubble up, ready to be added to flour and turned into a sponge.  The final step is to knead in more flour and let it rise, fold it, rise again, fold it, rise....  Just like magic!  I hope Jason learns to love the flavor, because I sure love baking it!

Bagels.  They are a blast to make.  It's a long, not too complicated process, but oh so worth it!  You start by making the dough as usual and letting that sit and rise for a couple of hours.

Now it's ready to work with!

Cut the dough into 12 fairly equal size pieces, roll them into ball and use your thumbs to press holes into the center, pulling outward to make little rings.  I use a motion like I'm making pizza dough and I leave a little dough in the center to hold toppings if I choose to put those on.  

Now you drop the rings into boiling water.  When they float, flip them over.  When they float again, take them out and put them on a cooling rack to drain.

This is what they look like while they are draining.  They feel kind of funny at this stage.  Boiling them has created a crust, but the insides are really hot and doughy.  Once they're drained they're ready to bake.  I start by putting a cookie sheet on the bottom rack of the oven with about a half-inch of water in it to create some steam in the oven.  Then I put the bagels on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for about 30 minutes.  

When they're done they're chewy and delicious!  I love eating them when they're still hot with olive oil, salt and pepper.  

On Wisconsin!

My home state is in turmoil.  For a week now, tens of thousands of people have been protesting the new governor's budget, which would strip public worker's collective bargaining rights.  To quote a law maker from Maine, "if the levees break in Madison, everyone gets flooded."  Stay strong, Wisconsin!  I'm with you in spirit!