Happy Homecoming

...well guys....I just can't figure it out on my own...I have all your stuff ready on paper, but I can't seem to wrap my brain around posting them virtually before Monday. My apologies!! But on the other hand...patience is a virtue....or even better, think of it this way....it is like Christmas Eve and you are waiting for morning to come so you can finally unwrap your presents....lol....let's equate that fun feeling to getting my grades....okay?? ;)

As for my civic engagement here in this neck of the woods...I was out in the morning fog, filling the dunk tank, taping flyers all over, buying ice and ice cream for the root beer floats booth, blowing up the jump house and slide, and well, just plain ole doin' a whole bunch of stuff...Ms. Decker needed the help and I couldn't let one of my old classmate's sister down now could I???!!

The MOST fun part of the day was running the dunking booth...we had athletes, teachers coaches, even the Dean of Students up there on this brisk autumn day offering themselves up for the dunkin'.... all for a good cause!!

I had them buying balls BY THE BUCKET...3 for a buck was too little for such a priceless opportunity....COME ON....dunk the man who won't believe you when you say that you really DIDN'T DESERVE THAT DETENTION????.....or the man who made you do those extra laps for giving backtalk???.....Wooo Whooo....glad I work at S-E now....LOL!! It was all in good fun...the most dunked was the Middle School Science teacher...her children got a bucket full....and hit the bulls eye on almost every throw!! Wonder if Mrs. Jump will be feeding them tonight...I think I heard her say something about that between squeals as she took yet another plunge for the greater good.

Afton's bonfire/dance was fun....BUT THE SILENT RAVE and the parade was mo' betta!! :))

Well guys...I just got home...and my grades are ready and on paper, but my brain is not in any condition to tackle a new software program and trying to click willy nilly through it, to learn as I do kinda thing.

So...I decided to bring my laptop with me to ACS and find a hot spot to input the numbers into the system for you, as I watch over the dunking booth, or sell raffle tiks....or whatever it is that Ms. Decker will have me doing tomorrow. 8 AM roll out...hope they have COFFEE there for us volunteers....*note to self* BRING YOUR OWN!!! LOLOL

Over all you ALL are getting out of my class (in numbers) the same amount as the effort that you put into it...do any of you expect an A if you do D effort??? UMMMM...REALITY CHECK....NOT!!!

The files are posted in downloads for any of you that want to better your grade...if you are happy being "average" or "proficient", well so be it....for those of you that want to be proactive about their education...you have until Saturday evening to get me your attachment....a blank attachments will not get you anything but your original grade...*cough, cough* HIT SAVE before you send... : S

I wanted to get all this administrative work done for all you grades hungry kidlin's...but life happens....and I ran out of hours in the day. :( Anybody know where I can get a few extra hours...cheap???

So...my numbers oriented youngins...I am gonna try and squeeze some rest into my honey-do list. I really enjoyed sharing in the festivities and the parade with you guys...P.S.....between you me and the rest of the Internet world...I think the Junior Class stayed closest to the theme of this years parade...and made their float not only pollution free....but completely out of recycled materials....so KUDOS from me....and all Juniors can hit my candy cabinet on Monday....

¡Que pasen un buen fin de semana!

Feelin' a bit cross-eyed after correcting all your exams, while I listened to the vice presidential debate...not forgetting to take the time to interject my own "two cents" at what I heard on TV....just like my grandfather used to from his chair. Multi-tasking, you see!! :)

Grades will be up for you guys by the end of my day tomorrow....so hold tight just a bit longer :))

I must say that I can tell who is doing what with the tools I have tried to give you over these past five weeks.

It is obvious to me where your personal disconnects are...I can see from how you answered the questions on the tests, who out of you actually took my test taking advice....who cares to know some of what I have learned while acquiring all these languages I have categorized in my noggin....and who it is that still needs to wrap their brains around all the information you have taken in over time, and who out of all of you still just doesn't want to do nothin'.

I am looking forward to connecting the dots for you....reinforcing your scaffolding.....and watching you develop as critical thinkers!!

I BELIEVE IN YOU :))

Tuesday's used to be a soda float at Jahn's Ice Cream Parlor

Yes...it is Tuesday, and I enjoyed yet another day among you great citizens of the world!!

I imagine you all have allot going on and many expectations to live up to, and I just wanted to let you all know that it is AWESOME to be among such great minds at work.

If there is a pearl of wisdom I can give you all as these first five weeks comes to a close, let it be this.....accept the challenges so that you can FEEL the exhilaration of VICTORY. Actually it isn't my pearl...it belonged to George Patton.

As you move up and through life you will be faced by challenges and find yourself in competition with people who were, for a lack of better terms, breed to succeed. Those ones from Bronx Science, the same ones who attended a French Immersion School on the Upper West Side of some metropolitan area..*giggles*...but you ALL should walk tall and proud...because you have S-E to get you ready for FUTURE CHALLENGES. You will make us Shine!!!

STUDY HARD!!!

Spirit Week Is Upon Us....

Seeing all your faces pop into the doorway of the auditorium today made my Monday!! I hope you all enjoyed yourselves...totally worth breaking a sweat for I'll say.

I do hope that you all walked away with a little somethin' somethin' to practice in the comfort of your own private space. :) All I know is that while trying to pump y'all up, I overdid it and pulled something in my hip...*note to self* you are older than you feel...LOL.

I hope that more of you gather this week, take advantage of the space the School has made available to us and use the time available to dance it off!! It is allot of fun to get the sheer utter silliness flowing before the end of the day...thanks guys!!

You ROCK!!

Rainy Sunday...full of laughs

Jeff Dunham is brilliant and has quite and entourage of, well let's say colorful characters....my 14 year old turned me on to him today...so this is what the freshman in Afton are watching.

I was laughing so hard at watching them laugh!! Can it be that such a "heavy" reality can be accepted and made okay through laughter??

How would you feel if you had to leave your country because if political unrest and instead of finding open arms you find bias??

My grandparents HAD to flee Lithuania because of fear of persecution because of their involvement with the Lithuanian Self-Defense Movement...and btw....they WALKED out of Lithuania with only what they could carry.

Life here wasn't easy but they worked hard, educated themselves and settled down after retirement in Afton.

Imagine how it is for the people immigrating to the US today...from places like the Middle East and Asia...looking for a better life. They don't look like we do, act like we do, eat what we eat, and maybe don't even speak like we do.....how out of place they must feel.

So if you happen across someone who is different.....SMILES are UNIVERSALLY UNDERSTOOD!!!

Peace!!

Workin on playlists....Wooo Whooo :))

It was so cool to see how many of you came to our Silent Rave Planning Meeting and Brainstorming session on how to make it as "loud" a statement we can make!!

I must say that when I first announced the Rave in my classes, the kids were snickering at the idea...and I felt since I DID live the early Rave scene personally it is my duty to make sure you UNDERSTAND that the birth of the Rave Party, like any worthy shift in society, was deeply rooted in the ANTI-GLOBALIZATION MOVEMENT...and NOT anything else but a response the the "man". The wheels of Globalization began to churn in the 70's guys....long before any of you were even an idea in any ones head....and now we are living it. When I was at the American University in Rome I lived off Via Cavour, and was woken up much and often by demonstrators raising cane under my window. When I asked Marco (the room mate at the time) what all the hub bub was all about...he said that it was an Anti-Globalization demonstration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-globalization

In response to the feelings of having to live silly rules because of bar and club owners rules about hours and who DJ's and all the money driven decision making (it is the bottom line that matters for any business) we took our parties underground. Simply because we wanted the freedom to play the music we wanted and to have fun...at least that is how we lived it...in good clean FUN!!! Nothing more, nothing less....sheer adrenalin flowing crazy dancing...House music was what they played before it shifted later years into techno....and now I am so old I doubt that I would actually like the music they play at them things today!! LOL (admittedly aging...changes tastes...really...rotfl!!)

Anywhoo.....so I think I needed to set it straight....Rave like any other YOUTH movement was a good thing...so let's make this community SILENT RAVE next Friday the most coolest thing that S - E has EVER EXPERIENCED!!

It is your generation that has to teach the rest of us to GO GREEN...so lets Reuse, Reduce and Recycle....and Boogie down in Silence....

Dancing Lessons 8th mod in the Auditorium....thank the powers that be for helping make this MAGIC happen!!

Playlist will appear in my pod casts and such section accessible through my home page.

in light of the greater good.....PEACE!!

OMG...globalization in the news this early in the AM

I don't know what I am doing up this early in the morning....my eyes just opened and I am tooling around a quiet house, making tea (Yep...ran out of coffee *sigh*) and the next thing up on the news in Money Talks is.....outsourcing your CHORES....the piece opens up with the idea of sending off your most hated chores to INDIA....work at home people hire personal assistants (VIRTUAL ASSISTANT IS THE NEXT UP AND COMING MARKETPLACE ROLE FOR THE FUTURE SECRETARY).....Depak, and George got hooked up at www.getfriday.com.

Twelve dollars an hour paid through PayPal in dollars to a virtual terminal in India for the VA to feed his family. This is a reality that will be MAIN STREAM in YOUR FUTURE guys!! Believe me I saw the need already in my world as a Senior Administrative Assistant in the metro NYC area. Who among you will catch THAT wave??? ARE YOU READY TO COMPETE IN A GLOBAL MARKET??????

I remember in Italy all the old ladies (yeah the ones dressed perpetually in BLACK because they are forever morning their defunct spouse) used to say....oh the children of today are born with their eyes open.....well I don't think that it is the babies that are born different....but it is the WORLD that is different they were born into!! We treat infants like geniuses from birth, stimulating their brains with colors, sounds and images...(Baby Einstein anyone) and then EXPECT the children NOT to be different....hmmm...isn't it BAD Practice to think that doing things in the same way all the time, and expecting the outcome to be different....I know there is some Psychology mumbo jumbo that clearly states this point...but that is a post for a morning that I have COFFEE IN THE HOUSE!!! LOLOL

I just want to be able to have all of you stand proud as WORLD CITIZENS....Oh Captain, my Captain!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!

To Thump or not to Thump???

Well, I think that today, my world has earned a post in English...lol....yep THAT is also one of the languages I try to speak!! ROTFL :))

It is amazing how the world turns...if I had done things the "right" way (or rather the way that everyone else thought I should have done it) I would have completed all my education course work as a minor when I was in college, and could have been doing this for a living a WAY LONG TIME AGO.....but then I stop and laugh and remember that while we are all busy planning.....well...you know who is laughing...so that said, I gotta keep the faith and move forward...hopefully that includes upward, but that is another days' post...LOL!

When I got out of school yesterday, and well...went head to head in what was called a "Thump Off"..(is that what you guys call it??) I think I won!! *giggles*

It is kinda cool to feel like I am beginning to fit in...thanks for that!!

It has not been easy being me....but it sure has been way worth the JOURNEY!!!

Honest!! I truly think that life happens, and you can either be a verb, or an adjective.

You can DO....or just TALK ABOUT IT!!

It isn't easy at all at times to DO what you have to even if you don't FEEL like it, trust me I know. It is even harder, looking at where you HAVE TO GET TO...wanting to be there, and NOT WANTING to BE A VERB to GET THERE....in the back of my noggin I know that anything worthwhile comes after much effort...if it didn't they wouldn't have called it WORK!! N'est pas? But as I rode home today, over hill and dale...I noticed the leaves changing and realized that time is moving forward...no matter if I AM READY OR NOT.....and it feels good! So, I personally will continue to be an action word....and will "get 'er done" :)) Thanks in a large part to all of YOU!!! Mis estudiantes de S-E!!

YOU ARE GREAT MOTIVATORS!!!!

YOU ROCK!!

Crederci....

Ma voi, ci credete?? Sí, stasera, di nuovo......le idee mi scorrono in italiano....Io ho allegato un clip di un ragazzino que ha un sacco da dire....una perspectiva che io personalmente condivido!! Io ne ho avuto poche di persone que hanno creduto in me da giovane. Se non fosse stato per le persone che mi sono capitati sotto piede, non saprei che fine avrei fatto!!

Scuola non m'é mai stato un posto dove volevo stare. Ma io sapevo que serviva!! Quindi continuavo ad andarci.....ma appena que io avevo dimostrato ai mei che c'é l'ho fatta....me ne sono scapatta dal altra parte del mondo! Ci sono rimasta per molti anni, é in fondo é lí che ci sono cresciuta. C'era Fabio Lucidi che m'aveva detto spesso che...io sono nata in america, ma sono cresciuta in Italia.

Uno non se ne rendo conto veramente il momento che "cresce"....io, solltanto adesso me ne rendo conto che sono VECCHIA!! aparte i cappelli grigi, mi viene la realisazione guardando mi intorno...'a mazza te'o...so' vecchia pe' d'avvero!! Insomma...e cosí che giranno le cose!!

Pace!!

¡No hay de papas! o ¿No hay de ganas?

No sé qué pensar...hoy para algunos de ustedes fué el día del ensayo, y lo que he leido no me sorprendió.

Para muchos no hay de ganas....qué lástima.

Algunas veces me siento como el professor típico de mi joventúd; adelante della clase; detrás de mí pulpito, dando un discurso que no interesa a nadie. Mi sorprende que algunos de Ustedes no tienen mucho entusiasmo en conpartir conmigo todo lo qué yo abbía adquirido en mis viages por éste mundo.

En vez de abrazar la oportunidad con mucho gusto, mi intúito me dice que todavía hay personas que verdaderamente creen de ser más informadas que yo. La sensación que siento desde algunos de Ustedes es que todavía creen que mi clase es una pérdida de tiempo, o quizás creen que es solamente una clase de Español que no podría servirte en el futuro más que saber ordinar quesadillas y tacos con la estructura gramáticalmente correcta. No se olviden nunca decir...MÍ LÁPIZ ES AZUL!!!!

Mí papél como maestra no es solamente hacer en manera que Ustedes saben MEMORIZAR cosas......mi papél es darles a Ustedes las herramientas necesarias para poder UTILIZAR lo que Ustedes habbían memorizado....¿¿PARECE JUSTO??


Como siempre....todo ésto es SOLAMENTE MÍ OPINIÓN!!!
Nosotros todos la tenemos....una opinión....¿cuál es la tuja?
Soy curiosa...¡vemos lo qué me dirían mañana!

Buona Donemica..

Finalmente mi sento riposata...oggi mi scorrono i pensieri in italiano!!

Che si puo fare?

Quando avete una maestra che parla un sacco di lingue mi sembra naturale che abbia dei momenti di collasso mentale. Non vi rendete conto cuanto mi sforzo a zompare fra le lingue che so....che fatica...verramente!!

Insomma....la conferenza ieri era tremenda! Piena di studenti svogliati, e magari una manciatta di professori di lingue. Che gruppo di intelectuali, sono rimasta impresionata e gazata per riportare nella mia clase tutte le idee che loro hanno presentato.

Mi sento piu sicura nel mio modo di fare con voi. Perché é davero una metodología...Insegnare lingue in contexto....Ho speso 200 dollari nella librería...mi sono dimenticata cuánto costanno i libri della universitá.

Beh!! Ho da leggere e compiti da fare....non ne parliamo dei panni che ci sono nella la lavandería che hanno bisogno della mia attenzione....lolol!! Ci sará sempre qualcosa che aspetterá fino a domani.

Peace

¡Feliz Viernes!

¡Qué día maravilloso! Quando llegué ésta mañana, estaba tán cansada, péro mi entusiasmo de condividir con mis estudiantes todas las ideas qué tenía por la cabeza, me dió la fuerza de no quejarme demasiado.

Encontrar sus padres fue electrizante. El jueves por la tarde quando regresé a casa no podría dormir por la emoción....Nota a sí misma....comprar manzanilla....lol!

Ustedes habían trabajado bien ésta semana. Vamos adelante con el mismo entusiasmo la próxima semana y el viernes que viene invento diversiónes. Recuerden qué se juega el viernes SOLAMENTE si cubrimos todo el material didáctico de la semana.

Me levanto mañana a las cinco, porque hay una conferencia en SUNY Cortland para profesores de idiomas extranjeras...*sigh*...sigue corriendo Forest....que empieza a las ocho de la mañana. ¡Con ésto, les dejo para ahora!

El domingo les busco enlaces para "Clicking Willy Nilly"...quizás tambien algo no vinculado al LOTE....rofl.

¡Saludos!

¡Con la Mega no se juega!

Fué una publicidad que se ponía en la radio a Nueva York para un talk show por la mañana . Bien, hoy empiezo mi blog con éste dicho porque es verdad...Aprovecharse no hace daño a nadie....péro ya se alcanzé mi límite.
SPAN IV: abrumadas, tímidas, o simplemente es una question de incapazidad. Con las buenas, Ustedes tienen que HABLAR!!! Toda la classe tenía un buen exito en el examen del Regents...por eso mis expectativas subieron de nuevo al nivel dónde estaban antes qué me dijieron que algunos de mis estudiantes pensaban que soy demasiado difícil de entender y enveces de salir mal en mi classe preferirían dejarnos. Sea lo que sea....ahora a todas las muchachas que se quedaron conmigo........ABRA LA BOCA, Y EXPRÉSATE!! El peor es que nosotras podemos reir juntas y aprender algo....¿Qué les parece? No creo que es una injusticia...


SPAN I: ¡A los cinco que habían tomado el actitúd de suponerse qué Ustedes estan el Director de mí clase! ESTÉN EQUIVOCADOS...Mañana....asientos nuevos y se Ustedes siguen aprovechandome....hay siempre mi ángulo dónde se puede pasar un ratito para pensar envez de disturbar la clase...porque lo sabes hacer. Solamente para el placer de mantener el control....en mí clase MANEJO YO!!! ¿Entendido?


Por los demás que tenían mucha paciencia mientras LOS CINCO habian así mucho de contribuir...como lo qué querían hacer a la fiesta...disculpa.

FRENCH I:

We are moving right along....nothing to add since yesterday....