So, will I really change?

This week has been rough. Who am I kidding…all of my weeks have been rough this year. I don’t know what I thinking when I decided that motherhood, two different AP classes (AP Lit and Comp AND AP Lang and Comp), the newspaper (and we are going print and online this year) and a masters degree was something I could handle. Well, I guess I am handling it, but I think some sort of psychotic break might be coming on.

Ok, so maybe not a full blown psychotic break. But I think there is going to be some real old school wailing and knashing of teeth. Possibly a full on, throw myself on the floor, kick and scream and make an increadible fuss, old school tantrum. Or, it might manifest in something even more disturbing: a day where I just sort of forget the world exists and have a 24 hour Joss Whedon marathon, not bothering to shower, or eat or even respond to the crying baby. So far I’ve been masking my stress and frustrations with chocolate and muscle tension.

So here I am just a little over three months into a 20 month masters program. This is my last assignment for my second class and while I am AMAZINGLY relieved, I am also sort of freaked out because that means a new one starts tomorrow. I know I should be thrilled because that means two down and only like seven to go, but that seven seems really overwhelming right now. Especially since that seven also includes a HUGE portfolio assignment which actually has two more mini-classes (which brings my tally to 9 more to go). It also has two research classes  that are less than 3 credits, but that still sort of makes it 11 to go, and now my stomach starts turning a little.

Couple that with the fact that I’m comfy in this tech class, and my stomach is now reeling.

My current (well, at least for three more hours) tech class isn’t “easy” exactly. I’ve had several assignments that I have spent a great deal of time on (the videos for my group project, fixing my Moodle pages, creating my WebQuest, revamping a lesson to make it focus on tech), I haven’t struggled with the concepts at all. I am really quite comfortable using technology in my classroom since I do it every single day. I stress far more on the days when the interent isn’t working correctly (three times this week) than on any other days. I mean, tech is my teaching life blood.

And I’ll admit it, when I first saw the tech check list, all I could think was, “this is going to be a waste of time.” I mean, I already used most of the tech on the sheet in my classroom. However, I will also admit that over the past six weeks (technically eight, as we had two breaks), I have learned a few cool new things. My favorite was probably how to make a Jeopardy game using Power Point. I know I keep raving about this to anyone who’ll listen, but I’d always wanted to do it, but had never really taken the time to learn how. Since I made it, I’ve already used the one I made for class once (and I’m getting ready to use it again next week for another section of the class) and I’ve even created a second Jeopardy game over vocab. It was a HUGE sucess and it even helped humble a few of my AP kids who are kind of know-it-alls. It turns out that during a competative game, even the best freeze a little. However, they all did much better on the final quiz, so I call it a rousing success.

This class has taught me that I am definitely on the right track with tech. I’m going to keep using it in my classroom (not like I have a choice since I do have a classroom full of computers) and I’m going to do my best to incorporate some new tech as well. I’m really excited about using podcasts and incorporating more student created videos in my classroom. I’m hoping to make some real leaps forward.

Now, I will say that this class would have been so much better had I learned how to make a robot that could either clean my house OR do my grading. As it is, I guess I’ll jsut have to be glad one more class is done and that I am that much closer to getting some small portion of my life back.

A leader in technology

It’s fall break and it is really hard for me to think about school in any way. I know I have to. I have a pile of grading to work my way through that could probably bury me if it had been actually turned in on paper. Luckily for me, almost all of  them have been turned in via Moodle.

Or maybe unluckily for me. When I can’t see it, it doesn’t mean it’s not there. It just means it’s easier for me to ignore it. And that just means it’s easier for it to pile up and metaphorically drown me.

To make matters worse, every time I think I’ll have a chance to get ahead, something else comes up. At home it’s the kids. At work, it’s far too many other things to do. Right now one of those biggest “things” is dealing with all the technology issues. If it weren’t bad enough that our server gets buggy at times or that it takes what seems like forever to enter a quiz in electronically, but I often find myself stopping what I’m doing to help someone else.

It’s not that I mind helping. I really don’t. When I jumped on board with Moodle, I knew I was going to be teaching my colleagues how to use it. That was established when I got the computer classroom. The first year I was one of the only people using Moodle, so there were very few questions. However, as more and more teachers start to utilize the technology, my phone has been ringing.

And I’m ok with it. I like helping people. I wouldn’t have become a teacher if I didn’t. I like introducing people to new ideas and showing them how they can change up their curriculum in the hopes that their students find the class even more engaging. It’s not always easy though. We do have a lot of old school pen and paper teachers who still want their scantron tests and freak out when kids turn in pages with rough edges (you know, from being torn out of a notebook). I’ve learned not to push things, but rather to try to give examples of ways tech can be used in the classroom and then let them come to me if they have questions.

One thing I am excited about is sharing the video I’m creating for my masters class with the other teachers at my school. It’s actually highlighting our VR department, which I think very few teachers really know about. When I went down there to visit, I was floored by what they can do. I think my fellow teachers will be as well. I actually want to put together a whole series of videos on the different departments in our school. I think it would be fun to show just what we can do with the tech we have. It might even inspire other teachers to start using the tech in more creative ways.

For example, I think if some of them knew how to use InDesign or Publisher, they could show their kids and they’d probably be really impressed with what our kids can put together. They could make newspapers to show their understanding of history, English, art, music, science, health, etc. We could show teachers using Mobis in their classrooms. Teachers doing review games. Kids chatting online

I haven’t proposed it to my principal yet, but it’s my next big project once the scheduling committee is done meeting (in mid-Feb). First I have to get the VR video done for my masters class.

Baby steps.

Rainy days and firewalls always get me down

So today marks the third straight day of rain and I’ll be honest, I’m getting a little sick of it. It’s especially bad because not only is it wet, but it’s cold. Yes, I know, it’s October and that is kind of par for the course, but this is a bit too much, a bit too quickly. Heck, less than two weeks ago I was sweating in jeans and a t-shirt while we were exploring the pumpkin patch, and today I was shivering in jeans, a t-shirt, a sweatshirt and a hoodie.

Another thing that is driving me crazy lately are the school firewalls. Now, I know they serve a purpose. I don’t want kids looking up pornography on the computers (and I know they  have tried). I am not keen on them trying to find ways to make meth or bombs or anything like that either (once again, I know they have tried). However, I think our blocks border on the absurd at times. A fellow teacher came to me with her hands thrown up in the air because it had blocked a site she wanted to use. The category it fell into? Educational. Yeah, um, that makes no sense.

I get really excited when I get a new idea for a lesson plan. When I find a website I think will be perfect for a webquest, research, a game, or a cool video for my kids to see, I set right to work to add it to my Moodle site. However, about half the time when I get to school and try it out, I can’t get past the firewall. Or worse, I can on my teacher computer, so I think things are great, but when my kids go to try it…no dice. So, I am without a lesson and have to roll with it. Granted, I’m pretty good at improv (I did do theater for years), but I am not always good about hiding my frustration with the situation.

We have a process at school where we can ask that sites be unblocked. The techies go in and judge whether or not we get to use it (I should point out that only one of them was ever a teacher). If we are lucky, they unblock it. However, half the time, even when they unblock it, they only take part of the blocks off, so instead of being able to view the site, we see a distorted mess. This is the case with IMDB (which I use for Film Lit), several of the international newspapers I use (for Journalism) and our online school newspaper. Yup, that’s right, because my kids can’t get school server space, they set up our online paper as a blog. It’s really cool and visually interesting, but our student body can’t view it correctly from the school computers because blogs are a blocked category. They have unblocked our site, but it displays all wonky. I am trying to negotiate another fix, but we’ll have to wait and see how long it takes and how successful I am. I’m not holding my breath.

What I am learning to do is to have students beta test things and then always have a back up plan. It is frustrating as all get out because it means I have to plan two lessons, but it’s better than having 80 minutes to fill with nothing. So, I keep hunting for new sites, displaying them from my computer (on the overhead) and begging the tech gods to open sites up.

Techity, tech, don’t type back

I like to think I’m fairly tech savvy. Every day I spend hours checking email, texting, browsing the web, Moodling, using Word, Excel, InDesign and Power Point. And yet, I’m always amazed at the little things I draw absolute blanks at.

For example, as part of this masters class I’m taking, we had to pick a program we don’t know as much as we’d like about, do some research, and create a project that showcases some groovy new skill we acquired. At first I was thinking Google docs. Afterall, my school just switched to gmail (which is a REAL pain btw, because I used to be able to have my personal email and my school email open at all times, but now since they are the same host, I can’t. I have to log out of one to see the other. I miss emails from my husband all the time.) and my principal keeps saying he’s going to be using the Google functions. So far he’s shared one document and put a few things on the calendar, so I think I might still have some time to learn.

Before I plunged into the research phase, I thought of something I’ve always wanted to do. Well, something in tech ed I’ve always wanted to do (which is sadly not nearly as exciting as say riding through the Chunnel or drinking cafe and nibbling pastries in a French bistro, but I gotta take what I can get): make a Jeopardy game with Power Point. After some research and a very long time spent putting the initial game together, I was thrilled! I had done it! I managed to make my very own review game for All Quiet on the Western Front. No longer will I be a slave to internet searches trying to find a game to fit my lessons. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. It was just time-consuming.

Even though I haven’t tried that game out, it gave me an idea for an AP rhetorical devices review, so I used the Power Point I already had saved and just reworked all the questions and answers to make one. I did it in under 30 minutes and my kids had lots of fun! It was great! This little experiment reminded me that I need to be doing more with tech. Now, I don’t need I need to be using tech more. We use it plenty. Every day my kids use Moodle for a variety of activities: journals, forums, blogs, chats, uploading work, downloading handouts, taking tests, etc. They also research, type, annotate and peer edit. In my newspaper class they even design page and manipulate photos. Ok, so they don’t actually do all of these every day, but they spend a heck of a lot of time working on the computers.

No, I’m not talking about using tech more often, but rather using tech in more ways. I want to learn how to make more learning games. I would love to figure out a way to make a Sporkle type game for the books we read (my kids are ADDICTED). I would also love to figure out ways to help them make more creative Power Points. They just did presentations that were HORRIBLY boring. They read the entire presentation to the class, and just had bullet points.  I don’t know how they didn’t fall asleep watching them. I have a feeling though, that they are using what they know. I never really use Power Points in class (although when I do, I put key points on the slides and then give them all kinds of cool extra facts and some nifty pictures). But maybe I need to. At least to model for them how they can be very affective and interesting. I need to learn how to insert more video and music clips into my the program, and then use it to show them something they’ll really like.

Another area I’d like to improve in is the use of the Flip Cameras I have in my room. The editing software on them is not great, but I need to learn how to use it better. I also need to figure out how to import the videos into better editors. I’d love to layer videos with actual edits, music, text, etc. I’m actually using my tech class to help me a bit. I’m planning to make a video as part of a group project, and hoping that I can learn the program better.

Now, I know it is big talk to start listing all the things I want to do. It’s another thing to actually try them. I have three areas of focus right now. First, I want to try my hand at making some new review games. I’m content to make a few more Jeopardy boards, but I do want to move beyond that. Second, I want to learn to edit video better. Finally, I need to learn some more tricks in InDesign (the publishing software we use for newspaper). I think InDesign is going to be the easiest to conquer. My current plan of attack is to ask my managing editor for a tutorial. She is really quite good with it and I’m hoping she can show me some of the tricks. When we go to lay the paper out this month, I’m going to have the kids quiz me over how to do everything they do. In addition, when they have questions, I’m going to go to the tutorial in the program and figure out how to answer them. If I keep doing a little at every lay out session, I should have a pretty good handle on it by the time the school year ends…just in time to prep the new editors.

As for the video software, this project is going to be my first big push toward learning it. I would like to use the cameras next nine weeks in my Novels class and work with the kids to edit their videos. I think that by helping them trouble shoot and make movies, I’ll learn the program even better.

Now, as for the games, I’m probably going to have to put that off until Christmas break. I have way too much to do right now. The grading for the two AP classes is nearly swallowing me whole. Not to mention that I am planning two classes for the first time. There just isn’t any time to mess around trying to make new games.

Speaking of time, I have to go. As much as I love blogging, these muckraking articles aren’t going to grade themselves, and grades are due on 8 days. This would be far less daunting if the pile of grading wasn’t slowly becoming taller than me. Sigh….

Life in the 21st century

I like to think that when my kids leave my classroom, the are prepared to face whatever life may throw at them. Each and every day I do my utmost to help them become better readers, writers, communicators, thinkers and human beings. I’m not always sure I succeed. Some days I definitely shut my door and drop my head on my desk in frustration. I think some days they go home and do the same.

Education has changed. It is not the same profession I got into 14 years ago, and there are days I want to climb to the roof of the building and yell, “THIS IS NOT WHAT I SIGNED ON FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!” But, I know it would do no good. I tried life in the corporate world. I tried life in the retail world. Both nearly sucked a vital part of my soul out. I’m not cut out for cubicles, customer service or the same routine day in and day out. It stifles my creativity and my mind. Let’s face it, I’m a teacher. And every summer, when the school supplies start filling the shelf, I find my mind begin to wander back toward novels and 6 + 1 writing traits.

I think one of the reasons I love teaching is that it is never the same. I am constantly adapting what I did in the past to help meet the needs of my students. When I started, I was fairly pen and paper. That just doesn’t work anymore. I mean, I never want to see pen and paper go the way of the dodo, but technology is here to stay, and I’m ok with that.

I was kind of slow to jump on board. I’ve been using the internet for research since the moment I stepped into my first classroom, but that was really where it ended. Sure, I helped my kids design newspapers during my student teaching, but since my first real teaching gig didn’t include journalism, I kind of let those skills fall to the wayside. When I got hired at my latest school, I had to polish those skills and get back in the tech game. I think that was crucial for me to really embrace tech as more than a research tool. Once I did, I couldn’t stop.

I feel really comfy using tech in my classroom. I’m always on the look out for new and fun ways to use the computers in my classroom. Last year I got a bunch of Flip cameras as part of a grant and I’ve been working on incorporating those as well. My kids have used them for some pretty fun video projects. This year they used them to make propaganda commercials for Big Brother (after reading 1984), and I’m hoping to use them tomorrow as part of a lesson another lesson on propaganda (for a different class, in relation to All Quiet on the Western Front). I have a fun idea for video diaries and possibly using the cameras to do video blogs as well. I would love to have them use the cameras to take on the persona of a character from lit and do a Real World style confessional scene. My kids are so in love with reality TV, I think they’d find this fun.

My strength with technology definitely is in the way I’ve embraced it and try to find creative ways for my kids to use it. I am constantly asking for their feedback on ways to utilize it which have real meaning to them. They’ve done mock Facebook pages, transformed famous works of art, created digital poetry and one group even made a DML page (darn my life, based on a much more risqué internet site they love). I love letting them have a stake in their projects and having them come up with new and interesting ways to use it in my classroom. I am flexible and often adapt project ideas students have come up with and use them in other classes. I’m not afraid of having kids do collaborative work (wikis, forums, chats) and also realize the benefit of making all my resources available to them 24/7.

What I really struggle with in relation to technology is finding the time for it. I have no problem using it in my classroom every day. Where I fall down is actually find the time to go out and read up on what other people are doing successfully. I find it next to impossible to make time to put new activities on Moodle. I would love to use the Mobi my school gave me, but we had training on it before we had computers to use with it and I have honestly forgotten how to use it. I don’t have time to train myself, so it sits in a box, just gather dust. My prep is taken up with lesson planning, grading, babysitting study hall and emailing parents. My evenings are spent with family (which I refuse to give up). So, really, I have about two hours between my kids’ bedtime and mine to finish grading, do work for my masters classes and spend time with my husband. There is simply no time to investigate new technology.

But I want to. And that should count for something.

Chocolate and higher education

Ok, so I know this blog has been seriously schizophrenic since I started it some 4 years ago. At first it was all about being a new mom and a teacher, with large stretches of time where I focussed kind of exclusively on one or the other. Then, I became a rather die-hard chocolate reviewer who still hit on educational and family issues when I could find the time, since having my second child though, this blog as become, well….neglected. And that’s probably being kind.

However, much like the glorious South, it will rise again. Oh wait, that didn’t really happen, I mean, not the way the quote intended it to (and to be honest, that’s probably for the best). This ol’ blog is getting a bit of new life breathed into her though. Even if it’s by force.

See, the reason I haven’t been writing very much lately is because I’m crazy busy. And yes, I do mean the crazy part. At the start of the school year, my principal joked that this might be the year I go crazy. We both had a nice little laugh at that before classes started. It’s been five weeks and judging by the pile of grading staring at my from the corner of the kitchen counter, it’s suddenly not really funny anymore. See, this year I am not only teaching two AP English courses (in addition to being one of only two teachers in my school who teaches an overload), wrangling two children under the age of 5, and helping a father and a step-mother with nearly fatal medical conditions… I am also getting my masters’ degree in education. Yeah, this is probably the year I go crazy.

On the plus side though, this masters’ thing is going to require me to frequent this site a bit more and once again jump on the education train. In fact, if you are still reading this, you are about to get your first taste of my foray back into the world of higher education. I’m in an educational technology class which requires me to spend some time each week reflecting on educational issues. So, without further ado (and my poor professor has probably figured out already that English teachers are really darn verbose, especially ones like me who have these lofty ideas that we are clever and really have a sense of our own personal writer’s voice)…here goes:

I’ve kind of been a tech demi-goddess at my school over the past three years. Now, I am not claiming to know it all. Not by any stretch of the imagination, but I am one of a core group of teachers at my school who jumped on the tech bandwagon early on and decided to leave behind the old chalk and blackboard and trade up to second-hand computers and Moodle. It’s kind of ironic that I was the first one to agree to teach all of my classes as Moodle classes considering that only the year before when they told us they’d be replacing our desks with computer tables, I balked at the idea of letting mammoth computer tables devour my tidy rows of desks. Honestly, I signed on because I didn’t want to have to fight for the computer lab and thought that it might really help my newspaper staff. Turns out, it put some real life into my classroom.

When I first started using Moodle, I’ll admit, I took a lot of pen and paper activities and just turned them into worksheets they could type on instead of write on. I’m not saying the kids didn’t like that better, but it wasn’t really that forward thinking. A lot has changed in three years though. Now my kids create blogs (although not as cool as this one since they are only visible on our server and to the other kids in school). We read newspapers from around the world. They play review games at their own pace. They participate in chats and forum discussions. They find information and graphics and share them during presentations (via the projector and the white board). I show YouTube videos, use music from my iPod (which always sparks giggling), do webquests and can demonstrate step by step instructions to the entire class at once so they can all see and then follow along. All assignments in my class are uploaded so they cannot be lost (or turned in late, or not completed due to a malfunctioning printer). All handouts and project requirements are on Moodle so kids never have to worry about forgetting materials at school. All homework is listed so kids never have to worry about missing a day or forgetting if they have anything to do. Even our textbook is online so they don’t have to risk a lifetime of back pain from lugging that monster around.

This all sounds great, right? It is. Until a night like tonight happens…Moodle is down. I’ve already gotten one panicky email from an AP kids who can’t finish her homework. And the thing is, she really can’t finish her homework. The questions to answer are all on Moodle. I can’t email her a copy of them, because, well, they are on Moodle and I can’t access it either. Even if I had the questions, I don’t have the emails of every student in my class sitting on my desk here at home, so I can’t get that info to her classmates. This means that tomorrow instead of having a great jumping off point for our debate, the kids are going to have to finish the questions first. As a result, everything else for this class is going to get pushed back. This is true for my other classes as well. When you build your classroom around a piece of technology and that technology fails in any way, it becomes hard to recover. I wish I could say this is the first time it’s happened. Our server gets overloaded and shuts down in the middle of class. Kids forget to save periodically and lose entire portions of their work because Moodle times them out. I’ve had kids in near hysterics because after working on an essay question for over 30 minutes, they’ve gone to save it only to find they are timed out and that click they made erased everything.

This is where the fear starts to set in. Or at least it used to. It’s now happened enough times that I’ve kind of learned to roll with it. I postpone work and rework my lesson plans. I always have a simple paper and pen backup activity just in case. Kids are fairly adaptable and I’ve learned how to be too. I think my background in theater has probably helped me quite a bit. I’m decent at improv and can roll with it when needed.

Although I am a pretty intrepid tech user, I’m still hoping this class will help me figure out some new uses for tech in my class. I’d love to learn more about podcasting, for instance. I’d know it may sound simple, but I’d love to learn how to make my own Jeopardy game that I could adapt to any piece of literature we are studying (kids LOVE literary Jeopardy). I’m very open to new ideas and replan my curriculum every year, so I’m hoping this class will give me new avenues to explore. And, maybe, just maybe, it’ll help me get back to blogging a little more. After all, I have some killer German chocolate cake ice cream from Baskin Robbins in my freezer just waiting to be reviewed.

True Education Reform

Sorry to those of you who were hoping to read about my latest chocolate treasure, but this post is about something far more important. I know, I know, that seems a bit foreign coming from my keyboard, but as much as I adore chocolate, I’ve got something a bit more serious on my mind.

I’m a teacher, and a darn good one to boot. For the past 13 years, I have worked very hard to help my students become better. Better writers, better readers, better communicators, heck, better people. I cannot count the number of hours I have spent over the course of my career revamping lesson plans to appeal to a new group of students or writing detailed suggestions on drafts of research papers so my kids can improve them. I do not know how many hours I have spent worrying about kids who I know are using drugs, going through horrible break-ups, losing parents or having trouble fitting in. I’ve lost track of the free time I’ve spent outside my work day getting to know my kids and lending an ear when they feel the world is crumbling down around them.

In short, I care. A lot. Sometimes far, far too much.

In the last few years though, the profession I have cherished has really changed. Teachers are being vilified, no longer by angry students or even parents, but by the news media. We are being blasted for being over paid and not giving enough of ourselves. We are being blamed for just about every societal ill out there and frankly, I’m sick of it. I’m also sick to my stomach over the House and Senate bills currently being pushed through the Indiana government.

The governor, for I refuse to call him my governor, and the superintendent of public schools have supposedly made it their mission to reform education. The only problem is that little of what is being purposed is actual reform. Much is supported by shoddy research (or in some cases none at all), misinformation and the need for drastic budget cuts. Very little of it has any true educational benefit behind it. Much of it seems to be a vindictive attack on teachers. Now, I don’t doubt I’m taking this a bit personally. The only political issues I ever get really, really fired up about revolve around education. Like I said, I’m one of those teachers who really, really cares.

What I can’t understand, is if the governor and Mr. Bennet want true education reform, why they aren’t actually advocating changes at the most basic levels: colleges producing teachers. If real education reform is desired, why not change the way teachers are educated?

I find it absolutely reprehensible that most colleges require a mere C average to graduate with a teaching degree. We expect excellence from our juvenile students, yet allow their teachers to be mediocre. This doesn’t make sense. Teachers should be people who appreciate the educational process. They should enjoy the classroom environment. They should have a real enthusiasm for learning, not a wish to just get by. How can they demand their students rise to expectations they were not willing to rise to? If real educational reform is what our legislators are after, why not change the way teachers are educated? Accepting mediocrity and expecting high performance is asinine.

In addition, Indiana allows potential teachers to take the Praxis tests (standardized tests all teachers must pass, which cover a variety of areas, including general education knowledge, and content specific information) until they pass it. We don’t even allow this of our high school students. Those students are given five chances to pass the ISTEP. If they do not, unless they complete a very lengthy waver process (which so far my school has had 1 student do in the 5 years I’ve been there), they cannot graduate from high school. And yet, that same child’s teacher is allowed to take the Praxis test an unlimited number of times. How in the world does this make any sense? If teachers cannot pass this test with the minimum scores required after three or four times, why should they be allowed to teach? Doctors, lawyers and many other professionals with standardized tests have limits to the number of chances they get to pass. So should teachers.

And while on the subject of teacher training, I find it amazing that college students can spend as few as 10 weeks in a classroom setting during their student teaching and still be allowed to become licensed teachers. This is far too little classroom exposure to truly prepare anyone for their own classroom. Not to mention that with the transition to teaching program, the education foundation and student teaching requirements are almost nil. People who happen to have a bachelor’s degree and have worked in the business sector can become fully licensed teachers in as little as 18 months. How in the world is this proper training?

Again, if any of the current rhetoric was about real education reforms, some of these issues would be under the microscope. So would coaching and club sponsorship. As rewarding as I find the extra-curriculars I have had the benefit of sponsoring during my teaching career, it floors me that schools allow first year teachers to take on these assignments. If real education reform was the goal, wouldn’t it be better to allow new teachers a chance to develop as teacher before they add something as stressful as coaching into their lives? Far too many people who enter classrooms are coaches first and teachers second. Maybe if they had a chance to really hone their teaching skills for a year or two, they would become teachers who happen to coach.

I could go on and on for hours, but as I have to be up at 5:15 to make it to work, I need to turn in. I’m sure I will re-visit this topic because it is something I feel truly passionate about. My dander is up because so little of the bills introduced are about reform. They are about finding a scapegoat. In this economy, it seems the public is out for blood and our governor is happy to throw us to the wolves. One of the biggest problems I’ve encountered being an educator is that education seems to be the only profession that everyone feels they have a right to voice their opinion about. It seems that because every single person in this country has had to sit in a classroom for at least 11 years of their lives, they somehow feel entitled to give their solutions on how education should be managed. I would never presume to tell my doctor, my lawyer, my accountant or even my mechanic how to do their jobs. Few people would. And yet everyone feels it is their right to tell me how to do mine.

Chocolate Monday: Almond Joy Pieces

I know, I know, I’ve once again been away for awhile. This time it wasn’t work or even pure exhaustion, but rather a complete and total loss of all things internet. Turns out that the DSL we’d been paying for for something like 3 years, was not, in fact entering our house at anything near the speed we were promised. I don’t know (or care about) the actual connection speeds. What I do know is that according to the phone company tech who came to check our line, in the past 6 months, our top speed has been 20% of what we were paying for.

We were a bit miffed.

So, we got ahold of U-Verse and started crunching numbers. Turns out we could get a pretty decent deal with them so we said, “sign us up!” The only catch was that we had to completely disconnect our lame ass DSL before they could even schedule the appointment for us. We dropped them immediately, only to find out we’d have to wait two weeks to get hooked up. A tremendous sigh (and possibly some cursing) echoed throughout our home.

But I’m back and with a cocoa vengeance. Just because I haven’t been able to write doesn’t mean I haven’t been collecting all sorts of yummies to blog about. Fear not dear readers, I’ve got new tasties to prattle on about. I’ve also got a stack of grading nearly as tall as I am (and True Blood to watch), so I thought I should come back with something simple: Almond Joy Pieces.

I’d seen the commercials for them several months ago and was intrigued. I thought it was cute the way the candy bar burst into little pieces when the hand reached out to grab it. Since I find Hershey bars a bit boring and I’d kind of kicked my desire for York, my choice was obvious.

Besides, I love Almond Joys. Every year at Halloween, I got to Sam’s Club and buy the jumbo bag of candy to pass out. Somehow I always manage to over buy, so I figure I might as well get treats I like so they don’t go to waste. My favorite pack has Almond Joy, Kit Kats, Hersheys, Whoppers, Rolos and Heath in it. I always sock the Heath and Almond Joys away, giving them out only when I have to (for this reason I always buy a sweet mix with Skittles, Twizzlers, Starburst and something else out too–more leftover chocolate that way, and my husband gets Skittles, which he can’t live without). I always save a Rolo or two as well.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I opened the pack. I saw the three different colored pieces and wondered if one would be coconut, one almond and one chocolate. I tried each color individually to check. Nope, they all tasted the same. Which, honestly, makes a heck of a lot of sense. After all, Reese’s works that way, and if you got a handful of only chocolate and almond or one of only coconut and chocolate, it wouldn’t be the same experience.

Much like Reese’s Pieces, these had a light candy shell. They seemed less crunchy than M&M’s. More of a melt in your mouth sort of feeling. I’m not disparaging M&M’s here, as I also adore them, but I’ve always found pieces to be a bit softer. I have, in fact, had them melt in my hands lots of times.

Each little piece was a fairly decent blend of coconut, almond and chocolate, which really surprised me. I actually felt the little bits of coconut in my teeth, so it wasn’t even just a coconut extract. For me, that was a pleasant surprise. While I didn’t get any real nut texture, there was a subtle hint of almond in each piece.

Since they were pieces, the texture obviously can’t be the same as the bar. And, neither can the flavor. Just like Reese’s Pieces don’t taste like their bar counterparts, neither do these really. I did miss the extremely thick layer of coconut, which is my favorite part of the bar. I also missed the crunch of the almond. Just like Reese’s, I like the bar better. However, these will do in a pinch. Especially since it’s pretty hard to snarf down a candy bar between classes (or when students are in the room taking a test), but it’s easy to snag a couple, pop them in my mouth and have no one the wiser.

Overall, they are fun candies, but since they come in kind of big bags, portion control can be a problem. At least with a candy bar I know exactly what I’m getting in to and stop when it’s gone. These are so small, that I lose track of how many I’ve had and am in danger of popping way too many. I actually made myself a little nauseous one day.

Overall:

Taste: 6/10

Appearance: 6/10

Value: 6/10

Chocolate Monday: Otis Spunkmeyer Cookies

Not much good comes from Florida…at least not in my experience. Sure, I love Disney World as much as the next person, but aside from that,  I hold no love for the place. I spent six months teaching in Florida and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. My kids were rotten, unmotivated and some of the dumbest I’d met. They made my life pretty miserable. The only real good that came out of that experience was the band fundraiser.

No, I wasn’t a band director, but as I do for all student fundraisers, I bought from the first kid who asked me. One of my students came around peddling cookie dough. I almost turned him down. After all, a few weeks before I’d bought a tub from another group and it was mediocre to say the least. It was nice when I had it at school as I grabbed a spoon and dished some out on my break, but when I actually went to bake it, the cookies came out a bit crispier than I like and they tasted heavily of artificial peanut butter flavoring.

But, I am not one to turn down a student trying to raise funds (or a chance for something sweet), so I ordered one tub of turtle cookie dough. If I’d ever had Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough before, I wasn’t aware of it. I was, however, excited by the fact that these cookies actually looked like cookies. They were in pre-cut cookie shapes, which made them easy to cook and even easier to eat without cooking. The tub had 36 little round cookies-to-be and I think I might have baked a dozen of them. The rest I ate right from the tub, frozen.

I actually loved them so much, the next day I went straight to the band teacher to see if there were any left. Luckily she had a few more and happily sold another two tubs to me. I was in heaven.

When I moved back home and got a new teaching gig, one of the first things I investigated was how to sell those amazing cookies for my group. With only a few clicks of the mouse, I found them, and my life had new chocolatey meaning. Sadly, they only carried the turtle cookie dough for the first two years I taught. They discontinued them (at least in the fundraising brochures) because people complained they were too messy.

 They were pretty messy when baked. The bits of caramel which just started to get melty on my fingers when I ate them from the tub, melted right on to the cookie sheet and not only made clean up hard, but also made the cookies break apart when I tried to pry them off. I usually got cookie bits rather than cookies, so I ate them frozen instead.

The most recent round of fundraising at my school found me once again buying six tubs of dough. This time I grabbed some Chocolate Chocolate Chunk, Triple Chocolate Chunk and White Chocolate Macadamia Nut. I also snagged an oatmeal raisin for my husband (ok, I won’t lie, I like them too). But since those don’t have chocolate, I’ll skip them for this review.

First up, the Chocolate Chocolate Chunk, so called because it is an actual chocolate cookie with white and milk chocolate chunks in it. Taste wise it reminds me a bit of a brownie. I’m sure it’s the fact that it is a chocolate cookie. When baked according to directions, it is a soft, chewy cookie (even after four days–I just had another one to check). Unlike a brownie, it’s a thin cookie, which usually equals crunchy, but not in Otis’s world. These cookies are so chewy that like the turtle variety, they tend to fall apart when eaten (but after they come off the cookie sheet). Even the edges on these cookies are soft, which is the way I prefer em. Because of the extra chocolate cookie dough, these are really rich cookies. A glass of milk really helps wash them down. The white chocolate chunks do help mellow the flavor a bit so they aren’t over powering. They are, however, just a tad bit grainy. But when a cookie is this soft and tasty, I can overlook a little grain.

The next one on my list was the Triple Chocolate Chunk. I actually thought this was going to be the one with the actual chocolate cookie, but it’s more of a glorified chocolate chip cookie. It has the same soft, chewy texture of all the OS cookies I’ve tried. There was a good blend of chips: milk, semi-sweet and white chocolate. It also had chips in every bite, but not so many that I felt overwhelmed. I’m a bit odd when it comes to chocolate chip cookies. I have always liked the actual cookie part so much that I don’t like when my cookies have so many chips all I can taste is chocolate. I especially don’t like it when the chips are giant chunks. That worried me when I first saw the tub, after all, it is labelled as a “chunk.” I think that is a bit of hyperbole. These cookies aren’t chunky at all, so they don’t mess with the texture. The cookie part is quite buttery and I like that. Another success.

The last cookie I tried in this go around is the White Chocolate Macadamia Nut. This one has a very sweet cookie base, almost like a sugar cookie. The nuts are a bit waxy, which I find happens when nuts are put into cookies. As a result, I find they are fairly devoid of any real flavor. Now, this may just be true of macadamia nuts in general. I’ve actually never had one outside a cookie before. The white chocolate chips are perfect in here. They are super creamy and they make the actual cookie part taste creamy. Yet another cookie triumph.

I’ll admit I’m a bit of an OS cookie whore. With the exception of the peanut butter variety (I’m not a huge peanut butter cookie fan in general), if it wasn’t terrible for my waistline, I could probably eat a dozen of these a day. They are small enough that I don’t feel terribly guilty over eating more than one and so tasty that I rarely can stop at one. I actually think I like the Triple Chocolate and Chocolate Chocolate better in their frozen form. The nuts keep me from eating the others frozen. At $15 for a tub of 36, they are about .40 a cookie. I know it seems a bit pricey when compared to store bought cookies, but these are way better than anything the store has to offer and evey better than eating the tube of cookie dough that cute little Doughboy used to dole in my childhood.

Taste: 9/10

Appearance: 5/10 (they are nothing special to look at)

Value: 7/10

D’oh!

I screwed up today. Obviously I didn’t mean to, but that doesn’t change the fact that I did.

A parent sent an email to my sub asking for a grade clarification. The parent was asking the sub to shed some light on the situation, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to, so I sent her a quick email, giving her something she could mention to the student and telling her I’d deal with it on Monday.

Or at least that’s what I thought I did. Somehow I managed to respond to both my sub AND the parent. In all my years of teaching, I can’t say I’ve never sent an angry email to a parent, but I’ve always known what I was writing and why. This time, I had no idea she was gettng a copy of the email, so I feel like a schmuck, big time.

Thankfully I didn’t do anything stupid like mock the mother or kid. I didn’t give any smart alec comments and used no sarcasm. However, I was a bit terse and am sure did not give a response a parent would want.

The worst part though, is that she responded. And copied my principal on the response. I’m sure she know I didn’t mean to respond to her. Now I’m going to have to do some serious PR to fix the situation, all on my second day home from the hospital. I really thought I migt be done with working during my maternity leave.

It’s crazy. Last time around, I worked until the day before I gave birth, but when I left, I took no work with me and came back in for nothing. This time around, I took off 7 day early in order to spend time with my son, and have ended up doing work nearly every single day, despite the fact I’m not getting paid for any of the work I’m doing.

I think maybe I should just stop checking my email and really leave work behind.