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.

Chocolate Monday: Cadbury Soft English Toffee bar

One of the many joys about my recent vacation in Pennsylvania, was the plethora of chocolate which just seemed to jump in front of me. It seemed like everywhere I turned, there was some sort of new chocolate experience. Whoopie pies at the farmer’s market, fudge at the railroad, chocolate/vanilla swirl soft serve at Sesame Place, and at Hershey, well, I mean, there is an entire city devoted to chocolate. Turns out Belinda Carlisle was right: heaven is a place on earth.

Now, I’m not exactly the biggest Hershey fan on the planet. A bag of their kisses will never be what I reach for when I’m having a cocoa craving (in part because I over-indulged when I was like 10, got really sick and have basically Nanceefied* kisses). Neither will their original chocolate bars. I like milk chocolate and all, but a plain chocolate bar without any bells or whistles? Not unless it’s the really, really good stuff. I have to admit I don’t even use their chocolate syrup or cocoa powder (I’m a snob, I use Penzey’s Dutch process cocoa powder because it is AMAZING). But, there was no way in the world I could stop in Hershey and NOT take a drive by Hershey’s Chocolate World. Come on, it’s called Chocolate World…I was sold.

As I said, their plain old bars don’t ring any bells for me, but I have a definite soft spot in my heart for lots of their candy bars. Heck, what right-minded, candy-lovin’ person doesn’t? This is the company that brought Reese’s, Heath, Almond Joy and a score of others to grocery store check out stands so that I could drool and plead with my mom every time she took me shopping. Speaking of the score of other bars, Skor bars are theirs too. I never realized it as a child and was in a sort of constant childhood debate between Heath and Skor. Turned out I didn’t need be. I was supporting the same family no matter which kind of toffee I wanted.

So, imagine my joy when we were in the Hershey “store” and I found not only all of my childhood favorites, but also a whole stand devoted to a slightly more grown up favorite of mine: Cadbury.

When I visited London for the first time in 2004, Cadbury saved my life. Ok, so maybe they didn’t exactly save it, but they were a reviving force without which I might have crumpled into a lifeless heap in a tube station. I was one of two adult chaperones on a summer theater trip to London. Everything I’d read about England’s weather had prepared me for balmy temps in the low 70′s. So, that is exactly what I packed for. Imagine my amazement when we arrived right smack at the start of a European heat wave. London was posting temps in the high 80′s and low 90′s and our tour guide had us on daily forced marches around town with few stops for lukewarm water and small, bland dinners.

 This is where Cadbury enters the picture. After a full day of walking and barely eating, I found candy machines in the tube stations. These glorious beacons of hope offered me life-sustaining chocolate for a mere 50 p. It was in one of those stifling hot stations, where, after riding for twenty minutes next to two men who had no concept of personal space or body odor, that I found the Caramilk. It was love at first bite.

Turns out that it was pretty much the same thing I’d been eating (and loving) back in the states, but instead of being in a shiny brown, red and gold wrapper and called a Caramello, it was in the more traditional Cadbury purple and called Caramilk. Still, there was something about eating it when half-starved and fully exhausted in London that just made it the best damn caramel filled candy bar I’d ever had.

So, when in the Hershey store, I found not only the British packed version, but also a shiny purple wrapper touting a soft English toffee, I was in chocolate heaven! I grabbed both and skipped to the register. Yes, I realize I can get the a Caramello at any ol’ gas station in the country, but not in the purple wrapper (and I swear it improves the taste). But, I’d never seen the soft toffee one before, so I figured I had to have it for comparison sake.

The soft English toffee bar is similar to the Caramello. This shouldn’t really be a shock. While what we Americans think of as  English toffee is both taste and texture wise quite different from caramel, one thing I learned while in England, is that what they often refer to as toffee, is not at all what I was used to. It is the stuff Harry Potter and his buddies talk about when they eat sticky toffee pudding. And in fact, soft toffee is a lot like caramel, at least in texture. It has that same, gooey stringiness one expects from caramel.  The difference comes in the taste. It is not, the buttery richness of American toffee. Much like another of my English favorites, treacle pudding, soft toffee also has a sort of molasses hint to it. It also has more of a burnt sugar taste to it. Far more butterscotch than butter toffee.

Cadbury’s soft toffee had not only the burnt sugar hints, but also a just a tiny hint of molasses. It reminded far more of the treacle pudding I had at a Garfield’s in London (which I’ll admit was totally because both Alice in Wonderland and the Harry Potter kids both bring up the stuff). The creaminess of the milk chocolate does help set off the slightly bitter bite the soft toffee has. It also helps to mask the difference between the super buttery toffee taste my American palette expects when it sees the word toffee and the reality of the darker, heavier, and burningly sweeter taste of the British version. It is sweeter than caramel, which is texturally what my mouth expected. It was not a bar I could eat more than six squares of at a time, which is good, since that’s a serving (although less than half the actual bar).

All in all, the bar is still toffee, and I do LOVES me some toffee. It was satisfying and rich. I think I may even like it better than it’s more American cousin, the Caramello. But, I’ll have to eat that bar to make sure. It’s only fair, right?

Overall:

Taste: 7.5/10

Price: 7/10 (it was a big bar and considering I was at a tourist attraction AND I’d never seen this one before, I thought the price of $2 wasn’t bad)

Appearance: 5/10 (it’s nothing to look at)

*Nanceefied is a term we use in honor of a dear friend who has a bad habit of eating so much of a food that she makes her self ill and then cannot be induced to eat that food again…no matter what.

Chocolate Tuesday: “The Cookie” by DoubleTree Hotels

So it’s totally Tuesday and usually this blog is all about “Chocolate Monday,” but I am over 500 miles from home and despite having a plethora of chocolatey experiences so far this vacation, I have also been chasing around two children under the age of 5, so by about 10 pm, I am drooling on my stack of three pillows.

I’m actually hoping to have several posts this week, but we’ll see how chasing them around a theme park for two days goes. I have a feeling I may start drooling even earlier.

Although this vacation was not supposed to be chocolate themed, I’ve actually managed to find myself surrounded by all sorts of cocoa goodness. It all started when we checked into our hotel. Despite being laden down with diaper bags, stuffed animals, a purse and a baby, when the nice lady behind the desk handed me the keys and four small paper bags with cookies, I was thrilled. I was a tad less thrilled when she said the word cookie as the four year old standing at my hip nearly started scaling me to get t said cookie.

After we made our way to our room (which I will amit was a bit confusing to find), dropped all the bags on the floor and sent my husband back to the car for the rest of the luggage, my son and I dove into our bags.

It was a little hard to eat at first. Since it was warm, it was falling apart in my hand. I love cookies, but hate when pulling a small piece off leaves my hands really messy. Nothing like trying to find a tissue in a brand new hotel room hile two kids who should be in be are running around trying to get in to everything. Especially when one of them has a similar melty cookie in his hand.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t get much of a chance to enjoy the cookie that night. Since there were two left (my husband didn’t want his and my daughter couldn’t have hers), I put them in the fridge, thinking we might eat them later.

I didn’t get around to thinking about them until three nights later. I was pretty sure they’d be stale, but to my surprise, not only were they not stale, but they still tasted fresh. Unlike a great many cookies, they were still soft and practically fell apart in my hands. The benefit of putting them in the fridge is that they weren’t at all messy.

What they were was tasty. I was nervous since they are chocolate walnut cookies and I don’t generally like walnuts, but the nuttyness was subtle and actually crunchy. My main complaint with walnuts in desserts is that they get all mushy and mealy. These nuts still had a slight crunch. While they didn’t contribute much flavor (they never really do), they gave the cookie just a slightly salty hint that blended well with the sweetness of the chips.

The chips were ample. I know this is going to sound odd, but I often don’t like when cookies are nothing but chips. This one wasn’t so jammed with them that I felt overwhelmed. I think the nuts really helped this. Instead, I got a bit of chocolate in each bite without just tasting chocolate.

While I won’t go sofar as to say I will only stay at DoubleTree hotels, I know that when I ask my mother-in-law (my official travel agent) to find us a place to stay for vacation, I might just ask her to check to see if there are DoubleTrees in the area. Any place that gives me free chocolate is ok by me.

Overall:

Taste: 8.5/10

Value: 10/10

Appearance: 8.5/10

Chocolate Monday: S’mores Goldfish

I can’t go on any sort of road trip without serious car snacks. I don’t know what it is about being trapped in a car for more than five or six hours that turns me into some sort of snacking lunatic. I actually missed last week’s blog because I was hurtling down highway 40 toward stop 1 of my spring break adventure: Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After being in the car for nearly 12 hours (with two kids who didn’t want to be in a car for more than about 3), I had no desire to do anything except become one with the guest bed.

My car snacks have changed just a little since my early college days (back then I never left home with fewer than three varieties of jerky). Now that I have kids, I have to stock up on slightly more family friendly treats in case my kiddoes decide they want a bite too. During a last minute trip to Target, I figured I should grab a few more packages for the road. My son and I both adore Goldfish, so I figured I had to have at least a package or two. What I didn’t expect to see was a new variety: S’mores.

I adore the real fireside version of S’mores. I adore Goldfish. I knew I had to have this treat.

As it turns out, this might be the greatest car ride snack since that awesome pepper jerky I found nearly a decade ago. The tiny chocolate graham crackers were exactly what I expected. They reminded me a bit of Teddy Grahams. They had a mild cocoa taste. Not too overwhelming, but still chocolatey enough to feed my sweet tooth. The graham cracker grahams (and yes, that sounds odd to write) were perfect. And the tiny marshmallows, reminded me of all the little marshmallows in my favorite cereals. Putting one of each together didn’t exactly taste like the ooey-gooey treats I remember from my Girl Scout days, but man, they were good.

I think I could have made something similar by taking two kinds of Teddy Grahams with marshmallows from a Swiss Miss packets, but for Pepperidge Farm to do this all in one package saves me the time and money. Plus, it makes for one hell of a car snack.

I’m actually contemplating whether or not to crack into the bag I have left from the trip. I know I shouldn’t, but they are calling me.

Overall:

Appearance: 5/10

Taste: 8/10

Value: 8.5/10

Chocolate Monday: Samoas

I’m not so sure this is really going to be a review as much as it is an ode to the best Girl Scout cookie ever created: the Samoa. Ok, so as an English geek, I supposed I can’t technically call it an ode as I will not be writing in verse or anything, but the purpose is kind of the same. I intend to “sing” the praises of this wonderful cookie treat.

Now, many, many moons ago, I was a Girl Scout. Even then, the best time of year was cookie time. Don’t misunderstand, I liked the camping,  the good deed doing and the calendar selling (apparently not all troops did this, but every troop I was in in California did). I even kind of liked the Girl Scout Olympics which was held at a high school track and required us to compete against all the other troops in our county in track and field activities. I ran and did the long jump, but wasn’t good at either, so I never got a ribbon or anything. Back then the world wasn’t quite as touchy feely and we didn’t get ribbons for participating, only for coming in 1st, 2nd or 3rd. I did get a really cool pink troop t-shirt with a unicorn on it though (which I wasn’t allowed to wear, but that is an entirely different story), so that made it sort of worth it.

Wow, I really digressed there, huh?

Anyway, even as a wee 7-year-old, I loved cookie time. I didn’t really dig the contest for who could sell the most boxes. There was no way I could win that. Even calling all my relatives over 2000 miles away and begging them to buy from me (and they did buy copious amounts) wasn’t going to put me anywhere near the top spot. The other girls had parents who could take their order forms in to work. Not me. My mom was the stay at home variety and my step-dad worked for a company with a strict no soliciting policy. They did not bend for anything, even little girls with chubby faces and Poochie pig tails.

No, for me, the joy of cookie time was getting to order my favorite cookies. Every year I would talk my dad (and my aunt and any other family member I could) into buying me a box (or two or three) of cookies. I tried them all. Of course, back in that day there were fewer to choose from. We had Tagalongs, Do-si-do’s, Thin Mints, Chocolate Chunks, Trefoils and Samoas. Between the contributions of my family members and the money I managed to save up (cookies were only $1.50 a box back then), I got boxes of each type of cookie except Thin Mints. I never had to buy those because my mom was addicted and practically bought a year’s supply.

After the first year I nixed the Do-si-do’s. They were too much like any other peanut butter sandwich cookie I could get at the store. I only got the Chocolate Chunks one year too. They were good and all, but sort of a souped up Chips Ahoy. They actually had too many chocolate chunks for me and since they weren’t soft and chewy, I wasn’t a huge fan. The Tagalongs were fairly decent, but until my mid-20′s I was never really a peanut butter person (with the exception of Reese’s cups), so I stopped getting those as well. I concentrated my efforts on Trefoils and Samoas.

Trefoils were good. Back then they had the giant flecks of sugar on them. I assume they must have been deemed uber unhealthy that way, because I can’t imagine any other reason to take those shimmering spangles of goodness off. I’ve had the newer version and while I still like them just fine, I’m not spending my hard-earned cash on them. Although I do love that my favorite cafe makes a vanilla steamer which tastes just like the cookie of my youth.

After awhile, I gave up on the Trefoils too. I used all my money (and that of my family) to procure the tastiest cookie morsel to come in a box: Samoas! I don’t know exactly what it is about these delicious little treasures, but I can never get enough of them. The crisp shortbread cookie underneath with the caramel and chocolate remind me a bit of one of my favorite childhood candy bars (Twix). However, there is something magical about the toasted coconut they throw on top that makes it a completely different treat. Considering how amazing they are, I’m still surprised Twix hasn’t come out with a coconut version. I’m not sure it would be as good, but I know I’d try it.

Every year I get so excited to get my box. Yes, that’s right, as an adult, I have managed to tame my cookie love just a tad. I limit myself to one box and I savour them. I put them in the fridge so they are cool when I bite in. I love the extra crunch it gives to the cookie. I nibble them slowly since I know I can never get by with only 1 cookie and the box only holds about 18. The coconut melts in my mouth. The chocolate is not over powering, but just a nice companion to the caramel. I love these little gems so much that I have to make sure I have no cash when I enter a grocery store during cookie season. If I do, I must  hurry by the tables stacked high with those bright purple boxes, making sure not to look at the sweet faces of little girls peddling them.  I am, after all, not a strong woman.

I am down to my last four cookies and am already regretting not buying more. I tell myself I should be proud though, my husband devoured his Do-si-do’s ages ago. I know the boxes are starting to disappear from stores, and I am already looking forward to next year. I can’t wait for my little girl to join scouts and start selling. Luckily for her, both my husband and I can sell practically anything we want at school. And teachers are suckers for sweets.

Ovearll:

Taset: 9.5/10

Price: 7/10 (kind of hefty for so few cookies, but it does go toward a good cause)

Appearance: 8.5/10