Rule of the Road: Never do anything a student can do for you.

I'm reading a new book, Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Students by Their Brains, by LouAnne Johnson. In case you don't recognize that name, she is the woman that wrote the autobiographical book that the movie, Dangerous Minds, was based upon.

In this book, there are a lot of helpful ideas and bits of information. The first one that struck me was "never do anything a student can do for you." What?! I didn't like this idea at all. I understood the purpose of the idea; really, it's to make things easier for you as a teacher. But I can't let students do everything and run a smooth classroom, can I? And certainly, it would be chaos if I let students get up and do things for me while I'm teaching... right? Besides, don't I want to be in control?

Well, yes. I do want to be in control. In control of my classroom. The real ticker of this: This idea is presented as a disciplinary tool.

Okay, fine. I'll try it. You'll see, this doesn't work in a music classroom.

Unless...

it does.

I had helpers assigned in my second grade guitar class to hand out guitars and rests. Every week, I would choose four students that were exceptional the week before to help with this. But I would stand at the guitar cupboards and hand them to the student, then watch frantically as the students handed them out. Basically, it wasn't any less work for me except perhaps the walking back and forth. Psychologically, it was no less work whatsoever and in fact wore me out with worry.

Letting the kids do all of it never would have crossed my mind. It was hard enough letting them have the responsibility I did. But... Ms. Johnson said it, and I'm willing to try what it takes to promote self-responsibility and to help with the discipline problems I have in my classroom.

Today, I let the kids (1) grab violins from the 1st grade class and help me put them away, (2) unlock and open the cabinets, (3) arrange their own chairs into the guitar staggered places, (4) get the guitars out of the cabinets and hand them out to students, along with the foot rests.

Meanwhile, I tuned guitars and helped students get into proper position, and explained a new sticker reward chart I made for them.

It
was
glorious.

The students got out the guitars without dropping or banging them. The other students were quiet and attentive, and the class didn't start with a bunch of chatting and fooling around. The students were happy, quiet, and ready to learn. I was able to get through the review in less than 10 minutes and start on my lesson plan. (Last week, I took 30 minutes to review once the guitars were out, which left 10 minutes to learn something new and put the guitars away.) The students learned how to play the E string with their first two fingers, got individual help on technique and questions, and were happier and more attentive. I got to retune most of the guitars BEFORE the students played much on them.

The students then put away the guitars without me helping them place the guitars in the cabinets. They have to be just so, so that they all line up and fit, but don't bump one another. It even took me a while to figure it out the first time. I didn't hear a single guitar "bump" the sides of the cabinet or another guitar. I was able to speak to individual students (something I LOVE), and get the room in order. I didn't even look at the guitar cabinets until we were all ready to go; they were closed and locked, all the guitars put away.

I realized, I don't give my kids enough credit. With a little bit of added responsibility, they buck up and do what they're told, even if it's something they're fully capable of, even if it has nothing to do with the lesson itself; the fact that I trusted them (or pretended to) allowed them the room to have success. And I was calmer to boot -- much less stressful.

Today was a great teaching day. And all from trying one simple "rule" from this book. I was hoping for something to happen, but planning for disaster. The results exceeded my hopes. I am now going to add into my lesson plans "helpers" for each class as well as always ask students to help whenever possible.

It's amazing how you can turn one hundred eighty degrees on an idea just by giving it a fair chance. Next up: Instead of writing names on the board or threatening a consequence for bad behavior, ask a misbehaving student into the hallway to discuss how you will not tolerate the behavior, and tell them they have the choice of returning to class and ending the behavior, or if they continue, they will have to leave and go to the office. Leave the door open upon returning to class and allow the student to decide. This is another tip from the book. I have tried it once so far. It worked on that student. We'll see how it goes with a full day tomorrow....

I'm back!!

Finally, eh?

Well, to sum up: I took a new job teaching, and I've been hideously busy. Not only is this my first year teaching outside of preschool, lesson plans at all, but I have 10 grades, 2 instrumental classes, and soon to be 3-4 new band and instrumental classes. I was hired to create a middle school band class, and I finally have done it! I was so happy to get it just about finalized and on to the teaching, even though I'm a little anxious about teaching band considering that I didn't even student teach in this subject! Other than instruments, I have vocal/general music for 30 minutes, twice a week, grades preschool (PreK) through eight.

One of my goals for this year is to blog at least once a week. Though my posts may change slightly in content from the original subject of this blog, they will still be informational having to do with something I have knowledge of or have learned and/or researched in my life.

So, here's my "welcome back, Meredith" post. Look for another new post with actual content in a little bit...

planning a wardrobe

So, I'm going through this book, Houseworks by Cynthia Townley Ewer.  It's really awesome.  It's set up in a really nifty way, really good for my visual ADHD because it's super streamlined but also colorful and interesting.  I'll probably mention it again, as it's about organizing your home, your stuff, your life, and your family.  One of the things I was reading about today was planning family wardrobes as well as deciding whether or not to mend clothes etc.


This, combined with a Martha Stewart book that I LOVED and made my husband buy me but haven't utilized yet (Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts), I've been inspired to start tailoring clothing on top of making my own clothing and "fabric crafts."




Anyway, the main thing that I wanted to address in this post is wardrobing.  Most of us have issues with too much stuff, and possibly on top of it, nothing to wear.  I have another book similarly titled. 
 
I have this issue in part because I have gone through so many sizes and styles in the past 6 or so years.  Six years ago, I was a size 4 or 6 in women's clothing as I was constantly doing extreme sports, working out, etc, and I had not yet had any children.  I was 20 years old, for crying out loud!  I hadn't even started DRINKING (for the most part), and I never drank soda or ate much junk food.  Then, I started cracking down on schooling, moved into dorms with someone that ate lots of packaged foods (and indulged with them), etc, and I gained my "freshman 15" a couple of years late... It was my "junior 30."  So, I have some 6's, 8's, and 10's.  A couple more years go by, and I have my first kid.  10's, 12's, and 14's, not to mention the med-xlarge maternity clothes.  Second kid, and I'm back down to the 10's and 12's.  Wow, that's a lot of clothes, in a lot of styles, going through a lot of years and sizes!  And I'm sure I didn't have any kind of color scheme going on, or put any thought into "basics," especially when I was keeping items for use later.  So... What to wear?  Well, I have 2 closets with clothes that no longer fit in half of them, my normal closet which has half maternity, half random clothes that fit, and some clothes that need to be pulled out of storage in the laundry room, laundered, and dug through to see what they are.  That's a lot of clothes, and I have... well, NOTHING to WEAR!


So, posting on a combination of the books I've read about wardrobes:

The heart of a wardrobe is the activities that you will need clothes for, plus a category for "basics."
Thus:

1.  Get a piece of paper for each family member, and make a list of activities, adding a "basics" category.
2. Inventory current items and list them in their appropriate category.  Make sure to check the sizes of the clothing items, especially when there is weight loss/gain or when it is a child, and get anything that doesn't fit OUT of the closet/wardrobe.  If necessary, try the items on.  You can also make a list and just put the letter of the category next to the item, if that works better for you; also, if you're crazy like me, you can color-code the categories and highlight the items in correspondence.
3. Check who in the family needs what NOW and make a 'running list.'  This way, when you go shopping, you'll know what you're looking for, and you won't buy blindly, making for a wardrobe that doesn't work as well as spending more than you need to.  You'll be happier in the longrun without the sweater that doesn't actually go with anything else in your closet, especially if you bought some shells or other basics that you needed instead.
4. Streamline the colors in your wardrobe.  Make a scheme for each person.  Most pieces will fall into the color scheme so that you know your future buys will be useful; you'll know ahead of time that the aforementioned sweater really isn't you, or really won't have options to wear with it.
5. Choose a neutral color for each family member's wardrobe that goes with the color scheme, and get matching accessories in this color, such as shoes, belts, etc.  That doesn't mean you can't have other colors,  but this way, you'll always have something that "goes" with what you pull out of the wardrobe.  In fact, when the books talk about small items being what you should buy in bright or trendy colors, I include shoes, because I love colorful/patterned shoes.  That's just me, and it's probably unnecessary and expensive, but that's what I love!
6. Choose items that can multi-task into different categories or can double-duty seasons with different add-ons and accessories.
7. Choose classics, especially with high price items like suits.  A classic black, blue, or brown suit will take you far.  No one will notice you wear the same suit every week to a meeting or to church, especially if you swap out colorful shirts, scarves, ties, hankies, etc, and it will look good for anything you need a suit for.

That's as far as I've gotten.  And, I've gotten that far intellectually, not for my own wardrobe or my daughter's.  I am working on it in 20-30 minute segments, which are manageable for me with the two daughters and other things I'm also working on (like cleaning and organizing our tiny house!).  Getting started is half the battle, though, right...?

More recipes to try...

Recently, an article by NPR (National Public Radio) included some Syrian/Arabic recipes, as the article had to do with connecting with your heritage through food.  One thing I'd love to try is the Arabic coffee.

Makes 8 espresso-sized cups
4 level teaspoons Arabic coffee, available in Middle Eastern stores
2 teaspoons sugar
10 ounces cold water
Boil the coffee, sugar and water in a pot on high heat, stirring constantly. When foam appears, remove the pot from the heat and spoon the foam into espresso cups. Return the pot to the heat for another one to two minutes, stirring constantly. Pour the coffee into the cups.

I love coffee, and this sounds awesome.  I especially love strong, thick coffee, which this definitely looks to be.  However, I don't have any Middle Eastern stores (that I can find) in my area.  So... what to do?  

 When I searched Amazon.com, this is basically all that I could find:

It's "Turkish-syle"... but it's Brazilian coffee?  Is that right?

Well, every other variety that I could find on the site was also from Brazil, or was "instant," which it does not appear that I would want.

Anyone have any ideas about acquiring the coffee I need?

Sweet 'N Sour Sauce

One of my daughter's favorite things to eat is sweet 'n sour chicken. We often will get some kind of oriental food, and the restaurants often have a version of this famous American-Chinese food dish. Jocelyn has always loved to eat steamed rice, and the sweetness of the sauce with the standard child protein - fried chicken in bite sizes - makes this dish a winner.

The problem with this is the sauce. Most places have this IMMENSELY red sauce that obviously contains some sort of food coloring, probably red #40 or some other dye that we'd prefer not to eat in such high quantities. If it was just a little, that'd be one thing, but she eats lots of this sauce, and at least once a week, and it stains her fingers, it has so much dye in it. This is not what we'd consider healthy, and to top it off, it stains worse than almost anything else. (And is drippy to boot.) My husband and I have always wanted to try to make our own sweet 'n sour sauce.

Today, we ordered Chinese food from a delivery place nearby, Dragon Cafe Express. We ordered Sweet 'N Sour Chicken for Jocelyn and my husband to share, a family size, and (this is the first time this has happened with this restaurant) we did not receive the sauce, just the entree without sauce. This, as any parent will understand, was a disaster, because without sauce, the chicken might as well be fried radishes or something - it's inedible to a three year old expecting sweet sauce!

We both ran to the computer to Google a recipe, and pieced one together. This is basically what we got:

• 1/2 c ketchup
• 1/3 c vinegar
• 2/3 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c water
• 1 TBS corn starch

First three ingredients: mix in pan, heat until simmering, remove from heat to slowly add in the water + cornstarch mixture, whisking as you add.  Return to heat and simmer, then turn off heat, stirring occasionally.  The sauce will thicken as it cools.

We decided to use some of the other recipes' ideas, and add a little bit of soy sauce and, since we didn't have straight pineapple juice, some of the Simply Orange juice with added pineapple we had bought for our daughter.  Probably about 1 - 2 TBS of each.

The sauce was a hit!  It was a bit thick once it cooled to luke warm (a good eating temperature), and we decided we would use a different recipe without ketchup next time to adapt to the thickness problem as well as the pseudo-ketchup flavor.  It kind of reminded me of a mild BBQ sauce you might get on deli meatloaf or something.  We also thought we'd use apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar instead of the plain white vinegar, just to give it dimension.   I actually liked the orange+pineapple; you could almost make an "Orange Chicken" sauce by adapting this sauce to have more of the juice.  Some of the recipes called for adding minced garlic, ginger, or chives/green onions, and some called for making an infusion with said ingredients, also perhaps adding crushed red pepper flakes or a red pepper itself for flavor.  Also, many added salt, but if we are adding soy sauce, we decided not to add the salt.

All-in-all, it was fun, fast, and easy to make, and making the chicken itself wouldn't be that hard!  (Though maybe a little messy... I'm not a fan of frying at home, especially without a deep fryer.)

I was so impressed with my husband and I, both that we were working so well as a team, had the same idea, and carried it out to a yummy completion!  My daughter never knew that we didn't actually receive the sauce.  A beautiful way to do lunch (and to learn a new, quick weeknight recipe)!