A Beautiful Thing

I love this video, Lifting Burdens.

Go Bears!

This is my classroom door. You're jealous I know. I won the 'college bound' door competition a couple months ago! My students were so excited! Go Bears!!!

Shoutout to DHH

Willie and Martin

Hiatus

When I signed into our blog just now, it took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to even post something. It's been a long time. I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures on here of things we've been up to (mostly from this summer). Enjoy!

On June 14th, Jameson GRADUATED!!! He's worked so hard at Stanford and it was so fun to be married to a student!


Jameson started his job at Morgan Stanley the day after he graduated! He commutes to SF every day at 5am so he can be to work at 6am. Ya, he's superman.


June 15th (ie first day of work) was also my birthday, so we met up in the city and had a yummy dinner with a beautiful view.

Over summer, I worked at my district office and spent my free time redecorating our bedroom. Here is my photo frame collage. We still need to fill the pictures, but I just love it!

It's hard to see in this picture but I also painted and distressed all of our bedroom dressers. They turned out great! My talented next door neighbor helped me so much! She's great at DIY stuff and totally inspired me!
We've been living in the Bay Area for years now and I still hadn't ever seen the "Full House" house from up high until our fun neighbors took us there! It was a great time.



Happiness.

It was really windy!


Jameson found this little guy at a pricey little boutique in SF. He fell in love and wanted all kinds of pictures with it.



We went to Mammoth this summer with Jameson's family and it was so much fun! I'd never been there before! Here I am with my sweet mother-in-law on a gondola!


Jameson and I in front of a pretty waterfall.

Gone fishing.

SO FUNNY!

My little sister sent me this video. It's hilarious.

Seeking Donors...

I'm kind of cringing as I write this, because I really don't like soliciting friends and family for donations BUT I am SO SO close to getting a bunch of WONDERFUL manipulatives to teach math this next year and couldn't resist asking for help from people I know. School starts in about 20 days and I would LOVE to start the year off with these materials for my new math curriculum; I'll be so much more prepared and the kids will be so much more engaged. If you're wondering why I just don't wait for my district to buy them for me, well, that's not an option--because you see they want us to use this newly adopted curriculum but they aren't willing to pay for everything that the program tells us to use. This is my dysfunctional district. If you're at all interested in donating even 5 dollars to my classroom project, please click here. I only have to find 100 more dollars in donations, and then they will send all of the materials I have requested to me!

Why I Teach For America

(Or taught, since technically I am now an alum). For more TFA info, click here.

Today was the last day of school. During our class party I needed to take a time out because my head was throbbing. The kids were doing one of three things: watching Jumanji on the carpet, eating pizza and doughnuts at their desks or wandering the classroom--which I never let them do, but figured it was the last day, so why not? I sat down in my teacher chair at my teacher desk and sort of rested my head in my hands, hoping this would somehow help to alleviate the migraine. Jose (yes, the one from the Planet Earth post) came over without my noticing and knelt down in front of my desk. "Mrs. Haslam?" he said quietly and privately. "Yes, Jose?" I answered. He went on: "Do you know that you're the best teacher I've ever had?" There was busyness all around us. He paused and then continued, "No one else has cared about me this much. You're the only one who's sent me home with books to read that are at my level. When I came to 4th grade I was reading at a 1st grade level, and now I'm reading at a 3rd grade level. That's why you're the best teacher I've ever had." I was so touched. We'd had many conversations at the beginning of the year about his low reading level and what it would take for him to improve, but him saying this really made me realize that he got it. He struggles with his self-confidence, and I finally saw this glimmer of hope that he now actually believes in himself. His words were not written on a note like all of the others I've received--you know the ones I've posted before that say "You're the best teacher ever! You rock!"--that the kids pretty much write to every teacher they've ever had. This was a little boy expressing his appreciation from the depths of his heart. He felt that I had done something for him. I hoped that he could see that it wasn't just me; it was him.

To say that my experience this past two years in Ravenswood has been challenging would be an understatement. But, in spite of it all, I have loved this time. It has been life changing. I will be forever in awe of these children, who despite difficult family situations, poverty and pretty much the worst possible things you can imagine, come to school every day, work their tails off and achieve amazing things.

Oh, Jose.

I was watching Planet Earth with my students yesterday and a male bird was trying to get a female bird to mate with him--by displaying his feathers like so. The kids were totally confused so I nonchalantly explained that he wanted a girlfriend. Jose (who is 10) turns to me and says: “You mean take it to the next level.”

What was I supposed to say to that?! Of course I didn't say anything at all. I just started laughing.

April Happenings

For Jameson's birthday, I surprised him with tickets to Wicked. He'd been dropping hints that he wanted to go ever since it came up here so we went for his birthday and it was AMAZING. Both of us have a great love for musicals! It was a school night (shh..don't tell the kids! I'm usually fast asleep by 9:30 or 10:00!) but I DID IT! We got a super great deal on the tickets, too; I bought "limited view" discount tickets in the Orchestra which weren't limited at all! We could see everything! Whoo hoo!




We've also been going to this spectacular park (if you can even call it that) just about every chance we get. It's definitely one of Palo Alto's best kept secrets. My mom and I discovered it while she was visiting back in the fall and it is gorgeous. It's a huge hundred acre (I'm just guessing) reserve, and you have to show proof that you live in Palo Alto before you're allowed to enter. Talk about exclusive! It has a lake and everything!
Please excuse the poor picture quality--we've broken our digital camera (though we don't know how) and now we only have the camera on my phone :/



And finally, this past Friday my awesome sister Jenn sent Jameson and I tickets to see Keane in concert. They're from England, and the girls in my family just love them! And now Jameson is starting to love them. Jenn hooked us up because she has such a cool job here. I love my sister!

Thanks google images for the photo! The one on my camera was pretty pathetic.

This is Success

I have this student who has had issues with talking in class and then gets a horrible attitude when her misbehavior is corrected, and she's come a LONG way. Today made me realize how far she's come. This afternoon while we were about to sit down and read Superfudge, she expressed the need to write me a note. I gave her my permission; it seemed urgent enough to her. When I read her letter, I couldn't help but laugh. (You'll see why). It made me really proud, though, because she decided to reach out for help AFTER she had done everything she thought she could do to solve the problem herself--which is something I've been trying to teach these kids all year. Instead of whacking her table teammate, she wrote me a letter for support:

Dear Mrs. Haslam,

It's very hard being in a team with Reyna. She is very distracting and anoying and I keep asking her nicely to be quiet but it's not working. I'm gonna blow any second so please help me solve the problem I don't want nomore getting in trouble because of her and then getting a attitude. So please help me solve the problem.

Love,

Raven

Why I Love My Husband: A Photo Essay

He has a really big heart.


He's ridiculously smart.


He makes life loads of fun.


He loves little kids and they love him. AND he is better with babies than I am!


He's intense and SUPER patient.


He's artsy and oh-so-talented.


He makes me giggle.


He makes me feel really adored.


He totally loves animals--to the point that it's comical. Have you heard him talk about Alpacas?


He knows exactly what to say and do when I'm feeling down.


He makes me beam.


He is my eternal companion.


HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY, JAMESON! I LOVE YOU LOTS!

from Hemingway's Big Two-Hearted River

Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find that scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there. It swirled against the log spiles of the bridge. Nick looked down in to the clear, brown water, colored from the pebbly bottom, and watched the trout keeping themselves steady in the current with wavering fins. As he watched them they changed their positions by quick angles, only to hold steady in the fast water again. Nick watched them a long time.

He watched them holding themselves with their noses into the current, many troughti n deep, fast moving water, slightly distorted as he watched far down through the glassy convex surface of the pool, its surface pushing and swelling smooth against the resistance of the log-driven piles of the bridge.

Deep Stuff

4th grade social studies in this state is all about California history. It's actually really cool stuff. I've been doing a much better job teaching the content this year than I was last year. Sigh. Anyway, for the past few weeks we studied the Gold Rush and all of the transformations that came because of the discovery of gold. This week we started a new chapter: "How Did Women Help California to Grow?" (Kind of a strange title, but the content is good). Today we read about a woman who lobbied for the rights of the Chinese and how prior to her advocacy, Chinese Americans were not able to go to school. This connected really well to discussions we've had previously in my class about segregation in the United States--which my students know is illegal under the law. The question came up today from a sweet Juliana who asked with great disbelief, "So Mrs. Haslam, because segregation is over, there are no schools that are segregated?" It was sad for me, because I couldn't answer that in the affirmative, nor could I answer proudly. I attempted to explain de facto segregation (no, not really). Instead I explained that "legally" no school can discriminate based on race but that people tend to go to school where they live and often (and unfortunately) that divides us along racial lines. I don't think I thought about such things when I was in 4th grade. One of my kids then raised his hand and thoughtfully stated, "Ya, I used to go to a white kid school." (By the way, there are 3 white children at my school. The kids told me. Clearly, they're counting).

Monday Fact

For every dollar spent in Washington, lobbyists earn an ROI of $220.

Monday Useless Links

On executive pay, something nobody seems to know how to change. Perhaps it has to do w the fact that executives make the decisions?

Best firefox add-ons.

More on the death of youtube.

Apartment potatoes.

Cut the energy bill.

Progress in Colombia.

Who knew that the Obama administration would pump new life into lobbyists!

funny wife.

We went to Berkeley Bowl this weekend and I found kumquats, which you don't see often enough. Dad and I used to get them each time I'd come home from working out at the batting cages in San Marcos at a little produce stand. Maybe my favorite fruit.

Anyways, we got kumquats and I was raving about them to Jessie, so she tried one. She proceeded to make probably the best sour face I've ever seen. I couldn't stop laughing.

---

I'm getting the fishing gear out, as the season is upon us and Golden Gate Park has a casting pond upon which one can practice. Anyways, I had taken out my fly box to show Jessie (she's never seen flies before)."Is that a bug?" "How much did all those cost?" (I assured her that I'd accumulated them over the last decade, and that my dad had provided them - sometimes willingly, other times ignorantly). I showed her that they're made from thread and feathers, so she touched one. I explained that they get re-used over and over, to which she replied "Eww, so I just touched something that has been in a fish's mouth? Nasty".

Pt. Reyes & Capitola

Each of these cities is a must see for those living in the Bay Area.

After Jameson got back from his Point Reyes backpacking trip, I really wanted to see what he'd hiked, and wow, just driving along the 1 wore me out. My husband's a stud.


This is us in Capitola--a darling little town that was formerly unknown to us till our friends from San Diego took us there. Reminds me of Italy. Such fun!

Thursday's Useless Links.

Expansion of executive power.

The internets are dying. Or just our nation's greatest time waster.

Here's hoping that I'll be able to legally employ my workforce.

Doomsday.

Blame game?

I had this idea at the beginning of this year. Were I a freshman, I'd totally do this. $1.

Wednesday Fun Fact*

Many fly-fishing words and phrases have ancient origins that have little to do with their modern meanings. The word "cast is one example -this once meant a fly-fishing leader with several flies attached at various points along its length. Another example is the "X" designation used now to indicate sizes of monofilament leaders. A century ago, leaders were made of short sections of silkworm gut. Dried gut sections were drawn through diamond dies that shaved and reduced their diameters; 4x-drawn gut, for example, had been through four such drawings that ultimately determined its thickness. The higher the x-number, the finer the leader. The nomenclature remains long after the process is gone.

*i'm stealing this idea from Noah. Thanks Noah.

Wednesday's Useless Link

Funny Obama parody.

more awesomeness

Burrito Blaster on MAKE: television from make magazine on Vimeo.

awesomeness

things will never be the same (that's just the way it is)

We've made a few minor adjustments to the blog.

1. New links added specific to our (immediate) family. You can see our picasa web gallery, which is linked to our iPhoto library, which basically houses all of the photos we have. Also, a new website, jkh, which is private (you can request an invitation if you so desire).

2. Commenting form adjusted. This may be temporary, we'll see how much spam we get. You can now comment without a google or open ID (that means you mom[s]). Just click the little word at the bottom that says "# comments" and leave your thoughts. We like hearing from ppl.

3. An effort to organize the blog postings by category or type (i.e. school updates, trips, political commentary, photos, stupid links, etc). You'll find these categories on the right hand side. Work in progress. (organized by poster too. jkh = hazzy, jlh = principessa)

gm

Rick Wagoner was supposedly a pretty nice guy (who became the fall guy). He'll be okay (23mm severance + pension).

It is, again, disappointing to see that Obama isn't taking the moral high(er) ground and holding the union bosses responsible. So much for changing washington.

spring break report

I'm too lazy/busy at the moment to write up a report of the spring break trip. It will probably happen at some point.

For now, the links below should give you an idea of what happened.

Trip Album

Blog from Chris

SWPL

From 'Stuff White People Like'

Gregg continues budget-blasting of Obama - The Boston Globe

Gregg continues budget-blasting of Obama - The Boston Globe

Posted using ShareThis

The world my students live in.

Today was a sad day. The classroom phone rang while my students were writing narratives. It was the school counselor. She wanted to confirm that one of my student's brothers was shot this weekend before she proceeded with the referral paperwork she'd received from the office. I could not confirm this; I knew nothing of it. This had to be some sort of mistake. He wasn't at school today. We hung up the phone and I quickly googled what I needed to, to find out something, anything. I found something I didn't want to see. Not only was my student's brother shot (though still alive), the father of a precious little girl I taught last year was shot and killed. The article I read was tragic. If you want to read it, click here. You'll cry.

I also confiscated a bb gun from one of my students after lunch recess. My teacher training didn't prepare me for anything like this. I don't really know what to think. I'm not going to lie, I feel a little uneasy.

Año Nuevo

A few weeks back I was able to take my students to Año Nuevo State Reserve to see the famous elephant seals! A woman with a foundation that provides the funding for low-income schools to go on field trips contacted me and they paid for it all! It was such a thrill to take my kids there. It's on the coast, of course, and a few of my kids were asking "Is this sand?" when they bent down to touch it--because they've never been to the beach before. It was such a special experience to share with them. The photo essay is below:

*(Italicized remarks made by Jameson. I played hooky to go on this trip, and it was awesome. These animals are amazing. And ginormous.)

Here's one of my favorites, Jose. He took a little nap on the way since it takes over an hour to get to Año Nuevo.

(The park is just south of Pescadero, which is probably due almost exactly west of Palo Alto, but we had to go north to Half Moon Bay to link up with the one. Beautiful rolling green hills along the 1 fwy, some farms and lighthouses. Pretty picturesque).

Our docent is in the red. The kids had a great time following her on the hike. It was 3 miles, but they were plenty entertained so time passed rather quickly.


What a beautiful place, right? (There were two dudes surfing just below where this picture was taken, which is about 500 yds from the main seal beach. A few thoughts - a) these seals could kill you, and b) they are the primary staple of great white sharks, who prowl outside the reef, enforcing natural selection).

Keep on trekking...

Some of my kiddos taking a quick break.

Is this sand?....

Looking at two pups sleeping. My kids were quite quiet so as not to disturb their slumber.

(You can't really tell from the photo, but they let you get about 15 feet away from the seals. That's about from one end of our living room to the other.)


And there's a big guy yawning. If you know anything about elephant seals, you know that they are huge, and the bigger male you are the more females you get. Even though this male looked quite large to me, he's not the alpha so he's kind of a loner.

(Click on the photo for a better look at his mouth.)

My kids couldn't pass up the elephant seal race! Wouldn't we all just love to scooch around on our bellies? (Jameson and I passed).

(In yet another intelligent move by the kids of room 23, several of the kids brought their cell-phones and temporarily lost them in the sand here. )




An elephant seal skull.

(This is actually a grizzly skull. I'd edit out Jessie's mistake, but it is an easy one to make, given that the skulls look almost identical - see the elephant seal skull below). The docent suggested that some scientists have theorized that the elephant seal represents an evolutionary return the water on the part of the grizzly. She explained that many of their behaviors are similar. I can't remember the details. Pretty crazy. I guess that grizzlies used to hunt the elephant seals back when they - the bears - were prevalent in CA).




Class picture with a park ranger named "Mountain." Don't ask. Neither Jameson nor I understood.

(As in, 'Hi, I'm mountain'. Really?!?. Why don't you just tell the kids you became a ranger to connect with nature and the natural cannabis herb...)

More scary skulls. Fortunately, they don't mind humans so we didn't have to fear.




We had a lovely time. My kids were really lucky to have this opportunity, as we're not really allowed to go on field trips this year because of all the state sanctions upon us. Somehow we were blessed and my principal gave her stamp of approval! Hooray!

(Jessie's principal loves her. She's practically begging her to come back next year. Unfortunately, that still doesn't give much bargaining leverage for the big raise. Check out these pics:)









Check this link out for a vid of grizzlies fighting.