Likes and Dislikes of the Week

Likes:
*Frozen watermelon. I buy it pre-cut at Lunds, then freeze it, and eat it with a fork. It's like Italian Ice, but organic! I think freezing watermelon is popular in Japan.
*Project Runway. I love that the show has actually talented people, doing amazing designs. I wish they would have a teaching reality show, to show people know how difficult it really is and what amazing strategies teachers can whip out in a crisis and how analytical the profession really can be.
*I'm starting to feel like I'll be prepared when school starts and that I'll be able to have more of a social life this year. Which is great because I've met some exciting people this summer.
*All the things there are to do in my neighborhood: Wolf Parade next week, Ghostbusters in Castillo Park on Thursday, the Diane Arbus exhibit at the Walker Art Museum, and the Pizza Luce Block Party (where Thunder in the Valley is playing, my birthday band).
*Beautiful, sunny, 60 degree weather today. The rain finally came yesterday, after it got up in the 100's on Monday!

Dislikes:
*The University of Minnesota. No one cares about individual students (at least not me) and students are expected to completely fend for themselves, which is much more difficult than at a private school since none of the bureaucracy communicates intra-collegiately (or whatever:) So I actually have to let someone know that I'm done with my Masters, otherwise they'd never know it. And my bill this month was completely screwed up and then the helpline operator was so rude and patronizing. Grr. It makes me wax nostalgic about Wash U, where I had four advisors!
*Trying to create my own curriculum when my administration is still on vacation. My plan is to use the Social Studies Standards as the supporting content, based on the US History and geography. We'll travel from state to state, using the facts and history about each, and I'll hopefully be able to find video clips and other media to show them. Then, I need to address all of the Language Arts standards for Minnesota and the National TESOL standards (for ESL). It's just a crazy amount of cross-referencing, integrating language and content instruction, and second-guessing myself.
*Lack of money for school supplies...I saw these wonderful new binders at Office Max. They are really thin and have folding rings, so they'll fit into folders, essential since my classroom is the size of a walk-in closet. And they have a holder for note cards, and two dividers, and are hard cover. When I saw them, I immediately wanted to buy them for all my students...I was drooling in the notebook aisle! I really want my students to have supplies that are indicative of my expectations and high hopes for their academic success. I want them to take pride in their classwork, but most of their families don't have the resources. Anyway, these fancy binders cost $6.99 each, which is tough to pull off for all of my 60 students. Does anyone know of education-friendly philanthropists who would like to fund that? Hmm...
*I'm sorry that I don't like baseball games! I would try to pretend, as I have many times during college and graduate school, but it's tooooooo boring. Honestly, you could watch SportsCenter and get 20 seconds of highlights, which would actually be the ONLY things that happened during the game. And you could even buy some FastDogs (those new ones), nachos, and beer for cheaper and sit at home, eating really fast. But 6-ish hours of tedium in plastic seats? I'm sorry, my friends, but it's not going to happen again! As a trade-off, I will never expect you to go to see chick flicks with me;)