Public Health Care Option

OK, so maybe this isn't the most important part of the debate, but I am thinking about it now, anyway, so I am going to write about it.

Perhaps one of the reasons businesses are wary of the public health care option is not only because it messes with the insurance industry and the medical industry, but also because it changes the playing field for businesses in general.

Imagine what will happen when your health care is no longer tied to your job.  You can quit your job and go elsewhere and you still have the same health care that you had before.  You don't have to stay with a lousy job, just because you are afraid that you won't be covered somewhere else.  You don't have to take a job, just because it includes health care to cover you and your family.

For businesses, the benefits package doesn't need to include health care.  Maybe the benefits package will look quite a bit different.  Businesses could view that as a positive, but the prospect of losing workers might offset that plus.

The Birthday Concert, Part II

Laura, Alyssa, Marjorie at M's 96th Birthday Concert

Laura, Kathryn, and Marjorie at M's 96th Birthday Concert

The Birthday Concert

My mother turned 96 on April 6th.  Several months ago, I had the idea that I wanted to give a concert for my mother, with songs that she likes.  She is religious, which I am not, but I knew that she would appreciate having me sing the songs for her.

I have sung in choirs since I was young and sang in church choir.  I have sung in the University Choruses at both the University of Illinois and the University of Alaska, and, most recently, I have been singing with the Boulder Chorale.  I have also sung in the Fairbanks Summer (and Winter) Arts Festival - singing in the Women's Chorus, the Beginning Singing Workshop, and, most boldly of all, trying my courage with singing in the Cabaret.  I had even taken a few private singing lessons.  But, I had never had regular singing lessons until this past fall.  I am not sure why I started regular lessons, perhaps for something to do after I moved here, but I have enjoyed them.  My voice is lower than my mother's - I am an alto (technically a mezzo-soprano, I think), but I have also sung tenor.

At any rate, I invited my older sister, who plays piano, to take part in the concert.  She would need to accompany me and then play a few pieces on her own.  And, my younger daughter, who is just starting to play guitar, was also encouraged to come and sing.

Since we live quite far apart (with Kathryn in Connecticut, Alyssa in Washington, D.C., my mother in Alabama, and me in Colorado), it wasn't possible to practice together, but we all practiced pretty hard and long by ourselves.  And my mother decided she wanted to sing one song, too.

The concert was scheduled for some time around the 2nd week in April, since that is when Kathryn had spring break.  She and I flew into Nashville and drove down to Huntsville; Alyssa flew into HSV.  Kathryn and I practiced that evening on our brother's piano, but that was the only time we could practice together.  Sunday morning was the only chance Kathryn had to practice on the piano we had to use for the concert, but as she was practicing, one of the residents there complained about the noise, so she felt like she had to stop.

Kathryn had made programs for the concert, which, to my surprise, included two songs I hadn't been practicing (The Old Rugged Cross and How Great Thou Art) and left out two I had (Ave Maria by Schubert and the Camp Fire Prayer).  Since we didn't have piano music for the Camp Fire Prayer, we left that out, but we added in the Ave Maria, since I had been working pretty hard on that one. 



The concert was open to the residents, but we had purposely not advertised it much, as none of us is a professional musician and only I had performed in public much.  There were about 10 people who came, which was perfect - enough to make it seem like a real concert, but not too many to make us all extra nervous.  And all went well, including Alyssa's songs on the guitar, Kathryn's solo pieces on the piano, Kathryn's and my joint pieces, and Mom's song.  Mom even got an encore.

I recorded the concert on my computer, but I haven't figured out how to separate the songs yet.  I am hoping to make a CD for Mom to listen to now that the concert is over.

And now, the post concert let down.  The songs still run through your head incessantly, but the goal has already been reached, so it is time to look toward a new goal.  What should I work on now - songs for Cabaret at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival again - or something entirely different?

The Introvert's Theme Song

I wrote a song last summer for the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. It still needs a lot of work, but here is the text:

Chorus:
I wander alone through my mind
All by myself, I'm just fine
It takes a long, long time to circle 'round,
Past all of those stray thoughts, I've found.

Dishes, kids,
The meaning of life,
Groceries, the bank,
The world and its strife,
Big and small, I touch on all,
The flotsam of my life.

Chorus

My cats need feeding,
I need a new job,
My prescriptions are running out,
Straighten the house, don't be a slob,
Courage, persistence, instead of doubt.

Chorus

Watch the news; call my mom,
Global warming, which country to bomb,
Solar, wind, or oil for fuel,
Pick up a package,
Drive to the pool.

Chorus

I have music for the song, but I can't seem to attach it to this. 

International Conference on Gifted Adults, Part II

This is going to sound like another downer, but it really isn't. I am, by nature, an optimist. I tend to take most things with equanimity and make the best of them.

But... (and, face it, you knew that was coming) there are times when pain takes precedence over optimism. What I think was missing at the conference was significant acknowledgement of pain, and practical steps to deal with it.

Yes, pain was mentioned, briefly for each stage of adult development. I brought it up myself when we were discussing Annemarie Roeper's message to us. My mother is 96. She is increasingly deaf and frail, which is an insult to what she perceives of her former self. Her most significant pain is that she doesn't have anyone to talk to. Annemarie alluded to this problem as well. And, as I said in the conference, my mother refers to her assisted living facility as "jail". I know they try and my mother isn't always the easiest resident to deal with (perhaps an understatement of gigantic proportions). But we need to look for practical ways we can help the elderly gifted deal with their pain.

Two other brief allusions to pain were also mentioned: the difficulty of finding a life partner and the pain of losing people in a relationship, either through divorce or death. I happen to know two young people in the 20 to 35 age range, who are not only gifted, one highly gifted, and who are also either gay or lesbian. Imagine how that complicates finding a partner. Which part of you do you hide?

And what about the pain of losing someone in a relationship? I have been married for nearly 40 years, so I don't know that particular pain, but it certainly isn't a cake walk. What are some tools of self defense that we need to make it through that experience?

Or the pain of losing or quitting a job? Which I do know quite well.

I am not spiritual - sorry, Patti - so it takes me longer to find the kernel of that message that can help me. And I believe my pain right now COULD actually be addressed in that dimension. But some of the other ways of coping would also be of interest.

Yes, I know that this was the FIRST International Conference on Gifted Adults. The most significant intellectual piece for me was the delineation of the different stages of adult giftedness. And, I know that many of us tend to be optimists, at least outwardly. But being in the throes of a difficult transition right now, I am particularly sensitive to the pain side and need to take a closer look there.

International Conference on Gifted Adults

I suppose I shouldn't write about this at all, because it was actually a fabulous conference. But I spent most of the day there crying. And it wasn't because I suddenly realized that I was gifted and that all of my strange idiosyncrasies could be attributed to that. No, I have known for a long time that I was gifted. Ever since I was tested while I was in elementary school and later when I went to full time gifted classes.

No, the reason I was crying is mostly because, in spite of it all, or perhaps because of it all, I feel like such a failure. Here, I was supposed to be in the self-actualizing stage or maybe one of the other stages that made each life stage seem like a new adventure. And I feel stuck back in trying to figure out who I am and what I want to do with my life. I have been a secretary, a teacher, a grad student, a computer scientist, a teacher (again), a biology researcher, a teacher (again), a grad student (again), a computer support scientist, a biochemist, and finally a teacher again. And maybe not in all that order. But I haven't lived up to any of the expectations I had of myself when I was young. I don't feel successful in any of my careers.

And, now I am unemployed, overeducated, old. I feel like I have a lot to contribute, but no one seems to want my contributions. I even had to work HARD to give away my children's book collection - 1112 books, that I finally managed to find a home for.

Unemployment and job seeking is painful. Each new rejection says you aren't wanted. And, though I can understand the reasons - my skills aren't exactly what they need and they have a huge number of people to choose from - rejection still hurts. Every time.

And this is the stage of my life when I am supposed to have figured it all out and feel that I am fulfilling my true self.

I certainly hope this isn't my true destiny. I don't like spending most of the day crying.

Montessori Schools with the Upper Grades

I have never taught for more than a week in a Montessori school - that is my disclaimer. I have subbed in a Montessori charter school for a total of about 3 weeks. Since I am mainly interested in the older elementary students, my experience with Montessori has only been with the students who would have been classified as being in 5th and 6th grades and in 7th and 8th grades.

I went into the Montessori school for the first time with curiosity, but wariness. I had looked into enrolling my own children in a different Montessori school many years before this experience and had decided against it. That Montessori school would NOT allow children to do imaginative play and my daughters were especially enamored of imaginative play at the time. I am not sure how many times my older daughter pretended to lose her shoe, as Cinderella did, and gleefully shouted, "Oh, I almost forgot!" as she pretended to hear the clock chime midnight. [Or the permutation of that event, where instead of losing her shoe, she lost her towel after her bath...her ball gown gone.] I just couldn't imagine barring her from imaginative play. So we pursued other alternatives. But my impression of Montessori schools from that school search and from my readings when I was pursuing my education degrees led me to believe that the Montessori method could be rather restrictive - proscribing some types of creativity and prescribing fixed interactions with materials.

But still, I was curious, so I accepted a subbing job at the school. I was impressed with several things, even as the school began. There were two classrooms next to each other with full time teachers and nearly full teacher aides. The classrooms were arranged with a meeting area, usually a couch and several comfortable chairs, a window seat bench, carpeting, and enough space for the 24 students in the class. Outside of the meeting area were various sized wooden tables, some of which could accommodate only two students, some designed for 4, and some that were pushed together for a larger sized table that up to even 12 students could sit at. The walls were lined with books and materials. Coats and boots were left in the hall. Pencils and markers were common property, as were paper, tissues, and other supplies. Each student had two large three-ring binders. One seemed to be for current work and the other kept as a portfolio.

The day there began with a message to the students on the white board easel, a math problem, and a list of things for the students to start working on - typically beginning with making a list of things that they planned to accomplish for the day. The teacher discussed the day's plan for each student and signed each one as the day began. Students conversed a bit and then gradually started on their work.

The typical pattern of the day was to work all morning, with an interruption some time during the morning for a math class, clean up and meet to discuss things just before lunch. Recess and then lunch, followed by either an additional work time or a group activity time. This meant large blocks of time where the student could choose what to work on, with various constraints.

One of the things that still rather discomfits me is the word "choice" as it was used in that school. In the classrooms that I was in, the curriculum was broken into 3 week blocks, where certain activities in each of the disciplines were to be accomplished. The different activities that were required to be done were called "choices", presumably because the student could choose which one to do on which day and at which time, but, in essence, most of them were not really choices, as I think about them. The task was prescribed, e.g., read this and figure out a solution to the problem presented or learn these vocabulary words. Sometimes there were optional ways to demonstrate the accomplishment of a task, but usually, there was very limited amount of what I would call choice, i.e., a student could NOT choose to not do a particular task that s/he didn't like.

So, what do I think? I liked it much better than I expected to. The environment was respectful of both students' and teachers' needs. There was a snack area, where students could get a mid-morning snack whenever they wanted (only 2 people in the snack area at a time). There was a chart by the door to indicate when students had left the room for work, the rest room, or a physical activity (also one of the prescribed list of activities on the list). The aide from one classroom or the other would accompany the students to the gym or outside, depending on the physical activity on the list and how many students wanted to do the activity at the time. The classroom was busy and productive.

The negatives - I saw little differentiation of the activities, with the exception of math. And two students seemed to be floundering a bit. I suppose it is actually good that I only saw two students really floundering, but it is interesting to me to ponder why they were floundering. One student who seemed to have difficulty seemed to be both lazy and unsure of himself. He always worked with a friend and usually the friend was doing the lion's share of the work. If there was a way to accomplish the task with minimal effort and minimal quality, that was the way he did it. He avoided anything that was difficult or required significant effort. He was way behind in finishing most of his work. When the regular teacher and I discussed him, it was clear that this was a recurrent pattern. He wasn't unable, just unwilling.

Another student had difficulty for entirely different reasons: many of the tasks were simply too complex or too difficult for her. She required a lot more support in just about everything than any of the other students. This, even though it was done tactfully, seemed to set her apart.

And there were still conflicts between and among the students. Although the behavior in the classroom was, in general, excellent, there was still some emotional bullying, necessitating some teacher intervention.

The teachers in the school made some tough choices. One was to do without "specials" teachers for music, PE, and library, which are standard in the rest of the school district, in favor of aides for each classroom.

I would be interested in trying this out for a longer time. I would like to see if it actually does facilitate accommodating students at their own levels, and would thus be a model for inclusive gifted education or even inclusion of special ed students. From what I could see, there were only very mild learning difficulties with the one student. There were two very advanced math students in one of the classrooms, so I do know that mathematical prowess was accommodated. I could not see evidence of any other advanced provisions, but I freely admit that this might have been less visible with reading/writing, and to some extent social studies and science.

An aside: with no formal music classes, that subject may have been considered short changed, but the upper grades did put on a musical every year and at least one student, who was an outstanding singer, chose to attend this school and was extremely supportive of it, even though he had to go outside of school to get his music instruction.

Class Sizes

I have read some of the research that says that class sizes don't effect learning outcomes substantially and I just don't believe it. I have taught school off and on from 1971, in public schools, in private schools, in charter schools. I have taught in inner city schools with racial problems, in rural schools, in relatively wealthy suburban schools. I have taught and subbed in 4 widely differing states (Massachusetts, Illinois, Colorado, and Alaska). I have subbed in classes of 15 students and taught classes of 35 students. From what I see, numbers make a difference. There seem to be several major ways that numbers make a difference: discipline, content, ability to differentiate, personal connection.

No matter how well-trained a class is, 35 students inevitably are harder to organize than 15. Just figuring out where to put all the desks/tables/chairs is a huge logistical task for a class with 35 students. And young people are not miniature robots, or, for that matter, miniature adults. They haven't yet learned all of the social behaviors that adults can usually manage to bring forth in large group situations.

Part of getting students involved in their own education is to make a personal connection of what they are learning to what they already know and ways that they can use the new knowledge in their lives. If you are trying to have a personal conversation with 15 students about this, it is possible to touch on each of the students in the group. With 35 students, you have to have recourse to other methods - e.g., dividing up the group into smaller sub-groups, then reporting back to the whole group. With 15 students, you can alter the content of the lesson to address particular facets of the topic that impact members of the group. With 35 students, this is rarely possible.

In the many years that I subbed, about 8 years, I only ran across one teacher who
tried to individualize students' learning completely. I don't know how successful she was, but as a sub, it was extremely difficult. But not all of the students in any given class are in the middle of the ability/readiness range for the lesson. There are ALWAYS some outliers, ones who may already know the "new" material and ones who haven't yet mastered the prerequisites. With a class of 15, it is possible to individually support both ends of the outlier spectrum. With a class of 35, it is rarely done. Yes, teachers are taught about differentiation in college, yes, they say they understand how to do it; no, I don't see them actually doing it. It is simply too hard. Imagine a college professor teaching chemistry. Do we give him/her a class that needs to cover elements and atoms, acids and bases, all the way through to quantum mechanics? Of course not, that would be absurd. We set up a general sequence of learning chemistry and apportion the students into classes based on what they each need to learn next. Yet, we give an elementary school teacher 25 to 30 students, some of whom can barely read and some of whom are reading 4 or 5 grade levels above their nominal grade placement. With 15 students, and say 3 sub-groups, it is possible to reach more children than with 25 students. It is also a matter of simple math. If I have 50 minutes with 15 students, 20 minutes of which is spent in whole group instruction, there is a possibility of 2 minutes per student of individual help. With 30 students, there is 1 minute. How much can you get done in 60 seconds?

In a class of 15 students, a teacher can really get to know the students. With 30, it is much more difficult. That personal connection between teacher and student is what makes much of teaching and learning intimately fulfilling. Without it, teachers begin to feel like simple curriculum delivery vehicles and students begin to feel like insignificant cogs in the information factory.

Years ago, I read a research report that consolidated observations from different sized classes, from tiny classes of 6 or 7 through huge classes of 50 or 60. From what I remember, there seemed to be several breaking points in class size and class dynamics. With extremely small classes, children often had trouble finding kids who were similar to them in learning stage. At 12 to 15 students, there seemed to be change in classroom dynamic - enough diversity for different types of interactions depending on learning activities. Class dynamics changed again around 18 to 24 students, with more whole group instruction and fewer individually tailored assignments. With 25 or more students, the classes were largely given over to whole group instruction and standard assignments. There was some support for students with difficulties, but little or no accommodation for students who already knew the material. I would love to find that research again, but haven't been able to locate it.

The politicians now are bent on cutting funding for education and class sizes almost certainly will increase in many schools across the country. I can't help but feel this will make teachers jobs even more difficult than they already are. I suppose, if the research study above is correct, increasing class sizes from 25 to 30 students might not substantially change how the classroom functions. It does substantially increase teacher work load - but what do the politicians care about that - teachers have a long summer vacation to recover.

If Teachers Worked Like Doctors

To follow up on yesterday's post, I went to search the Internet to see how much of a doctor's time was actually spent in patient contact. I am not intending here to be a thorough researcher, so I stopped after finding one study here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2709110/. The authors estimated that doctors spent 25.5% of their time in direct contact with patients. Just to make things easier, let's round that off to 25% of their time - 1/4 of their time was spent with patients. Now, no one assumes that what the doctors do with the rest of their time is trivial or unnecessary or that it should not be figured as part of the heavy work load of being a doctor. Yet, they certainly do this with teachers.

Take the example I wrote about yesterday. 8:00 to 3:30 required work day; 15 minutes before kids allowed in; 15 minutes after last bell to get them all out. 30 minutes "duty free" lunch; 30 minutes planning time. 1.5 hours supposedly without kids out of 7.5 hours. That means teachers are in contact with their clients 80% of the day.

Just for curiosity, let's do some math. Year 52 weeks. Doctor gets 4 weeks vacation (a bit conservative, but let it go for now); works 48 weeks. 1/4 of time spent with patients. 12 weeks. Teacher contract: 36 weeks. 80% of time spent with students. 28.8 weeks. Teachers are on direct duty more than twice as much as doctors.

This completely ignores the fact that, not only are teachers in direct contact with their clients more than twice as much as doctors, but they have MANY MORE CLIENTS at the same time - typically 25 times as many. And, I can hear people object: oh, but they are just young children, they are easier to deal with than adults. The only problem is, young children are immature - what a surprise. They do not know how to behave in all normal situations, they are easily distracted, they have all sorts of needs that cannot be ignored, and all of this WHILE the teacher is trying to get them to actually learn something. The only people that think this is easy are people who haven't done it for a significant amount of time.

Teacher's Time

In the frequent debates about education, the long summer break that teachers have is often cited as evidence that they don't work as hard as other professionals. Teachers are, in general contracted for 180 days. Given 5 days a week, this amounts to 36 weeks. For the sake of generality, I will assume that other professionals typically get a total of 4 weeks of vacation. This leaves 12 weeks in excess of what most other professionals would expect. This extra 12 weeks is the reason that is often cited for paying teachers less. They can get a second job over the summer to augment their incomes. And, in fact, many teachers do.

When I lived in Alaska, I was surprised to find that there were many men teaching, even in the lower grades. Perhaps it is because they can find construction or tourism jobs in the summer fairly readily. Other summer jobs might include summer school or summer camp. With those latter two, the increase in income is not actually very large, and with jobs being scarce, the competition for summer positions is pretty high. So, while there may be potential for extra income, I wonder how many teachers are actually able to supplement their incomes with second jobs.

But the major concern I have about teacher time is how their time is allocated DURING the school day, when they are actually teaching. A typical school day might look like this: teacher is required to arrive 30 minutes before school starts (e.g., 8:00) Kids are allowed in the building 15 minutes before school begins, so teachers' jobs actually start then, as they are required to supervise. At 8:30, school officially starts. Teachers are on duty constantly unless their students have a "special" - music, PE, library, or counselor. Then comes lunch, which in the schools I was in was supervised by the teacher in the classroom, followed by recess - the supposedly "duty free" part of the day. Then come the afternoon classes, with dismissal at 3:00. Teachers are required to stay at least 30 minutes after the end of the school day. So, the official day is 7 1/2 hours, with 1/2 hour for lunch - very comparable to the official day when I worked for a brokerage: 9 to 5 with an hour for lunch.

There are a couple of problems with this time schedule, though. The actual supervision of children extends beyond the official times in MANY cases. Due to bus schedules, detentions and makeup work can often only be done during the teacher's "duty free" lunch time. And, the 30 minutes of planning time afforded by the "special" class is grossly inadequate for its purported task. If, in just ONE of the subjects/classes each day, the teacher gives an assignment that requires 1 minute to grade per student, a teacher with 25 students uses up virtually the entire planning time grading that one assignment. Given 5 or 6 subjects or classes and the teacher has to do the work "off the clock".

This completely ignores the actual purpose of planning time. It is true that with scripted lessons, ones where the teacher is told what to say and do for the whole lesson, there is less need for planning lessons. This is fine, until you decide you want teachers who actually use creativity and effort to plan interesting lessons. Or, say, you have 6 or 7 kids in the class who have IEPs and need individual plans. Or, maybe there are 3 or 4 gifted kids in the class who already know all of the material in the lessons. When is the teacher supposed to plan for them?

The problem is, there simply isn't enough time for the teacher to behave like a professional. Does your doctor spend all but 1 1/2 hours of the work day talking directly to patients? Does your lawyer spend that percentage of the work day talking directly to clients? In most cases, there is a lot of background work that goes into a professional's day - work, that does not include direct contact with their clients. We trust that the doctor has record-keeping, research, and administrative tasks to do, tasks which are in the service of their patients, but not done in their presence. The problem is, teachers need this, too.

You want to know why the teacher can't individualize the classes for the outlier kids - the ones who struggle and the ones who need harder work so that they can learn to struggle successfully - the teacher has no time.

A long time ago, I read a book about a school that was serious about supporting excellent teachers. The teachers taught kids for 1/2 of the school day and used the other half of the day for planning and grading. Teachers worked together in teams to develop creative lessons and often critiqued each other giving the same lesson to different classes, working to improve the questions asked, the procedures followed, the products developed. Personally, I would gladly give up the extra 12 weeks of summer to work in a school where teachers had adequate time to plan, develop and grade lessons.

And I haven't even begun discussing the use of technology. That for another time.

Death Notices

Someone mentioned the other day that, when someone dies, one of the first things we want to know is the cause of death, which some newspapers, for whatever reason, do not publish. I wonder why it is a matter of such curiosity to know what the cause of death was. It is almost as though we can say to ourselves, if the cause of death was X and it isn't likely that I will get X, then I don't have to think about dying right now. Sure, we all know that we will die, but personally, the best way I have of dealing with that is to not think about it.

RIP Liz Taylor, Diana Wynne Jones, Geraldine Ferraro.

First Day in Aus

The plane trip from LA was really good. Qantas, business class, is truly elegant. The first thing I noticed was the clamshell like seats. More about that later.

But I need to back track just a bit. Just as they were getting ready to start boarding, the woman at the desk mentioned that they were really strict about carry ons. Not only did they have to fit inside the metal frame with ease, they also had to weigh less than 15 pounds. Well, I was pretty sure mine did not. I have my laptop with me which, while wonderful, is pretty heavy. I also was carrying 4 books, the charger for the laptop, a tape player to listen to my chorus music, my iPod touch, a big container of almonds and all of my medicines and supplements, in original containers, which I had been told was the way to carry them in preparation for entry into foreign countries. Sure enough, my carry on weighed 22 pounds. So they told me I would have to check it. Since I was reluctant to be separated from my medicines, they gave me another bag to put them in, but in the process, I spilled half of the almonds all over the floor right in front of the entry to the boarding ramp. Sigh. And I forgot to remove my itinerary, so lots of other people had copies, but I didn't.

But then I got on the plane and discovered there was plenty of room in business class for my carry on. And, it surely didn't matter whether the weight was in the cabin or in the luggage area, so I don't really see the point. Luckily, my suitcase and my carry on were some of the earliest pieces off of the plane, so there was no harm done.

But, back to the airplane. On the seat were the usual pillow and blanket, but we also were soon handed a pair of pajamas and an overnight kit. And we were offered dinner. Since I had already eaten - it was, after all, nearly midnight, I only had a light snack, but the food looked pretty good - the lady next to me had salmon. And the stewards were great - Daniel 1 and Daniel 2. lol.

But the best part was the seat. I still don't understand the controls, but if you pushed the right buttons long enough, the seat could be set to be nearly flat. It wasn't a nice cushy mattress, but it was a heck of a lot better than trying to sleep sitting up. I actually got a decent night's sleep. I went to sleep at around 1:30 LA time, which was something like 5:30 pm Brisbane time (I could be off an hour or two, because I didn't switch my watch from Alaska time until they gave us Brisbane time). I only managed to sleep until about 2:30 am Brisbane time, but that is still a good long time. So adjusting today hasn't been hard at all.

Breakfast on the plane was pretty standard, but the servers were exceptionally considerate. I understand why people are willing to pay for first class and business class. You get treated like a human.

Going through customs was a snap. They weren't completely happy about the almonds, and I would have thrown them out if they had asked, but they didn't, so I didn't. Finding the correct bus to the B & B was a bit more difficult and I became aware, again, that my carry and suitcase together were pretty heavy. But, once the bus came, the driver drove me right to the B & B, Cream Gables.

Cream Gables is really lovely. I am in a suite apartment, with a bedroom, a sitting area, and my own bathroom. Since I got here in time for breakfast, I got to meet the other guests - Gail is from Toronto, and there are three women from Japan - one adult English teacher and two teenagers, who are learning English. We had a lovely breakfast, but I only had tea, since I had already eaten breakfast once at 4:30 am.

Cream Gables comes complete with Anne the proprietress, who is great at not only cooking breakfast, but also in making sure we all understand how to get around Brisbane. And Cream Gables comes complete with a cat.

So, after breakfast and map and bus lessons, which lasted until nearly noon, I was finally off. And I made my first mistake. Instead of buying a region 2 bus pass, I only got a region 1 pass - so I would have been restricted to just the downtown area. But my plan was to go into the city and get a camera, and then ride the CityCat for most of the rest of the afternoon. Once I got into the city, though, I was ready for lunch, so I stopped at a food court. Not the best food in the world, but it was OK. And I did find a camera store and I got the camera I wanted to get back in Fairbanks - the black version, not red. So far, it seems pretty good, but I have been too busy to really do much with it yet.

I walked around downtown a bit, but I really wasn't quite ready to go shopping, so I decided that taking the CityCats up and down the river would be just the right amount of interest, with not too great of expenditure of energy - I wasn't sure how long I would last with the time zone change. The CityCats are catamarans that ply the waters of the river - similar to buses, only on the water instead. And now, I needed that region 2 pass. Had I purchased it earlier, when I first took the bus into the downtown area, that fare would have been good for the whole day, but since I had mistakenly only purchased a region 1 fare, I had to buy another ticket. But it was worth it. I spent the rest of the afternoon riding up and down the river. The day, which started out rainy, turned out to be nice, so there was no problem with the weather.

And, in addition to the native Brisbanites, there were quite a few tourists, so I could ask weird questions, without seeming too odd: why is it called the Story Bridge? Where was the original prison located? Unfortunately, though, I didn't find anyone with answers. Guess I will have to look in the guide book. I talked with a German family for quite a while (got to practice my German a bit) and a Russian woman (English), eavesdropped on some French people (understood only enough to know it was French), and heard several other languages I didn't know.

But, by 5:00, I was tired, so I decided to head back. It took me a while to figure out where to get the bus. Monday isn't an especially good day for eating out here, so I picked up dinner from the grocery story next door (interestingly, an IGA).

Called Arnold and Gail Wisseman. I will see them Wednesday morning for a drive out to the Gold Coast. Should be fun. Tomorrow, I may try to go out to Moreton Island. Need to make reservations now.

Pictures to follow, if I manage to figure out how to upload. Still working on trying to figure out the cell phone. 0410 941 076.

Second Leg

Hanging out in LA now. LA has got to be the one of the worst organized airports I have been in. I came in on Alaska Airlines and there was no information on how to get to Qantas. I had to ask multiple times - then went to the wrong place first. Flights to Sydney and Melbourne are in a different building from my flight to Brisbane. Ugh. Even the humongous Dallas-Fort Worth beats this.

I got through the beginning of the story about Fantine - up until she is in the hospital dying and Javert tells about finding "Jean Valjean". I hate the part about Fantine's teeth. Isn't it odd that that seems so much more disgusting than the prostitution. I don't really think it is, though - I just think I am insensitive to prostitution, because it is a common problem, one that I can't think about all the time or I would feel bad constantly. Selling teeth is a novel ugliness.

I get to fly business class on the next leg - LAX to BNE.

Both?

I am in Seattle with oodles of time, so I am going to experiment with doing both the blog thing and Facebook.

Here is what I wrote on Facebook:

Packing. The cats are helping. They are making sure that everything is suitably covered in cat hair. It is still snowy here and chilly, although it has been above freezing. It is hard to wrap my mind around temperatures in the 70s and 80s. The problem is, it is beginning to be fall in Australia and it should be cooling off slightly. How cool? What if I don't bring the "right" clothes. I guess I could just buy new ones. I need new clothes, anyway. I am down nearly 80 pounds now and have given away some clothes already, but still have 2 more laundry baskets full to give away.

Camera. I wanted to buy a new pocket camera. My digital SLR is just too cumbersome and I have disliked the zoom lens ever since I bought it. It just doesn't zoom enough for my purposes. But a stronger zoom would be a) way too expensive and b) way too big and even more cumbersome. I hate to go off to Australia without a camera, but the only store with the camera I want doesn't have the exact version that I wanted. I was going to get a Canon Powershot SX200IS. I really want a good zooming capability. But the store only had the red version. Now, I know the color of the camera isn't really important, but I just don't like the reddish color. Ugh. What to do?

Off to get a hair cut. Still not really started on packing.

Tons of other stuff to do, too. I don't think I will get everything done. Sigh.

And now, an update:
I am in Seattle with oodles of time (4 hours), so I think I will write a bit.

On the plane down, I listened to Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It is the April selection for our book group and I hadn't gotten very far with the reading, so I decided to buy the audio version and listen to it at odd moments on this trip.

When I was reading the book, I couldn't get the movie out of my mind and I couldn't get into the story about the bishop. It was interesting, but I didn't understand how it related to all of the characters I remember from the movie. But now that I am further into the book and getting to know how that plays into the background, I am in awe. This is a rambling tale to be sure, but the details are so evocative that I am getting more and more glad to just sit back and let them build up.

I just listened to the part where he declares that each person is like one or more animals in character. He is specifically talking about Javert, but, of course, I immediately speculate about what animal(s) I am like and what animals the people in my family are like. I would like to think that I am like some of my "talisman" animals: the tiger, the sea otter, the puffin. But I don't have the ferociousness of the tiger or the colorfulness of the puffin. And the sea otters seem to be more social than I am. It is funny that I can't pinpoint any of my own animal characteristics. Ah! Well! Let's see. Analytical, talkative, self-centered. Maybe I am a parrot.

Off to find some lunch.

An American Classroom - for Shaun

Background (for anyone reading this who isn't Shaun): I am a substitute teacher and am interested in many different aspects of education. For these particular blog entries, I was interested in the physical configuration of a particular classroom in the United States. The classroom is a 6th grade classroom in Fairbanks, Alaska. In this school district, most of the 6th grades are housed in the elementary schools, along with the Kindergarten through 5th grades.

At the time that the following pictures were taken, the school was celebrating "Graph around the School" week. During this week, each class thought of something they could graph on a bulletin board. Then they posted questions for each of the grade levels pertaining to these graphs. Students circulate around the halls and answer the questions for their particular grade level.

So here it goes. First a few of the graphing pictures. Captions are under the pictures.


Fast Food Restaurant Decisions
The graph on the left shows foods preferred by the students. The graph in the center shows the time of day for maximum sales. The graph on the right shows preparation time (pizza is at the bottom).


Heart Rates: Relaxed vs. Accelerated


How Far Can You Ride a Bike in 5 Minutes?
Students rode bicycles for 5 minutes.


Number of Animals in Alaska
The students graphed the number of animals of particular species that are estimated to be present in Alaska. This was done in connection with an art project, so you also see the decorated animals (not realistically colored).


Awesome Airplanes
The students made standard style paper airplanes and graphed the distances the paper airplanes flew.


How Many Steps Do You Take?
The students wore pedometers for 24 hours and graphed how many steps they took in a day. They also did computations on how many steps they should take for better fitness.

Countdown to Australia

I've still got a lot to do before the big trip, but I wanted to test out a few things before I leave. I have been trying to decide if I would blog the trip or just write notes on Facebook and I have decided to try out the blogging. If it is too cumbersome, I will just stick to notes on Facebook.

I leave for Australia early Saturday morning. Fairbanks, Seattle, Los Angeles, then Brisbane. I will lose a day in there somewhere, skipping over Sunday, I think.

A general outline of the trip:
Brisbane: 29 March - 1 April
Staying at B & B: Cream Gables in New Farm. Meeting with Gail Wissemann, if she is available. Getting used to time zone change. Possibly trip to Moreton Island, if I can figure out how to do it.

Sydney: 1 April - 5 April
Staying at Y Hotel Hyde Park. Meeting with Judith Ridge for dinner and WICKED! Harbor cruise, zoo, book store, botanical gardens.

Melbourne: 5 April - 9 April
Staying at Ibis Hotel, 15-22 Therry. RPG Convention with Shaun Hately; tram tour with Shaun - and geocaching.
Bus to visit Gunter and Sigrid Weller, 2 1/2 hours SE of Melbourne for lunch. Back to Melbourne to see Mamma Mia.
Train to Blackburn to visit Lara McDonald and children and tour the Dandelong Ranges; craft shops and tea.

Adelaide: 9 April - 13 April
Staying with Sandy Horne!!!! Impose on her hospitality. Tour of Kangaroo Island 11 April.

Head Home: 13 April
Arrive in Los Angeles BEFORE I leave Brisbane. The joys of crossing the International Date Line.

Thief in the House

Much as it pains me to admit it, one of my adopted offspring has turned into an incorrigible thief.  It started relatively simply.  I was eating dinner and the phone rang.  I had to go into where my computer is to get some information and when I got back, the last bite of dinner was gone.  I thought at the time, I probably just mis-remembered how much there was left on my plate.

But no, bits of this and that started disappearing at more and more frequent intervals.  And it wasn't always food.  Books started going missing after I placed them next to the bed.  And strange things, too.  The fur I combed out of the long-haired cat's fur was missing from the wastebasket where I had placed it.  

And then one day, I caught him in the act - stealing toaster pancakes out of the toaster.  And I caught him red-handed - or rather orange-pawed.  Yes, the thief slunk off with a guilty, but satisfied look on his face.  And now, I had to face it, there was a thief in the house.  And he is cunning.  He climbed in the cabinet to steal a bag of catnip.  He climbed into the sink and stole a shrimp tail.  

I have found the book - shoved under the night stand along with a furry (fake) mouse.  The missing cat fur was evident when I heard a "hhhhhhhcach" followed by a gloppy mess.  But I still can't figure out where he put the bag of pecans.  

The thief is the one on the left. I suppose I could blame it on his genetics. He is, after all, a pound kitty. Or maybe it was his environment. Where did we go wrong??? And why is he looking so smug???

The Things You LIKE First

For me, with people, it's obvious.  You put the people that you love and like first in your life.  But I have come a lot slower to that understanding with things.

I suppose my new consciousness of it started with silverware.  For everyday silverware, I had inherited my mother's things, when she broke up housekeeping.  And I had gotten a new set when I was married.  All of these jumbled together.  But then a lot of "my" set of spoons got lost.  I call them "mine", not because they only belonged to me, but because I chose the set and my husband and family had no interest in their choice or their design.

My husband, thinking that the simple design of "my" silverware meant that it was not the "good" silverware, put many of the spoons in the kids' lunches.  (Yes, he usually fixed the kids' lunches, so I am grateful.)  So we used a lot of Mom's silver, mixed in with mine.  Then, for some birthday or anniversary, my mother asked me what I wanted and I told her I really longed for a nice set of silverware - with all of the spoons.  I knew it was extravagant; I didn't REALLY need it, but I wanted it.  And she bought it for me.  I put it in a beautiful silverware case and the set sat there, waiting for company.  But company doesn't come that often and the beautiful case remained closed most of the time.  

So, one day, I decided to take away all of the old mishmash of Mom's silverware and mine.  I put Mom's and my silverware in an extra drawer and took my new set OUT of its beautiful case and put it in the regular silverware drawer.  And now, we use the new set every day.  It comes as a surprise to me that I enjoy that little thing so much.  No, we don't have a beautiful set reserved for company, but company can enjoy the simple and elegant set we use every day.

And now this corruption of saving things for special occasions has spread to my wardrobe.  Anyone who would take a close look at what I wear each day would notice that, for some reason, I seem to favor white turtlenecks or white short sleeved knit tops as a first layer.  But I had a hard time finding ones that fit.  Many of the ones I bought seemed OK at first, but after I washed them, the arms of the long-sleeved ones were a bit too short.  And I have never had the inclination to remove them after washing and line dry them.  

So I have accumulated a lot of white (and other color) turtlenecks that are still serviceable, but don't quite fit right.  Then, I found a turtleneck that REALLY fit, that I could wash and dry, and it STILL fit.  And I did something right:  I bought 5 or 6 EXTRA ones of this brand (Hanna Andersson, in case you want to know).  But, I was still trying to "use up" the ones that didn't quite fit right first.  Once I wore them out, I would use the Hannas, the ones that REALLY fit.  

But just a few weeks ago, I decided to apply the silverware strategy to the white turtlenecks.  Now, I wear the Hannas FIRST.  If and when they wear out (they seem to last forever, by the way: outstanding quality), I will use the ones that don't fit as well.  Most likely the reason that I will have to retire a Hanna is not because of wear, but because I tend to stain them.  And, I still have 3 brand new Hannas sitting in their wrappers on the shelf in my closet, so it may be a while until I have to wear the turtlenecks that really didn't fit.  

Maybe I can even recycle some of the things I am not using any more.  What a novel idea!  

My Living Spaces

Pursuant to our discussion of choices about living room furniture and where to put the books, these are candid pictures of my living areas. By candid, I mean that I probably should have cleaned/straightened up first, but I didn't - I just took the pictures as is. I apologize in advance to my husband, who likes things much more tidy, and would think this is completely weird.




Starting with the mostly east wall of the living room: You see the chair I usually use (the brown one), much in need of re-upholstering. Then the chair my husband uses the most. Behind are the three heavy bookcases. Note the overflowing stacks of books to be finished.

Next is the mostly south-facing view. On a clear day, you can see the Alaska Range. It is too cloudy in these pictures to see the mountains.




Then moving toward the west, there is the view of the dining area, with an extra table to collect stuff.






There is a closer view of where I sit in the kitchen.





Back in the living room, there is the half wall that encloses the steps going down to the lower level. The cats (Calvin, the orange tabby and Hobbes, the Maine Coon), love the half wall. It is their territory. You can also see one of my favorite toys, the jigsaw puzzle globe. Unfortunately, I think the company that made them is no longer in business, so I only have update number 2.



You can also see the cat's cat tree. This is a most favored spot for playing.

I skipped the entryway and the closet, which are basically pretty boring.

This is my work area in the upstairs bedroom. I am not the tidy one in the family.

Just to the right of my computer, there is this view.

And finally, a better view of the "boys".

Weird Ice Cubes

My refrigerator has an ice cube maker, but it has never worked. We could have looked into getting it repaired, but, since we aren't sure about our water quality, we have used ice cube trays instead. One of the interesting things about using these trays here is that a good percentage of the time, we get strange ice cubes, ones that stick up, rather than are flat or rounded. Even more interesting to me is that these upward spikes don't all go in the same direction. They are at crazy angles. I think someone explained to me once that a small jolt during the freezing process will cause an initial protuberance which then extends as the water is drawn upward along the small protuberance, like the meniscus on a glass of water. I am not sure if I completely understand it, though. Here is a picture of one of the ice cube trays. Yes, I do know how crazy it is to take pictures of your ice cube trays. Sigh.