I ran into a woman in the bathroom yesterday who was a first year teacher retiree. We followed one another into the ladies room after touring the Confederate White House in the same six person group. I, of course, asked questions whenever the tour guide asked if anyone had any, so she said, "You're a teacher, right?" "What was your first clue," I laughed. I'm retired", I said. That's when she said, "This is my first year to be retired. It feel so strange not to be at school." Teachers bond over stuff. More so, I think, than people who work in a 'normal' atmosphere.
When the first day of school rolls around and you're a new retiree, you feel like you're pulling a fast one. It's hard to explain 'first day of school'. It's not just kids who are nervous, excited, and wondering what they should wear. The first glimpse of the kids you will see every day for 185 days is exhilarating, and, when you teach the alternative population, sometimes a little scary. The initial interaction sometimes sets the tone for the entire year with a class. The assessments start the first day about how you are going to help the kids that file into the room.
Teachers spend time, money and effort working 'off the clock'. In August of this year USA Today wrote an article about how much of their own money teachers wind up spending. It's not bad enough that teachers buy their own office supplies - imagine telling any other professional they need to buy copy paper, pens, pencils, oh, a stapler, staples and whatever else they think they might need to do their job! No, they don't just buy office supplies. They buy books, learning aids, enrichment materials, laboratory equipment, experiment materials, and other stuff that should be covered by their school district. Well, it isn't. Here's the USA article if you don't believe me. http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/08/18/teachers-budget-money/2660077/
There's a relatively new phenomena - a website devoted to helping teachers raise money for their projects. This isn't about office supplies. This is about developing a project, a lesson plan, or enrichment program to help kids. These projects are 'vetted' and if they pass the scrutiny, then the project is offered to the public with the opportunity to help the teacher FUND the project. The website is called "Donor's Choose". I like to help teachers I KNOW. I specifically like to help a teacher I know who teaches in those places where the kids need the most help. That usually means 'poor'. My current teacher friend who falls into this category has a project on Donor's Choose.
She's bitten off a big chunk designing a great program to help her low income, rural, elementary school children improve their reading skills. She's hoping to challenge each child in her entire school to read 100 books this school year. Well, you have to have books kids WANT TO READ. That's what she needs. This project costs $1000.00 to fund. So far, she's raised $578 out of the $1000 to fund her idea.
Basically, I need you to go to this project, and give. It's real simple. We'll take $5.00. That's a cup of coffee. Of course, we'll also take $50. It's up to you. Read her idea. Look at the books she needs to buy. She needs THIS project funded NOW. There are only 40 days to raise $422 dollars. I'd like for you to join me and reduce that amount. Ready? Start? Click! This is so easy; do your part.
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=1018066
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Who? What? Where? When? I Don't Remember.
I'm tired of getting old. Now my 'good foot' is going wonky. I finally admitted it was really hurting and getting worse, so I went to the doctor. Turns out that I've damaged it, and now I'm wearing a foot brace that I have to wear 24/7 until I see the doctor again in one month. But that's not ALL. Right now, if I put my computer down and stood up, I would have to wait for everything to 'settle', and it would still hurt somewhere when I took my first step. Lots and lots of niggling little aches and pains that individually don't really bother me that much, but taken all together, well, it's a miracle I get out of bed.
I shouldn't complain since I can get out of bed, but I exercise almost every day. I'm supposed to feel better, aren't I? I supposed to be bursting with energy. For heaven sake's I swam laps more than 30 minutes today and did other stuff in the pool. Tomorrow, I'll probably lift weights - and then I'll really hurt. Ok, Ok, Ok. It's not just the physical stuff.
I'm discovering I'm losing the ability to spell. I've always been a great visual speller, and I can still usually do that, but sometimes, I now have to spell a word phonetically - yeah, I had to do that with the "p" word in this sentence. I got the red wavy underline which just silently screams, "You dummy". Spell check is saving my ass. How depressing. I was never a good audible speller, but to just have words 'vanish' out of my head is disconcerting. It's not every word, of course, but sometimes it's EASY words that go poof. I just hate that.
Also, soon I'm going to have to write a list to make sure I remember everything I need to do to go pee. My life is totally controlled by lists and calendars. My mother was the queen of lists and the empress of the calendar. Now, I understand why. If I don't write it down, then I don't remember when/what/who. I can just about remember to buy four items at the grocery store without having to make a list. Does it count against me that I have to say the four items as a mantra under my breath the entire time I drive to the store?
Don't get me started with trying to 'find' something. This one is really frustrating. Drake insisted that we list everything that's packed in a 'tub' when we started this peripatetic (got that one spelled the first time!) life. That system has worked really well. As we move around, though, last minute stuff in these mini-moves tends to get tucked away in that nebulous land of 'someplace'. As in, "I know I put it SOMEPLACE!" Occasionally, "someplace" turns into, "DAMNATION! I can't believe that I left that, forgot that, or lost that."
We also play a new game around here called, "Where are my glasses?" No, it's not me - mine are always on my face. It's Drake. A few days ago, he looked and looked and looked for his favorite pair. They are not different from his others, but they are in his special soft leather case. He stomped around muttering, "I've just gone off and left them somewhere." Fortunately, they rematerialized. We went from, "Damn it, I've lost them!" into "Oh, I forgot, they were in my jacket pocket." This was a two day morph which caused quite a bit of angst around here.
I can also feel my brain processes slowing down. Now, I understand why the elderly increasingly dislike change and having to make snap decisions. I'm getting it. They are worried they've forgotten some key thing, and it paralyzes their decision making. Moving around from town to town is actually very helpful; we have to adapt to new traffic, new land marks, and have to REMEMBER where things are. Most days we are holding our own except on the days we don't. Those are the U-turn days. Or, the ones that have queries of, "Where was the CVS?" "Do you remember how we went to the post office last time?"
I also miss 'automatic pilot'. I used to be able to think or talk about something while doing some routine something else at the same time. My auto pilot got me through all the mundane stuff while I enjoyed doing other things with my brain. Now, that luxury has slipped away. I have to actually pay attention to the ordinary repetitive stuff, or I will forget some key thing in the sequence that used to be just automatic. If I don't give the ordinary my complete attention, I periodically leave the house without something, or I wander around retracing my steps a zillion times as I try to get the easy stuff done.
I'm also tired of wrinkles, age spots, and drooping whatever. This actually bothers me less than the other stuff since I was never a great beauty. For those women who WERE beauties in their youth, this wrinkle, droop, spot thing must be horrifying and anger inducing. You know what the worst part is? It's looking in the mirror and seeing the faint lines that YOU KNOW are going to be cavernous wrinkles in another ten years. That's why really, really old women never look like pictures of their younger selves. We change into people we don't even recognize in the mirror. How screwed up is that?
All right, I've finished whining. Just saying that some days life seems all uphill with pot holes. Of course, at some point, any day you're vertical instead of horizontal is a good day. Just goes to show: All things are relative.
I shouldn't complain since I can get out of bed, but I exercise almost every day. I'm supposed to feel better, aren't I? I supposed to be bursting with energy. For heaven sake's I swam laps more than 30 minutes today and did other stuff in the pool. Tomorrow, I'll probably lift weights - and then I'll really hurt. Ok, Ok, Ok. It's not just the physical stuff.
I'm discovering I'm losing the ability to spell. I've always been a great visual speller, and I can still usually do that, but sometimes, I now have to spell a word phonetically - yeah, I had to do that with the "p" word in this sentence. I got the red wavy underline which just silently screams, "You dummy". Spell check is saving my ass. How depressing. I was never a good audible speller, but to just have words 'vanish' out of my head is disconcerting. It's not every word, of course, but sometimes it's EASY words that go poof. I just hate that.
Also, soon I'm going to have to write a list to make sure I remember everything I need to do to go pee. My life is totally controlled by lists and calendars. My mother was the queen of lists and the empress of the calendar. Now, I understand why. If I don't write it down, then I don't remember when/what/who. I can just about remember to buy four items at the grocery store without having to make a list. Does it count against me that I have to say the four items as a mantra under my breath the entire time I drive to the store?
Don't get me started with trying to 'find' something. This one is really frustrating. Drake insisted that we list everything that's packed in a 'tub' when we started this peripatetic (got that one spelled the first time!) life. That system has worked really well. As we move around, though, last minute stuff in these mini-moves tends to get tucked away in that nebulous land of 'someplace'. As in, "I know I put it SOMEPLACE!" Occasionally, "someplace" turns into, "DAMNATION! I can't believe that I left that, forgot that, or lost that."
We also play a new game around here called, "Where are my glasses?" No, it's not me - mine are always on my face. It's Drake. A few days ago, he looked and looked and looked for his favorite pair. They are not different from his others, but they are in his special soft leather case. He stomped around muttering, "I've just gone off and left them somewhere." Fortunately, they rematerialized. We went from, "Damn it, I've lost them!" into "Oh, I forgot, they were in my jacket pocket." This was a two day morph which caused quite a bit of angst around here.
I can also feel my brain processes slowing down. Now, I understand why the elderly increasingly dislike change and having to make snap decisions. I'm getting it. They are worried they've forgotten some key thing, and it paralyzes their decision making. Moving around from town to town is actually very helpful; we have to adapt to new traffic, new land marks, and have to REMEMBER where things are. Most days we are holding our own except on the days we don't. Those are the U-turn days. Or, the ones that have queries of, "Where was the CVS?" "Do you remember how we went to the post office last time?"
I also miss 'automatic pilot'. I used to be able to think or talk about something while doing some routine something else at the same time. My auto pilot got me through all the mundane stuff while I enjoyed doing other things with my brain. Now, that luxury has slipped away. I have to actually pay attention to the ordinary repetitive stuff, or I will forget some key thing in the sequence that used to be just automatic. If I don't give the ordinary my complete attention, I periodically leave the house without something, or I wander around retracing my steps a zillion times as I try to get the easy stuff done.
I'm also tired of wrinkles, age spots, and drooping whatever. This actually bothers me less than the other stuff since I was never a great beauty. For those women who WERE beauties in their youth, this wrinkle, droop, spot thing must be horrifying and anger inducing. You know what the worst part is? It's looking in the mirror and seeing the faint lines that YOU KNOW are going to be cavernous wrinkles in another ten years. That's why really, really old women never look like pictures of their younger selves. We change into people we don't even recognize in the mirror. How screwed up is that?
All right, I've finished whining. Just saying that some days life seems all uphill with pot holes. Of course, at some point, any day you're vertical instead of horizontal is a good day. Just goes to show: All things are relative.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Might as Well Have Been Mars
In 2023 there's going to be commercially backed manned mission to Mars. Applications are being accepted and evaluated for the one way trip. There are apparently five 'astronaut' characteristics the leaders of the mission are looking for: Resiliency, Adaptability, Curiosity, Ability to Trust, and Creativity/Resourcefulness.
In 1606 the Virginia Company was chartered by King James. This was a commercial venture by a group of English merchants and aristocrats to establish a colony in the New World. The purpose was to tap into the vast resources they were sure existed in the unexplored continent. 104 men made the four month journey in three small ships and established the Jamestown Colony. They chose a small almost island in the James River. It was connected with an isthmus to the mainland, and it was chosen because it would be easy to defend against the Spanish who didn't like anybody else from Europe horning in on the New World resources. This is the first English settlement in the United States. I was utterly struck today by the similarity of these two missions 400 years apart.
After our visit today, it was perfectly clear that you would have to exhibit the five astronaut traits PLUS have a boatload of luck to just survive. I wondered all day long who these men were. They signed up for a one way trip into the unknown just like their 21st century counterparts who want to go to Mars. I was struck by the list of occupations of the first Jamestown colonists. One was pretty hilarious in terms of 21st century hindsight - a jeweler to evaluate all the precious stones they hoped to find. There were also soldiers, explorers (specifically Captain John Smith), metallurgists, barrel makers, carpenters, farmers, leather workers, and laborers. When it became clear via Spanish gossip whispered in England, the colonists were marrying the native women, 90 English women arrived the fourth year of the colony. The women's survival was even more perilous: They faced childbirth in this bare subsistence environment.
The Company instructions to the colonists were to coexist with the natives since they hoped to trade with them for food and absorb local geographic knowledge. That detente attitude lasted for about two years. At that point relations deteriorated steadily due to the usual problems of two cultures rubbing up against one another. The real blow was the disastrous winter of 1609-10. It's called "the Starving Time" and has been documented by historians. The earliest colonists managed to arrive in the middle of the worst drought in 800 years. Not only did they not have enough stores for winter, but they were penned in the fort they had erected against Indian attacks by the very Indians they were fighting. Out of 500 colonists, only 60 survived that winter, and it's been proven they resorted to cannibalism to survive. Today, we saw the skeleton of a 14 year old girl whose body had been cannibalized. After eating her facial meat, cracking open her femurs for the marrow and opening her skull to eat the brain, she was dumped into an abandoned well. Her desecration proves the utter desperation of the few survivors.
The colony was on the point of extinction in the spring of 1610 when a strong willed governor arrived on a well-provisioned ship and saved the colony. This was the beginning of the end of the Powhatan Indians. They had used Jamestown and the surrounding lands on the James River as their summer home for about 10,000 years. Within 50 years of the arrival of the English, their numbers dwindled from 15,000 to 2,000.
As the 17th century unfolded, Jamestown became a jumping off place for new arrivals from England. It didn't take long for the word to spread there was unlimited land for the taking. Jamestown's political importance dwindled when the 'capital' of Virginia was moved up the peninsula to the new town of Williamsburg in 1698.
Jamestown's successful establishment proved there was value in the New World. Colonists experimented with several industries looking for the 'cash' crop. John Rolfe, a key early colonist, managed to grow a Caribbean strain of tobacco and ship it to England. Jackpot! Tobacco was a double edged sword: It gave the Virginia colony it's economic backbone and profitability, but it also established slavery in America as more and more of the profitable tobacco was planted. Tobacco is very labor intensive, and gradually over a 50 year time span, the labor was increasingly provided by slaves forcibly imported from Africa.
Jamestown languished as the centuries passed finally becoming only farm land. That was a stroke of luck because in the 1990's backed by private financing, archaeologists began excavating the site discovering a treasure trove just inches under the surface. They found the layout of the original fort, the first legislative building in the United States, a large church, and a huge trading house. They also found the detritus of the first colonists as well as their bodies.
It struck me how Jamestown is much more representative of who American's are than the pious bible toting Pilgrims. Jamestown was all about money, getting ahead, innovation, hard work, and taking a chance. What's more American than that? The proof? Well, over 250,00 people want to make that one way trip to Mars. I think those applicants would have been on the same wavelength as those Jamestown colonists 400 years ago.
If you want to see the pictures of this fascinating place where it all started, here they are:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115478608971584948192/albums/5921801456105992961?authkey=CPXEmOf37bymwgE
In 1606 the Virginia Company was chartered by King James. This was a commercial venture by a group of English merchants and aristocrats to establish a colony in the New World. The purpose was to tap into the vast resources they were sure existed in the unexplored continent. 104 men made the four month journey in three small ships and established the Jamestown Colony. They chose a small almost island in the James River. It was connected with an isthmus to the mainland, and it was chosen because it would be easy to defend against the Spanish who didn't like anybody else from Europe horning in on the New World resources. This is the first English settlement in the United States. I was utterly struck today by the similarity of these two missions 400 years apart.
After our visit today, it was perfectly clear that you would have to exhibit the five astronaut traits PLUS have a boatload of luck to just survive. I wondered all day long who these men were. They signed up for a one way trip into the unknown just like their 21st century counterparts who want to go to Mars. I was struck by the list of occupations of the first Jamestown colonists. One was pretty hilarious in terms of 21st century hindsight - a jeweler to evaluate all the precious stones they hoped to find. There were also soldiers, explorers (specifically Captain John Smith), metallurgists, barrel makers, carpenters, farmers, leather workers, and laborers. When it became clear via Spanish gossip whispered in England, the colonists were marrying the native women, 90 English women arrived the fourth year of the colony. The women's survival was even more perilous: They faced childbirth in this bare subsistence environment.
The Company instructions to the colonists were to coexist with the natives since they hoped to trade with them for food and absorb local geographic knowledge. That detente attitude lasted for about two years. At that point relations deteriorated steadily due to the usual problems of two cultures rubbing up against one another. The real blow was the disastrous winter of 1609-10. It's called "the Starving Time" and has been documented by historians. The earliest colonists managed to arrive in the middle of the worst drought in 800 years. Not only did they not have enough stores for winter, but they were penned in the fort they had erected against Indian attacks by the very Indians they were fighting. Out of 500 colonists, only 60 survived that winter, and it's been proven they resorted to cannibalism to survive. Today, we saw the skeleton of a 14 year old girl whose body had been cannibalized. After eating her facial meat, cracking open her femurs for the marrow and opening her skull to eat the brain, she was dumped into an abandoned well. Her desecration proves the utter desperation of the few survivors.
The colony was on the point of extinction in the spring of 1610 when a strong willed governor arrived on a well-provisioned ship and saved the colony. This was the beginning of the end of the Powhatan Indians. They had used Jamestown and the surrounding lands on the James River as their summer home for about 10,000 years. Within 50 years of the arrival of the English, their numbers dwindled from 15,000 to 2,000.
As the 17th century unfolded, Jamestown became a jumping off place for new arrivals from England. It didn't take long for the word to spread there was unlimited land for the taking. Jamestown's political importance dwindled when the 'capital' of Virginia was moved up the peninsula to the new town of Williamsburg in 1698.
Jamestown's successful establishment proved there was value in the New World. Colonists experimented with several industries looking for the 'cash' crop. John Rolfe, a key early colonist, managed to grow a Caribbean strain of tobacco and ship it to England. Jackpot! Tobacco was a double edged sword: It gave the Virginia colony it's economic backbone and profitability, but it also established slavery in America as more and more of the profitable tobacco was planted. Tobacco is very labor intensive, and gradually over a 50 year time span, the labor was increasingly provided by slaves forcibly imported from Africa.
Jamestown languished as the centuries passed finally becoming only farm land. That was a stroke of luck because in the 1990's backed by private financing, archaeologists began excavating the site discovering a treasure trove just inches under the surface. They found the layout of the original fort, the first legislative building in the United States, a large church, and a huge trading house. They also found the detritus of the first colonists as well as their bodies.
It struck me how Jamestown is much more representative of who American's are than the pious bible toting Pilgrims. Jamestown was all about money, getting ahead, innovation, hard work, and taking a chance. What's more American than that? The proof? Well, over 250,00 people want to make that one way trip to Mars. I think those applicants would have been on the same wavelength as those Jamestown colonists 400 years ago.
If you want to see the pictures of this fascinating place where it all started, here they are:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115478608971584948192/albums/5921801456105992961?authkey=CPXEmOf37bymwgE
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