I was observed by my principal today and had a great lesson! I was so relieved!! I was working in a classroom today and the teacher and I put together a lesson to introduce and illustrate descriptive adjectives. I told the story of "The Six Blind Men and the Elephant" (where the six men all touch and describe different parts of the elephant). I was able to introduce nearly all of the adjectives for the unit in the story. Then I took small groups out to explore feely boxes. They used the introduced words (and others if they knew them - depending on their English proficiency level) to describe the materials in the boxes. Then we compared the materials to each other (Number 5 is softer than number 9, etc.). It was great. This particular teacher and I work very well together and she is very receptive to incorporating the language lessons into the content lessons. I take a group of her students three times per week for a language/literacy group (reading group with a VERY ESL slant - vocabulary and lots of discussion). She has seen a lot of growth in these students, particularly in their ability to truly discuss a story rather than superficially using only the decoded text. Things are finally moving along at work :).
Saturday, we ate dinner at our neighbor's daughter's house. It was wunderbar!! They served a traditional Hessen New Year's Eve meal. I was expecting heavy German food but I was very wrong. There were two table grills with bowls of chopped, marinated meats (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp) and other bowls with potatoes, corn, beans, bean sprouts, pineapple, manderin oranges and cheeses. We grilled the meat on top and put the other stuff in little trays with cheese on top and placed them under the grill. We just kept grilling and eating until we were absolutely stuffed!! My next purchase will have to be one of those table grills :).
Anyway, I'd love to hear from people! I was disappointed that I missed some of you at Christmas but, with only two days, I didn't have time to get around to everyone. I was hoping to see you at Lorene's. Those that did come - boy, we had a blast!!!
Can you feel the positive vibes in the air? Everyone here is so hopeful and the Obamas have already healed some anti-American sentiments! Yippee :)
4 comments:
Cary,
Dinner looks delicious! Can you send a pic of the table grill? Maybe some Alaskan relatives need one of those grills too! ;)
Greg
As a vacillating conservative, just thinking about the positive vibes makes me happy and mine are definitely better towards Germany after the World Wars and after the Wall came down. Too bad so many thousands of our countrymen had to die for their decades of political errors. I think their vibes will grow stronger towards us as we embrace Socialism - tax oppression loves company. As a new non/low earner now I'm looking forward to a more socialistic attitude from the higher earners (my position is they will always need more education as long as it doesn't rob Social Security and will always need better jobs) since I plan on living to an ludicrous ripe old age. Love ya all.
PS did ya know that more US Servicemen died per year under Clinton's administration than under Bush's? And yet Clinton was far more popular - it's a personality cult thing I guess. Also, have you noticed there's no news about Iraq on TV anymore? Nothing to gain politically anymore.
Oops, I repeated something I heard and it was backed up with stats but it's not up-to-date. It was comparing the first few years of bush with clinton. Time has changed the standings.
year active deaths pres
---- --------- ------ ----
1980 2,159,630 2,392 carter
1981 2,206,751 2,380 reagan
1982 2,251,067 2,319 reagan
1983 2,273,364 2,465 reagan
1984 2,297,922 1,999 reagan
1985 2,323,185 2,252 reagan
1986 2,359,855 1,984 reagan
1987 2,352,697 1,983 reagan
1988 2,309,495 1,819 reagan
1989 2,303,384 1,636 g hw bush
1990 2,258,324 1,507 g hw bush
1991 2,198,189 1,787 g hw bush
1992 1,953,337 1,293 g hw bush
1993 1,849,537 1,213 clinton
1994 1,746,482 1,075 clinton
1995 1,661,928 1,040 clinton
1996 1,613,675 974 clinton
1997 1,578,382 817 clinton
1998 1,538,570 827 clinton
1999 1,525,942 796 clinton
2000 1,530,430 758 clinton
2001 1,552,096 891 g w bush
2002 1,627,142 999 g w bush
2003 1,732,632 1,410 g w bush
2004 1,711,916 1,873 g w bush
2005 1,664,014 1,941 g w bush
2006 1,611,533 1,882 g w bush
2007 1,608,226 1,950 g w bush
President Clinton assumed office shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War, but nevertheless was forced to confront numerous international conflicts. Shortly after taking office, Clinton had to decide whether the United States, as a world superpower, should play a role in the conflicts and violence occurring in Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Haiti.
Initially, Clinton was reluctant to become involved militarily in international conflicts. However, Clinton came to believe that the United States had a stake in the protection of human rights and the promotion of the political and economic stability of remote countries. As Commander in Chief, Clinton ordered armed forces to these regions to end fighting, maintain peace, and protect innocent civilians. Almost as many American lives were lost during "peace time" in the Clinton administration than in the two wars fought during the Bush administration. Clinton also spent much of his foreign policy effort on trying to end the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East, with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular.
The lives lost under the Clinton administration were for entirely different reasons than under either of the Bush administrations (father and son) with the U.S. playing entirely different roles. Of course, there is still some argument as to whether the U.S. should have become involved in the peace-keeping missions (especially Somalia). But, most do agree that the reasons for involvement were not veiled attempts to take over oil reserves or to settle a score for other Arab (oil rich) nations.
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