Milkshake Tuesday

After a long day of swim camp, we decided to "take a rest" at Johnny Rockets before heading off to swim team. Please note that this is the table before we attacked it with ketchup, nickels, and strawberry milkshakes.

Before we left, the waiter came over and said, "You know, you guys are really well behaved. Probably the best behaved kids I've ever seen in here!" I started laughing because I assumed he didn't see the crayons all over the floor that Kenzie kept diving for, or the water from the vase that Jack spilled all over his lap in an attempt to attack the mini juke box with five nickels at once, or the fact that you could no longer see the top of the table due to our variety of straw wrappers, "nakins," spilled ketchup, etc. When I told this to their dad, he said, "Well I bet the bar is pretty low there. . ." Indeed.

And apparently after swimming all day and then going to swim practice, the kids still had energy to play on the playground. They created a game where they tried to throw a ball over the monkey bars without it going through the bars. Please recognize that Kenz is oblivious to this and is singing to herself as she swings through the danger zone.

For all you non city people: This is what a park in the city looks like. This playground is at a really cool school in Philly that has soccer fields on the roof and a pool in the basement.

Summer!

It is now officially summer, and that means summer fun with the kiddos I babysit!

The reading chart is now sweeping the nation (and by sweeping I mean that I did it in Kansas and now I'm doing it in Philadelphia)! You may remember it from here. Basically the way the reading chart works is you get a poster board and put each kids name on it. For every ten minutes that the kid reads, he or she gets one sticker. Get to 100 stickers, and you get a special prize. I learned the hard way last year that you have to make the prizes far out there...Austin had gotten about three prizes within the first night because he read for something like eight hours straight....oops.

Something that is also really important to me during the summers is family dinners. I make a huge effort to make sure that everyone sits down to dinner; Johnny will sometimes join if he can make it. The kids set the table, and I do the cooking. At family dinner, the kids usually try some kind of newish food (like salad), and they get to share the best part of their day and the worst part of their day. There are also enlightening conversations like this one:

Jack: "I'm glad I'm not going to die."

Rachel: "I hate to break it to you but you are."

Jack: "But I threw that penny...ah man."

I believe that at some point in the recent past he had wished in a fountain that he wouldn't ever die and apparently thought that the deal was done. If only it were that easy Jack, if only.

Summer Reading # 2

The summer reading challenge is off to a great start. For those of you who don't know, my students have a long summer reading list that they get to choose books from, and I felt bad because I hadn't read all of them. So I've decided to do that this summer (thanks to my friend Molly who has copies of a lot of them).

Book #2: The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

The Chocolate War is kind of like The Outsiders + Lord of the Flies + Mean Girls. It's the story of a Catholic boys' school that's struggling to make ends meet, so they throw themselves into a chocolate sale every year. Meanwhile, there's secret gang of boys who pretty much run the school and force different students to do different tasks for them. One of the tasks first has to do with the chocolate sale and then gets totally out of hand. Very Mean Girl-esque. It is a book that shows excellent examples of mob mentality and how/why bullying happens, a hot topic around schools and government today. I enjoyed it overall and would definitely recommend it to my students.

I give it:

New Skirt

I had a little bit of extra time on my hands this Friday because the kids I babysit were out of town, so I went down in the basement to find some fabric and decided to make a skirt.

The pattern was really simple. Cut two pieces out, sew the sides together and then gather it at the top.

Then I sewed the waste band on...

...and hemmed it at the bottom...

...and voila! A new skirt. The pattern is a Simplicity "New Look" pattern. And the number is 6872, if you're interested in getting it. It's super easy and only takes a little bit of time.

Four Berry Sorbet

Today, ladies and gentlemen, we are making sorbet! My mother in law gave me her old ice cream maker, and I really wanted to use it. We didn't have any milk fattier than skim, so I decided to make sorbet instead...no milk needed. Here's what you do:

First, make sure that you know how to work your ice cream maker (you do need one of those for this recipe). I had to put mine in the freezer over night.

Pour 1/3 cup of white sugar into 2/3 cup of water. Heat it on the stove until the sugar dissolves, and then put the mixture into the refrigerator for about an hour until it's completely cool. Meanwhile...

Defrost your berries! I used about a bag and a third (approx. 20 oz) of a raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, and cherry blend.

After the berries are defrosted, puree them in a blender with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or a big glug of pink lemonade, which is what I did.

Add the cooled sugar water to the berry mixture, and pour the whole thing into the open top of your pre-frozen, already turned on ice cream maker.

**Note: Before doing this, you might want to strain the mixture through a strainer to get all the seeds out. I don't mind them, so I didn't do it.

Let it spin for about 40 minutes.

And voila! Sorbet! I put it in the freezer after this in an airtight Tupperware container. It gets even harder after sitting in the freezer for a few hours. I am currently eating out of the container with a big spoon.

Summer Reading #1

One of my goals this summer is to read all of the books on my students' summer reading list. They have a list of about 60 books that they get to chose one book from plus one required book. I've read a lot of them, so hopefully I'll be able to complete my goal.

Summer Reading # 1: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Okay, okay. So I've already read it, but it's just so good I had to read it again (and I don't usually like books where the author's name is bigger than the title of the book. I mean come on.). The Handmaid's Tale is a story about the U.S. in the near future where women are reduced to being reproduction machines. It sounds feministy, but it's not...totally. The main character is kind of like a mistress, but her one job is to get pregnant by the man of the house so that his barren wife can raise the child. It's an excellent companion to books like Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, two books that my students love. This one is just an easier read and more geared toward girls than most other futurist, dystopic society novels.

I give it:

Belated Father's Day

Thanks for always giving me a smile, Daddy. I love you!

And I'm sure you don't cut across your tee shots...whatever those are.

Class of 2011

It has been quite the weekend. My little baby seniors up and graduated yesterday morning. This is the first time that I've ever taught seniors, so it was a very exciting graduation day for me. Here are a few fun facts about my school's graduation:

1. The average graduation rate in Philadelphia is 50%. My school graduated 100%
2. The average college attendance rate from those graduating classes is 25%. I believe almost 100% of our students are planning on going.
3. One of my students is going to Wheaton!!!
4. I wore the same dress that I graduated from high school in under my cap and gown this year.

All the teachers got to wear graduation regalia as well. I've got my Wheaton orange and blue on the inside and then white on the outside for my English degree. I felt pretty snazzy.Johnny also got to wear something special this weekend: his uniform. For those of you who don't know, Johnny did ROTC all through Wheaton and is currently serving in the National Guard. Two years down, six to go. He's getting ready for a month long stint in Maryland in July. Only a few hours away this time, and he does look cute in that uniform.

Philadelphia

Dear Philadelphia,

Thank you so much for breaking the flower pot in front of my house. Oh yeah, and also the two in the back of my house. It's just so nice to know that after you've dedicated almost two years of your life to helping the youth of a city that the same youth will come and break your nice flower pots. Also, thank you Philadelphia criminals who ruined my friend Laura's flowers because you turned her flower pot upside down so you could stand on it to try to break into her second floor window. Who knew flower pots were so versatile? Nice work, Philadelphia.

Love,

Rachel

"This is the Moment"

Well, the end of the school year is upon us. I know most of you in the midwest are already finished, but for some reason, out East, we start late and end late. Usually, I try to avoid talking about school too much on here because of this, but I did want to mention a couple things about the end of the year.

After an awesome awards ceremony today where students received all kinds of things, including cash prizes (I'm still waiting for that teacher cash prize one, for some reason we didn't get to that in the ceremony...), we all got our yearbooks! They are entirely done by our student yearbook staff and our art teacher, including the cover, which I got the student artist to sign.

And apparently every year the senior class surprises one teacher they felt close to by dedicating the yearbook to them. I kind of knew it was going to be me because a few months ago one student said, "I heard a rumor that you said you don't want the yearbook dedicated to you." I said, "I have no idea what you are talking about." Student says, "Oh...ok." and leaves.

So I thought I might get a sentence or something in the back. But no! I have an entire spread full of pictures of me on the second page of the yearbook. Please notice that in some pictures I'm holding up my lunch box, holding books, looking annoyed and saying why are you still taking my picture in the middle of class... But it was really very sweet, and I'm very excited to cry all through graduation because this is my first graduating class of seniors; they've gotten so big!

Little Shop also got a really nice spread. I don't think I ever put a picture of Audrey II on here. Audrey II was built entirely by our art teacher, Joe Sinagra, and pretty much almost every student in the school and numerous teachers. We finished it the night before dress rehearsal, and then asked, "Wait, how are we going to get it over there?" The stage was 25 blocks away in West Philly.

But she made it, and the show was amazingly fun, and I'm so pleased to have a spread about it in the yearbook because it was a huge success for all of the students involved.

Here's where I need your help. Next year, Joseph or Godspell? They don't have to be Christiany shows, those just seem to be the two I'm stuck on.