tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62254634680664494102009-03-26T08:41:38.376-05:00...a journey through family, a journey through the classroom, a journey through life...Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-687263276195576142009-02-12T08:31:00.003-06:002009-02-12T08:45:19.323-06:00

Today is Granny's birthday. When I mentioned this to my class this morning, they insisted we call to sing her "Happy Birthday." I thought what a great idea. So I grabbed my cell phone, dialed, and pushed the speaker button. After four rings she answered with a drowsy hello. "HI, Granny!" I piped, as loud as I could into the phone."What." was her reply. And not "what?", which ends in a question

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-3749141604876622502009-01-27T11:23:00.006-06:002009-01-27T11:34:44.643-06:00

So I definitely need a new porch cover for the spring. :) I'm not sure there's any fixing this one.

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-75997017905897239062009-01-27T08:16:00.007-06:002009-01-27T10:02:41.970-06:00

I needed the $70 in groceries I bought yesterday before the ice storm. Like I need a hole in my head. I was talking to Mitchell at the grocery store last week and he said if the weathermen would just mention that we might get some type of weather, it would sure give the store a boost. We were joking about the influx of shoppers before the big moment hits. And there I was yesterday, just like the

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-46664113527985251472009-01-26T12:09:00.006-06:002009-01-26T12:28:04.558-06:00

Some day I want to go back. On the weekends, we walked across Mariabrucke into the city centre, hopping on the trolley that followed Ringstrasse. Our favorite stop: Stadtpark. Packed with rolling landscape, aged trees, winding sidewalks, thick, crisp patches of grass, and lots of people, Stadtpark was the perfect place to spend a summer evening in Vienna. We'd find our place on the grass and

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-8861027429924432382009-01-16T08:27:00.010-06:002009-01-16T08:58:03.328-06:00

If it's going to be 4 degrees. I want snow. Buckets of it. Where I have to shovel out for weeks and weeks and get to stay in my pj's all day and make warm chocolate chip cookies for breakfast if I want. Snows Days when I was a young child were spent in coveralls and mittens and boots outside for the first part. By noon, back inside where Caron and I made grilled cheese sandwiches...and Chef Boy R

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-88125017762669696762009-01-12T10:18:00.003-06:002009-01-12T10:25:06.144-06:00

I love watching student writers. Fingers pluck keyboards. Pencils dance across the page, sometimes not fast enough to get down every idea. This is a distinct sound, lead on paper, transferring thoughts. Hands resting the head are placed on foreheads or cheekbones, feet tapping, earbuds neatly hid down sides of faces. Sometimes, they stop to think and stare off into the distance, or out the window

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-28564249871875775182009-01-12T08:28:00.002-06:002009-01-12T09:35:06.135-06:00

Where did we go wrong? Was it when we played the King too early and couldn't catch the three? Was it when we forgot about the Big Joker being able to trump the Little Joker? Was it when we bid 7 three times in a row and thought we might have a shot at winning our first match from a negative 8 deficit? I don't know, but Wanda and I could not seem to get our cards to fall in the right places

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-73226767675677719522009-01-09T13:34:00.006-06:002009-01-09T14:06:12.615-06:00

This is Preston. He wore this shirt today. Here are his thoughts on why he wore this shirt: "I always get the worst kind of girl...so I just thought I'd wear this shirt today to prove to everyone else that "I'M A KEEPER!" So really, it's his tactic to attract the kind of girl he wants. So if someone actually believes his shirt, he should be swarmed by girls. But today, he says, "it's not workin'

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-54081815771320185592009-01-08T08:32:00.003-06:002009-01-08T08:58:34.847-06:00

I've been reading the latest of Edutopia. The entire December issue follows a theme called The Collaboration Age: Teachers Jump Into the We Generation. I couldn't help but snag it from the table in the teachers lounge. These types of magazines are always laying around in the lounge and I'm pretty sure very few people thumb through them. I can't concentrate because it Cherish by Madonna is on. The

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-8528197583973198922009-01-07T08:25:00.003-06:002009-01-07T08:40:23.137-06:00

I'm at a loss for things to write about right now. We are listening to Chris LeDoux. For some reason country music has never been too inspiring for me. It's first block: 8:30. I've been at work for almost an hour and a half--faculty meeting this morning. I wish I knew the potential my keyboard has. There are so many numbers and letters and function keys. I'm still using only the ones I was taught

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-34870254889007037932009-01-06T10:09:00.006-06:002009-01-06T10:30:52.573-06:00

We are listening to Nora Jones during warm-up writing. We've never put her on, and it's very soothing...and makes me think about friends and places a million miles away in my mind.Nora Jones got me through one summer in Brazil a few years. I never stopped listening to her on the plane, on buses, working at the children's home; my earbuds were never far from my body. I put together a photo album

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-34822919725863134092009-01-05T13:35:00.005-06:002009-01-05T14:12:27.759-06:00

A while back I posted a video about Generation We. This video is from a website that builds on the fact that this generation is trying to renew a hope in their own humanity and in the world. As a teacher, I hold this hope that the world will be a better place. Or maybe I should say it's different...not better. It's different than any other place I've ever been in my life. But that's okay. My

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-52964162321006186382009-01-04T09:04:00.014-06:002009-01-04T11:08:56.016-06:00

"What you do on New Years Day, you'll be doing all year long."I slept late.Didn't eat breakfast.Ate an orange.Wrote a letter to a friend in Finland.Wrote a letter to a friend in Japan.Re-booted my computer.Received a letter from a friend in Germany.Checked e-mail.Checked facebook.Changed my facebook status.Commented on a friends photo.Called a friend on the phone.Left a message on an answering

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-81805954803144902012008-12-27T19:36:00.005-06:002008-12-27T19:52:06.984-06:00

I must get cable. I'm not normally home on Saturday nights I guess because I never remember TV this bad. Here are my choices of shows to watch right now:NBC--rerun of the Olympics opening ceremony. Seriously.CBS--The Lord's Bootcamp, which seems like brainwashing to me when a young girl "practiced" her missionary work on an elderly woman in a nursing home in Indiania and left her crying.ABC--

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-208866442703303452008-12-22T08:28:00.003-06:002008-12-22T09:07:37.184-06:00

This was the news headline on the radio this morning before the weather, and I got a mental picture of the show-me state buried beneath the venison and round steaks in Kory's freezer. I don't know why.But yes, we are in a deep freeze. It was 4 degrees when I took the trash out this morning. BRRRRRR.Janet came to Missouri over the weekend for Christmas. We met at Snappy Mart for coffee while she

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-20060503679402157992008-12-19T09:29:00.004-06:002008-12-19T09:40:41.615-06:00

Yes, I made this. And yes. It was delicious.

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-56422810805311718162008-12-18T10:08:00.005-06:002008-12-18T10:31:16.706-06:00

Now it's 6th block, and we're listening to "Swing Life Away" by Rise Against. I love IMEEM. You can find anything there and it gets around the school firewall. Which, my blog is finally around the school firewall, but only because our tech team finally gave teachers "getting around the firewall" priviledges.Here's what just happened to me in the teachers lounge. Yesterday a teacher was absent

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-73899093838398208902008-12-18T08:31:00.002-06:002008-12-18T08:42:08.908-06:00

Today in class we are listening to Blink 182 and "Feeling This" is playing. I'm not particularly listening to the lyrics, although students are mouthing the words.I'm feeling the Christmas spirit. :) Shelby just reminded us that Christmas is one week from today. Yay. The kids are in a really good mood despite the fact that their finals start this afternoon and take them to the end of the school

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-78658761228522390912008-12-17T13:47:00.004-06:002008-12-17T14:22:28.898-06:00

4th block drives me insane. It is the reason teachers question their existence in the classroom, and think seriously about pursuing another career. It's the class that irritates me so much I want to scream, and then tells me stories that make me laugh so hard I can't even remember ever being mad at them. It's the class who makes up excuses and uses every second of the one minute I give them to

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-3120114284433167802008-12-17T08:10:00.006-06:002008-12-17T09:35:16.417-06:00

When I think about Christmas presents, I think about stockings and Cabbage Patch Dolls and race track cars and bibles and bicycles. But one gift that really sticks out in my mind is the jukebox from Christmas 1979...and it might have been 1980.It was such a great gift that rather than sitting in my bedroom, the whole family enjoyed its radiance. Parked between the kitchen and dining room in our

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-30180589851868914932008-12-16T10:19:00.002-06:002008-12-16T10:55:17.877-06:00

Five dollar ticket, $2 popcorn, a century old theater, and watching White Christmas from front center balcony--this is where the magical night began. Surrounded by chandeliers, tight theater seats, and gilded walls, we watched Bing Crosby woo Rosemary Clooney (my dad's first crush), while Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen danced the night away. Bing's blue eyes mesmerized us and Rosemary's voice carried

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-63647951564979311662008-11-23T22:08:00.003-06:002008-11-23T22:09:54.579-06:00

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-79513293595988894242008-11-16T12:17:00.002-06:002008-11-16T12:23:32.926-06:00

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-86499364448870358392008-10-08T06:55:00.003-05:002008-10-08T07:00:40.516-05:00

It's Wednesday and I'm behind on grading and everything else in my life. I have a million things about work running through my head at every second...so much so that I dream about the paperwork I have to do.I can only say that all this distraction in my head caused me to 1.) talk back to the answering machine last night to my best friend, actually thinking she was talking to me.And 2.) Back out

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6225463468066449410.post-37549719931909847112008-09-07T17:58:00.001-05:002008-09-07T17:58:26.483-05:00

Caseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895905113583024079noreply@blogger.com1