Yearbook-ed

Lots of friends have been posting pictures of themselves using the "Yearbook Yourself" site. I decided to check it out, and the results were fun and interesting. Try it yourself at www.yearbookyourself.com

In this first one I see a sure family resemblance to my Granny! (Circa 1952)

And this one reminds me of pictures of my dad's sisters hanging up in my Grandma's house. (Circa 1960)

This one is what I would have looked like if I were on "The Brady Bunch." (Circa 1974)

And this one is scary because I actually have a year book picture that looks pretty similar! (Circa 1990)

Mountains

During our Landform Unit, I've been teaching each of the first and second grade classes two days of lessons about mountains. The other day I was working with a group of first graders, and we had a big discussion about the reasons people go to the mountains, what kinds of things they do in the mountains (If you wanted to go diving would you go to the mountains?), how mountains affect what people wear, what kinds of things can grow in the mountains (If you wanted to be a farmer would you move to the mountains?), altitude sickness, and so on. Then I told the kids to draw a picture showing what people do in the mountains. They were supposed to prove they understood how mountains affect people's lives. Here's one picture I got:

I definitely think he has the right idea, don't you?

He Fixed My Shower

My master bathroom has a detachable shower head that fits into a clip, which is meant to let you adjust it to point up or down. When I first arrived at the apartment, the shower head wouldn't ratchet to stay in place; it pointed down and back toward the wall behind it. I left instructions for it to be fixed, and when I arrived back a month later it was. The shower head stayed put for almost a month before it started dropping down and spraying water all over the wall behind it.

I took it apart myself to try to figure out what the issue was, but no luck. I was able to jiggle it and get it to cooperate just long enough for a shower, but this was no long-term solution. The management office here is quite unresponsive to all requests for repairs, and I was about to try a stick-on hook and some string to tie it in place.

But then. The repairman actually showed up the other night! He stood on the edge of the tub and jiggled the shower head. Then he removed it from the hook and showed me that the clip worked just fine. So then I had to put the shower head back and show him that it didn't! He couldn't figure out what to do, so I took it apart for him. My confidence in his ability to fix it was lagging at this point... He unscrewed the hook from the wall - and a little folded up piece of paper fell out from behind it! We realized at the same time that the previous "fix" had been made by jamming this paper into the clip. We both had a laugh. And then, yes, you guessed it. He asked me to go get him some more paper to add to what was already jammed inside. Ha! Guess we'll see how long the fix lasts this time!

October Holiday

We had October 1-5 off for the Chinese labor holiday. I didn't think five days was really enough time to go anywhere, plus last October holiday I learned a good lesson about not going to an island during the October typhoon season! So... I decided to save my vacation money, stay in Shanghai, and go shopping instead! Here's a rundown of what I did:

Wednesday - Learned how to make homemade tortillas at a friend's house and went furniture shopping for about six hours at a Chinese antique place, an upholstery store with six floors, and IKEA. Bought 12 pieces at IKEA!!

Thursday - Went to the Pudong Flower Market and bought seven plants for my balcony. It's a great little secluded get-away now! Had my birthday dinner with some friends at my favorite restaurant in PuXi - Lapis Lazuli.


Friday - Went shopping at a furniture warehouse here in Pudong and bought a REALLY cool wooden chair and furniture for my balcony get-away. They're still making the cushion for the chair... Also went shopping for lamps for the living room.

Saturday - Proctored the SAT for seniors at our high school, had Thai food for lunch, played card games for hours at a friend's house.

Sunday - Stayed home all day. IKEA promised to deliver some time between 9am and 2pm and assemble my 12 pieces sometime between 2pm and 8pm. I scheduled the other furniture delivery and lamp delivery for Sunday, too, since I knew I'd have to be home all day. While waiting around, a friend and I planned our Chinese New Year trip to Vietnam (coming up in January) and I leveled and stickered about 100 books from my classroom library. I promise to post pictures of my apartment soon. It's feeling much more homey now!

Assembly in progress...

Check it out!

Check out the pictures I've added to previous posts!

Today I'm having...

An "I Love China" day! Not every day here is one that makes us love living here, and we have to remind ourselves that we do love China. But today has been the kind of day that reminds me it's really true.

I decided to go to the flower market on my side of the river, only about 20 minutes away. I wandered around admiring potted plants and outdoor furniture before going upstairs, where I browsed stalls of glassware, oil paintings, and Chinese furniture. I stumbled upon a stall filled with grandfather clocks, cuckoo clocks, antique cameras and sewing machines, and-oh joy!-the antique style telephones I'd been wanting! (What an odd place to discover. In China. In flower market.) There were some beautiful phones, and I asked to see one locked behind glass. The vendor started to unlock the cabinet, and the lock broke off in his hand! I felt terrible, and I knew I was going to end up buying a phone after that. He started to pry open the glass with his hands, and I suggested he just get one of the boxes stacked on top of the cabinet instead. (LOL) He proceeded to put the phone together for me, plug it in, call his mobile using it, and have a forty-minute conversation with me through it all! He didn't speak any English, and I don't speak Chinese, but I found out he's been to several European countries, Japan, and Yemen. He used to have a car, but he got rid of it in 1995. His daughter is 18, and he thinks she'll go to America. He loves Celine Deon, and he thinks his tape player/radio is about the same age as me. It's 23 years old. :-) When we tested the phone, he walked away using his mobile, and I talked to him on the new antique. When he showed me how to redail, he said, "Mushi mush" and asked if I spoke Japanese! He carefully wrapped up the phone, since it didn't fit back in the box, and told me that if I had summa wen tie (some problem) I could come back. When I circled back past his stall, I heard him telling his friends about Jennifen. :-)

I wandered through the fresh cut flowers and saw that it was about to start raining, so I made a quick selection. I was five yuan short, and the vendor told me mei wen tie (no problem). How sweet!

I managed to catch a cab just before a torential deluge started. And when we arrived at my apartment, I paid and was about to get out when the driver asked, "You don't have an umbrella?" (in Chinese), got out in the pouring rain, opened his trunk, and came around to open my door and walk me up the steps to my apartment entrance!

I seriously need to learn how to say a stronger version of "Thank you!" And I really do love China. :-)

Writing Workshop

I'm trying to teach writing using the Lucy Calkins Writing Workshop model this year, and I'm LOVING it! Writing has always been one of the most difficult things for me to teach. I have a long way to go, but I'm already seeing results with the kids. Today I had a conference with a little boy, and just as I was about to move on to the next kid, he said...

"Miss Reed, sometimes, you know what I do? When I'm writing, I have to go back and read what I already wrote so that I don't forget what I want to say next." And then he proceeded to do just that.

AHH! You rock, my little writer! They're learning the language and they're using the skills. This little guy's working on a true small moment story about one time when a bear came into his grandma's backyard and knocked down the bird feeder.

Then, at the end of Workshop during the Teaching Share, another little boy said, "Miss Reed, today I imagined." He looked at me expectantly because he knew I'd be proud, so I said, "You mean you closed your eyes and imagined everything that happened in that moment so that you could add more details to your story?" "Yeah." Big smile and he skipped off for lunch. I love when what I'm doing actually gets through to them!