Beautiful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhudXJepBAA

Quirks

This idea came my way per Rebekah Craft. Fun stuff. So, here are my quirks:

1. I sleep with a light on and the bedroom door open --too many murder mystery books. I figure I need to be able to see whatever is coming my way.
2. I usually read anywhere from 4-8 books at a time, which is why I never finish books quickly, well, unless it’s Harry Potter. I start reading something and then I come across another book I get equally excited about and I start reading that and there’s always a few magazine articles in the mix, not to mention the continuous line of audio books, which are my favorite. What can I say? I’m easily distracted.
3. My desk at school is a giant mess. Since the day I started, it’s always been a colossal disaster with assorted half eaten food items, coffee and tea stains on half the papers, kids lost items, gardening seeds, science experiments, you name it. It’s always a mountain of papers and no matter how much I sort, it continues to overflow. I’ve given up trying to organize it. I know right where everything is though…..mostly!
4. I’ve got to be able to walk barefoot in my house, so the floor’s gotta be clean.
5. I’ve been getting manicures with a little Asian lady solely for the purpose of her giving me a jade plant. That was the whole reason I even decided to get my nails done there because I got sucked in from the window to needing to see those jades up close and personal. You should see the jade plants she has in her shop! They’re like trees. Unbelievable. The first time I went there I told her how awesome they were and she said, “You like them. I give to you. You come back and I give to you. I throw them out. We got so many. They grow too much.”
6. I can’t eat an orange if it has any of that white stuff hanging off of it, so I sit there peeling all the little strings off…..Yeah, it’s tedious.

Orange

Hillary Clinton wore a very smart looking orange suit to the DNC last night. Since everyone's giving their opinion, I thought I'd give mine. It's sharp, smart and what a great color!

Whining....

So, I get home from vacation and in my mailbox is a letter from the DPS offices saying that we wouldn't be getting paid on our regular day this week in order to save costs and that we'll be getting paid a day later.....And that saves money how?

I am DPS

I am starting my 15th year of teaching,
14 of which have been in the Detroit Public Schools.

I love education. I love teaching. I really like being in Detroit.
Thankfully, my experiences have helped to make me better at teaching. I love working with the kids/ students, whatever background, whatever race, sp ed or gen ed, science or reading, it's all good.

Don't love the bureaucracy.

Don't love the union. (they get a LOT of my money)

Don't love the incompetency of what seems to be the majority in leadership.

Don't love the millions of dollars that are wasted in our district.

This is the 6th Superintendent to take over the district that I've worked under (give or take a few, as I've lost count).

This year marks the last of our contract and so, I have the added bonus of preparing mentally and financially for a strike come fall. Will Connie Calloway be the one to break the union? I think eventually another major city besides New Orleans is going to fall and I just wonder if I really want to be a part of that...

I came across this article (dated July 20, 2008)

http://www.macsb.org/NewsIndex.php?parm1=229

All year long this past year I've been wondering what was going on with the DPS first-class status. Detroit is the only district in the state to have 100,000 students +, making them a "first-class district". Arguable wording I know. Well, until last year that is. How we have avoided falling below that # last year I don't know because I am certain that we were under that number as of 2007-2008.

Anyway, our state legislature voted to redefine first-class to a new threshold of 60,000 students, because heaven forbid that we would loose our $15 million special funding bonus for being the largest district. So, we can all stop holding our breath now. Let's also not forget the fact that DPS is $400 million in the hole, have a 75% drop-out rate and under the provisions there will be no audit.

What is wrong with this picture??

You know, like when you were a kid and you watched Captain Kangaroo, there was this game called, "One of these squares is not like the other".

How exactly does 1 district get to 400 million in the hole?

Thankfully, J. Granholm also allotted funding for the small school iniative with lots of incentives for those "dreaded charter schools".

Hey, I believe in public education and plan to remain a part of it.

I also believe in good, old-fashioned, healthy competition. If someone else can do it better, they should. I mean where would we all be without Wal-Mart?

If you lived in Detroit, would you send your kids to DPS?

P.S.

In case you're wondering, the "I am DPS" slogan began with our former superintendent, Dr. Kenneth Burnley who spent a good 5 minutes reiterating the slogan in new and savvy ways during his first year in. We've had a good deal of fun with it ever since.

Holy Places in Brussels

Notre -Dame du SablonEntrance of ND

Cathédrale Saints-Michel-et-Gudule

Paris Houses of Worship

Yes,
I realize that I'm missing some amazing churches
from lovely Paris
however
I only had one day
and these are the ones I saw.
Truly amazing that even the small ones are
elaborate and gorgeous on the inside.

Église de la Sainte-TrinitéCenter doorway of Notre Dame

Temple de la Visitation Sainte-Marie
of La Marias
It just got restored/cleaned-up last year.

Cathedrals in Bruges

Church of Our Lady
from two
different viewpoints

Basilica of the Holy Blood has an Upper and a Lower Chapel.
The Upper is above.

The part that looks like a castle is actually the City Hall.
The Basilica has the lower roof line.

This is the Lower Chapel

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Luxembourg

Brugge

Bruges is an idyllic, cute, and charming little town.
It's definitely one of the postcard towns of Europe
and shouldn't be missed.
It is Flemish, which is an interesting language,
and has the most beautiful roof top lines around.
You are never more than a minute away from
a chocolate shop or a lace shop.
You go there to take pictures, ride along the canal
and enjoy a quaint little northern Belgian town.

A small Virgin Mary Statue

I love Paris in the summer, when it sizzles

Place de la Bastille

Place de la Concorde Square
The guilliotine was stationed here during the French Revolution
and King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette and others were beheaded here.

The Obelisk It once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple in Egypt and was moved to Paris on December 21, 1833. It marks the spot where the guillotine used to be.

Église du Dôme
within the Hôtel Les Invalides
Where Napolen Bonaparte is buried

L'Église de La Madeleine
This church is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene and to the glory of Napoleon's Army

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The Countdown is ON:
-109 Days until November 21-
Can't Wait!
The trailer is awesome. You won't be disappointed.
My vote says this one is going to be better
as we finally start to learn the story
of Voldemort's life.
Let the Horcrux hunt begin.
Anticipation is a sweet, sweet thing.

http://wbads-27.vo.llnwd.net/e1/wbmovies/halfbloodprince/teaser/HP6_Large.mov

7,000+

I'm a bit obsessed with the Holocaust right now.
I've been re-reading things I read when I was younger that thought I understood and now realize how much I missed and did not have a foundation to be able to understand.
Tonight I watched Schindler's List and then wept.

What I love about this website is that fact that it takes forever to scroll down to the bottom of the 1200 names.

http://auschwitz.dk/Schindlerslist.htm

In the end, life and how we live it matters.

Oscar Schindler: I could've got more ... I could've got more, if I'd just ... I could've got more ...
Itzhak Stern: Oscar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them.
Schindler: If I'd made more money ... I threw away so much money, you have no idea. If I'd just ...
Stern: There will be generations because of what you did.
Schindler: I didn't do enough.
Stern: You did so much.
Schindler: This car. Goeth would've bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people, right there. Ten people, ten more people ... This pin, two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would've given me two for it. At least one. He would've given me one. One more. One more person. A person, Stern. For this. I could've gotten one more person and I didn't. I didn`t ....."

So the movie ends as the survivors are placing a rock on Schindler's grave in Jerusalem. Today there are 7,000+ Schindler Jews as a living legacy.

A Lasting Legacy

Randy Pausch delivered "The Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon and it moved our world to tears, inspiration and a desire to enable others to achieve their dreams.
Here's to Randy for fighting hard until the end and doing it with joy. His courage challenges us to reflect about the direction of our own lives.
Are we leaving a lasting impact? Are other people the better for having met us?

“Brick walls are there to show our dedication and to separate us from the people who don’t really want to achieve their dreams. Don’t bail; the best gold is at the bottom of a barrel of crap.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Meet MiAnna

My nephew, Andre Ross, is getting a new sister really soon.
MiAnna is going to be adopted from S Korea.

All Washed Out

Well, I'm home from Europe and it seems the rain has followed me here!
It rained everyday in Amsterdam and has been raining most of the time that I've been back.
Northern MI is as cold and wet as it was in Amsterdam.
I want to go to the beach! I need the sun again!

Diverse

I stayed at the youth hostel last Saturday night before meeting the rest of the team here in Amsterdam. I had 3 bunkmates; one was from Japan, one was from Ukraine and the other from Finland. How's that for diversity?

And you thought your job was bad!

This is the outside of the L' Hexagone in France. It's a large stadium and it houses sporting events, concerts, etc.
So, yes it's huge and this section is near the top. The guy at the top is mowing the lawn. He's pulling the mower by that rope, up and down.
We were stuck in Paris traffic, so everyone on the bus tour got several pictures of this man's misery.
Guess it's all in a good day's work.

Paris!

L'Arc De Triomphe Du Carousel
The thinker from behind

The Opera House
One of my favorites! A little way down from the Museum D' Orsay, was a building that had landscaped plants on the front face of the building. There were hydrangeas, ornamental grasses, flowers, etc. So lovely!

Fountain in the Place de la Concorde
The gateway to the Latin Quarter
The most beautiful wrought iron balconies
In back of the Notre Dame
In front of Notre Dame

The American Store

I overheard some British folks walking out of The American Store saying that they would like to buy the American yellow mustard.

Cheese & Salami

Cheese & cold-cuts are offered at every meal, breakfast included.
However, it's good cheese and meats.

In Belgium & France, if you ordered a salami panini, you would get the best little French baguette with thinly shaved salami on it. That's it. Delish! The salami is the hard kind and it's outstanding.
I'd really like one right now.....

Haarlem and the North Sea

On Friday, I went to Haarlem in the Netherlands. It's about 15 minutes outside of Amsterdam and about 10 minutes from the North Sea. It took me 3 hrs. to go from Brussels to Amsterdam and only cost 32,00 Euro.
Unfortunately, I missed visiting Corrie ten Boom's house, but I did walk by it and I enjoyed touring around the city. It's a cute city and it was good to experience more of the Netherlands than just Amsterdam.
The North Sea was nice. The beach is very wide like it is in Florida. The ocean is a grayish black and it's not as beautiful here. The water was absolutely frigid. There aren't a lot of rocks or different shells. The beach was littered with the small, dime-sized clam shells.
The beautiful part were the dunes leading up to the sea. It looks a lot like Ludington, MI to me, except it's almost entirely covered with beach grasses, so you don't see any "bare" sand dunes. There are miles and miles of the dunes leading up to the beach and there are bike trails throughout.
It was fun to see & I took a siesta on the beach while I was there.

Random Notes About Europe

Random Notes about Europe

• WC/ Wash Closet: there’s a reason it’s called a closet
• Toilets don’t have handles and each one’s a trick to figure out how to flush
• My hairdryer works a whole lot better here
• The majority of the buildings are tall, beautiful, skinny row homes
• The windows have no screens
• There are few bugs. I’m attributing this to the lack of green spaces.
• Stairwell inclines here go straight up
• They are much more recycling friendly
• Traffic lights click
• No SUV’s here
• Lots of cobblestone everywhere; both streets and sidewalks. It varies in patterns and materials used (brick, stone, etc.)
• Getting the waiter to give you the bill is an art. Getting out of a café (restaurant) quickly is next to impossible.
• They do coffee right. They make the most delicious lattes with lots of foam on top.
• If you ever see the illy brand of coffee, get it. It’s my new favorite. I first tried it in Miami and it’s all over Europe. It’s Italian.
• You can’t get coffee to go (in most places)
• You can get a can of beer from a vending machine
• You can say a lot with a look, a smile or a gesture.
• Even people who said they could not speak English could still communicate with me pretty well.
• Men will wear capris & skinny pants here and yes, I’ve even seen the dreaded man bag.
• Women bike in their cute clothes….skirts, dresses and heels
• They wear all kinds of scarves with everything no matter what time of year
• People have a much better knowledge of geography and the world at large
• Everyone smokes

Love the street musicians