Whale Watching

This afternoon, walking on the beach turned out to be quite unique.

Sure, you assume there are whales out there in the big, big sea. You assume that, now and again, they visit the Monterey Bay. Maybe a big blue wants to sniff the cotton candy smell from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Maybe a giant grey is curious about the Cold Water Classis surf competition at Steamer Lane. But you don't SEE them. You don't normally watch flippers and tails and big blow-hole spouts OVER AND OVER from the vantage point of the beach.

I decided to walk a long, long way this afternoon. Suzzie the dog seemed ammenable. Walking on down to Hidden Beach I was delighted to see from the bluff a super low tide, glassy, smooth water, and clear blue skies. We went about four times farther than usual. On the way back, I noticed a few of my fellow walkers had stopped and were staring out to sea. That's when I saw what they saw. Giant blow hole spout. Then a flipper. Then the tail. I glued my eyes to the area and was not disappointed. For the next 20 minutes she showed off again and again as she moseied on down, parallel to shore. Remarkable! The flippers, by the way are LONG and the curve so sleek and gentle. Then SMASH onto the surface of the water, producing a big showy splash.

Not bad for "just another day in the neighborhood."

Thrashed

Kitchen mishap! Daiquiri maker, Mr. Ed, claims this "just happened" to the blender during creation of a lime and banana beverage. Zap! Pow! Sudden implosion. Luckily the concoction was 99% complete when the thrashing occurred.

Outsiders Insider

I am starting out the year by dazzling my 14-year old students with the wonders of small town gang warfare. Specifically, warfare of the male, teenage variety. In this mileu, bravery is being on the large side of a four-against-one confrontation. Hey, it is easy to be brave when the victim of your agression is smaller and younger. I am describing the action in chapter 1 of The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.

The question I ask myself is this: Why doesn't anyone in class ever point this out? Possible answer: middle school students prefer the titilation bullying produces. Laughs. Wiggle-in-your-seat excitement.

If this violence stuff, the bullying, bothers me, why do I teach this novel? I teach it because the victim of early bullying grows, learns, becomes empathetic, and eventually overcomes the petty forces of cowardace. Hip hip hooray!

Besides, the novel if full of beautiful language, imagery, and goofy 1960's slang. Gotta love that.

Am I Obsolete? Am I a Failure?

Man, oh man. I am feeling the pressure of being a public school teacher.

My students walk in the door, and I must accept them as they are. Happy and smart, or not happy and not too smart. Motivated and supported by family, or not motivated and not supported by family.

The California testing data from my last year students is in and available for all to see on the internet. What a shock to see that many of their scores actually went down from the year before. Bunches of "my" kids slipped, for example, from BASIC to BELOW BASIC. Or from PROFICIENT to BASIC. My reaction?

CRAP!

If I were working at another sort of job and "my numbers" declined, I would be FIRED!

This worries me. Truly.

Ms. Baumann is back in P2-1

Summer is over. I'm back in the classroom, directing traffic. "Focus, please," is my primary utterance. My students seem very happy for some strange reason. Perhaps they are simply excited to be in such close proximity to each other. It is pretty stimulating, I must say. We are reading The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. The protagonist gets beat up in the very first chapter. It's a hit.

Tahiti Tiki

It is truly a vacation when you just unpack ONE TIME and head straight for the pool. Ed and I spent eight heavenly days on Moorea at the Pearl Resort and Spa. Funny, but everything, and I mean everything, looks just like the tourist brochures. Love that, actually.

Our activities:

--bicycle ride around the entire island

--scuba (again and again)

--watching a humpback whale lounge around the turquoise sea

--hiking to a lookout point from which you can see two peaks and two pristine bays

--lots of nothin'

Loved every minute.

Still, I'm Happy to be Home

School teachers like me must take advantage of being "off" in the summer. I went off to the Big Apple, followed by the Big Green (Park City, Utah).

Lucky me. Sacha was house-sitting the Chelsea loft and invited me to join her. A new addition to the excellent accommodations is a nice red bicycle. Peddling is, by far, the best way to experience the city.

Flying from JFK to SLC, I met up with Mr. Ed. My love affair with Utah started as a child and has held steady ever since. This summer the mountains and meadows are greener than green, thanks to the rain that I missed while hanging out on the East Coast.

Janet is THE organizer and social secretary. Thanks to her, I scored an invitation to Dolly's birthday lunch. I knew that I still belonged in the family when Shirley snagged a French fry off my plate. Thank you, dear friends, for being dear friends.