More pie

Today, upon realizing the pumpkin pie was all gone, I decided we needed another pie.  Looking around at what I had with which to make one, I found a bunch of apples we have received in our produce boxes the past couple of weeks.  No, I know apples don’t come in bunches (I also have some grapes that came in the Thanksgiving week box, now that’s a bunch), but these aren’t apples of one variety, they are a diverse bunch.  Sort of like the kids I teach.  

I peeled, cored, and pared them; tossed in a bunch (there’s that word again) of sugar and spices and a little butter (everything I make has to have butter) and put it all in a crust from Whole Foods.  It’s baking in the oven as I write.

Although cake is my favorite, I find myself making a lot of pies.  Probably because I like pie too, and my hubby especially likes pie, and they are easy to make.  I was taking a pie to work to share when I would make them but have stopped.  The last two pies were hardly touched and I ended up throwing them away.  I think I’ve figured out the problem there–no one in our department wants to be seen eating sweets.  If someone brings cookies or candy, those disappear almost instantly because people can grab and run.  But pie? Pie takes a plate and a fork, and a knife to cut the pie.  Too much work and then someone will see you eating it.  So now I bake one pie and we eat it here at home or I take a slice to work in my lunch bag.  Then everyone looks and says, “yum, pie.”

A new way to celebrate Thanksgiving

Ok, this Thanksgiving I did something different.  I tested a phone line on the outside of my friend’s house.  I received a call from AT&T about 11 a.m. telling me that I was listed as a person to contact for a friend of mine who had called in a phone problem.  Since the operator could not get a response from my friend, she called me and told me how to test the line to see if the problem was outside or inside the house.  I grabbed a corded phone and my hubby and off we went.

The box on the outside of the house was easy enough to find, and sure enough, there were two test plugs.  They both were dead so the problem is outside the house which is a good thing for my friend.  Had the problem been inside, she would have to pay a hefty fee to get it fixed.  However, the repair truck won’t be there until next Wednesday so I left my cell phone for my friend to use in an emergency.

I am thankful for our communication network, even when it has a few mishaps.

The End

My doctor friend, Jay, has a really neat post on her blog today.  You might have heard about The Engage with Grace project.  Dr. Jay says it’s been around the blogosphere for awhile now.  It’s a way to get conversations started with your loved ones about what you want the end of life to look like, and it’s all boiled down to one slide.

As much as I would like to die doing something I really enjoy, or just slip away one night while sleeping, I have to realize that probably won’t be the case.  Although my dad worked the day he died, my mother spent her last month in a convalescent hospital, paralyzed from a massive stroke.  She had always told us she wanted a quick death and so we didn’t hook her up to anything after the stroke.  My mother had planned her death and burial, and it made it easier to say goodbye.

I would prefer, if I am unable to function well, to be in a hospital when I die.  I don’t want to burden my family with my care, but I too don’t want to be hooked up to anything.  I love my life, I enjoy living each day, and I hope to continue that for a very long time.  But, The End will come, and when it does, my family members will know what to do.

A new Thanksgiving pie

Yesterday I made a pumpkin pie using a REAL pumpkin.  I had gotten a small pumpkin in our produce box and decided it was small enough for me to handle.  I cut it up and roasted it while reading the Sunday papers before heading to church.  Afterwards I scraped all the pulp out and stuck the bowl in the fridge.

In the meantime I started looking for pumpkin pie recipes.  For years I have bought a mix at Whole Foods to which all I added was eggs and cream.  Simple and delicious.  But I didn’t know how to make a pie from scratch.  Although I found pumpkin recipes, the one I decided to use was Mary McLeod Bethune’s sweet potato pie recipe.  I just substituted the pumpkin pulp for the sweet potatoes and cut the recipe in thirds as Ms. Bethune’s recipe made three pies, pies she used to sell to raise money to keep her school open. 

The pie turned out very well, very tasty.  It’s texture is much different from the ones I’ve made with canned mix, but it’s very good.  Wonder if I could sell enough pies to keep a school open?

* I need to add that I found the sweet potato pie recipe in The Black Family Reunion Cookbook, published by The National Council of Negro Women, copyright 1991.

Thanksgiving Week Break

This is the second year we have had a week’s long Thanksgiving break.  When it was first announced, I was not in favor of taking the three days we would be out in November and putting them in  June.  And when I have to attend those extra days in June, I’m still not too happy.  But right now, after 14 weeks of grueling work, I’m lovin’ it.

I am definitely ready for 9 days away from school, or at least away from students.  I will go to school one day to do some work, prepping for a new unit in multimedia that will start as soon as we return, and I will spend some time at home grading projects and writing some lesson plans.  I am meeting one day with a lady at Junior Achievement who wants us to come onboard with their program.  She has assured me it will not add any extra work to what I already do.  We’ll see, says Delaine with scepticism dripping from her voice.  Even on a holiday break, I’m still doing work stuff.  Do people not in education do likewise?

The last school thing I did was attend the school play on Friday night.  The fall theater production is usually a comedy, the one in spring a musical.  This year’s play had a small cast, only four kids, and the setting is quite interactive as the audience is actually seated on the stage, only a few feet from the action.  ”Just Say Yes” was about a positive-thinking guru and his escapades.  Some of the dialogue was done in rhyming soliloquy which must have been difficult to memorize.  I thought the kids did a splendid job.  It was a right smart way to end my school week and start my Thanksgiving break.

Remembering November 22, 1963

The Scholastic Scribe reminded me of today’s date, November 22.  It is the 45th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination, and for those of us living then, we all remember exactly where we were when we heard.  

I was in sixth grade, Miss Pugh’s class, third seat, second row from the windows.  She came back from recess and sat at her desk crying.  We knew something must be bad for the teacher to cry, but we all sat there, waiting, not knowing what we were supposed to do, to see what would happen next.  The principal came over the intercom to announce that President Kennedy had been killed in Dallas and the buses would be taking us home early.

My parents had been grocery shopping for Thanksgiving dinner when they heard the news.  They left the store and came to school to pick me up because they knew school would be dismissed.  (How do parents know these things?)  They didn’t want me to ride the bus with sad kids.  

For days we were glued to the TV, much like it was after September 11, soaking up every piece of news.  We were watching when Lee Harvey Oswald was gunned down in the Dallas jail.  It all seemed so unreal.  There was not much to celebrate that Thanksgiving.  I’m not even sure my parents ever bought the food for the meal.

Loss of a friend

One of my first online friends has died.  Diana Chartier and I met online through a travel forum (I think) and we bonded over our proximity and our teaching careers.  She lived in the east bay, around San Ramon, and I would take students there for a yearly conference.  We met a couple of times for Chinese food, a favorite of both of us.  It’s been over 10 years, though, since I last saw her in person.

I read Diana’s obituary in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, a paper I read every day because I love the bay area so much, and the Chron has a different perspective than our local BEE.  The obits in the Chron are also better written than the local paper’s so I always scan them to see how people have lived their life.  There was Diana’s picture and name today, and it gave me a jolt.  She was only a year older than me, and although we had lost touch, I assumed she was living out her life, teaching school, just like me.  Instead she had been battling a disease, and she had lost.  

The Internet has made my life so much richer and the people I have met online have definitely been a part of the enrichment.   There are some whom I have met in person, but many more I call friend through a network of wires and electronics.  Now I have one less friend.

Perhaps a new career

My husband and I stayed overnight at a hotel this past weekend so as to attend our daughter’s ordination.  Since we were only away for one night, and would be busy for most of the time, I did not take my laptop.  There is a computer in the hotel’s lobby (we’ve stayed there many times) and I knew I could check my email on Sunday morning to see if anyone desperately needed me (they didn’t).

When I went to log in, I found a dead monitor.  A little more checking revealed a missing power cord.  Hey, I do this all the time so it was no big deal for me to investigate.  I approached the front desk, and not seeing anyone, I called out a couple of times and finally a young man came out.  I told him of the missing power cord, but he just stood and looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language.  

When I realized I wasn’t going to get too far with him, I went back to the computer area and dug around until I found the cord.  The desk man, who had followed me, seemed very relieved.  I truly believe he would not have had a clue as to how to replace the thing had I not made the discovery.  After putting it all back together, the monitor worked fine and I completed my mail check.

I also noticed that the mousepad was dilapidated, and the screen needed cleaning.  The teacher in me made me want to fix more than just the power cord.  I told my husband that I could do that desk man’s job even without any hospitality training.  I just have to know how to make things better, sort of like what I do at school.

Do you know what “foliage” means?

Every week, since school started, the multimedia class has an assignment to take photos with a different theme for the week, such as food on campus, sports, homecoming, hallways, signs, and last week, fall foliage.  

The assignment is always written on the left side of the board, at the front of the class, and I constantly remind the students the photos will be used on a certain day.  Some weeks I just check the photos, but in most cases we use the pictures in a certain assignment like a magazine cover, advertisement, newsletter, or brochure.  I also want the students to have a collection of photos to put on their website and to perhaps use in a video later in the year.

Today, when I asked the students to put all the fall foliage photos into a folder, open Photoshop, and begin a new project, I found over half of sixth period just sitting.  Out of 26 students, only four had done the assignment.  I had even set up a small display at the back of the room that they could use.  I also have cameras in the room that they can check out and use.  Suddenly they sprang into action and took pictures of my little autumn setup when they realized I meant business and was going to give them a zero for no photos.  I was aghast that so few had taken my assignment seriously.  

In discussing this with my fellow teachers, they all wondered if the kids knew what foliage meant.  These are juniors and seniors.  Shouldn’t they know what the word “foliage” means?  

Here are some of the photos I took of the display:

More sweet words

Yesterday, after an inservice day (don’t ya just love ‘em), I came home to find this lovely email, all the way from Wisconsin:

Hi Mrs. Zody

It’s been so long after high school and can’t believe it but I have three kids already. Trying to be the best mom also working full time job and keeping myself very busy, I miss the days in the Marketing Class listening to Mrs. Zody giving us the instruction on what to do next. 

Right now I’m in the process of help the Asian Community with the interview process. Getting them ready for a interview, which I think that you did a very good job with letting us know how to dress and what to aspect. I still remember when you said “ 4 to 5 years from now your going to call me and thank me for making you do this.” I think what you said was so right. It’s just that we were young and stupid at the time to really think what’s good and what’s not good for us.

But now that I’ve realized please help me so I can serve other better. With you guide for the professional profile and the interview guide that you had for us would be very good resources for me. Once again thank you for your time and hope to hear from you ASAP.

Thank you,

I’m going to send her a copy of our portfolio directions, a list of common interview questions, and the rubric we use to grade professional dress.  I’m beginning to wonder if there is money to be made in the real world with all this stuff I’ve been doing in public education all these years.