How to Win CoWorkers and Alienate Fewer People

Sometimes it’s hard to work with people.  Not everyone is going to like you.  You can’t please everyone.  These are truths I know as an adult, but I’m finding that I have a hard time putting them into practice.

We all have at least one person we work with who is not our favorite coworker. Sometimes this person is a bully or just a flat out jerk.  Usually it’s much easier to deal with if the person in overly obnoxious or causes problems for multiple people. Sometimes the person is surrounded by people who are willing to let it slide.  Often times they will say, “Hey, it’s just the way Joe is” or “It’s Joe being Joe.”  Whatever the case, you have to learn to deal with difficult people.  This is a lesson I am learning right now.

I’m a pleaser, a peacekeeper, a compromiser, but I am not a fighter. That’s part of the problem.  I’m not good at sticking up for myself.  This is the year I intend to learn.

How I Fell in Love with the Royals and Baseball

I’m not a lover of sports.  I spent most of my weekends growing up sitting on the sidelines watching my brother play soccer.  I grew to hate it.  I didn’t enjoy watching football.  The rules just seemed too complicated.  Basketball was okay, but no one in my family watched or played it.  Overall, I just never developed a love of any game except one—baseball.

My love of baseball did not really occur until I met my husband, and like a good long-term romance, it developed over time.  I didn’t immediately fall in love with baseball. It took a good long time.

I went to my first major league baseball game when I was about ten years old.  It was a Texas Rangers game at the old ball park in Arlington.  I think they were playing the Tigers, but I can’t be sure.  For ten year-old me, it was boring.  The three hour game seemed to take a lifetime. I did get a cute teddy bear out of the situation.

I didn’t go to another game until I began dating Jedidiah.   That was about twelve years later.  I was young and in love, and no matter how boring I thought baseball was, I’d go anyway because I love him and he loved baseball especially the Royals. Because he was so interested in baseball, suddenly so was I.  It actually made sense.

Over the years, we would go to games.  I was happy when the Royals won, which until last year wasn’t much.  I knew that if the Royals won, Jedidiah would be in a great mood.  I still didn’t love baseball.  I was just using it for its mood-enhancing abilities.

Last year, it began.  I know that if you love baseball and if you love the Royals, I may seem like a coat-tails fan, but that wouldn’t be the truth.

My Summer Reading List

I read ALL the time.  Most of it occurs for school.  I read professional development books.  I read classical literature.  I read YA.  I read fantasy.  I read Sci-FI. I read. But as a teacher and a mother of still small children, I rarely get to read for myself.  Luckily, I have summer.  Summer is when I get to read for me.

Last summer I read Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind and A Wise Man’s Fear.  They’re large books.  They took up most of my summer, but they were well-worth the commitment. I’m sad I didn’t have another Rothfuss book to devote my summer nights, but I have found some books I have enjoyed or will enjoy in the next month.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman.  I LOVE dragons, so it’s no surprise that I love this book.  Hartman writes about a complicated relationship between humans and dragons with an exciting mystery. It’s beautifully composed and world building at its best. It was my favorite book of the summer.  I can’t wait to read the second book.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Okay.  This was part of the assigned AP summer reading. But it was so enjoyable, that I had to include it.  I hadn’t read it before now.  I had considered it for summer reading last year, but my husband said, “Oh, no.  That’s too dark and depressing.  There’s no hope in that book. You might get parent emails.”  (I teach at a charter school.  I get a lot of parent emails about a lot of weird things.)  So instead of teaching, The Road, I went for All the Pretty Horses only to hear my seniors ask me, “Why didn’t you pick The Road?”

I picked it for this year.  My husband still claiming the same issues as last summer.  But I disagree with him.  There is hope in that book, and it isn’t about a hopeless world.  It’s a love story about a father and his boy.  There is hope there, and I kind of want to know what happens to the boy.

I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest.  I read a lot of YA because my students do.  I like to know what they are reading so that I can recommend other books, make connections between classical texts and what they’re interested in, and to share their excitement when they’re reading something they love.

I picked up this book after seeing it on GoodReads.  I love graphic novels as well as mysteries so this instantly had me.  Part graphic novel, part story, I Am Princess X entertains without the sappy teenage, angst-ridden love story.  (Yes, I love John Green, and he makes an appearance on this list).  It’s far-fetched (but not as far fetched as two teenagers going to Amsterdam and meeting a reclusive author), but thrilling to the end.  It’s great for a read by the pool.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I picked up this book after a friend of mine told me I would not be able to figure it out until the end.  I did, but there were times I was uncertain that I was right.  It’s not because the book is predictable although it is a slightly different take on the thriller genre.  The narrator is completely annoying and mostly unreliable.  But a strong, critical reader will notice changes in voice that will lead him directly to the killer.  Even though a lot of this book annoyed me, I still stayed up all night to finish it.

The Buried Giant  by Kazuo Ishiguro.  My AP students will tell you that I LOVE Ishiguro.  My favorite story to teach is his “A Family Supper.” The Buried Giant is largely a departure for Ishiguro even though most of his novels differ from one another.  It’s a fantasy set in Arthurian England.  The protagonists even meet up with Sir Gawain in the story. It’s beautiful not in language but in how he weaves the theme  through the plot like a threads in an intricate tapestry.

Paper Towns by John Green.  This is a guilty pleasure read.  I read The Fault in Our Stars last year at the urging of my students.  I liked how Green handled cancer and death, but I did not like how far fetched a lot of the book was.  Two teenagers in Amsterdam to visit a reclusive author???  It just didn’t fit or add up to me.  I think it would have been an altogether better book without it.  While not a perfect book, I enjoyed this one much more than the other.  This a wonderful book for an eight-hour road trip.

Ready Player One Ernest Kline. I’m a child of the eighties, and the premise of this book appeals to my love of nostalgia.  I can remember a lot of the pop culture allusions, which makes the book fun.  But it’s better than just a trip down memory lane, it’s essentially a virtual treasure hunt.  Who doesn’t love a good treasure hunt.  This is another great by-the-pool read.

Blog, Inc. by Joy Cho.  I’m still working my way through this book, but it’s been helpful in beginning the blogging process.  I usually read a chapter and work on that particular skill.  Right now I’m struggling with a posting schedule because I’m heading back to school.  As a busy working mom of two, I’m learning to carve out time for writing.  I just learned that I can write multiple posts in a weekend and schedule them to upload during the week.  I’d love to be able to write every day, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen.

Contested Will by John Shapiro.  This is one of the most interesting reads of the summer. I love Shakespeare, and while I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I enjoyed this book.  It doesn’t address the authorship question as whether or not Shakespeare wrote his plays (which I believe he did) but why the question has arisen. This book appeals to the English nerd in me.

I realize that it’s a short list this year, but between my children and other projects, I do feel that I got my personal reading fix this summer.  What did you read?

Professional Development Characters

This week I’m attending a College Board AP Summer Institute in preparation for AP Literature next year.  The speaker is great.  He’s knowledgeable, and I am learning some new strategies and techniques on how to help my students be more successful in literary analysis.  Unlike typical professional development, I chose to attend this.  Most professional development prior to the school year goes something like Socrates Underground writes about here.

For the most part, I have enjoyed the last two days–except now I’m noticing some PD characters emerging.  If you’re a teacher, I’m quite sure you’re familiar with these types:

1.  The Rabbit Hunter.   This person will lead the group on numerous pointless rabbit trails.  If you are lucky, the presenter will notice this and quickly recover the group.   However, more often than not, the presenter will follow the Rabbit Hunter down the hole and take the whole group with him.  Today, we hunted the following rabbits:  Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Last Action Hero, the charisma of Ian McKellen, and Kenneth Branaugh’s love life.

2. The Know-It-All.   This person typically knows more than the presenter…well, at least she thinks she does.  She constantly adds her take to whatever point the presenter is trying to make.  With the Know-It-All, if you so much as try to speak before her, she will run you over with her words.  I have admittedly been this person, but not this week.  There are already five of this particular person in my group.  Between them and the others on this list, no one else can talk.

3.  The Ditz.   Wow.  Seriously?!?  We’re adults… who are teachers…  How does this person still exist in the adult world?!?  He or she will giggle at every witty comment the presenter makes and asks ridiculous questions.  Incidentally, this person will often use Comic Sans font on handouts.

4. The Class Clown.  This person continually makes jokes throughout the presentation.  At first, it is endearing, and every one loves him, but soon his wit become tiresome.  By the end of the day, you want him to shut up so the presenter can dismiss you.

5. The Questioner.  This person asks questions at every given opportunity.  Questions themselves are not bad, but the questioner always asks a question answered by the presenter two minutes ago, OR the questioner will ask questions unrelated to the topic at hand.  Often in boring PD meetings, I will tally how many times the questioner asks a question during a presentation.  It helps pass the time.

Looking over the list, it’s not too different than the characters that emerge in my high school classes.  I would like to think as adults we’ve changed.  Maybe we don’t change as much as we think…

One Day Fireplace Makeover

My living room is a difficult space.  It’s small and wall space is limited.  This means that our television has hang above the fire place because we don’t want the couch in front of the window, and the piano can’t go in front of the window either because it would be bad for the instrument. (Although now that I’m typing this out, I might not be opposed to the couch in front of the window.  I might have to try that one out.)  Those are arrangement issues, and honestly, that’s not what bothers me.  My mantle bothers me.

My mantle is a sad, ochroid pine. It  appears outdated and not in a charming, quirky way like my mustard-colored refrigerator. I’d be a fan of that.  It also has scratch marks.  Someone had etched the word “Hell” into the woodwork.  Madeleine discovered it the other day.  I have to do something about it. So I did.  I had some paint left over from recently painting my kitchen cabinets, so I decided to paint my mantle this afternoon.

I started with this:

I just hate it.  What a mess.

So I grabbed my paint kit.  Yes, I have a paint kit.  It contains:

–Sample jars of various paint colors.  They’re cheap, and I never know when I’m going to want to paint a piece of furniture.  I like to go to Goodwill.  A lot.

-BB Frosch Chalk Paint Powder.  This is cheaper than Annie Sloan paint.  I love it.  I can mix it into any paint color I  like.

-Annie Sloan Soft Wax.  I prefer her wax to the BB Frosch wax.  I think it’s easier to get on my brush and deliver to the wood.

 -BB Frosch paint brush

-BB Frosch wax brush

-BB Frosch brush conditioning soap

-Magic Eraser

-220 Sandpaper Sponge for distressing

-Mini paint containers

-Lint-free cloths for waxing

-Frog tape in 2 sizes

-Reusable drop cloth

-Whisk

-Measuring spoon

-Giant purple cup from The Rockies game two years ago

I decided that I wanted to do the two-coat distressing.  I used Valspar gravel and Valspar Fresh Cotton in the Hydrochroma line.

I mixed my paint with the BB Frosch chalk paint according to the instructions.

I removed all the items from the mantle and cleaned it with a mixture of Dawn and Vinegar.  Then I thoroughly dried it.

I started with the gravel color.  Chalk paint goes on pretty thick; it goes very far.  I liked the gray.  Part of me thinks I should have stopped there.  It’s kind of a nice touch against the rest of the room, but I had my heart set on white.  I cleaned my brushes and put away the gray paint.  I let it dry and watched an episode of Inside Amy Schumer while I waited.  When it was over, I mixed my Fresh Cotton paint.

I put on two coats of the Fresh Cotton to completely cover the gray waiting for each coat to dry before applying the next color.  After each coat was dry, I used the 220-grit sandpaper to mar the surface a bit.  The gray came through lightly and nicely.

I then sparingly applied wax and waxed it off with my lint-free cloths.

Overall I’m quite happy with the results.  Now if I could just paint the walls…

Why I Haven’t Bought the New Harper Lee (Yet)…

I have watched my Facebook feed, and I’m fairly certain that I am the only English teacher and Harper Lee enthusiast who hasn’t bought her “new” book.  I didn’t even pre-order it.  While my fellow English teachers utter a collective gasp, I have several reasons.

Before I get into those, I have to admit I’m torn.  My friends are reading this book, and I do somehow feel I’m being left out of the discussion and conversation.  There’s a part of me that wants to run out and buy it and snarf it down by the pool.  But I can’t. I know me.  I’d feel guilty the entire time.

My first career out of university was a medical device sales representative.  I worked with lots of nursing homes and met lots of lovely elderly people of all cognitive functions.  I met many family members who were wonderful, supportive, and loving. I also met the other side.  It isn’t pretty.  I have some concerns, aside from what I’ve read about the investigation, about the recent decision to publish a book near the end of her life.  I’m not sure that I can let go of feelings of others profiting off of the intellectual property of an elderly woman, who until quite recently, was adamant about not publishing anything else. I can’t stomach the thought of a publishing company profiting off of someone in a nursing home who is nearly blind and deaf.  Too many people besides Harper Lee have too much to gain.

My other reason is I’m quite afraid she’ll let me down.  For me, greater than (gasp, again) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is To Kill a Mockingbird.  This book is SO powerful.  In the article posted by Tara Fowler on People.com, she asserts:

But if you forget Mockingbird and take Watchman as a standalone novel, it’s a deftly written tale about a young woman coping with the revelation that her father is not the hero she thought he was.

But can you take a novel with the same characters as another novel as a stand alone novel? I’m not sure.  How can I reconcile the Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird with the Atticus Finch of Go Set a Watchman?  That part is easy.Unlike many others, I’ve never watched Gregory Peck’s portrayal of Atticus, so I don’t have to reconcile the idealized screen version with a character in a book.  What I know is human beings are complex.  Well-written and developed characters should be just as complex. Growing up in Texas, I know many men who would defend a falsely accused man regardless of color but wouldn’t have them over for dinner. Real life is not black and white, and great characters shouldn’t be either. But you cannot take the novels individually. How does one not shape the other?  I cannot read this and forget Mockingbird.

Then there’s the issue of the first draft. If it is in fact a first draft of TKAM, which is what Harper Lee biographer Charles Shields chronicles,  then it should be read and studied as such, not as a separate work.  What’s more interesting is the story of how that draft developed into the beloved novel.  It makes a more appropriate study of the writing process. This is of course my opinion.

On the other side, I know many English teachers and friends who have read the novel in the last week. Some of them have loved it.  Some of them have wondered what all the fuss was about.  Either way they were incredibly happy and joyful about reading it.  That’s the point of reading isn’t it?  That we enjoy it.

Who knows, maybe someday I’ll check it out of the library, but for now, I’m reading other things and enjoying those.

 
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Baby Project: Quilt, Bed Skirt, Pillows, and More

When Jedidiah and I got married, we had decided on three children.  When we had Max five years ago, we decided our family was complete–two children was enough.  That doesn’t mean that I still don’t think about “what if…”   I walk by baby clothing in stores, and I think, “oh, how sweet.”  I look at patterns and prints in fabric and yarn stores.  I long to sew or knit up something for a tiny, cute rolly-poly baby. Then, almost as suddenly as the thoughts begin, I wake up from my day dream reverie to Max crying over a broken toy or Madeleine spilling another drink.   Stick a fork in me, I’m done.

I have enjoyed shopping for another baby lately–my niece Arya, who will arrive in August.  I can’t wait to meet her.

Aimee, my sister-in-law lives in Los Angeles, too far away from shopping or crafting together, but no so far away that I wasn’t determined to make my sisterly mark on her pregnancy.  I decided that I would make the crib bedding.  I gathered information from her, and then trolled internet fabric sites and Pinterest for ideas. She selected patterns she liked from Pinterest.  Unfortunately, we started pinning in April, and I didn’t start shopping until June.  Here’s all I could find at my fabric store:

It was initially a disappointing endeavor. But I’m not easily discouraged.  I piled my mother and kids into the car, and we visited some local fabric stores.  I called and texted Aimee, sending her pictures of whatever combinations of gold/gray/purple or any combination thereof.

Honestly, it was so much fun.  Of course it would have been better had we been together, but we didn’t, so we made the best of it.

We found inspiration from this quilt from A Little Sweetness.

I took some time to find the right combination of colors and patterns.  We began with white, gray, and yellow.  I’m still a little bummed thaqt I didn’t pick up that dahlia fabric on the right.  (I may have to go back and get that one for me.)Aimee really wanted purple in it too, but it proved challenging to find what would work for what I had in my head.  When it comes to projects, my head gets in the way A LOT!

These are the first couple of strip layouts:

Then we added the purple:

Strip quilts are among the easiest to make. While they are simple in design and execution, they can be incredibly sophisticated.  The trick is finding the right combination of fabrics.   A good rule of thumb is a small print with a geometric with a floral.  That’s the formula I used when selecting the fabrics.

My mom’s really the quilter, so she quilted the entire blanket on her Bernina 730.  Isn’t it beautiful?

No bedding is complete without a crib skirt and some fabulous pillows, so I completed those on my own.  I used a pattern from Oleander and Palm. However, instead of using one color, I inserted 4-in. panels in the pleats.  You’ll have to wait for a blog update to see the final results.  My kids are out of cribs.

I also made a few throw pillows.  My Babylock Sofia 2 was being fussy with the embroidery, but I was dead set on a monogram for a pillow.  I decided to stencil it on with paint from the Martha Stewart Satin Collection in Hydrangea.  I love the color of hydrangeas.

I also love the look of stenciled dandelions.  Since I had the paint, I made another stencil, and painted those on a white pillow.  I love it.

I was stuck for what to do with the last pillow.  I found some white ruffles and added it to a white panel.  Then I added the geometric print panels. I like the way the modern geo-shapes work with the girly ruffles.

We also made a cuddly playmat and some swaddling blankets.

After a few months and partnering with my talented mother, here are the results.  I love them.  I hope she does too.

  

Our Family Canon

Max and I have been trying to find things to do while Miss M attends her three-hour long ballet intensive.  We would come home, but her ballet studio is 45 minutes from our home, so it doesn’t make sense to do that every day.

Today we went to Barnes and Noble.  I miss bookstores, and even though I know it’s Barnes and Noble, I still can’t resist the opportunity to touch, smell, and flip through real books.

We made it for storytime.  The kids’ clerk read a book about Peanut Butter becoming friends with Jelly.  It was cute. Max liked it, but I’m certain I won’t hear about it again.  As the clerk read the story, I looked around at the titles of the newest books.  I flipped through pages.  I read a few of them, but I found that I just didn’t feel like they were as good as the ones we loved as a family.  It got me to thinking about what books are a part of our family literary canon so far.   These are the books that I feel will be passed on to our grandchildren and maybe even beyond.  Here’s what I’ve come up with so far…

1.  Sleepyhead by Karma Wilson Karma Wilson appears often in our house, and her books make the list more than once. This book was read more than any other book on the shelf.  Madeleine received it as a gift for her first Christmas. We’ve read it cuddled up together so many times. For three months, Madeleine referred to herself as “Sleepyhead.”  I find her reading it as a bedtime story for her little brother a lot of the time. Also, thanks to John Segal’s creative illustrations, Madeleine learned what a narwhal was before her first birthday.

2. Daddy’s Girl by Garrison Keillor.  Jedidiah and I have always loved Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion.  We would often joke about how at twenty five, we would listen to the NPR, I with my knitting and he with his New York Times crossword puzzle.  We were already so old!

When Madeleine was born, he picked up this board book at our local Hastings.  He and Madeleine have the entire book memorized.  Even eight years later, they can still recite it.  It’s almost like it’s their “song.”  It’s beautiful, and it’s just theirs.

3. Go, Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman.  This is another book that’s consistently quoted by our family and my in-laws.  Even this last weekend,  you could hear Grandpa uttering lines to Max. No one wears a hat without someone quoting this book.

 

 

4. Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson.   Whenever I read this book, I cannot help but become overly dramatic.  I love hearing Madeleine giggle as I snore loudly.  The “Bear” books are great, but this one is by far the family favorite.

 

 

5. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.  I love this book.  I know many people do.  I loved it so much that I lobbied to have my son named Max and won.  For me this book is more than just a book about imagination, emotions, or pretending.  It’s about the complex relationship between a mother and son.  It’s just beautiful.  Everything about it. Beautiful.

 

6. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White.  Hardly anyone will disagree that this book is one of the best books in children’s literature.  I first read it to Madeleine when we moved to Colorado.  She had to leave behind many of her friends, and I wanted a book that would address that idea but in a “not shoved down your throat” way.  This book did it.  Reading this before the beginning of kindergarten is one of my treasured memories of our new house and life in Colorado. To this day, it’s still her favorite book.

7. Goodnight, Good night, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker.  This is one of the only titles acquired for Max alone. Aunt Leslie sent it to him for Christmas.  It’s just the perfect book to put a little boy to sleep.  Max doesn’t quite have the same love of books that everyone else in the house does, but offer to read him this or Where the Wild Things Are, and he’s in.

 

 

8. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. I have always enjoyed the story about a little French girl with appendicitis.  I KNEW my little girl would love it too.   We have every Madeline title, and they are all proudly displayed on her bookshelf.  We still walk by the tigers at the Denver Zoo and say “Pooh, pooh!”

 

 

 

9. Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman.  

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10. The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman is extremely popular at our house.  I may or may not have accused by husband of actually having a “Shrine to Neil Gaiman.”  Shrine or not, the man is a literary genius.  He’s one of the greatest storytellers of our time, and besides the Beowulf debacle (I just can’t get over that one, Mr. Gaiman), he’s pretty infallible as a writer.  He can write compelling stories for adults as well as touching, humorous, and creative stories for children. Crazy Hair in particular is another quoted favorite.  On any given morning, one of us will tell the other of us that we have “crazy hair.”

What books are in your family canon?

The Trouble with Left Overs

I hate left overs.  This is no secret from anyone who has spent any time living under a roof with me.  I don’t know why.  I can’t articulate the reason, but if I try, maybe it’s to do with eating the same meal twice in a row–something we did often when I was a kid.  I just can’t stomach the idea of them.  When I was younger, I would ask, “What’s for dinner?”  My mother, who was an infinitely busy working mom, would reply, “Left overs.”  My stomach would turn. All of a sudden I would lose my appetite. (As a teenager, I thought it was a great diet plan.  Incidentally, it’s not.).

I’m also not a proponent of wastefulness.  I don’t like the idea of letting anything go to waste.  I am fully aware that there are others who do not have the opportunity to worry with left overs.  I realize this is very much a “first world” problem.

When I earned my own household, I tried to learn to cook for the number of people I had for dinner.  This would automatically solve the left over problem. This proved challenging.  The women who helped me learn to cook (my mother and grandmother) were always cooking for large crowds.  Many of my early lessons occurred early Sunday mornings before church preparing a meal for eight to twenty people depending on the Sunday.  When I began cooking for myself in college, it was for dinner parties of eight or more, so when Jedidiah and I were married, I had to learn to cook for two. We constantly had left overs.  My new husband didn’t mind, but I did.  With a family of four, I still haven’t quite mastered this art.  We still have left overs.

Left overs generally aren’t a problem during the school year.  Jedidiah or the kids will take them to school or work. Thankfully, my children do not seem to suffer from the same “left over” queasiness that I do. So during the fall and spring, we go through tupperware containers fairly quickly.  But in the summer, they start to take over the refrigerator. This week it’s a huge aluminum foil container.

For the 4th of July, Jedidiah smoked some amazing meats.  He doesn’t get to do this very often although it’s a favorite hobby.  We had brisket, sausage, ribs, and turkey.  It was delicious.  We feasted, and even invited the neighbors, who were in the process of moving, to join us.  Despite, the numerous mouths we fed, we still had so much left over.  Ugh!  As much as I love BBQ, I can’t eat it that many times in a row. I have to think of creative ways to entice myself not to waste so much food.  That’s when my BBQ variations menu came into play.  While I hate left overs, I enjoy reinventing them.

I’ve used the left overs to make nachos, tacos, burritos, burrito bowls, mac ‘n cheese, enchiladas, etc.

Tonight, I’m making BBQ pizza.  It’s Jedidiah’s favorite way for me to reuse left overs.

I’ve already placed my dough ingredients in the processor.  I start by adding one package of active dry yeast, 1 teaspoon of salt, and a tablespoon of sugar.  I then add 2/3 cup of warm water.  I pulse this in the processor for 10 seconds.  Then I pour 1/4 cup of olive oil and add 2 cups of flour to the mixture.   I pulse until the dough is smooth.  I used to knead my dough, but I found using the processor makes that unnecessary.  I get soft, tender dough in a smaller amount of time.  This is a plus during the school year.

I oil the bowl with some of the olive oil and place the dough in it.  I always cover it with a kitchen towel.  I wet it with warm water first.  I don’t know why it works, but I’ve never had dough or bread fail when I do it this way.  An hour later, this is what it looks like:

I’ve chopped up my meat already.  I have turkey, brisket, and sausage.  I roll out the dough and place it on my Pampered Chef stoneware pizza dish where I have sprinkled some corn meal.  I have used pizza stones, pans, and direct racks for baking pizza.  The Pampered Chef stoneware gives the best results for crust.  Then I brush it with barbecue sauce.  I used Jedidiah’s homemade sauce this time.

Then, I bake it at 450 degrees for about twelve minutes.

It’s a hit with the whole family, but especially this one–

Left Over BBQ Pizza

For the dough:

1 package active dry yeast                       2/3 cup warm water

1 tsp salt                                                   1/4 cup olive oil

1 TBSP sugar                                            2 cups all-purpose flour

Toppings:

Various chopped BBQ meats—I used, smoked turkey and chopped brisket)

1 medium red onion, chopped

Favorite BBQ sauce (I used Mr. Smith’s homemade sauce)

Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated

Directions:

Place yeast, salt, sugar, and water in the bowl of a processor fitted with a dough attachment.  Pulse for 10 seconds.  Add olive oil and flour (1 cup at a time).  Pulse until smooth.  Remove dough and place in a slightly oiled ball.  Cover and allow to rise for 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Dust stoneware or pizza pan with corn meal.   Roll out the dough as thin or thick as you like it. (You’ll have to adjust cooking times depending on thickness).  We like ours thin.  Brush the dough with barbecue sauce of your choice.  Top with meat and cheese.  Bake for 10-15 minutes until crust is golden brown.  Serves 4.

Tomorrow it’s definitely going to be brisket topped Mac ‘n Cheese.

Freshmen Foundations

Before I begin to write today’s post, I’d like to share some exciting news.  After my first year of teaching AP Literature, all my students passed the test!  This is almost never accomplished especially in a teacher’s first year of teaching the subject.  It’s a testament to what an amazing English program we have and how the classical education model benefits students.

Now for today’s thoughts…

I’m often teased about how often I am not able to take off the teacher hat in the summer.  I am constantly “on.”  Even last night at a summer happy hour with my teacher friends, I couldn’t take it “off.”  I’m already so excited about next year. In addition to the AP Literature class mentioned above, I also teach freshmen.  In fact, aside from my one section of AP Lit, I have ALL freshmen.  And I LOVE them.  I love how they enter the school completely clueless and freaked out.  You can see it on their faces the first day.  Their wide eyes.  Their trembling hands.  The minute calculations of “Can I make it to the bathroom, my locker, and class on time?”   The worry of “Am I in the right class?”  (Every year someone is in the wrong class (see the “box” kid’s excerpt below.)). The perfectly packed pencil cases of the girls–this may be my favorite part because those girls believe that if you can control the school supplies, you can control anything.  I love that they are freaked out, and I love how together, through the events of the year, many of them become confident, successful high schoolers.

I think that’s where many high school teachers mess up with freshmen.  I think they forget that everything is new to them.  In many cases, study skills, notetaking, time management, and homework in every subject matter are brand new to these fish in an larger pond than they’ve ever seen.  But I love watching the growth, awareness, and change occur in one very pivotal year. As July begins, I start to plan the first month of the next school year.

Last year I had my students write a survival letter to the next group of freshmen.  I’m designing a handout for my new freshmen using the advice for making it through freshman year as well as how to survive my class.  I hope it will ease some tension and bring some laughter on the first day. Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

“If you want to do well in this class I would advise you to TURN YOUR HOMEWORK IN ON TIME. You should also have fun.”

“To pass this class, you need to actually read the books.”

“Mrs. Smith is deathly afraid of spiders.  Use them to your advantage.”

“In order to succeed in literature, you must listen to Mrs. Smith.  She is always right except when she is wrong.  When she is wrong, you must correct her.  She also believes she is an artist, so just smile and nod when she draws.”

“Spark Notes are awesome! But Mrs. Smith is SMART, so she asks details about the books.  You should actually read what is assigned or you could fail the class. Don’t get me wrong. Spark Notes are da’ bomb, but maybe you should read every once in a while.”

“I have quite a bit of advice for you from past experiences. First, if you see a giant box in the corner of the classroom, do not hide in it. This will lead to a detention and many jokes.” (Full Disclosure:  This is actually one of my favorite memories from last year.  This student’s actions resulted in a list that I keep in my desk of sentences/phrases I’d never thought I would say.  The first one:  “Jimmy, get out of that box.”  I teach high school, for Pete’s sake!)

“Do not whatever you do hide in a box during class.”  (The student above was mentioned in several letters.)

“Give Mrs. Smith note cards for Christmas.  It’s likely you will use all hers up!”

“You’re in for a wild ride your first year as a high schooler. Trust me, it’s not like High School Musical, but it’s not like prison either.”

It’s fun to see what their “take aways” are from class or their own memorable moments. Most the the excerpts above are in good fun, but all in all, I was proud of the lessons they learned their first year of high school.  They may not be able to explain the setting of Great Expectations, but below are they main lessons they learned, the themes I read over and over.  Honestly, I think they’re the most important.

1. Don’t procrastinate.

2. Focus.

3. Make friends with the people around you.

4. Learn to study.

5. Listen to deadlines.

6. Try hard.

7. Participate.

8. It doesn’t matter who you are or who you hang out with, it only matters that you’re happy.

9. Be prepared (e.g. bring books to class).

10. Have fun.

Smart kids, if I do say so myself.