Good Friday 2016, Dartmoor National Park

Since the 9th grader kicked off her spring break Good Friday, and the husband had a four day weekend due to a bank holiday on Monday, we opted to do a bit of touring through the southwest of England. We started the day early on Friday by driving to Dartmoor National Park. I had read about the one lane wide roads, so crept along carefully once we got off the motorway. Our first break was in Chagford, where we had lunch at the Three Crowns pub. There's a pretty little 15th century parish church directly across from it with the obligatory cemetery, so I enjoyed a bit of tombstone reading in the lovely spring weather.

I'm fascinated by epitaphs. There oughta be a law that you have to provide more of a biography on these things because I'd love to know all of the backstories and history of the folks who lived in that area during the various time periods. In the pic below, I was struck by the trinity of crosses because it was Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified. The barely legible inscription seen below was found on the taller Maltese-style cross in the middle. I love the phrasing FELL ASLEEP.

There were spiky bushes all over the moors, covered in these small bright yellow flowers. I discovered they're gorse bushes. If that rings a bell, it might be that you're a Winnie the Pooh fan. In the movie, his first attempt to reach honey in the tree he was climbing resulted with Pooh falling into a gorse bush.

In the afternoon we visited Grimspound, a late Bronze Age settlement dating back to 2000 BC. All that remains are the stone perimeter fence and rocks that denote where houses were located. 

Above are the teen and husband standing inside a small house in the centre of the settlement. You can see the perimeter stone fence in the background. Below is the teen striking a pose on one of the entrance gates into the settlement.

 The picture below was taken from Grimspound, looking across the moors.

Above is a lone tree along a little stream that ran through Grimspound on its way down the hill. Weren't those Bronze Age folks smart, making sure they had easy access to fresh water. While we were exploring Grimspound, the teen pointed out the tor found atop a neighbouring hill.

Along the way to see Hound Tor (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's inspiration for setting in The Hound of the Baskervilles), we drove past fields of sheep. Some with precious little lambs. And some just walking along the road. Or chewing their cud beside the road. 

We saw a few of the famous Dartmoor ponies. It looked as if they were still in their shaggier winter coats. Then we arrived at Hound Tor, the most spectacular of the tors in this region. We climbed up to the base, then the teen scurried atop some of the flatter (read safer) ones for some pics... of the jumping variety. That's right, doing our best to uphold the stereotype of the annoying American tourist turned loose abroad.

Lessons in Lacrosse

The third, and final, sports and activity trimester kicked off this week. The 9th grader had her first lacrosse practice yesterday and it was a real humdinger. She has never played before, so it's all about trying to figure out the whole shebang. Positions, moves, rules, the field, practice drills, game lingo, yada yada yada.

It has been relatively dry lately, for England, but her cleats were still caked in mud when she tossed them inside the front door upon her arrival home yesterday evening. Unlike her older sister who had to have deets of the school day dragged out of her, the younger daughter practically gives me a blow-by-blow description of what happened since she left the house on the school bus. Which I LOVE, of course. She got busy using her borrowed stick to show me the moves and explain everything. 

She seems enthusiastic about this new adventure. We were kinda hoping she might take a break from an organised sport in this last trimester to take something less demanding, like a yoga class, so she could get a break from the time drain of four day per week after school practices/games in order to focus on her studies. Though, honestly, she's making good grades in all of her classes, so it's not as if she needs to go the easy route in order to pump up her GPA. So yeah, knock yourself out with the personal challenges and commitments - more to add to the high school resume she's building for herself.

I was asking about the lacrosse game schedule, figuring the daughter wouldn't see much field time but wanting to attend a few games since I'm completely unfamiliar with this sport. Lo and behold, there are no bleachers for crowd viewing at the field. The thought of standing around in chilly and possibly wet weather just isn't appealing to me. Plus the wind blows more than you think it would over here, but we do live on a big island and so maybe that's the reason. Just to be on the safe side - warm and dry, dontcha know - I ordered a one person pop up spectator tent that will accommodate me in a lawn chair for my game viewing pleasure. Oh yes indeedy, I'm gonna be that nerdy momma on the sidelines. Now I just need to order a folding chair and I'll be all set!

Easter Fossil Hunt

Since our girls are 20 and 15, we haven't had to do the Easter bunny egg hunt for years. No pink and blue dyed fingertips. No hiding them a zillion times after the initial hunt. We'll eventually get to enjoy that again with grandchildren. Until then, we have the opportunity to do whatever strikes our fancy for Easter.

This year we're doing something unique. I just ordered each of the items above - hammer, chisel and safety glasses - because we're spending Easter afternoon fossil hunting on England's Jurassic Coast in Charmouth. I'd love for us to find some lovely fossils we'd be able to display. What a great memento not only for Easter 2016, but also for our time spent living abroad. As you can see in the pic below, I've got high hopes. Isn't it wonderful? I'll let you know if we hunt down anything cool, other than quality family time spent together plus a sore back from bending and stooping for several hours.

It's What I Do

I love teaching. So this has been the worst aspect of moving abroad for me, having to take a break from what I consider to be my life's calling. But seriously - who is gonna shake a stick at being an expat in England? Getting to travel the European continent that's on our doorstep during school breaks? Exposing our daughter to other cultures? It is a great experience for our family, but I'll no doubt continue to mourn my temporary retirement until I'm back on a campus bitching about how my planning period isn't sufficient time to get things done. Dragging papers home to grade on nights/weekends. And trying to continue to make a difference in the lives of my students.

Below I've included memes with some of my favourite teaching pet peeves.

Aint it the truth, girl. I've typically taught anywhere from 100-150 kids a day, so I don't recognise everyone's handwriting. Even though I prompt the class to write their headings on assignments throughout the course of the school year, in addition to reminding students to check over everything they've written on the page before turning it in for grading, there are still a few kids in every class that forget. Every.Single.Day. On every assignment I've ever graded in my entire teaching career. 

In my experience, 99% of students ask this way. I think it just goes over their head when I respond, "Yes, you MAY go to the bathroom." No point in being a smart aleck, asking if they can... usually.

Directions, both oral and written, are the bane of a teacher's existence, followed closely by lack of access to the toilet and being the person in charge... trapped in a class of 20+ students when a kid vomits all over the floor, has a tantrum and throws a chair, etc.

Since this is English language arts/reading class, the answer is yes. I expect you to write your answers using complete sentences which include forethought and text evidence. That start with a capital letter and have appropriate punctuation at the end. No cause when you mean because. And do NOT start a sentence with the word yes or no in answer to the question because that guarantees it won't be grammatically correct.

I'd like to say the indecipherable stuff was always submitted by my struggling ESL, dyslexic or special ed students... but I can't. I should have kept a notebook of all the grammatical gaffes and goofs I've encountered over the years just for the entertainment value. 

This last one is a Catch-22. We'd all bitch about recess duty during the first and last months of the school year because it was hot as a firecracker by mid-morning. But then it was just as bad in the winter when the temps got low and we had rainy days so that the kids couldn't go outside. I always kept a cabinet full of board games out of self-defense, to give them something to do other than make a lot of noise and tear up my room when we couldn't make it outdoors for them to blow off steam.

Iceland's South Coast

For our final full day in Iceland, we took a bus tour of the south coast. The girls were keen to see a black volcanic rock beach. I'm sure you'll notice a few of my pics were snapped from the bus window. We got off the bus for every photo opp, but some of them involved shuffling over slabs of ice to get to the attraction. I swear some of the parking areas could have passed for skating rinks, a solid sheet of slick ice. I'm one of the must UNsteady creatures on the planet, and had no husband along to help keep me upright if I slipped. I didn't want to drag the girls down with me if I took a dive. I could just hear it in my head... How did you break your arm? My best friend's burly mother pulled me down in a bid to save her dignity. So I did the best I could with my fear of falling.

Our day was made by 8:45 am when we discovered it was snowing while waiting for the tour bus to pick us up after breakfast at the hotel. Only folks who DON'T live in places where you get snow every winter walk around trying to catch a snowflake on their tongue while taking pics of the white fluffy stuff. 

We kicked off the tour in almost white-out conditions, riding through blowing snow while we headed south. This was the view from my window.

Along the way, our guide pointed out a glacier and volcano. Just like the jeep tour, this glacier was also well-camouflaged in the snow. But the volcano seemed rather majestic, even from quite a distance.

We stopped at several waterfalls, but the one above was just a drive-by. There were waterfalls, both large and small, all over Iceland. In the pic below is a rather expansive farm, one of several we passed along the way. These folks had a bird's eye view of the last eruption of Mt. Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 since it's that peak you see in the pic behind them. Try saying that volcano's name as fast as possible three times in a row. I especially enjoyed seeing the Icelandic horses with their shaggy coats in the pastures around the farms.

Below is another waterfall pic with the girls posing in front of it. This is as close as I got because it was treacherously icy. A big fall on my fanny in the making, so I enjoyed the view from a distance.

Our last big stop of the day was Reynisfjara Beach, considered to be the best/most famous black sand beach in the country. We were a bit leery of getting too close to the water. The tour guide told us that a man died on this same beach the day before when a rogue wave swept him out into the surf. He and his girlfriend were there in the early morning before the tour buses started arriving and there was no one to help save him. 

So yeah, we stayed well up on the dry, rock strewn sand.

I had hoped to find a heart shaped beach rock since we were creeping up to valentine's day, so spent the bulk of our time off the bus with my head down checking out the nature-made offerings. I didn't find a good heart, but I did put these four in my pocket and brought them back home with me. Perfectly weathered and so smooth. Mother Nature's own little miracles.

And last but not least is a selfie we snapped on the beach. My roots are a mile long since my stylist was skiing the week before this trip when I needed a touch-up. And all I have on my face is tinted sunscreen. But I think it's the perfect non-edited, unfiltered pic from a trip that focused on the beauty of our natural world.

Sayonara, Second Trimester

The 9th grader's cheer season came to an end with competition over the weekend in Sheffield. Not willing to drive eight hours roundtrip to witness a three minute routine I've already seen on video, I had to stoop to depend upon lifting some pics from the teen and her friend on the squad.

With all of my experience in the dance team mom column, I had no idea that cheer does mostly the same prep for competition. It's a full face of makeup, including false eyelashes, high ponytails and lots of hairspray. All topped off with that huge bow. 

Time to add this varsity level extracurricular activity to her high school resume. Next up - lacrosse season for the final trimester!

The State of Education in Memes

Truly, it's a mixed bag. Even great schools filled with concerned, progressive administrators and caring, dedicated teachers will always have a few rotten apples somewhere in the employee barrel. Maybe I'm a bit more astute about this than your average bear since I've been in the teaching trenches since '97. All I've ever wanted is for folks who run/work the campuses my daughters attend to do their job. Try to be enthusiastic, attempt to employ best practices, be consistent, respectful and give my daughters the tools they need to have a successful academic career. My husband and I always make sure our girls do their part. Too bad we can't vet some of these so-called professional educators in advance to make sure they've got their bases covered. Oh wait, that would be the responsibility of the private school or district, right?!

Today I'm saying it with memes. These are funny because they're accurate.

Or tell you I'm too busy to provide any extra support outside of class when my daughter comes to you wanting assistance with a challenging concept. That's right, let's be sure to squash kids wanting to be proactive and make an effort to help ensure their success with the class content.

These are the idiots that make the rest of us teachers look bad, the so-called professionals that love to throw those "GOTCHA" questions on the test. It wasn't taught in class or included on the study guide, but somehow students have to magically know/understand/apply it on an assessment. Make sure you bring your wands to school on test days, kiddies, to work that magic with unfamiliar content/concepts.

And last but certainly not least are the group projects. This particularly applies to the ones that have to be executed outside of the class/regular school day. By kids too young to drive. With no best practices employed, like the teacher assigning everyone a role in the group. The real world of projects doesn't work like this, so why must school kids - those we're supposedly trying to prepare for the work place - be subjected to this particular form of torture. Where one kid can sink a group's overall grade. And thus turn what should be a fun learning experience into dreaded drudgery.