Neuron Firings During Tech Week

- The pic above shows what I "won" during door prize giveaway time.
- I LOVE pens.
- DISD rocks for handing out classroom digital cameras to each teacher that attended "Jump" this week. [above pic courtesy of said camera]
- The community of Decatur rocks for donating so many useful and equally impressive gifts.
- Troy's talk of eggrolls when speaking of Moua Asian Cooking made me really hungry for that place:)
- I love our English department already.
- Teacher humor is completely funny to me.
- There's as much teacher jargon as in any other profession out there.
- Moving the beverage/snack table to and fro from the cafeteria to the lecture hall-hall was an awesome idea...thanks to whoever did that:)
- Lots of teachers have i-Phones, and I'm kinda jealous.
- A couple of former teachers/administrators approached me asking my maiden name, and one already knew it. They were as kind as I remembered them from my Intermediate days...
- Blogging and podcasting are uber-cool.
- Wiki-ing is still a bit over my head.
- I'm attending New Teacher Orientation again...I should be sooo prepared come August 25th:)
- Bring on Staff Development week.

Nostalgia Revisited

Having a little girl is an amazing, exhausting, ever so surprising experience. She was kinda sickly at the beginning of the week - fussy and at times, just downright mad. But, thanks to her pediatrician, she has the Amoxicilin to make her feel better, and tonight she was herself again. She had me laughing a LOT. After she went "night-night" I began to prepare her bag for Mother's Day Out tomorrow. Whilst I was restocking her favorite snacks I realized that having a little one inevitably gives one the opportunity to revisit forgotten favorites such as...Froot Loops, Gummi Bears, and Graham crackers. [Regarding the crackers...buy Honey Maid, not Keebler, blech.] Also, raisins have become a regular snack...forgot how good they can be when you're in the mood for somethin' chewy and sweet:) Does the fun just never end?:)

Shedding Light on Lovelit

During our end of the day get together at the high school today Troy Bagwell pulled up this blog and pointed out that yes, I'm a teacher at Decatur. No point to the secrecy, I guess. My name is Sarah Durham, and I'm teaching English at the high school again after having taken a year off to stay home with my Baby Girl, Ella, who is now 16 months old. I love the people at Decatur, and it's been great getting reacquainted with many.

I started this blog in June, with the gracious help of Barry Green. I e-mailed him to ask him how to begin, and he e-mailed back a couple of times with simple instructions, and after a day or two of fiddling I got better at it. There's still lots I haven't done...notice I have no widgets, but thanks to Randy Rodgers' and Jeff Womack's explanations of them I will soon. Who knows, maybe someone from Saskachewan has visited...how would I know without the little map widget? Blogging is a blast for me...just jotting down my thoughts now and then, talking about life and literature. If you're reading this, then you're visiting, and for me, who has always dreamed of being a published writer of a "real" novel, it's exciting. Thanks for stopping by:)

Tech Training

Currently sitting at the school in a "Wiki" training session...good stuff. Life's been crazy lately...electricity zapped my router and modem so I'm currently waiting on my new one, hence no posts for the past five days. Our next session is blogging...woohoo!

Random observation: On the table where I'm sitting is written: "Caus my anger wouldn't let me feel for a stranger". [Spelling error included] Interesting.

Lavinge Lagging

I hate the fact that the Avril Lavinge song, "Hey, Hey, You, You, I Don't Like Your Girlfriend" has a crazy effect on me, making me want to listen to it for just a second longer, while at the same time giving me a slight headache. I may not be the only one needing an Ibuprofren post-Avril because it appears she's now the opening act for folks like..."Daughtry" and "The Jo-Bros" (to you non-tween-speakers, that would be "The Jonas Brothers":) The DJ this morning speculated that maybe it's because she confuses people...is she punk, wearing Converse and T's or is she grown up, wearing Gucci? Is she a singer, or an actress? When one finds their niche, stick with it, and pleeeease stay out of other entertainment fields. I would like to make this suggestion to: Jennifer Lopez, Cindy Crawford, Lindsay Lohan, Jennifer Love-Hewitt, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Queen Latifah, and the list, I'm sure, goes on. Referring again to the words of Dash in "The Incredibles"..."if everyone is super, then noone is".

'People' Bias

The latest 'People' magazine features the Obamas on the cover...lovely family by anyone's standards, HOWEVER, McCain and his family should grace the next cover...to be fair. I try to stay away from politics because I don't know just a whole lot about them and because verbal attacks ruin my day. But, I will write a letter to the editor of the mag if McCain doesn't show up soon...booya.

P.S. I realize the pic above is 'Rolling Stone' magazine. I need to start paying more attention because I thought they were about music.
P.P.S. I also realize that the vast media machine has dedicated more time to B.O. (hehe) than to J.M., but I will write nonetheless.
P.P.P.S. I still don't know who I'm voting for.

Thank You Franklin and Edison

These guys deserve a round of applause for, you know, electricity and the light bulb. My "electric woes" have already been blogged, however, even at Mom's last night the electricity went off for a while, and as I walked to the restroom in the pitch black I seriously thought about what life would be like without these guys. Electricity, something the majority of us take for granted daily, has been a big part of my week, so again, thank you Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison:)