Oh my!

It has been forever since I have taken the time to post to my blog! So much has happened since I last posted! I spent the first part of summer with my friends Jennifer and Aaron in Sedalia, Missouri and the last two months of summer with my friend Shannon in Gravette, Arkansas (peppered with several overnight visits to my brother's house). Over the course of the past four months I have have lived with three sets of friends. Packed, moved, stored, moved, cleaned, unpacked, and cleaned some more! I am nearly done unpacking, however my new house (rental) has not been properly taken care of and I fear I may NEVER be done cleaning! Additionally, I finally, and I mean FINALLY finished, submitted, and defended my dissertation! I must make a few corrections, print the darned thing on cotton paper, and pray the graduate school approves my margins. I am most excited.

The fall semester began three weeks ago and I've yet to catch up. I am hoping to catch up this weekend, but I fear it may be December before that happens! I've got a couple of new classes, a new Blackboard platform to learn, and twice the number of committee meetings! Somebody light a candle for me!

The Office

Curious about where I spend twelve to fourteen hours a day in any give semester? Wonder no more! Yes, it is small. Yes, it is full. Yes, it is not very orderly or terribly tidy. Behind the open door on the right is a large bookshelf. You can see my burgundy desk chair harvested from surplus some time ago. To the left you can see the grey edge of a chair for a visitor. I have already used the boxes to pack my things for the move to my NEW office.

Below is a close-up of my desk. What do they say about a cluttered desk? Perhaps I don't want to know. Yes, that's a pile of math manipulatives, a lava lamp, a stuffed Holstein, a Virgin Mary, and a Buddha. (I think most of my bases are covered!)

I spent some time Saturday boxing up the office. While I used all of the boxes procured for me, I have not quite made a dent in the pile. But first, I must find more boxes. I need more boxes!

I am very excited about my new office. It is slightly larger, nearly a square, measuring almost 100 square feet- an increase of about 40 square feet! Best of all, one wall contains a bookshelf that is 8 feet long and another wall contains cabinets above and below the U-shaped counter top. The only negatives are that the window opens into a hallway (at least there's a window!) and there are no drawers for desk items. But boy do I have plans!

I took a picture of the new office (below). Maintenance will be coming to paint the walls a beautiful green (Benjamin Moore, Aurora Borealis) some time next week. After that, I get to start moving in my goodies! I can't wait! I'll make sure I take "after" pictures to go with the "before" pictures!

Last Friday

Last Friday I had the pleasure of visiting with several of our Indian friends (and our our one Vietnamese friend) for dinner. On Memorial Day the Indian Embassy visited the house and cooked up a storm. A mighty tasty storm! I knew I had to invite them back, but this time I would make sure that we cooked for them! I considered a huge, mostly vegetarian, Italian meal, but my friend Manisha, requested to learn how to make fried chicken, mashed taters, and particularly- gravy.

Much of the work (tater peeling, corn husking, cake makin', and roll risin') was done before the Embassy arrived. But while Manisha and John slaved over a hot stove, the rest of us participated in a highly competitive game of Pictionary! Boys against girls. Yes, the boys won!

Dinner was topped off with a great Indian movie and chocolate mayonnaise cake. I had a marvelous time. I can't wait to have the 'kids' over again.

The Indian Embassy in the 'Burg

What did you do on Memorial Day? Did you have a picnic or a barbeque? Did you go out to dinner with family or friends? Did you have a good time? We did!

While the 'Burg is a tiny town of about 14,000 folks, and the University of Central Missouri is considered a small university, we do have a handful of international students. UCM international students have to be some of the nicest folks on the planet. Every fall they cook (yes, cook!) for anyone at the university that wants to come and enjoy a global meal! Every spring they host a multi-cultural talent show.

These international students have to be some of the hardest working and generous students I've had the pleasure of knowing. Several of them volunteer to cook for the Newman Center (Catholic Student Center) on a regular basis.

Manisha, pictured below is a graduate student in Speech and Language Pathology and works as a graduate assistant in our department. From time to time Manisha has brought me samples of her marvelous cooking. And during the past year, she and Orion became good buddies as she helped him on several occasions with his (cursed) cursive, reading, and writing.

Manisha and I are always talking about cooking together, and getting together to have dinner, and yet this past semester was so busy, I had absolutely no time. Finally, we picked a date! I made it a holiday in hopes that I would be home!

(Manisha cookin' up Chicken Curry)

I picked up Manisha and three of her friends at about 1:30, just as it started to rain! Thank goodness we weren't having a picnic! We got to the house and I showed them around and they went to work in the kitchen.

(Manisha, Sadiq, Tanvi (in the back), and Towino smile as they work in the kitchen)

(Sadiq and Tanvi peel potatoes for samosas. Sadiq later made six quarts of lhassi: strawberry, blueberry, and plain)

I was so impressed with how hard they worked and how much fun they were all having. Manisha showed off her "management skills" by organizing everyone and creating chicken tandoori, curry chicken, samosas, pakoras, vegetable Basmati rice, and she applied henna to my hair!

My friends Sally and John arrived at about 3:30. There was nothing for us to do but sit back and watch these students cook up a storm.


Around 5:30 John left to retrieve four more students from campus: Mona, Ankita, and Poorvi (Tanvi's identical twin), all Indian students, and Phat (a young man from Vietnam). Now there were six to eight 20-somethings cooking in my kitchen at any give time!

(No room for me in the kitchen!)

(Towino was only invited for his onion chopping skills! Or so we were told!)

After roughly five hours of cooking we were ready to eat! I couldn't wait! My house smelled great! There were 13 of us eager to eat, eat, eat!

(Manisha stands ready to start the meal!)


(Clockwise from top: curry chicken [short pot], Indian soup made by Sally [tall, shiny pot], 10 pounds of tandoori chicken, samosas, pakoras, and vegetable rice in the center)


(Ankita samples the pakoras)

(Orion and Poorvi fill their plates)

(Sally contemplates all the tasty choices)

I had such an amazing time. Of course, I haven't posted any pictures of myself as my hair was covered in mud and I looked rather scary. We all laugh, visited, ate, and had a marvelous time. I ate too many samosas to count and ate two more before bed! Oh my!

I was impressed by many things yesterday. The first being the amazing taste of everything that was prepared. John and I agreed that this was THE best Indian food we had ever eaten. Yum. The second being that my kitchen was clean before we even sat down to dinner! All we had to do after dinner was put away left-overs and toss the dinner dishes into the dishwasher! Thirdly, I was so tickled by the friendships that these students had forged- their cheerful banter, singing, and joking filled the house. It was a great feeling!

Thank you Manisha for bringing your friends to my house and for cooking for my family and our friends. Thank you Sadiq, Towino, Tanvi, Ankita, Poorvi, Mona, and Phat for your culinary talents, your hard work, the great fun, and a taste of India.

A Good Day

Wow! It's not yet noon and I have been blessed with several little happies already! First I was greeted with the weather report as I hopped into the car at 6:30 a.m. Temperatures dropping and snow coming! Woot! I hopped out of the car and raced back inside to bring a secondary set of shoes (instead of my traditional Birks) as well as my hat and gloves. I can't wait! Bring it on!

The radar pic was from 10:30 this morning. It's coming! We're only expecting one to two inches. But I can hope for four! Right?

After tossing my 'winter gear' into Grace I made my way to Parker's Grocery to buy gas. I've watched the prices dropping (with the minor hiccup for Thanksgiving) and have held out as long as I could. With my Parker's Card I paid $1.33. We get 3 cents for being customers and a penny off for ever $10 we spend over a two week period. I do most of my shopping at Wal-Mart (prices) but I love the meat selection at Parker's. So I was able to fill my near empty gas tank for no, not $40, no, not $30, no even $20! But for less than $15 this morning. I spent $14.60 to fill my car today. And did a little happy dance in the pre-dawn glow of the gas station.

I administered my second of three finals this morning at 8:00. My students shared their creative philosophies of education. Each one different. Each one personal. Each one genuine. It was sad to say "see you later." I will miss them.

For the rest of today and Wednesday I have hundreds of papers to grade and a handful of meetings (blah!). Thursday afternoon I have my last final. And Friday Orion heads to Children's Mercy South for his G.I. check-up.

Now then, I'm off to do my snow dance and grade some papers. What's the weather like in your neck of the woods?

Making the Grade

Dear Readers,

The results are in! Orion has successfully survived his first quarter as a sixth grader. I don't know if it has been harder on him or me... Probably me. Letting them grow up is hard. To start of the year John took Orion to his before school social and met the teachers. We kept parent involvement to a minimum. I didn't send my usual letter describing Orion's various learning features (C.A.P.D. & Dyslexia) or his need for frequent bathroom breaks (U.C.). I held back. I wanted to see how middle school was going to work out. All the time, ready to jump in and rescue him...

But so far, there has been no need. Each of his teachers commented on his lack of organizations skills and how that's keeping him from making better grades. Each of his teachers commented on what a respectful and good student he is. The conference was student led, so he showed me work he wanted to share, explained work the teacher wanted to share, and discussed his strengths and weaknesses. He even had an "improvement" plan for Communication Arts (since his state test was a few points below "proficient" and in the "basic" pile. I told him I wasn't worried as his score might be "basic" he was still above the state average! I'm a bad mommy!). After that, he walked us through the Book Fair (I'm glad I left my purse in the car!), we took a parent survey, and went to the cafeteria for cookies and report cards.

Orion's first quarter grades are:
2 Cs
2 Bs
2 As

I am so impressed and so proud of Orion!

For those of you who would like to read more about Orion. Visit his blog. It is no longer invitation only. The Life of Orion is open to all. Enjoy!

Ten Days

I cannot believe it has been ten days since I have posted! It just might be a record! I apologize; it is simply an indicator of how busy the past few weeks have been. My absence from the blogosphere, the pile of laundry, the unmade bed, the sticky kitchen floor, and the unpaid bills all point to the same, wicked truth. School has resumed!

I have been spending roughly 14 hours every day on campus. This has been my attempt to get caught up so that I can devote more time to research. You may ask how I could be so far behind during the first week of school. I didn't even have papers to grade until Thursday! After all I went to work a week early to get things ready. Alas, I had a student that consumed a particularly great deal of my time (over thirty hours in a week an a half). This student was not prepared to enter their internship and waited until the last minute to begin making corrections to the document that would enable them to participate in the internship. Said student had nearly three months to make corrections. And while the quote "Failure to plan on your part does not constitute and emergency on mine," continually played in my head over the course of dealing with said student, I was still the one who ended up being the most affected. Who pays for a students inability to follow directions, to plan, to organize, or to write coherently? Not the student. The teacher.


That aside, a great deal has happened in the last few days.

• School started for all three of us! Orion is navigating the often choppy waters of middle school. John is taking two courses (Anthropology & Ecology) in the mornings. And I am attempting Meteorology. I say attempting because I am conducting research with the professor of the course (Sally) and hanging out. I fear that I may not have the time to dedicate to studying.
• John has returned to the late night shift of 3:15 to 12:15.
• I am teaching another full load this semester, however I have taught all of these classes before so at least I have a vague idea of what I am doing this time around!
• An old friend died last week.
• Helen, the grey kitten, was adopted by three young ladies, students at UCM.
• I've been pretty sick and I have a mild case of pink eye! Allergy related? Perhaps.
  

And this is only a sampling of what has been happening! I have decided to use my blog as an incentive or reward! When I complete a certain amount of tasks, I will allow myself to post to the blog. Unfortunately, I doubt that there will be much to report. All work and no play makes Kat a very dull blogger!

Let's hope not!

Open House

The boys headed over to the 'Burg's Middle School for Open House at 6:00 this evening. They came home with Cap'n D's and piles of instructions, schedules, and lunch menus. Woah!

Orion moves up to 6th Grade this year. He is officially a Middle Schooler. Before he went off to Camp Subi this summer he participated in three of the four weeks of summer school at the Middle School. This helped him out tremendously. According to J, Orion just marched in as if he owned the school and visited with his summer school teachers and introduced himself to his new teachers. Go Orion, go!

I've spent the past thirty minutes deciphering and copying his class schedule. Over the next nine months Orion will have 17 different classes and 12 different teachers. His core classes are Language Arts, Reading, Social Studies, Math, Science and Band. These classes will meet for an entire year. Then he has single semester classes (18 weeks) and hex classes (6 weeks). He will have one semester of Boys P.E. He also has nine (9) hex, or six week, classes. These classes will meet for six weeks and then he will move on to the next hex class. His hex classes are Technology, Art, Music, Study Skills, Keyboarding, Math Art, Nutrition, Communication, and Whizitivities (Science stuff he thinks!).

I will admit that I am wary of these six week courses. I watch college students take these one and two hour courses. They may end up with six or seven different classes in a semester. That's six or seven different professors, syllabi, assignments, etc. Too much busy work. I hope the same is not true for middle school hex classes.

I just completed writing Orion's schedule down for him. Like many middle school, Orion's school will meet on a block schedule. That means he will have Math, Reading, Science, and a hex class or two on one day for about 90 minutes and Language Arts, Band, Social Studies, and another hex class or two on the following day for about 90 minutes. The one exception is Life Skills 101 which meets daily for 25 minutes.

To make matters more interesting the schedule they handed him had all 17 classes listed, beginning with first period classes and ending with fifth period classes; this included red days and white days. It took me quite a bit of time to figure out where he was supposed to go and when! Even better his lunch period lands smack dab in the middle his Social Studies class and his Reading class. How weird!

Well, it's all straighted out! I created a list of only the essentials: locker number, combination, and class schedule.

Tomorrow is nearly here! It's time for bed! Wish us ALL luck!

Children's Book Workshop

I spent the last two days in the James Kirkpatrick Library at UCM enjoying the Children's Book Workshop. During my two days I had the opportunity to listen to several authors and artists (Veda Boyd Jones, Cheryl Harness, Carolyn Mulford, and Jaime Thome), to practice the art of bookbinding, and to hobnob with other aspiring writers and published authors. Part of my requirements for taking the workshop for graduate credit is to submit a book proposal to a publishing house. I received good reviews from the two authors who reviewed my proposal. I am looking forward to incorporating their suggestions, finding a publishing house or two that might be interested, and sending off my proposal in two weeks.

Awards Ceremony

(Katherine Leslie & Nicole Gadt, April 2008)

In April I shared that I received Teacher of the Year from Kappa Delta Pi and an Excellence in Teaching Award from the National Society for Leadership and Success. There were no cameras present during the KDP ceremony. But I did manage to have some pictures taken at the second ceremony. Above I am pictured with one of my former students and the gal who nominated me for the award, Nicole Gadt! Below I am accepting my award. My mom as been not-so-patiently waiting for me to post these. I think she wanted to make sure I dressed professionally! Enjoy!

(Seth Eggleston and Katherine Leslie, April 2008)

What a Week!

Is it Friday yet? Please tell me yes! This has been a whopper of a week. I considered titling this post "The Week from Hell" however, it hasn't been a bad week so much as a full week.

This week saw the end of one semester and the dawn of another semester! So I have been busy removing courses from BlackBoard, archiving grades, and putting the semester to rest, while at the same time starting up a new class in BlackBoard, meeting new students, grading, hooking students up with their field experiences and the like.

It's been a simply exhausting week. I am spent. Summer school is no easy feat! Our classes are longer (which I like - gives me more time discuss topics with students) and they meet four to five days a week (which is exhausting). Because of this, many summer classes are done in a matter of approximately six weeks. However, Foundations of Education is an 11 week course. We actually have MORE contact time during the Summer semester than we do during the Fall or Spring semesters.

The first Monday of June I will pick up another class. This will be a traditional six week, Monday through Thursday, course. And during the last three weeks of the Summer semester I'll pick up a third class. A three hour class, that will meet daily for three hours, three weeks straight. Come July 11th I will be dead. I am certain.

Of course, by August 11th I will be raring to return to school and signing up for training sessions, creating my BlackBoard courses, and the like... But until then, I dream of afternoon naps, romance novels, bubble baths, and thunder storms.

Happy Dance

As of 5:48 p.m. this evening I not only completed grading for the semester, but I finished posting my grades via the Banner System. Just in the nick of time! Summer school starts Monday! I think I am in over my head.

My favorite part of grading this week was evaluating my students' philosophy of education artifacts. I had roughly 33 sophomores in Foundations of Education and 9 seniors in Classroom Management submit their philosophy metaphors. I had poems, trips to the zoo, an under-wire bra, sculpture, paintings, essays, gardens, sports activities, cookies, and all sorts of goodies. It always impresses me to see what my students are thinking. This is also a very personal assignment and allows me a little glimpse into their souls, I think.

No Go

Houston we are No-Go for school today!

Now I need to go turn off Orion's alarm clock and let the wee monster sleep!

Of course, the University will be open!