PUNKED

Okay--not quite, but close enough. Yesterday I had one of the weirdest experiences of my teaching career, or one of the most devious anyway. So I was caught after lunch in the hallway by a group of boys all dressed up in suits and ties. They were doing an assignment for the TV Broadcast class about dating. They said, "Oh, here is Ms. E, let's interview her!" So I stoped in the hallway, smiled for the camera, and answer their questions, 'Yes, I think dating is an important social skill to learn....' and I didn't realize what they were doing until they asked me if I was dating anyone and I was like oh,no! They proceeded to ask me how I felt about the single male teachers at the school and then to make a long story short--they caught me on camera saying, yes, I would go on a date with Mr. W if they set me up with him and paid for it! WOW. So yeah, caught on camera saying I would go out with Mr. W. that was a whole new level of deviousness from my students. They have tried daily for the last year + to get he and I hooked up. Turned out they were not dressed up for TV Broadcasting but their soccer game. And then they took their "evidence" that I would go out with him to Mr. W. Yeah. Wow.

Women Need Women

As I have gotten older I have realized something. It does you no good to hide your imperfections and the trials you are going through from your close friends--because we all have hardships and we need the comfort and help we receive from sharing with each other.

It's funny how when you are younger you think if you never let anyone know your trials everyone will think you have a perfect life. And maybe they will--but most of us know we are all seceretly going to things~. And it can be easy to see the successes of others and feel like we have gotten a bum rap in some ways. But I love how Elder Maxwell says we are all given trials relatively equally--they are just different. And I love how Elder Holland says that just because God is smiling at one person--does not mean He is therefore frowning at you--.

I have tried my whole life to hide my imperfections from others--but guess what? I know you can all see them--and love me anyway. And my current huge issue of getting old and single--guess what? Not something I can hide. Is it hard sometimes, yes. Am I still happy about my life? Yes.

I read a funny Hallmark card the other day that said "Friends are the people who know everything about you and love you anyway!" So true.

I think women are a gift to each other because we have the sensitivity to share and help and genuinely care about one another. I'm thankful for all of my good friends--and here is to being good enough friends to really talk to each other and share and help one another!

In 30 + Years I Hope I

look like Helen Mirren.


Have you ever just seen yourself in a movie? Seen a character and the way they are written and dressed and knew it was you? I had that odd experience watching Inkheart a few weeks ago at the $ movie.

I am going to be Aunt Elinor in 30 years. She was quirky, wore too much makeup had extravagent yet artistic clothing, had too many books, and no patience for children, but was completely loveable. She goes on world-wide adventures through her books, and ends up helping save the day afterall. If I don't get married--that is what I am on the fast-track to being! I actually thought she was very endearing as a character--and I hope so--because that character in Cornellia Funke's book--is the future me! :D I hope I would be that beautiful at over 60 too! And please love me when I am a single old woman hiding in my very large library! :D

Who have you seen yourself as in a movie?

Lessons from a FOB Concert

Fall Out Boy
1. Don't wear tank tops. When you are having to have too much forced bodily contact at a sweaty concert--really, nobody wants to feel your sweaty arms and shoulders.

2. Don't wear flip-flops. You will get your meet trampled on by the moshing you will inadvertantly gets yourself smooshed into at least once.

3. If you are over 40, maybe even over 35, you are a little too old to go to teenage/college age music concerts. It's weird to see you next to 12-25 year olds dancing to teenage music. There are lots of other concerts people your age will be going to you.

4. Don't bring your 12 year olds or younger to these concerts. It is no place for someone that age, even if you are chaparoning them.

5. What is the deal with crowd surfing--maybe this shows my age. I don't like being kicked in the head--even on accident.

6. Watch where you step. Someone might accidently have had their gum fly out of their mouth (me) and you might step on it.

7. Enjoy yourself, lose yourself in the music once in a while. Act silly, wave your hands in the air, try to catch what the singers throw in the crowds, you are only young once. Wear a crazy shirt--who is going to see you?

8. Good quote by one of the lead singers, "You are not who loves you, you are who you love." Nice.

The Truth About Class Clowns

I just didn't understand why my 8th grade Honors English teacher liked Don S., and Collin K. They were loud, obnoxious, and truthfully I wondered by their frequent outbreaks if they really were as smart as the rest of us. What I know was true was despite this all teachers liked them, and they were the two most popular kids at school.

The truth is, teachers do love class clowns. I admit it--shamefully--but I admit it. Why do we like those kids sometimes more than the "good" kids who quietly behave? They make life interesting. Kids rally around them. If your class clown is behind you--meaning--on board with what you are teaching--largely the rest of the class will be too. (Of course, there are always exceptions).

I am teaching Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream right now in my 10th grade classes and the classes where I have a couple class clowns that are all about the love triangles and can't wait to read the next act of the play--the rest of the class has more fun. We are all laughing about Bottom getting turned into an A-S-S and the love potion accidentally getting into Demetrius's eyes rather than Lysander's.

While I was reading Huckleberry Finn with my 11th graders, if my class clowns enjoyed acting out scenes and reading parts outloud the rest of the class laughed and enjoyed it as well.

Class clowns can add a jovial air to the classroom, and give you as a teacher, something to laugh about, blog about, and talk to other teachers and friends about. Boy, could I tell you some stories!

If your class clown is instead a class bully or class jerk, or bad-attitude-student who-messes-around---that type of attitude spreads quickly in a classroom as well.

But I will have admit it has been a teaching epiphany--sometimes you like your loudest, craziest kids the best, and sometimes the ones you overlook more often than you should are the good kids that don't give you a reason to HAVE TO pay attention to them. Interesting, huh?

So, should we all be raising class clowns rather than well behaved, quite students? Probably somewhere inbetween--I will take your socially-adjusted, not-scared-of-authority students with pleasant attitudes, please. :D

Pagan Rituals

The Festival of the Colors is probably the strangest thing I have ever participated in. It is a Hari Krishna celebration where an effigy of an evil demon woman is burned and then paint colors—scented with jasmine--are thrown in the air. I’m not going to lie—it felt very weird to me, and very pagan. I didn’t participate in the chanting.The interesting thing about the Hari Krishna population in Utah is a lot of them are white converts. How odd to think about these people who probably used to be Mormon—or at least Christian—converting to an outlying sect of Hinduism. It seems so anti-US-religious culture. And then it hit me—it is probably as weird to me to see white-Spanish Fork-Utahn-Hari Krishnas as it is weird for say a Japanese person to see a Buddhist turned Mormon. It is probably as anti-cultural tradition to see someone in a Buddhist or a Muslim country turn Christian as it is for me to see someone go the opposite direction, so—strange experience—good epiphany. I will have to say it made me even that much more grateful today as I was watching conference to know I belong to the true church—one where we don’t burn effigies of demons, but positively celebrate the birth and atonement of Jesus Christ.