ARACHNIDS

After going after marine arthropods this morning in Oceanside - preparation for an observation lab in class, tonight, I photographed a terrestial arthropod - a large spider building a web between our shed and a guava tree. Beautiful creature! The first one he/she was building the web:

The second picture was taken when it positioned itself ready for his meal. The scale was added for reference - also the flash overwhelmed the color on this picture so I reduced the brightness a bit so you can see it a bit better. Enjoy!

WELL? HOW DID I DO?

My summer plans were as follows:

Well - Physical Well Being: I am back in the gym - that is good, my lab work and Dr's checkup went as well.

With the help of Jack Basmadjian - Earth Science PLC and curricula is built and ready to roll - we received many compliments!

P/L Prep moved along and we are ready to start - thanks to the support of Dr. Garza!

BTSA - completed the curriculum mapping for Earth Science - turned out to be of use to other teacher's as well.

CSUSM Classes - completed six units: two graduate classes EDST 635 & 636 - excellent progress.

Personal: Lots of odds and ends - not enough time to do all I wanted to do - but one thing of note is that I have a new toy...er, tool:

Travel: ...Alaska of course.

Overall the plan was achieved... now the plan is set for 2008-2009 - as school started yesterday with "Buy Back" days. Students start on Monday August 25th. My room is shaping up!

I thank God for all that was done and what is ahead for the coming days, weeks, and months - may His perfect will be done.

LES MISERABLES

Well… wrapping up the summer – we went to the Moon Light outdoor theater in Vista last evening. We were treated to a wonderful production of Les Miserables. Victor Hugo’s timeless message came across in tympanic sharpness touching the audience’s – or at least this attendee – heart, mind and soul.

Bravo!

ROMEO Y JULIETA

A High School play under professional direction in a world-class outdoor theater turned out to be one my highlights for the Summer of '08.

This was an incredible performance by outstanding talented young people. The unique multilingual presentation (both in English and Spanish) was strange at first. I would even say uncomfortable for many - but as the play moved along and as the actors (White, Brown, Black, Yellow, Red) spoke both languages in appropriate sequences - it had a very powerful effect. Shakespeare transcends languages. Very innovative and refreshing.

Thank you Amber for the invite!

Check out their BLOG: http://www.oldglobe.blogspot.com/

SUMMER POWER

While the Russians played a game of world chess - some of us were immersed in other power activities: UbD and SIOP. I don’t know about you, but this profession has so many acronyms I think Harvard is offering an Eduspeak PhD. Just kidding…

In any case, I felt it was intense and worthwhile training. The SIOP model, which I was familiar with, turned out to be a real positive surprise. A superb fireball of a teacher – Martha Trejo brought for the district an intense 3-day seminar couched in what seems to be a very good strategic move for our district – congratulations!

Content Objectives and Language Objectives – here are some pictures…

Funny name SIOP – highly recommended.

Tecleado

Wow - this was done out of sheer frustration attempting to do Spanish and English... - and switching keyboards on a laptop is not something you do very quickly or conveniently... In any case here out of my frustration came up the following cheat sheet... I know, I know why did it take me so long...

° ¡ ” # $ % & / ( ) = ? ¡

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ’ ¿

Q W E R T Y U I O P ö * ]

q w e r t y u i o p ó + }

A S D F G H J K L Ñ [

a s d f g h j k l ñ {

Z X C V B N M ; : _

z x c v b n m , . -

Photo credit (c) FreeFoto.com