Saturday, August 3, 2013
Starting a new job!
Of course I know what I'm doing...right? While I know the nuts and bolts of teaching and working with children who have various disabilities, I'm excited and nervous about the The Person In Charge Of The Classroom EVERY DAY. All by myself. I finally get the chance to try out all of these ideas I have read about for so many years and see if they actually work-yay! I'm eager to get started, but still have a few final hurdles in my path.
I need a background check sent to my school's HR department, which I got started on today. The school is in a brand new building, so I have no idea what my classroom looks like or how to get into the building. Or what time school starts, or what other impairments my students might have in addition to visual ones, what their reading level(s) are so I can find appropriate books, if textbooks are already picked out or if I need to do that, or what technology is available... or really anything at all except that the students' first day is August 20.
As my mind races a million miles a minute, I try to relax and realize that I can do this. I have been training for years to do just this thing and it's going to be great.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Lights Out
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Today I walked in the Dash for Donation, which is a 5k to raise money and awareness for organ donation put together by Lifeline of Ohio. I decorated a race bib with "My daughter Ginny gave her heart". During the race another runner noticed my bib and came over to thank me because her daughter was a heart recipient. We chatted for a few minutes while we walked, and I found out that her daughter was 11, and therefore too old to have been Ginny's heart recipient.
I struggled throughout our brief conversation with the competing urges to ask when the donation had occurred to see if the girl had received Ginny's heart, or to just not know. I realized that I didn't want to know. I don't have elaborate fantasies about the child who carries Ginny's heart, or imagine what her life is like (very much). I do surreptitiously look at the children around me when I participate in Lifeline events, and even check the dates on the various posters, buttons, and t-shirts that people wear to announce their connection to organ donation. I haven't run across the recipient family yet, but I also don't yearn to meet them.
I think people are surprised when they ask if I know the recipient family and find out that I don't have a strong desire to meet them. They probably imagine some wonderful heartfelt scene where the girl and her family thank me profusely for the extraordinary gift they received. But after that initial scene, it would be awkward. Very awkward. Because after they share the amazing things that ___ was able to do because she received a heart transplant from Ginny, what could I say to move the conversation along? "Yeah, she sure kicked a lot..." They probably don't want to hear about her birth, or the horrible days in the hospital while we waited to hear her fate. They've lived through that tragic scene, but their ending was different-happy.
I don't get the fairytale ending. I never get to hold my little girl again, smell her hair, kiss her head, whisper that I love her. I never had the opportunity to give her a bath, dress her up in sweet dresses, watch her grow up. I've accepted that, but it still hurts every day to know that she's gone forever.
It helps tremendously to know that another mother doesn't have to go through this pain because of Ginny, and another little girl is alive. Her life wasn't in vain, she made a difference. Not just to me and my family and friends, but to others in the world. I share Ginny's story often, and encourage people to be organ and tissue donors. It hurts a little bit less to know that a piece of Ginny is out there, her heart beating inside another child's chest.
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Grades
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Buckeye Hat Knitting Pattern
Buckeye Hat
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This hat uses intarsia and makes a skull cap that fits snugly on the top of the head. The k2p2 edging can be made longer and flipped up if you like.
The size given (80 stitches in sport weight on size 8 needles) fits both my 2 year old nephew and my 20 year old brother-in-law equally well, so it should be a one-size-fits-most pattern.
Cast on 80 stitches in gray, join ends without twisting and k2p2 for about two inches.
Knit two rows of gray.
Join red yarn and knit chart. Note that the chart height is correct, but the width is shortened to only show 20 stitches across. The pattern continues around the hat.
Be careful to not pull the floated yarn too tightly or it will pucker.
After knitting the 20 rows of the chart, cut the red yarn and continue knitting with the gray for about 6 more rows.
To decrease for the crown of the head:
1) k5, k2tog, repeat
2) knit every even numbered row
3) k4, k2tog, repeat
5) k3, k2tog, repeat
7) k2, k2tog, repeat
9) k1, k2tog, repeat
11) k2tog, repeat
13) cut the end of the working yarn leaving a generous tail and use a yarn needle to sew through the live stitches to bind off. I usually go around the small circle at least twice, alternating over and under the stitches. You want the hole to be small, but not pulled so tight that it puckers in a weird way. Then pull the needle through the small hole in the center and weave in the ends.
Now you are ready for your next OSU celebration.
Go Bucks!