KISSES (baking)

It's time for a baby (and gleefully, I report it is not mine)! For Vinnie's sister's baby shower, I decided to make chocolate truffle kisses, originally posted on bakerella.com

The recipe (annotated by me):

1 package oreo cookies (divided… use cookie including the cream center)
1 8oz. package cream cheese (softened)
chocolate bark

My step 1: taste test the oreos.

Her step 1:

1. Finely crush all but seven cookies in a food processor or place them in a ziploc bag and crush into a fine consistency.

(cookies minus 7)

If you just got a ninja cause your sister or your friend Michelle told you it was awesome, you should use that. It grinds those cookies like no one's business!!

Look at those crumbs!

Step 2:

2. Stir in softened cream cheese. Use the back of a large spoon to help mash the two together.  Give up. Mush it up with your hands. It's a much better choice.

Step 3:

3. Roll the mixture into 1″ balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet.

Step 4:

4. Then, begin to form the shape of a kiss. Flattening the bottom and forming a point at the top. (Mine ended up about 1.5″ tall)
5. It helps to put the uncoated balls in the freezer for a few minutes to keep the mixture from starting to fall apart when you drop into the melted chocolate.

Step 6:

6. Melt chocolate as directed on package and then dip “kisses” one at a time into chocolate, tap off extra and slide them off spoon onto wax paper covered cookie sheet to dry. 

From what I read, this is difficult for a lot of people, but if ou tap well, it doesn't seem too difficult. Maybe I'm just a candy coating natural.

Decorate: 
1. Handwrite your messages or create them on the computer. Cut out the strips (about 1/4″ tall and however wide you need).
2. Cut up some square sheets of aluminum foil (about 5.5″ square)
3. Place dry kiss in center and start wrapping the foil around the base. Insert message near top and secure it by pressing the foil together at top.

This was the fun part! My brain started racing with variations.... mmm.... the yumminess!!

Presents (also known as... What the...)

I get presents. Often. An apple here, an eraser there. Stickers. Candies. Little pictures and things shoved into my hands while I greet kids in the morning, or as I walk around the room. I love the love.

This morning I got... wait for it... A slider. From White Castle.

"Here Ms. K. I got this for you."

Why, thank you....

MULTIPLYING (by the numbers)

Do you remember learning how to multiply?

I don't. It feels like one of those things I have always known how to do, like counting, instead of one of those things I have a specific memory of learning, like folding a bottom sheet. I had forgotten how many landmines are involved with the tricky concept of multiplying double digits by single digits (especially if you don't know your basic multiplication facts)- you might write the ones and carry the tens, or forget to add what you carried, or some other nonsense.

Like most teachers, I think incessantly about my students. It's like they have a secret compartment in the back of my head, and they are apt to spring from it like jack-in-the-boxes. I was driving home on Tuesday, listening to oldies, when I heard the rousing *stomp, stomp, clap* of Queen's We Will Rock You. MOMENT!!

Flash forward to my classroom on Wednesday, when I introduced my students to our new song, designed to help them master their multiplication. (See below). Amazing fact #1- my students can clap, stomp, sing, and learn at the same time. Amazing fact #2- 85% of them passed their multiplication test this Friday for the first time. If I had any idea how to copywrite and publish this, I would, but I don't think I can, so instead I will share it in this forum, with the three of you who read this, and welcome you to use it, and use it well. The kids LOVE it!

We will multiply ("tune" of We Will Rock You)- you can substitute any example. This uses 53 x 7 = 371

We will, we will multiply. We will, we will multiply.
First you take the bottom number, multiply the ones.
Write down your ones and carry your tens.
Then you take the bottom number, multiply the tens.
Add what you carries and write it down!
Sing it!
We will, we will multiply. We will, we will multiply.
We will, we will multiply. We will, we will multiply.
First you take the seven, multiply by three.
Write down the one and carry the two.
Then you take the seven, multiply by five.
Add the two and write thirty seven.
Sing it!
We will, we will multiply. We will, we will multiply.

I hope to one day hear this sung in schools all over the U.S. It will make me smile. It made my students smile. Which always makes me smile.

We are growing!

Yes, all of us!

I have been a less than perfect blogger this year. I think this started because I wasn't sure anyone really wanted to hear my inner teacher, baker, crafty whirling dervish monologue, and continued because I felt busy. Deep thought, I know. I am coming to realize, however, that I (underlined, italicized) want to hear my inner monologue, and unless I slow myself down, I hear nothing.

Therefore, I am going to make a concerted attempt to a) write more regularly and b) not judge myself before I write.

I will, however, not refrain from judging myself after. This blog is boring. It is true, but boring. Therefore I will end it now and write another.

My friend Amy...

... blogs. And when I say she blogs, I mean she blogs like a madwoman. A crazy, hoarding, fifteen cat owning madwoman. And I love her. I am the sort who, last week when my computer broke and I had to get a new one, said to my computer genius (and pretty much everything else genius) sister, "I just need to be able to insert a chart into word, write tests for my students, and watch hulu". Classic. I once worked in IT at college, but I'm pretty sure they only kept me around because I color coded things and filed with great glee. Needless to say, I am envious of Amy's blogging. Not envious because I have nothing to say, or because I am incapable of speaking well, but because I lack the motivation to figure that out.

I do a lot of things in my life. I am a strong, independent woman. I work at a charter school, 8-5, and yet I still (try) to find the time for a social life, and someday, I will find time for a lovely significant other. But I learn by doing, and unless one of these times I take Amy and force her to sit down next to me and my newly purchased software and show me what she does, I fear you, my readers (do I even have any readers anymore?) will be seriously neglected.

Not that you aren't already neglected. Have I told you how much I love what I do? Have I told you how my students make me laugh and giggle, and how their joy at learning makes me glad to be alive and how their sadness makes me cry and their anger makes me angry? Have I told you how I want to smooth away their worries and bury their fears and dry their tears? Have I told you that sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to have my own children, because I feel their pain so intensely, and they have never been a PART of me, even though they have become a part of me? Have I told you about the nights spent sharpening pencils and grading papers and coaching them through their homework over the phone? Have I told you I can not think of anything else I could do that would make me feel as WHOLE?

We aren't perfect. We don't have everything. We don't know everything. I strive each day to make my classroom a sanctuary-- to talk about the big issues, be sure no one is being called gay, to give second, third, fourth chances, to laugh and talk with them, to love them with all the capacity of my being. I work on the weekends, work in the evening, work throughout the day, work in the shower, work in my sleep, and I can not tell you enough that I would be empty without it. And if you are neglected, it is because I am busy shaping minds and holding hands, bandaging knees and drying tears, teaching fractions and singing silly songs about putting names on papers, teaching lessons and making charts, sharpening pencils and calling parents, and I trust you will forgive me.

I am neglecting you for the future of my world. Your world. Our world. If I were Amy, my blog would sing. As it is, I hope it speaks clearly.

Every day a challenge...

Just home from six hours at school... on a Sunday! I am not complaining, but this year (like every year) has brought a new set of challenges. This post will be short, but I would be extremely receptive to any thoughts.

Challenge 1: My class size has increased from 22 to 30

Challenge 2: I have many (many) students with IEPs and ADHD (some diagnosed, some not)

Challenge 3: I have a TA for the first time (blessing, but challenge as well)

Challenge 4: I am teaching a split class- third and fourth grade

Challenge 5: I have never taught third or fourth grade before

Your thoughts, prayers, ideas are welcome!

I made a donor's choose page!!

Check it out! Donate if you can!!

http://www.donorschoose.org/ms.keim

Much appreciated!