Josh Jenkins for City Council!

So, as you may have heard if you are from the Northwest Arkansas area (or if you are just absurdly interested in politics) there was a Josh Jenkins running for city council in Springdale. Just to clear up the rumors, this was NOT me. I have had many enthusiastic parents, students, and coworkers let me know that I have their vote and their full support. Unfortunately, it is not I, but an imposter. Sorry to disappoint.... maybe one day! Whattaya think???

Book Review #2 Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Let me just say to begin with, out of fairness to Maguire and to the book, that I am a HUGE Wizard of Oz fan. I loved the Baum books. I loved the movie. I loved the little-seen sequel Return to Oz. I loved the characters, the imagination, and the SIMPLICITY of it all. In addition, let me add that I LOVED the musical Wicked. I am a fan of musical theater, and it was one of my favorites musicals ever. So, to be fair, I had astronomical, gigantic, probably unfair expectations for this book. It did not deliver. There were a few moments in this book that were pure genius. There were rare, wonderful times when I was reading and just thought to myself “YES! That is exactly how I imagined it!” But, overall I simply did not like the book. I wanted to. I had heard that I should. But alas, I did not.
I think that the primary reason for this is how completely disjointed the book feels. It feels more as if it is a collection of short stories about one character, rather than a novel. In each chapter we are just coming to be interested in a supporting character or characters, when BAM! the story jumps forward x years and the nearly interesting characters are never seen or heard from again, or show up in such limited and uninteresting capacity that it makes little difference. After the second time of this happening I realized that this book was more a little series of vignettes about Elphaba, rather than a cohesive whole.
I also felt that there was a lot of unnecessary difficulty with the names of the characters and the places. I felt like after a while these became more of a distraction than an addition to the plot and the setting.
I think that the biggest problem I had with the book was that it was simply not that entertaining. I understand that there are a lot of "morals to the story" in this book and that it wants to study issues of prejudice and morality... but for me, there also needs to be a good strong STORY to back that up. I just didn't find that here. I need to be able to get invested in the characters, particularly the main character. But the supporting characters were constantly being whisked away, and the main character never seemed fully realized.I have been told that this book is much better the second time. I don’t know that it will get that chance. There are just too many great reads out there.

Drawing the Skeletal System

Over the last week or so, we have begun our unit on the human body. We have completed an overview of the organ systems in a human body, and are now going into more depth with each system. We began with the skeletal system and are about to move on to the muscular system. As a wrap up activity on the skeletal system, my students laid on a large piece of paper on the floor and traced their bodies. Then, they drew the major bones of our bodies and labeled the 21 that they will be tested on.

The students had a really good time with this assignment and many of them actually turned out really good. Here are just a few pictures from our exciting day!

Book Review #1 The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer

So, I realize that this is technically more than one book review, but I have recently finished the first 3 Twilight books and am currently reading Breaking Dawn. I have to admit that I was more than skeptical when I heard about these books. I had never heard of such an absurd idea for a story. A girl that is struggling between her love for a vampire and her love for her best friend, a werewolf. First off, I'm not too big on reading about love stories. Most are poorly written and come off as pathetic rather than romantic. All the angst and pining usually gives me heartburn. I must say that if these books were just a love story, I don't think that I could handle them. However, there is so much insight into human nature and so much other story line that it makes the (moderately excessive) ookey stuff bearable. I must also admit that these books have gotten better as they have gone along and that they are easily the most addictive and hardest to put down books that I have read since the Harry Potter series. I am glad that I took the time and went against my better judgement to read this "sappy love story."