The Nectar List

So I have been working really hard (ok so not really hard as of yet, but I plan to - I really do) on keeping a running gratitude list as I focus on becoming a better, healthier, more loving me. This is why I was so happy to stumble upon the blog Day dreaming in ink which featured a post on creating a nectar list. Author Sierra Vandervort describes it like this:

It’s a lot like a Bucket List, but instead of listing the things we want to do before we kick the bucket, we list the things that have been the nectar of our existence so far. It’s cheesy, I know, but urbandictionary told me sweet nectar was slang for “to live” like kick the bucket is slang for “to die.” So deal with it.

So here goes mine:

1. I have the honor of being the mom to the most intuitive and kind four year old I have ever met.
2. I've taken a road trip with some pretty fun ladies. Ashley and Holly - I still can't get over how much I liked the Yacht Club.
3. I convinced my mom and dad to send me around the world one summer which if you know my mom at all is some kind of miracle. That trip is hands down one of my most cherished of memories.
4. I have ziplined through the treetops in Costa Rica.
5. I have a knack for picking pretty amazing pets - R.I.P. Toby and much love Quinnicus.
6. My then boyfriend and now husband and I experienced the thrill of beating Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo in the same evening.
7. I surprise myself - often.
8. I get to take advantage of living in the biggest theater district outside of New York +PlayhouseSquare .
9. I've ridden a dolphin.
10. I got the chance to meet 'Reva' from Guiding Light.
11. I've been published.
12. I make friends easy and often.
13. I've gotten to inspire others in a classroom.
14. I'm not afraid to be vulnerable.
15. I've watched the wild Spanish Mustangs run in Corolla.
16. I've experienced the joy of tubing.
17. I have gotten to eat the best lobster risotto ever at +Nighttown Restaurant
18. I have been on work funded trips to Tucson and San Francisco.
19. I attended St. Patrick's Day activities in Savannah, GA.
20. I have a family rich in traditions.
21. I got a car when I was 16 that was good for then and an even better one that is good for now.
22. I get to attend cool professional development events such as the International Summit on Conflict Resolution Education.
23. I've had an amazing steak and equally amazing gin martini at XO.
24. My sister introduced me to Society.
25. Pinterest came into my life.
26. My first concert was TLC and Boys II Men.
27. Exploring Barcelona
28. Ordering a passport for my then two year old daughter to vacation in Punta Cuna.
29. Seeing one of the seven wonders of the world.
30. Visiting San Diego several times as a kid.
31. Experiencing what must have been high stakes bingo in San Angelo.
32.  Looking at miles and miles of beautiful smiles up and down the boardwalk.
33. Visiting those people with the parrots in FL.
34. Finding treasures at garage sales.
35. Camp Fitch
36. Getting married in a beautiful church
37. Attending the protest against School of the Americas and singing in that circle
38. Finding fellowship
39. Having an amazing starter home in a great neighborhood
40. Hosting many fun bags tourneys
41. Having a laughing attack in a bathroom in Russia
42. Dancing all night to Tom Jones in Norway and eating burgers with corn and cucumbers
43. Serenading John with a little James Taylor in Portugal
44. Skipping the tour and sipping sangria with one of my BFF's in Spain
45. Big Christmas celebrations  
46. My mom rapping at my 5th grade bday party.
47. My dad building a huge snow-painted dragon in the snow and awesome haunted houses in our basement.
48. Discovering how lovely tea is. 
49. Begging enough money off of stranger to buy a butterfly ring at a music festival
50. Buffett
51. Mickey's - 'this is ladies night' song is literally playing in my head right now 
52. Belting out Shania in Jen's Jimmy
53. Snowflake the pig
54. Amazing night when Joe docked at Ginger and John's house

 And if Sierra can have the following appear as number 38 on her list, I can certainly also add it to mine :). Looking back this does seem to have been extremely hard to do...lol. Tom and Lori I still feel horrible about this :)

Sierra: "I’ve puked out the window of a moving vehicle. Not exactly proud of that, but seems like an accomplishment" 

I would love to hear some of the items on your nectar lists so please share!

So many reasons why I love working at a college...here are a few highlights from this week

Reason 1 - Walking Taco Wednesday complete with caricature artists on hand and a funny t-shirt making machine.  If this brilliant idea is not on Pinterest yet it certainly should be. Open a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and top with ground beef, tomatoes, shredded lettuce and cheese, salsa, and sour cream.

Walking tacos! Students really could eat them while walking to class!

I also think it says something about the institution that I work for when the campus president is the one doing the serving. Rock on East Campus! Rock on!

President J. Michael Thomson Helps Serve

Reason 2: Cafe 4250 - Restaurant run by our hospitality students. There is a standing menu for the semester along with a chef special which changes weekly and costs only $9. This week featured chef du cuisine Clifton Hairston which consisted of the following:

• Pancetta wrapped dates stuffed with manchego cheese and mint
• Braised pork osso buco with risotto milanese and asparagus 
• Key Lime Tart 
  
  I already have reservations made for the next two Wednesdays  - can't wait +Bridget Kriner and Lisa Dionisi. To read more about this awesome program visit: Tri-C Student-Staffed Dining Experience.

OMG! A pinterest pin that works like a charm!

My house is going up on the market soon and recently I noticed some huge stains on our office carpet. No idea where they came from and my usual go to cleaner which is Spot Shot seamed to just smear the stain this time around. I decided to try the ironing trick listed on pinterest mainly because it only called for 5 items all of which I generally already have at the house: white vinegar, water, spray bottle, iron, and white cleaning clothes/towels: Carpet Stain Remover that Works on Old Stains Too.

Below are the before and after pics. You can see how much better the carpet looks after. I actually think had I done it one more time I could have totally removed the stain, but I was running out of daylight and only have a single shitty lamp in that room with which to work so this was good enough for a first attempt:

I am so impressed with this that I sort of want to go around to the houses of my friends and families, pour some highly stainable substance on their carpet, and then perform my magic trick to their stunned ooh's and ahh's.

Thinking like a teacher

My always inspirational sister +Ashley Keene recently posted a Currently template on her blog. I,  as I customarily do, then stole her idea and tweaked it. I used the word 'stole' here flippantly, but then I started wondering - wait I minute, am I stealing - is this ethical? My sister paid for the template from a site called Teachers Pay Teachers. I liked the idea behind the template, but I wanted more mature looking graphics, if any at all, and I wanted to add additional fields. These wants/needs led me to mock up an alternative on Word. I gave credit to the original author in the footnote and linked to her site in the footnote, but is that enough?

As a former English teacher and current instructional designer I take copyright and attribution seriously, but still find myself questioning at times what constitutes an infraction?

I recently recommended the reading Lines on Plagiarism Blur for Students in Digital Age by Trip Gabriel for a First Year Experience course where I work. The article made me consider  how I would personally define plagiarism as I read the following comments from the publication which represent varying viewpoints on the topic:

“There’s no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity.” Helene Heggman, best-selling teenage novelist

“You’re not coming up with new ideas if you’re grabbing and mixing and matching”  Sarah Wilensky,  Indiana University student 

I guess I'm just looking for answers. I am curious to know what you all think? And finally, do I now need to be including full-text citations to  blog entries every time I quote? Not gonna lie - that would kind of suck.

Now back to that template that I still can't classify as theft or not - here's my adaptation:

Even though the original template was geared toward fourth graders, why couldn't it also serve higher ed students.  I can see it used as an ice breaker and/or check-in activity given several times during a semester to keep a pulse on student interests in order to design curriculum that is student-centered.

I also love the idea of using this template as a monthly blog update. I only wish I had more readers/participants to comment and share their own monthly updates with me.

Please share your own responses in the comments section so I don't feel like I'm writing in a vacuum all the time.

Still tryin'

So I'm still trying to complete my bucket list from last summer....

Today I was able to cross off one of the six remaining items - to be fair, the item I planned on doing tonight with nieces and daughter was to create fairy jars.  I went to order the diamond dust a few days ago so I would be all prepared for their visit; however, upon visiting the Michael's website I saw this warning under my needed product:

Considering, I didn't want to be responsible for anyone's declining health I decided to go with a different activity. Instead of making fairly jars, we tried exploding paint bags and throwing egg shells filled with paint at canvas in an attempt to make Pollock like art. Here is some of Pollock's pieces:

And ours:

Here our some pics of the prep work, process, and finished process (we also managed to get nails and hair sessions in as you can see!)

Considering I was able to hold their attention for all of 20 minutes, I would count tonight a success.

Calling all teachers...or anyone who has ever been a student

Teacher Friends or Anyone Who Has Ever Been a Student- if you are willing to share your ideas and allow others to use them  I would love to take inventory. What have been some of your favorite classroom activities and most memorable flops?  I am hosting a workshop at Tri-C around this topic and want to gather some talking points :)

Ideas Into Actions: For Little Liv

The first email to my daughter:

Hi baby girl,

So I finally put into action this idea I found on FB: signing you up for an email account now and sending you reminders of my love throughout the years and then giving you the password on your 18th birthday (although by then who knows what form emails will take).

I will try to be somewhat judicial about what I include so that opening all of the emails/links/pictures remains exciting and not painstaking (although if you are anything like me and your Tia Ashley +Ashley Keene you never will tire of hearing about/looking at yourself :) In fact, I still try to make Daddy view old family videos of me when I was the age you are now.

Here is something I wrote when you were first born; I was an adjunct at Baldwin-Wallace College and used this poetry prompt in my English composition class (assignment inspired by George Ella Lyon's poem)- I was/am so excited to both share and recreate some of these memories with you:

I am from steel mills, church festivals, annual garage sales, bowling alley bars and a traditional neighborhood complete with bike parades and block parties. I am from wood forts and lightening bugs and summers spent at the swim club.  I am from the calls of neighborhood kids in the yard, disputes over softball scores, and the sound of feet on trampoline vinyl. I am from handmade haunted houses and staging stories.  I am from playing the organ at our fake Christmas mass and I am from a front yard that housed a big green spray painted dinosaur made all of snow. I am from Bernie’s hometown, miles and miles of beautiful smiles up and down the boardwalk, Carolina moons, and catching crabs after dark.  I am from cities, and states, cultures and continents.

I am from steak umms and dippy eggs and Sunday dinners with sauce. Sauce full of chicken, sausage, and meatballs. I am from buckeye cookies, fried fish, and macaroni on Christmas Eve night and jellybean trails on Easter.  I am from buttered fries, Kraft macaroni and cheese, and salads that are anything but healthy. I am from sour worm candies shared with Grandma. I am from a family who loves wine -  - with everything. 

I am from call me when you get there, Lalee, and I’m freezing. I am from are those eggs fresh and are those potatoes instant? I am from look at the hoopies, I worshed the clothes, grab a buggy, and you don’t even like cake. I am from “No more bread until you eat your salad”, “I’ll pay you a quarter to rub my back” and ‘I wish you two could get along.  Ya know, she’s all you have one day”.  I am from “never go to bed mad,” “we are proud of you” and “Darling, when we’re not together there’s one thing I want you to know ‘I’ll love you from here to forever and be there wherever you go.’”

I am from a family of military men.  I am from Euchre, Aggravation and most recently Pinochle. I am from a family where everyone tells the same stories over and over again and somehow they never feel old.  I am from relatives who mostly sing off key (all except the Yanno’s), but sing just the same.  I am from the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas'' and "Like a Virgin". I am from sibling rivalry and knock down drag outs with a sister who has always been my best friend. I just didn’t know it then. I am from a mom who has shown me what it means to work hard, sacrifice, and share and a dad who taught me to how to let loose and laugh. I am from a shared bed with my mom and the Snow Queen and trying to learn moves from a dad who danced. I am from a broken home, that isn’t broken at all. 

I am from a place I’d never thought I’d be which is why I want to share my past with you Olivia Beckett, mi futuro.