Book Review! (the first of many, I'm sure)

There are many things I expect to find in teachers' lounges: the smell of coffee, piles of uncollected copies, friendly conversations, and the occasional witty sign (for example, "Please snow, I'm a teacher"). Teachers are often taught to 'beg, borrow, and steal' lesson plans and to not reinvent the wheel, so the ubiquitous materials swap is actually one reason I love my profession. I peruse the magazines and books that get left on the table and am only somewhat interested, but a few weeks ago I found this lovely treasure depicted on the right.  The series name was familiar to me, the obvious "No. 1 Ladies" part was intriguing, and after a quick flip through, it was obvious that Smith took time to incorporate accurate cultural and linguistic features--go social sciences! Smith gives the reader a taste of Botswana language and culture, emphasizes the importance of charity and love, and tells the story of several strong characters who value their family. I was a bit disappointed that the actual title itself was not woven throughout the book as much, but overall I am very grateful for my fellow teacher who read this book and decided to pass it on.  I would go ahead to read more of the series but I'm already in the middle of "The Brothers Karamazov," "Pinocchio" in Italian, and a Truman biography...so the other 11 books in this series will have to wait :)  And of course, in the spirit of book swapping, if you're in the area, just ask for it!

New Years Resolutions

So almost every year I set some goals for my personal life and write them in the front of my planner.  They usually involve learning some new skill/language/instrument, doing more service, getting something more organized, and perhaps something else. It seems to be a good strategy for me--one success from last year for example was finally completing my I'm a Mormon profile page. 


But the year is already off to a crazy start for several reasons, including the fact that I am still planner-less. Yes, it's January 16th and I do not have a 2012 planner yet! AHHHHH!!! Although my life has not quite ended yet, and I am sort of cheating because I'm using the little extra pages at the end of my 2011 book, I am floundering when I can't write down something past January, and I can't use it as my journal because there are only a few millimeters of space per day and ahhhh!!!  Well, I know to never farm out that shopping job to my Christmas wish list again.  You know, it's sort of strange how I'm clinging to the 'paper-user-interface' in this aspect of my life since I'm trying to move much of my life to the cloud. I just like having a paper diary still. Tradition perhaps? I was just reading this on that subject...


But I'm getting distracted. One of these 'other' category goals I have for this year is to actually use this blog. I set it and a tumblr.com account up years ago with the intentions of collecting things I found interesting and sharing my two cents. Since then, thefacebook.com has morphed into this world-enveloping-system that I feel has replaced much of what I planned to use a blog for. But still, friends continue to insist that blogs are where responsible, mature adults post things, and that for example, it's the perfect venue for passing on recipes (ok not really recipes in the true sense of the word, but still...my recipe-ish ideas) and pictures from my monthly 'Cook and Chat with Charissa'.  


The kicker is that now I have incentive/motivation from my newest batch of students who are blogging as an assignment right now. I mean if a kid can do it, what's my excuse? So here goes.  We'll see what kind of actual writing I can crank out :)