SYTYCD - Chelsie and Mark - Bleeding Love

Ok. So for some reason my old post of this dance isn't working :(

If it happens again, here's a link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5mUv3_2Qig&feature=related

So You Think You Can Dance...a little late

Ok. I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed in SYTYCD this week. I' haven't posted any video clips of dances because I just wasn't floored by anything, really.

Don't get me wrong, there were some really good dances, but nothing that left me thinking "WOW"; nothing that made me want to run to my computer and post. It was just ho-hum.

I don't know if it's because I'm expecting so much from the dancers this year or if it was just really that boring. Part of the problem, I believe, is that they have greatly reduced the number of choreographers. Mandy Moore, for instance, who is sort of a boring choreographer anyway, did 2 routines last night. Having one week to come up with 2 dances that everyone is expecting A LOT out of is hard. Apparently these guys just can't do it anymore. Besides that, most of them have been on the show for several years now.

The judging was crazy, too. It really bothered me that Kherington and Twitch were such a let down and then all three judges chose to "ignore" the fact that Kherington really dropped the ball during the second half of her routine. Then they attack minor flaws in other's performances. (I'm thinking of when Mia tore Joshua Allen apart because she wanted to see more 'movement' from him... something along the lines of "your head was going and your body was going, but I wanted to see more movement") It was crazy and poor Joshua was just plain confused by her comment. He (and I'm pretty sure everyone else) had no idea what the heck Mia was talking about.

Oh, and then there was Mia's really bizarre method of complementing Chelsea: "you're so beautiful I want to stab your face". Really? Wow. Anyway, I think I need to watch it again to try and come up with at least one dance to post....

All in all it was a pretty disappointing show this week. :(

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

This is another book that is part of our church book group. It's a children's book, but one that is great for all ages. The best part: it only took a day to read!

The basic premise: Young Esperanza, her mother, and grandmother are forced to leave their home when the father dies. Esperanza and her mother head to America to start a new life. The challenges they face as Mexican immigrants in the 1920's and the hardships of leaving a wealthy life behind make up the majority of the story. Esperanza doesn't stay spoiled and haughty for long. She learns that work and family, not wealth and privileges constitute true happiness.

It's a quick read, fast paced, and has a great moral. Ryan does a terrific job of making the characters identifiable and lovable right away. Ryan's writing style is consistent, smooth, and clear. It was a nice, refreshing book to spend an afternoon on.

The issues it raises are great for a family to discuss together - I highly recommend it, especially if you have young readers in the house. It provides an avenue to discuss work ethic, fair treatment of 'people' (the farm employees), race, discrimination, class distinction, and the Great Depression. It's one of those books that makes you wish you were a teacher so you could share it with students and *hopefully* keep them interested in reading!

I enjoyed the book so much I also read Becoming Naomi Leon; another quick read by Ryan. BNL is more of a rite of passage story. Again, the main character is a young girl who was raised with a difficult family life. Her mother suddenly appears and Naomi must choose what kind of life she will lead and who she will become; a tall order for a 5th grader.

For me, the best part of the writing was the chapter titles: a rabble of yesterdays, a lamentation of swans, a murmuration of tomorrows. I loved it. Anyway, both were great stories; both provide topics to discuss with kids, and both are entertaining and captivating.

Overall, I'm very glad these books were recommended to our book group. I look forward to discussing them with all the girls in a few weeks.

Digital Immigrant

Through a series of fortunate finds this morning, I came across a very interesting article.

The author, Marc Prensky, is an internationally acclaimed thought leader, speaker, writer, consultant, and game designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He graduated from Harvard and Yale (which means what he writes must be both good and accurate, right?). Anyway, the article is short and easy to read. It's premise is that teaching methods and content are no longer effective for the new generation of digital natives.

He starts off by defining Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives. Digital Immigrants are those, like me, who were introduced to technology (computers, email, cell phones, etc) after their formative years. Digital Natives are those K-college students today who grew up with the technology.

Remember when your computer class in school consisted of a 30 minute trip to the computer lab where you played Oregon Trail? Remember when calculators were not permitted in the class - remember being taught how to use a calculator in math class? Remember when Zack Morris' mobile phone seemed totally far out? lol. If you do, you are a Digital Immigrant.

Prensky goes on to state that the way teachers teach and even the content they teach does not appeal to Digital Natives. Not only that, their brains have been formed differently and it's probable that they can't "go back". That means education needs to step up and meet the demands of the Digital Native; content and methodology need to change.

We need to go faster, use less step-by step, more in parallel instruction, with more random access. Our content needs to include all of our traditional curriculum: reading, writing, arithmetic, logical thinking, understanding the writings and ideas of the past, etc; and we need to add "future" curriculum. The things that are interesting and intriguing to Digital Natives: software, hardware, robotics, nanotechnology, genomics, etc. it also includes the ethics, politics, sociology, languages and other things that go with them.

The problem is, of course, who is going to teach the new curriculum, and how do you successfully adapt the traditional curriculum to the new methodology?

As a Digital Immigrant whose first email account was set up in college, I'm pretty sure I don't have the answers. But I do know I'm eagerly awaiting the people who do, and I'll eat up every bit of it in an effort to teach my children in ways that are meaningful to them.

To read the article click here.

To visit some of the educational gaming sites Marc has created click on the links below:

Social Impact Games
Department of Defense Gaming Community
GamesParentsTeachers
MarcPrensky.com

Video Clip of Sarah!

Shelley and Lois spent hours yesterday trying to email me this video! lol. After many failed attempts (the file was too large) Lois compressed it so it finally got through this morning. I already watched it about 10 times this morning, so I figure it's time to share it with you all.

I *think* my favorite moment is right at the very beginning when Shelley calls out to Sarah and Sarah whips around, all alert and eager and her eyes are sparkling. It's soooo cute!

Shelley is trying desperately to get Sarah to talk - she was limited on battery life, so she only had one shot. I'm pretty sure Sarah sneaks out a couple "hello"s at the very beginning (you can see her mouth move, but you don't hear anything). Then she just seems to be like "hey crazy lady, I already said hello twice and that's all the talking I feel like doing right now." (I get that look a lot from Robert).

I'm not sure if she says "Sarah" or not when Shelley changes tactics. You can definitely hear a little girl say "Sarah" but I can't really tell if her mouth is moving!

Oh, and for some reason, Shelley flips the camera so you have to tilt your head to view it properly. Shelley apologizes for that.

Here is our first video of Sarah, enjoy!


On another adoption update, we are STILL waiting for Robert's background check. :( Our SW called the state office and the woman there said it was sent out on June 26th! Mine came, but still nothing for Robert. We paid extra for electronic fingerprinting because it was supposed to be faster, yeah right! It's been 3 weeks and we don't even have the card they send that allows Robert to be fingerprinted! Hopefully when he actually gets fingerprinted, that will be fast!

Color Me Frustrated

Apparently it's time to update everyone on the walkway/patio we are *still* working on. We've been getting a lot of questions about the progress of it all.

Here's what it looked like after Jaron worked his magic - he created each "tile" by hand! Can you believe it?

He wasn't quite done with the patio area when I took these pictures.

So, on to the frustrating bit. After Jaron spent 3 or 4 days adding the stain (again, by hand) the concrete just wasn't taking the color correctly. Typically, he can spray the color on, but because we needed to have a slope for water drainage, the spray would just run off too. So, Jaron was forced to apply the stain by hand, that way he would be able to contain the color better.

Well, after 4-8 (that's right folks, in some places there are 8 coats!) the color still wasn't absorbing correctly. Jaron was applying color for 3 days! He decided to take a different approach and ordered more materials. They will take about a week to get here. In the mean time, here's where the coloring is right now. It's not perfect - but it's getting there... I think!

The border will be a dark charcoal color, and the inner tiles will be lighter.

Anyway, let me know what you think! P.S. Please ignore the torn-up, dead lawn. We have decided there is no way to save it (it wasn't really worth saving, anyway) and plan on replacing it all next spring.

Will/Jessica Lyrical Jazz - Alone

Soooo glad I feel like I can finally put Will and Jessica up on my blog. Will is AMAZING! And really, you can't go wrong when you are dancing to Heart, right?

Katee and Joshua - Contemporary - Hometown Glory

Another Mia fav. She was awesome tonight. I love the power behind this one. The strength of both dances is really showcased. I love it when Katee dives through Joshua's arms - and then when they do the assisted run across the stage and she is just FLYING. It's awesome.

Kherington and Twitch - Contemporary

Mia did an awesome job with this routine; It was incredible! I just love Twitch and Kherington! I love it when he's diving onto the bed trying to catch her - but then she's not there. It's so great.

Shelley is back from Ghana!

So I got an email this morning from Shelley and...you guessed it, she sent a picture of Sarah! Hang on to your boot straps boys and girls, Sarah is about to melt your heart! (ok. I know that was really poor writing - what with the mixed metaphors and all, but you get the idea!)

In her email, Shelley described Sarah as sweet and shy. Sarah wouldn't really talk to Shelley, but she held her hand and walked all around the orphanage with her as Shelley was taking pictures for Lois.

Shelley said she has more pics AND a video! I have to admit I like that she's giving them to me a little at a time. It totally makes my day to see a new picture of her!

Enjoy!