Day: 278
High Temp: 91F
Last friday morning at 7:45am, I found myself in a large room inside a temporary building, surrounded by a few hundred children all under the age of 10 pledging my allegiance to the Texas State flag. It was my first experience pledging my allegiance to Texas, and with all the ridiculousness going on right now in the debate on what text books in Texas should contain I was thinking to myself, "Maybe not allegiance to Texas, but Austin... okay, I feel good about pledging my allegiance to Austin."
In a state where you spend the entirety of your 4th grade social studies class learning Texas state history, it should be no surprise this is a rudimentary part of the morning at UT Elementary School, but I was a bit caught off guard, nonetheless.
This all came about as I was invited to a monthly breakfast and tour that UT Elementary School hosts for University staff, faculty and any other interested community members. It's a chance to hear from the principal about what the school is doing right, meet the crazy-smart, well behaved and articulate students, and get a peek at how UTES is working with other urban schools to improve education for the underserved. It was really cool.
The scene of my allegiance pledging was the morning school-wide assembly. It's just 5-10 minutes each morning where the school comes together as a community to pledge allegiance in English and in Spanish, (and not just to Texas, but to the US flag as well), sing their school song (with UTES appropriate lyrics set to "The Eyes of Texas"), recite their "peace code" and hear any school announcements. If it's your birthday, the whole school will sing to you at assembly (as happened for little Francisco the morning I visited). And if it's Friday you also get to hear a joke from one or two of the kids as a part of what they call "Friday Funnies".
The school is truly a model of how amazing urban education can be, if you just have a little money, and the luxury of small classroom sizes. Of course, so few urban schools have those luxuries, so it was good to see how dedicated this school is to working with teachers and administrators from other Austin public schools, and how they supplement the teaching degree programs here at UT with unparalleled hands-on opportunities in the classrooms.
With their emphasis on early interventions (physical, behavioral, psychological, etc) and a thing they call "Social and Emotional Learning", this school is doing so much right. You can see the proof in the respect the kids have for themselves, their teachers and their school. I was mightily impressed by these "Little Longhorns."
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Poker Walk
Day: 272
High Temp: They say 86F, but it's past noon and only 67 right now
On Wednesday I participated in the UT Poker Walk, which is a fitness initiative that encourages faculty and staff to exercise. It's an odd event, but the basic premise is that you form a team (we were Healin' and Dealin'- get it? Nurses + Poker!) walk a 1 mile course, and along the way pick up poker chips from 5 stations. When you get to the end of the course, you turn in your chips, and the volunteer dealers deal you 5 cards. There is no discarding, and the top three best hands win prizes. I got a heart flush with a queen high. It may have been the best poker hand I have ever been dealt, including games when discarding was allowed. And it turns out that was enough to score me 3rd best hand out of 1100 participants. I won a new ipod shuffle. Sweet.
The event also pushed my UT free t-shirt total up to 4 (in as many months of employment.) This place loves to give away t-shirts. I've added it to my longhorn water bottle, tip card, multiple pens and pencils, notepads, leather portfolio, refrigerator magnet and lapel pin.
High Temp: They say 86F, but it's past noon and only 67 right now
On Wednesday I participated in the UT Poker Walk, which is a fitness initiative that encourages faculty and staff to exercise. It's an odd event, but the basic premise is that you form a team (we were Healin' and Dealin'- get it? Nurses + Poker!) walk a 1 mile course, and along the way pick up poker chips from 5 stations. When you get to the end of the course, you turn in your chips, and the volunteer dealers deal you 5 cards. There is no discarding, and the top three best hands win prizes. I got a heart flush with a queen high. It may have been the best poker hand I have ever been dealt, including games when discarding was allowed. And it turns out that was enough to score me 3rd best hand out of 1100 participants. I won a new ipod shuffle. Sweet.
The event also pushed my UT free t-shirt total up to 4 (in as many months of employment.) This place loves to give away t-shirts. I've added it to my longhorn water bottle, tip card, multiple pens and pencils, notepads, leather portfolio, refrigerator magnet and lapel pin.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
So Much Catching Up...
Day: 264
High Temp: 94F
Hello friends. I have been terribly delinquent in my blogging recently, and I can blame that mostly on the kicking into gear of my wedding planning efforts. This Sunday will mark the anniversary of our engagement, and each day we get a little bit closer to the big party on October 9. We are under the 6 month mark until the wedding, which means I am spending my lunch hours trying to stay ahead of the curve as far as booking vendors, planning decor, and creating schedules. It's crazy, and so much fun. But it hasn't left me time to blog! And so much has happened. Here is a brief run down of what you missed in the past few weeks:
FRIENDS
Good friends Adam Simon and Mackenzie Kyle visited for a few days at the end of April. They were driving cross country from Florida to LA, and made some time for us (and queso). They surprised me by picking up my BFF Camilla in New Orleans, and bringing her along for the ride. We were also luck to play foster home to Adam and Mack's adorable doggy Hannah while they were in town, as the hotel they booked was not dog-friendly. The highlight for me was the first night they were all in town, when we took both the dogs and ourselves to the unique Lustre Pearl (revisit my first visit to this esteemed and unique Austin local here) to drink beer and eat some of the best taco truck food in Austin. It was so wonderful to see them all, and the amazing high I was on being with old friends was only matched by the sadness of saying goodbye to them. Good thing there was a....
WEDDING
Tom's little sister Erin got married the last weekend of April. It was a whirl-wind trip for us to the Bay Area, with no time for wine tastings, or leisurely strolls through San Fran. We did, however, get to hug many of our favorite people, dance till we dropped, and celebrate a beautiful day with two people we love very much. Oh, and did I mention the Pyramid beer? That is one Horan wedding down, and two to go in 2010...
NEW TEXANS
The weekend we were camping we got word that the amazing Zach Gonzalez-Landis has decided to come to UT next year for grad school. Even better news that that, he is bring his fabulous and hilarious lady Adrienne Dellinger with him. YES! More friend reinforcements are on their way!
BABIES
No, not me. If you are an avid reader of DMWL (which I am sure you all are) you should know from this post that Andy and my SIL Megan are expecting twins. Megan is due in early July, but was told, because they are multiples, to expect to deliver early. Unfortunately, after a very long drive to their new home in Springfield, Mo over the weekend, Megan went into pre-term labor. She has been in and out of hospital for the past few days, and now it looks as though she may be there to stay. The boys are at 31 weeks, which gives them an excellent chance of survival and a very low risk of complications, but we are all really hoping they stay put for at least another 4-5 weeks. Please send all of your positive thoughts (and cards, emails, cookie trays, etc) their way!
In other news, Tom and I are planning to go "tubin" this weekend. A very hill-country past time, "tubin" is simply floating, but in inner-tubes. Each person gets their own tube, and you also get an extra tube, with a bottom, to fill with ice and put your beer in. Then you lash all your tubes together and float en-masse at a snails pace while drinking beer down a river somewhere in the middle of Texas.
High Temp: 94F
Hello friends. I have been terribly delinquent in my blogging recently, and I can blame that mostly on the kicking into gear of my wedding planning efforts. This Sunday will mark the anniversary of our engagement, and each day we get a little bit closer to the big party on October 9. We are under the 6 month mark until the wedding, which means I am spending my lunch hours trying to stay ahead of the curve as far as booking vendors, planning decor, and creating schedules. It's crazy, and so much fun. But it hasn't left me time to blog! And so much has happened. Here is a brief run down of what you missed in the past few weeks:
FRIENDS
Good friends Adam Simon and Mackenzie Kyle visited for a few days at the end of April. They were driving cross country from Florida to LA, and made some time for us (and queso). They surprised me by picking up my BFF Camilla in New Orleans, and bringing her along for the ride. We were also luck to play foster home to Adam and Mack's adorable doggy Hannah while they were in town, as the hotel they booked was not dog-friendly. The highlight for me was the first night they were all in town, when we took both the dogs and ourselves to the unique Lustre Pearl (revisit my first visit to this esteemed and unique Austin local here) to drink beer and eat some of the best taco truck food in Austin. It was so wonderful to see them all, and the amazing high I was on being with old friends was only matched by the sadness of saying goodbye to them. Good thing there was a....
WEDDING
Tom's little sister Erin got married the last weekend of April. It was a whirl-wind trip for us to the Bay Area, with no time for wine tastings, or leisurely strolls through San Fran. We did, however, get to hug many of our favorite people, dance till we dropped, and celebrate a beautiful day with two people we love very much. Oh, and did I mention the Pyramid beer? That is one Horan wedding down, and two to go in 2010...
NEW TEXANS
The weekend we were camping we got word that the amazing Zach Gonzalez-Landis has decided to come to UT next year for grad school. Even better news that that, he is bring his fabulous and hilarious lady Adrienne Dellinger with him. YES! More friend reinforcements are on their way!
BABIES
No, not me. If you are an avid reader of DMWL (which I am sure you all are) you should know from this post that Andy and my SIL Megan are expecting twins. Megan is due in early July, but was told, because they are multiples, to expect to deliver early. Unfortunately, after a very long drive to their new home in Springfield, Mo over the weekend, Megan went into pre-term labor. She has been in and out of hospital for the past few days, and now it looks as though she may be there to stay. The boys are at 31 weeks, which gives them an excellent chance of survival and a very low risk of complications, but we are all really hoping they stay put for at least another 4-5 weeks. Please send all of your positive thoughts (and cards, emails, cookie trays, etc) their way!
In other news, Tom and I are planning to go "tubin" this weekend. A very hill-country past time, "tubin" is simply floating, but in inner-tubes. Each person gets their own tube, and you also get an extra tube, with a bottom, to fill with ice and put your beer in. Then you lash all your tubes together and float en-masse at a snails pace while drinking beer down a river somewhere in the middle of Texas.
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