The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

TEACH

I’m still flying high from yesterday’s historic Inauguration Day and shed more than a few tears as it was very emotional. I had such a sense of pride in our nation and hope for the future. Hope that we’re REALLY going to take to heart that we’re all in it together and that there’s lots of work to do. We need to do it as a nation, with commitment and as a team,  and we ALL need to pull our own weight to make this a better place for all.

I was so happy to be sharing the event with my students. (It was my free period but I kept them with me as we’ve been anticipating it for a very long time and they were super excited.) Luckily, they were able to play it on the TVs throughout the building. I had brought my laptop in, just in case. It wouldn’t have been ideal to all gather around the 15″ MacBook Pro’s screen but it would have been better than missing it!  It was awesome to see them standing to salute the flag and singing the national anthem together. You could hear a pin drop in my room as all eyes were glued to the set.  As it turned out,  because we watched it on TV, I was able to pull up Tweetdeck and was able to tweet along with my friends and read the reactions from around the world.  The excitement continued right up until I fell asleep watching the festivities.

Just as Obama partied for one day then headed to work to deal with business today, the party is over at school as well. Between the snowdays, MLK events and the Inauguration, it’s been pretty hectic but special for the entire month of January. Today was a  “get back on track” day in terms of our routines and schedules and expectations. I’ll be starting some new units and upping the ante from here on out. Second quarter ends Friday and we’re fast approaching the halfway point at school.  There’s lots of learning to be done and time is flying by.

My To Do list is growing and I’ve got to start heading to bed at a decent hour again so that I can squeeze the exercise in. I’ve got lots of paperwork that I’ll be needing to do for work and I’m going to try to stay late a couple of days a week so I don’t have to take it home. (I carry it home and never have time to open the school bag once I’m here because I have a whole list of things to do here.)  I’m hoping to stay one day a week to plan and make copies for the following week and one day a week to work on assessment stuff and IEPs, PLPs, and other Special Ed paperwork.

I’ll also be out at night a bit for Jake’s wrestling meets but most nights I’m home with the girls.   I’m tucked in now and will be rolling over to turn out the light soon. You can be sure that I’ll be drifting off to sleep with a smile on my face and determination in my heart.

My girls are resting comfortably in their crates recovering from their surgeries today so I’ve got a few minutes before leaving to pick up Jake after practice.

Today is April 22nd, the day known as Earth Day. We talked a lot about the earth today at school with the kids but they’re pretty savvy about recycling and are proud to be responsible for collection of the green bins on our floor each day and promoting recycling in their homes. We visited the landfill and recycling center last month and had a very informative and enjoyable tour.

Next month we’re taking a riverboat tour on the Blackstone River to test the water and check out all of the wild life. Our class is full of animal lovers as well and they are very caring, sensitive kids. So, brainstorming with them today about all of the things that we can do to take care of our earth was not an exercise in futility, rather something that they embraced whole heartedly.

While there are many ways that I can improve and I’m striving to always get better at reducing, reusing and recycling, there are some habits that are just part of my every day life that come so automatically, that I didn’t even think of them until we had our discussion today.

If you click on the picture, you can read the notes on the original on the Flickr site.

Some simple things that I do that not only help the planet but save me some cash along the way:

• Always keep reusable shopping bags in my car and either use them or say “No bag, please.” if I only buy a few things.
• Bring my own coffee to work each day in my stainless steel mug.
• Use a Brita water filter pitcher and use my Sigg aluminum water bottle.
• Bring breakfast, lunch, and snacks from home which I carry in my washable canvas bag. I usually end up bringing leftovers as I hate to throw food away.
• Cart everything back and forth in reusable tote bags.
• Dry my clothes on the line as soon as the weather permits; usually April-October.
• Diligently recycle and encourage family members to do so as well.
• Grow my own vegetables and compost as much as I can.
• Try to combine errands so that I can do them in as few trips as possible.
• Buy organic whenever it’s available.
• Limit the use of paper goods as much as I can.
• Avoid purchasing single serving size portions and make as much as I can from scratch.
• Whip up a weekly batch of soup to use up what I have in the crisper.
• Use the public library to borrow books that I know I’ll read only once. (They also have movies, cds, software, games, puzzles, and passes to zoos and local attractions, etc.)

Some of the things that I’m pledging to work harder on and focus on this year:

• Ramp up my composting.
• Try to eliminate the remaining plastic bags that I may end up with while shopping.
• Increase my garden size and keep on top of it to eliminate waste of vegetables rotting on the vine.
• Switch to as many eco-friendly cleaning products as possible, making as many as I can from common household ingredients.
• Try to be diligent about conserving electricity by reducing use and remembering to shut everything off when not in use.
• Freecycle my unwanted items.
• Reduce my purchases all the way around!

I know that I’m not even close to being where I want to be but each little thing that I do consistently will bring me one step closer.

Some great podcasts to listen to for ideas are:

More Hip than Hippie My fave!

Living Green: Effortless Ecology for Everyday people

Green Living Ideas

The Victory Garden

Whole Foods Podcast

What do you do and what can you do better?

Technorati Tags earthday greenliving organic ecology reduce reuse recycle morehipthanhippie

Tedy hosted members Tedy’s Team at Gillette Stadium today. Check out the NECN video here.

Technorati Tags tedysteam tedybruschi necn bostonmarathon

Mobile post sent by mrsb using Utterz. Replies. mp3

Some quickies for today:

• I’m probable on this week’s injury report and have been cleared to return to work next Wednesday! Yippee!!
• I posted a mini-podcast this morning as the Pats continue on their Path to Perfection.
• Chloe is home and is adorable (despite rank puppy breath!) and she and Bella have turned this place into a Puppy Wrestling Ring! There’s been lots of rough housing as they sort out just who’s going to be the top dog around here (after me of course!) Despite Bella’s size and age, Chloe’s tenacity and determination just may win her that top spot.
• I’m getting ready to flip Chloe over since she’s got the day and night thing mixed up like many newborns do …. She’s up crying all night and I haven’t slept a wink.
• Don’t forget to don your PEAvatars today for Frozen Pea Friday #2 and if you have yet to donate and want to make a last minute 2007 tax deduction, today is the perfect day!
• Heading out to get my hair done and it’ll be the first time that I venture out and drive since that fateful fall on November 26th.

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This is my new avatar for awhile; something that a group of Twitter buds and I are calling a PEAvatar. If you take a look at my Twitter friends’ list on Fridays you’ll see that many, many of my friends are sporting peas. (Some are keeping them up all the time.)

No, we’re not touting the benefits of increasing your fiber or green vegetable intake, rather, we’re banding together in support of Susan Reynolds who is fighting breast cancer.

See.. that’s the thing about social media that people who don’t “get it” just don’t get. It’s not a bunch of crazy internet people wasting time on here talking to people that they don’t know. I’ve found that it’s generally a group of like minded people who are interested in using new media (through the use of Twitter, blogs, podcasts, Second Life, videoblogging, Seesmic, Utterz, and a whole host of social media sites) to get a point across, make connections, share content with others, and in this case do something very, very good.

I don’t personally know Susan, but many of my connections do and in that way we’re connected. (That’s the way its supposed to work, you build connections with your connections’ connections!) I’ve gained lots of new Twitter followers this week and have been connected with many new people as well.

Follow Susan’s journey on her blog, Boobs on Ice and find out what’s up with the peas but more importantly, jump over to the Frozen Pea Fund and make a donation in Susan’s honor to help fight this terrible disease. In the first 15 hours alone, the Twittersphere, Bloggersphere, Podcastingsphere, and Seesmicsphere raised $3500 to fight breast cancer. This is an example of Social Media at its best.

Check out some other Peavatars in the Flickr pool and join us for more Frozen Pea Fridays!

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