Summer Reading 2011

Well, I didn't get to my goal of 50 books this summer (I know, it's rather unfortunate). I did manage to read 26 books and a total of 9,616 pages. I know if I hadn't been so drained from work I would have been at least able to break 40 books. Here's the ones I read though. For complete reviews, please refer to my Goodreads account.



My list of books from bottom to top:
Without You by Anthony Rapp
Joan by Donald Spotto
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Doomed Queens by Kristen Waldherr
The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette by Carolly Erickson
Queen Eleanor by Polly Schoyer Brooks
Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffingger
Wideacre by Philippa Gregory
Fallen Skies by Philippa Gregory
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everyone by Will Cuppy
Freedom in Exile by the Dalai Lama
The Borgias and Their Enemies by Christopher Hibbert
Mandy by Julie Edwards
The Woman in the Wall by Patrice Kindl
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Other Side of Dark by Joan Lowery Nixon
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Founding by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Bright Eyes by Catherine Anderson
My Sunshine by Catherine Anderson
Only By Your Touch by Catherine Anderson
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Nixing My Backup Plan

Well, looks like my backup plan for after graduation is a big, fat NO. I want to apply to Teach for America. For those who don't know what that is, it's like the movie Freedom Writers. Basically, I want to move to the inner-city (ideally in Phoenix, AZ) and teach at a disadvantaged school. Since TFA is such a prestigious program, I was looking into a backup plan. I'd certainly apply to both programs, and TFA is my top choice, but I just wanted to make sure I had somewhere to go in case I don't get in.

So, I found this pretty awesome program called Association for Catholic Educators, and it sounded perfect. It's just like TFA, but you teach at a Catholic school (which is absolutely perfect for me). So, intrigued by the program, I decided to request some information and got in touch with one of the directors.

This morning, I had a nice little telephone chat with the director, and found out some rather upsetting news. First of all, you can't pick your location. Meaning, I could maybe get stationed in Phoenix, or I could get somewhere like the Mississippi Delta (in the middle of nowhere). I'm a city girl, I go crazy even living in the suburbs where I am now, I need somewhere big and exciting like the city to keep me entertained. I definitely was deterred by finding this out, but I figured that I could easily get past that if that was the only drawback to the program.

Unfortunately, things quickly went from bad to worse. ACE is a teacher certification program as well. Meaning, after studying at school for four years to teach middle and high school history and social studies, that is NOT what I would teach with ACE. I would spend the summer before leaving in a whirlwind certification program for elementary education. That's right, instead of utilizing what skills I have, they're going to make me learn all new ones and then spend two years of my life teaching exactly what I don't. They might as well tell me I'll be teaching high school math!

It really doesn't make sense to run a program like this. I mean, you're basically deterring real teachers from joining the program. Instead, all you're going to get is college graduates who are not certified in teaching before, haven't studied it at all, have no classroom management skills and don't know how to plan a lesson, recognize the plethora of emotional issues that come with students in schools like this, but rather people who think they can handle this sort of class without even having set foot in a classroom before this. In my personal opinion, they are just setting themselves up for disaster in the classroom since actual teachers are discouraged since they can't teach what they spent four years of their lives studying for.

Heartwarming Story

Today I encountered this moving story on tumblr:

"Meet Irena Sendler (1910-2008)

She was a 98 year-old Polish woman at her time of death. During World War II, Irena worked in the Warsaw Ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist. She dedicated herself to smuggle Jewish children out. Infants were carried in the bottom of the tool box she used and older children in a burlap sack she had in the back of her truck.

She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids’ and infants’ noises. Irena managed to smuggle out and save 2500 children during this time

She eventually was caught and the Nazis broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and in a glass jar buried under a tree in her backyard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and reunited some of the families but most had been killed. She then helped those children get placement into foster family homes or adopted.

In 2007, Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected.

Al Gore won for presenting a slide show on Global Warming."

Now I'm all for Global Warming and awareness over it, but really? The woman risked her life and saved over 2,000 children. Not only that, she went far above and beyond the call of duty by then looking after these children by either trying to reunite them with their families (remember, this was before internet, so she couldn't just "google" their names and see if they were alive or not), and if they weren't she found them a new loving household for these children.

Sure Al Gore's work for Global Warming is important and everything, but he was just piggy backing onto an already growing phenomenon, while Irena Sendler saw a huge injustice taking place in the world around her and put everything on the line to help. Even after she was caught by the Nazis, that didn't stop her from continuing until she saw her mission complete. How is it that she has not been recognized for her wonderful actions when Al Gore gets rewarded for furthering his career with a PowerPoint presentation?

10 things you don't know about teens and social networking

I found this article online and definitely thought that it was interesting. I feel like there is a difference between social networking for teens and social networking for college aged students and up, it's almost as if the cut throat world of high school has been duplicated online.

By Sarah B. Weir

Its 10 pm, do you know where your children are? Whether at home or out, odds are they are online and social networking. Even if parents do see what their kids post, they might not understand how living life online actually feels. Facebook Me, an original play written and performed by teens at the upcoming New York International Fringe Festival is a revealing exploration of what’s going on behind millions of young people’s computer screens.

I recently sat down with the cast (whose names have been changed below) and asked them to share about their experiences with social networking. I also spoke with a professor specializing in the psychology of technology, who offers some timely advice for parents. What the kids had to say:

“There’s more ‘life’ happening online than offline. If you are not online, you are completely out of the loop--you don’t have a life, you don’t really exist.”

--Hannah, 13 years old

“I’m online even during class. I’m supposed to be taking notes but instead I’m commenting on stuff and uploading pictures.”

--Emma, 14 years old


“I feel safer online than I do offline. So I do things online that I wouldn’t do in real life.”

--Sadie, 14 years old



“I’ve become very good at taking pictures of myself. I know what angle is best, I know how to part my lips...you know. It’s like the number one thing on my mind is ‘I need to get home right now and take a new profile picture.’ All because I want someone to comment on how I look.”

--Katie, 15 years old



“Social networking affects all the things you do in real life now. Like, if you go to a party, one of the most important aspects of going to the party is to document yourself for online posts. You have to prove you were looking good, you were having fun, and that you were actually there! It’s not about the party anymore but about the pictures of the party.”

--Caroline, 14 years old



“I feel sad, depressed, jealous, or whatever when I don’t get a lot of “Likes” on my photo or when someone else gets way more Likes than me. Honestly, I’m not sure that parents realize how drastically it affects our self-image and confidence. If I see a picture of a really pretty girl, it’s like ‘Goodbye self-esteem.’ It forces me to compete and do stuff that I don’t want to do, so my confidence will get a boost.”

--Samantha, 14 years old



“Sometimes I feel like I’m losing control. I want my parents to tell me to get off the computer. Actually, they would need to literally take the computer away because I can’t stop myself.”

--Nina, 15 years old



“My friendships are really affected by social networking. You have to constantly validate your friends online. And everyone’s like ‘Where were you?’ ‘What have you been doing?’ ‘Why haven’t you commented on my picture yet?’ So you have to be online all the time, just to keep track, so you don’t upset anyone.”

--Jasmine, 13 years old

“There is so much pressure to look happy all the time—you can never just be yourself-- because everybody is always taking pictures and posting them.”

--Nikki, 13 years old



“I really want my mom to be proud of me. Obviously, I want her to think I’m writing my essay or doing things I should be doing instead of being on Facebook. But I also want to be online. So I lie or accuse her of not trusting me. It’s awful, but I’ve become really comfortable with lying.”

--Maya, 14 years old

Some new research has shown that social networking can also have positive effects on teens such as helping introverted adolescents forge relationships or providing a venue for activism and political engagement. But, given the lure of spending too much time plugged in and the self-esteem issues related to the constant scrutiny of one’s online persona, how can parents help their kids have a healthy and productive relationship with technology?

Professor Larry D. Rosen of the California State University is an expert in the field of the “Psychology of Technology” and the author of Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn and Me, Myspace, and I: Parenting the Net Generation. He offers this advice:

Start young. You wouldn’t let your toddler cross the street without holding your hand, so don’t hand them your iPhone to play with for the first time without starting a simple discussion about the appropriate use of technology. These discussions need to be ongoing and become more complex as kids get older.

Listen. The ratio of parent listening to parent talking should be about five to one. Ask nonjudgmental questions in order to learn and assess. Here’s an example: “I heard the term cyberbullying. Do you know what this is?” If kids think they are going to be “slammed” by their parents on a topic, they will shut down.

Institute family meals with tech breaks. Current psychological literature recommends that families sit down and share at least 3 or 4 meals together a week. Keep them short--under 45 minutes--and tech free for the most part. Give everyone a two-minute warning to check whatever device beforehand. After 15 minutes, allow a one minute message or text check. Aim to expand the tech free time as your kids become more focused.

Don’t use your ignorance about technology as an excuse. It's true that kids know more about technology than parents but this is a poor reason for adults to act clueless about what teens or tweens might be doing online. Equally counterproductive is letting a kid spend hours on end alone in their room on the computer so you “can get work done.”

Don’t rely on secretly monitoring online activities. Not only is it an invasion of privacy, most kids can work around parents’ surveillance in a matter of minutes.

Look for warning signs. If your child is regularly staying home “sick” from school and spending the entire day on the computer, if they choose to be online more often than out with friends, or if their grades are suffering because they are distracted by technology, you need to step in and help them create boundaries. With their input, draft a written contract with clear rules and consequences. Often, parents make initial penalties too big such as grounding their kid for a month if they catch them online in the middle of the night. Better to start small such as losing their phone for an hour and escalate as necessary.


To view the article go to: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/10-things-you-dont-know-about-teens-and-social-networking-2527367/

Harry Potter Memory Trunk

I originally saw the Harry Potter Memory Trunk project on the crafster website (here's the link to the original, which is NOT of my making!!!! http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=342125.0). One Saturday night at school, my friend Shannon and I were bored (our three other friensd had gone home for the weekend). I mentioned the memory trunk and how cool it was, so we decided to pool our minimal craft supplies and make out own trunks. I really do like the original, the only difference is mine is made more with supplies you'd have a better chance of finding lying around the house. I don't have a tutorial, but I do have photos and will explain step by step how to make your own (or you can make one like the original if you so desire).

First, here is an overall shot of the inside of my trunk:


I used an old tissue box for this. I took paper and covered up the hole in the top of the box and painted over it. The shelves do a pretty good job of hiding the paper, along with the fact that I painted over it. To cut the door in the trunk, I just used and x-acto knife, and it was pretty easy. I then painted the entire outside and inside of the box black and put mod podge over the outside to make it look nice and shiny. For the shelves, I took an old cardboard box and cut out three shelves. I hot glued them into the box. My friend made the middle shelf shorter and the bottom one taller to fit the broomstick, but I found a way to make mine work without doing that.

I found out and about one day those old school cardboard pencil boxes. I found them at Goodwill, but you might be able to find them at craft supply stores or office supply stores. They're pretty cheap, and are perfect. The best part is you don't even have to cut a door in them, that's already taken care of for you.

Now on to the actual decorations in the trunk. This part was a little more difficult, as everything is so small, and you may have to get creative.

The first shelf has Hedwig in a cage, a pixie pygmy puff, a copy of the Quibbler, a Gryffindor scarf, Harry's Invisibility Cloak and some ink and a quill.

Hedwig:
This was by far the most difficult thing to make on this shelf.
1. Take some clay and press it into a somewhat thick, round disc (about 1/3 of an inch thick and a little over half an inch in diameter). You can paint it whatever color you want, I went with a dark greyish.
2. For Hedwig, you can either use two white pom poms, one big and one small, and hot glue them together or make your own pom pom with white yarn. Just wrap the yarn around your two fingers until you have enough and tie a piece of string around the middle once you have enough. Then cut the loops and fluff it. To make the smaller pom pom, just wrap the yarn around one finger and repeat the same process. I definitely like this better, it looks a little fuller in my opinion.
3. To give Hedwig life, I used green glitter glue for her eyes so they sparkled, but regular green puffy paint should work (I fact checked, her eyes really are green, but you can change it if you want). I then cut two VERY small triangles to make her beak. Once again, I used some hot glue to give Hedwig her beak.
4. Now this will take some patience. You're going to need some pipe cleaners cute into thirds. Measure the height by curving them over the clay disc to see how high it is. Once you have the desired length, cut off as much of the fuzze as possible off the pipe cleaners. Whatever you aren't able to cut off, you're going to have to pull out with your hands. Like I said, this is pretty difficult and time consuming. Make sure you have a piece of paper or something to put all the fuzz on so you don't make a mess. You can also use wire if you have some, I didn't, so I had to get creative here.
5. Put Hedwig on the disc.
6. Stick one end of the wire along the edge of the disc and curve it over so the other end is stuck in the opposite end of the disc. Repeat this for the other wires until you have built your cage. Put a drop of glue by each wire to keep them in place. I then wrapped another wire around the middle to look more like a bird cage.

Pixie Pygmy Puff
1. Remember how you made the pom poms for Hedwig? Well, you're going to repeat the same process. Only this time you're going to use one strand of really fuzzy yarn and wrap a piece of thread around the middle. That's it!

Quibbler
I'm going to go over how to make all the "paper products" at once at the end

Gryffindor Scarf
1. Take a piece of gold ribbon and cut it to your desired length.
2. Carefully paint red stripes on it. You can use puffy paint or fabric paint if you have any. I just used regular acrylic paint.
3. Fold it carefully, gluing the ribbon down so it stays folded properly.
4. You don't have to fold it, my friend had hers hanging in her trunk, whatever works for you.

Invisibility Cloak
1. Cut a piece of black fabric to the size you want the cloak to be. Like the scarf, it can be folded or hanging up somewhere
2. Coat the fabric with glue, either using a paintbrush or your finger.
3. Sprinkle with silver glitter.
4. You can either fold it, gluing down the edges so it doesn't come unfolded or hang it up somewhere in the trunk if you want.

Quill and Ink Well
1. Take a black bead. It doesn't have to have cool edges like the one I picked, whatever catches your fancy
2. This is where I got REALLY creative, I pulled a feather out of my feather pillow and pulled out the fluff on the end so it was just fluffy on the top.
3. Put a drop of glue in the center of the bead and insert the feather. It's that easy.

Alright, time for the second shelf.



This shelf has Harry's wand, the Marauder's Map, the prophecy from the Order of the Phoenix, a bottle of Felix Felices from Half Blood Prince, the Half Blood Prince's Potions book, a Galleon, Sickle and Knut (it's really hard to see, I know, but they're there right in front of the potions book) and a cauldron.

Harry's Wand
1. I took a really small leaf and pulled off the stem and cut off the most narrow part. Voila, you have a wand!

Quibbler/Marauder's Map/Potions Book
1. Print out the image you want of each item
2. Glue them to either card stock or an index card
3. Cut out the paper so it can be folded in half and propped up
4. Put them where you please in the trunk

Prophecy/Felix Felices
1. Pick two round beads of the sizes of your choice
2. Paint the prophecy grey and the Felix Felices a goldish yellow. I found the easiest way to do this was to string the bead on a piece of thread, pour a little bit of the paint on a paper plate and roll the bead in the paint.
3. While the paint is still wet, roll each bead in their respective glitter matching the colors they are painted
4. Glue a brown or black seed bead to the top of the Felix Felices bead to serve as a cork

Galleon, Sickle and Knut
1. This is one of the easiest things to make. For a galleon use a large gold sequin, for a sickle a medium silver sequin and a knut use a small brown sequin. You can do a pile of money if you want or just one of each. My friend put hers in the cauldron so you could see them better.

Cauldron
1. Take a small amount of clay and roll it into a ball about half an inch in diameter
2. Press your fingers to the middle to create the center of the cauldron
3. Paint black

The third and final shelf.



Sorry about the poor quality of the photo, I couldn't get a nice one to come out properly, my apologies. This shelf has the all important Golden Snitch, Harry's beloved broom and the broomstick servicing kit Hermione gave him for Christmas one year.

Golden Snitch
1. Pick a round bead of the size of your choice
2. Like the prophecy and the Felix Felices, string the bead through a length of thread and roll it in some gold paint
3. Once again, I turned to my beloved feather pillow and grabbed two more feathers. Put a drop of glue inside the now dry Golden Snitch and put the end of a feather in each side

Firebolt Broomstick
1. Take a chopstick and cut it to the length you want the handle to be and paint it brown.
2. I went outside and gathered up a bunch of leaves (in the dark, alone, on a Saturday night, I must have looked like a loser!). Cut the stems to the lengths you want them to be (they don't all have to be the same length)
3. Gather the stems around one end of the chopstick and glue them down. Wrap another stem around them and glue that down as well.
4. Take a piece of wire and twist it around the handle to create a footrest
I'll be honest, I struggled making this, so my friend ended up doing most of it, I had already burnt myself a few times with the hot glue gun, so I didn't trust myself to make something like complicated

Broomstick Servicing Kit
1. You know those tiny little Nerds candy boxes you get for Halloween? Yeah, they're the perfect size for this. Paint one a brownish color
2. Free hand the label on and decorate as you please
3. I tied a small piece of red embroidery floss into a bow and glued it to the corner to make it look like a Christmas present.

The inside of the door



These are just the photos I wanted on the inside of the door. I'm still missing one of Harry, Ron and Hermione in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows and one of Harry's children, I didn't have those photos available to me when I originally made this trunk. These are just what I put on the inside of the trunk, but you can put whatever you want there:
-Dumbledore's Army sign up list
-The original Order of the Phoenix
-James and Lily Potter holding a baby Harry
-Holyhead Harpies logo (that's the team Ginny played for after graduating Hogwarts before becoming a Quidditch correspondent for the Daily Prophet)
-Photo of Harry, Ron and Hermione (this one is from the Prisoner of Azkaban)
-Photo of Ginny (of course)
-Chuddley Cannons logo (Harry's favorite team)

For the outside of the trunk, I just put the Hogwarts logo and glue some string there so it could be tied closed.



I also glued everything inside (like I said, I made this at school, so it had to be transported home eventually, and I didn't want anything to fall/break/get lost). You don't have to glue everything in, it's your choice. Enjoy!!

Snickerdoodle Cookies

When I get bored I tend to bake, which is both good and bad. It's good because it gives me something to do and provides my family with some yummy treats, but on the flip side, it's sometimes hard to get someone to actually eat what I bake (not because they're bad I'll have you know). Anyway, today I cracked out one of my mom's old cookbooks that she gave to me and decided to make some Snickerdoodles. I'll tell you, it's definitely an interesting recipe, but it was still good. I got this recipe out of the Favorite Brand Name Easy to Bake Cookbook.

Ingredients:
-3 tablespoons sugar
-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1 package Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Classic Yellow Cake Mix (I used Betty Crocker and added flour to make the consistency thicker)
-2 eggs
-1/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets. Place sheets of foil on countertop for cooling cookies.
2. Combine sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.
3. Combine cake mix, eggs and oil in large bowl. Stir until well blended. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place balls 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten balls with bottom of glass.
4. Bake at 375 degrees F for 8 to 9 minutes or until set. Cool one minute on cookie sheets. Remove to foil to cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

A Reflection of "Work"

Well, in just 16 days, I pack up and head back to school for another year of fun and games. As the summer comes to an end, I would like to take a moment to reflect on what has been, undoubtedly, one of the best summers of my life.

This summer, I had the privilege to work at a summer camp. This wasn't any summer camp though, every single day during the 8 one week sessions we as counselors got to take our campers on "field trips." Meaning, I got to go to Hershey Park, Luray Caverns, Six Flags America, Adventure Park USA, Busch Gardens/Water Country USA, along with various other lesser known locations. All the while, I got paid to play games on buses, ride roller coasters, chill in a lazy river and basically just hang out and make sure the campers have a fun, safe experience at camp.

I absolutely cannot believe how lucky I was to have such a job all summer. Every single time I got a paycheck, I was utterly shocked and thrilled; I'm actually getting paid to do this!!

Of course, working all summer wasn't all fun and games, I was utterly exhausted every single day, and I would be in bed every day by 10:30, without fail. It was all well worth it though, I was having a blast. I understood what it means to enjoy your job.

One very important thing I learned while working at a summer camp is that kids tend to believe every single word that comes out of your mouth simply because you're an "authority figure" (wow, that's a scary thought!). Here are a few little "white lies" we may have told the campers this summer (all in good fun):

-You MUST vacuum the hotel rooms before leaving. Don't worry if you don't have the vacuum, someone else has it right now, and I'll be bringing it to your room next
-Windex was in fact on the packing list for the overnight. If you didn't bring it, get creative and clean the windows some other way (my cousin was actually going to bring Windex on one of the over nights to make this one more believable but she forgot)
-Yes I am an Olympic archer and yes I do have a tournament right when I get back to school (that's why I had a week off, so I could go train)
-Tina is in fact a boxer from Ecuador, and if you can't find any proof of that online you must not be looking hard enough
-No, why in the world would you stay in a hotel when you go to Dorney Park for the overnight? You'll be staying in the park (or the bus, we haven't decided quite yet)
-Whatever you do, do NOT eat the blue Fruit Loops. We don't want to have to deal with that kind of problem on the bus
-Three words: one way hallways
-Jai, not Manish, actually runs the camp, and we're all here working for him (please note, Jai's like 10)
-Whenever we stop at a weigh station, this is now whatever theme park we were going to, don't complain, make the best of it, it downsized a tiny bit since the last time you were here

Of course, when I tell the campers the truth, they don't believe me!!

-Yes, Nicholas is my brother and Claire is my cousin. No, Claire doesn't look like me or my brother...get over it!
-My parents really did meet Henry Winkler, he crashed a wedding they were at in Scranton, PA
-Gettysburg College is VERY haunted, it is near the bloodiest battle of the Civil War