bad carma

look at this. this was a car parked in a brandeis lot this morning. parking is at a premium, and look what s/he did.

my question is - howcome i was the one to get a parking ticket?

the owl of learning and technology

here i am in the bowels of the brandeis library. this is getz - the technological hub of the campus, and i am waiting for the video of today's maths lesson to be transferred onto a dvd so i may add it to the class collection for viewing and critique on thursday. the room is full of worshipful i-macs, sisters to my own back at 72a. while i wait, i ask the defender of the multimedia loans desk if there is any music by martha schlamme in the collection. there are four vinyl records. i am rather excited by this. sadly, the record players do not work as the needle is broken. i ask j., the kind young man who is supervising my video tape, about turning vinyl music into mp3s. i tell him that the record-player before us was the equivalent of the i-pod when i was batmizvah. he tells me that he has seen record-players but has never used one. i shall have to roll my trousers when i get home. meanwhile, i wait ...

the owl of learning - bad news, good news

today ravaj took the first examination of the three that are necessary to be licenced in the state of massachusetts as an elementary school educator. the fogginess of sleep-deprivation brought on by a desperate blitz on overdue work meant that she was not exactly sure which exam she was going to take. however, she prepared as her classmates did, and spent hours making flashcards for all the technical terms about reading that she needed to know. she should have realised something was up when, instead of calling out the correct positions in italian for her swordfighting teacher, she kept saying, "phonemic awareness!" and "graphic organiser!". thanks to some coaching by a kind housemate, ravaj thought it possible to make a passing stab at the 'foundations of reading' test today. imagine her surprise when the test papers were handed out and she found she was taking the literacy exam instead! luckily, she is semi-literate, and thinks she found enough spelling and punctuation mistakes in the multiple-choice section to make the passing grade. luckily indeed. imagine how she would have felt if things had been the other way round!!

the owl of learning bites back

so there i was so happy that i was attending services as a grad student and taking part as a grad student. it was the first time in my life i was not either with my family or working. but could i keep my mouth shut? is that a rhetorical question? the rabbinic intern serving brandeis this year goes to the huc ny campus and i had to start asking questions and so i had to come out. o well - she wanted to honour me and i didn't want to dishonour her by not letting her honour me since she still believes being a rabbi is an honourable thing to be (ok ok and so it can be) so she called me up to read from the torah as ravaj.

the flip side of this is that after services were over a student came up to me and said hello rabbi do you remember who i am? of course at first i did not but when she gave me context i did. she told me that she was sitting with her friends in the congregation when i was called up to read the torah and said to them gosh that looks like my rabbi o my gosh that IS my rabbi! i batmitzvahed her in staunton five years ago. we caught up a bit and it was nice. the thing that had an impact on me, however, was that she said to her friends that is 'my' rabbi. made me feel durned good it did, and it has been a long time since anything connected to the congregational world has done that!

a rasp from the owl of learning

ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!

this is the way i am trying to present the fact that breathing is making my throat hurt this morning. heck, it is making my ears hurt!

however, i am not sick. in north america, feeling the way i do this morning is a good reason to go to the doctor. but i am not ill - i just have a cold. some generous student of mine shared a few germs, and now i have to get my act together and go to the chemist to collect a bag of goodies such as sudafed and sugar-free robitussin and soft soft tissues for my poor red nose.

there is no point going to sit in a corner of the classroom today while the other teachers wave garlic and magen davids at me to protect themselves from the lurgey that i carry. i shall, however, consider going to my class this afternoon, albeit under the influence of benedryl.

the best part is over, and by that i mean the gorgeous cabaret voice that had me doing bad marlene dietrich impersonations for friend and foe alike. *sigh* all that remains is wondering how many calories there are in post-nasal drip.

but i am not sick!

returning owl of learning

the DeLeT term began last night, and our first full day of the week is tomorrow. strange to be on campus, even near the end of the day, and to see so many people. the sparse population of the summer gave us a sense that the school was ours, but no longer :-)

today, meanwhile, was the first day of being a student teacher for the ravaj. she met parents and students (one of the parents grew up in england and, bless him, knew of rabbi albert h z"l). she did a crayon and watercolour wash painting of something that could make the world more beautiful. she helped the students to learn how to walk quietly in the hallway. for the very first time in her school life anywhere ever she went inside the boys bathroom (it is part of the first day tour for all students). best of all, at recess she got to play football with noah.

i had such deja vu. this kid picked up a football and was dribbling a little but everyone else already had something to do. i volunteered to kick it around with him and we spent the rest of recess playing together. later, i looked at the dirt on my trousers and the scuffs on my shoes and suddenly heard my mother's voice from 35 years ago. 'i can't believe you were kicking things while wearing your good shoes!!' etc. i e-mailed her to tell her about it - plus ca change, eh?!

now i have to go and do my prep for tomorrow.

photo day continues ...

another wonderful shot. this is of cohort 5 of the delet programme at their july graduation. it is also totally rebekah in just one still frame. love it!

the owl of learning goes on holiday for a bit

the summer programme has ended. the mother of ravaj is pleased that despite the summer, ravaj still spells 'programme' correctly. everyone else wants to know - did you enjoy it?

'enjoy' is not the word to use. when you change everything - leave a profession, a home, a relationship - and start afresh, it is difficult and lonely. that doesn't mean it was a mistake. that means that it takes time to regroup and rebuild. i am glad to be learning again. i am glad to be studying towards a goal. i am glad i have stopped crying in school (well, mostly!).

i am also very tired. i have worked hard. i am very impatient, especially with the younger members of my class. this is totally unfair to them as i have an extra 20 years of experience upon which to draw. i need a vacation. and, next week, by jove, i am going on a little trip. hurrah! then, when everyone is back from their hols, we begin again!

the owl of reading

ravaj has her new harry potter
it's going to be a long night i think ... got my deathly hallows at midnight-oh-five and am now home. just have to get comfy on the bed: point the fan in my direction and remove all constricting items of clothing.

one guy found a couch by the entrance of the campus bookstore and already started reading. another one opened to the back page as he walked past the line where we were waiting. 'don't do it!' came the cry. 'wouldn't it be funny if someone read the end and shouted it out?' was the response. 'if he does that i will kill him,' muttered the guy next to me. cannot type any more. must read! see you later.

the owl of learning (vi)

sowing in tears and reaping in joy comes to mind today. after much wailing and gnashing of teeth by ravaj on monday, conversations with teachers before the maths class led to an extremely unexpectedly enjoyable 3 hour lesson about bases. it's too boring to write about and i am too tired to try. suffice it to say that our teacher ended the session with a joke, and i got it. here it is for you:

there are 10 kinds of people in the world. those who understand binary systems, and those who do not.

owl of learning (v)

the agony continues. tried to do my maths homework this evening. several fuses in my brain blew. let's put it this way. i decided i would rather walk in the drenching heat through unlit unknown boston streets in a new york yankees t-shirt than face the pages on my desk.

i guess i need to thank the yankee pitcher for walking home baltimore's winning run in the bottom of the ninth at camden yards. any red sock who saw me this evening would most likely either gloat or pity me, rather than bash me.

*sigh*

owl of learning (iv)

today was my first day of school. by the time i got home around 6:30 pm, i didn't know whether to cry, to go to bed for the night or to have a couple of margaritas. o dear! not that i am complaining - it was an experience - i just did not realise how difficult it was going to be :-)

ok - we began with a 3-hour mathematics lesson. since we will have to teach elementary maths, we have to learn it also. i was good at maths when i was at school. on the other hand, the last time i did maths in school was 27 years ago, before two-thirds of the class was born.

shouldn't be a problem. i am intelligent. i can be taught this. i can learn it. and then 15 minutes into the class i am looking at the teacher and she is speaking and i am sure she is speaking swahili and i do not speak swahili. i am ready to cry. i tell her that i think she is speaking swahili. she tries to explain again, and i am not brave enough to tell her i still do not understand. my brain shuts down, and i start building towers out of the little plastik blocks she has given us to help work out problems about eric the sheep.

ok so i am humbled because i can honestly say that i do not recall ever feeling so incompetent and incapable and frustrated and stupid and hopeless. also, i can now empathise with anyone who ever feels like that in a class i may be teaching. i told her i had never felt like this before, and she said then either i must be really brilliant or ... i hastened to make the case against being very brilliant and explained how i had always avoided anything i didn't like in school. i did not say that these were things like biology, swimming and italian. it did not seem relevant.

now i feel like i was hit by a brick. i do sudoku every night, and get quite a lot of the fiendish ones from the times she said plaintively. ah well, 'twas only the first day. i have tear stains on my shirt, but tomorrow i shall wear another shirt. and the introduction to reading torah in the afternoon was enjoyable and more in my comfort zone, so i had time to recover. a bit.

i may return to this subject. probably tomorrow evening in the middle of trying to do the maths homework!

the owl of learning (iii)

one of the things about starting in a new anything is the issue of coming out. again. today was the first classroom interaction for my cohort of fellows. we were to share our 'jewish journey'. we were to trace our paths to this day. i made a megilla (small scroll) of photographs. i lined up 18 pictures from various stages of my life so far. in the middle, i included a photo of dbl & myself with the caption 'first love'. i planned to preface the photograph with a bit of a warning, i.e., don't want to be in your face but this is part of it all. anyway, we got split into two groups, and i was in the group without the women i had identified as more traditional (wearing a sheitl was a bit of a clue). i presented my journey to my table, and i think the megilla went down well. i wish, however, that we had all been listening together. that way, if there is to be rejection, it would be less in my face. now i have, or not, to do this individually as the time passes by. *sigh* que sera sera, etc.

the owl of learning (ii)

a second foray onto campus today, to merge deeper within the system by getting a student id card; and to charm the nurse practitioner into writing out some prescriptions for me by revealing my innermost medical secrets (will anyone tell me how to fill the little plastic cup without making at least a bit of a mess?). since my visit to the health centre was to be a brief one, the policewoman on guard at the construction site allowed me to park behind the traffic cones. when i was done, i drove away, and was immediately flagged down. apparently my car had invited one of the cones to continue the journey with us. so embarrassing. is this a driving equivalent of leaving the bathroom with toilet tissue stuck to one's shoe?

the owl of learning (i)

ollie the brandeis owl
while the brandeis (american) football team appears to be called 'the judges', i like the owl, named after oliver wendell holmes jr.. l & i went to the campus bookstore, to check out the prices of our textbooks vs the ones she had just ordered from amazon, and for me the aged freshman geek to buy t-shirts for all the family:


it was a fine and sunny day. we applied for parking permits, and checked in at the health centre, where i discovered that my port woebegone doctor had sent in a shoddy report. i was immediately scheduled for tetanus and hepatitis b shots, one in each arm for balance, and ordered to return after lunch to be jabbed.

duly jabbed, we headed for target, and plastic storage bins to deal with the lack of shelving in my room. this evening, the place is almost habitable. almost. not invite-somebody-over tidy. more kind of i-can-see-the-floor-and-sleep-on-the-bed tidy. this is a big change from yesterday. hurrah for plastic!