You Can't Beat October in Michigan

As I drove across the state yesterday toward Kalamazoo to visit my alma mater with my family, I kept thinking over and over how beautiful Michigan is in October.  I finally just started snapping pictures, and every time I saw the most beautiful trees, we'd go around a bend and a whole bunch more would pop up.  Here's a compilation of some of the photos:

Once we were there, we had a wonderful time walking around Western Michigan University.  So much has changed in the 20+ years since I lived there, yet at the same time, it was a lot like going home.  I easily found my way around campus and Kalamazoo.  I love that town.  Here are a few photos:

While perusing the library which was built while I went there (my favorite study spot - and for anyone who remembers - a great source of microfiche), I found this:

It just legitimized for me - again - why we focus so much on research evidence and how to cite them.  This is obviously still a large part of academic work.

Finally, I went to my first game at Waldo Stadium since it has been rebuilt.  Two thoughts passed through my mind this weekend when it comes to football.  First, the stadium is beautiful and amazing, and I've never seen so many people at a WMU football game at one time.  I love the pageantry at the beginning with the bands, the smoke, the cannon, the bronco rider leading the way, and the excitement around the football team.  But I also think a little of the charm is gone.  You can't see the Amtrak train go by as well as you used to when there were just metal stands next to the tracks.  The big screen used to say, "Wave at the Amtrak!" and we would all stop what we were doing to wave at the passengers and the conductor would blow the horn.  In addition, our team was usually terrible, so we would entertain ourselves by doing the chants and cheers, but also by having a marshmallow war as well.  On Dad's Day (or Parent's Weekend) we liked to aim exclusively for our parental units and bombard them.  Unfortunately, not one marshmallow appears to have been thrown at yesterday's game.  I did get to Row the Boat, however, so that was a good trade off.  Here's my son and I waiting for the game to begin:

My other thought on football is that my two alma maters are like that State Farm ad.  At Western, this season, we say, "What a game!" (with joy).  At MSU we say, "What a game!" (in misery).  At Western we say, "How is this possible?" (as we go 8-0).  At MSU, we say "How is this possible?" (as we drop the 5th game in a row).  But I love both of my schools - brown and gold AND green and white.

Anyway, on to my actual job at the school I have traveled to daily for 18 years - longer than any other school I've ever been to.  Last week I couldn't access my phone pictures, so Mrs. Sestak returned it to me this week and I now have the pictures from 1st Hour when we were doing a group activity.  Here they are:

We've gotten more into the group work these past two weeks, and I feel like they - and me - are enjoying the class a bit more.  We've also done the preview work for Romeo and Juliet and have analyzed the Prologue, so we're ready to tackle Act I, and hopefully move forward into Act II.

So here's the plan for this week:

• Monday, 10/24 - preposition review - packet #3; reading of Act I, scene i together; partner activity of specific lines.
• Tuesday, 10/25 - PSAT annotation activity; continue Act I, scene i; close reading of a second set of lines from scene i.
• Wednesday, 10/26 - Vision Screening by the state and Academic Advisory day - we won't have much time in class, but we'll attempt to move forward in Act I.
• Thursday, 10/27 - Career Advisory day - I hope to finish Act I.
• Friday, 10/28 - preposition review - packet #3; we'll either finish Act I if we still have more to read, or we'll do some activities that get them up and moving and having some fun with it.

Two notes:
     1.)   Vision Screening - free from the state - happens through 9th grade English classes on 
            Wednesday (at least I think so since it's always happened that way in the past).
     2.)  There's not a whole lot of homework from me this week.  Shakespeare is difficult so I tackle it
            with them in class.

That's about all I have for this week.  Since the BIG in-state rivalry happens this week, I'll just be humble and say that though I have many friends who are fans of the wrong team (including one of my sons), and many of them are graduates (including my husband), and things are rather desperate at my school this season, I still bleed green and always will.  I'm a Spartan born and bred, so I'll be cheering on my team and hoping for a miracle!

Have a great week everyone!  Ciao!


You Can't Beat October in Michigan by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://laurastubbs.blogspot.com.