Getting into the groove...

Ahh...I'm finally feeling it tonight...I'm getting into the groove of teaching again. I'm sitting here in a quiet house grading papers, and I'm not cranky about it. I'm interested in what my students have to say, curious to get to know them better. I want to write comments on their papers that let them know I care about who they are, as well as how skillfully they do or don't insert commas into sentences.

Ahhhhh...I can breathe again, without feeling all tight and stressed about going back to school. I can do this.

It's like this every year. The transition from summer's slower rhythm to the more urgent pace of the school year is always a shock to my system. The first two or three weeks are tough. With all the budget cuts and larger classes, I think I've resented it a little more this year than in the past. There is so much to give up in September: sleeping in till seven-thirty, leisurely afternoons, the luxury of staying up later in the evening, time to exercise, time to hike and garden and play. But there is so much gained, too. Part of the gain is my colleagues: I love working and interacting with them throughout the day, and I am sincerely glad to see them again in September.

But even more than that, I love my students. Some of them were pills today. Another teacher commented at lunch that "the honeymoon is over," and I think that's true for my classroom, too. But the kids were there. They showed up. They brought themselves and their stories and their energies to the space we call classroom, and we made it (mostly) work together for an hour. That's cool. I wasn't perfect, and neither were they, but we get another run at it tomorrow. They'll come in with their energy, their problems, their hopes, their secret fears, and we'll spend an hour together.

And then, I'll bring their papers home to read, to get to know their hearts. How lucky is that??? It's September, and I'm a teacher again.

Back to School

I'm settling into the routine of a new school year. School starts 20 minutes earlier this year (7:40 am) - ouch! Mornings are hectic.

I only teach 1 class every day, first period. Juniors and seniors - Oregon Lit Past. One of my favorite courses to teach, but I haven't taught it for a couple of years, so lesson planning is a bit more of a scramble this year.

After first period, I switch from my "teacher hat" to my "literacy coach hat." I track literacy data for the whole school (2200 students), identify students that need reading or writing interventions, help teachers with how to improve the ways they teach reading and writing in all kinds of classrooms (science, construction, sewing, health, social studies, you name it). I help develop curriculum for intervention programs, provide support to the Special Education / English teachers, and I prepare lots of training sessions for in-service days. Every day is different.

Last week I sorted through all 550+ seniors to see if they were on track for graduation. In addition to requiring credits, we require that students pass the state reading/writing/math tests, or have work samples to demonstrate that they can do those skills. Lots of data sorting to get all that info pulled together. I work with another teacher, who wears a "math coach hat" half the day. Last year she and I tracked all this information on an Excel spreadsheet. This year we got brave and did it all with a Google Doc spreadsheet. It's great! We can share the information, and keep track of the kids, without having to send a document back and forth in the email. Now the principal wants us to share the spreadsheet with all the teachers (100 people!) so they can view the info to see what the kids still need to do for graduation. Yikes! That's pretty public. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

This morning Mark and I walked a 10K (6.2 miles) race - The Best Dam Run out in Estacada. Hop over to The Skinny to read all about our fun.

The race course follows the lovely Clackamas River. Here we are at the start line...

...and 1 1/2 hours and 10K later, here we are at the finish line. We had a great time!

The Great Zucchini Hunt

Maddy and Grandpa went out hunting in the garden this morning...

...the tomatoes are getting ripe...

...love the little yellow pear tomatoes...

...and Grandpa caught a big one!! Yellow squash, broccoli, and one gigantic zucchini.

We're going to a church potluck-picnic this evening. I think I'm taking Zucchini Boats!

White Handkerchiefs

There is something I love about my husband's white cotton handkerchiefs. He is one of those reliable men who always has one is his pocket. I tend to use Kleenex, but there are times when no tissues are available, and Mark is always willing to share his hankie.

When I have a really bad cold, and my nose is raw from being rubbed by tissues, I raid Mark's hankie drawer. His handkerchiefs are always softer than the tissues.

Tonight, folding laundry, I set all his hankies in a separate pile and pulled out the iron and ironing board. When I was a little girl, ironing my father's hankies was the first ironing task my mother set before me. I must have been six or seven years old. I remember the pride I felt, by the time I was ten (maybe a little younger?) because I was skilled enough at ironing to be able to iron my dad's shirts for work. Tonight I ironed handkerchiefs again.

In our permaprest world, no one irons shirts any more. No one irons hankies. No one knows what it is about smoothing the iron over the white cotton, watching the wrinkles disappear. There is something so regular about that white square, all smooth and ready for folding.

I only iron hankies a couple of times a year. Life is full of busy things, and the hankies work just as well with a few wrinkles. Mark is happy with them straight out of the dryer. But every time I do iron hankies, I wonder why I don't do it more often? It is such a simple, straightforward, satisfying task.

Maybe the world seems a little more manageable when it's reduced to a square of white cloth, ready for folding. Maybe the act of ironing handkerchiefs takes me back to a child's satisfaction of learning to do an adult task competently. Maybe it's just the smell of the warm cotton cloth.

Play time with the Grandchildren

We've had several events with grandchildren in the last few days, as family has come into the area from out of town. Here are a few highlights.

The "Super Twin" hike! We had Sam and Audrey (age 4) and Kat & Sarah (age 8) joined by Josh (10) and a few other folks. We hiked from the Oneonta Trail to Ponytail Falls and Horsetail Falls in the Columbia River Gorge.

Angela found a banana slug (on the rock) and threatened to taste it (ewwwww) (she didn't).

Josh, Hillary, and Ethan had a good time. Footwear...like father like son...good thing this trail isn't too long or steep!

Mark and I with all the grandkids who came on the hike:
Ethan (with Mark), Sam, Audrey, Josh (behind Audrey), Sarah, Joey (with me), Kat.

The trail behind Ponytail Falls always feels so adventurous! We had a great time on this hike on Friday. All of the grandkids are great hikers.

I got some sweet snuggle time with little Ender on Saturday morning, although he was too young to go on the outing that day with his dad and big sister and me. He's growing so quickly!

David and Arora and I went on a short hike--just under 1 mile--on Saturday morning. We checked out the Clackamas River Trail, a little ways beyond Estacada.

Arora did walk a good part of the way but she loved riding on her daddy's shoulders, too.

Looking upstream, Clackamas River. It was overcast and misty--perfect hiking weather!

We enjoyed a snack here at our "Snack Rock," and then headed back to the car.

Saturday afternoon we took some of the grandkids out for a short canoe outing in Clackamette Cove. This is me, Audrey, and Angela.

Josh, Ethan, Katie, Mark

Me, Katie, Sam, Tim

Mamas and little ones on the shore:

Ethan, Hillary, Audrey, Angela, Polly with Rebecca

Skipping rocks:

Tim, Audrey, Sam, Seth, Angela

Josh, Ethan, Hillary
This was Hillary's first-ever time in a canoe!

Thanks to Polly for taking these canoe-outing photos.

Quoted in the News

Today's Oregonian newspaper ran a front-page article about the new graduation requirements in Oregon, which will require that kids pass reading, writing, and math tests, along with passing their required number of classes, in order to graduate.

Oregon City High School is ahead of the state averages in getting to those goals, and the reporter interviewed me yesterday about our progress.

You can read the article here. I'm actually named and quoted in the last paragraph! More important than having my name in the paper, I'm really proud of the work we do at OCHS to help all kids read, write, and do math better than they used to.

Bye, bye Summer...

We snuck in a last-minute getaway this weekend, before we go back to work on Monday. We were headed out to the coast for a ward beach party on Saturday anyway, so we just left a little early and made it into an overnighter on our way to the coast.

We found a sweet little walk-in campsite at Keenig Creek, on Highway 6 (on the way to Tillamook).

Just enough room for 2 tents (Julia came along with us). We cooked foil dinners over briquettes and made baked apples.

Here's Keenig Creek - some great swimming holes, shallow areas where kids could play, good fishing places. We want to come back again!

Loved these interesting rock formations along the creek - so fun to rock-hop and look for pollywogs.

Out at the beach this morning, we checked out the local tide pools.

We were at Cape Kiwanda, next to Pacific City. These are two of the fishing dories famous at Pacific City. They launch through the surf. These two had just come in on the beach, after their morning of fishing.

We had a good turnout at the ward picnic - nearly 80 people came! Yummy lunch. We didn't stay for the games - it was cold and windy, and we wanted to get back home to get ready for Sunday, and then we'll need to be ready for work on Monday morning.

Bye, bye, Summer!

Technology Girl?

Fun times with Maddy today. She loved using her mom's cell phone to call her Daddy.

After she finished the phone call, she noticed my camera, and I gave it to her to hold. She didn't try to take a photo with it...she held it like a phone and used her texting fingers to push the buttons on the side of the camera. Wonder what message she was sending? Then she held it up to her ear and said, "Hello?"

Love you, sweet girl!

Tips for Climbing Mount St. Helens

Mark and I accomplished one of our major summer goals yesterday...

We climbed to the summit of Mount St. Helens, an active volcano here in the Pacific Northwest!


Here are some photos of our climb, along with some tips for others who want to undertake this challenging goal.




7:10 A.M.
Started hiking. We used  Trail 216A, with the trailhead at Climbers Bivouac. The first two miles wind through forest, and gain only 900 feet of elevation.

Easy-peasy. We hiked that part in 1 hour.

Trail 216-A is pretty similar to most hikes we've been on, except for the occasional views of volcano-type geology through the trees.

After the first two miles, the trail changes abruptly. No more trees (see the timberline below me in the photo to the left).

No more trail. Now we're on climbing route 216H, right up Monitor Ridge, one of the many basalt spines radiating down the volcano. Note the pole behind me.

What a handsome guy! If you click on the photo, you can see three more poles going up the ridge behind Mark. We literally climbed over all those rocks for MILES and HOURS on our way to the top of the volcano. No designated trail--climbers use their common sense to find the best way from one pole to the next.

Tip: Note that Mark is wearing some utility gloves. I had my gardening gloves in my pack. They really saved our hands on the rough rocks.

Another photo of my hunk.

Just one of MANY steep areas we had to work our way up and over, one rock at a time.

Not my best hair day! Mark took this photo on a rest stop. We stopped for at least 5 minutes every 30 minutes on our way up, to eat a few bites of Power Bar and stay hydrated. (We each carried 5 pints of water for the climb.)

The gusty wind felt great and helped us keep from overheating on the climb.

Mt. Hood in the background, looking south.

About 2/3 of the way up the boulders on Monitor Ridge, we passed this solar-powered GPS station. It's monitoring tiny changes in position, to track movement of the plates that make up the earth's crust. Fascinating.

Some distance above the GPS station, we took another rest break at this small cairn, where I added another rock to the pile.

Tip: In addition to a sun hat, consider some kind of ear protection if your ears are bothered by wind.

After 3 hours and 2+ miles of climbing over the rocks, we made it to the top part of the ascent. This part is kind of like a monster sand dune that is made out of pumice instead of sand.

Every step sinks back a little, just like going up a sand dune.

We started this part--about a mile of climbing yet to the top--at 11:30. Lots of rest and water breaks. The wind had died down by now, and the sun became more punishing.

Yes, it really is that steep.

Even when you're climbing up the pumice fields, there are still plenty of rocks to navigate.

This part of the climb can get discouraging. You can see the top, but it feels like you'll never get there! It took us 1 1/2 hours of trudging--toiling--up through the pumice to finally reach the summit of Mount St. Helens.

From timberline to summit, we gained 3600 feet of elevation in 3 miles. I have to say that it was the steepest, most punishing 3 miles I have ever hiked/climbed.

But we did it!!

Here's a view looking north from the summit. That's Mount Rainier, near Seattle, in the distance. This view shows the blown-out crater, and Spirit Lake below us.

The crater rim is scary - a very steep drop-off. I sat with my boots near the edge, but not too close.

Another view of the crater rim, on the west side of the crater. In this photo and the previous one, you can see the big hump of lava, the dome, that formed in the last few years down in the crater.

Mark and me at the crater rim. We rested for a good half hour, ate lunch, then started back down again at 1:30 P.M.

Tip: bring an extra pair of hiking socks, and change out socks before starting downhill. Your toes will thank you!

Another shot of the striking scene, looking into the crater. It's difficult to get a sense of scale, because everything is so huge.

We made good time on the descent, as long as we were trudging down through the sand dune-like part. Once we got back to the rocks, it was very slow and cautious going for a while.

The rocks were radiating lots of afternoon sunlight, and Mark got overheated and nauseous at one point. We rested for 20 minutes, he changed into a cooler shirt and zipped off the bottom of his pant legs to make shorts, drank water, and felt better.

In spite of being above timberline, and on a volcano, we were surprised to notice lots of living things (besides us and the other 98 hikers).

A butterfly banged into me, flies and a yellowjacket pestered Mark, we could hear a cricket click-click-clicking, and honeybees were pollinating tiny flowers.

We saw several holes that looked like chipmunk holes, but maybe they were just holes in the ash--hard to imagine a chipmunk surviving in that environment. I did see one spider web. By the time we reached this beautiful bank of flowers, we were getting closer to the bottom of the boulders.

We took lots more photos of the ascent, probably because we were glad for an excuse to stop and rest!

Near the bottom of the boulders, here's a photo of me navigating the rocks near one of the poles.

At last - just a couple more poles, and we could see the forest trail beckoning us back into the trees.

By this time (about 5:00 P.M.) our knees were getting shaky and we wished we could wave a wand to land us magically back at the trailhead!

A welcome sight - they have added a composting toilet at the trail junction two miles above the trailhead. There are no "facilities" once you get into the volcanic rock part of the climb.

Lupine meadows greeted us as we pushed to get back to the car. We paused--briefly--a couple of times to snatch ripe huckleberries to refresh us.

We reached the trailhead at 6:00 P.M., eleven hours after we began, exhausted but so proud of ourselves for accomplishing this challenging climb.

We saw lots of climbers in their 20s and 30s, but not many 50-somethings like us!

Waiting for us in the car: an ice chest with cold drinks and sandwiches! Genius!!

Also some soap and water in the car to wash the sweat and grime off our faces and necks before climbing in and heading home.

Note: if you want to climb Mount St. Helens, you have to have a permit. They are available on-line for $22. There are only 100 permits per day, and they go quickly. We bought our August 24 permits back in early June.

Here are a couple of good websites if you are interested in learning more about climbing Mount St. Helens:

US Forest Service official site on Mount St. Helens - click here.

Mount St. Helens Institute - good info and the site to buy a pass - click here.

Note: If you buy permits, you pay for them online, and then you pick them up at the Lone Fir Resort in Cougar, WA. You have to sign-in and sign-out in the Climber's Register at Lone Fir Resort. More info available here.

You can pick up your permits and sign in the day before, and then camp that night at the trailhead. There are several campsites at Climbers Bivouac, allowing for a good early start up the mountain.