A Psalm of Life

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream ! —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way ;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
Be a hero in the strife !

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
Let the dead Past bury its dead !
Act,— act in the living Present !
Heart within, and God o'erhead !

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time ;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

I found this poem during the class that I am observing at the high school. I liked it a lot, so therefore I posted it. My favorite part is the last three stanzas. I think that this has been on my mind because I've been thinking of what I really want to do with my life. I just think it's great.

Lesson Plans...

Are my life right now. My sister asked me to update my blog so she could know what was going on in my life. Well, there ya go. Lesson plans are my life. Want a taste? Well you asked for it.


Lesson Plan 19

Peer Review

Objective: To help students help each other in the writing process. This gives them a good place to start when they are reviewing and editing their papers on their own.

Standards Addressed: NCTE # 4 Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

Common Core: 11-12.W2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

1. Discuss what peer reviewing means. Go over classroom rules on respect, these rules play a role in the peer review process (10 minutes).

a. There are “compliments” and then there are better compliments for a paper.
i. A compliment: “I like the font you used”
ii. A better compliment: “The examples you used to back up your argument that Miss Watson is a hero were creative and convincing!”
b. Please refer to the rubric for the specific suggestions involving word choice, details, organization etc.
c. If you are unsure about something editorial, ask me as I will be walking around during peer reviews.

Peer Edit with Perfection!
There are three steps to good peer editing:
1. Compliment the author
• What are a few things that you liked about the author’s writing?
2. Make specific suggestions regarding the author’s. Please look over the rubric for explanations of each of these points!
• Word choice
• Use of details
• Organization
• Sentence length
• Topic
3. Mark corrections on the writing piece
• Look for spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes. (See Editing Marks)
In addition, remember to:
• Stay positive!
• Be specific!

Copyright 2004 IRA/NCTE. All rights reserved. Image copyright 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
ReadWriteThink materials may be reproduced for educational purposes.

2. After going over the peer review etiquette, go over symbols that should be used in editing. (5 minutes)
a. Also, squiggly line underneath means the sentence or idea is confusing.

3. Have students pair up with a copy of their paper and a copy of the peer review handout. Trade papers and complete the peer review sheet. After this have students get into another pair and complete another peer review sheet. (So by the end of the class period they should have done two, and should have two for their paper) (15 minutes).

4. In the second pair have students read the paper out loud. Reading a paper out loud can help students hear mistakes that they might have missed while just reading it silently (10 minutes).

Disenchanted

dis·en·chant

[dis-en-chant, -chahnt]

verb (used with object)

to rid of or free from enchantment, illusion, credulity, etc.; disillusion: The harshness of everyday reality disenchanted him of his idealistic hopes.

— adj
	disappointed or disillusioned

This is definitely how I have been feeling lately. Mostly towards my major. Have I been wearing rose colored glasses this whole time while preparing to be a teacher? If I were to care about all of my students would my head explode? If I were to put time and effort into my teaching, would I get burned out in three short years? Not even wanting to even learn my student's names? My eyes have been opened a little bit more to everything that teachers face. Especially the politics. And it's made me think more about what I've really gotten myself into.

And the worst part?

I still want to teach.

I want to go crazy helping students understand how to express themselves. I don't want to get burned out, but I want to have expectations for my students. In essence, despite everything that is bad about teaching (the whole overworked, underpaid) I want to teach. I must be certifiable. Disillusioned and a bit disenchanted, but certifiable all the same.

A Day in the Life of Megan

So I've thought about this for a while and I've decided to invite you into a day in the life of Megan. I chose Monday, September 12.

7:30 am Roll out of bed. Literally. Eat breakfast. Put on shoes.
8:00 am Catch bus up to campus for my Aerobics class (cause yes, I'm that lazy. I'll work out, just not more than I absolutely have to).
8:15 am Sit and wait for class to start
8:30 am Aerobics. In this class my teacher has a sadistic goal: To make sure the entire class cannot move afterward. She's really good at achieving this goal.
9:20 am Hobble down the Old Main Hill to go home and change for work.
10:00am- 3:15 pm Old Navy... The smell of paint, the sound of crying children, and lots of shirts to fold.
3:15 pm-4:45 pm Eating food... Doing homework.
5:00 pm- 6:00 pm More homework
6:00 pm- 7:00 pm Relief Society Meeting
7:15 pm-9:45 pm SCED 3210 Multicultural Foundations A class that I thought only lasted two hours, but really it goes for two and a half. That last half hour really made the difference. This is also a distance education class, which means two and a half hours of staring at a screen that is supposed to be teaching me about teaching.
9:50 pm Once again hobble down Old Main Hill... Then pass out at home.

I thought Monday was funny, so welcome to a day in the life of Megan.

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry I have abandoned you lately. I hope you haven't taken it personally. I haven't had ready access to the internet in the past month (i.e. I haven't had internet at my residence in Logan). It doesn't mean that I don't care, it just means that on the rare occasions that I do have the internet I am bombarded by other things. Predominantly homework at this point in time. I have also continued with two jobs and this takes up a lot of time. Anyway, I still care for you blog. And I swear I will try not to abandon you as much anymore.

Much Love,

Megan Kaye

Online Tutorials...

Are definitely not my favorite.

In other news, I have begun my senior year of college. I seriously can't quite wrap my head around it. Next week I will be at Logan High School trying hard not to get lost and participating in an 11th grade English class. Nervous much? I think yes.

U-turns & Low-tech

So I lack the appropriate skills to fully document the trip I took with my siblings to Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. Instead I'm going to recount the journey with some quotes.

Day 1 : Thursday, July 28th

"Is that close enough!?" -Megan

"YES" -Karen (aka the GPS)

"Did you know that they don't have sales tax in Oregon?"-Mindy

"Maybe it's the fish" -Megan

... Two minutes later

"Did I just say 'Maybe it's the fish'!?!"- Megan

That's all we remember from day one, but the drive at 2 am nearly reduced me to tears.

Day 2 : Friday, July 29th

"Hat drinks" -Megan

"Turn the air on. Turn it warm. And turn it towards my pants!" -Gavin

"The shadow of the necklace scared me..." -Mindy

"This is not an OK hill!" -Megan

"I thought there would be grass" -Mindy (in reference to a Portland festivity entitled "Flicks on the Bricks")

Day 3: Saturday, July 30th

"There's a kid in my ward named... From Bremerton" -Mindy

"That guy's shirt has a picture of a giraffe and it says 'Moo, I'm a goat'"- All of us

"I'll just make a square turn..."-Mindy

Saturday was a rough day, so we didn't have very many funny quotes...

Day 4 : Sunday, July 31st

"That train is going like 2 inches a mile" -Megan

"Squish fishing!" -Mindy

"Oh, it just blew away" -Megan (in reference to a bird)

Day 4: Monday, August 1st (The day of my birth, in case you were wondering)

"How would you reuse toilet paper?" -Megan

"How many presidents signed it?" -Megan

"That music helped keep me awake on the drive home."-Megan

"That music helped keep me asleep on the drive home." -Mindy

"I think a screaming pterodactyl would have helped keep you asleep" -Gavin

Day 5: Tuesday, August 2nd

This day was mostly sleeping or watching movies in the car; however, this is just the list of quotes we remembered/documented. Needless to say there were countless more that were forgotten from the sleep deprivation accompanied with the smoke of Seattle. If we remember more amendments will be made to this post. And the running gag of our trip? "If only we had a smart phone..."

Hope you enjoyed our montage of quotes from our trip. If you're dying for pictures, click here.