ACT TODAY TO SAVE AZ PUBLIC EDUCATION NOW!!!!! Contact your legislators.

TODAY the AZ state legislature could potentially pass a resolution that would cut K-12 spending for the CURRENT YEAR by $133 MILLION.

I know I have waited too long to post this, but it is EXTREMELY easy to e-mail or phone your representative and senator and tell them to save public education.

From the perspective of TEA/AEA (from what I gather) this is an ideological battle-- many of our state representatives don't truly believe in public education and will take every opportunity to chip away at what is an essential part of the American Dream. We are already a national embarrassment in educational spending. It HAS to stop.

To find your AZ legislators, go to:
Hyperlink to How to Contact Your Legislator

I have received an e-mail from our new TUSD superintendent stating that AZ was, in effect, also about to "tear up" a check for $500 million from the U.S. government.

PLEASE ACT NOW. AND SHARE THIS NOTE!

Need Book Recommendations for My English 11 Students

Hello-- My students are working on big, huge essential question projects. I have a few students who are having trouble finding an independent reading book (fiction or nonfiction) that will help them explore their EQ's Please e-mail me (or FB me, or comment on this blog entry) and send ideas!

EQ's:

• What is more important when looking at people's reading habits: quantity or quality?
• Does Karma exist?
• What is love/ true love? (I have given some suggestions here, but there are MANY students asking the question and I'd like some more ideas)
• Can you ever have too much money?
• Why are there so many similarities among stories?
• Does the past determine the future?
  

I may add more...

Thanks, folks! Boy, I really need to blog more. Lots to think about these days. I think when I'm short on time, I don't feel like I can do justice to the big topics (can you say "inauguration"?)

How I Made the Sweet Potatoes at Thanksgiving

There seems to be a potato theme on my blog. It's not intentional, and I think it will probably go away. But in the meantime, my sister-in-law Misty has requested the "recipe" I used to make the sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving this year. I have to admit, they were pretty tasty. Unfortunately, it was somewhat of an accident. I've been making mashed sweet potatoes for years, and they are always pretty good, but usually I don't go back for seconds. This year I did. And Misty did. And she doesn't even like sweet potatoes. So, for all of our sakes, I'm going to try to reconstruct what I did.

I think I started with about 4 lbs of sweet potatoes (beauregard yams?). Yes, this made a massive amount of potatoes.

I baked them. In fact, I forgot to fork holes in them, something my mom guessed when she smelled that burnt-brown-sugary smell in the house as I was giving the kids a bath. Gabriel had helped me toss them into the oven. You should probably fork holes in them and put them on a baking sheet or something unless you don't mind cleaning your oven. It smells good, though, when they drip.

After letting them cool about 20 minutes or so, Gabriel helped me peel them and put them in a huge glass Pyrex bowl (which becomes important later unless you want to transfer to an oven-safe dish).

Then we chunked up an entire stick of butter and let it begin to melt over the potatoes. I added about 1/2 cup of molasses, 1/2-3/4 cup of brown sugar, a ripe banana, salt, pepper, cinnamon (maybe 1-2 tsp), fresh grated nutmeg (maybe 1/2 tsp.) and orange juice to moisten (probably about 1/2 cup). I might have added just a bit of ginger (?) but probably not, because I always overdo it with ginger, and I think I remember not trusting myself. I might have added a splash of vanilla, but I honestly can't remember. I don't think so, though. Of course, all of these amounts are somewhat guesswork. Just as long as it tastes good, you're on track.

Then we mashed it with a potato masher, leaving some texture but making it so that the banana was unrecognizable.

Then, I cleaned up the edges of the bowl, covered it, and it sat covered overnight in the fridge (I'm sure this isn't necessary-- just how it worked out w/ our timing.)

I rewarmed the potatoes while the stuffing was cooking on Thanksgiving, but ultimately had to use the microwave because it was such a huge bowl.

Then, I put the oven on Broil, spread about 2/3 of a small bag of miniature marshmallows evenly over the top, and put the bowl in. I set the timer for five minutes, but within two minutes smelled marshmallows burning.

I removed the potatoes and used a fork to remove the top layer of marshmallows, which was one big black carbon mass by that point. (Okay, I did eat some of the burned marshmallows.) I sprinkled whatever marshmallows remained in the bag on the top, returned it to the oven and watched the marshmallows broil very closely. Then I checked my teeth for burned marshmallow flakes before heading over to Bill and Angel's for Thanksgiving Dinner.

That's about it! With that much sugar and butter, I'm sure just about anything would taste good!
Enjoy!

Here is a video resume I created for my husband using Animoto and iMovie. I'd love to continue getting better at this. Meanwhile, offer my husband a nice comfortable salary in a challenging and rewarding position and we'll be happy

Donate so that my class can have digital voice recorders!

Please consider donating to my classroom project:

Digital Voice Recorders in Reading and Writing Groups

I'm happy to explain more if you e-mail me at amethyst_sainz@juno.com