5/18/09 Frost Advisory?

w00t! Gotta love it. There's a frost advisory out for tonight. Cover your new seedlings and little plants.

Wait! It's May! It's almost June! And we're having a frost advisory? Well, they say not to plant anything in your vegetable garden in Maine until after Memorial Day. Gotta admit, I didn't believe it when I heard it.

Frost advisory tonight for most of state

Submitted by The Associated Press on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 09:13

• Central Maine Newspapers
• Portland Press Herald

The National Weather Service has issued a freeze warning for northern Maine, while a frost advisory is in effect for most of the rest of the state.

The weather service said an unseasonably cold air mass combined with clear skies and calm winds will result in widespread frost from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Tuesday in northern areas, where temperatures are expected to fall below freezing.

Most other regions, including southern and coastal areas, are under a frost advisory in the overnight hours. Temperatures are projected to drop into the lower to mid-30s, but a hard freeze is not anticipated.

The weather service says potted plants that are normally left outdoors should be covered or brought inside away from the cold.

retrieved 5/18/09 from http://updates.mainetoday.com/updates/frost-advisory-tonight-for-most-of-state

5/12/09 Midnight Madness

So it's 12:38am and I'm driving home from work. (Can you tell it's the end of the semester?) I know it's 12:38 because the bank clock on the corner of Main and Broadway says so in large digital readout. Then I think my mind must be playing a trick on me because it then says 38. It's 38 at 12:38. What does that mean? It's 38 degrees?! On May 12 it's only 6 degrees above freezing?? It's MAY for heaven's sake! I knew it was a little chilly on the walk from my building to my car. The grass was a little slippery under my feet as I walked up the slight incline from the exit to the parking lot. But I thought that was dew. Now I wonder if it was frost!

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore. Nor are we in Dallas. No wonder the landlady didn't want to plant her tomatoes yet. She said there was still a chance of a frost.

Now I'll never get my parents to come visit me for Christmas. My dad doesn't like the cold. He for sure won't come at Christmas and now probably won't ever come in May, either!

5/4/09 Interpretive Dance

One of my assignments in EDU 101 is for a team of partners to take one of the Ten Standards for Initial Teacher Certification for the State of Maine and present an overview of the standard in a way that we'll never forget. (The standards tend to overlap and initially, they all look alike until you really get to know them, which our students do in their ensuing Education courses. But to start, I just want them to be aware that the standards exist and that there are 10 distinct points.)

I encourage a lot of creativity and I get some fabulous presentations: rap song, children's story, skits, board games, audience participation activities, weavings, mystery boxes, and more. After 11 sections of this course, you would think I had seen it all, but in fact, I haven't. This group had a balloon popping activity, a self-assessment to determine learning style, an acronym event, and more. In addition to all of that, this was the first time anyone had ever used an interpretive dance. I don't believe I'll ever forget Standard 7 (there's a vii painted on each of their faces) is all about Engaging Your Students.