n-p is as far as i can get today.

n is for nel noddings. i used a lot of her books last semester. the goddard library is pretty great. they'll mail me any book I want, and track things down through interlibrary loan if i ask. I forgot to bring back noddings ' book, Challenge to Care, when i went to the residency. but, there are no late fees. woo-hoo.

o is for oil. i went to a maple syrup farm with rowie, mike and isaac. there was a video playing in the outdown wooden "theater" about syrup production. the old farmer in the video was chopping wood and said, warms you up choppin it, warms you up burnin' it. now tell me why we need all that oil from the a-rabs!"

p is for pickle. the new rock paper scissors is beer pickle dad. dad eats pickle, pickle spoils beer, beer spoils dad.

half way done

-a is for apple. i had a tasty golden delicious today. and a good plum.
-b is for bonfire. we haven't had any yet - sad. too rainy.
-c is for Come Back, Charleston Blue, (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068403/) a funny movie i saw last night.
-d is for doc. one of the profs is called doc by all. his real name is david frisby. he's great.
-e is for enchiladas. the best cafeteria meal is the mexican lunch. i could eat it every day.
-f is for freire. i've noticed students and faculty pronouncing his name correctly with soft, not english sounding r's. go goddard.
-g is for goddard process. you must trust the process. they can't give us the answers, or the questions.
-h is for health care. saw sicko last night in a tiny theater in montpelier. got fired up about health care. have since calmed down.
-i is for ice cream. as we got off the plane, some kid said, "is this where ben and jerry really live??"
- j is for joiner. as usual, i have been attending lots of workshops, but my willingness to attend things and participate dwindles the later in the day ad the week it is.
-k is for knowledge. someone recommended Knowledge by Heart, by Barthes to me, and i am excited to read it. school reform from the inside out through teachers becoming life-long learners.
-l is for lightfoot. another book recommendation was for an author called Sarah Lightfoot Lawrence,
... and it made me think of Gordon Lightfoot, and therefore Lauren.


-m is for magic hat. still a tasty beer.
n-z to come!

i'm here...

-flight and all traveling went well. was able to share the van-taxi ride up so i saved 45 bucks - saving which will be passed on to delicious pizza (at local hole in the wall here in Plainfield and it's bigger twin in Montpeilier www.positivepie.com) and of course, local beers (such as www.magichat.net ).

-so, my listed roommate is still Sam, who is not coming. looks like I have an accidental single room again. the privacy is nice, but so would someone to walk to meals with, etc.

-what i should do: yoga, or go for a walk. what i feel like doing: nap, or finishing the netflix copy of constant gardner that i started on the plane.

-here's a not terribly thrilling link about my program, in case you want some light reading material.

http://www.goddard.edu/academic/MATeacherEducation.html

-next
post i will be more reflective and poetic, i promise

off to goddard again next week!

well, time flies when i'm having fun, and not blogging.

despite my ignoring all school-related things since i handed in my portfolio, it is time again for summer residency.

fun facts:
-the theme for the dance is: PIRATES!
-i emailed the friend i signed up to share a room with, and it turns out she is not coming this semester. we hadn't done too well at keeping in touch, but at least i found out before i got there, as opposed to last semester, when i didn't learn that my roomie wasn't coming until she failed to show up. i hope that i end up with a single room for the price of a double, like last time, rather than getting stuck with a stranger.

uhhh. out of fun facts. more next week. instead, here are some parts copied from a profile of Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from VT, which I wanted to post a link to, but the rag that rhymes with Moo Fork Limes, does not see fit to let the non-paying public read its archives...

'I urge you all to argue with your teachers, argue with your parents,'' Sanders told a group of about 60 students at South Burlington High School -- generally liberal, affluent and collegebound -- one afternoon in mid-December.

The newly elected senator whipped his head forward with a force that shifted his free-for-all frizz of white hair over his forehead. (Journalistic convention in Vermont mandates that every Sanders story remark on his unruly hair as early on as possible. It also stipulates that every piece of his clothing be described as ''rumpled.'')

___

Sanders calls himself as a ''democratic Socialist.'' When I asked him what this meant, as a practical matter, in capitalist America circa 2007, he did what he often does: he donned his rhetorical Viking's helmet and waxed lovingly about the Socialist governments of Scandinavia. He mentioned that Scandinavian countries have nearly wiped out poverty in children -- as opposed to the United States, where 18 to 20 percent of kids live in poverty. The Finnish government provides free day care to all children; Norwegian workers get 42 weeks of maternity leave at full pay.

But would Americans ever accept the kinds of taxes that finance the Scandinavian welfare state? And would Sanders himself trade in the United States government for the Finnish one? He is curiously, frustratingly non-responsive to questions like this. ''I think there is a great deal we can learn from Scandinavia,'' he said after a long pause. And then he returns to railing about economic justice and the rising gap between rich and poor, things he speaks of with a sense of outrage that always seems freshly summoned.

...that's all folks.