Let The Record Show

http://johnpavlovitz.com/2017/01/19/let-the-record-show/

Let the record - and my actions over these next 4 years - show...

"History has been littered with horrible people who did terrible things with power, because too many good people remained silent. And since my fear is that we are surely entering one of those periods in our story, I wanted to make sure that I was recorded for posterity:

I do not believe this man’s actions are normal.
I do not believe he is emotionally stable.
I do not believe he cares about the full, beautiful diversity of America.
I do not believe he respects women.
I do not believe he is pro-life other than his own.
I do not believe the sick and the poor and the hurting matter to him in the slightest.
I do not believe he is a man of faith or integrity or nobility.
I do not believe his concern is for anything outside his reflection in the mirror.

...

And if I prove to be wrong, it will be one of the most joyful errors of my life. I will own these words and if necessary, willingly and gladly admit my misjudgment because it will mean that America is a better and stronger nation, and the world a more peaceful place."

Greece! (Part 1 - Athens)

Back in 2014, my friend Kate and I went to Greece to meet up with a friend of her's, Chris, who was traveling around the world for a year.   Here are some really belated pictures (started the post in 2014...guess I forgot to finish it!)

Oh hey MDI!

Appropriate picture of Switzerland

Geneva

The Alps

The Greek Coast

Arrived in Greece around 5pm, took their metro to the hotel and walked up towards the Plaka (old neighborhood) to find dinner!  Also found our first views of the Acropolis!

Athens Acropolis- the first view!

Acropolis

View over the Plaka to a monestary

We got a bit lost trying to find the restaurant for dinner... the cats were terrible at giving directions

Cats, the Athenian version of DC's rats

Cat and chair sanctuary

Poser

Turn the corner and there's the place we're looking for!

Turn another corner and people eat on the steps!

Ruins, ruins, everywhere...

 Back at the Intercontinental Hotel we headed up to the roof top bar!  (awful location, surrounded by strip clubs, except for the view)

Acropolis in the distance

First full day- exploring the Acropolis and area

In front of an old theater

View towards the sea

Kate, Chris and I

Ran into some Vanderbilt basketball players!

Hope from History

"The future was an industrial, urban America that these people had never, ever imagined. The Civil War was a triumph of the Republican Party, a sectional party with a very clear ideology: Lincoln's ideology. And here it is worth pausing to consider this is one of the few times where a section of the country has achieved such complete dominance over the rest of the country, and seems to have the ability to make its view of the world stand for an American view of the world. It is also one of the few times that a single political party has been so dominant—perhaps in 1804, perhaps in 1932. And it forms a kind of test case of the ability of both a section and a party to shape the country according to the view of the world. And they can't do it—not very easily."

"The Nation in 1865"
Richard White, Stanford University

http://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/before-and-after-civil-war 

Hope for the next four years?

Patrick and Logan

Saturday morning we received the horrible, unbelievable news that late Friday night there was a fire at my cousins Lindsay and Tom's house in Roanoke.  The entire house was destroyed and my cousins's two beautiful boys, Patrick, 10, and Logan, 5, were lost in the fire when the second story collapsed.  Friends of the family who were staying the night all made it out with smoke inhalation and minor burns, and Lindsay and Tom made it out too with smoke inhalation.  They were all driven to Winston-Salem to the hospital there, near where my aunt lives, and spent the night under watch.

Lindsay and Tom lost everything, not only, but most importantly their two boys, but their house, pets, cars, everything.  Lindsay's business was in that house too.  Two fundraising campaigns have been set up to help them get back on their feet, if not emotionally then at least financially.  YouCaring and GoFundMe, which has the best picture of Patrick and Logan.  Your thoughts and prayers are also greatly needed to help Tom, Lindsay and the entire family through this tough time.

Patrick was quiet at times, a very pensive kid sometimes, very curious and smart, highly energetic.  He taught me how to kneeboard last summer at the Lake.  I remember visiting after he was just born while I was in college and Lindsay and I went to make a plate with his footprints on it.  Five years later we did the same thing with Logan.  Those plates hung on the wall in their kitchen.  Logan was a wild child, incredibly bright and always trying to keep up with Patrick, leading to many adventures.  I love those boys!  They were taken to be angels too soon.

It's just unthinkable.  You never expect something to happen to your family, even though you hear about it happening on the news, but sometimes it does.  There is no reason to explain something like this.  Sometimes burdens we have to carry have no reason, we just have to carry them.

Lemon Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

When your friend loves lemon cake and strawberry cake, you've got to make cupcakes like that for her bridal shower!

Lemon Cupcakes (adapted from Southern Living)

1 cup vegan butter (like Earth Balance), softened

2 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs, separated

3 cups cake flour (you can make your own if you don't have it on hand)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon table salt

1 cup soymilk

1 heaping tablespoon lemon zest

2.5 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Shortening or cupcake liners

Preheat oven to 350

In a large bowl beat the vegan butter just like normal butter at medium speed until creamy with a mixer, add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy.  Be patient.  Separate the eggs, add the yolks to the batter one at a time, blending each one in.  Put the whites together in a second large bowl for later.

Mix the flour with baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.  Add a scoop of the flour, then a bit of milk, alternating and blend in on low speed.  Then mix in the lemon zest and lemon juice, I add more than the original recipe for more lemon cake flavor.  

Back to that large bowl of egg whites, clean your mixer, then whip them until firm peaks form.  Add a scoop of the egg whites to the batter and stir in.  Add the rest of the egg whites and then fold into the batter.  I didn't know how to fold in egg whites, so here's a helpful page from the Kitchn or a video to watch how.

Put cupcake liners in the pan then add a scoop of batter to each.  I used a 1/4 cup measure a little less full and it filled them perfectly - only fill each liner 1/2 to 2/3 of the way...lesson learned, these rise like crazy.  Don't worry about smoothing the tops, that happens naturally during baking, but definitely don't drop it down like I did because you want air (the whole reason of adding whipped egg whites).  Bake for 18-20 minutes.  Let cool and make the frosting.

When the cupcakes are cool, use a small knife to core the center about 2/3 of the way down in each cupcake.  Pipe strawberry jam into the center of the cupcake and then use the cored remains to add a bit of cupcake back on top to make frosting easier.

I got the original Strawberry frosting recipe from BethCakes and modified it to be dairy free, which took a couple of attempts.

Attempt One with creamed Earth Balance didn't work.  I creamed the Earth Balance, just like for the cake, then added 2 tbs of strawberry jam like it says, then the puree which I left the solids in and it didn't fully mix together as well as it should have.  There might have been too much puree as I added about a 1/2 cup because I wanted more of a strawberry flavor.  Adding the 2 cups of powdered sugar didn't help.  It looked like this:

That's not going to spread well on top as frosting.  To the trash.

Attempt Two worked much better.  I grabbed the crisco shortening as I know my FMIL (a fantastic baker) uses that to make things dairy free for me sometimes, but to my dismay didn't have a full cup, only about 3/4 of a cup.  So I added that to the bowl (it hadn't been fully cleaned out so there was still lots of strawberry from attempt 1), was in a rush for time to get to the bridal shower these were for, so I threw in enough powdered sugar until it turned into a pink frosting and went with it.

That will work as frosting.

Iced half the cupcakes quickly, cut some strawberry slices to top them with, ran to the grocery store for some store bought icing for the rest as I was super late at that point and headed to the shower.  Luckily, they were a rave.  However, I forgot to take pics in the rush.

Lesson learned: have more crisco on hand and start adding liquids to frostings in small small batches.

Four Things

These are always fun to do, and interesting to find year later...

Four names I go by:
1. Christina
2. Ms. V
3. Ms. Vandenbergh
4. Steiner or Nina *by certain family members

Four things I hate:
1. Disrespect
2. Not taking responsibility for self
3. Cleaning
4. Traffic

Four places I have worked:
1. U-Rec at JMU
2. Science Park Rec Association
3. FCPS
4. College Board/ETS

Four things I love to watch
1. Downton Abbey
2. Jane the Virgin
3. Top Chef
4. Chopped

Four places I have been:
1. Puerto Rico
2. Scotland
3. Iceland
4. Ireland

Four things I am looking forward to:
1. The future with my fiance, soon to be husband
2. Seeing students improve on skills
3. Traveling
4. Spring Break

Four things I love to eat:
1. Mom's Ruby Red Corned Beef
2. Thai Peanut Stir-fry
3. Anything chocolate (dairy-free)
4. Strawberries

Four favorite drinks (not water):
1. Coffee
2. Hot tea with milk
3. A good stout
4. Lemonade in the summer

1-2-3-4 Lemon Cake

A friend made her husband a lemon cake for his birthday that looked fantastic back in December, but of course it was made with real butter (as it should be for anyone's birthday, although I do really appreciate when people have some dessert for me at a party, even if it's just fruit!).  It looked delicious so of course I had to get the recipe and see if I could adapt it, and our department monthly birthday celebration sounded like the right time!

The original recipe is from Smitten Kitchen for the Lemon Layer Cake.  Here's my adapted dairy-free version:

1-2-3-4 Cake
Adapted from several sources: this cake is a classic

This cake gets its name from its proportion of ingredients: 1 cup butter and milk, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups of flour and 4 eggs, and from cupcakes to layers cakes, as a basic, white cake, it does not fail.

Yield: 3 9-inch layers (for the purpose of this cake) or 24 cupcakes or 2 9x9 pans(good to know, eh?)

1 cup (2 sticks) Earth Balance "butter", at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups + 1-2 teaspoons sifted self-rising flour*
1 cup almond or soy milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil & flour the pans.  (Recipes always forget to write in that step!)  Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. It takes a bit longer, but Earth Balance will actually cream.  :-) Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and DF milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla, lemon juice and zest and continue to beat until just mixed. 

Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4-inches above counter, then dropping flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure a level cake. I only had one 9x9 pan, oops (guess what I got for Christmas! 9-inch round pans!) so I baked the layers one at a time and the batter stood well on the counter between baking.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (start checking at 15 minutes if you are making cupcakes).

* Self-rising flour has both salt and baking powder in it, but you can make your own at home with the following formula: 1 cup self-rising flour = 1 cup all-purpose flour, minus 2 teaspoons + 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder + 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Lemon Curd
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking

From the Joy of Cooking: This makes a sensation filling for sponge rolls or an Angel Food Cake. You can also marble it into a cheesecake.

8 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) Earth Balance "butter"
3 lemons, zest grated and juiced

Place the ingredients in the double boiler over boiling water. Don’t let top pan touch the water. Cook and stir until mixture begins to gel or thicken ever-so-slightly. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Cover and refrigerate it to thicken.

Place layer one on a plate, spread the top with lemon curd and place the second and/or top layer, then another layer of lemon curd.  I then finished it with a layer of classic white vanilla icing from Duncan Hines due to time, but could have made an icing now that I know Earth balance works pretty well for icing.

It was delicious, well enjoyed at work, and the extras were happily brought home to be enjoyed for the next few days.  It was possibly even better a few days later!  (Classic.  Forgot to take a final picture.  I'll just have to make it again!)

SAG Awards Apple-Cherry Crisp

I'm heading over to my neighbor's to watch the SAG awards tonight and after getting a delivery of apples from my CSA last week and finding a bag of dried cherries that need to be used up, I googled for some apple-cherry crisp recipes and settled on this one from Epicurious. I followed the ingredients list, even finding crystalized ginger!

For topping
1 1/4 cups old-fashioned or quick oats
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (pumpkin pie spice makes a great substitution)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature - for DF: use same amount Earth Balance spread
3/4 cup almonds, lightly toasted, chopped
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger

For Filling
4 pounds Granny Smith or Pippin apples, peeled, cored, sliced
1 1/2 cups dried tart cherries
1/3 cup sugar (Epicurious suggests 1/2 c. but that seems like it would be too sweet)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (or the pumpkin pie spice here too)

Make filling:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine apples, cherries, sugar, lemon juice, flour and ground cinnamon in large bowl. Mix to blend well. Pour into the 9x13 pan.

Make topping:
Mix oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt in large bowl. Add butter and rub in until coarse crumbs form. Mix in almonds and ginger. (Topping can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.) 

 
Adding the butter is best done with your hands, or two knives chopping it up into pea size balls if you don't want to get your hands that dirty.

Cover the top of the 9x13 pan with topping and bake for 45 minutes. It might take longer depending on your oven as the original recipe says to make in small ramekins and bake for 40 mins in those.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Apple Oatmeal Muffins

What to do when you have way too many apples to eat before they go bad and have to bring something to our department breakfast, I mean meeting, tomorrow morning?  You google "apple muffins" then realize that you have lots of oats too and change the search to "apple oatmeal muffins."  First recipe to pop up was this Apple-Oatmeal Recipe from Martha Stewart, so I decided to adapt it to dairy-free.

I made the first dozen, then worried it wouldn't be enough for the department so I made a second dozen, and in true daughter-of-a-scientist fashion, made some changes to the second batch to see how things work.

Dozen One

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup normal oats (old-fashioned, not quick)
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder - accidentally put in 1 tablespoon and 1/4 teaspoon, realized my error and scooped a bit out
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (she says 1/2, I like more spice usually, thus I also added a dash of cloves and nutmeg)
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 stick Earth Balance "butter", melted and cooled (Google says 1 stick is 1/2 cup so that's what I put in)
1/2 cup almond milk
1 hard apple, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 1/4 cups)

Mix according to her directions and then bake for 20 mins at 350.  I did accidentally stir the dry into the wet instead of the wet into the dry - hope that doesn't matter!

Dozen Two

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oats
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder - did it right this time
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (same additions as above)
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup almond milk
1 hard apple, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 1/4 cups)

handful of raisins

Same mixing and same baking.

I then looked up substituting oil for butter and found that it's not equal like I assumed.  According to New Health Guide, you use 10 tablespoons of canola oil for 1 cup of butter, so I should have used 5 tablespoons of oil per their suggestions, but I used more like 8 tbsp with my conversion so I added about 1/4 cup extra oats.  On the other hand, Livestrong says "For every 1/4 cup butter, use 4 tablespoons vegetable oil or 3 tablespoons olive oil."  Still off in my calculations.

The taste test...

Both are pretty light on the inside.  Dozen 2 rose a bit more and was more moist, which is how I like muffins better, so in my book, that's the winning recipe!  We'll see how they fare tomorrow.

Day in the Life of a Teacher

I had a conversation last week with our county curriculum specialist for secondary social studies about how we understand what we do in our job as a teacher, but we teachers don't always know what he does and one way to reach out would be to explain more of what he does to us.  Then there was a great video about Lily Garcia (NEA President) who was asked by a fellow plane passenger "what is the one thing you need to fix public education," and she pointed out that he's not the enemy, we need to educate him about what we do.  She then goes on to list 25 common things that educators do, some of which applied more to elementary school, but I do occasionally hand out some band-aids.  So I thought that I'd occasionally (when I have time) try to go back through my days and explain what I do.

Out the door by 7am (actually on time today!  How is it that I can be out the door faster on a Friday than a Thursday?) after breakfast and brushing teeth.
Arrived at school around 7:25, checked mailbox in main office, put lunch away in workroom fridge, filled water bottle, discussed APUSH-English coordination with the English teacher in the workroom, used bathroom, head to classroom, realize I didn't have my keys, stop by mentee's classroom to use keys, check in with her for day's plans, open my door, find my keys in my closet lock, return keys to mentee.  Start up both computers, pull out WHII notebooks, reply to two emails, read daily school staff email, realized I missed an email with schedules for midterms, print those out.  Realize that pencil sharpener isn't working, learn an eraser was shoved in it.  Email department to ask who has a small screwdriver.  Open up daily powerpoint for WHII and turn on projector by 8am, students trickle in, greet students, run to printer down the hall, back and suggest to one student to finish notes for HW quiz.

1st period - (8:10-9:40) Bell rings at 8:10, announcement of new principal to students, clarify that for them, pledge of allegiance, moment of silence, explain bellwork to them, take attendance, set aside papers for absent students.  While they're working on bellwork I move videos from old computer to new computer, open notes powerpoints, then review bellwork with students.  Pass out homework quiz, grade notes (mark in gradebook who has notes), finish moving videos and setting computer up for class.  Watch for cheating, notice one student trying to pass English class notes off for history notes.  Nice try.  End quiz, switch papers, go over answers with students, explain commonly wrong answers.  Collect HW quizzes and have one group left to present a project.  Review handout from a previous class when I was out - randomly ask students to answer the questions, add more questions to spark discussion, try to remember wait time to get better answers.  Really impressed with answers about whether the US is a nation state and what allows absolute monarchs to take power.  Give students 10 minutes to work on geography practice related to absolute monarchs, pass out graded papers from previous classes.  Review map as a class.  9:30, ten minutes left in class, start notes on the English Civil War.  Remind students of what to study for quiz next class as they're leaving.  Discussing upcoming absences with students who ask.

Warhawk Time - (9:45-10:20) Homeroom period with ability to move classrooms with a pass for remediation.  Remind my assigned students to sign in, input 1st period homework quizzes into gradebook.  Get a small screwdriver from dept chair, youtube how to fix jammed pencil sharpener, take whole thing apart, pencil shavings explode all over my desk, finally get eraser out, put whole thing back together.  No one told me during Ed School that I'd have to learn to be a MacGuyver and repair woman, but I have now learned to unjam copiers (I'm learning to copier whisper), fix jammed pencil sharpeners, and fix some broken computers.  I might have to add those skills to my resume.  Had a good discussion with junior girls in my WT about college when one of them asks.  Write passive aggressive note on pencil sharpener.  Walk down hall to return screwdriver, and wash lead off hands (they were pretty grey) and use restroom.  Remember to take official attendance.  Go over some test questions with APUSH students who came in to review.  Return an email to a parent.  Pack up to head to library for APUSH classes.

3rd period - (10:25-11:15) Stand in doorway to remind students where to sit in library for APUSH, get whiteboard easel and write up agenda, bell rings, hand out worksheet, explain one side for their personal review on own, explain how to complete the timeline for a unit review.  They write the presidents down the middle in the boxes on the paper and then need to put foreign events on one side, domestic on the other, and then think about connections between events.  We did this because the unit felt so choppy and out of order and I wanted to make sure they had it in order in their minds.  I gave them half the class to work on it and then they could move to the computers if they wanted to work on their Jackson trial prep.  I walked around, answering questions, asking questions of students, suggesting ideas, checked in with the lawyers.  Feet were pretty sore by the end of class.

Lunch (11:15-11:45) Ate in the work room with many of the department, enjoyable conversations, lots of laughs today, big discussion on the new principal and what to expect (no one knows for sure!)

5th period- (11:50-1:20) Back in the library for APUSH, same as 3rd period but 30 minutes for the review timeline, and then choice to work on trial.  Most headed to trial prep for last 60 minutes.  Due to more time, I got to get some projects graded for WHII, moving around the room to check in between every 2 projects graded.  Entered grades into the online gradebook.  Then worked on prepping a jigsaw activity on slavery for next unit, finding primary and secondary resources for students to read and writing questions for them to analyze.  Ran to the restroom when I could sneak away for a minute as the library was watching students.  Circulated around one last time before the bell for final questions.

7th period (1:25-2:55) same as 5th period.  Had a great conversation with the sub for the librarian who was a former teacher in the room next to me, and worked as my sub the week before.  Continued to balance checking in with kids and getting a little bit of planning done.  Decided to re-do the timeline worksheet for next unit and this unit next year to help students organize the information thematically as well (political, social, economic) after checking in with students and how it was working for them.  Sat down to work with the defense attorneys who never wanted to be attorneys, helped with questioning skills and how to cross-examine.  Right before the end of the period outside the library the choir serenaded our leaving assistant principal (becoming principal at another school) on his last day with the alma mater, a beautiful and touching moment.  Final reminders to students before the bell rang about the calendar changes for the following week and what to finish to prep for the test and then trial.

After school (2:55-4:15) - Packed up classroom for the weekend.  Read an article about colonial religion that would be useful for next year and PDF'ed it to save.  Worked on a key for timeline while watching students make up a test for another teacher for about 40 minutes, then helped my mentee with when and how to do a grade change from quarter 1 (20 minutes).  Packed up personal belongings and headed out for the weekend, remembering my keys.

*That's a fairly normal day, however slightly less on the email front.  I have a good day/bad day schedule where on even days I have 2 periods off for planning, and on odd days I teach straight through all periods.  On non-Fridays, I would usually head home, attempt to get some yoga in and then grade or plan for 2-3 hours in the evening.