Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Little bit of lately...

Picture 1: Pregnant Bellies at Kristen's baby shower--Jenny Beth at ~20 weeks, Kristen at 30, me at 27. Picture 2: My girls at the shower--Jenny, Andrea, Lia, me, Kristen, Tara, Kelly. Picture 3: How-to's for Maryland Crab eating. The most delicious crab I've ever tasted in my life {even including the Red Bar}!
Picture 4: market shopping in Annapolis. Picture 5: the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.


I spent this past week in the Virginia, Maryland, DC area at a conference for the AP Language and Composition course I am teaching next year. I traveled with my friend and colleague Kris G-C and greatly benefitted from her native experience to the area.

The conference was so enlightening--we read and analyzed Lincoln's second innagural address, letters between 8 Birmingham clergymen and Martin Luther King, Jr. while he was in jail, political cartoons from The New Yorker and The Washington Post, satirical pieces from The Onion, and various essays, speeches, and letters. We analyzed sample essays, learned how to grade them according to AP College Board standards, and brushed up on the Rogerian and Touliman arguments. All these things, of course, are supposed to prepare us to help our students become sharper thinkers and writers. I have to say--it was fascinating, and I left the conference feeling smarter, inspired, and motivated. That's always a good thing. {There were some interesting characters in our conference, though, those who thought their brilliance was unparalleled, those with serious delusions of grandeur, but I have their character sketches all mapped out, and I hope they show up in some book someday.} Now that I'm back, I have my work cut out for me for the rest of the summer though--that's for sure!

We stayed with Kris's sister's family in Virginia, and we took evening escapades to surrounding areas. The new places I got to visit were Annapolis, Maryland, and Baltimore, Maryland. I enjoyed perusing the shops at the market in Annapolis, driving through the US Naval Academy, and eating delicious Maryland Crab at Cantler's on the water by the yachts. In Baltimore, we spent time eating a delicious dinner in Little Italy at Sabatino's, watching a bocce tournament at an actual bocce court, meandering through the Inner Harbor, and finishing it off with canoli and cream at Vaccaro's. We worked hard during the day, but we had many nice distractions at night.

Kris had just gotten back from Bonnaroo, and from listening to the artists on our road trip, I discovered some new-to-me music that I'm loving. If you haven't heard all of Jason Mraz's songs, I strongly encourage you to download We Sing We Dance We Steal Things.

2 comments:

Tiffany Norris said...

How fun! Love the belly shot.

Jenny said...

Beautiful belly shots!