Recently our local elementary school has become a "STEAM" school, with the idea being that they invest more heavily in science, technology, engineering, arts and math activities.  The sign on the front of the school "Every child deserves to be prepared for the 21st century" was really rubbing me the wrong way earlier in the school year when my child was really struggling in math and not getting the help at school that she needed. However, things have improved in that area with more help being provided.  And recently we went to a Family Engineering Night that was pretty fun.  I wish more members of our family could have gone--but things were just too busy. At Family Engineering Night, we picked a few stations and did the activity.  The idea was to create a solution to an imaginary situation given a very few materials. The first station was to build some kind of drawing bot using a small motor with a battery and a cup and eraser and markers. The ...

When I was almost 15, my family moved to Orem, Utah because my father got a job at BYU in the Business School.  I started my 10th grade year at Orem High School and spent the next three years there.  I was not looking forward to moving.  We had moved about 2.5 years earlier to Plano, Texas, from Indianapolis, Indiana, and it was a hard move.  It took me a while to find friends and I don't think I ever felt like I truly fit in. So I anticipated that would be the case once again in Orem.  Fortunately I was wrong. I found friends right away who lived quite close by and I felt comfortable very quickly.  One thing I enjoyed about our new location was going to my religion class called seminary (no credit) during the school day.  When I was in 9th grade, seminary was held before school.  I got up every morning so I could get completely ready for school and make it to seminary on time at 6am.  It was rough.  I did lots of sleep-walking that ye...

Here it is:  my first guest post!  Courtesy of my husband who is a college professor.  He is working really hard this semester with almost 1000 students in the four classes he teaches.  The pictures are courtesy of his colleague who is teaching the 2 Physical Science classes with him. Feedback is Amazing, but Expensive I want to be better. I just don’t want to pay for it.  A few years ago a group of us at work started talking about how to be better than we are. It’s not exactly virgin territory, of course, but we are physics teachers in a department where the stereotypical sub-culture of “Bring in grant money and don’t stink in the classroom” is not good enough. Our little group at work started reading books like “Make it stick: the science of successful learning,” by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel, and “Building a better teacher: How teaching works” by Green. Now I’m locked in an experiment that is costing me a lot more time than I expected. We...

 Here are some things we've been doing this winter: Susanna went to Preference with a boy she met at Hill Cumorah Pageant who lives up in West Valley.  It was nice of him to to drive down for it. We lost some wisdom teeth: Susanna got her wisdom teeth out.  Here she is pre-op, swishing a nasty mouth rinse around.   And two weeks later...Talmage got his wisdom teeth out too.  I should have done it the same day! We had ballroom competitions, festivals and recitals: Mindy has had ballroom competitions.  This dance was the one where all the boys go to the middle and then ask any one of the girls to dance.  They danced the cha cha--on of Mindy's favorites. We did a recital with some cousins at the assisted living place where my Grandma lives. And the biggest event of the last month is Lincoln got engaged!  To MiCayla Kunz.  They're getting married in May in the Houston, Texas LDS Temple.  Pretty exciting! ...