Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
18 jul awards
these are going to be a bit out of order until i get them caught up...just posting one today
Monday, November 8, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
pay days
this morning i got one! a pay day that is! (actually, i got two of them!)
i just got an e-mail from jenni that says it all: "Thanks for teaching me to be a good writer. Thanks for always being willing to edit my papers to death and helping me learn :). It has helped me along the way and continues to help me now. We got a paper back and our CFA's were talking for about 15 mins about how they marked it up a lot to correct a lot of errors and such and how we need to be professional writers. Then we got our papers back and the comment on mine said, "The writing is professional and thoughtful, and well revised and edited. It was a pleasure to read a basically error free paper".
pretty cool, huh?! but to appreciate this you must catch a glimpse of jenni's freshman and sophomore years at college. jenni emailing papers to me, requesting an editor's eye. usually at midnight. ha! not really. more often at 1 and 2 am. we divised a system of sending copies back and forth with coded highlights to keep track of changes, comments, and recommendations. those were some late late nights. sometimes i couldn't see straight, so i'd get up at 4:30 to continue giving feedback to what she'd written thru the night.
but then something happened. it's called her junior year. no more late nights. i probably only saw two papers that year. i enjoyed the restful nights. i enjoyed even more reports of how teachers frequently asked to keep her papers...as examples of what they were looking for, for future classes.
i have to admit, there were times those first two years where i wondered if i was just helping her get a better grade. i mean, by college, can you really change or improve a writing style that much? but one day some very big things suddenly sunk in. like comma usage! the OVERusage suddenly disappeared! strength of content increased. fabulous conclusions finished her papers with 'pow'! and i realized that all those 2 am's were worth it!
i haven't seen a paper now for 2 1/2 years. (except ones i've requested to read out of pure content interest). so today's e-mail about the comments on her paper was a definite pay day for this mom!
oh...but i mentioned two pay days, didn't i? well, maybe jenni was listening to elder holland saturday morning. i just have to say, the second pay day clearly outweighed the first.
oh...and p.s. you're welcome!
i just got an e-mail from jenni that says it all: "Thanks for teaching me to be a good writer. Thanks for always being willing to edit my papers to death and helping me learn :). It has helped me along the way and continues to help me now. We got a paper back and our CFA's were talking for about 15 mins about how they marked it up a lot to correct a lot of errors and such and how we need to be professional writers. Then we got our papers back and the comment on mine said, "The writing is professional and thoughtful, and well revised and edited. It was a pleasure to read a basically error free paper".
pretty cool, huh?! but to appreciate this you must catch a glimpse of jenni's freshman and sophomore years at college. jenni emailing papers to me, requesting an editor's eye. usually at midnight. ha! not really. more often at 1 and 2 am. we divised a system of sending copies back and forth with coded highlights to keep track of changes, comments, and recommendations. those were some late late nights. sometimes i couldn't see straight, so i'd get up at 4:30 to continue giving feedback to what she'd written thru the night.
but then something happened. it's called her junior year. no more late nights. i probably only saw two papers that year. i enjoyed the restful nights. i enjoyed even more reports of how teachers frequently asked to keep her papers...as examples of what they were looking for, for future classes.
i have to admit, there were times those first two years where i wondered if i was just helping her get a better grade. i mean, by college, can you really change or improve a writing style that much? but one day some very big things suddenly sunk in. like comma usage! the OVERusage suddenly disappeared! strength of content increased. fabulous conclusions finished her papers with 'pow'! and i realized that all those 2 am's were worth it!
i haven't seen a paper now for 2 1/2 years. (except ones i've requested to read out of pure content interest). so today's e-mail about the comments on her paper was a definite pay day for this mom!
oh...but i mentioned two pay days, didn't i? well, maybe jenni was listening to elder holland saturday morning. i just have to say, the second pay day clearly outweighed the first.
oh...and p.s. you're welcome!
Monday, September 27, 2010
higher education
there is something amazing about how much we learn, the second time around, in our pursuit of education. the thing is, sometimes i think it's the pursuit of supporting our children's education that merits the greater higher degree.
for example, i became an expert oceanographer this weekend, thanks to a project cole had to do for school. we read a lot together, and then i read even more, to learn all i could to then translate it into simple 3rd grade terms. and off to school he ran this morning with all the components he had created for a project he needed to assemble at school, and notes to help him create an informative essay in class. i closed the front door after the routine morning calls of "bye! i love you!" ..."love you, too!" and returned to the table and the remains of his project preparations, and picked up one of the books and just kept reading. this is cool stuff!
a couple weeks ago i was into entomology! cole caught a dragonfly. and suddenly we couldn't learn enough about them. we read, researched and sat engrossed in youtube videos of dragonfly nymphs emerging from their life underwater, to break out of their old skin and become the dragonfly we're most familiar with. well, mr. dragonfly died. but not to worry, two days later cole caught a praying mantis, and back to the internet, insect books, never before watched insect movies in our home library, and pet store we went, learning all we could learn. we sounded like bug nerds, and i LOVED it!
you know those little scout advancement pins boys put on their moms? well, there should be accompanying pins or certificates or diplomas or caps and gown for moms who do it all again...and again...relearning on new levels the many things their children need to learn...and surely much better than we ever did the first time around!
p.s. i do think i'll still leave the math pin for mark, however.
for example, i became an expert oceanographer this weekend, thanks to a project cole had to do for school. we read a lot together, and then i read even more, to learn all i could to then translate it into simple 3rd grade terms. and off to school he ran this morning with all the components he had created for a project he needed to assemble at school, and notes to help him create an informative essay in class. i closed the front door after the routine morning calls of "bye! i love you!" ..."love you, too!" and returned to the table and the remains of his project preparations, and picked up one of the books and just kept reading. this is cool stuff!
a couple weeks ago i was into entomology! cole caught a dragonfly. and suddenly we couldn't learn enough about them. we read, researched and sat engrossed in youtube videos of dragonfly nymphs emerging from their life underwater, to break out of their old skin and become the dragonfly we're most familiar with. well, mr. dragonfly died. but not to worry, two days later cole caught a praying mantis, and back to the internet, insect books, never before watched insect movies in our home library, and pet store we went, learning all we could learn. we sounded like bug nerds, and i LOVED it!
you know those little scout advancement pins boys put on their moms? well, there should be accompanying pins or certificates or diplomas or caps and gown for moms who do it all again...and again...relearning on new levels the many things their children need to learn...and surely much better than we ever did the first time around!
p.s. i do think i'll still leave the math pin for mark, however.
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