Fly Birdman Fly!

Chris Andersen, AKA Birdman, AKA Birdzilla AKA The Raging Rooster is a monster. Part bad boy part goofiest person ever, Andersen wills his tatooed spindly limbs into the air just at the right times to pull down rebounds, reject shots and dunk the ball energetically.

On the 8th of April I went to the Nuggets game with Dad, Whitney, Vernon and my friends Duncan and Chad. They beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 122-112. Before leaving, Whitney made me a makeshift Birdman mask. Here it is-



Lucky for me, the Andersen had another huge night- snagging 9 boards and blocking a ridiculous seven shots, more than the rest of the team combined.

The Birdman is a fan favorite with all of his hand gestures and antics playing to his nickname. At first Whitney couldn't stand him though. It's understandable. He constantly walks with a swagger and can almost always be seen with an arrogant smirk on his face (especially when he just finished rocketing an attempted shot into the first row of fans). At first glance, most people would probably think "Wow, this guy is a total jerk."

Granted, He is extremely cocky, but he also has a flair of awkwardness that makes his borderline narcissism more endearing than aggravating. While he can have soaring dunks, he can also miss the dunk in the most embarrassing way. Take for example, the time he competed in the 2004 Slam Dunk Contest. Infamously, he missed his first eight attempts on his first dunk and his first five attempts on his second, drawing open laughter from the players on the sidelines and even ridicule from the TNT commentators.

He also has a work ethic that is to be admired. At the Thunder game he was constantly bouncing up and down- in the pregame warmup, during team huddles, and while he waiting on the sideline to check in. He brings an energy to the Nuggets off the bench that is essential. Also, he can block the ball better than anyone in the league. Andersen is second in the league behind Dwight Howard for the most blocks per game. That is insane considering the fact that he only plays an average of 20 minutes a night. If you go by blocks per minutes played he averages 5.68 blocks per 48 minutes of play, a full two more blocks than Howard.

Simply type Birdman into youtube and you will come up with countless tribute remixes to him. You'll also see some nasty blocked shots. Here are two of my favorite- this one he is hit in the stomach as he blocks a shot, then recovers and proceeds to get two more consecutive blocks in the same possesion



Then there is the time he swats Rudy Fernandez in the face. Talk about insult to injury.




His life story is a good one too. He was raised by his mom in small town Texas after his Dad left the two of them when he was a kid. He was constantly living a life on the edge, pushing limits and getting into trouble. His mother hoped his basketball skills could keep him out of a dead end life. When he was drafted by the Hornets they were both ecstatic. Unfortunately, the quick trip into the spotlight lead Andersen to a path of drugs and recklessness. He was disqualified from the NBA for substance abuse.

In 2008, the NBA let him back in and then in the 2008-2009 season the Nuggets picked him up after the Hornets released him. Since being on the Nuggets he has turned both his basketball and personal career around. Denver has embraced him and the team are now playoff bound and hold the second best record in the Western Conference.

Is the Newbery Award Turning Kids off from Reading?...and my Read Aloud Choice

Picking a Read Aloud book for my 5th grade class is always tricky. I've had the students nominate books and then vote on them, but the problem with that is we usually end up with books that the majority of the kids have already read. Lately I've been choosing books that I think they'll enjoy. I've chosen novels that I enjoyed as a kid, books that I know my students liked in the past, and selected books that deal with themes that I notice have struck a chord with many of my students.

I think the best selection I've made was Esperanza Rising. It has everything that makes a great book for me- a captivating plot, characters that the students can relate with, skilled writing and deep themes that lend themselves to good conversations and analysis.

At this age, a book has to be a good read. As 5th graders, the students are still cultivating a love for reading. If a book has a deep message, but the actual story doesn't grab them then it is lost on them. That has happened a few times with the read alouds I've chosen.

Interestingly, this is a critique that some people have lobbed at the American Library Association's recent selections of Newbery Award winners. Children's literary expert Anita Silvey argues that so many of the recent Newbery Award recipients have been too difficult and inaccessible that it is contributing to the decline in reading amongst youth. You could say that the book are more of what adults wish children would read, instead of what they want to read.

The ALA claims that the Newbery was never about popularity in the first place, it's about making a significant contribution to children's literature. I agree with Silvey when she counters that you can have both quality and readability in a book and that that is what the Newbery winners should have.

Over the Spring Break I re-read The Giver by Lois Lowry and for the first time read Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Both won Newbery Awards, so which one am I going with? Well, in the end I've decided to go with the one I think my students will enjoy and encourage them to think deeply about questions around death, fulfillment and grief. While The Giver brings up great moral dilemnas and is a wonderful segue into conversations around justice the book lacks strong character development and its ordered, bland dystopia sometimes lends to an ordered and bland read! As Jonas begins receiving memories the story incorporates vivid vignettes, but it's not enough to make the story captivating. By the time he embarks on his plan, we have not grown to know him, Gabe nor The Giver well enough to really be drawn fully into the story.

At the end of the day, I want my students to love literature. That's why this time around I'm going with Walk Two Moons. Sorry Lois Lowry, maybe next time we'll pick up Number the Stars.

Food that Affects Your Pee- Part 2: Nutritional Yeast

Nutritional yeast is made by culturing the yeast with a mixture of sugarcane and beet molasses (hey, beets!). The yeast is then harvested, washed, dried and then packaged. Usually it's available in the form of flakes and can be found in the bulk aisle of most natural food stores. A lot of vegans eat it because it tastes like cheese.

Well, actually I don't think it tastes like cheese, I think it tastes like gravy. It is, however, a good cheese substitute. It's also good on popcorn and you can just spread butter over a slice of bread and sprinkle it on. There's this hippy commune called The Farm that came out with a cookbook. They use it in almost every recipe and they're all delicious.


Also, it turns your pee neon yellow. It looks like Gatorade. The reason for the fluorescent color is that nutritional yeast is loaded with B12 and there is no way your body can absorb all of the B12, so it ends up tinting your urine.

Where Education and Assimilation Collide

My linguistics professor told us about a feature the New York Times is running entitled Where Education and Assimilation Collide. It's a really interesting look into different schools that are being affected by the shifting trends in immigration. The first school featured is a high school that was once predominately white and upper class whose demographics have shifted quickly with a housing boom and the construction jobs that it brought.

Now the community and local schools are trying to figure out how to respond. There has definitely been racist backlash to the new immigrants, with some leading the charge to pass anti-immigrant legislation. The way the schools are dealing with it is interesting. Immigrants are essentially tracked in separate classes where they are prepped for the state tests. On one hand it's helping the students pass the grade and get their diploma, but it has also set up a highly segregated school environment. It also raises questions of how well the schools are preparing immigrant students to the actual world when so much emphasis is placed on teaching to the test.

Educators are stuck in many ways when it comes to teaching English Language Learners. In Colorado, for example, every student regardless of language status must take the CSAP (state standardized test) in English. So I have one student who just moved from Mexico in October and she had to take CSAP in English. She's really bright and has made amazing strides in just a few months, but she will still almost certainly receive an Unsatisfactory score because her English has not progressed to grade level (of course!). Still, when it comes to our school making their mandated goals, that will still come up as Unsatisfactory. There is nothing to distinguish that this is from a student who just came to the US or the fact that she has made amazing gains in the course of a few months. Schools are basically penalized for having high ELL populations. Then funding is stripped, when the opposite should be happening. And on and on....

Fly Birdman Fly!

Chris Andersen, AKA Birdman, is by far my favorite player on the Denver Nuggets. He is part bad boy part goofiest person ever. At first Whitney couldn't stand him because he's so dang cocky. However, the fact that he is so awkward makes his hard persona endearing.

On the 8th of April I went to the Nuggets game with Dad, Whitney, Vernon and my friends Duncan and Chad. They beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 122-112. Before leaving, Whitney made me a makeshift Birdman mask. Here it is-



Lucky for me, the Andersen had another huge night- snagging 9 boards and blocking a ridiculous seven shots, more than the rest of the team combined. In fact, Andersen is second in the league behind Dwight Howard for the most blocks per game. This is pretty insane considering the fact that he only plays an average of 20 minutes a night. He averages 5.68 blocks per 48 minutes of play, two more than Howard.

Simply type Birdman into youtube and you will come up with countless tribute remixes to him. You'll also see some nasty blocked shots. Here are two of my favorite- this one he is hit in the stomach as he blocks a shot, then recovers and proceeds to get two more consecutive blocks in the same possesion



Then there is the time he swats Rudy Fernandez in the face. Talk about insult to injury.




and here is the Birdman himself-




The guy has had his share of setbacks in life.

Foods that Affect Your Pee Part 1- Beets

The other day I was going to the bathroom and it was all red. I started to freak out until I realized I had eaten a bunch of beets the day before. I remember my English teacher telling the class about this college prank where the Chemistry geeks made an elixir they gave to the jocks which made their pee turn bright blue. The jocks were mortified when they looked at the toilet bowl after they had done their business.

Here is a preliminary research report on things that alter your pee. Right now I'm including things that alters color and smell. I don't think I could do taste or touch and if I could, that would probably push an already kind of gross project over the edge.

If anyone has suggestions on foods I can research, leave a comment.

Beets
As previously mentioned, beets will turn your urine red. According to Wikipedia, "Betacyanin in beetroot may cause red urine in some people who are unable to break it down. This is called beeturia." ^[19] It says that beeturia only affects 10-15% of people. If so, that's crazy!! What?!? Am I in that 15 percentile? I thought it was totally normal. In the On-line Medical Dictionary it says that this happens to iron-deficient people, but can also happen to "normal people." I also found research saying that it might be a genetic disposition. Some people's stomachs can break down the dye, while other people can't. I suppose I could have an iron deficiency, but I have a feeling it's totally normal to have your pee turn red from beets. If I can figure out how to, I'm going to put up a survey. Please answer it! I want to know the answer to this!

Also, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have shown that the red beet-induced urine could help fight cancer! They explain that "beet pigments may boost levels of proteins, called phase II enzymes, that help detoxify potential cancer-causing substances and purge them from the body. " Well that's cool.

More Mystery for the Mystery Tin!

As I was putting the items back in the tin, I discovered this-

The name "Melissa G" written in white-out on the back of the calculator. Of course it wasn't sentimental! It wasn't even mine! This belongs to Melissa G. Ok, now this is extra mysterious because I am wracking my brain and cannot think of a Melissa G I know. There's Melissa Cassut, but that's the only Melissa I can think of. I think there was another Melissa in high school and we actually dated for like on week, but I am almost positive her last name did not start with a G. Maybe it is though? Did she give me her calculator as a sign of affection? Did I borrow it once? We only had Social Studies together...so that wouldn't make sense. Maybe I swiped it after she dumped me. I don't think I'd do that though.