Yesterday, my students and I watch President Obama deliver his speech.  I wasn't really surprised to hear him speak, I didn't mind it.  As far as delivering speeches, President Obama does quite well...but it's all a bunch rhetoric to me. I'm not going to read too far in-between the lines, but I do pray for our nation.  I do respect Obama's quick rise to the most powerful seat of power.  I know it takes so much to be up there.

I did applaud Rick Warren's Invocation.  He was courageous to pray a complete prayer in front of those who would oppose him.  He really showed the world that Christianity is a relationship with God, and with God's perfect sovereign power lives can transform.  He was just being himself up there, praying for our nation, the leadership, Obama, Michelle, and their 2 girls. 

However, one of the big parts that bugged me was how he addressed the entire world (national and global) this line:  "our schools fail students".  My principal also pointed that out to us during our staff meeting yesterday, and I quite frankly held the same belief.  But I held my tongue.  I thought I was the only one with that sentiment! 

I think that it's not always necessarily the schools that fail students.  I think a major part of that equation has to be students fail in schools.  I know countless parents who, for the most part, work with their kids and pay up the whazoo to get their children the private tutors, Sylvan, Kumon...it's not always the school, not always the teacher.  It's also the student who fail!  There are those who do not pay attention to lessons and distract others, who turn in a crappy cross-curricular project that looked like it came from the garbage no matter how many times you revise and translate the rubric and scaffolded the lesson, no matter how many RSP teachers are assigned to that 1 kid, and all the interventions that good schools and good teachers instruct, there are STILL THOSE WHO FAIL and DON'T CARE THAT THEY FAIL!!!!!  I hope people are intelligent enough see the other side of the issue too. 

I work myself exhausted and crazy to help students achieve, and so I take really offense to that!

Sorry President Obama, be fair and make all parties accountable...This ISN'T a one-sided job!

It's not just the schools...

It's not just the teachers....

It's not just the parents....

Sometimes students need to also take part and assume their fair share of the responsibility to avoid academic failure!

God Bless the new President, I'll be praying...

I joked with my students, "You all better thank your lucky stars that I didn't get elected as the U.S. President, and you better pray that I never will!" 

"Why, Mrs U?," They asked. 

I told them, "I am a hard-core, workaholic, ambitious Asian teacher. It would be the end of democracy as you know it if I became the President of our country.  If I were the President of the United States I'd probably let the legislature enact such near-Totalitarian laws such as those students who fail and don't even care to meet progress criteria will be sent automatically sent to war-torn foreign countries that have schools in the poorest conditions.  Those families who don't care that their children come to school year after year with failing grades can have free afterschool intervention classes the first time, but if that student has to repeat the grade level or repeat intervention then their tax refund or wages should be garnished.  We don't need to waste money on such nonsense!"...Just kidding guys!
   

I know that Christmas isn't about the gifts, but would you look at this kid's expression?

What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Getting married.

Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn't keep a New Year's resolution.  My resolution for this year is to maintain good health and keep an eye on my husband's health.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
Two of my girlfriends had baby girls in the summer.

Did anyone close to you die?
No

What countries did you visit?
No countries.  My passport expired.

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Spending more time with my family.

What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory?
July 4th

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Not going deeper into debt.

What was your biggest failure?
Flunking the National Boards.  I've never failed at anything.

Did you suffer illness or injury?
Suffering major injury to my over-inflated ego, maybe.

What was the best thing you bought?
Plane tickets to visit Jenny and Edy in Oahu and trying to surf. 

Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Erwil, who was very supportive of me challenging the NBC's.  It was like the NBC aliens abducted me and put a microchip in my body.  I wasn't the same "Liz" while I was obsessing over those NBC standards and deadlines.

Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
I'd rather not say...pleading the 5th!  Like Fergie, "No, no drama..you don't want no drama!"

Where did most of your money go?
Gas and food

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Starting a new life with Erwil and making future plans together for the next stages.

What song/album will always remind you of 2008?
"Touch My Body" by Mariah Carey.  I used to love Mariah until she started singing these skanky songs!

Compared to this time last year, are you: Happier or sadder?
About the same kind of happy.

Thinner or fatter? Fat, definitely.  I can't fit into my favorite jeans anymore!

Richer or poorer? Just about the same, but with an obligatory mortgage now.

What do you wish you’d done more of?
I wish I had more time to just relax on the weekends and be myself.  I was doing way too much last year!

What do you wish you’d done less of?
Over-programming myself with unneccessary "responsibilities", "obligations" and "meetings".

How did you spend Christmas?
With both my family and my husband's family.

Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Jenny

Did you fall in love in 2008?
Yes

How many one night stands in this last year?
Gross!  None!

What was your favorite TV program?
Jon and Kate Plus 8

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No, I'm not hating anyone.

What was the best book(s) you read?
Sadly, I didn't have time to even read this year.

What was your greatest musical discovery?
Nothing!  Music today sucks!

What did you want and get?
There was nothing I was dying to get this year.

What did you want and not get?
Free time

What were your favorite films of this year?
Dark Knight...who didn't?

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Celebrated for 1 week with Jenny, Edy and Erwil in Oahu, and turned 31.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Getting that time to relax and not be so stressed out over things that don't even matter in heaven.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Lots of loose jersey knit fabrics, flat shoes and comfortable darkwash jeans.

What kept you sane?
My family

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I didn't care for any of them--they're all so fake to me!

What political issue stirred you the most?
Looking at Gov. Arnold and asking, "Is this the best we can do?"...then looking at all the presidential candidates and asking, "Is this really the best that we can do?".

Who did you miss?
No one comes to mind.

Who was the best new person you met?
I think there are a couple neat kids in my class this year with amusing personalities.  I'm glad they're in my class.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
You need to take a break.  Now quit trying to be Super Woman!

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
I hear my father-in-law singing (with a BERY BERY thick Filipino accent) "DEN sings my soul, my Savior God to DEE...".  It's from the hymn "How Great Thou Art".  My father in law sings that song with major vibrato.  He wants to sing it at every big family gathering!  Inside joke between me and my husband.

My husband, who's snoring away in the master bedroom set my digital alarm for 7:30am.  If I don't wake up to it, then my cell phone will rouse me out of sleep.  My Nokia sits on the sink, at the farthest end of the bedroom to force me out of bed.  That will wake me up for sure.  All these alarms are deliberately set to insure that we will arrive on time to Calvary Presbyterian's morning worship service.  But I must blame the 20 ounces of fresh brewed coffee and that Coffeemate French vanilla sweetened creamer from AM/PM Mini Mart.  It's that coffee con creamer that's driving me to update my blog and encapsulate 2008.

I've been given 365 days in the year of 2008, and here I am at 2:30am trying to recall all the things that I've been given this past year.  It would be a lot to read if I wrote every single thing down, so I just picked out the "highlights" of receiving.

What the heck did Liz "get" from 2008?  I'll start with the superficial stuff that I appreciate, at the very least...

1.  At least I got a new last name and title.  My husband gave it to me, along with two circular platinum bands with those shiny stoney things.  My biological-clock-conscious aunties were getting worried for me and the "eggs".  They were conjuring up any method of match-making me with a family friend of a friend, of a friend, of a cousin who might know a single guy doctor or nurse from the Philippines, age 39, who eats with a set of good false teeth, dresses like a Banana Republic model, and sings like Neil Diamond on the Magic Mic.

2.  At least I got a new car, but it's really not that new.  My brother gave it to me.  For sentimental purposes, I didn't unscrew his alma matter UCLA license plate frame off the truck because it reminds me of Elmer and my sister-in-law Karen.  It reminds me to pray for both of them.

3.  At least I totally got rejected from applying for the 3rd grade GATE teaching position.  Good try though.  I'm still stuck at 5th grade, but it's not a bad thing at all.  I really enjoy my 5th graders this year, it makes me look forward to work.  Whoa, did I actually say that I "looked forward" to working with pre-pubescent teens?  At least I can still use every bit of age-appropriate, clean and loving sarcasm to break up the monotony of Open Court basal reading text.

4.  At least I ditched the gargantuan Filipino family wedding that I blue-printed and published in my teenage diary, back in good old 1993.  Instead, my husband and I lived through a tiny wedding ceremony with complete happiness and satisfaction.

5.  At least I gained on some weight and a few pimples still, but I've got a clean bill of health, good teeth and no gray hair.  On the day of the Christmas church program that my husband and I narrated for, my skin broke out with 3 pimples.  Born were those perfect pimple triplets, that if you connected together would make an equilateral triangle--one for the Father, one for the Son, one for the Holy Spirit...oh the Lord has a way of humbling me out of vanity.

6.  At least I moved 30-50 minutes away from work, depending on how everyone else drives.  It's a huge change from my cozy 5-minute commute.  It hurts to wake up at 5am in the stinkin' cold, dewy mornings and then drive home to tiresome strings of traffic.  I invested in a pair of driving gloves and a long-reaching squeegee to squeegee-off what windshield wipers won't.  I even made 7-Eleven convenient store $288 conveniently richer for my daily subscription to their regular hot coffee.  Then again, I gained an appreciation for my conversations with the Lord and look forward to His Word.  Whenever I have "too much" free time, it seems like I lack the discipline to make time for God and my loved ones.  I take heed to that incessant alarm that tells me, "Don't waste time, for time is precious".

7.  At least I was "legally adopted" by another Filipino family--my father, mother, sisters and brother in-law.  My husband has many siblings, nephews and nieces.  They at least they feed me two plates full with some food to take back home in Tupperware.  Home cooked food is useful for those lazy Sundays when I, the newbie wife, have to catch up on chores and errands.  I am accepted and embraced by my husband's side of the family.  It makes it so nice that he's the "baby" of the family, I get to experience what it's like for a change.  It didn't take too long for them to figure out that I love orange soda too much.  So I'm quickly rewarded with a cold can of Sunkist or Orange Fanta whenever I visit their home for lunch or dinner!  Man, I'm so spoiled!

I can only think of 6 major things that stand out in my mind.  I know there's more to write, but my energy tank is just about near empty and ready to crash from that caffeine high.

More importantly, I ask myself (in third-person voice), "Liz, have you done a lot more giving this past year?".  That can only be answered in my next blog, when I get a chance to log in to Xanga.