I know I have devoted a lot of time to discussing the trials and struggles I have faced teaching in a low-income school. While so many of the moments I deal with at school each day are heart-breaking, I am also realizing that there are MANY moments that are heart-warming. My students face so many challenges on a day to day basis, and yet they spread so much joy to so many people. Despite their awful behavior, sometimes horrible choices and tough skins, they are just as sweet and kind as any of the other students I have taught.  I think we have a love-hate relationship. I hate their crazy behavior, but I love the people that they are and the potential they hold.

The cold weather in Spokane has been an adjustment for me personally, but also another new experience in teaching at a Title 1 School. I was shocked to see children walking to school in 8 degree weather with SHORTS on and a hoodie. No gloves, no hats, broken zippers, over sized sweatshirts. It just about ripped my heart out. One boy, in particular, nearly brought me to tears. He speaks almost no English, and he was waiting in line for the bus with no coat, snow boots with no socks, and shorts on. He looked up at me with his eyes watering from the cold and bright red cheeks and gave me a huge smile. I had just spent the past few minutes complaining about how cold I was to another teacher while wearing my winter coat, gloves and scarf, and he was smiling despite the bitter cold. Yet again, I found myself confronted with a cold, harsh dose of perspective, and I will never forget it.  He gave me another huge smile and wave as he got on the bus that warmed my whole heart.

This weekend I will be stocking my classroom with spare gloves, hats, and mittens to distribute to the children that come completely under-dressed for the weather. It’s not much, but it’s something. For tonight, I plan to stay cooped up in my warm house, which now means so much more to me than it ever did before. I  hope that you and all of my students are somewhere warm, too.

Love you all,
K

Yeah wyoming hotshots are here! The fire behind the house is mostly out, slurry bombers in air and smoke is clearing around me. Now if anyone wants to hear about my 3 hour hike to get home…

That’s our Uncle Doug’s post from Facebook. We’ve since learned that the house was directly targeted by at least one slurry bomber as Doug was fighting back the fires coming down the hill. For the time being, it looks as if the home that Anna’s grandfather built from scratch has made it through the worst of it…

In a little bit of tech support serendipity, the front desk at Bowhaus had recently posted a plea for help – $100 credit for whomever can help get their web cams back online. Seems that, with an ISP change and resulting IP address changes, the good folk at Bowhaus have been beset with anxious owners unable to pull up the web cams. So guess how I spent a bit of my Saturday, and guess who gets a free ride at Bowhaus next week?

Turns out, just as I was sitting down to really dig into how to do this Lifehacker posts up the exact process.

A word of warning: I attempted this on a Windows 7 machine and couldn’t get RecBoot to work. Luckily, I was able to download the Intel Mac version of it and kick my iPhone out of recovery mode using the Mac version of RecBoot. My phone was then seen as a new phone, I chose to restore from a backup I’d made back in April, and finally sync’d it up with iTunes (making sure to opt out of the iOS4 upgrade again!).

Way to go, guys! :thumbsup:

via Jalopnik:

Tyler Shipman loves Pontiac Fieros so much he posed for his senior picture with one he bought for $150. Weeks later he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He’d need a miracle to finish his project car.

And boy, did that miracle show up in a big way. Watch the video above for the story.