On blogging and filters

Last semester I asked my four English composition students to create blogs on Blogger.com. They use them as writing journals. It hasn't been the most successful venture, since they can't create new posts at school because of the school-wide internet filter. The filter blocks sites that have potential inappropriate content for students. Of course, Blogger.com is one of those sites. My students can create new posts on my school computer, which has less filtering, or on their home computers. Unlike me, my students have lives outside of school, so that creating blog posts is not high on their priority lists. Obviously, it would be ideal if they could post at school.

After talking to my principal, our local part-time tech person, and the folks at TwoTrees (the company that maintains our filter software), I sent my students' blogspot addresses to TwoTrees so the filter could allow their blogs to pass through. The company were also supposed to lift the filter on Blogger.com, which is just for posting and maintaining blogs; it's the blogspot domain that needs to be filtered. So far, despite hopeful emails from TwoTrees, my students are still unable to log on to Blogger for posting. So I guess it's back to the drawing board.

It takes so much time and patience to deal with these technological issues. So far, I've spent my entire weekend grading and planning. I understand why teachers get discouraged sometimes.

Pictures from last Rachel's visit in October

Here is Rachel with Paul, as well as a photo of the San Juans that we took on a drive to Montrose during Rachel's visit. Guatemala is lovely, but I also live on a beautiful part of the planet.

My classroom isn't looking too bad

Here's one of my students, the lovely Krystal, in my classroom, which is looking a lot more interesting since Rachel visited and put up posters. The Mark Twain poster with callout quotations was one of Rachel's innovations. I have some new tables now, and Dad sent me some very useful items like a some pencil sharpeners and a great three-hole punch (the nicest one in the school). Some generous community members also bought me colored paper and new whiteboard markers for Christmas. I'm working on creating and posting more grammar-oriented posters (lists of prepositions, lists of transitional words and phrases, etc.). All in all, my classroom is looking pretty good.

View from Panajachel

This is the only picture I took on our Panajachel adventure (problems with my camera). Mom, Rachel and I took the boat to see our friends Ted and Kathryn and to visit their beautiful new house. Paul didn't go because he said the water on the Lake would be too rough; the wind had built up overnight and it was quite breezy that morning. Well, he was right. The boat ride to Pana was horrendous! We were pounding against waves as soon as we left Santiago; the Indian sitting near Mom casually observed that the waves out on the Lake were even larger. Which was also true. Rachel and Alba, a young neighbor of Mom and Paul, sat in front and warned us all when larger waves were coming. There was a Spanish family aboard, and the woman sitting next to Mom gripped her hand the whole time. Picture the boat rising over a five-to-ten-foot crest and then crashing down on the other side (my head hit the ceiling several times). It seemed like a minor miracle that the boat didn't just tear to pieces! Fortunately, the waves weren't quite as bad as we approached Pana.

So when you look at this picture with its beautiful blue water and the volcanoes across Lake Atitlan, think of us passengers with our shaky legs, grateful to be on solid ground!

Little Mayan boy

Not a huge smile on this little boy, but the Tzutuhil have gorgeous teeth and perfectly formed dental arches. Makes me wonder about the American diet. Maybe living on ground cornmeal tortillas (they grind them fresh every day) and beans is pretty healthy.

Rooftop photo shoot

View from Las Milpas

Here's Casa Balbin as seen from a neighbor's yard.

Pablo's Pub

This year Paul opened his neighborhood restaurant, serving the Tzanchichan community. Specials include fish (mahi-mahi) and chips, pizza with homemade Italian sausage, and stir-fried vegetables. Paul's portable wok, which runs on propane, works like a charm, and his small electric pizza oven turns out perfectly browned pizzas. The patio is built around a large fruit tree (some unusual tropical tree I can't remember the name of).

Views of San Pedro

San Pedro is often veiled in clouds, especially in the afternoon.
The volcano looks greener this year; the gouges from last year's mudslides have filled in with vegetation.
In the bottom photo, behind Rachel you can see the women washing clothes at the edge of the lake.

Casa Balbin: Entrance to upstairs apartment

La jardin de Casa Balbin

Casa Balbin: Thatched roof

Paul complained to me that there aren't enough pictures of their new house on my blog, so I tried to take more photos during our visit.
One of the new features since last year is the lovely thatched roof over both patios. They provide shade and are waterproof. Mom says they last about five years before they need to be redone. Santiago was once filled with these grass roofs, but one year a fire burned them all down.

Bananas!

Mom has been drying banana slices to preserve this year's bumper crop. There are at least seven bunches on the trees, in various stages of development. The one beside Rachel and Ginger is hanging in the upstairs bedroom, ripening.
The flower blooms below the bunch. Mom says bananas don't grow from seeds anymore; they've been under cultivation for too long, or something like that. The new leaves aren't segmented or serrated--it's the wind that gives them their characteristic ragged look. Since the banana trees have been such a success, Mom wants to grow plantains now.