Row row row your boat!

I rowed in my first race last Saturday! Whoo-hoo! It was a boathouse scrimmage, so it was pretty low key, but since it was the first race for most of us in the boat, I think we were all pretty amped up.
You can see me in the stern of the boat in the neon yellow cycling jacket. I was sitting in what is known as the 8 or "stroke" seat. Everyone has to watch me for the right pace/timing, which was pretty stressful for a race. (Although it was also motivating for me to get back into pre-grad school shape....) The race was definitely type 2 fun; I felt like I was going to die at one point, but in the end it was pretty awesome. (just like our coach told us :)
Hopefully Pete will be able to finish up his coursework soon so we can go sculling together! Yaaa!

Almost there...!

I finished my two final papers today! Emailed one, and hand in the other tomorrow.

Just had to try on this fancy get-up to make sure it fit. The sleeves are very silly.

Pete Heart Roller Skating

Remember elementary school birthday parties?
At UW you can relive them in one of the IMA gyms, complete with rockin' music and crazy skilled skaters with some smooth skating moves... kind of like Pete.

From the snow to the beach: Olympic National Park

We enjoyed exploring Olympic National Park and Port Angeles over Memorial Day weekend. We were lucky to have sun on Saturday and Sunday... although the coast was still covered in clouds. (It almost seems more beautiful and wild that way.)
The bed and breakfast we stayed at was also excellent... a wake up call with tea and coffee in the hallway and an AMAZING breakfast!
Thanks Mom & Dad Zim!
P.S. Pete also mentions he had a good burger on Saturday. :)

It's genetic...

May 7th... and I'm hard at work finishing my Master's exam.
Writing almost 30 pages is definitely equivalent to doing a thesis project.
Note the work style... piles everywhere. It's genetic. :)

Hurricane Katrina Curriculum

Today I attended the west coast launch of "Teaching The Levees" curriculum, hosted by the UW Center for Multicultural Education and UW-Bothell Education program. The curriculum uses Spike Lee's documentary about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as a text to address social and racial issues and encourage "democratic dialogue and civic engagement." I have only seen an excerpt from the film, but the message is very powerful and speaks to the racial and social inequities that many have ignored.
The launch was accompanied by a panel discussion including Walter C. Parker --UW-Seattle, Margaret Smith Crocco -- Teachers College, Columbia University (editor of the curriculum guide), Michael Honey --UW-Tacoma (author of Going Down Jericho Road about MLK, Jr.'s last campaign), and Joy Ann Williamson -- UW-Seattle. The most compelling thought, to me, came from Joy Ann Williamson when she shared an analogy from a book (if I remember correctly) she is reading entitled The Children Hurricane Katrin a Left Behind. The premise was that there is a difference between charity and justice.While the boy in the story was saving starfish that washed up on the beach by coming every day and throwing as many as he could back in, he was not addressing the real problem, which is why are the starfish washing up on the beach in the first place? Charity is helpful, but more importantly, to make lasting change one must find the root of the problem and fix it.

Thought provoking reading

Last Friday night Pete and I went to see Ellen Brantlinger speak about her book Dividing Classes. While I have so far only read the preface, her ideas about the middle class utilizing school advantage to continue social class reproduction and ensure success for their children at the expense of others is highly personal and engaging.

In addition to Brantlinger's book, I have also read George Lipzitz's book called The Possessive Investment in Whiteness for one of my classes. (Both are the UW College of Education Common Books, and are the focus of many classes and seminars.) Growing up in racially segregated St. Louis, I feel I have always known that racial discrimination is very much alive and well, but Lipsitz thoroughly digs into the real proof of court cases, blatant government officials refusing to enforce or follow equal housing and employment laws, and even how whites romanticize and trivialize African American contributions to the arts. A must-read if you are to seriously dialogue about race.