December Debauchery

I have a bit of a headache at the moment so I'm sorry if the quality of this post is not up to snuff. I really wanted to get one done before my next trip; more on that later. Here goes:

I have been absolutely killing it at work lately. In the teaching profession that means that my students have shown growth in their assessments. This past month I've been planning my ass off for them and it's really paid off for all of us. I've even had my lessons "stolen" by other teachers and they told me how well they went in their classes. I put stolen in quotes because we are a very collaborative team and we share lessons and materials with each other constantly. But this month I felt like a teaching rock star. Some stuff we've done:

• Cause and Effect twitter: I gave each student a tweet that had either a cause or an effect on it and they had to walk around the room and find the partner with the matching cause or effect and then put it on a class chart. For example one student got a tweet that read, "I felt really sick today" and another one got "My mom had to take me to see the doctor." They matched them and then had to figure out which one was cause and which was effect. I also made this sweet anchor chart for them. 

When in doubt, teach using video game examples. 

• We had our summative assessment for our unit on the production cycle/states of matter. This is called Market Day. While the students were learning about the production cycle, they had to create a product to sell at the school to all of the elementary students. Grades 1-3 visited throughout the day. All the profits went to a rehabilitation center, which the students are going to visit on a field trip later on in the year so they can see how their donation was spent. We ended up donating 7,000TL which is about $3,500 USD- not bad for a bunch of fourth graders! While developing their product they made posters describing the process and had to use vocabulary such as "raw material" or "solid" to link the science of states of matter to the social studies unit of the production cycle. It was a really cool project. I had nothing to do with this idea- I just wanted to talk about it because the students did a fabulous job with it. 

Selling their wares!

Love the tip jar!

• I leveled all the books in our class library (this involves looking up every book on the internet and writing the level on the book) which took a REALLY long time. Now all the students can pick books on their own and just see if it's the same level as what they're reading at (I told them all their reading levels). They were really bad at picking books before- I had kids reading at a second grade level picking out fifth grade books because they liked the cover. They would just kind of flip through the book and if I asked them what it was about they had no clue because they couldn't understand half the words. Now they can pick books on their own with no problems- hooray!
• I also made book clubs based on the students reading levels. There are 4 groups and I assigned each group a book to read. Then I found/made (some I found online, some I had to make) an activity packet for each book and gave it to the students to start in class, and finish the book and packet over Christmas break. This is not nearly as simple as it sounds but for brevity's sake I'll leave it at that. 
• I had the students write a summary for me about their favorite movie using the 5 Ws (what, where, when, why, who) and the summaries were absolutely TERRIBLE. So then I made a graphic organizer that asked them for more details by asking questions like, "what did the characters want? What was the problem? How did the problem get resolved?" and the summaries of the same movie were SO MUCH BETTER! I couldn't believe the same kids had even written them. They made their own rubric to grade each other and we had a great share session. 

Working on their summaries!

• During math this unit we are doing fractions, which always seems to be a challenge for kids (hell, for adults too). I showed them fractions using legos on the computer using a program called Build With Chrome. Students love legos, lemme tell ya. This program is amazing because you can use google maps as your base plate and build your own cities! Honestly I love fractions, so I can't wait to continue this after the break!

On a random note, my students keep bringing in Rubik's Cubes. I have to confiscate them ALL THE TIME. It's driving me nuts. What is this, the 80s?

Yes that's my My Little Pony mug back there. I guess it is sort of the 80s. 

Friday, December 5th was not only Market Day, but also my birthday! I am now 31 years old. Market Day at school was a blast, and they even served an awesome lunch at school that day. All the teachers eat the school lunch, or at least the salad bar. Some things they serve are manti (turkish ravioli topped with garlic yogurt and tomato sauce), meatballs, stew, stuffed eggplant, and other stuff you really don't see in American schools. On my birthday it was stuffed chicken, carrots that are tempura style with yogurt on the side (yogurt is very big here) and baklava for dessert. There is always a little dessert and baklava day is always my favorite dessert day. My baklava consumption levels have increased quite dramatically since moving to Turkey. The dish on the top right is one of my absolute favorites- actually it's a lot of people's favorite. They have it at the salad bar about 2 or 3 times a week and the kids always get mounds of it. It's called bulgur pilavi and it's bulger wheat cooked with tomato paste, various spices, spring onion, and I'm not sure what else. It's a famous Turkish side dish and one that has different variations depending on where you are in Turkey. My co-workers told me to try it and make sure to top it with pomegranate syrup (this is kept at the salad bar and it's a standard Turkish condiment). Once I tried it I never looked back- so nice. 

After school my friends and I were ready to start our road trip to Cappadocia. I had told my friends weeks ago that I'd really like to go somewhere for my birthday and Cody, the one with the car, suggested Cappadocia. He showed me a bunch of pictures he'd taken on his previous trips and I thought it looked pretty cool. Our motley crew consisted of myself, Kristen, Cody, his girlfriend Ceren, (pronounced Jaren), and Carlos- otherwise known as Team 106, or the 106 Crew (more on that later). Kristen has been once before and it was Cody's fourth time; only Carlos and I had never been before.

Cappadocia is absolutely amazing. Before I post pictures I think it's important to share my first impression. After we all settled into our hotel we were strolling down the street and I kept looking up at all these rock formations and I remarked, "pictures really don't do it justice, do they?" and all my friends vehemently agreed. It was like when I saw Michelangalo's David in Florence when I was 16; I knew what it looked like because I had seen so many pictures, but when I saw it up close it was so shockingly grand in scale and detail- I was in awe. That's what Cappadocia is like for me. I highly recommend visiting if you come to Turkey. Carlos said Cappadocia reminded him of a town in Spain he'd been to and I said, "I think the reason I'm so awestruck is because it's like nothing I've ever seen before." 

From Lonely Planet:"Cappadocia is a geological oddity of honeycombed hills and towering phallic boulders of otherworldly beauty. Fashioned through lashings of volcanic ash, moulded by millennia of rain and river flow, this fantastical topography is equally matched by the human history here."

The view when we arrived at our cave hotel. 

We stayed in a cave hotel which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

My awesome cave room!

We went out the first night and had a blast eating, talking, laughing, and dancing to Turkish songs. There's an unofficial "Ankara song" that we know the dance to (you hold hands and kind of dance around in a circle to a 1-2-3-kick! beat) and we always have a ball when that comes on. It's our crew's jam. 

Dancing down the street because why walk when you can DANCE?

I love this picture (above). One of my personal maxims has been, "I have no time for boring people." But I think Jack Kerouac really hit it on the head when he wrote this in On The Road:

"They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'"

For me, that picture above really gives that quote a weighty reality. I think I could write 50 pages about how much I love my friends. Not only my friends here, but all the friends I have in my life. From the ones I've known since my teen years, like Daniel who now has his Doctorate from the University of Columbia with his thesis titled "EBEX: a balloon-borne telescope for measuring cosmic microwave background polarization," to my girlfriends I made in Korea who got together for Champagne Thursdays, I am always filled with pride when I think of how all my friends are interesting, fun, talented, accomplished, incredible people. My new friends here are no exception. But let's get back to Cappadocia before I get REALLY sentimental. 

On Saturday we went to go look at pottery and get our hands dirty by actually making our own. The shop was really cool and the man there was nice. Cody had been there before so he knew the drill. It was extra fun to go to Cappadocia with people that had been before and could decide what to do that they already knew was fun instead us all staring at each other doing the whole, "what do you want to do? I don't know what do you want to do?" nonsense. 

Yes- a hair museum. Keep reading. 

The demonstration. 

The pottery wheel was weird because we all had to kick it ourselves to get it going. So while you're kicking this wheel to try and make it go as fast as you can, you're trying to put your hands on your slimy ball of clay and actually make it into something. It was entertaining. 

What do I dooooo?!

Trying to make a vase. 

My pottery turned out pretty crummy but I had a ball giving it the ol' college try. Everyone took a turn and then we checked out the wares. I really liked the stuff there and everyone got some sort of gifts for family back home- except me because I don't think my mom would have a place to put this stuff and I don't think it's my sister's taste and my brother... What would I get him? A bowl? Andy, if you need a bowl, goblet, or plate, let me know and next time I'm in Cappadocia I'll be happy to get one for you. I got some sweet coasters and a bowl- score. 

Plates!

I got a pretty green bowl. 

You have chosen... wisely. 

The shop owner kept telling us to visit the Hair Museum, to which we were confused but we tentatively agreed by muttering"....okay...." It was this long creepy cave full of strands of hair and note cards of who the hair was from. It looked like something out of a movie where an insane killer keeps mementos of all his victims. Except there were THOUSANDS. The owner asked if we wanted to contribute, and I was the only one. I took some hair from the back and  squirmed ("ohgodmybeautifulHAIR") as he cut off a chunk.

This isn't even HALF of the hair museum. 

This is the part of the movie where the investigator sees the name of the missing person and screams, "NOOOOO!"

We also went hiking around. I'm getting a little more head-achy and sleepy so here are some pictures to tell more about the day:

The tree below is full of what's known as nazar boncuğu. These are little amulets that are supposed to protect you from the "evil eye." It's basically a cute little good luck charm that you see all over the place in Turkey. I have one as a refrigerator magnet. 

The crew.

Spot the kitty!

Love the Turkish flag. 

Dinner is always an adventure. The boys got the clay pot deal- this is where your dish is cooked in a sealed clay jar and the waiter breaks it open at your table. 

Omnoms.

After dinner there was a lot of wine and more Turkish dancing. Much fun and frivolity was had. The following day we enjoyed our Turkish breakfast and took off to explore an underground city where Christians lived in the 8th century- I'm not giving history lessons here so if you want to know more just google it. I'm sorry but I'm getting quite sleepy and technically I'm on Winter Break so I'm not in teacher-mode at the moment. The quality of my entry is about to take a nose-dive here, people.

Trying to enjoy my Turkish breakfast while Carlos snaps his damn camera away. 

Quintessential stray cat shots:

Kitties!

MORE KITTIES!!!!

Team 106

Kristen: "yay,  a grave! I'm going to lie down in it!"

Carlos looking SHOCKED.

Exploring. 

We also went to a place called Ihlara Valley. From Wikipedia: "What makes the valley unique is the ancient history of its inhabitants. The whole canyon is honeycombed with rock-cut underground dwellings and churches from the Byzantine period built by the Cappadocian Greeks. These local people were forced to leave the area and move to Greece in the 1923 Population exchange between Turkey and Greece."

This sign is fantastic. It has the lousiest English translation I've seen in Turkey so far. It's like they just pushed the "google translate" button and just went with it without anyone reading it first. If you go through all this trouble to make this big fancy sign and map, why wouldn't you have an English speaker actually read it? It's not like there is a shortage of those here. 

You gotta love how it just ends at "and." It did not continue on the other side of this large sign- it actually just ended with "and." 

What I call the "fancy camera club." They kind of made me want a fancy camera of my own, to be quite honest. 

Workin' it. 

#flawless

To end writing about my trip, here is a quintessential road trip picture:

Kristen looks like she's gracefully fainted from all the excitement. Someone get her salts!

The rest of my month went something like this: work Christmas party, 

Carlos and Cody went as the Wet Bandits from Home Alone- makeup done by yours truly. 

More Turkish dancing!

wedding, 

The bride and groom and friends

I made a flower crown with the daisies on the table. 

I ordered the fish for the wedding dinner and got this. It was really good!

and school "Welcome Winter" celebration. The teachers all did secret Santa (I got some chocolate, wine glasses, and wine and gave cookies and a Starbucks gift card to the high school art teacher) and the kids did the same and exchanged this last Friday as part of the celebration. We had a great time all coming to school in our PJs and loading up on sugar. 

Soooo many treats. Probably why I have a headache now. 

Chaos reigned. 

Now it is officially Winter Break which means I don't go back to work until January 5th! Tomorrow Kristen and I are leaving for Munich. We will explore the Christmas markets for a few days, then head to Frankfurt where I have tickets to see Hansel und Gretel at the Frankfurt Opera House on Christmas night. After that I am meeting up with a German friend in Wurzburg, who is going to show me around before taking me to his hometown, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, where I've been invited to stay in his and his girlfriends guest room for a few nights. Then I head to Munich to celebrate the new year by going on a pub crawl I got tickets for. Then back to Ankara. WHEW. Bring on the next adventure!