Sandy Davenport

News Update

I'm not a big one for videos. Unless they're 30 seconds of cute kitten awesomeness, I rarely click through. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe because I can't skim through a video and I'm just too lazy to site there and watch the whole thing. Maybe I like the visual impact of a still photo. Maybe the cringe potential is too high. That said, here's a video of Michael solving a puzzle. Zero cringing, I promise. 

The Binghamton University glossy show-offy research spotlight magazine produced this as a supplement to a forthcoming article (which will include a puzzle constructed by Michael.) The zany music really makes it special.

 

 

The Evening News

Even though we aren't farmers, Michael and I live a rather seasonally predictable life. In the winter we walk the dogs in the snowy woods. In the Spring we plant vegetables. In the Summer we ride our bikes and take vacations. In the Fall we go back to school. Which is why I don't post as often as I might - how many times do you need to see a photo of Ella helping me shovel the sidewalk, after all?

So, when stuff like this happens, it is tremendously exciting. One of the major network weekend evening national news shows came to the house last night to film Michael talking about crosswords for an end-of-the-hour human interest story. This morning they went to the University to see him teach. We'll let you know when it airs, but given how many times they delayed coming to Binghamton in the first place (as you do), it might be a while.
I wish I'd been bold enough to move in closer and taken the time to get a better photo, but it felt kind of intrusive. Yes, I see the irony, given that they're pointing two giant cameras at Michael. 

 

Ancestors

One of Michael's aunts sent him some links to a trove of Sharp family genealogy. Including this wonderful photo of Charles E. Sharp Jr, Michael's grandfather.
 If you know Michael, then this shot is kind of stunning for the resemblance. Someone has done A LOT of work on some branches of the family, and we had fun following the links back to an ancestor born on Long Island in the mid-seventeenth century, so now a tour of Suffolk County graveyards appears to be in our future. Oh, and there was a great-something grandmother called Experience Davis.  Such a great colonial name, and not totally shocking that she produced descendants who spent decades as missionaries in Korea. Charles above was born in Seoul in 1906. 

Feeling Teachery

In case you've forgotten, some of my students want to be teachers and I send them into classrooms to observe and shadow. Then they come back and we talk about it all. It is kind of cool that my job is to talk about how to do my job. I have lots of opinions about what makes for good teaching, but today I just want to share a comment from one of my girls,- that when she was working one-on-one with a particular 7th grader in a special education class, it made her feel "teachery."  She meant a combination of important and useful. There's this paradox, contradiction, whatever you call it, in teaching, when you have to love being the center of attention, but you also have to give up your ego because in the end it isn't about you at all, it is all about whether your student learned anything. You can't fight with students, you can't get upset when they take paths different from yours. You just try to give them the structure, space, and tools to figure it all out for themselves. 

This photo is me making teaching all about me. We're looking at my class website and I'm pointing to, yes, a picture of me.

Time! Marches On

Yesterday was Ella's first performance with the Binghamton Youth Symphony Junior Orchestra. She plays the violin and sits right next to her excellent friend, Teresa. They met when they were 4 years old, at the Susquehanna School summer program, and despite going to different schools from 2nd grade on, they've stayed friends through a shared interest in Harry Potter, horses, music, and the Kopernik Science Center.  

We've sat through many concerts over the years, and some of them have been quite excrutiating, so it was a pleasant surprise how good this one was. It's nice to see all her work start to pay off. The most amazing and unexpected thing was the 12 year old concertmistress who absolutely tore up a Tchaikovsky violin concerto. It was a caliber of performance I never expected to see at the West Middle School auditorium, and I got almost teary when she got a well-deserved standing O.

And I know it might sound a bit corny, but all through the concert I kept thinking about the teachers who started these kids off. You know, like Ms Fisher at Thomas Jefferson Elementary who patiently gives 3rd graders their first violin lessons and does all that ground work so the later teachers can have fun with them.

 

 

 

 

And like Lizabeth. Here she is playing with Teresa and Ella back in 2007. Holy. Shit. They're So Little.

Climate Change

I woke up this morning to thunder and torrential rain. By daybreak it had turned to nasty wet slippery snow. One of my students spun off the road on the way in to school, which meant a whole lot of phone calls. It happens a couple of times a year - they're new drivers, and I'm just thankful I've never had to deal with anything more serious.

But overall this has been a scarily mild winter. Seriously, we're freaked out by what it might mean. I even went running last week in capri leggings instead of the usual two layers of pants. At this rate we will be able to retire to Minneapolis and not have to worry about the brutal cold in our old bones. 

Pre-teen

Well, Ella's been a tween for a bit now, and she's started getting pretty practiced at The Look, The Eye-Roll, and The Sigh. Here's a version of The Look:

The End of the Diner Project

I am officially closing down the Greater Binghamton Diner Project, which, as you might have noticed, has been in decline for some time. But not because we're sick of diners. On the contrary, we have found our favorite and simply see no need to go any where else. The Broadway Diner on Watson Blvd in Endwell, stands head and shoulders above the rest. They know what well done home fries should look like, they never mess up the eggs, the owners and staff are all nice without being over the top, and the decor is a perfect blend of Broadway musical posters and signed photographs of famous Greek-Americans. 

We went there with Donna this very morning: 

And I wore my Kale tee that Michael gave me for Christmas. It is not the most flattering photo of me ever, but at least you can read my shirt:

 

The "It'll Do" Tree

Why go to all the hassle of carting a huge tree home from the woods when you can pick up a table-top one from the supermarket? We had to be selective about which ornaments to use - not too many, not too heavy, only the really special ones. And just one string of lights necessary. I think we've started a winning tradition here. 
These next two are specially for Nana, who we think is still in Idaho taking care of Gigi. 

     

Merry Christmas, everyone. 

Riding In My Car

It must be Dog Week here.

These are both pretty self-explanatory, right?

You can see in the background how winter is creeping up. We haven't had much snow yet, but the leaves are down and the grey skies are here.