Long Time No See

Hey guys. How is every body doing? Well i thought i could post something real quick. I'm stuck at the library so i really dont have anything to do. But some summer im having. It has not been too exiting. The blazers though have had a good past two weeks. I recently(last satuday) heard that they signed Andre Miller to a deal so im pretty exited about that. I dont know what i would do with 21 MILLION GREEN BUCKS. Maybe have em all be $100 bills and roll around naked in em. But anyway im ready for school even though its a month away. Ill miss Mr. Fritz though. And the music that blares from his speakers.

Now What?

John and I, at his wedding last weekend in Gold Beach! Photo by my dad, Steven Fritz
Hello all!

Let's see, since the last time I wrote to you, I have:

1) Went to aforementioned wedding in Gold Beach.
2) Finished Lewis and Clark's Masters in Teaching Program - school is finally out for me!
3) Played tennis 5 consecutive days in a row.
4) Beat "Minesweeper" on Expert difficulty 9 times, with the current record at 184 seconds. EDIT: Right after posting this, I beat it twice more, lowering my best time to 182 seconds!
5) Continued to watch "Planet Earth" on DVD - I just finished the "Jungles" section.
6) Contemplated what the heck I am going to do next year roughly one thousand times.

That about sums it up! I had really forgotten how boring summer can be without anything planned to do! Basically, I have been sitting inside, finishing up the last few odds and ends for Lewis and Clark, and trying to stay out of the heat. Really, the only solid thing on my schedule right now is Jury Duty, which is next Monday, the 27th.

Of course, I do have a ton of other things to do as well - namely, preparing essay answers to all the school districts application questions: Beaverton alone has FIVE. The hard thing about those is that since there are no jobs open, it is difficult to tell which I should be concentrating on doing first (and thus, I have a lack of motivation to do them). Ugh, I can never win!

Here are some fun pictures from recent events for you all:


Another great one by my dad - we liked this one so much that we are making a print and giving it to the Trauts (our next door neighbors, remember) as a present.

At almost every wedding I go to, I like to take a black and white photo of the first dance. It just seems so classy!

On the way back to Portland, we stopped at the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. Here are some mean looking bison, staring down my car!

Finally, here is a picture of my friends Jessica, Alexis, and me from the Lewis and Clark graduation party this last Thursday. If you have a fantastic memory, you will recall that Jessica gave me the Santa Claus/Muslim hat/beard lesson, and that Alexis gave me the ball of yarn connecting us all activity. Two awesome ladies - I am sad to no longer have classes with them!
Okay, I am off to go play some more tennis (though my hand and arms are starting to feel the effects of so much play)! Let me know what you guys are up to! Also, check out the new poll, which I will use to coordinate my posts on here! Hope all is well!

I'm Officially a Licensed Teacher!

Proof that I am, in fact, licensed to teach in the State of Oregon! You can access this same page (and any other teacher that you have ever had in Oregon) at this website: Teacher Standards and Practices Commission - License Inquiry (you don't have to know anything other than their last name). Pretty cool, huh?
Hello wonderful former students!

I hope and trust that everyone had another great week. I am down to my last week at Lewis and Clark, and even though I technically haven't graduated yet, I did receive my teaching license in the mail this week! Very exciting times, though it may not do me much good because there has been a grand total of TWO jobs in the State of Oregon posted for High School Social Studies this summer so far to apply to. Still haven't heard back from either of them. Bad times to be a new teacher - but as I said to you all many times this year, I am confident that is will all work out somehow, and plus, there is absolutely nothing that could top teaching you guys! :-)

In fact, funny story: last year on this day, July 10th, 2008, I had my first ever meeting with Mrs. DeFrance and Mrs. Ashdown, where they interviewed me to determine if I would be a good fit for Westview. I got the word back from Lewis and Clark about an hour after the interview - they loved me, and I was in! Fast forward to now, and I cannot believe what an amazing year it was! Way too fast, if you ask me.

So yes, anyway, I am officially done with my Masters Degree requirements next Wednesday at 5:00 PM. That is when my last class gets out. However, it seems like an incredibly tall task to get there! Here's a sampling of the work that is due for me this next week:

1) Memorize three pages of Mock Trial testimony for Monday. Mr. Sanderson has us arguing a sexual harassment case and I am supposed to be the expert witness - a clinical psychologist. I've never memorized lines from a script before, so this will be interesting!

2) Teach lesson on why the economy completely collapsed last year. This is actually incredibly interesting, even though it is very complex. Because even us teachers have a hard time understanding it all, Mr. Copley (he came in to visit Period 1 one day, remember) had us all read the transcripts to these NPR programs which do a phenomenal job of breaking it all down. It is a little much, but if you are curious as to what the heck is going on and why the government had to bail the banks out and all of that, I would highly recommend this. Just incredible.

This American Life - Episode #355 - The Giant Pool of Money.

This American Life - Episode #365 - Another Frightening Show About the Economy.

The link to listen is the orange button next to "Full Episode" on the left side.

3) Remake my old lesson plans on either Rwanda or Nigeria to accommodate ESL learners better. This an assignment from the English Language Learner class I am taking. Basically, I have to redo 3 of my old lessons to do better at reaching everyone in the class.

4) Mr. Sanderson has us doing a curriculum development project, which involves creating an entirely new unit for the future. Mine is on teaching the Fourth Amendment - Search and Seizure. You guys would love it, I am sure! :-)

5) Write up reflections and thoughts on economic reading and discussion. Two to three pages.

And that isn't even all of it! You can see why I have been super busy! I will be even more busy this weekend, because tomorrow (Saturday) morning, I am heading down to Gold Beach, Oregon for my childhood best friend's wedding. It is a 6 hour drive, and my entire family is going down and spending the night, as my friend, John Traut, has been my next door neighbor for 19 years. Remember JTrizzOut from the music video? Here's a picture of me and him a couple of years ago:


From left to right, Clarke Miller, Ryan Bowen (speaking of Ryan, you should be delighted to hear that the organization he is working with over in Rwanda, Play for Hope, just won a $10,000 grant! woo hoo!), Tarah (John's soon to be wife), John, and me.
Super exciting, but it also means that I have to be memorizing script the entire drive down! Lots to do! I can't wait to finally be able to take some pictures - it has been way too long since I have had the opportunity to! I will try to post some of them if they turn out good. Until then, everyone seriously needs to be checking out Mary Hare's Flickr, which is just ridiculously good. You have a ton of talent Mary! :-)

That should just about do it for the update, everyone! I promise to be more communicative when I get done with school! Have a fantastic week!

And now, to end the post, I present:

The most random classes that I am now endorsed to be able to teach:

Middle School -
Drama (haha - maybe I would bring my sister in as a guest speaker for 80% of the time)

High School -
Anthropology
AP Macroeconomics (you know after taking a class at Lewis and Clark this summer, this actually wouldn't be a disaster, I hope)
Business Law (I know next to nothing about this)
Eastern Religions
IB Theory of Knowledge
Modern Intellectual History (what does that even mean?)

You see, this is why I love teaching Social Studies - it is EVERYTHING! You really have to know something about every subject there is!

Until next time, keep enjoying summer! Let me know what you are up to!

HOME

Hello People of the Blog!

Guess who...it is your favorite Blondie! Well maybe.

I am so glad to finally be able to post a blog on here to tell you all about my move and my new life I am starting down here in the cactus state!

Well first I need to let everyone know here that when you think of Arizona you think of dry, cactus, brown, hot, desert, polluted city, crowded places, dirty. Well it is kind of write but when you think of California you think beaches and PALM TREES right...? Well believe it or not Arizona is REALLY nice and palm trees everywhere! You guys really got to get out more! Well I am just hastling you guys but Arizona is truly beautiful!

So that is it for that I would like to tell you about my trip now.

So after i get cake ambushed. (It was from everyone wanting my cake and I seriously was attacked for cake and hands were all over my cake! It was just a little bit of cake. so luckily not much was missed out on for me!) I had gotten on the bus and sat with Zack Thomson! He was the last person to see me and was allowed the last goodbye! He is terribly missed by me and of course all of you too! We ended up packing until 2 am in the morning and I didn't get to sleep..(in a completely empty apartment with some blankets) at 8 am in the morning my dads phone alarm went off and I was up. I got all the stuff ready to go while my dad was still sleeping. (lazy head) So he finally got up and we hit the road in the Uhaul with our car hooked on the back at 9 am in the morning. I read two 200-300 page books on the way and it was terribly hot because (anyone who knows uhauls knows what I'm talking about) the engine is right in front of us. Once you get going up hills it gets HOT HOT HOT!. We stopped driving about 10 pm about a hundred or so miles from L.A. and dad said it would be better to stop now. We got up about 6 am in the morning and headed off! We got into town and unloaded everything. It was terribly hot but I was totally enjoying it!

The trip wasn't as bad as me or dad thought it would be. We never hit any rush hour. and we drove about 24 hours. I read and slept basically the hole time! It was really nice actually.

So now I'm here officially a resident of the Isle at Arrowhead Ranch, (which is right across from a GOLF COURSE) in Glendale Arizona.

The only thing I have actually been up to is swimming everyday (and officially tan) and babysitting!

I have a job interview today for a dance studio that my aunt set up.

SIDE NOTE: My aunt Sheryl used to be a Cardinal cheerleader and her friend who cheered with her owns a big dance studio and is always looking for new teachers. My luck is that she has a lot of teachers my age!

So I am down here making money! YAY

I'm also quite excited for this weekend which I will be going with my cousin Cole and his wife down to Tuscon, Arizona. (it is pronounced Two-son)(not tus-kin)

I get to meet her family and excited about that!

I am a big part of my cousin Cole's life so if it sounded weird it really isn't.

I must say as much as I love Oregon and the beauty of it, and missing basically people that are like family to me, I have to admit I feel like I am at HOME! My mom said she doesn't feel anxious, like she isn't waiting to go anywhere or move. And vacations will be vacations because she doesn't have to worry about visiting family because she is with her family. So if that makes sense then that is how I feel. It feels like home here!

If you want to email me my email is

clark.jazmyne@yahoo.com

any questions feel free to post a comment

once I figure more out about this blog

I will post pictures

or make it more fancy or something

THANKS FOR READING

misses everyone

yours truly

JAZZY

Welcome, Visitors from Malaysia!

Tonight, as I am putting off finishing up my homework for tomorrow, (yes, teachers do that too - except that we always find some way to finish it all, hehe), I am looking around at the stat counter site for this blog and found some interesting stuff! Here's a map of the visitors from all around the world:


It is highly likely that the visits from outside this country are robot computers, looking to spam or something. Which means that the title of this post is probably not welcoming anyone, haha.

However, it looks like we have some fairly regular visitors from Kansas (I think this is because a lot of AOL IP addresses are routed through there) and Lake Mary, Florida, as well as a few from California. Cool stuff!

Here's the map of some the visitors from around Portland (a small indication):


Really interesting to look at, huh? The farthest south point on there is Lewis and Clark, where I sometimes check up on the blog during classes. :-)


Finally, here's a look at the kinds of web browsers that everyone is using to get to the site. Look at all that iTouch and iPhone usage! You guys are rocking the technology. I love it!

Have a great week everyone!

Trip Report: Wimbledon, July 2007

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, with the Westminster Bridge in the foreground, over the River Thames. I took this picture on July 8th, 2007.
Hello former students!

Because it is about 95 degrees out and there is nothing to do except stay inside at this point, I figured I would give you all a timely reflection on my trip to the Wimbledon tennis tournament in 2007. I went by myself on the first weekend of my study abroad term in England, and it ended up being absolutely incredible! Since the Wimbledon is heading in to the last weekend of the tournament, here is a look at the last weekend of the tournament two years ago!


Of course, to get anywhere as a traveler in London, you have to take the Underground subway system! It is really easy to get around, once you get the hang of it. I was lucky in the 2007 trip, because I had already been to England 3 times previously, and knew all about it.


Of course, because Wimbledon is the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world (and one of four "Grand Slams"), it was really expensive just to get in! This is my ticket - £14 was about $28 in 2007, though now it is a bit less. This was just to get access to the grounds - it did not allow me to go to any of the big matches, because they were all extra (and sold out)!


On this particular day, the last Saturday of the tournament, American Venus Williams was playing Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli for the women's singles championship. Here is the famous lawn where people can watch the tournament on the big screen - remind you, everyone here had to pay just to get in!


Because I almost immediately realized that I would not get to watch much actual tennis (and I didn't feel like sitting and watching a TV when I was about 200 feet away from the actual match), I started roaming around! I was SO EXCITED when I saw this! As some of you may know from the NBC commercials for "Breakfast at Wimbledon" which will air this weekend (you can hear the theme music, which I love to hum here), strawberries and cream are a huge tradition at Wimbledon, and I didn't care if it cost $4, I was going to get some!


Tell me that your mouth isn't watering! So good! This was possibly my favorite moment of the day - I can say I've had strawberries and cream at Wimbledon! Cool article about the tradition of them here: NYTimes.com - Where the Strawberries Are a Smash.


After the delicious strawberries and cream, I wondered if there was any possible way that I could check out what was happening at Centre Court, where Venus Williams was dominating and about to win another championship. I just walked up to it, and underneath were the ballboys and ballgirls, waiting to go on the court when the match was over! You can watch the end of the match and some of the presentations afterward here. See if you can find me (I have no idea if I am even visible, but I doubt it)!


Once the match was over, people started going down the stairs and out of the stadium, so I took the opportunity to go UP the stairs, and PRESTO, here I was at Centre Court, the most famous place in tennis, about to watch Venus Williams get her trophy! The two hats in the foreground are the two guards who were protecting the stairs, but they didn't seem to care that I was standing right behind them, snapping away!


My camera at the time was super small and had a pretty grainy zoom, but still, you can see Venus Williams on the right there, holding her plate!


Another grainy picture - this one is of Venus's Mother and Serena Williams, her hugely successful younger sister!


Seriously, isn't this incredible! I mean, look at that sky! Perfect day, at the most sacred place in all of tennis! So sweet!


After finding my way out (the guards eventually turned around and told me to move, haha), I came back to the center of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club, to figure out what to do next.


I eventually made it over to sit down and watch a match that I WAS allowed to be at, a random boys doubles event. They were crazy good though - I think they were only 16 or 17 too!


At some point in the day, I also went and bought these - the money went to charity. For about $6, I got these MATCH USED balls! I have no idea who played with them, because they were randomly put in the cans, but I don't really care! I like to think that Roger Federer was swinging them around the day before. Needless to say, I still have them, and no, I have never actually played with them!


Needless to say, it was a pretty amazing day! So amazing, that this guy was camping out overnight for tickets to the Men's Final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal (Federer won that year, but Nadal won last year). I love this picture! That guy is the man!

Overall, it was an absolutely incredible experience! I actually never played tennis in high school, but as everyone knows, I am a huge sports fan so I have always followed it. I took up playing tennis much more in college, and now it is probably my second favorite sport, next to basketball. Anyway, thanks for allowing me this trip down memory lane! Be sure to watch the finals of Wimbledon, tomorrow and Sunday! Venus Williams is back the women's final, playing against her sister, Serena! Also, in the men's final on Sunday, Roger Federer is going for his record breaking 15th Grand Slam, which would beat Pete Sampras. American Andy Roddick is going to try to give him a good match I am sure.

Start times are 6 AM PST on NBC for both matches, with the Williams sisters playing tomorrow (on the 4th), and Federer v. Roddick on Sunday. If you don't feel like getting up that early, there is a good chance they will still be going when it reaches the time Period 1 at Westview starts, 7:45 AM. Do yourself a favor and take in some excellent tennis!

Hope all is well - have a an amazing holiday weekend! Enjoy the fireworks!