Classroom Manners

This is not a post about being green. It's just a post about being polite.

I teach at a major university and at a community college. In both places, most of my students are wonderful. I really do love teaching. But, in both places, the classroom atmosphere suffers because of some basic impoliteness on the part of a few students. I like to think that maybe they don't know how to behave. Here's some things that students have done:

• forget to turn the cell phone off. Phone rings in class.
• A couple of students have answered the phone in class!
• Texting. Huge problem.
• Doing crossword puzzles in between exercises.
• Insisting on an explanation in the middle of a lesson (the explanation is coming -- my lesson is building up to it)
• Cursing "Oh shit" when I ask a question and they don't know the answer.
• Pounding on the desk and saying the F word during an exam/quiz.
• Calling out the answers to a listening exercise during a quiz.
• lying -- totally ridiculous lies because of missed classes.
• Assuming that I will give a make-up exam on my own time, regardless of the fact that the syllabus explicitly states that there are no make-up exams.
• Doing homework during class.
  

What is going on? These things would never have crossed my mind when I was a student. And lest you think that I have a boring class, I don't. I may be a little too nice, but I want to make people feel at ease in class. The vast majority of the students are respectful, participate, and don't cause any problems. But then there are a few..... Grrr....

I have had to get really strict about excuses that I will accept, and I always start the semester with a talk about cell phones, etc... but the cell phone problem in particular just seems to get worse (perhaps because more people have cell phones). I think the problem is that I don't want to call out adults for misbehavior. It feels ridiculous. Some of my students are older than me. I shouldn't have to tell them not to curse in class.

Any thoughts?

Water and Wine (or Grape Juice!)

Water
Why?

Why does Whole Foods sell bottled water? Why is it prominently displayed?

Oh yeah... money.

But here's what I really don't get. The Whole Foods downtown has water for FREE -- and ice -- and paper cups. If you're eating there, and you didn't bring your own drink, or buy a drink in a glass bottle, you don't need to pay for water. But if you look around, lots of people have paid for water.

I think that drinking bottled water is a habit. You buy lunch, you want a drink. Everybody buys something -- a Coke, a juice, whatever.... you buy a water. It's easy to temporarily forget about the environmental impact of the water. That's when it's good to be frugal as well as green. The frugal person is thinking about two things -- the environment, and the fact that he/she doesn't want to pay for something that should be free = more likely to not buy the water.

If you live in Austin and go to WF and get thirsty -- there's free water. It's not prominently displayed, but it's totally free. (And icy!)

Green Church

The Catholic church has added new social sins, including hurting the environment. At the time, I wondered if the church would be changing its ways. A friend reports that at her local parish, they switched to ceramic cups for coffee. Yeah!

Yesterday I attended a Protestant service that included communion. At a Catholic mass, each person sips wine from a communal chalice. At the service I attended yesterday, tiny plastic (non-recyclable!) cups with tiny sips of grape juice were passed out. It seemed like a lot of waste.

Is this typical for Protestant services? I've been to other services, and plastic cups were always involved, but that may just be coincidence. Are there Protestant churches that serve grape juice in some other way? I guess that it is to reduce transmission of germs. When I go to church, I don't receive the wine part of communion if I'm sick, because of the communal chalice.

P.S. Please don't take this as some sort of Protestant vs. Catholic debate. I'm just noticing a difference that I had not noticed before.

Apocalyptic TV

I've been compulsively watching Jericho, a TV series that my dad lent to me. Even on the tiny TV, it's pretty good. As much as I hate TV, when I come back from work, it's nice to just blob out... and then I end up thinking "wow... TV.... genius invention." Not regular programming, so much, because I hate the commercials. But DVD series are really addictive.

Jericho depicts a small town in Kansas after a series of nuclear bombs wipes out most of the major cities in the US. I like the characters, and I pretty much like the story line, but it makes you think... The citizens of Jericho are forced to live, with no prior warning, with no power (after a while), a very limited supply of gas (limited to what they had at the time the bombs went off, so far), and a limited food supply. Pretty soon they come to rely almost completely on food from the farms surrounding the city. (This does present a logical problem because of the fallout, but it is explained in the case of the corn, which was in the husks, making it safe (hmmmm...)).

As far-fetched as parts of the plot-line seem, it does make me think about our preparedness for disaster. Many consider peak oil to be a coming disaster. Are you preparing? Are you prepared? Have you even thought about it?

Watching this show, I see that their being in a rural area is a help because 1) there are fewer people to feed and 2) they have livestock and farmland to provide food.

When I think about my own life, I see that living in a city is a great and sustainable choice as long as everything is functioning smoothly. If, for some reason, supplies were to stop coming in, there would be a big problem. I used to live in Houston and the stores would totally empty out of bottled water if a hurricane was anywhere near the Gulf of Mexico. And that was in Houston! We lived an hour from the coast.

It also makes me think about what I would be willing to do. For example, there is a scene in the show in which a man stumbles into town dying of radiation poisoning. One man refuses to help him without protective clothing. Two others pick him up and carry him to the hospital. Unless the person was a member of my own family, I think that I'd at least put on some gloves or something. Then, I started feeling selfish for thinking that... How far are you willing to go to help someone that you don't know? (The scene took place in a pharmacy, so I'm pretty sure there were some gloves on the shelf. It seems pretty dumb not to have at least put SOMETHING on). Will you do more for a family member than you would for a stranger?

Gradual Change

Sometimes when I look around the blogosphere, it seems like everyone is so hard-core green. I try, but it can be really hard with 3 kids. Then, I look around the rest of society, and see that I'm actually doing okay. It's important to realize that becoming green is not an overnight process. After all, Green as a Thistle made a change a day for a year. Burbanmom is also all about gradual change.

How gradual can change be? Pretty darn gradual. Let's look at my diaper situation:
I have 3 children. I attempted cloth diapers with my firstborn, but was overwhelmed and didn't know what I was doing and gave up. I didn't try cloth diapers again until my youngest child was one. So.... three years of disposable diapers. Then, I decided that I would give cloth diapers a try. Here's what made the difference: it wasn't an all or nothing deal. C and I decided that we would try to use cloth diapers as much as possible, but we were open to using disposables when traveling, at night, etc... We ended up using cloth diapers about 90% of the time because we were able to make the change gradually, without too much stress, over the course of a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, we never really found a satisfactory night-time solution. After many many tries, I gave up, stopped washing all the sheets and blankets everyday, and opted for one disposable diaper a night instead. Not perfect, but it worked for us.

What helped with the diaper situation too was that it was a pretty low-risk investment. Cloth diapers have great resale value. I bought most of mine used and then resold them for almost the same price that I paid. Craig's List is a great way to buy cloth diapers. Some people are freaked out by buying used diapers. I don't really understand why many of these same people would use a diaper service -- it's the same thing. And in the end, they're all washed and clean.

Gradual change can also be a great way to win over other family members. For example, say you decide that you want to start eating less meat as a family. We never ate a lot of meat, but I would make spaghetti sauce with ground beef. My husband grew up eating lots of meat, so I was afraid he wouldn't be into veggie crumbles. So, I made the sauce the same way, but substituted in about 1/3 veggie crumbles. Nobody complained. I upped it to about 1/2. Nobody complained. Then, I decided to actually consult my husband, and he told me that he really liked the veggie crumbles and didn't need the meat. Maybe you'll never give up the meat, but you might be able to buy a little less grass-fed meat for the same price you were spending on corn-fed... you can make up the difference with veggie crumbles, or you can just stick with using a little less. It's worth a try.

Sometimes you might make a change and decide that it's not working out. But I think that the biggest step is being willing to try in the first place.

What are some gradual changes you could make?

• handkerchiefs -- buy one. Give it a try. It's nice. If you think it might be gross and germy, maybe don't use it when you have a cold. After a while, you might change your mind.
• cloth diapers -- go for two or three a day at first. Give cloth wipes a try while you're at it.
• used toys -- next time you buy a toy, buy used. I bet the kids don't care, which will make it more likely to happen in the future. Better yet, explain to the kids why you're doing it.
• library -- instead of buying the next book you want, at least check to see if it's at the library.
  
• non-stick pans -- hide all your non-stick pans. Buy a cast-iron skillet. Give it a try for a week. (Season it first!) If you hate it, you can dig out your pans again.
• buying freeze -- if you're a serious shopper, stop buying stuff for a week. If you need something, try to borrow it instead of buying it. It's only a week! It might not be as hard as you think it is.
  

Pile of Stuff

I was looking through my labels on the blog and noticed that most of them have only one posting that goes with them. They are probably feeling lonely, so I thought I'd add on to one of the lonely ones. It's funny that now they're in a big list, because I was just labeling haphazardly and now I feel like there should be some method to my madness....

So, we're moving soon, and I've started packing. We still have a couple of weeks left here, so I've been boxing up non-essentials. What I've realized is that we have a LOT of non-essentials. For example, one day, my daughter and I boxed up 3 boxes of toys, and the other 2 kids didn't even notice. It has also made their room easier to clean. Today, I boxed up two boxes of serving plates. What the heck?! I left several out to send to Goodwill, but still.... it's a lot of giant bowls, platter, etc. I do use them from time to time, but never all at once, and I had no idea I had accumulated so many.

Now, I have no problem with having stuff, but I just think that if we're going to pay for a big enough apartment/house to store it, and appropriate containers, and have to pick it up, and dust it (I hear some people do this)... that it should be useful.

I was guilty of giving pretty terrible gifts to kids before I was a parent, and even now, if the kid is over 6, I don't really know what to give them, but I know what the under 6 crowd needs:

• puzzles
• art supplies - I prefer scissors, glue, crayons... not the twist-up crayons because they're a HUGE waste. The kids like markers but I don't really because they always dry up. But, if they get markers, I always get washable markers.
  
• playdoh -- it would be even better to make a kid playdoh and put it in a reusable container. The yellow plastic containers the playdoh comes in are not recyclable (or at least I have not found a marking on them)
• playdoh toys -- can never have enough
• Barbies and Barbie clothes. My daughters love Barbie. But here's a secret. They don't care if she comes in a box. In fact, if she comes in a bag from the Thrift store, it's even better because she is easier to get out and play with. At Savers or other thrift stores you can often find bags of Barbie clothes. Heaven!
• dress-up clothes -- I never had a dress-up box growing up, but now I see how awesome it is. This is a very popular activity when kids come over. Costumes are super cheap at Goodwill.
• books -- kids who are of the losing teeth age will love One Morning in Maine. Who Has a Bellybutton and I'm a Big Brother/Sister are great books for kids who will soon have younger siblings. Find a book that you loved as a child, and dedicate it to your favorite child.
• bicycles, scooters, tricycles -- beware the Rock n Ride, as it falls apart. (I have seen MANY broken specimens around my apartment complex)
• baby doll -- the ideal would be a cloth doll with a couple of changes of clothes and a bag or bed to put him/her in.
  
• LEGOS and/or K'nex. These are totally awesome. Easy to find used.
• Little People -- but stick with classic structures, like the house, farm, zoo. The amusement park is VERY annoying.
• Power Rangers or other action figures -- ours all come from garage sales. These are very expensive new.
• Toy dinosaurs
  

Besides the art supplies and puzzles, I don't think any of these things need to be bought new. The kids certainly don't care, and if a gift is given with love, I don't think that the parents care either. Nonetheless, I have trouble giving used gifts to acquaintances (ex. a birthday party from a kid in my son's class... don't know the parents). In these cases, I usually give art supplies.

From packing so far I can see that kids tend to accumulate a lot of stuff. We don't even buy them toys, and they still have tons of stuff. What doesn't last/isn't worth it?

• train tracks -- I think this is a Christmas fantasy. You want the image of the train going around the track on Christmas morning. The reality is a derailed train, lost/drained batteries, and tracks EVERYWHERE.
• stickers -- made by the Devil.
  
• Beauty or make-up kits for really little girls -- end up everywhere.
• Mr. Potato Head -- I want to love him, but I hate him. His little arms and nose, etc. are all over the house.
• Lite Brite -- die, lite brite, die! Not for the under 6 crowd unless you have a very patient mother.
• Color Wonder stuff by Crayola -- the idea is great -- the markers/paints only work on the special paper. BUT, you have to have a parent willing to buy more special paper.
• Candy Land if the child is under 5 (maybe even 6)-- I think the game says 3 and up. Right!
  
• Most card games -- far easier to just use a deck of cards and teach the child how to play War (after kindergarten, so they know numbers)
• mobile -- it's so cute, but it takes a while before the baby can look at it because their head is all flopped to the side, and pretty soon you have to take it down because the baby is able to pull on it. Not something I'd buy new. But, again, very cute.
• Any tape/Cd/whatever that purports to teach your child another language. It's a lovely idea, but your child needs interaction to learn a second language. Ralph's World is a great children's CD, and your kid can learn to count in Roman Numerals.
  
• glitter -- Grrr...
  

Car Free Week

Wow... we have been car-free for a week. Granted, this was forced upon us. Still, it's nice to know that we can pretty much get around without a car. There have been some problems, however.

Timing is a bit of a problem. For me to get to work, I need to either ride the scooter or take the bus/bike. Either way, it's between 30-45 minutes. Even in a car, it takes about 30 minutes because of traffic. If I ride the scooter, I get to work stressed out, extremely hot, and gritty. The bus is better, but timing is a bit of an issue. Also, it takes C some time to get home from work. About 15 minutes, and considering traffic, it might actually take him longer to drive than to ride his bike home. The problem is that for my sanity, I need to leave home before he gets home. This week we finally fixed up some nice babysitting which gives us a comfortable margin of error. Is it worth the money? Definitely. I may not be saving any money by not using the car, but I needed a little bit of time before work and C needed a little time after work, so that we weren't always flying to/from home.

Groceries. I'm finding this is a big problem. I just REFUSE to buy all my groceries at Expensive Mart. I could take all the kids to the HEB in the bus (at least a 1/2 mile walk each way plus the bus ride, or 2 buses... painful), but I just can't. I'm not that strong. I'd rather eat pasta every day.

Our refrigerator is looking pretty bare. We're out of fruit. We're out of vegetables. The only reason we have milk is that we bought it at Expensive Mart. There's just not that much to eat anymore. Pasta with jarred sauce, sprinkled with cheese. A different shape of pasta.... some eggs.

What do you think? Is it even possible to take all the kids to the store? My plan is to go to the store as soon as we get the car back.

Bus/Bike to Work -- I did it!

I just got back from work and I feel totally triumphant -- I bus/biked to work and back home. This is a pretty big deal for me because last week I rode the scooter, but because of the scary traffic, I feared for my life. It also took me about 30-35 minutes each way. Blah.

Today, it took about 45 minutes each way. I rode about 1/2 mile on the way there (between bus stops) and about 3 miles on the way back. So, about 10 minutes more than by scooter. The nice thing, however, was that I was able to spend about 20-25 minutes of that time grading. Productive time. So nice, and so desperately needed now that I am home with the kids all day and teaching at night.

Something I am trying to figure out... how do I go to the grocery store to get the massive amounts of food that we need... with the kids? It just seems SOOO painful without the car.

Austin update: There is a new bike pathway -- the Lance Armstrong Bikeway. It is really nice. It is open from Lamar at Cesar Chavez all the way to Austin High. It is a nice way to stay out of the traffic. It feels so civilized and is faster than riding on the trail. It's also great at night, because you don't have to worry about traffic not seeing you and you don't have to worry about obstacles in the road.

I do have a problem with this bikeway, though, in that it runs parallel to a bike trail. I think there's a lot of other things they could have spent the money on to make cycling nicer in Austin. When it is complete, however, it will connect all the way to the east side of town, which is sorely needed.

Additional update: If you are interested in bike commuting and have a job downtown, Lance Armstrong's new bike shop Mellow Johnny's has showers and a coffee shop. It's right by the farmer's market. It's worth checking out. (I have only looked in the window -- I haven't checked out the facilities.)

5 Car Free Days

My car broke down on Tuesday. C went to "rescue" it and bring it to the shop. We have been car-less for 5 days. And it has been nice. It's been no problem.

How did I get to work?
I rode my scooter. If I had someone to watch the little one, I would have ridden the bus or bike/bussed because I'm a little scared to ride my scooter to work because of the traffic. I'm trying to address that problem for next week.

How did C get to work?
He rode his bike.

How did we get the kids to camp? (The two big ones had camp this week)
J rode his bike and N rode the trail-a-bike behind C's bike.

How did I take E to the park?
On the bike with the trailer. It was fun :)

How did we get groceries?
We only had to pick up a few things. We did it on the bike to the Expensive Mart down the street.

C and I had a date night. What did we do?
My MIL took the bus to our house to watch the kids. We rode our bikes to the springs and then downtown to have a nice dinner. We rode about 6 miles total, which helped cancel out the cake I had for dessert :)

We dropped my MIL off at work at 5 am. How did that work?
Normally, we would have driven her. Instead, she rode on the back of the scooter with my husband. They both wore helmets. It was so cute.

Speaking of, my MIL is the best. She's been car-free her WHOLE LIFE. That's right. She doesn't drive. She doesn't own a car. She doesn't even have a driver's license. Sometimes this is a big pain, but usually it is not a problem. Which is kind of surprising considering that she does not really live within easy walking distance of many things. She can walk to the bank and.... that's about it. If she wants to go to the grocery store, she asks someone to take her. If she goes in early to work, (5 am! No bus runs that early) she either calls a cab or gets a ride with a co-worker. For just about everything else, she takes the bus.

My MIL is in her late 50s, so if she can do it, other people can do it. She's in great shape, probably from all the walking to and from the bus stop. She owns her own house on a very moderate income, and I'm pretty sure that if she had the expense of owning and maintaining a car, affording a house would not be a possibility. Plus, she avoids a lot of danger. About 6 or 7 years ago, her kids (C included) tried to teach her to drive. This resulted in 2 accidents: crashing through the garage door and totaling the washer and dryer, and side-swiping an 18 wheeler. I love her, but we're all probably better off with her not driving.

An added advantage to not driving? If you live in Austin (and this probably is true for other places too) you can have the Transportation Fee on your electric bill removed if you don't own a car. Pretty cool.

Be prepared!

Maybe because I was never a scout, I seem to be having trouble learning this lesson: Be Prepared.

I drove the little one to the Children's Museum today. Why? Because it was hot and the trailer was hooked up to a wimpy bike. It's actually a pleasant bike ride, so I really should have ridden the bike. Alternatively, I could have taken the bus, but that (of course) would have required some planning.

So what happened? I drove E to the museum, and the car broke down. I had to push it into a safe place and C had to rescue it after work. What a pain. And I ended up taking the bus home anyway (which was very pleasant).

So now the car's broken, and it will be a few days (at least) until it's fixed. Time to experiment with being car-free.

I scooted to work this evening. Blech! The traffic is awful, and it's much worse sitting in the humidity and heat, breathing in exhaust than sitting fresh in my car listening to NPR. It threatened rain, but did not rain after all, although I was prepared with a big rain coat and a change of clothes. I'd feel much safer taking the bus. I checked out the schedule and it might be doable.

Bike Commuting

C is so happy. He is finally a bike commuter. He can ride his bike to work with no problem and gets VIP parking at the bike rack. There are just a few kinks that need to be worked out:

• weather -- it poured rain today. Luckily, that was on the way home.
• flats -- C seems to be prone to flats. Last time he got a flat, he had to walk home 3 miles in the middle of the night. Not so good. He had everything he needed to change the flat except for a pump.
• sweat -- C said he was really sweaty when he first got to work. However, he had to race to work because he was helping me drop off the kids at camp. A more relaxed pace = less sweat.

In other biking news, we are trying to reduce our car use as much as we can. The two oldest kids are going to a camp that is close to our house. They were thrilled with the idea of riding to camp. J (6 yo) rode his bike and I brought N (5 yo) on the trail-a-bike. This only worked, though, because E was being watched by her grandmother. Babysitting and the frequent need for quick turnarounds seem to foil my desires to ride my bike.

For example, this morning, I had to be at work at 8:30. Camp drop-off was at 8. I might be able to ride to work in 30 minutes, but it would really be pushing it. If E had been at home, I would have had to find a sitter at 7:40 in the morning (don't currently have one that early). I ended up riding the scooter to work.

But wait! I said I rode the trail-a-bike. Then I rode the scooter? What's going on? Ah... the complication. So that we could bring the kids on bike, I rode the bike to their camp, then rode the scooter to work. A total pain. In the afternoon, C picked up the kids on bike. (This was actually even more complicated, but every time I write out the whole routine, it sounds too confusing. Let's just leave it at that... C rode his bike, the kids rode their bike, I rode my bike/scooted, and then drove in the afternoon. BLAH!)

There is a trade-off. More biking means more babysitting. I don't use much babysitting right now, so a little extra here and there really makes a difference. I hate to ask someone who's doing me a favor to wake up super early.

Once again, it seems that it all comes down to planning:

• Plan extra time into your morning and you can ride to work.
• Plan to have the necessary supplies to fix a flat.
• Plan to watch the weather -- it might rain while you're riding.
• Plan to have extra clothes at work, just in case!
• Really think about it when you sign kids up for activities that have drop-off times close to the time that you have to leave or return from work.
  

Independence from Box Cake!

Happy Fourth of July!

I discovered an amazing recipe for chocolate cake. Although it's not my #1 chocolate cake, it's pretty darn good, and you can't beat it for speed. With my 5 year old assistant, I was able to put this cake in the oven 7 minutes after getting out the recipe. It's crazy fast. It's also a beautiful thing because you don't need to use a bowl (and it's vegan).

Crazy Fast Chocolate Cake

Grease a 9x13 pan. Add the following dry ingredients, spreading them around:
3 c. flour
2 c. sugar (or a little less)
6 T. cocoa
1 teas. salt
2 teas. baking soda

Make 3 wells in the dry ingredients. (I don't know if this is necessary, but that's what the directions say). Add the following wet ingredients (one in each well):
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 T. red wine vinegar (I used white wine vinegar, and it was fine)
2 teas. vanilla

Over the top of everything, pour:
2 c. water

Stir it up until just mixed. Bake at 350 for 45 to 50 minutes. Frost with frosting that's not from a can!

Can you go car-free or car-light?

I just finished reading How to Live Well Without Owning a Car by Chris Balish. It's a very inspiring book. I really like its realism -- the author does not want you to give up ever driving a car or riding in one, just owning one. He provides a nice worksheet to help you figure out how much you spend owning a car. I figured that our car expenses are a little over $250 a month. My friend, who just paid off her car, figured hers at over $300. We were both a little shocked.

Balish's main point seems to be that you can save a lot of money and have an even better life if you give up your car. You can have a rich social life, date car-free, and get in shape. I like his story of how he accidentally fell into living car-free. He has a chapter devoted to families that have two or three cars, and encourages them to become one-car families.

Now, I have to be realistic. I could give up my car, but my life would become a giant pain in the neck in many cases. I would probably need to rent a car about once a week to visit family or go camping. My car expenses would not be $250 if I really reduced my driving -- according to my calculations, if I only used the car for longer trips with heavy stuff, the cost of renting and the cost of owning would probably be about the same. So, for now, the car stays.

Balish says that if you can get to work without driving, you can probably go car-free. So, it's really important to consider where you work and where you live. If you are going to move, you need to be near your job (ideally) or near a transit stop. In some cases, it may be worthwhile to move closer to work or even to change your job so that you work closer to home.

Once you can get to work, other things can be taken care of without a car in most cases. Balish is a big fan of delivery services. Yes, the delivery van uses gas, but it's a lot more efficient than you driving around town. The delivery van probably has a route. I think this is good for ordering stuff off of the internet, but maybe not as good for something like grocery shopping.

For something like grocery shopping or a big trip to Costco, Balish recommends going with a friend (among other options). I have to admit that this is very appealing. Combine the social and the practical. Of course, you want your friend to live nearby and to already be going to the destination. It doesn't save any energy for your friend to drive across town to take you to the store. You might fear mooching off of your friends, but Balish recommends buying them a thank-you lunch or drink. Seems like a win-win situation.

I have a friend who lived car-free for a while, and she frequently had to get rides to go to social events or to go shopping, and I really don't think that anyone resented it. She was always very good company.

We will be moving pretty soon, and we have taken a lot of trouble to find a place that is close to the things we use on a regular basis (grocery store, library, post office, elementary school, etc.) and with good connections to our jobs. It is also a very pleasant, albeit longer, bike ride to work. It will be interesting to see how it goes. I am really hoping that we will be able to drastically reduce our car use.

P.S. I will be doing the calculations from my June Food Challenge and reporting back soon. My new challenge is not to do any month-long challenges (not of my own, anyway), because I'm pretty bad with follow-through.

P.P.S. Check out Arduous-- she's doing a month-long pseudo-Freegan challenge. I can't wait to see what happens. Go girl!