Gretchen Bernabei Day

Modified Running Record

Trying out a Modified One Minute Running Record Demo

I was working on a staff development from Mary Shea's work from Where's the Glitch?and her book about administering running records for grades 1-3.  I decided to take a short video administering the one minute running record with a third grader.  The parent has given permission for this to be viewed. I had a reflection piece where I spoke to another educator about what I learned from watching the boy and myself. My computer stated that that video was corrupted!  I didn't do anything really!  I didn't!  Who know what that actually means.  To me it means lots of lost time in editing!  Technology!  Sometimes I love it and sometimes I want to throw it out the window!

Emergent Bilingual

Emergent Bilingual and Proud

Bilingue Emergente
Emerging from the Cocoon
By Maureen Ucles


Soy bilingue
Emergente
Not an emergency
Just me
I am
An emergent
Bilingual

Like the sound of
it
Kinda distinguished
Distinguida
Gave me an excuse
To be
Me
Solamente

All these years
batallando
con uno o otro
en mi mente
Mind games
It's one or the other
Ingles o Espanol
Watch it son
You might
get some
Spanglish
In your orejas
Stop that
This instant
But now?

Hey I am
beyond a disease
I am
Bilingual Emergente
Sounds sort of
elegant
Elegante
sofisticado
Ya know?

Not that dumb
after all
No burros allowed
in my crowd
You get me?
Say yes
Dile si,si, si (can't get the accents on Blogger)
Perdon

Ah!
 just my mind
Readin' off the English
Thinkin' in Spanish
What comes out of my mouth?
I am hungry
tengo hambre hombre!
Now famished!
Ya know?
Just chillin
Toma la suave
'Cause carne asada
Just met some burgers
and papas fritas
Mezclando con orgullo
cause ya gotta know
I am bilingue emergente
Proud to be
Simply
Simplemente
ME!

On Hold!

My Commentary: Being Placed on Hold

On Hold!

Hold The Phone!

 Being placed on hold is tantamount to being taizzered by 5 officers of the law, at the same time.  Being put on hold is very close to receiving six root canals, without any laughing gas or any numbing needles.  Being placed in utility phone jail can be closely compared to receiving seven flu shots at Krogers and having  blood taken by an inexperienced phlebotomist. Hey, I have extremely small veins!  I hate being placed on hold! I would rather be on Fear Factor, in a pit of vipers, with hornets the size of birds, stinging the heck out me, than be placed on hold!  Can't stand it, can't deal with it, just can't.  Give me liberty or give me death?  I wouldn't go that far but...

I abhor the sound of the digital computer voice.  These ladies, who invade my hopes of speaking to a live person, sound like Siri on steroids.  They are too loud!  If that wasn't bad enough, they go through this litany of options, that happen to lull me into a coma.  I sometimes try to press zero to take a quick a shortcut only to be brought back to Dante's Inferno!  Oh the horror!  Have they even considered hiring human beings? Hire real people please!

Hey, being on hold does help me use up all of my roll over minutes, as I  wait on their sorry selves.  I would rather roll over in my grave than wait!  But you know I can't hang up because... I will have loose my precious place in line!  "You estimated wait time is 30 million years!"  Can you say arrested development? Sure!  Not a problem.  I don't have anything important to do but sit here and listen to the worst elevator music ever! Is there an 80's station I can switch to?  The Carptenter's are so last century!  Engleburt Humperdink is so so wrong!

Battery life?  Sure the S4 is supposed to have plenty of battery.  Yes, plenty of battery... if you don't have to wait endlessly, on the stinking phone.  They add  new meaning to the phrase, Hold the Phone cause that is what you'll be doing!  Phone purgatory or is it limbo? Possibly.

I believe that we must unite against this human rights injustice.  It is an egregious abuse of human dignity.  I can't hang up and I can't stand it all!  Calgon is on hold too, so it can't help me.  We can stop the insanity for once and live without cable, phone service, electricity or even credit cards!  Just sayin'.  Unfortunately hold the phone abuse goes on and on without anyone willing to lift a finger.  Maybe their arms are tired from holding what? The phone!

The enormous iPhone 5, S4, Note or whatever LG that you may own is weighing you down.  We can't, however, live without our microcomputers right?  Highly implausible.  So I guess I just have to accept this cruel excuse for customer service.  That old adage the customer is always right went out in the 70s along with Burger King's Have it your way! For me there is no way...no way out!  Just sayin'! Hold on!  I will get back with you shortly!

Toxic by M Ucles

Toxic  by Maureen Ucles

Toxic

Some kinda 

disgusting

Poison

You are

Yapping

Bloviating

Wading

Into

Murky

Water

of 

Disdain

Cubed

Spite

You are 

full 

of it

Spite

livin 

in it

day by day

bathing

in it

STOP

Tired of

hearing

your 

mouth

from

all directions

North

West

East and

South

Compass

Rose

with all

your thorns 

full of

noxious

fumes

vitriol

personified

Why don't 

you

callate

tu boca

por favor

shut it 

tight

you might

consider

taking

flight 

from

all you say, say

and do

'cause 

I'm past

tired

Yap

Yap

Yapping

Spewing

criticism

cynism

all to 

a

catastrophic

crescendo

Letters after the name

What do you have?

Just letters

full of look at me!

I am

this 

that and

everything

just me

myself

and my

mouth!

Stop it already

can someone

get a word in

edgewise?

not at all

Toxicity

Weapons of mass

destruction

people's lives

 ideas

squelched 

beneath

the weight

of

your 

unrelenting

disdain

pain

cruelty

unusual

demeaning

hindering

Humiliation

your

armed 

lock

and 

loaded

with

a

Hypocritical

Oath

do

practice

do

as 

much

harm

to

whatever

whomever

you 

crush

funny?

Hardly

Poison

Vitriol

Pathetic

Sorry

Excuse

STOP!

Migraine

Migraine Headache

                                                         by Maureen Ucles

I feel a headache

coming on

dizzy

I feel a headache

very strong

gotta sit

down

Light sensitivity

Lights

Prism like lights

stretching
blurring
my vision

gotta

rest

I feel a migraine

creeping in

closing my eyes

head down

leave me

be

I feel the  migraine

blaring
blaring
 it's ugly 

head

mind numbing

throbbing
throbbing
pain

migraine

I feel a migraine

taking hold

stomach upside
down

mind's wailing

when will it end?

rest calling
calling my name

slumber
beckons

This migraine

relentless
ruthless

turn down the shades

Tylenol
by the handful

eyes closed

damp cloth on

my forehead

laying supine

on my bed

Migraine

debilitating

excruciating

Migraine

in the house

behind the eyes

subsiding
maybe
possibly
but

slowly

quietly

Migraine

Hyperacusis 20/20

I was watching 20/20 tonight.  It was a show about my strange affliction.  One of the strange affliction is hyperacusis.  It is a condition where sounds are extra loud from the normal.  They have to wear noise canceling and other headphones.  I thought of a poem that I am going to explore later. I will post it here.  I want to use the word hyperacusis in my poetry soon.  I posted so I wouldn't forget it.  Here is a link for more information on hyperacusis.  http://www.hyperacusisresearch.org/

November

In November

By Maureen Ucles

In November

Trees stretching

balding

Brilliant Colors

Abound

Just look around

In November

cool breeze a' blowin'

not quite snowing

'cept in Huntsville

In November

Sweater touting

Mittens, Scarfs, Sweatshirt

Football Shouting!

First and ten!

We win!

In November

Squirrels gathering

to and fro

zig zag

zaggety zip

up a tree

onto the roof

November

In November

apple cider

hot or cold

cinnamon sticks

swirling

In November

pumpkin pie

whip cream delight

corn bread stuffing

my belly puffing 

filled to the brim

L-tryptophan inducing

eyes so heavygiving innappingon the couchas I watch the Cowboyseat legs of Turduckinafter the gameyawningtime for some pie?I won't lieA slice with coffeeand whip creamNovember

November

November

full of family

and friends

well wishes

Monopoly

Catch Phrases

Apples to Apples

galore

til

the wee hours

of the morn

Wake Up!

Black Friday!

It's November

Bring a coat!

In November

Why, Why, Why?

Why?  Why?  Why?

Why do I feel so

bland

without a tan

in the middle of 

Siberia

without a coat

in the middle

of a blizzard?

Why does my nose

run?

With no place to go?

From here to fro'

I dunno

Why oh why?

Does the thermometer

rise

up into the hundreds

head throbbing

dizzy

sleepy

weak

Why oh why?

Do I cough, cough, cough

Isn't it enough,

nuff

nuff

that I feel so blue

not so true

a little un-glue

glue

glued

on 

Thanksgiving and beyond

every year

without fail

Immune system

goes down

like the Nasdaq

Wish I could

could

could

live a little

without the

drainage

nausea

cough

sneeze

too big

of a wheeze

doc again?

Same old meds

messin' up

my intestinal track

stomach ache

to be exact

when will it end?

or end me?

Am I

Few Poems That Have Been Gliding Off My Pen

Here are a few under-construction poems that have been gliding off my pens lately.  I haven't been up to posting them until now.  I figure I should take 5 minutes to post and various hours revising and editing later.  My philosophy is this: It doesn't have to perfect.  It has get written and then....let the magic begin.   So here are few:

Am I

I am a scratch post

Glass house

Boulders in hand

Scatter my world

Crumbling, bumbling, stumbling

Crash through my world

Vandalized-home invasion

Hit straight through the heart

Full out blatant assault

I am a punching bag

for you 

and all your

pent up 

frustrations

Trespassed

building that has imploded

here I lay

beneath

the beams, debris

mangled mass

unimaginable

torture

beneath

the crazy unfounded criticism 

confinement

I am

forbidden contagion of CDC

your unrelenting vitriol

spewing from all sides

that rancid acid

burning through and through

singeing, protruding, permeating

languishing in this malicious muck

gasping, laboring

grappling

I am

existing

surviving

yet striving

to overcome 

overwhelm

triumph

in the midst 

of these asinine ashes

I 

am