Happy Holidays Fatties

December really flew by.  I think my students were disappointed in the apocalypse turnout.  
Anyways, this month was filled with good stuff.  Food, food, and food.  Look out fatties.

Che Ba Mau from the Vietnam Restaurant

This dessert means "three color dessert".  I highly suggest trying it at a vietnamese restaurant.  I can really only vouch for a few places I like in Chinatown, NY.  

1. Pho Bang on Mott Street.
2. Pho Grand on Grand St.  
3 & 4. And if I'm too lazy to walk, I might go to Xe Lua or Pho Viet Huong on Mulberry.  


 I also got to see Deer Tick, one of my favorite bands play a whole album plus some great encore songs at Brooklyn Bowl on a Wednesday night. They wore ties and they weren't drunk on stage.  

I think they're getting better at this.

Deer Tick playing Born on Flag Day

 And lastly, I gave my students their weekly Friday quiz.  I'm teaching about the body systems.  One question stated, "Describe the difference between chemical and mechanical digestion"  

This is what I got back.

Not how you spell mechanical

Mechanically chew that food creepy face man.

Happy holidays guys!

Amazeballs

Family and friends in town and I get to sleep in?! 

Amazeballs.

I was super happy to see this face, Baby Emma. This was her first thanksgiving!  She looks like a 9 month old chinese emperor. 

Emma, the emperor

My friend Katie breezed into town and we got to eat yummy mexican food at Baby Bo's and go out with Lily, Joe and James.  Since it was raining, we dived into the closest bar.  And guess what? We got to imbibe at the douchiest bar in NY!

Don't be jealous.   

Katie recalled reading this list and when we walked into the bar, she showed us on her phone that we were indeed, in NY's douchiest bar.  So of course, we sang along to whitney houston alongside a bunch of tone-deaf ladies in the table next to us.

Baby Bo's Restaurant

 My dad loves cinnamon rolls.  So post turkey day, I made these using Pillsbury crescent rolls, rolled out, glazed with butter and cinnamon and brown sugar.  Rolled, sliced, and baked in mini cupcake tins for ten min on 350 degrees.  Frosting is cream cheese, confectioners sugar and vanilla and a few drops of water. 

I know, I know, "How much sugar? How much water? How much butter?"

I try to cook according to whatever makes sense.  Does a quarter cup make sense?  Then add it. Does a tablespoon look like too much?  Then don't add that much.
I do what I want!

Mini cinnamon rolls for my dad

I took a group of students to volunteer with NYCares before the Thanksgiving break.  We made paper turkeys with a bunch of first graders.  The first graders were cute for like 10 minutes, then I saw why I don't teach little kids.  

They are pure crazy. 

They will pour green paint all over their own paper turkey.  Then cry because there is green paint on their turkey. 

Take a look at this poster from the classroom.  

Poster in first grade classroom

Talk about stereotypes.  
WHY IS THE ASIAN GIRL THE SHY ONE?!  What are you trying to say world?  That asians are shy and the red haired girls have a temper problems?  

Human Traits

Lesson on genetics and human traits

Student: I have brown eyes.
Student 2: I have brown eyes.
Student 3: I have black eyes.
Me: Black is not a possible eye color.
Student 3: No, it is. I have black eyes.
Me: No, you have dark brown eyes.
Student 3: (looks to friend) Yo, I have black eyes right? 
They're black miss. 
Me: Again, no.  They're brown.
Student 3: No, they're black.  

(back and forth, like ten times)

Me: Brown eyes are human traits! Only demons have black eyes!
Student 3: What's a demon?
Me: ....

Mr. Rodney

Today in class

Student: Miss, are you going to vote for Mitch Rodney?
Me: I don't even know who that is


Me: How can we prepare for a hurricane?
Student 1: Buy food and lots of water
Student 2: Get gas!
Student 3: Buy alcohol.

Density and Tyler Florence

I'm grading papers. It's alright.  My students are terrible spellers. Glucose has been spelled "GLUECOS" about a hundred times. We recently finished a density lab where we had to find the density of 5-20 pennies.  And guess what, the density stays the same!  Surprise kids. 

    But the spelling.  PENNIES turned into PENIS. And since most of the students copy each other's work, I had about 30 papers with penis written all over it. I'd like to blame it on the whole, "I'm learning english thing" but really?!  Then again, I never can draw a test tube on the board without giggles, so maybe they did it on purpose. 

    Anyways, we continued with density and worked on this lab, which worked well.  A teacher at a JFEW conference told me about it and I adapted the worksheet to fit my classroom.  I start with a demonstration, "Will this orange float in water?"  After I get some predictions, I show them the answer, they have to think about what they know about density and gravity to figure out how things layer according to density. Then they calculate the density of different mystery liquids in a clear straw. I would recommend at least 2 periods for this lesson. The lesson is from this website. I used petri dishes and play doh to make the base. Here is a picture of the winning team, using the calculators funded by donorschoose and my friends, Mark and Rita.

Density in a straw!

     On an entirely separate note, my sister bought me Tyler Florence's cookbook at Homegoods for 5 bucks a while ago.  This was one of the best dishes.  Here's the recipe. Seriously, amazing. Plus you can throw the extra watercress into your ramen the next day. Genius.

Bacon, avocado, tomato, watercress, lemon. 

What's up with this blog name?

In case your wondering about the name of this blog, My Stomach Be Rumblin', here's an explanation. I love food. Eating food, cooking food, and occasionally baking. AND, I teach biology and earth science to high school students who are new to this country. They are great students and I love my job. Sometimes, they say the strangest, funniest things!

Question during a lesson on reproductive systems:

Student: What would happen if there was sperm on the sidewalk and suddenly an egg falls in that exact spot.  Would that make a baby?

Me: Okayyyy, let's say this is even possible. Where would this sidewalk baby live?  

Here are a few glimpses into my classroom. The plastic dinosaur is named Vazquez.

Vazquez, causing havoc

A student made cell with hormone receptors

A group of students making a slime cell model.

Students grew beans in the closet.  Look at this monster!

Lastly, this blog is named after this conversation: 

Me: Why were you absent yesterday?

Student: Miss...my stomach be rumblin'

Hurricane Sandy and I

New York is pretty crazy right now.  But you wouldn't know that from midtown and above.  I am imagining downtown to look like a scene from Cloverfield.  One day and three Hulu shows later, I was going to go crazy from boredom.  I didn't want to work, and I couldn't go outside.

The bread aisle at the food emporium. 

A down tree. Poor tree.

     Anyways, in terms of school, we're getting three solid days off.  Which is a bad thing in my opinion. With the jewish holidays, election day, veterans day, columbus day, PSAT day, and parent teacher conferences, my students barely see me.    Which means, when they fail exams, I get blamed.  Don't blame me New York State!  I tried.  Sigh. 
    I baked apple hand pies that I saw on smitten kitchen and another blog called, pencilkitchen.  Just mash the recipes together. I would share the recipe I used, but I'm a terrible baker and I didn't measure anything.  Which makes baking a bit more adventurous wouldn't you say?

The set up. I found a raspberry.

About to go in the oven. 

Delicious!