The (lack of) biodiversity in our food

I'm awakened and convicted by the facts, the hidden truths revealed and the desperate thirst for fulfillment. The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollen

Ask yourself, what did you eat for breakfast today?

If you said cereal and milk - where did that milk come from? Which cow supplied your milk? Were there hormones? Was it a grass-fed cow? Or was it corn-fed, unnaturally, just to fatten it up quicker so we can get our milk faster?

If you said eggs and bacon - oh boy. Were the eggs from an industry farm where the hens lay eggs in crates like this:


Did your bacon come from a place like this:

or like this:


What questions do you ask yourself when you are eating?
- Does this taste good?
- Does this have enough protein for my dietary needs?
- Was this egg produced with hormones?
- Should I worry about E. Coli right now?
- How many cows went into making my hamburger?
- Would I be able to find the hen that laid this egg, or is she a number in 20,000?
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The biggest take away for me after reading this book - and still reading it - is this:
I live in Colorado, I need to eat Colorado meat and vegetables. When I can't, I want to know where and how my food was produced. What I eat is who I am and I do not want to be a hormone-laden, medically-treated, unnaturally corn-fed, corn by-product. I want to slice into my blood and see that the calories running through my body are sun-kissed, grass-fed, naturally produced and following nature's cycle. Ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif don't want to slice into my skin and see excess nitrogen, drug cocktails from cows, corn-like substances and unnaturally fed meat products. What next? Tell you all about this book, about sustainable farming and give you a way to make changes.

Go to and find a farm near you to buy your meat, eggs, and dairy. Find the farmer's market closest to you and support local agriculture. Sure, it is hard to eat 100% local because we have been trained to buy packaged, processed and fortified foods. Find your local farmer's marker here:

cost-conscious people beware: you will pay more for your food now. But you will have less medicine to buy, less trips to the doctor, less chance of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, depression, and on and on and on...

How did God intend for us to take care of our bodies? He gave us meat and vegetables to cultivate, harvest and prepare. He gave us a conscious to know what we should be eating and what we should not. As we get to know our food, we get to know ourselves. We are what we eat.

So what type of person will you become?

Teach for America Institute

This August I start year 5 in the classroom but this summer I took a walk down memory lane and worked at institute, TFA's teacher boot camp to prepare the new corps for 2 years of serving our nation's low income communities. I took on the role of CMA, not crystal meth anonymous, but corps member adviser. What a trip! I was part counselor, coach, mentor, teacher, manager, colleague, analyst and student. 11 of our nations brightest minds made it through the 50,000 applicants to be part of about 4500 new corps.

We wake up at 5 AM and I observe, coach and analyze the new teachers all day. Back at ASU, I start meeting with corps members around 6 PM and don't stop until 9PM. Sometimes, instead of meeting with corps members, we've got meetings. On a lucky day, I'm at the gym for 40 minutes.

Why work 18 hour days? Why do I put myself in a vulnerable position to receive so much critical feedback, be the shoulder someone cries on, and read lesson plan after lesson plan (up to 20+ a day)?

Because now there are 11 teachers prepared for their own classrooms. Those 11 teachers are middle and high school teachers who will each teach about 100 students this year. Those 100 students will have effective first year teachers. Because I was able to coach, mentor and advise them for 5 weeks.

When an upcoming 8th grade student asks questions like, "how do I get a scholarship?" "what do I need to do to get a laptop?" "how did you know what to study?" how could I not be grounded in what we do - training teachers was almost more satisfying then teaching my own kids. I got to see teachers build connections with colleagues and kids, make a kid believe in himself, invest kids in their education, and share success stories about their kids. It was so inspiring!

Our World. There are no skies to limit us :)

A Dream Box

If I didn't join Teach for America... where would I be right now? I am about to finish year 4 of teaching math - how did that happen?

I I wasn't teaching...
I'd be living somewhere in South America with a backpack, my snowboard and better dancing flow.

I can't think of anything else I would want to do. Ha.

Because I did join Teach for America, now I want to...
- work as a policy analyst or consultant to get the DREAM Act/ASSET bill passed. I want ALL students to have the opportunity to go to college for in-state tuition. If a kid goes through K-12 in Colorado, aren't they a resident of Colorado? C'mon America.

OR

- work for immigration reform in Washington DC, Arizona, Colorado or California to help legal US children who were born into undocumented families get health insurance. Did you know that a US citizen who has parents that are undocumented doesn't have access to health care until they are 18!? YIKES. Remember when you had ear infections, needed stitches and went to the dentist and got a prize from the treasure chest?

OR

- be a ski bum in Crested Butte, Steamboat or Telluride. Then run marathons in the summer and fall.

Ah, the beauty of life is that I just might do any one of these things sometime soon. Teaching a blast, for now.

Inspired, and Defeated

I was inspired today.

My students came to me to sponsor a club - speak! - a club focused on listening to slam poetry, reading and then creating their own poetic performance. Today I heard things like, "you can't knock abortion at 16 years old unless you know what its like to be 16 and pregnant" and then "it's just like the people that don't agree with universal health care, they've had health care their whole lives and don't know what its like to pay for the ER every time you go" and then - "I don't want to play the race card, and I don't like to play the race card, but when people freak out that britney's on crack and act all shocked but then don't even flinch when you hear TI's trippin' on drugs, it's expected."

I also heard them talking about how their generation is getting a bad rap for being the generation that feels entitled. Then I heard them explain why they are perceived that way, explained their upbringing and AGREE that they were raised that way. The best part? They provided solutions.
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I was introduced to this guy - Carlos - and was inspired. And defeated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnl_zG2KwR0

How do I teach kids about finding the volume of a cylinder when this is going on? How do kids motivate themselves to become good at finding the greatest common factor of a fraction when someone is getting shot? Why would a teenager want to know more about the negative gravitational pull of Earth when there are teen moms struggling to buy formula and diapers?

Why do I feel so defeated - and yet so inspired? This juxtaposition is something that keeps me teaching, and pulls me toward public policy activism. I want to expose the hard truth but change the truth.

I turned 26!

This is a text by Sandra Cisneros, a Latina writer and alum of Loyola Chicago. She has written "House on Mango Street" and a few other texts that are filled with love, passion and insight into the Latino spirit.

What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you’re eleven, you’re also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four. and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don’t. You open your eyes and everything's just like yesterday. only it’s today. And you don’t feel eleven at all. You feel like you're still ten. And you are—underneath the year that makes you eleven.
Like some days you might say something stupid. and that's the part of you that's still ten Or maybe some days you might need to Sit on your momma's lap because you’re scared. and that's the part of you that's five. And maybe one day when you’re all grown up maybe you will need to cry like when you're three, and that's okay. That's what I tell Mama when she's sad and needs to cry. Maybe she’s feeling three.
Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rungs inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one. That's how being eleven years old is.
You don’t feel eleven. Not right away. It takes a few days, weeks even, sometimes even months before you say Eleven when they ask you. And you don’t feel smart eleven. not until you're almost twelve. That's the way it is.

I teach for....

I teach so that my students will ONE DAY stand in front of a room of people and share how one teacher changed their life.

I teach so that students can advocate for themselves and know they deserve the best from themselves and demand a great education, from their teachers and earn scholarships for college.

I teach to change the minds of the people living outside of poverty and low income communities, so they can hear from me that all students, regardless of their bank account (or lack thereof) can and will achieve at the same level as their wealthier counterparts.

I teach to instill a love of learning to kids that hate school. Math rocks!

I teach to prove the doubters wrong. A student from the "wrong side of the tracks" knows hard work, knows college is a goal, knows their life will change for their family with an education....because great teachers teach change.

I teach for social justice and the future of this country.

Thanks to Teach for America for opening up this opportunity and helping me find myself and my ONE day....

One day, my students will be leaders and problem solvers.