Secret to Student Teaching Success

It was last November that I confided to my mother-in-law that I desperately wanted a Hannah Montana lunchbox. If you want to know the truth, I have never seen the Hannah Montana show or any of the High School Musical movies. It was pure peer pressure. I was employed at an elementary school as an ESL teacher, and I just wanted to fit in. Every student had Hannah Montana notebooks, folders, backpacks, t-shirts and stretchy pants. Since stretchy pants aren't really my thing, I knew I was destined to own a Hannah Montana lunchbox. Several months later I received a package containing just that! At this point I was student teaching at Timberline Middle School and wasn't sure how the students would react to my new shiny pink lunchbox sporting a Disney Channel character. But since it's kinda 'cool for school' and since I've always been kinda a rebel (it would be completely appropriate to scoff here) I decided to bring it anyways. Let me tell you, word spread like wildfire. Señora Hekking has a Hannah Montana lunchbox. I went from regular old teacher to the cool kid on the block. Within no time students where asking me for lunchbox-fashion advice and what Disney characters would be the next big thing. Thanks Susan! You rock!

New Found Joy

Several weekends ago, Rory and I had the pleasure of heading to Laguna Beach for an all-expense paid vacay. Friday evening we flew into John Wayne airport. Yes, an airport named after a cowboy. That's how you know you are going to have a great weekend- although I was disappointed to find it completely devoid of cowboy decor and southern accents. Even more alarming was the fact that not a single soul greeted me with the ultimate cowboy platitude: "Howdy Partner". Our driver picked us up at the baggage claim and escorted us to an Escalade which brought us through the glitz and glamour of Orange County before arriving at our beachside hotel: The Montage. Now don't worry, we ain't jaded. Our driver had a keen sense of chic-ness and quick to sniff out our completely un-chic status as poor-married-college student. On the way to the hotel he was sure to point out the local Taco Bell. After the personal tour of our hotel room, I discovered my current obsession. A fountain pen. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have never scripted a sentence with a fountain pen, I urge you to go to your local chic hotel because they give them away for FREE! Unbelievable, I know. Fountain pens are the most choice writing utensils I have ever chanced to use. This certainly was an epiphanous weekend.