Magic in the city...
We AGAIN took advantage of students discounts and went to Carnegie Hall for a Christmas performance. It was magical. When we came out the city was covered in inches of snow and the streets were empty. Not a site you see very often in NYC but it defiantly made for a magical night.
This post is to brag about my wife. She is working incredibly hard at her job and is doing amazing things. Her work and class made the Deseret News. Please check it out!
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705351427/Teacher-takes-UVU-spirit-to-NY.html
I just want to let Lindsay know that as much as she does not believe it, she makes a difference!
*** If anyone gets the Deseret Newspaper could you cut out this article. I would love to get as many copies as possible. Thanks!
We were so lucky to have the Staples/Harris crew out for Thanksgiving. We had a really good time from cooking Thanksgiving dinner, the parade, Central Park, to riding the Subway. We love you guys and can't wait to see you in a few!
Robert and I walkded over to C.P. after church one day and we elated to find out that we hadn't worked our way through the peak of the leaves. They were breath-taking.
Beautiful leaves. Quality time. Familiar faces. Breath of fresh air. Boston. 
*** If you want to have a great time, make a trip to Boston and hang out with this couple. They are so much fun and they always spoil us with their love.
The UVU cross country team had a meet in the Bronx several weekends ago. They had heard about my class being named after UVU and wanted to stop by. It was really neat to have them see my class and my class to see them (20 white Utahans and 20 black 3rd graders). The runners were stunned by the area of the neighborhood. They taught my class the UVU fight song and handed out UVU memorabilia. They then went with us to our weekly assembly and were able to witness my kids dance moves. They "showed off" as much as they could and loved all the attention. 
I can't believe it has almost been three weeks since I ran the marathon. I haven't decided if it seems like long ago or just recently. Life has been at its busiest since I crossed the finished line and I haven't been able to post anything (not to mention my camera was stolen the night before the big race). It was an amazing race. There were so many people cheering us on and all the different and unique neighborhoods. Here are some of my favorite parts of the race:
-Catching the bus at 5:00AM in Time Square with thousands of other runners
-Running over the Verrazano Bridge with "New York, New York" blaring, helicopters everywhere, and boats spraying red, white, and blue water into the air
-My co-workers and students at mile 10 with oranges and hugs
- The adorable little old Brooklyn grandmas handing out paper towels and water in Dixie cups
- Everyone scream "Go Linda" because my shirt said "Linds" but they didn't see the "s" :)
- The bag pipes and the Scottish women running next to me who started to cry and said in their Scottish accent "We feel like we are at home"
- The gospel choirs on the front steps of an old church singing "Ain't no mountain high enough" as we ran by
- The colorful trees over the streets of Queens
- The old man band set up on the side of the road singing their guts out
- Running through the projects and the punked-out teenagers screaming "Keep going.. you can do it"
- All the funny and somewhat inappropriate sign people made
- Being so excited to see Robert and mile 20 in the Bronx where I meet up with him and ran with him for 3 miles..
- Running on the wide streets of Manhattan and thousands of cheering people
- Running by the Guggenheim Museum, FAO Schwarz, the Ritz, and Columbus circle
- Central Park.. need I say more???
- Crossing the finish line and the fat New York apples they give you
We shall see if "Linda" will ever run a marathon again but it really was an experience of a lifetime. I officially have raised ALL the money thanks to so many supportive family and friends! Robert.... I COULDN"T have done it with out you! You did all my long runs with me and encouraged me the whole way. You really are my everything.
*** Our camera was stolen the night before the marathon so we don't have very many pictures .. grr 
This was where mile 20 in the Bronx. Robert was waiting for me with a big smile. 
I am so blessed! I have such supportive family members and friends. I have never fundraised over a few dollars in my life and now I am $400 away from meeting my goal of raising $2,500 for my school. It has been truly humbling to see loved ones and strangers sacrificing when I know it is not an easy time. Today I had a student try to donate his lunch money because he wanted to help me reach my goal. I feel so passionate about helping kids in poverty. They didn't chose this life and whatever I can do to give them opportunities at a better life I am willing to do (even if it means running 26.2 miles). Thanks again for all your love and support. I have put the name of every person that has donated on the back of my race shirt..... your kindness will be pushing me along. xoxoxxoxox 
This is quite the marathon week. You can feel "marathon" in the air! There are advertisements all over the subways, buses, and streets. This week is jam packed with events.
Tuesday- Robin Hood Dinner
Wednesday- Wine and Cheese Gala
Thursday- Marathon Expo
Saturday- Fireworks and Concerts
Sunday- Catch the 5:30AM bus to Staten Island and start my race at 10:20 with 50,000 other runners!!!!
I haven't been nervous until today but I have to keep reminding myself that I am ready and I can do it! I can't wait I am soooo excited!
Congrats to Teri and Leslie for finishing their marathons this weekend!! (I am kinda jellous of you girls :)
This last weekend we went to the legendary Sleepy Hollow with some of my favorite New York peeps and kiddos. It was perfect weather for a spooky day in a cemetery!!!
* Girls thanks for being just as excited as me about jumping pictuers
**Pictures courtesy of Abbie's Blog ( I haven't downloaded my pictures yet)
UVU ALUM BRINGING WOLVERINE SPIRIT TO BROOKLYN CLASSROOM
Newrelease-October 1, 2009
The picture tacked to the bulletin board in Utah Valley University alumna Lindsay Staples’ Brooklyn, N.Y. classroom shows her alma mater with Mount Timpanogos glimmering in the background. Her students – a class of about 20 3rd graders, all of them black, all from one of the nation’s roughest neighborhoods – think it’s fake.
“They’ve never seen mountains like that,” Staples said. “They think it’s a fake picture.”
Staples, a 2006 graduate of UVU’s School of Education, teaches a class of mostly immigrant children at Achievement First East New York Elementary charter school. It’s a far cry from Utah, but Staples was well-prepared for her position teaching underprivileged children thanks to her experience at UVU, where students have to spend a few weeks of their junior year teaching at a highly diverse school in Utah.
“I always thought I wanted to go this route,” Staples said. “But I taught for two weeks at Escalante (Elementary School) in Salt Lake City and that totally sold me on it.”
As soon as she graduated, Staples took a position at Redwood Elementary School in Salt Lake, where her class was made up entirely of Hispanic students and a pair of Sudanese refugees. Now, in New York City, her class is almost exclusively the children of immigrants from Trinidad, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Ghana and other countries around the Caribbean and West Africa.
Because lack of education is epidemic in the Brooklyn neighborhood where she teaches, Staples said her school is focused on getting students to think about post-secondary education from day one. “Kindergarteners can tell you what college they want to attend,” Staples said. In fact, students at Achievement First East New York aren’t even called students – from the moment they walk through the doors they’re referred to as “scholars.”
As a result, each classroom in the school takes on the name and identity of a university or college around the country to keep students’ minds focused on their ultimate goal. Last year, Staples taught under the flag her co-teacher’s alma mater, Vassar College in New York, but this year her classroom is covered in Wolverine Green.
“I never thought I’d be using the University’s name again,” Staples said with a laugh. “But all day long it’s ‘Utah Valley do this,’ ‘UVU come over here.’”
The rest of the 3rd grade is Harvard, Columbia and the University of Massachusetts and the teachers instructing the classes hail from a wide range of backgrounds, including many who are either currently in or alumni of the Teach for America program, which places recent college graduates in urban and rural schools to help expand educational opportunity for the less fortunate children in our society. Staples said the school’s principal is a Jamaican immigrant who put himself through Columbia and Cornell and “is all about pushing these kids.”
The encouragement seems to be paying off, as the East New York school has posted excellent results in standardized test and recently graduated its first class with a very high percentage of them going to onto post-secondary education, according to Staples. Because of the nature of the charter school, students are chosen for acceptance in a blind lottery and there is a waiting list of more than 1,000 for Staples’ school.
“I went to the lottery last year and the auditorium was packed,” Staples said. “The families of the names that weren’t drawn were devastated. It’s a huge opportunity for them to come to this charter school”
The public high school in that area that primary schools fed into closed down a few years ago, Staples said, because graduation rates were so low and dropout rates were so high.
Staples’ multicultural experience may be at the extreme end of the spectrum, but studies and initiatives from Utah universities indicate that teachers increasingly find themselves in classrooms with large numbers of minority students. By 2050, one University of Utah study suggests, those minority groups might not be minorities at all.
That information prompted School of Education Dean Briant Farnsworth, Associate Dean Linda Pierce and Associate Professor Axel Ramirez to form the Latino Educators of Tomorrow program to identify high school juniors and seniors who want to become teachers and support them through the remainder of high school and their college careers. Thanks in part to that program, there are currently 11 Latino students enrolled in professional education programs at UVU.
Back in Brooklyn, Staples might as well be teaching in Utah Valley with all the Wolverine Green being flashed around her classroom. Word of her very young UVU class bounced around the University and T-shirts, posters and other UVU information was sent to the help decorate the UVU Brooklyn campus. Staples has even posted a YouTube video of her class chanting “UVU,” something they do each Friday during a reading circle workshop with other classes to work on citizenship skills. Because so many of her students are the children of immigrants or immigrants themselves, Staples said much of the curriculum is about immigration and American society and citizenship.
If teaching in an environment like East New York sounds exhausting, that’s because it is. Staples’ school day is extended, lasting from 7:15 a.m. until 4 p.m. with after-school programs after that. Maximizing the kids’ time in school not only increases their exposure to the curriculum, it decreases their exposure to the rough streets outside.
“It’s one of the most rewarding jobs you could ever have,” Staples said. “You work to death but you also love it to death. It’s motivating to go into a job where you leave every day feeling like you made a difference.”
And as far as college is concerned, Staples has a group of 3rd graders who are pretty well sold on Utah as their choice for higher education.
“They all know their graduation date,” Staples said. “In 2022 they’ll be graduating from UVU.”
I never in a million years thought that I would ever use my college name again….. Our school's mission is for our scholars (students) to not only pass and complete Elementary/High school but also that 100% of our scholars graduate from top colleges. This is a pretty presumptuous goal seeing that this neighborhood has a high school passing rate of 21%. In preparation of this the grades are referred to as the year they will graduate from college (3rd grade=2022) and the classroom's are named after the college the teacher graduated from. Therefore, this year my classroom is called Utah Valley University. I spend most of my days saying "Utah Valley take out your books" or "Utah Valley get in line". It is a crazy phenomenon. On a whim I emailed the president of UVU (Matthew Holland) to ask for donations for my class. I thought it was a long shot but no more than an hour later I a reply asking my students' shirt sizes and asking permission to do a news story on my class. UVU supplied my class with shirts, pencils, banners, and lot of really cool UVU stuff. Our first assembly my class marched down wearing all their UVU gear and chanting "Utah Valley University... You know!". I have been a proud UVU alumni ever since.
A HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to all the people who have donated to my class in honor of my marathon!!! I am so blessed to have so much support in my life. If you or anyone you know is still interested in donating visit my race page http://www.robinhood.org/give-tribute/gift-registry/registry.aspx?r=LindsayMStaples ..... Just look at how cute there are.. you can't help but to donate :)
I needed to get away from the city a get fix of Utah and family so I made a really quick(72 hours) trip to the Wasatch Front. It was well needed and very rejuvenating. We had fun getting pedicures, shopping, talking, 4 Wheeling, Thriller, visiting family and eating out.
The two BIGGEST REASONS I went home.....
JULIA AND HAILEY
You the stereotypical crazy aunt that pinches and kisses cheeks and the kids avoid because she is so overwhelming.. I think I am turning into that aunt.. I can't help it she is so stinkin' cute! Look at those kiss marks.
HELP!!!!
On November 1, I am running 26.2 poverty-fighting miles in the N.Y.C. Marathon for Team Robin Hood. I have never really thought or wanted to run a marathon but when this opportunity arose I couldn't pass it up.
In addition to the physical challenge of running a marathon, I have decided to take on the challenge of raising $2,500 to help raise money for my school. Robin Hood is one of my school's largest donators and I have experienced firsthand the effects that their donations have on my students.
I know times are tight but any amount will help. An anonymous donator has generously agreed to match each of my donations!!
I hope you will consider supporting me. Your gift will not only inspire me to cross the finish line, but more importantly will help give children a better education and a better chance at life. Please visit my race webpage at:
http://www.robinhood.org/give-tribute/gift-registry/registry.aspx?r=LindsayMStaples
On the day of the race all donators will be invited to Robin Hood's block party at mile 20. The Mile 20 Block Party is complete with a giant JumboTron, a fantastic DJ, t-shirts and bleacher seating.
Thank you so much for your support!
P.S. You can learn more about Robin Hood by visiting www.robinhood.org. Because Robin Hood's board underwrites all operating costs, all donations to Robin Hood are 100% tax-deductible.
I know this is tacky bogging but I am desperate for donations!
This weekend we made a last minute decision to go to DC and see the Harris family.. ok lets be honest we went to see our adorable niece and Sara and Matt were just a great bonus. We are in love with this little girl.. we had a pretend first birthday party because we won't be there on her real birthday! I am pretty sure we are the coolest aunt and uncle ever! Thank you Harris family for a fun weekend! ps check out the pic with Robert teaching his niece about deoxyribose nucleic acid! 
