Tag Archives: teachers live at school

>The Post Holiday Letdown

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My school is one of the few that still allows kids to dress for Halloween. We call it Storybook Character Day, and we encourage students and staff to dress up. I have a Bah, Humbug! attitude toward Halloween costumes and lost learning time, but they talked me into it. I dressed as (did anyone guess this?) Minerva McGonagall from the Harry Potter series. With a simple black cape ($12 from Lillian Vernon), my hair in a bun, my reading glasses on my nose, and a name sticker that proclaimed, “Hello, my name is Minerva” I greeted the incoming students at the morning bell.

Down the hall are three very creative teachers. They dressed as a unit in black from head to toe, with….

Oh, a picture is worth a thousand words, or in this case, three. I present to you:

Three Blind Mice.

Extra Costume Credit goes to my darling son, Amigo, who loaned them an old cane so that they could make theirs look authentic.

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>The license plate game: it’s not what you think.

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>Ah, road trips. It’s amazing how much you can glean from a few license plates. It’s not the child’s ABC game or List the States game, either.

I got on the road early this morning, drove through Jo to Go (she knew my order again — must be going there too often), and hit the highway for my training workshop in Mad City. As I moved from the main highway to the smaller, two-lane road, I noticed I was not alone. What the heck were all these cars doing on this not-so-major byway at 6:30 on a Saturday morning?
The answer: the car ahead of me had a UW-Madison license plate. Ah-ha! Badger game kicks off at 11:00 a.m. This line of traffic is headed for Camp Randall. Parking is limited, and of course, they needed to allow time for tailgate parties.
I arrived at my destination. On the way into the parking lot, I noticed several personalized plates. HARP 1. TUBA 1. ISING 4U. DRUM LDY. MUSCPWR. And these, a little more challenging to decipher: BZASAB* and ROA ROE*. If I hadn’t known I was going to the School Music Association building, the cars around it would have clued me in.
It was a great workshop, both informative and validating. When we were in discussions and I heard an expert make the same comment that was in my head, I felt reassured that I really, really do know what I’m doing. When I learned statistics that show how many students participated in the types of festivals that I judged last year, I knew my work was and continued to be important. For example: 250,000 students nationwide play football. 219,000 students participated in music festivals in my state: that’s statewide, not national. And the best part? None of these student musicians sat on the bench. Every one was an active participant.
So if I moaned a little when my alarm went off early, if I doubted my wisdom in spending the day on the road, now I know it was worthwhile.
And that’s OKBYME.

The two more challenging plates? BZASAB = Busy as a bee ROA ROE = Row, row, as in Row, row, row your Boat, Gently down the stream…

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>If you can read this, well, you can read between the lines.

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>I could tell it had been a long, busy week at school. All the signs were there.

On Friday:
I pulled into the Jo to Go drive-thru at 6:45 a.m. and the barista knew what I wanted (16 oz. hazelnut, black, keep the change).
I pulled into the school parking lot and realized I’d gotten my coffee, but forgotten my ID (smart card for building entry) and room key.
I reached for my coffee and realized that my ID was sitting on the dashboard of the car from the night before.
More teachers were in jeans and casual, comfortable clothing than I’ve ever seen in this building. Even the principal was in a (stylish) workout suit.

Can you tell it was parent-teacher conference week? Busy, productive, and exhausting. I’m ready for a nap.
And I still have one more night of conferences to go.
Thank goodness for the long weekend coming up.

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>Three for me, three for you

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>Melanie, a blogger and honest-to-goodness wonderful author, is stirring up interest in her Buy Three a Month mission. Her goal is to encourage readers to buy three books each month, then go to her blog and tell her about it. She wants folks to tell her which books they bought, and a month later she’ll ask for short summaries and reviews of those books. This is for fun, folks, not for obligation. Buy paperback or hardcover, from the sale table or farther back in the store, but pick up three books for your very own.
Today is the fifteenth of October, so she posted her three for October along with short reviews of the three she bought in September. You can read about them here.
October is one of the craziest months in my teaching life, so I don’t know if I’ll get to the bookstore, much less have time to read three new books. I did, however, buy Nicholas Evan’s The Divide. I’ve enjoyed his other books enough to read and reread them, so I’m hoping this one will keep me company by the fireplace on the long weekend after parent-teacher conferences.
So, Melanie, I may get out to buy two more, but if not, I promise to reread two I already own. I’ll make it up in November. Or December. Or … next summer? But no matter what, I’ll keep reading.

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>Is it procrastination if I’m getting other work done?

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>I should be correcting the chapter 1 tests and analyzing the chapter 2 pretests and planning my next Social Studies unit.

Instead, I…

  • fed rabbit and refilled her pellet container
  • sorted laundry
  • washed four loads of laundry
  • hung one load to dry
  • put another load in the dryer
  • started a loaf of bread in the breadmaker
  • unloaded the dishwasher and put the clean dishes away
  • reloaded the dishwasher with dirty dishes
  • brought the kitchen waste (including coffee grounds and filter) to the compost
  • turned the compost (mmm, the compost is such a luscious deep brown…)
  • served lunch to myself and Amigo
  • made beds
  • got the winter outerwear from storage
  • put the winter gloves, hats, and mittens on the deck to air out (to get rid of the basement storage odor)

And still on my list:

  • bake cookies
  • clean rabbit litter box
  • finish laundry (dry, fold, put away)
  • give Amigo a ride to the homecoming dance
  • do the grocery shopping
  • pick up Amigo from the homecoming dance
  • make supper (probably grilled cheese on homemade bread, see above)

Maybe today is housework day, and tomorrow will be schoolwork. That’s not true procrastination and avoidance, is it?

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>shoulds, once again, are bogus

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>Should: Appointments, especially early morning appointments, should never be cancelled.
Reality: The phone rang at 6:25 a.m. to cancel my 7:00 physical therapy appointment
End result: I had a morning off (half a sick day) that I didn’t need.

Should: I should have cancelled the sick day. It was early enough in the morning, and I didn’t need the time off any more.
Reality: I had brought home a bag full of work to do after the appointment.
End result: I stayed home anyway. I waded through four piles of papers, cleaned the kitchen, and blogged.

Should: Cancelled appointments should be rescheduled easily and conveniently.
Reality: I’m a teacher, people. My work schedule is NOT flexible! And I have parent-teacher conferences next week in the evenings, so I’m not free after school, either!
End result: I took an afternoon appointment on a day between conferences. I’ll blow another half sick day. Bleh.

Shoulds: I should drink less coffee.
Reality: I like my coffee.
End result: After the appointment was cancelled and I put Amigo on his school bus, I made a pot of Sumatran and started in to work on my school papers. Math tests, vocabulary sheets, penmanship, and more, met with my green pen while the Early Show played softly in the background.

Ah,well, I’ll be ready for conferences next week. I’ll be rested and relaxed (and caffeinated) this afternoon, too. No crabby teaching in Social Studies. Nuh-uh.

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>Walk a mile in my shoes

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>How far would you go for your child? We’ve had some challenging, even difficult, times with our children, and I’ve had some tough times dealing with the special education staff working with my child…a not-so-comfortable task, since I teach in the same district. Let’s look at this from another angle, though.
I posted yesterday after a frustrating day of teaching. I deal with more in a single day than ER or Grey’s Anatomy would if the shows were set in the psych wing. Really, folks, I can’t (and won’t try to) diagnose anyone, but there are symptoms of all kinds of serious problems just bouncing around my school building, dressed in Hello Kitty and Tony Hawk. Certain parents, IMHO, haven’t gone far enough.
I kept seeing little (thank goodness, not front page news) blurbs about Britney Spears losing custody of her children. Teachers are mandated reporters; if we suspect any neglect or abuse, we are required by law to report it. After that, it’s up to the folks at protective services to assess the case and figure out if the kids are safe or not. If not, they determine what kind of action is necessary.
Britney’s kids are not near school age yet. They’re not in regular day care, either, another field where the teachers are mandated reporters. Fortunately, the children had an advocate in the form of their father, and he had enough money to take this to court himself without waiting for the wheels of public service to turn. Now all involved need to hope that he will do right by his kids.
Unfortunately, Brit doesn’t seem to have a support network that will help her get her act together and learn how to be a mom. She can’t do it alone. Who will step up to be her mentor? How far will her family go to help her, and ultimately help her children?

How far would you go for your kids? I hope I never need to know the real answer.

Sponsored by Parent Bloggers Network
Blog Blast inspired by the new book Dangerous Admissions

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>The Dark Dreamweaver by Nick Ruth: Number 1 in the Remin Chronicles

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>The Dark Dreamweaver by Nick Ruth
Book 1 of The Remin Chronicles

The first book in a planned series, The Dark Dreamweaver takes a young boy into a fantasy world where he discovers that while magic isn’t as easy as he thought, he has a talent and ability to learn it and use it well. David, the main character, enjoys illusion and “tricks” as much as the next child, and when he discovers a wizard cursed into a never-ending life cycle of a monarch, he eagerly agrees to help him combat the evil being who has taken over the world of Remin and caused literal nightmares in David’s human world.
In the world of Remin, David and his new friend Houdin join forces with several imaginative creatures on a journey to find and combat the evil wizard, freeing Houdin from his curse and recapturing control of Remin and the dream world in the process.
Houdin and his friends are fascinating and friendly characters. These diverse and multi-faceted characters adapt to each other and bond as a team, using their strengths to compensate for each others’ weaknesses. Houdin reveals that Remin residents have become dependent on a finite resource, spectrum, and suffer greatly when an unnatural shortage develops. Is this shortage a veiled statement on our own world’s dependence on fossil fuels for energy? Perhaps, but it‘s not obvious or heavy handed.
The main weakness in The Dark Dreamweaver is stylistic. Overuse of simple sentences produces an almost choppy feel. Increasingly more complex sentences will improve its flow. But on the other hand, the author also uses creative and humorous statements such as “If you have ever been in a vortex between worlds, you know what happened next.” With practice and experience, I expect author Nick Ruth to become better and better.
I enjoyed The Dark Dreamweaver and look forward to the continuing saga of The Remin Chronicles. I can willingly recommend this book to those who enjoy fantasy, but may not be advanced enough readers to tackle some of the longer books in the genre. In fact, now that I am finished reading my publisher-provided copy, I plan to donate it to the library of the school in which I teach. I’m sure it will not sit on the shelf for long.
As I was nearing the end of the book (during a silent reading session at school), I saw two butterflies rise from the prairie garden below my classroom window. Coincidence? Perhaps, but you’ll have to read The Dark Dreamweaver to truly appreciate the connection.

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>Aargh, ya must wash after ya use da head, me lads

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I missed it. Well, I knew it was Talk Like a Pirate Day, but I also knew if I mentioned it to my fourth grade class they’d be lost for the day. No math. No reading. No Social Studies. Well, Creative Writing might have included some interesting dialogue. But in the category of better late than never, I went to a place where the grog, er, coffee is strong, and took the quiz to find my inner pirate. Here’s my result.

You are The Cap’n!

Some men and women are born great, some achieve greatness and some slit the throats of any scalawag who stands between them and unlimited power. You never met a man – or woman – you couldn’t eviscerate. You are the definitive Man of Action, the CEO of the Seven Seas, Lee Iacocca in a blousy shirt and drawstring-fly pants. You’re mission-oriented, and if anyone gets in the way, that’s his problem, now isn’t? Your buckle was swashed long ago and you have never been so sure of anything as your ability to bend everyone to your will. You will call anyone out and cut off his head if he shows any sign of taking you on or backing down. If one of your lieutenants shows an overly developed sense of ambition he may find more suitable accommodations in Davy Jones’ locker. That is, of course, IF you notice him. You tend to be self absorbed – a weakness that may keep you from seeing enemies where they are and imagining them where they are not.

What’s Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!

(Phew! At least they didn’t say I was the ship’s cook.)

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