quoteable Addy, Senators not making good choices

Addison: "Mommy, I'm so proud of you for putting on your shoes all by yourself! Good job!" Funny stuff.

This Senate Bill 6 stuff sucks. I may change careers. So far, I'm thinking of working at Hallmark. I've always loved Hallmark. With the variety of outside influences that overwhelm my students' each day, there is no way that I will show enough student gains (at least when measured by standardized testing) to be retained. I am so disappointed with the 21 Senators who think Senate Bill 6 is a fair and equitable way to manage teaching and student achievement/learning.

recent Addison-isms

1. Uses "from" instead of "when". Ex., "Can we go to Nonnie's house from we are done with dinner?"
2. Acutely aware of sounds and often says things incorrectly, but will correct you if you try to correct her: "Whistle Man" instead of "This Old Man". This causes us to be aware of our pronunciation.
3. Ability to replace words in songs with other rhyming words.
4. Enjoys replacing words in songs with silly words just to make us laugh. Particularly fond of using "booty" or "goose".

thoughts from my brain

First, I need to clarify - my sleepless night on Friday was not at all related to my caffiene overdose, but rather the steroids that were injected into my hip late that afternoon. The steroids were given to reduce my hives that I'd been battling for a week. I only just yesterday figured out what was causing the hives. My Snuggie. My cuddly, fuzzy, pink Snuggie. It now must be retired...to the garbage, unless someone claims it first. Any takers? Perhaps my brother Andrew is interested...

I love days like today. The weather was chilly but great. My students were cooperative and compliant, for the most part. I had a long-overdue and much needed parent meeting where the parent appreciated and praised us for our efforts with his child. (It was at this point in the day that I realized I was still wearing my "Belle" sticker that Addison adorned me with earlier this morning!) I got to give my intern an excellent evaluation (she really is going to be an awesome teacher). Then I got to go pick up Addison and Robert. We shopped at Kmart (Addison's first ever visit there), stopped in Toys-R-Us and bought Addison an adorable Princess castle alarm clock (yes, she really did need a clock for her room), and then headed off to eat yummy pizza at Barnaby's. We came home and have been lauging for the last hour. Now I'm stoked to play "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, thanks to Jason who shared an online version with us!). I absolutely adore days like this.

Looking forward to breakfast for dinner tomorrow with Uncle Patrick! Yum!

happy times

Thankfully, the last few weeks of school have been better, but not stellar. I blame any negativity at school on the fact that this "9 weeks" is actually 57 days long. For those of you who can't/don't like to do math in your free time, that adds up to an 11.5 week "9 weeks". 9 weeks my foot. Anyway, the extra weeks leading up to spring break have been trying on everyone at my school. We are now only 5 days away. Wish us luck.

HUGE yard sale at Betty & Phill's tomorrow. They sell their house in early April, so we're clearing out the clutter tomorrow from 8 - 1. Come say goodbye to the house that we all know & loved...and buy some stuff while you're there.

You will never believe this but, TWICE in the last seven days, I have voluntarily eaten broccoli! That has never, ever happened before in my lifetime. Robert is on this whole, "I'm going to eat vegetables now" kick, and I certainly can't let him best me there. Though so far he's ahead due to his eating zucchini and squash last week. Addison still can't handle broccoli, but she tries, bless her little heart.

Some of you may notice that I am posting this at 3am. Why, you ask? Because I had a gallon and a half (ish) of soda at Sonny's tonight (you know how humongous their glasses are!). Problem was that we ate dinner at about 8pm...so the caffeine continues to surge through me and gives me so much excess energy that I can't sleep. I got about two hours and have been awake since. Being ready for the yard sale may not be too much trouble for me, if I don't get to sleep soon.

Happy weekend everyone!

Show off!

Addison spends a great deal of her free time attempting to whistle. This video captured her best efforts to date. She beamed with pride afterwards, continually repeating, "I'm a big girl now that I can whistle! But I still can't snap." I guess we know what her next project will be.

thank heaven for weekends

While I may have endured an exceptionally horrible week (there were several events that transpired this week that I am choosing not to blog about), I intend to stay positive. Last night, I pulled a "Power Thought Card" that one of my fabulous Aunts (don't remember which one) gave to me many, many years ago and it read: "I turn every experience into an opportunity. Each problem has a solution. All experiences are opportunities to learn and grow. I am safe." Wow. I haven't looked at those cards in forever plus one day, and when I finally decide to open the box again the card is completely relevant to my current situation. Some (Read: Robert) will say that those cards are so generic that their 'meaning' could be made to fit any situation. I say that I can take it to mean whatever I want...and if that one little card is going to inspire me to keep going with my head held high, then so be it. If all else fails, at least the weekend is here now. All is well in your world when you're with the ones you love the most.

education perspective

After reading the front page of today's Tallahassee Democrat today, I found myself agitated. Charlie Crist was quoted as saying that Florida needs to maintain it's focus on education by holding schools accountable for student progress and having stricter teacher standards. Relief washed over me as I read Jackie Pons' response stating that he agreed stricter standards are important, but without adequate funding, little can be accomplished. AMEN, Mr. Pons!

Can I tell you how hard it is to teach with out-dated textbooks? And if you're lucky enough to get updated curriculum, it's highly likely that you won't receive all of the necessary at one time. For example, my co-worker who teaches high school English is still waiting for the Teacher's Guide that accompanies her students' textbooks which were delivered to her back in OCTOBER. Seriously. What good are scientifically-researched, organized, structured textbooks if the teacher doesn't have the teacher guide to go with it? Sure, teachers can "wing it" and improvise, but that process will not necessarily produce quality instruction. (This is NOT to say that I doubt my co-workers ability. She is a great English teacher!)

Can I tell you how hard it is to integrate technology into instruction when the computers we have are so out-dated that daily internal system failures occur? What about when you don't have enough desks - forget nice desks, just enough desks for all your students? What about a not having a music teacher, art teacher, drama teacher, or school nurse?

I could go on forever, but I won't. I'm not intending to complain, but rather make people aware at how hard it really is to teach these days. I really, really wish that the powerful political leaders knew what all this pressure and lack of support was doing to teachers AND students in schools. They seem so out of touch. I love my job, and would like to continue loving my job. Thanks.

The Querulous Day

You know how sometimes you plan something that you think is going to be awesome and it ends up setting an entirely different tone for the day? That happened today. I made up a "Word of the Day" list back in January. Today's word of the day happened to be "querulous", meaning argumentative, whiny, complaining, fretful. (See: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/querulous) I don't know if this being the word of the day today was a crazy coincidence, but the entire day was full of argument, unrest, and whining children of all ages. By 11:00, I was ready to head home. I was exhausted mentally. I can only be called a racist so many times before I'm ready to cry. I can only tolerate so much obscenity before I want to scream back. I can only handle so much anger, hate, and distrust before I want to go back home and start the day over again. Today I wanted to do all three. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. (I think Judith Viorst is awesome for writing that book.) Some days I really love my job. Today was not one of them. My querulous students came and left, only to leave me facing querulous co-workers. I am ready to head back tomorrow and start fresh. THAT'S what I love about my job. Each day is a fresh, new start. Everyone who works there thinks that way, including the kids. It's a comforting idea.

My unceasingly-thoughtful spouse took Addison to the park after dinner so that I could get some Wii Fit time in. I managed about 30 minutes of exercise and felt much more relaxed. I also made a cinnamon crumb cake that we will be sharing with Patrick when he joins us tomorrow for dinner.

Here's to the end of another Monday. May Tuesday be far more productive and pleasant for us all.