Maybe a Weekend Blogger

I'm thinking I might just have to do my blogging on the weekends.

School + motherhood=very exhausted person

During the week, I feel so rushed that by the time I have a moment to sit down, I'm so tired I just want to go to bed.

This week was a doozy. First, I was beyond tired from Elmo Live on Sunday. (I was too tired to eat my dinner. If you know how much I love food, then you know I was really tired.) I already had a busy week that included meetings, lots of grading and class prep, and an honor roll party I was in charge of that was for 150 students. Then, on Monday, I received an email reminder that it was my week to do "teacher appreciation snacks" for Amelia's daycare teachers. And while that may not sound like a big deal, let's just call it what it is: a competition between the mothers to see who can produce the best tasting snacks presented in the cutest way possible.

I hate that kind of stuff.

Anyway, I produced an acceptable basket, I think, and now my turn is done for the year. Thank goodness.

So all that was going on, and the rain just seemed to exacerbate everything. It was a week I was glad to put behind me.

Other than that, school is going very well, knock on wood. We've had a nice weekend (well, except for Darryl, who is still very unhappy about FSU's loss), and I'm currently experiencing that Sunday-afternoon depression that comes with the realization that a full school week lies ahead. And it isn't really the teaching part I dread; it's the getting up early, fixing the lunches, and rushing through the routine that wears and tears.

Alas...

Sesame Street Live!!

Last Sunday, Darryl and I took Amelia to a matinee of Sesame Street Live: Elmo's Green Thumb. This was our first attempt taking Amelia to anything like this, and I consider it a success.

First, Darryl, who is extremely wrapped around his girl's finger, got tickets on the 3rd row. We both figured that if the action was too far away from Amelia, she would lose interest quickly.

She seemed to really enjoy it. She was either wide-eyed with interest, pointing and babbling to one thing and then another, or else she was dancing and jumping up and down.

I didn't get any great pics because the child would not stop moving the entire time. Here's a pic a tried to get with her in front of Elmo at the merchandise booth, but I couldn't get her to stop looking at Elmo long enough to look at me:

Darryl even tried to get a pic of both of us with Elmo, but you see who was the object of her affection:

Watching the action...

This next photo makes me laugh. The character Zoe came down to our row and approached Amelia. Amelia went to her (this is totally not something she gets from me, as I still have a phobia of life-sized costumed characters), but she was a little shy. I love the hand behind her back as Zoe left.


I do actually have a few photos with Amelia's face in them. :) This one is my favorite; I think it was taken before the show actually started.

We had lots of fun, and I look forward to doing this kind of stuff with Amelia in the future!

This little obsession hobby of mine

I've mentioned once or twenty times on this blog that I love scrapbooking. Love it.

At the end of last school year, after a horrible week that capped off a pretty yucky year, Darryl surprised me by registering me for the Creative Escape scrapbooking retreat in Phoenix, Arizona. That's right. Arizona. When Darryl decides he wants to give a great surprise, he does it right!

The retreat is held at Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort, and it feels like it is in the middle of the desert. Bazzill Basics paper is one of the sponsors of the event, and Heidi Swapp, one of the "bigwigs" in the world of scrapbooking, is also one of the hosts and teachers at the event.

Here's the basic concept: Each attendee signs up to be in one of eight groups. There are eight classes taught by eight different teachers, and in each class, attendees make a different project, using new techniques or products to apply to scrapbooking or any other type of craft project. So over the course of two days, each attendee goes to eight classes and goes home with eight projects. We didn't really scrapbook in the traditional sense, but we were doing what they kept calling "off the page scrapbooking," which is basically a craft project that features photos, but might not be a traditional scrapbook. (If you are not remotely even interested in scrapbooking, you have probably stopped reading by now, right?)

Anyway, the retreat was three weeks ago, the last several days of August. It was wonderful. Here's a little recap of what it was all about...

I actually flew out on Wednesday evening after school. That's a story in itself because I missed my plane (technically, I wasn't there in time to get my bag checked before the flight, and since I was carrying a bag full of Exacto knives and sharp scissors, carrying it on the plane was not an option). Then I had to wait a few hours for the next flight, and then we had to wait for another hour because of lightning on the runway. I finally landed in Phoenix at about midnight Phoenix time, and as I waited for my shuttle in the wait area outside the airport, I was keenly aware that even in the late-night hours, Phoenix is HOT.

By the way, here's a photo of the view outside my room. Pretty cool, huh?


Thursday
Thursday was more of a relaxed day. I got up and had breakfast at the hotel with my friends Blayne and Mary, who had flown out there on Tuesday. Then we did a little shopping. One of the scrapbooking megastores in Phoenix sets up shop at the resort, and this little shop was almost as big as one of the places I frequently shop at here. They also had all kinds of stuff we don't get in Atlanta. I had to practice some great restraint and willpower, but I did walk away with a decent stash. I think Darryl was a little concerned when I called home that evening and said, "It was understood, wasn't it, that I would be doing some shopping while I was here...right?"

That afternoon, our last friend in our group--Cathy--joined us and we went to a trunk show where we met our teachers and looked at some of their projects just to get a sense of their personal "style." While we met all the teachers, here are the ones I liked the best:

Below is a photo of us with Tim Holtz, the lone male teacher in the group. I know the photo of us is blurry (thanks to the stranger who took our photo), but I had to include it because his class was my absolute favorite. He is pretty well-known in the scrapbooking industry because of his line of scrapbook tools and inks and such. His class was the last one we took that weekend, so we ended on a high note.

And here's the project I made in Tim's class. It's a little mini-album that is titled "Moments from the Journey." I love it.


Heidi Swapp was also great. She spoke at one of the evening events, and her class was wonderful also. I am not a big cryer, but that woman had me tearing up several times as she talked about her passion for preserving memories and showed us lots of "little moments" in her kids' lives that she had scrapbooked through the years. One of the main reasons I even started scrapbooking was to preserve little memories of Amelia that I don't want to forget, so Heidi's message really resonated with me. Anyway, here we are with her:


The other teacher whose class I really enjoyed was Heather Bailey. She has a background in fashion and is known for her great bright retro-floral fabrics and sewing patterns, but she is now breaking into the scrapbook industry. I loved her stuff, and her class was lots of fun, too.

After the trunk show was over, we had dinner at a great Mexican restaurant and then went back to the hotel to rest up for the next two days.

Friday and Saturday
These were the days we actually went to the classes. Basically, each class was an 1 hour and 45 minutes long. We'd break long enough to grab a coke or some water and head to the next class. Then we'd break for lunch and go to two more classes before going to dinner. Both evenings, there was some kind of event after dinner--Friday it was another "project" that I stayed for just part of and then left early to go to bed, and the next evening it was a big celebration with lots of door prizes and a keynote speaker. It was a fun evening that capped off a wonderful weekend.

I also really enjoyed the time I spent with my friends. I knew Blayne pretty well before we went, but Mary and Cathy were more like acquaintances who I feel I can truly call "friends" now. Great ladies, great fun, great time!

Am I the Only Teacher Who...

...periodically asks herself if her students are learning anything?

...sometimes wonders if she understands the material enough to teach it effectively?

...questions if her essay grading is really fair and not some arbitrary mark on a paper?

...takes forever grading things and never seems to catch up?

...feels as though her lesson plans are stale?

Please tell me I'm not the only one!

(Can you tell I've had a rough teaching day?)

What's New With Amelia

I thought I'd share some Amelia cuteness with you.

First, here's a pic from a day when someone at her daycare managed to get her hair into a ponytail. I can never get her to stay still long enough to do anything with her hair besides put a bow on one side.



I could have cropped this picture below, but I wanted you to see how Amelia's toys have taken over the house. I was always one of those people who swore my living room would still look like an "adult" living room when I had kids. Hahahaha! Because we are a little cramped for space, we decided to turn our used-maybe-twice-a-year dining room into more of a play area for Amelia so our guest room could once again have a real bed in it instead of a sofa bed.


Here she is doing a little dance to Sesame Street:

And here she is, just running around the living room. Just a typical afternoon in the life of Amelia.

Indoctrination: Are You Kidding Me?

My AP students were assigned this book by M@lcolm Gl@dwell to read over the summer.When they returned to school, they had rave reviews for the book, some students even giving it such praise as, “This is one of the best books I’ve ever read!”While not everyone agreed wholeheartedly with Gl@dwell’s point—that the success of a person is based on much more than that one person’s efforts and motivation—the students still loved it.

At the beginning of our second day of discussion of the book, I showed a short video clip of an interview Gl@dwell had with Anderson Cooper. In the video clip, Gl@dwell hails Obama as an “outlier” and criticizes a comment Jeb Bush made once that he is a “self-made man.”(It should be noted that Gl@dwell doesn’t believe in anyone being “self-made”; his book argues the whole “it takes a village” premise.) After showing that clip, several of my students, convinced Gl@dwell is an Obama supporter, declared they no longer liked the book.

Are you kidding me?

Several days later, my colleagues and I got into a discussion in the teachers’ lounge about how we have fallen into this rut, for lack of a better word, where we can no longer have enlightened discussions in the classroom and discuss issues without misinformed opinions and bias. People are labeled either “liberal” or “conservative,” and if someone falls into the category different from what we are, we have no interest in what that person has to say.It’s frustrating to me as both a teacher in the classroom and a citizen in this country.

I was disappointed in those few AP students because I was hoping they would be, well, more enlightened. A book they had been raving about minutes before had suddenly fallen from grace because of the perceived “liberal” views of the author.

But after spending some time on Facebook last night, I realize I shouldn’t have been surprised by my students’ response to Gl@dwell. The apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree. My students are merely reiterating what their parents are saying at home.

I am frustrated/perplexed/annoyed by the reaction to the Obama’s upcoming address to our nation’s students. I saw statuses and comments along the lines of, “If my child’s school is airing that on Tuesday, my kid is going to be ‘sick’ that day.” I even saw one comment on a friend’s page (the comment was made by a “friend” of my “friend) that compared this to Hitler’s indoctrination of Germany’s youth.

Are you kidding me?

What do these parents think Obama is going to say? “Okay, kids, when you go home today, tell your parents that you want universal healthcare.” Perhaps “When your parents are asleep tonight, whisper in their ear, ‘More government! More government!’” or better yet, “Socialism! Socialism!”

Obama is supposed to talk about the importance of education, hard work, and perseverance. In all honesty, I think that is a message that all students can benefit from. I think of my 3rd period class; two-thirds of them (at least) come from disadvantaged homes. I’m also thinking about my minority students who probably don’t feel inspired by me (although I try!), but could possibly be inspired by a President who shares their race.

Ironically enough, many of these same parents who are threatening to keep their kids home are also arguing that the Obama speech is a waste of instructional time. So…giving up twenty to thirty minutes for a speech is a waste of instructional time, but keeping a perfectly well student at home for the whole day isn’t?

I have never stated my political preference here. For the most part, it is because I don’t think it matters. The bottom line is that regardless of whom I voted for in the last election—regardless of whom anyone voted for—the man who was elected President deserves respect for his position. He deserves to have an audience. To dislike Obama and his views is fine; we are all free to our opinions. But to boycott a speech about the importance of education simply because he isn’t your presidential choice? What is that teaching our children?

Basically, it is teaching them intolerance. Disrespect for opposing viewpoints. Closed-mindedness. I fear the rut I mentioned earlier is only going to get deeper, wider.

I’m one hundred percent for standing up for one’s beliefs. I’m also one hundred percent for being respectful. I’m one hundred percent for having different views from those of the President of the United States. But I also believe in hearing the message first before becoming paranoid about secret agendas and indoctrination of youth.

And frankly, if the youth I teach are indoctrinated to work hard in school and stay the course, that’s okay with me.

(FYI—Now that I have stepped down from my soapbox…My intent is not to offend anyone. It’s just that I really cannot believe the ridiculous things I’ve heard about this. I’m still reeling from the comparison to Hitler…)

In the words of Pink...

..."Please, please don't leave me."

I promise I will blog again. I actually have stuff to blog about. Right now, though, I'm making "Blueberry Yum-Yum" to take to a teacher potluck tomorrow (we have a half day, thank goodness).

So come back this weekend. I'll have a blog post waiting for you.