This was written 5 years ago.  I love it.

A conversation between Tyler (age 10) and his mother: We were at the Point Pleasant Boardwalk, and came upon a huge sand sculpture on the beach, dedicated to the restoration of the Jersey Shore. Only the top of the sculpture was visible, as it was walled off, with an entrance farther down the walkway. Tyler wanted to go inside the display, and was clamoring for his mother to allow him to do so. Tyler: Mom, I'm going in there to see it. Kristin: No, Tyler, you're not. Tyler: Yeah, I want to. Kristin: No, Tyler. T: But Mom, I want to. K: Tyler, I said, "no". T: Why not? I want to. K: Tyler, no. I have no idea how you get in, no idea how you get out, and no idea who else is in there. T: But I want to! K: TYLER, NO! I SAID NO, AND IF YOU DON'T STOP, WE CAN JUST LEAVE! T: Aww, Mom, you don't care anything about me! Lynn and I looked at each other and laughed, remembering the many, many similar conversations we had with Kristin and her sisters.

I am Back (I Think)

Hello Folks,

I think I may be back to the blogging world.  Now that my grandchildren are old enough to have blogs, it seems like it might be time to resurrect my writings.  I had to spend some time on housekeeping - figuring out how to log in again, changing my password of course, changing my profile picture, and editing the personal information.

I am preparing to go back to work, for my 26th, 27th, or 28th year, depending on whose record keeping to believe.  I am just as excited about it as I was 26 or 27 or 28 years ago, which is, I imagine, a good thing.  I have perused my class list, sent out a welcome letter, written plans for the first couple of weeks, searched computer files for documents relating to each subject, and put some thought into rearranging the classroom.  At some point, I will go into the school and put the thoughts into practice.

It has been a good/stressful/fun/busy/productive summer, the appropriate adjective changing on a moment by moment basis, depending on circumstances.  While I am not anxious to see the season end, I am willing to accept the inevitable and embrace the coming year.

There have been many changes in our lives over the past year or so since my last post, and while none have been earth shattering, all play a role in the shaping of our lives.  I wallow in the the things over which I have no control - such as the world and country situations - and try to address the things over which I do have control - such as health concerns and organizational strategies.  Baby steps.

Here's to the last few weeks of summer.  Cheers!

Repost of "Friends"

I have been thinking about cleaning out the "friends" list on my FaceBook account. I have a lot of friends, and to be honest, I probably have more friends than I deserve. As I go through the list, though, I am not sure I am able to justify deleting people from my life. There are some people that I don't really know well, in fact, some I have never met. They may be friends of friends, who liked a post of mine, and requested my friendship. I thought about deleting some of them, but clearly, something drew us together, so for now, I'll keep it as is.

There are people that I disagree with politically, (very seriously, politically), but I didn't become friends with people because of politics, we connected for an entirely different reason. I'm not going to delete them. There are people that I disagree with socially. I don't approve of their lifestyle, and I wish they would get their act together and do what I think is right, but again, they are friends for an entirely different reason, so I'm not going to delete them.

Some people are filled with angst and enjoy spreading drama around the airwaves. Sometimes I find that annoying, but obviously there is a need for them to do that. It doesn't hurt me, and if it becomes too bothersome, that is what the scroll button is for.

I am bothered by some posts. Some people post many, many pictures of poor starving dogs and cats, and sometimes animals that have been cruelly abused. I have done my share of animal rescue. I despise people who abuse animals, and if I could adopt more dogs and cats who need a home, I would. I have taken to quickly scrolling through those posts, so as not to see things that literally give me nightmares. I am not always happy about seeing pictures of injured, ill, or abused children who need kidney transplants, prayers, or "likes" to help them get well. I will admit to a sense of skepticism when I read them, and I refuse to repost them. I feel the same way about missing children. It may or may not be true that if I repost such, they will be found, but I tend to believe not. I'm sorry. I'm cynical that way, even if I am admonished to do this "because if it was my child, I would want this reposted".

I will admit, though that I did remove two accounts. Why? These ladies are deceased, and I'm pretty sure they aren't going to be communicating through FaceBook. Just as an aside, when I am no longer earthly, would somebody please remind my husband to delete my account? He will have no idea what my password is, so please tell him to ask one of our daughters.  I'll meet up with you guys some other time and place, just not on FaceBook.

Repost of "Wrestling"

A repost from 2 and a half years ago:

So last weekend, we went to our first wrestling match ever.  No, make that our second.  About 10 years ago, we visited our oldest daughter and family in NJ, and Scott, our son-in-law was coaching a high school wrestling match.  We went to Red Bank Regional School, and watched Scott do an awesome job guiding his team to a victory.  However, this was the first one I have ever seen that had little people I love participating in it.

I wasn't sure I would like it, and I'm still not 100% convinced that I am a fan, but to be honest, it was kind of fun.  I am even less sure if I approve of females wrestling, but at these very young ages, I can't help but think that they might be learning skills that will serve them well as they grow up.

We enjoyed it.  Baylee's group, the 6 and under gang (she turned 6 a week ago) went first.  Two little ones would battle it out like baby wild animals, and after a few rounds, a winner would be declared.  Andrew's group, the 7 and 8 year olds would go next, and with possibly a teensy bit more decorum would do the same.  The 9 and 10 year old group, and the 11 and 12 year old group would follow, and as they got older, you could see that the skills were becoming more embedded.

I was surprised to see that even the littlest ones were beginning to understand the rules of form - they would raise their bodies from the mat, attempt to turn themselves in a way that would allow them to disengage from a hold, and straighten out their legs as they thought about what their next move should be.  You could actually see the wheels turning in those brains, as they tried to remember what their coaches had taught them. 

We were most impressed with the coach of Andrew and Baylee's team.  He gave them encouragement every step of the way, spoke kindly to them, pointed out nicely what they needed to work on, and hugged them.  Neither Andrew nor Baylee, nor any of the kids on their team, as far as I could see, cried when they lost a match, or bragged when they won a match.  Not so for some of the other teams, 2 in particular.  Almost every child on those two teams sobbed if they lost, and did a goofy dance if they took the match.  Poor sportsmanship from an early age will certainly lead to the kind of trouble and behavior that we don't need in this society.

Neither of them know whether or not they will continue in wrestling next year.  If they do, though, we will be there to support them.

 

My Current Relationship

This is the first post from a Pinterest entry, which gives 30 days of topics to write about. Good starting points. Lynn and I have been married for 37 years. One of the most interesting points about this is that the length of time from when we met until we got married was about 8 weeks. Also interesting was the number of people who suggested that our marriage absolutely would not last. Lastly, there were at least a few people who gleefully assumed that we would have "preemie" baby, which is why we got married so sort of suddenly. We fooled them, however, and were married 11 months when the baby was born. In a lot of ways, we grew up together. We weren't particularly young, but oh, were we immature! Our knowledge of baby tending was learned pretty much on the job, and I will say that having 3 kids in 5 years helped us grow up quickly. In retrospect, I wouldn't trade Lynn for anybody else. To be sure, we had our setbacks, and we certainly haven't seen eye to eye on everything. But, we've always supported each other - through jobs, schooling, sick children, job losses, broken down automobiles, parents, house repairs, and money issues. As we look back, we have a lot to be proud of. Our 3 little babies are now beautiful grown up women who are educated, intelligent, caring, and wonderful moms and wives. Our rundown, in-need of repair house is paid for, and in spite of its faults, is home, a cozy respite from the sometimes cruel world. The jobs we have held throughout the years have, in many ways, allowed us to give back to the community. Our pets seem to live extraordinary long (sometimes too long). Together, we took care of his mother and my grandmother, and now are working to take care of my mom. Our relationship is perfect for us.

I finally went on line today, to look at the ELA scores of my soon to be 4th grade students. As predicted, the results were abysmally low, but in relation to every other student in the state, were commensurate. First, it should be noted that if 30 to 40 points were added to every score of every student in every county, they would match the last 17 years of testing. If I ranked my students from high to low, and made a general prediction of how well they would have done, I would have been pretty near the mark, in both ELA and math. My students who did very well in class did very well (proportionally) on the tests, and the students who did less well in class did less well on the tests. There were a few good scores, but many, many fewer than in previous years, and this would lead one to believe that there was a whole lot of nothing going on in classrooms across New York state. Not true. We had other ways of assessing students, and these methods proved all along that what we do is important. Here's how we know that we actually have a lot to be proud of: One of our measures, used to contribute to the teacher evaluation score, is a local assessment called AIMS WEB, which measure progress in reading comprehension, math computation, and math comprehension. Enough of my students improved at the necessary (predicted) rate, allowing most of us teachers to receive a 20 out of 20 for that part of their rating. A reading comprehension and skills test taken at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year (same test) showed huge leaps in understanding. Ditto for a math pre and post test. Weekly and unit test scores that go along with our reading series also showed significant growth in understanding. They learned to love to read (at least most of them did), learned a lot of math facts, and found that they were very interested in how things work (science), and in the story of us (social studies). Test scores aside, all you have to do is look at a group of kids to know that they are learning. My students took education seriously, understood the rules of behavior and consequence, and treated adults and other students with respect. They became self-directed learners, knowing without being told what needed to be done when they accomplished a particular task. They learned how to follow schedules, how to be part of a group, and how to wait their turn without making a fuss and drawing attention to themselves. They could amuse themselves for a period of time on the playground, and learned that if they were having a bad day with friends or classmates, that it wouldn't last long, because that's the way kids are. They learned to help each other, to help themselves, and to believe that if they tried hard enough, even difficult things could be accomplished. When they entered my classroom in the fall, some of them still months away from turning 8 years old, they were essentially second graders, heading into an unknown world filled with higher expectations, real number grades, and the knowledge on the part of the teachers, that they would soon become much more independent. By June 21st, their achievements had occurred in leaps and bounds, amazingly. No matter what their test scores are, I am proud of each and every single one of my students, for I know that in this world of high stakes testing, they are champions.

It's Been A While

I just realized that it's been quite a while since I posted an entry. I think about it, and tell myself that I really should sit down and write something, but I then I notice that I am too busy, or too tired, or just don't feel like it, or that I REALLY need to beat the next level of "Candy Crush". "I'll get to it later", I say to myself. I don't, though. However, now that it's summer, and I supposedly have all of this time on my hands, there is no reason for me not to be doing some writing. After all, I tell myself, that were I not a teacher, I would like to be a writer. Also, and this is just an aside, I realize that I think like a writer. When someone says something to me, or when my grandchildren do something adorable, or my husband does something annoying, I find that I am framing the event as if I were going to write about it. There are lots of stories that I would like to tell, and someday, I will tell the very important ones that impact my life. For now, though, I will just tell the ones that I am thinking about at the moment. Stay tuned.