Day by Day

With the impending hurricane Irene on its way, I decided to take a walk this morning.  As I walked toward the high school (great hills to get exercise on), I noticed the various teams running and working out.  Katie is at volleyball tryouts today for the high school.  Despite the hurricane on its way, life will go on in the world of teenage sports.  Heaven forbid if we miss a weekend of working out/tryout out, etc. etc. As I walked closer to the track, I heard an electronic voice, extremely loud electronic voice, saying ninety five...beep...beep....ninety six....beep...beep (with music in between).  I was curious as to what was going on.  When I could see the track, I realized that it was the boys soccer team trying out and instead of the good old fashion counting by voice, they were using the PA system at the track to play an electronic voice to count laps or whatever they were doing.  You know that voice you hear on the telephone when you call with...

Why can't we just let teachers teach?  Teaching isn't a business.  Why is everyone so bent on making it a business environment?  Teaching is a people profession.  It is more about the interaction between people than it is about the skills and concepts being taught.  And why can't we listen to kids?  The perceive and are honest about things much more than adults at times.  Why don't we ever ask them how to change education?

Katie had braces put on about 2-3 weeks ago.  She had spaces in her upper front 4-5 teeth that really showed and she was self-concious about it, so Bob and I took the big 5,000 dollar dive and had them put on. She saw people today she had not seen all summer because of freshmen orientation and she said they were all impressed with how good she looks in braces...."they said they wished they looked as good as she did in braces".  Teenagers.....I would never go back to that awkward time of caring so much about looks and fitting in, etc.  We still do it as adults, but to do the degree or with the emotion of teenagers....would you go back?

Katie had freshmen orientation today.  I texted her from work to ask how it went.  She texted back, "good".  I asked her when I got home how it went and she was on her ipod touch, so again, "good".  I asked a few other questions and the answers were all one word and general. She asked for a ride to Becca's house.  From the moment we got in the car until she got out at Becca's, she talked about her orientation.  She and Ashley want to join a club.....who she knew in each of her classes....she is excited about going to high school more now (and a little less nervous), who is in her lunch waves...thank goodness there are only two lunch waves, but she has the first one the whole year, which is the early lunch wave so you have two classes after lunch instead of one.....etc, etc...It was great.  As I said in my July 23d blog, talking to teenagers is easy when you put them in the car and it is just you and him/her. 

Keera is a bit bored lately....two weeks and school starts, so these are the most bewitched weeks of the summer...boredom, boredom and more boredom.  She's played with every toy she has-twice; we've done the blueberry picking; we've seen movies, done lunch, ice cream, mini-golf, swam in the pool everyday, had a friend or two over (but then you have two bored 6 year olds)....it gets to a point when the most fun things seem boring.....so in place of a sleepover with her older cousin, which couldn't take place, I volunteered to sleep outside in a tent with her. We got out the huge tent, which sleeps about 5 adults, and with Bob's help, we were able to figure out how to put the thing up.  We haven't used it in about 10 years. She was so excited that at 9:00 she wanted to go out and do the tent sleeping thing.  We got out there and she couldn't sleep because of all the cricket noises.  So, I told her we should go back inside and then come back out later when ...

When I first started blogging about two and a half years ago, I saw an advertisement pop up (continuously) about creating a book out of the blogs you wrote.  I thought someday that would be cool.  The more I wrote, the more I wanted to do the book, but the less I saw the advertisement pop up.  It got to the point where it never popped up and I thought it was a lost opportunity...everyone knows, I don't let opportunities go by easily.  Well, a couple of months ago it popped up again and I thought about it again...mentioned to Bob it would be a good gift for me, but then stopped seeing the advertisement. This week, it popped up again and I decided I was going to give myself a present.  I ordered it-black and white, which was only 20.00.  The table of contents alone is like 10 pages, according to the visual it showed me.  It is soft covered and I was able to pick the cover (a beach).  I was proud of myself after I had done that...given back ...

When the kids seem like they are too comfortable and yet no appreciating things, I often say, "You guys live the life of O'Reilly." Of course, I don't even know what that means but have heard it in my lifetime. Connor was complaining about something the other day and again I said, "You live hte life of O'Reilly".  He laughed and told me the old man that he had to take care of today at Masonic Home said the same thing to him because he is stuck in a wheelchair and Connor can walk.  So Mom kind of knows what she's talking about, I guess. This man Connor has to take care of at times is pretty ornerary.  He wants to get out of his wheelchair and walk to his house on the other side of Wallingford.  He refuses to go inside when Connor tries to wheel him in.  One time when they got to the doorway, he actually put his hands out and held the doorway so Connor could not wheel him in.  He also has a cast on his wrist (which says "do not ...

I was turning the pool on; Keera was waiting for me so we could jump in and next thing I know she is yelling, "Grady...mom..Grady"!  I look over and he was in the pool trying to get out in the deep end corner.  After I ran over and grabbed the panicky dog, to take him out of the pool, Keera explained that she saw what happened.  Grady was barking at a dog who lives behind us and he kept backing up....backed up right into the pool.  His whole head went under for a few seconds, at which point I ran over to pull him out.  Crazy, silly dog.  He has been in the pool more times than Bob this year.  He comes to the side of the pool, I lift him in and then he dog paddles to the stairs.  So why is it when he falls in the pool he doesn't have the sense to dog paddle to the stairs?  Crazy, silly dog.  Now he will probably get yeast in his ear because it got wet, but he is okay.

Brendan comes in from work last night and yells, "Keera...let's go in the pool."  You don't have to ask her twice.  I went out and the two of them went in the pool.  She loves it when he plays with her in there.  He pretends he is a surf board under the water and she stands on him (with her head still above water).  He swims and she looks like she is gliding through water.  That was fun in itself....seeing those two enjoy each other's company....but then Connor came out and went in the pool.  I thought....hmmmm...who is going to start fighting with who first?  But there was no fighting.  He started playing with Keera too and both Connor and Brendan were fine with each other.  That was like a miracle but then Katie came out too....she didn't go in the pool, but she sat down and we talked.  Connor got out of the pool and went inside...I was a little bummed because I was really enjoying being with all four kids, with no fighting at...

I have to blog about this so I remember how fun work was for a few days.  I had the opportunity to do something different.  A colleague (the birth-Kindergarten building principal) who has 11 years experience as an admin here and more years of experience doing many things other places approached me to help teach a workshop that she had proposed to the assistant superintendent.  We called it..."Hitting the Ground running...life as a new administrator."  We were reaching out for teachers in the district who are interested in becoming administrators or who are currently enrolled in an administrative program in a university.  There was a group from our district that had a cohort over the last two years and they just finished up, so we ended up getting about 7 or 8 of them.  We actually didn't think the class would run because there were other workshops, such as technology with ipads running, but we ended up with 13 teachers, more than the limit we asked for ...