Remembering

I was looking at Facebook earlier today and read a posting by a former student. He wrote, "I hate Christmas." There were several comments by friends his age-he's in college now. One referred to Steven's first Christmas in the US. I remember that Christmas. He had only been here a few months. I was his ESL teacher. We studied winter holidays and I think I may have sent an information sheet home to his parents about Christmas. Steven was hearing and seeing lots about Santa and presents that was new to him. His father was busy with his own studies at the medical center. I don't remember if his mom worked or was also a student. Anyway, Steven's father didn't really understand little third grade boys or the culture that his son had been immersed in. Steven was hoping for this magical Santa person to bring him something on Christmas. I guess his father knew something was expected and had bought the family a television. The story he told Steven was that there was a bike left on the patio by Santa but some bad people stole it. Dad had fortunately bought the TV and it had been safely locked away in the car, so it was not stolen. When I heard this story from a very sad little boy, I had a feeling that this was Dad's way of 'saving' Christmas. Little did he know that years later Steven would hate Christmas because of his dad's lie. There was no bike from Santa. Dad wanted a TV and didn't think a kid's magical belief was important. I missed that opportunity to tell Steven about the real meaning of Christmas. I hope one day he will know.

Christmas Limbo

We celebrated Christmas early this year. It was good in many ways. I'm glad the shopping is over, sorry the cards didn't get sent, and sad that I was sick and couldn't taste much.
Now it's like we're in limbo. Everyone else is waiting to celebrate and we're done. I can enjoy reading and sewing on two quilts. Everyone else is still thinking of shopping and presents. Not completely over the cold/sinus infection but started back walking and that helps me feel better.

Sick.Of.It.

I am sick of the ridiculous testing that we are doing to our kids. Second grade teachers say it is making their students feel like failures. How can you learn when you think you are stupid? We have got to stop this testing craziness. I read an article about teaching content deeply versus teaching to the test. In the short term the teachers who focused on the test had higher scores than those who taught in depth. BUT the students who were in the deep content classes did better later when they got to college and had to think and be more independent learners.

So, what are we doing? Just the opposite of what helps students learn. AYYYYY!

What can I do about it? Try to make a difference in my little room. Work on a district or higher level to change the testing focus. Encourage the professionals I work with do more deep content. I read that 20 minutes a day was all the test prep time needed to be ready for these tests. Why can't we really teach interesting, student centered content the rest of the time?

Just a week away

We're celebrating Christmas early this year. Joey and Jessie will come to Jackson first-next Thursday if the weather cooperates. We'll pretend Monday, the 20th is Christmas. It shouldn't matter because we don't really know when Jesus was born. Then Tuesday everyone will go off to celebrate again with the in-laws. I'll send out Christmas cards after that. Maybe New Year's cards. There will be time to sew, time to send bills and straighten out the MRA checkbook-Ha, Ha.
Don't know if that will ever happen.
My walking routine has been seriously interrupted. I didn't walk much last week because of the conference and not at all this week because of the cold weather. I'll try to do better starting tomorrow.
I feel like the pressure is off. All the deadlines have been met. It was rumored that I would be asked to take over ESL for the district but nothing has been mentioned to me officially. I would like to do it but I think it may have been quashed by the person in charge.
Oh, well. Que sera and all that. More time for reading and sewing.

Busy-ness ahead

I'm sick with a cold and fortunately had the week off for Thanksgiving Break. Finished reading a Miss Julia book. Satisfying as usual.
Joey and Jessie's cafe curtains are finished. There was fabric left over, so we may make pillows or curtain for small window when they are here. The fabric was very easy to work with and ironed well. Can't wait to see how they look in their kitchen/keeping room.
Now I'm going to work on some quilts. I'm going to finish the little farmer quilt and start a new little woodland creatures quilt. I found out the recepient baby's room is mostly green and brown, so changed quilts for that baby. Two cousins are becoming grandparents for the first time, so I want to send little quilts in celebration.
At work we have two expecting babies in the new year. One already has three children, so there won't be a party. The other is a first baby, so I will make a little blanket and give a little book. I have the flannel for a blanket and may be able to finish it this weekend.
Next week is MRA conference. I'm pretty much ready but dreading the craziness at the registration desk on the first day. It will be okay, if I have some good help. I would like to stay free to take care of problems.
Really would be good if the desktop computer here was working. Michael looked at it yesterday and said it was a power problem. Hope Joey can fix it when he is here.
Right after the conference I have agreed to do a professional development for a school district near here. Hope I can do a good job. It is a big job. Something for classroom teachers who have had nothing before. Wide open but needs to be practical and helpful. Very challenging. I'll work on it during slow times at the conference.

Aunts and Uncles

Random thoughts on memories of my aunts and uncles brought on by attending Aunt Becky's funeral yesterday. I saw the aunts and uncles more than my cousins who lived in Georgia-duh, of course. Because of that I felt very possessive of them and jealous when the Georgia cousins visited and said aunts and uncles spent time with them.
Early memories of Uncle Kenton include gifts of candy cigarettes. We loved getting them and pretending to smoke them. Mom cut that out at some point. Uncle Kenton was so silly that one time before I could read he was reading Cinderella to me and read 'bibbity bobbity boo' and I accused him of making that part up. When I was very small he was married to Aunt Evelyn. I really liked her but they divorced. I wasn't told-too young to understand was the official reason given later. Then when I was about 8 or 9 he married Aunt Lenora. She was very pretty and perpetually pleasant-never criticizing or making any negative comment.
I felt very close to Aunt Billie. She was a teacher and graduated from Millsaps. She didn't have any children until I was ten, so I got to spend time with her by myself. I remember for my birthday she took me out to eat. It was very special and made me feel very grown-up. She liked to play games and really liked to win. I think she cheated sometimes. When we lived on Robinson she came most mornings to the 'little house' behind our house to make breakfast. Don't know why she didn't eat at home but Gene would go out each morning and have coffee with her. Michael and I had to get ready for school but Gene didn't, so he would go out and visit with her. We teased him that drinking coffee would stunt his growth.
Aunt Becky lived in Georgia and had children, so I didn't spend much one-on-one time with her. Every summer we drove to Atlanta to spend a week with her and our cousins. The earliest memory I have of this annual trip I must have been under six years old. Aunt Billie went with us and it was a good thing she did. Mom was driving and didn't have a driver's license. I think there was a license check going on and Aunt Billie had to take over driving. I think mom got her driver's license when we got back home. Another time we were on the way to Georgia and had car trouble in Lake, Mississippi. We stopped at the Texaco station on Highway 80 in Lake. Dad's station was also on Highway 80 in Jackson. I remember the service station man was very nice. Can't remember what the car problem was. Most summers when we went to Georgia we attended VBS with our cousins. We had already gone to VBS at our church but didn't mind going again. They even used the same VBS materials but the kids and teachers were different and we were special because we were visitors. Guess that is enough remembering for today.

Anansi Boys

Just finished reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Very different from what I usually read for fun. I decided to read it because I had just read Coraline, another book he wrote, with my fifth graders. I didn't know he wrote for such a wide range of audiences. I looked him up on the interweb and found that he wrote graphic novels and all sorts of books. Anansi Boys was a different kind of realistic fantasy comedy kind of book. It would make a good movie but not a cartoon or claymation-something more like that movie with the blue people.
I'm reading some Goosebumps books that I got for free with my Scholastic bonus points. The kids all want to read these books but they are too difficult for them to read. I wanted to see what the big deal was. The books I'm reading are a little series called Horrorland. There are two stories in each book and they are sort of interwoven. The main story is first. Then there is a short, continuing story that includes the main character with characters from the previous books. The combination pulls the reader in. Don't like horror stories but these have hooked me.