The End of an Era

Last Friday, we had a retirement party at my school. Coach Stacy retired. He has worked as a PE Coach at my school for 30 + years. I believe he came to Westwood in 1976. I can only imagine the changes he has seen in education over those years. I count it an extreme pleasure to have gotten to share my professional life with him, because he's been a part of my personal life forever. Coach Stacy sang at my parent's wedding, my oldest sister was the flower girl in his wedding, I went to school with his daughter and son, his wife taught us piano lessons (well, attempted to teach me!) and Coach sang at my mother's funeral. He has been a family friend forever I guess.

Here is the really amazing thing about Coach Stacy – after 35 years in education, there is nothing bad anyone could say about him. This is a man who did his job, without fussing or complaining for 35 years. Even when things were thrown at him, which probably seemed ridiculous, like a word wall in PE, he just did it. Having to have a Lesson Essential Question and Unit Essential Questions and vocabulary words for PE? Sounds crazy, right? But he did it. When we first began using computers for attendance and lesson plans, he struggled, but he kept on until he got it. At his retirement party, we discovered that he had several sources of "tech help" as he would say, "Do you have a minute? Can you show me something on this computer?" I thought it was just me but apparently not. No matter what new principals and new district mandates came through, he always just kept on doing his job. I have NEVER heard him fuss, or complain. I wish I could say the same about myself.

Coach Stacy very seldom had discipline problems – he just made kids do pushups. I've heard students say a lot of stuff about a lot of teachers, but I've never heard kids say mean things about Coach. They talked about how he made them work, but that was it. I think that's pretty impressive. Coach Stacy loves God, his family and teaching. I can't even imagine how many kids he's impacted over 35 years in education. I've had parent conferences with Coach, where the student's parents say, "Coach Stacy, you probably don't remember me, but. . ." I also can't imagine the impact he's had on the faculty and staff of our school over all those years.

When I get to the end of my career and look back, I just hope I've been half as successful as he has been. Our school has a hole that won't be filled in anytime soon. Someone else may take his position, but no one will ever take his place.

The London Eye

I had to teach a lesson about setting for my last class. I read part of a book called "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd as a hook for the lesson. My class (made up of my family members) had to find pictures from Flickr and make a movie using those pictures. Here is the Animoto movie they made.

Graduation – In the Rain

Tonight was my nephew Josh's graduation from high school. I have two nephews and a niece and they are all as different as chalk, cheese and chocolate. I'm not saying which one is which! They are all special, but our Josh is something else. Since he was little, he has always been a saver not a spender when it comes to money. When he was about three, he would hold onto a handful of pennies for days. When he took a bath, he would put them on the edge of the sink, and pick them up again when he was finished. He even slept with the pennies. He has always done that. He has some really funny quirks. He used to say "GRR" instead of girl, which was adorable and he always put things "inside" his pocket instead of just "in." One of my favorite stories is about him saying "grr" instead of girl. I asked him what he was and he answered "I a boy." Then I would say "What am I" and he would answer "You a grrr." It was just the most precious thing. . . So one day I kept asking him over and over. Finally, he looked at me, sighed and said "I a he and you a she!" What a kid!

Now, he's all grown up and I do mean really grown up. I can stand completely under his chin. He does not do anything fast, but he is above all, solid and dependable. He doesn't get anything done fast, but he gets it done. He has such strong ideas, but is so calm about expressing his opinion. He carried two bookshelves out of my room yesterday – at the same time. He is strong, kind, and a good kid. I'm so proud of him.

Tonight at his graduation, it rained, and rained and rained. First, it just rained a little, then quit but by the time we got to the end of the alphabet, it was POURING. I can't think of any other little town with so many people sitting in the rain. My aunt and uncle drove down from Georgia, to sit in the rain. When we left, water in the parking lot was above my ankles. But, I'd do it again. Anything for my Josh!

Photos of Second Life

I've joined Second Life. Here are some photos of the Second Life "ME." I've been exploring SL as an assignment, but like other things, I find myself addicted and spending way too much time there.

Thank goodness for creative people, because my poor avatar had really bad hair, until I got some that other people created. I have great hair now. I wish I had that much hair in my real life!

One of my favorites is the picture of New Brighton. Last summer I was lucky enough to spend a day at Brighton and actually got donuts from a kiosk just like that one. Later I was attacked by a seagull that stole my donut, but that’s another story. (If you’re interested, you can read it on my blog from July 29th.)

Learning about Leadership

As most anybody who has ever read this blog knows, I am working on my Master's degree at FSU. I am a member of a group called Project LEAD, which stands for Leaders Educated to make A Difference. Yes, we know there is no M in there, deal with it!!! From the Project LEAD website: (http://ci.fsu.edu/Project_LEAD/) "The programs include a 12-credit leadership certificate that can be taken within the master's degree, a post-master's leadership certificate, or a 30 credit specialist degree focusing on leadership." We have learned much since we started this program about what it means to be a leader, but one of the greatest things has been the examples of leadership we have been blessed to see. There is a group of Project LEAD fellows, and we owe an incredible amount to two leaders who brainstormed and created our fellowships. Dr. Eliza Dresang, who recently left FSU to become the Beverly Cleary Professor in Children and Youth Service at the University of Washington, is one of those professors. She has been on numerous award committees, including the Caldecott and Newbery, as well as too many others to mention. She has written an invaluable book called Radical Change about changes in youth and learning in a digital age, as well as numerous articles, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Her curriculum vitae is 30 pages long!!!

Our other professor, Dr Nancy Everhart has been an amazing example of leadership as well. She has been a visiting professor at several universities, is the research editor of Knowledge Quest, is a member of the FAME Board of Directors, and has published two books and over 50 articles in library journals. Here is a partial list of her Honors, Medals, Awards and other Citations: International Association of School Librarians, Takeshi Murofushi Research Award, 2005; Judy Pitts Research Mentor Award, 2002; Pennsylvania School Librarians' Association, Professional Development Award, 1993; Association of Library and Information Science Education, Outstanding Dissertation Award, 1991. All that and she's younger than my mother!!! You can read all about her on the ALA Election website here: http://tinyurl.com/czlkoo. Oh, and by the way, Dr. E is the President-Elect of AASL, the American Association of School Librarians. She also makes a really good grilled cheese sandwich, and is the only person I've ever heard of who can find grits in London.

There's an old saying "Those who can, do and those who can't, teach." I hate that statement, and offer my classroom as a testing ground for anyone who thinks that teaching is for those who "can't do" something. Our professors are perfect examples of the ridiculousness of that statement. Both of then obviously can, but choose to teach. Dr. D and Dr. E have taught us much in the last 2 ½ years in class. However, they have taught us much more outside of class. They have taught us by example what it truly means to be a leader.

Easter

I love Easter. It's not just the Christian Jesus is risen from the dead, although that is the most wonderful reason of all. That could be an entire blog post on its own. I love Easter traditions.

At church, Easter is always such a joyful service. I am one of those people who go to church every Sunday, not just on Easter, and Easter services are always special. Everybody has on bright new clothes, spring is finally here and He is risen! A truly joyful Sunday.

There are other things about Easter I love. We always color eggs and yes, it must be a Paas egg coloring kit. Nothing else will do! When my sisters and I were all little girls, we had certain rituals to go through. We always make an egg for everybody in our family, and we write their names on the egg with crayon before we color them. We used to carefully divide the stickers that came in the package, and of course, we had to be fair, so we cut them all apart and took turns choosing. The smell of vinegar and boiled eggs, an odd combination, but a memory.

We always had a big meal for lunch on Easter Sunday, usually a ham. I don't know why, but we did. We had potato salad, usually with a few of the Easter eggs in it. My mom always made a cake, and she made the best "Seven Minute Frosting" in the world. I used to watch her make it all the time but I couldn't make it if I had to. At Easter, she would sometimes color coconut green and put it on top, with jellybeans on top. It looked like grass with eggs in it. Sometimes, she would bake the cake in an angel food cake pan and then, in addition to the green coconut and the jellybeans, she would put a chocolate bunny in the hole in the middle of the cake, so it looked like the bunny was peeking out of a hole.

At one of the churches my dad used to pastor, we always had "dinner on the ground" on Easter. The men would always cook swamp cabbage, everybody brought their favorite dishes and after Sunday morning service, we ate and ate and ate. We always had fried chicken, one of the ladies always made this cake that had like 7 skinny little layers, yellow cake with chocolate frosting between every layer. I wish I had some right now. The men cooked the swamp cabbage in a big old pot over an open fire. I NEVER ate any of it. It was the nastiest looking stuff in the world.

We always got an Easter basket, no matter how old we were. We usually got new underwear and pantyhose in the basket. One of our biggest challenges to deal with after our mom died was the Easter basket. Who would fix our Easter basket? My dad, bless his heart, tried the first year. He actually had baskets in his hand, but then he got to the underwear and pantyhose part and just couldn't do it. We have figured out a way to deal with it now. My sisters and I do baskets for each other. One year, we buy for the older sister and the next year, the younger sister. We go to lunch somewhere on the Saturday before and trade. It works for us.

Another one of my favorite things about Easter is egg gravy. If you're not from the South, you probably will think this is the grossest thing ever, but we love it. Mom used to take the cracked eggs that we had colored and make egg gravy, which we would eat over toast. It's just white gravy with chopped up eggs in it, but it was always pretty, with the specks of colored eggs in it. Egg gravy and toast. . yummy. We still eat it, but only at Easter.

I also love Easter candy. I love Cadbury Mini Eggs, and Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, jellybeans and malted milk eggs. Fabulous!

Easter. The risen Savior, the beginning of spring, family, and candy. What's not to love?

AHHHH – Spring Break

For the last two years, I've had the pleasure of two spring breaks – one from FSU and one from my school. They never fall at the same time, and it's been very nice. This year, I have looked forward to my school spring break like never before and I am enjoying myself thoroughly. Today, I slept in until after 9:00. . . a nice treat. It was fine, until the day care children next door got to go outside to play. Now, it's almost 11 and I've washed a load of clothes, moved some furniture around, talked to Patti on the phone and Josh is person, sorted some mail and thrown some away. I'm also watching "Beach Blanket Bingo" on TV, gotta love those old surfing movies. I'm amazed at all the people who are in that movie. And who doesn't love Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello?? We got some rain yesterday, and a cold front came behind it so it's cool, the humidity is low and the sun is shining. I'm doing whatever I feel like with no rushing around and no pressure. Life is good!