So as anybody who doesn't live under a rock knows, everybody got sent home from school. this is NOT our Spring Break in Polk County – that is next week, but because of the stupid Corona Virus, we are all home. I”m calling this “Corona Virtus Spring Break” henceforth abbreviated "CVSB Day ___.”
I’ve spent a LOT of time with my own self for company and we’re only on Day 3. I'm learning a LOT of things about myself. So of course, I had to write about it. So here, we go: the things I’ve learned.
1) I really, really detest yard work. A few weeks ago, my landlady came to bring me aa new fire extinguisher and said I needed to pull some stuff out of the little rectangle in front of my house. I knew I needed to work on it, but I don’t like it. I pay someone to mow my yard but he “mows, blows and edges.” He doesn’t pull weeds or trim trees. So when that needs to be done, it’s on me and I don’t like it at all. I don’t like to be dirty, I don't like to be sweaty and I don’t like it when bugs fly up my nose or down my shirt. I did it, but I don’t like it.
2) What I read, what I watch and what I listen to have a huge impact on my mental state. If I listen to uplifting things and read unplaiting things and watch uplifting things I feel better. If I watch or read or listen to other things, I find it easier to be angry or irritated or frustrated.
3) I always felt like wireless earbuds were unnecessary. Today the wires on the pair I have got caught multiple times while I was doing the dreaded yard work, I pulled them with the hedge trimmers, pulled them with the loppers and pulled them when I threw the cut stuff by the side of the road. Every time, they pulled out of my ears. Now, my ears hurt, from the snatching out part! And I may have put dirt in my ears from putting them back in.
4) On an iPhone, if you’re listening to music and want to go forwards or backwards, but you’re wearing gloves, you can push the arrow with your nose.
5) I have a lot of words inside of me and staying by myself doesn't let them out. today I started reading text messages in other people’s voices. It didn't work very well. I laughed at myself a LOT.
6) I miss people. I have hermit-like tendencies and am generally quite happy on my own but this could turn into not good.
7) I miss my church. We are streaming our church services, but it’s NOT THE SAME. I miss seeing people and talking to people and listening to my Sunday School class laugh and talk,. I miss my Junior Church babies and my AWANA babies.
8. I have two nests in trees in my yard. I watched a squirrel either feed babies or repair a nest for about 30 minutes today.
9) Isolated, alone Amazon shopping can be dangerous. I hesitate to even see what starts arriving at my house.
10) Counting your toilet paper rolls over and over again doesn’t change how much you have.
11.) This too shall pass. . . I don’t know when, I don’t know how long, but it will pass. I just hope I remember to be grateful when things are “normal” again.
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Saturday, January 18, 2020
My 2 Cents, Part 2 - Unintended Consequences
So, last week was a rough week for teachers, especially those of us in Polk county. I decided to use this little blog of mine to help you understand some of the feelings that have been running through my head for the last week and to explain my perspective on some things. The opinions expressed here are absolutely positively MINE and if you don’t agree, well, that’s OK too. You are certainly entitled to be wrong! 😉
sometimes things happen that no one intended. In social studies, this is called “Unintended Consequences.’ According to Wikipedia, these are “outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen.” I think there were quite a few unintended consequences of some actions last week. Will these turn out to be good or bad? We’ll have to wait and see.
sometimes things happen that no one intended. In social studies, this is called “Unintended Consequences.’ According to Wikipedia, these are “outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen.” I think there were quite a few unintended consequences of some actions last week. Will these turn out to be good or bad? We’ll have to wait and see.
Last week we got two robocalls from the Polk County School Board telling us that no matter how many teachers chose to attend the education rally in Tallahassee “school would continue as usual.” I think the intended outcome was to reassure parents that their students would still be taught. But, I think there were serious UNINTENDED outcomes. First of all, the more you tell people basically, that you don’t need them, the more they may want to prove to you that you do. We have been told that the numbers of staff members who took the personal day doubled and then tripled before Friday. Maybe if we hadn’t been told that our county really didn’t need us, so many people might not have decided “Well, prove it.” BTW, anytime a student has a substitute teacher, it’s not a “normal school day.”
I think another intended outcome of the robocalls was to try to get parents annoyed with teachers and to make staff who chose to take their personal day look bad. No one will say that, but I feel like it was. However, the unintended outcome was to make the School Board look bad for ignoring the rally, and TRYING to make staff look bad. Additionally, many, many parents kept their students home from school on Monday, which certainly made it easier for schools to continue with fewer staff. If a school had half of its students out on Monday, it certainly explains why it was such a great day on Monday.
The email that we got from the Department of Education, was intended to “inform teachers of the possible consequences of their actions” and “sent in the spirit of transparency. I think another intended outcome was to “scare” people into going to work, because contrary to whatever our robocalls actually said, school could NOT have continued with all of the people absent. In this respect, it worked, Many, many people did cancel their personal leave and return to school. The unintended outcomes are ENORMOUS. This “threatening to fire teachers” thing went viral. Forbes.com posted it. Elizabeth Warren commented on it. Monday in Tallahassee, EVERYONE there knew that we were threatened with being fired. Parents, teachers, people all over the nation are angry. People in our county are angry. There is a petition asking for our superintended to be fired that has gathered over 5000 signatures.
We got an email from the Superintendent of our county on the 15th. You can read it here: https://www.facebook.com/polkcountypublicschools/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARDrQqjajRw8fiWVuitbW1iA1AIxVf5-uM3eLKIGG0crLLfQbr50HBQI1SgZ9VmYuL_ddhNywaF8MtjY
The intended outcome was to smooth things over and explain how she’d like us to move on. Reading the comments, many people believe this is a genuine, heartfelt email. Others, not so much. One unintended outcome is more bitterness. It says “The first thing I can do is apologize for the e-mail from the Florida Department of Education.” Yes, yes, we all CAN apologize, but do we? She didn’t, really. And admitting you should apologize after the whole country has heard what you did and thinks you're mean for doing it. Yeah, it doesn’t ring really genuine to me. For many, many people this is too little, too late.
As teachers, we know that we don’t always see fruit tomorrow from the seeds we plant today. We know how to wait. We know that everything takes time – there ‘s very little instant gratification in teaching. I saw a student once in high school who told me “Thank you” for wanting more from him than he was willing to give. He said he didn’t get why I fussed at him for being mediocre when he was clearly capable of so much more. He said when he got to high school, he understood. I don’t know if our rally in Tallahassee will make much difference. I hope so, I certainly think that some people I know, now understand some things they didn’t before. Teachers are good at “wait and see.” I guess when it comes to these events, we will just have to wait and see.
I think another intended outcome of the robocalls was to try to get parents annoyed with teachers and to make staff who chose to take their personal day look bad. No one will say that, but I feel like it was. However, the unintended outcome was to make the School Board look bad for ignoring the rally, and TRYING to make staff look bad. Additionally, many, many parents kept their students home from school on Monday, which certainly made it easier for schools to continue with fewer staff. If a school had half of its students out on Monday, it certainly explains why it was such a great day on Monday.
The email that we got from the Department of Education, was intended to “inform teachers of the possible consequences of their actions” and “sent in the spirit of transparency. I think another intended outcome was to “scare” people into going to work, because contrary to whatever our robocalls actually said, school could NOT have continued with all of the people absent. In this respect, it worked, Many, many people did cancel their personal leave and return to school. The unintended outcomes are ENORMOUS. This “threatening to fire teachers” thing went viral. Forbes.com posted it. Elizabeth Warren commented on it. Monday in Tallahassee, EVERYONE there knew that we were threatened with being fired. Parents, teachers, people all over the nation are angry. People in our county are angry. There is a petition asking for our superintended to be fired that has gathered over 5000 signatures.
We got an email from the Superintendent of our county on the 15th. You can read it here: https://www.facebook.com/polkcountypublicschools/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARDrQqjajRw8fiWVuitbW1iA1AIxVf5-uM3eLKIGG0crLLfQbr50HBQI1SgZ9VmYuL_ddhNywaF8MtjY
The intended outcome was to smooth things over and explain how she’d like us to move on. Reading the comments, many people believe this is a genuine, heartfelt email. Others, not so much. One unintended outcome is more bitterness. It says “The first thing I can do is apologize for the e-mail from the Florida Department of Education.” Yes, yes, we all CAN apologize, but do we? She didn’t, really. And admitting you should apologize after the whole country has heard what you did and thinks you're mean for doing it. Yeah, it doesn’t ring really genuine to me. For many, many people this is too little, too late.
As teachers, we know that we don’t always see fruit tomorrow from the seeds we plant today. We know how to wait. We know that everything takes time – there ‘s very little instant gratification in teaching. I saw a student once in high school who told me “Thank you” for wanting more from him than he was willing to give. He said he didn’t get why I fussed at him for being mediocre when he was clearly capable of so much more. He said when he got to high school, he understood. I don’t know if our rally in Tallahassee will make much difference. I hope so, I certainly think that some people I know, now understand some things they didn’t before. Teachers are good at “wait and see.” I guess when it comes to these events, we will just have to wait and see.
Thursday, January 16, 2020
My 2 Cents, Part 1
So, there’s been a little mess going on in my little corner of the world lately. Let me catch you up and then I’ll give you my 2 cents. Now, I understand that with ONE dollar bill and my opinion, you can get a Polar Pop at the Circle K, but this is my blog and I can say what I want, I think.
The Florida Education Association, along with the local teacher unions in all 67 counties of Florida planned an educational rally. The purpose of the rally was to ask/plead/beg our legislators to do better for public education. In case you live under a rock and don’t know, education funding in the state of Florida is dismal to say the very least. I read a statistic the other day that says that Per Student spending in Florida is $1000 less than it was in 2007-2008. I’m not sure that stat is correct, but it came from a reasonable source. I can’t make up stuff like that. . .
We were told that the reason we didn’t get a raise this year is that the state didn’t give our district enough money. When buildings need repair, we are sometimes told: “there’s not enough money.” The reason my school has 23 bus routes but only 17 buses, meaning some buses do multiple runs, which makes kids wait for over an hour to even leave school is “There’s no money.” We hear all the time that “There’s no money.” The state keeps coming up with new demands for us but doesn’t provide the funds to do those things. All in all, our state would rather give money to private schools and charter schools than actually fund public education properly.
So, when the FEA says “let's get together and ask/plead/beg the legislators of Florida to do better for the children of the fastest-growing state in the nation, many of us said “Sure! Let’s do it.” Some of us agreed instantly, some took a little longer to decide. I heard about this rally in September. I thought about it, forgot about it, thought about it, forgot about it. When we voted on our contract and heard from our district yet again, “There's no money” I decided to go but I flip-flopped back and forth and back and forth.
Our union got buses, you could sign up to ride the bus for free, but a group of my friends decided to ride together. We were going to ride up, march around with our signs, get a good hamburger and ride home. Those who decided to support the rally were required to take a personal day off of work. There are rules and procedures about a personal day and we followed those rules. (I’ll talk about THAT in Part 2!)
After Christmas break, I realized I couldn’t flip flop any more and had to make a decision and stick with it. After much debate, I decided to go to the rally, so I did my stuff. On Wednesday of last week, we got a robocall from the School Board telling us that there would be higher than usual teacher absences than usual on Monday but that school would continue as usual. On Friday, we got the same call.
On Friday night, I was sitting at my house and my phone started absolutely BLOWING up. I was getting messages from the entire world, it seemed like. We got an email from our district, forwarding an email from the General Counsel from the Florida DOE, basically telling us that if we continued with our “Strike” we could be fired and our union could be fired up to $20,000.
For a little while, I was absolutely terrified and felt like I was going to vomit. My logical mind was telling me one thing, another part of my mind was telling me something different. I had friends in various emotional states right along with me. Most of us went from fear, stress, and eventually anger.
This led to an entire weekend of “This, That and Whatever.” The Blame Game, Backpedaling, Flip-Flopping, “Pin the Guilt on the ________” has been rampant. Quite frankly, it was mentally and emotionally exhausting. These are the facts as I see them.
Now, here’s my 2 cents. In 25 1/2 years, I have SEEN the changes in public education – and it’s not good. Education is changing and it’s not the fault of teachers. Teachers don’t make the rules about education – and the people who do make the rules are NOT education people. Let's let people who don’t know anything about your job makes the rules for your job and see how well that goes.
I went to Tallahassee, I wore my red shirt (and my red sneakers of course) and marched and held my sign. Why did I do it? Because I felt it was the right thing for me to do. I have a niece who wants to be a teacher. I want her career to be better than mine has been. She deserves better. Eventually, I hope my nephew gets to be a dad and my niece gets to be a mom. Their children deserve better. The 2000 children at my school deserve better. The children of my former students deserve better.
Let me add this: The people who stood up and marched didn’t do it lightly. We didn’t take our personal day for fun. We did it because we believed that what we were doing was the right thing to do.
And this is where I’m going to lose some of you. If you don’t work in a public school or have not ever worked in a public school with all due respect, you have no right to talk about the pressures of our job. You don’t know what it’s like. I don’t care if you have been to school – that doesn’t make you an expert on my job. I’ve sat in a dentist's chair, but that doesn’t mean I understand dentistry. I’ve flown in airplanes, but I don’t pretend to know what it’s like to be a pilot So unless you’ve done it, and done it for more than a day or a month or a year or 5, you don’t get it either. Visiting a school, delivering things to a school, even volunteering in a school doesn't make you an expert.
I”m very grateful for my friends. I have a friend who got angry before I did – and he gave me more courage than I knew I had. While I felt like throwing up, he was already angry. He never wavered in his conviction and I'm thankful to him for that. I have other friends who shared their concerns with me, which made me examine my own feelings and the facts, to be able to answer their questions and help calm their fears.
This was an ugly situation and everybody had to make a choice. The same choice didn’t work for everybody and all of us had to do what we felt was the right thing for us. I lost respect for some people but not for what they decided to do or not do. I lost respect for those who attempted to bully, belittle or give people grief because “they” ( the nasty people) didn’t like the choice the other person made. To give people grief for doing what they feel like is the right thing – shame on you. Yes, I said it. Shame on you!!
I'm not nearly done, but I'm finished now.
PS - That sign at the top wasn't mine. I wish I'd thought of it. I wish I'd put on the back of mine "We are Polk - and we are NOT proud!"
Mine looked like this:
The Florida Education Association, along with the local teacher unions in all 67 counties of Florida planned an educational rally. The purpose of the rally was to ask/plead/beg our legislators to do better for public education. In case you live under a rock and don’t know, education funding in the state of Florida is dismal to say the very least. I read a statistic the other day that says that Per Student spending in Florida is $1000 less than it was in 2007-2008. I’m not sure that stat is correct, but it came from a reasonable source. I can’t make up stuff like that. . .
We were told that the reason we didn’t get a raise this year is that the state didn’t give our district enough money. When buildings need repair, we are sometimes told: “there’s not enough money.” The reason my school has 23 bus routes but only 17 buses, meaning some buses do multiple runs, which makes kids wait for over an hour to even leave school is “There’s no money.” We hear all the time that “There’s no money.” The state keeps coming up with new demands for us but doesn’t provide the funds to do those things. All in all, our state would rather give money to private schools and charter schools than actually fund public education properly.
So, when the FEA says “let's get together and ask/plead/beg the legislators of Florida to do better for the children of the fastest-growing state in the nation, many of us said “Sure! Let’s do it.” Some of us agreed instantly, some took a little longer to decide. I heard about this rally in September. I thought about it, forgot about it, thought about it, forgot about it. When we voted on our contract and heard from our district yet again, “There's no money” I decided to go but I flip-flopped back and forth and back and forth.
Our union got buses, you could sign up to ride the bus for free, but a group of my friends decided to ride together. We were going to ride up, march around with our signs, get a good hamburger and ride home. Those who decided to support the rally were required to take a personal day off of work. There are rules and procedures about a personal day and we followed those rules. (I’ll talk about THAT in Part 2!)
After Christmas break, I realized I couldn’t flip flop any more and had to make a decision and stick with it. After much debate, I decided to go to the rally, so I did my stuff. On Wednesday of last week, we got a robocall from the School Board telling us that there would be higher than usual teacher absences than usual on Monday but that school would continue as usual. On Friday, we got the same call.
On Friday night, I was sitting at my house and my phone started absolutely BLOWING up. I was getting messages from the entire world, it seemed like. We got an email from our district, forwarding an email from the General Counsel from the Florida DOE, basically telling us that if we continued with our “Strike” we could be fired and our union could be fired up to $20,000.
For a little while, I was absolutely terrified and felt like I was going to vomit. My logical mind was telling me one thing, another part of my mind was telling me something different. I had friends in various emotional states right along with me. Most of us went from fear, stress, and eventually anger.
This led to an entire weekend of “This, That and Whatever.” The Blame Game, Backpedaling, Flip-Flopping, “Pin the Guilt on the ________” has been rampant. Quite frankly, it was mentally and emotionally exhausting. These are the facts as I see them.
Now, here’s my 2 cents. In 25 1/2 years, I have SEEN the changes in public education – and it’s not good. Education is changing and it’s not the fault of teachers. Teachers don’t make the rules about education – and the people who do make the rules are NOT education people. Let's let people who don’t know anything about your job makes the rules for your job and see how well that goes.
I went to Tallahassee, I wore my red shirt (and my red sneakers of course) and marched and held my sign. Why did I do it? Because I felt it was the right thing for me to do. I have a niece who wants to be a teacher. I want her career to be better than mine has been. She deserves better. Eventually, I hope my nephew gets to be a dad and my niece gets to be a mom. Their children deserve better. The 2000 children at my school deserve better. The children of my former students deserve better.
Let me add this: The people who stood up and marched didn’t do it lightly. We didn’t take our personal day for fun. We did it because we believed that what we were doing was the right thing to do.
And this is where I’m going to lose some of you. If you don’t work in a public school or have not ever worked in a public school with all due respect, you have no right to talk about the pressures of our job. You don’t know what it’s like. I don’t care if you have been to school – that doesn’t make you an expert on my job. I’ve sat in a dentist's chair, but that doesn’t mean I understand dentistry. I’ve flown in airplanes, but I don’t pretend to know what it’s like to be a pilot So unless you’ve done it, and done it for more than a day or a month or a year or 5, you don’t get it either. Visiting a school, delivering things to a school, even volunteering in a school doesn't make you an expert.
I”m very grateful for my friends. I have a friend who got angry before I did – and he gave me more courage than I knew I had. While I felt like throwing up, he was already angry. He never wavered in his conviction and I'm thankful to him for that. I have other friends who shared their concerns with me, which made me examine my own feelings and the facts, to be able to answer their questions and help calm their fears.
This was an ugly situation and everybody had to make a choice. The same choice didn’t work for everybody and all of us had to do what we felt was the right thing for us. I lost respect for some people but not for what they decided to do or not do. I lost respect for those who attempted to bully, belittle or give people grief because “they” ( the nasty people) didn’t like the choice the other person made. To give people grief for doing what they feel like is the right thing – shame on you. Yes, I said it. Shame on you!!
I'm not nearly done, but I'm finished now.
PS - That sign at the top wasn't mine. I wish I'd thought of it. I wish I'd put on the back of mine "We are Polk - and we are NOT proud!"
Mine looked like this:
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Wanna Help a Kid???
It’s almost time for our Fall Book Fair at school. Last year I experimented with a Follett Book Fair instead of the book fair I’d always had by the red company. One of the things I am so excited about this Follett Book Fair is this: Gift Cards! Yes, Gift Cards. Here’s why:
Follett has a website where you can buy gift cards. The gift cards are “virtual” I get an email telling me they exist. This allows parents of small children to purchase a gift card at home, so sweet little babies don't have to carry money to school with them. It’s really good for kids who lose things, or who may not be able to keep from telling other kids about their Book Fair money. It also allows people from other places to buy gift cards for the Book Fair. For example, if little Joshua goes to my school. and his Great Aunt Sandi wanted to, she could buy him a gift card, no matter where she lives – and he can use it at the Book Fair at our school. Isn’t that a brilliant idea? All people need is the link and an email address – and they can buy a gift card for someone.
Book Fairs are a lot of work. The library is closed most of the time, a whole section is rearranged to make room, there’s the stress of dealing with money and worrying about things disappearing. But there’s another stress factor that I never noticed until I was in charge of Book Fairs. Here’s the awful thing – in every school in the world, there are kids who love books and love to read but don’t have money for books, even the value books at the Book Fair. They sometimes come in and look, they “fondle" all the merchandise and have to put the books down and walk away, because they don’t have money. Some who love books don’t even come in and look, because what’s the point of looking if you know you can’t have it? It’s heartbreaking.
There are miles of research that show having books to read at home helps kids become better readers, which leads to them being better students. I think we’d all agree that we want the future to be handled by smarter kids, as opposed to not so smart kids, right??
I have lots of books that were part of my classroom library when I was a classroom teacher, Over the years, I’ve given a lot of them away. I can buy used books to give to kids – and I do. Used books are better than no books, absolutely. But, there’s nothing like a brand new book that no one has ever read except you. The crisp pages, the unmarked spine, the perfect cover. it just feels good. . .
So why am I telling you this? Why do I want you to care that there are kids at my school who for reasons out of their control can’t buy books at a Book Fair? Because you can help. You can be “Great Aunt Sandi” to a kid. It’s true, you don’t know them, you may never see them. But you will do a greater thing. You can help a kid have a brand new book that is his or her very own. How do you say? It’s simple – here’s a link:
https://www.giftfly.com/shop/follett-book-fairs
If you have a little extra, $5, 10, any amount you can buy a gift card. You can send it to me: sandijimmerson@gmail.com
I’ll use your gift card to let a kid who doesn’t have any money of his or her own, buy their very own brand new book in the Book Fair.
Here’s another thing – kids don’t understand sales tax (I’m not really sure I understand it either, but I know I have to pay it.) I usually carry around a pocket full of change during our Book Fair – to pay the sales tax for kiddos who have $5 and a 4.99 book. My volunteers have started doing it too – everybody comes in with jingling pockets. If you want, you can buy a gift card and put “Sales Tax” on the “For” space – and I'll use your money to pay sales tax. If you know me and live near me and wanted to bring me some change, that would work too, but I’ll take your gift card!
It’s hard for me to ask for help for myself. I’ll almost hurt myself trying to do things on my own. But, I’m not proud when it comes to my students. I’ll ask for help for them. So, do you want to help a kid??
Follett has a website where you can buy gift cards. The gift cards are “virtual” I get an email telling me they exist. This allows parents of small children to purchase a gift card at home, so sweet little babies don't have to carry money to school with them. It’s really good for kids who lose things, or who may not be able to keep from telling other kids about their Book Fair money. It also allows people from other places to buy gift cards for the Book Fair. For example, if little Joshua goes to my school. and his Great Aunt Sandi wanted to, she could buy him a gift card, no matter where she lives – and he can use it at the Book Fair at our school. Isn’t that a brilliant idea? All people need is the link and an email address – and they can buy a gift card for someone.
Book Fairs are a lot of work. The library is closed most of the time, a whole section is rearranged to make room, there’s the stress of dealing with money and worrying about things disappearing. But there’s another stress factor that I never noticed until I was in charge of Book Fairs. Here’s the awful thing – in every school in the world, there are kids who love books and love to read but don’t have money for books, even the value books at the Book Fair. They sometimes come in and look, they “fondle" all the merchandise and have to put the books down and walk away, because they don’t have money. Some who love books don’t even come in and look, because what’s the point of looking if you know you can’t have it? It’s heartbreaking.
There are miles of research that show having books to read at home helps kids become better readers, which leads to them being better students. I think we’d all agree that we want the future to be handled by smarter kids, as opposed to not so smart kids, right??
I have lots of books that were part of my classroom library when I was a classroom teacher, Over the years, I’ve given a lot of them away. I can buy used books to give to kids – and I do. Used books are better than no books, absolutely. But, there’s nothing like a brand new book that no one has ever read except you. The crisp pages, the unmarked spine, the perfect cover. it just feels good. . .
So why am I telling you this? Why do I want you to care that there are kids at my school who for reasons out of their control can’t buy books at a Book Fair? Because you can help. You can be “Great Aunt Sandi” to a kid. It’s true, you don’t know them, you may never see them. But you will do a greater thing. You can help a kid have a brand new book that is his or her very own. How do you say? It’s simple – here’s a link:
https://www.giftfly.com/shop/follett-book-fairs
If you have a little extra, $5, 10, any amount you can buy a gift card. You can send it to me: sandijimmerson@gmail.com
I’ll use your gift card to let a kid who doesn’t have any money of his or her own, buy their very own brand new book in the Book Fair.
Here’s another thing – kids don’t understand sales tax (I’m not really sure I understand it either, but I know I have to pay it.) I usually carry around a pocket full of change during our Book Fair – to pay the sales tax for kiddos who have $5 and a 4.99 book. My volunteers have started doing it too – everybody comes in with jingling pockets. If you want, you can buy a gift card and put “Sales Tax” on the “For” space – and I'll use your money to pay sales tax. If you know me and live near me and wanted to bring me some change, that would work too, but I’ll take your gift card!
It’s hard for me to ask for help for myself. I’ll almost hurt myself trying to do things on my own. But, I’m not proud when it comes to my students. I’ll ask for help for them. So, do you want to help a kid??
Sunday, September 8, 2019
Church Dinners
I love church dinners. I have been a Baptist church girl my whole life long. That’s not lying – my parents took me to a Baptist Church almost as soon as I was born and until I was sick in the summer of 7th grade, I could count on my fingers the number of Sunday morning church services I'd missed. So, when I tell you that I’ve eaten a lot of church food, that’s the absolute truth. . .
“Dinner on the grounds” – that’s what we used to call it, I think it’s called that because you eat on the church grounds. I’ve eaten in fellowship halls, in Sunday School rooms, on a blanket outside, standing, holding my plate in my hands. When my daddy pastored at Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church, which is in-between Davenport and Loughman, they had and still have the best outdoor pavilion for dinner on the grounds I’ve ever seen. Do you know how much food can fit down that table in the center?
There’s a unique set of smells that comes with dinner on the grounds. Of course, for most church dinners, you simply must have fried chicken. Add in ham, macaroni and cheese, and casseroles – oh the casseroles. Potato salad, pasta salad, cole slaw, potatoes – scalloped, au gratin, it’s all good. Butter beans, lima beans, green beans, it just goes on and on and on.
And then, there’s the dessert table. There’s always banana pudding and chocolate cake. – it’s obligatory for Baptists. Personally, I think it’s the 11th Commandment -“Thou shalt have chocolate cake and banana pudding.” One time at one of our churches, a lady made banana pudding specially for my daddy – and left out the bananas. It might be better that way! Mrs. Viola Wooten used to make a cake that looked like this:
It was fabulous!!! Those little tiny skinny layers and the homemade chocolate frosting - I can still taste it. My mama always made 7 Minute Frosting for her cakes – it’s made with white Karo syrup and it gets crystal-ly after a while. Most ladies have their thing - certain recipes that they are known for. It's a slippery slope to make something someone else is known for. It can be a scary thing. Personally, I only bring things Publix makes. Today I had some grape salad that I was sure Debbie C made, but she didn't. I'll always eat Gail Thompson's potato salad - it tastes like my mama's.
Of course, now, we call them “Fellowship Dinners." We eat at nice tables, with flower arrangements and cushy chairs. It's a lot different than eating outside in a metal chair that is sinking into the ground. Some things are still the same - you can still smell chicken when it’s over. There really doesn’t have to be a reason. Sometimes it’s as simple as the 5th Sunday of the month. My church fed my family after my mother’s funeral and my dad’s funeral. Today, my church celebrated our Music Minister’s retirement. He’s been serving God and churches for 45 years. It was bittersweet - we are happy for him, but sad for us. Sometimes it’s a happy reason, sometimes it’s sad but the food is always good.
If you’ve never had dinner on the ground, you just don’t know what you’re missing. I love church dinners - there's nothing like them in the whole world.
“Dinner on the grounds” – that’s what we used to call it, I think it’s called that because you eat on the church grounds. I’ve eaten in fellowship halls, in Sunday School rooms, on a blanket outside, standing, holding my plate in my hands. When my daddy pastored at Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church, which is in-between Davenport and Loughman, they had and still have the best outdoor pavilion for dinner on the grounds I’ve ever seen. Do you know how much food can fit down that table in the center?
There’s a unique set of smells that comes with dinner on the grounds. Of course, for most church dinners, you simply must have fried chicken. Add in ham, macaroni and cheese, and casseroles – oh the casseroles. Potato salad, pasta salad, cole slaw, potatoes – scalloped, au gratin, it’s all good. Butter beans, lima beans, green beans, it just goes on and on and on.
And then, there’s the dessert table. There’s always banana pudding and chocolate cake. – it’s obligatory for Baptists. Personally, I think it’s the 11th Commandment -“Thou shalt have chocolate cake and banana pudding.” One time at one of our churches, a lady made banana pudding specially for my daddy – and left out the bananas. It might be better that way! Mrs. Viola Wooten used to make a cake that looked like this:
It was fabulous!!! Those little tiny skinny layers and the homemade chocolate frosting - I can still taste it. My mama always made 7 Minute Frosting for her cakes – it’s made with white Karo syrup and it gets crystal-ly after a while. Most ladies have their thing - certain recipes that they are known for. It's a slippery slope to make something someone else is known for. It can be a scary thing. Personally, I only bring things Publix makes. Today I had some grape salad that I was sure Debbie C made, but she didn't. I'll always eat Gail Thompson's potato salad - it tastes like my mama's.
Of course, now, we call them “Fellowship Dinners." We eat at nice tables, with flower arrangements and cushy chairs. It's a lot different than eating outside in a metal chair that is sinking into the ground. Some things are still the same - you can still smell chicken when it’s over. There really doesn’t have to be a reason. Sometimes it’s as simple as the 5th Sunday of the month. My church fed my family after my mother’s funeral and my dad’s funeral. Today, my church celebrated our Music Minister’s retirement. He’s been serving God and churches for 45 years. It was bittersweet - we are happy for him, but sad for us. Sometimes it’s a happy reason, sometimes it’s sad but the food is always good.
If you’ve never had dinner on the ground, you just don’t know what you’re missing. I love church dinners - there's nothing like them in the whole world.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Back to My Blog
So I’ve decided to come back to my blog. I originally started my blog as part of my assignments when I was taking classes in London in 2008. After I got home, I kept writing it, but lately, since I started my "new" job (I’m in the 4th year!) I just haven’t written much. I really don’t even know why. I like writing this, even if no one reads it. I write about stuff that makes me laugh, makes me crazy, whatever. It is sometimes just completely random thoughts from my head. My mind is a crazy place and sometimes with no focus, it’ s an absolute mess. I write just like I think so I’m positive it’s not always grammatically correct, but oh well. It's mine and I can do with it what I want.
The title of this is “At Least We’re Not Being Bombed by the Nazis.” There’s a reason for that. During the 6 weeks, I was in London, we heard that during our Orientation to the FSU Study Centre. There are tunnels and walkways underground that are used to get from one building to another during certain times of the day. During World War II, those tunnels were used during air raids. The Director of the Study Centre said that even if you had to use them late at night, and it was a little creepy, and a longer walk, at least you weren't being bombed by the Nazis at the same time. When I made the blog, I just liked the way that sounded. It also puts a lot of things in n perspective. No matter how bad things get and how crazy my life gets, at least we’re not being bombed by the Nazis.
So, what’s going on in my life this week? I’ll tell you. This week would have been my parent’s 58th wedding anniversary and my daddy would be 80 this week. That’s a little sad to me. Also on August 30th, some dear, dear friends of mine celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Today Mr. Donald said to our kids in Junior Church “It seems like just yesterday.” That’s a great thing to say. There are three couples I know who have been married 50 years this year. That’s quite an accomplishment. A lot of people don’t last to 50 days or 50 months, must less 50 years. It takes a lot of hard work.
I start checking out books to students this week, finally! I’ve been moving textbooks for 2 weeks. I figured out one week we moved quite literally over a ton of books. It’s craziness what it appears it takes to teach little kids to read and write and do math. Yay for library time!!! Yay for seeing students besides at the bus!! Yay for reading!!!
The title of this is “At Least We’re Not Being Bombed by the Nazis.” There’s a reason for that. During the 6 weeks, I was in London, we heard that during our Orientation to the FSU Study Centre. There are tunnels and walkways underground that are used to get from one building to another during certain times of the day. During World War II, those tunnels were used during air raids. The Director of the Study Centre said that even if you had to use them late at night, and it was a little creepy, and a longer walk, at least you weren't being bombed by the Nazis at the same time. When I made the blog, I just liked the way that sounded. It also puts a lot of things in n perspective. No matter how bad things get and how crazy my life gets, at least we’re not being bombed by the Nazis.
So, what’s going on in my life this week? I’ll tell you. This week would have been my parent’s 58th wedding anniversary and my daddy would be 80 this week. That’s a little sad to me. Also on August 30th, some dear, dear friends of mine celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Today Mr. Donald said to our kids in Junior Church “It seems like just yesterday.” That’s a great thing to say. There are three couples I know who have been married 50 years this year. That’s quite an accomplishment. A lot of people don’t last to 50 days or 50 months, must less 50 years. It takes a lot of hard work.
I start checking out books to students this week, finally! I’ve been moving textbooks for 2 weeks. I figured out one week we moved quite literally over a ton of books. It’s craziness what it appears it takes to teach little kids to read and write and do math. Yay for library time!!! Yay for seeing students besides at the bus!! Yay for reading!!!
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Textbook Inventory
So one of the things that happens in my job is I get stuck doing textbook inventory. That’s one of those things that technically isn’t my job, but it’s one of those things that people just expect me to do. It’s just like what it sounds like – I have to take an inventory of all the textbooks at my school. Sounds pretty simple right?
At my old school, I could do textbook inventory in a day. Well, once I got rid of over 6000 books that we didn’t use any more that no one had gotten rid of for YEARS . Tomorrow morning I’m going to collect the middle school books at my school. It will take me a couple of hours. So many of our books are online now, I only have class sets to check in and teacher’s editions. Ah, but my school now is not just a middle school. . . and elementary textbooks are a nightmare.
Our county uses Reading Wonders for elementary school. Let me attempt to explain what it takes to teach little kids how to read. For Grades 2-5, every teacher gets 2 books per student – a literature anthology and a reading/writing workshop. Yes, 2 hardback books per student. Luckily, at our school we departmentalize for grades 4 and 5, so even though each ELA teacher teachs two groups of students, they only get one set of books. Each teacher also gets a Teacher’s Edition for each chapter. . . That’s a LOT of books.
Oh, but that’s still not all. Kindergarten and first grade. Oh my!
Kindergarten doesn’t get textbooks for students. They get big books instead. 43 big books for each teacher to be exact. Yes, I said 43. . . each teacher. Plus all the teacher’s editions.
But NOTHING beats first grade. It apparently takes 100’s of items to teach first graders how to read. . . They don’t get 2 books per students. They get (are you ready for this???) 8 books per student. Yes 8! 4 Reading Writing Workshops – one for each unit and 4 Literature Anthologies – one per unit. They also get teacher’s editions – 6 of them. Then, just in case that isn’t enough, they also get 22 big books. One of my first-grade teachers had 216 items checked out when she came to me. This is what it takes to teach first grade.
None of this even counts Math Teacher’s Editions- that’s the green books! And we also are NOT counting Leveled Readers. Tiny little books in 4 levels for each story in the book. It’s unbelievable. Today, leveled readers almost pushed me over the edge.
Now, here’s my question. I was a late reader. I didn’t learn to read until the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade. (Of course, I did start kindergarten when I was 4 so I was a baby.) My teachers didn’t have all that stuff – but they taught me to read. I remember my kindergarten teacher having blow-up people for every letter – Mr. M had a munchy mouth, Mr. F had Funny feet. and Ms. A said “Ah, ah choo!” I don’t believe that kids today are dumb. I don’t believe teachers now are ignorant. What’s the deal? I would be fascinated to see how much money our county spends on textbooks.
Now, why do I LOVE textbook inventory so much? So many reasons. I can’t ever do it fast enough to make people happy. It takes a LONG time to check in that many books. You have to check them in, put them in storage and attempt to get them in some sort of order so you can give them all back out again. And the storage rooms are hot. I was sweating before 8:30 and that was just the beginning. And just for funsies? I get to take them all up, store them all, and check them all back out again in 8 weeks. Yes, 8 weeks. Seems like a lot of work for 8 weeks doesn’t it??
At my old school, I could do textbook inventory in a day. Well, once I got rid of over 6000 books that we didn’t use any more that no one had gotten rid of for YEARS . Tomorrow morning I’m going to collect the middle school books at my school. It will take me a couple of hours. So many of our books are online now, I only have class sets to check in and teacher’s editions. Ah, but my school now is not just a middle school. . . and elementary textbooks are a nightmare.
Our county uses Reading Wonders for elementary school. Let me attempt to explain what it takes to teach little kids how to read. For Grades 2-5, every teacher gets 2 books per student – a literature anthology and a reading/writing workshop. Yes, 2 hardback books per student. Luckily, at our school we departmentalize for grades 4 and 5, so even though each ELA teacher teachs two groups of students, they only get one set of books. Each teacher also gets a Teacher’s Edition for each chapter. . . That’s a LOT of books.
Oh, but that’s still not all. Kindergarten and first grade. Oh my!
Kindergarten doesn’t get textbooks for students. They get big books instead. 43 big books for each teacher to be exact. Yes, I said 43. . . each teacher. Plus all the teacher’s editions.
But NOTHING beats first grade. It apparently takes 100’s of items to teach first graders how to read. . . They don’t get 2 books per students. They get (are you ready for this???) 8 books per student. Yes 8! 4 Reading Writing Workshops – one for each unit and 4 Literature Anthologies – one per unit. They also get teacher’s editions – 6 of them. Then, just in case that isn’t enough, they also get 22 big books. One of my first-grade teachers had 216 items checked out when she came to me. This is what it takes to teach first grade.
None of this even counts Math Teacher’s Editions- that’s the green books! And we also are NOT counting Leveled Readers. Tiny little books in 4 levels for each story in the book. It’s unbelievable. Today, leveled readers almost pushed me over the edge.
Now, here’s my question. I was a late reader. I didn’t learn to read until the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade. (Of course, I did start kindergarten when I was 4 so I was a baby.) My teachers didn’t have all that stuff – but they taught me to read. I remember my kindergarten teacher having blow-up people for every letter – Mr. M had a munchy mouth, Mr. F had Funny feet. and Ms. A said “Ah, ah choo!” I don’t believe that kids today are dumb. I don’t believe teachers now are ignorant. What’s the deal? I would be fascinated to see how much money our county spends on textbooks.
Now, why do I LOVE textbook inventory so much? So many reasons. I can’t ever do it fast enough to make people happy. It takes a LONG time to check in that many books. You have to check them in, put them in storage and attempt to get them in some sort of order so you can give them all back out again. And the storage rooms are hot. I was sweating before 8:30 and that was just the beginning. And just for funsies? I get to take them all up, store them all, and check them all back out again in 8 weeks. Yes, 8 weeks. Seems like a lot of work for 8 weeks doesn’t it??
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)