A Trip to Milton

On Thursday, I left home at 8:02, according to my car clock, on my way to Milton. Milton, Florida – why on Earth would I drive to Milton??? I came to visit my friend Katherine, who is part of my Master's program, but was also my flat mate in London last summer for six weeks. It's amazing how you can spend six weeks with someone and still not know some things about them.

The trip to Milton was uneventful. My friends Amy and Will graciously let me borrow their GPS to help me find my way. The poor woman was quite confused as I refused to follow her instructions for part of the trip. I took 33 out of my county, to the turnpike to 75 and then I-10. She wanted me to take smaller roads and kept trying to make me exit. It rained on me a little; one time so hard I could barely see and was creeping along at about 35 miles per hour. . .

Several rest stops and about 7 ½ hours later, I arrived. It was so good to see Katherine. We have taken classes together for 2 ½ years, spent 6 weeks together including weekends in Scotland and Paris, but we still don't SEE each other often. She looks really happy. During the summer last year, she was going through some personal struggles, but she seems at peace now. It was interesting to meet her children, and her friend/fiancé Scott, after hearing so much about them. So nice to put faces and personalities to names.

It was especially exciting that for dinner on Thursday night, we drove to Foley, Alabama to Lambert's Café. I have friends who just traveled to Missouri and ate at Lambert's and came back just full of stories. Nothing I heard turned about to be untrue. We had to wait, but amused ourselves by trying to figure out just how many license plates we could find from different states. The, we got to sit down and here came the pass-arounds. Pass-arounds are big bowls and pots of things that the staff just brings around and gives you. We had fried okra while we were waiting for our drinks. Then came the rolls. Lambert's calls itself the home of "Throwed Rolls." Actually, their website is http://www.throwedrolls.com/. They literally come out with pans of hot rolls and throw them across the room, and you've got to catch them. Luckily for us, Scott and Chad were our designated roll catchers.

We ate so much I thought I would burst. I had meatloaf, green beans, and fried apples. Other items on our table were chicken and dumplings, country ham that was served in a skillet, and fried chicken. It was like dinner on the ground. Then the pass-arounds. . . the fried potatoes and onions were to die for, and then there were still more rolls. They also offered macaroni and tomatoes, black-eyed peas and more fried okra. . and more rolls. We left stuffed to bursting.

On Friday, we visited Katherine's school. She had a bookshelf to deliver and I am always curious about other people's schools. It is a HUGE school, geographically, and takes up lots of space. It just seems to go on forever. We poked around in an antique/collectible store called the "Copper Possum" where I snagged two Bobbsey Twin books. They had LOTS of stuff I liked and would LOVE to have gotten my hands on – an old church pew, a Hoosier cabinet, some Longaberger baskets. But I restrained myself. Laquita would be proud of me. I spend the rest of the day playing on the Xbox with Zach, although I'm not very good at all!!!

It was a great day. Today, we are off to explore. My daddy will be proud of me; we're going to the Naval Museum and Fort Barrancas, and just "frogging" around. I'll let you know what we see.

Can’t sleep

Well, it's almost 2:00 in the morning, and I can't sleep. I'm tired, but I can't sleep. I've turned my light off and back on three times, same thing with my computer. I hate it. I guess I'll have to get myself some Tylenol PM. I didn't even take a nap today. I'm reading a book I got from the "Friends of the Library" Wednesday at the Lakeland Library. Great deal on two hardback books – one by Amanda Quick and one by Jayne Ann Krentz, who are actually both the same person. I also just watched "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" or something like that, it's like the car accident on the side of the road, you really don't want to look, but you kind of can't help it.

I don't really know why I can't sleep. I do have something weighing heavily on my mind but there's nothing I can do about it. The short version of the LONG story is, I found a media specialist job that I thought would be perfect, but a displaced teacher was put in the job instead. It makes me frustrated and angry. I can't do anything about it, so dwelling on it is useless but I keep trying to find some way around it. Ever since I found out, I've been in a foul mood and even Publix cake didn't make it all better. It just irritates me beyond belief that my buddies and I have spent 2 ½ years working our butts off in this program, learning to be leaders and media specialists, and there's no opportunity to do anything with what we've learned.

So what does one do when one can't sleep at night? Well, I'm glad we aren't in school, because I would be even more stressed if I knew I had to teach tomorrow. I read for a while, watch TV for a while (BTW, there's not much good stuff on at 2:00 in the morning) look online, and repeat any combination of the three. I check my grades, check facebook, check my mail. . . .My eyes are heavy, but my brain just won't shut off. So, I try to make myself go to sleep and I just am more stressed because I can't. I guess I could get dressed and go to Wal-Mart. I could just keep watching mindless TV and commercials that are even more mindless but I keep laughing at the stupid stuff for sale.

Maybe I can go to sleep now. I can only hope.

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.