Halfway Through My YA Lit Religious Experience

I went into NYC today to attend the ALAN workshop, "Helping Teens Discover a Sense of Self and Place Through Young Adult Literature." When I walked into the Marriott Times Square and went up to the 5th floor ballroom area to check in, they forked over a good-size cardboard box full of books -- hardcover, paperback, both brand new titles and older titles, and even some pre-pub reviewer copies of the newest books. All told it looks like about $250-300 worth of books! What a great "thanks for coming" gift! There were different book combinations in every box, so you weren't guaranteed to get any particular authors or books, but everyone got enough to get autographs from the authors who were there. (I got a bunch!)

Talk about heaven!

I sat with a couple hundred other English teachers, librarians and media specialists to hear a host of YA authors talk about their books and what they see as important with kids and reading. There were some new authors I wasn't familiar with, like the keynote speaker, Sherman Alexie. He was hilarious and a phenomenal speaker. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him. His book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was awarded the National Book Award for the YA category last night. Chris Crutcher came up next, and had me in tears one minute and cheering like hell the next. All day, we had Brian Selznick, Peter Sis, Christopher Myers, Jacqueline Woodson, Patricia McCormick, Ben Mikaelson, Gloria Whelan, Holly Black, Lauren Myracle, Helen Frost, T.A. Barron, David Lubar (who came to speak even though today is his 30th anniversary -- he has quite the understanding wife!), Pete Hautman, and many other new authors, poets and playwrights. It was an amazing, exhausting day, and I loved it. And tomorrow is equally promising (but will be less exhausting as I will only be hauling in the books for the authors who are speaking tomorrow). Tons of notes, lots of great quotes on reading and writing. The ALAN presenters were also great -- went to a breakout session on encouraging reluctant readers that was a lot of fun.
Time to go crash... it's back on the train and the subway tomorrow. This is one of those things that is fun for a day or two but If I had to make that trip every day I would be miserable. Glad I don't have to!

The Drama Queen and the Shopping Deity

Drama Queen is still sick today -- worse than yesterday, so I was glad I took the day off to stay home with her. The Boy's class went to the bookfair today, and I had promised him earlier in the week that I would come and meet him there, so as DQ seemed to be perking up a bit, we bundled into Big Bertha and off we went to the bookfair. She was good for about 20 minutes there, and then we came home, where she had a few sips of warm apple cider and promptly passed out on the sofa for a couple hours (definitely not normal at 10:30 am). While she was sleeping, I was twelve feet away, doing over a grand's worth of damage to FIL's Mastercard. Or, should I say, earning him all kinds of gambling bonus points by using his card... Figuring out what went with what to create outfits for the kids was the most pain in the ass part, beyond the fact that they had no pink snowpants to go with Beloved Niece's jacket so had to get her cream ones (jacket is pink and cream colored). Why in the hell does ANYONE make white or off-white snowpants for kids??? Ridiculous, but nothing else came even close to coordinating.

Anyway, the Fantastic Four are taken care of for outwear and clothes and pjs for Christmas, and all but two of the rest are taken care of (didn't hear back about sizes for the twins yet, so that's on hold). All that's left are stocking stuffers and toys for the girls, but UM and I will head off to KidMecca (aka Toys R Us) one weeknight sometime soon and get that squared away.

Christmas Is Coming, The Mama's Getting Fat

Well, maybe not technically fat yet, but I'm getting the "let's hibernate for the winter" vibe from my innards. Thank God for sweaters.
The annual physical is coming up the week after Thanksgiving. Have to remember to schedule that business for July next time -- having a cholesterol test five days after Thanksgiving is probably one of my stupider moves. Jimmy's going to harass me about going on Lipitor for sure now. That'll be a fun conversation.
Started the Christmas shopping with a pajama binge for the Fantastic Four. UM says he has the "boy" gifts taken care of but needs help with the "girl" gifts. FIL announced he does not want to shop at all this year and has dumped it in our laps, along with his MasterCard. I am officially in charge of all clothing gifts, stocking stuffers, and gifts for the grandkids of the four closest friends and relations (there are 14 in that category). Thats quite the arsenal of online orders -- Lands End is going to make a small fortune off this project.
We haven't discussed grownup gifts yet this year -- not sure how that's going to go.
Drama Queen is battling a cold and stayed home with Daddy today, but she was better tonight. Hopefully she will be okay in the morning and I can go to work... left sub plans just in case, though.

Last day of the first marking period, so far I have one set of psychotic parents and one student who didn't fall far from the tree, a mild sinus infection, a half-day of staff development that I seem to be fully responsible for (for the building) coming up on Tuesday, and Hubby doesn't seem to think he needs to take the day off then (when we have no child care for both children and it's been on the calendar for three months).
I would very much like to go drive off a cliff right now.
No, really.

Okay, maybe that's just another pipe dream to make me feel momentarily better, but I'M STILL HAVING IT, GODDAMMMIT.

Oh, and add that my FIL's girlfriend had surgery yesterday, he called to tell us she was doing okay, and then last night he went to the hospital with chest pains. WTF. According to the ER doc in Jersey, he has indigestion. I talked to him today and told him he WOULD be going to the cardiologist when he got home. He argued with me about that (actually made me feel better -- if he had agreed to it immediately I would have driven down there tonight), but one way or the other he will get in and get that done and go see his GP also.

I hate being the uber-mama in this family some days. Today qualifies.

Rabbit Hill #1

Went to the Rabbit Hill Literature Festival Author Dinner tonight at the Red Barn restaurant. The travel was nasty -- dark, rainy, horrendous traffic (took me an hour and ten minutes to get there instead of a half hour). However, upon arrival, I sat down with the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts, and had a lovely bit of conversation before Eeyore showed up. Our table was graced for the evening by none other than Neal Shusterman, author of my fave twisted fairy tales/myth series (Red Rider's Hood, Dreadlocks), The Schwa, and Everlost. He lives in southern California, so we discussed the fires there (his house is fine, the ones I lived in in Poway and Escondido are gone), families, life of an author, his newest book that is just out. I think we are going to try to get him to come for a visit late this year -- there is someone from NY (around Rye) working on doing that, so if we can dovetail into that we're golden. We might be able to split him for a day with Central, and get Just Books in on it also.
His new book, Unwind, sounds incredible. I can't wait to read it! A second civil war has happened (over the issue of abortion among things). The civilization that has survived has decreed that there are to be no abortions -- life at conception IS. However, between the ages of 13-17, children can legally be terminated by their parents. What a dilemma -- the Drama Queen is three and frankly I am dreading 13 like it's going to be the start of an incarceration for me. I can see why this would be a question an author would want to write about!
Neal said that he wanted to address the issue of abortion, but do it in a way that had not been done before, and do it in a way that would present both sides with an opportunity to discuss. What a thought -- delve into a violently divisive issue and give both sides a piece to argue for and against using fiction as the vehicle. His intended audience is high school, so I will be interested to read it. He said he expects it to be on the Banned Books list!
I didn't get around to the other tables to schmooze with the other authors, but hopefully I will see a couple tomorrow. Met the director of the Westport public library, and an editor for Simon and Schuster also -- will revise post tomorrow later with their names which are on a card with the book on CD that we got as a dinner gift tonight (Gail Carson Levine). :)
Lovely, lovely time. I should have gotten my favorite princess and Wonder Woman to come... maybe next year!

13th Tale Update

Second note to WW and my favorite Princess: You should have threatened me with shovels, shotguns, whatever you could get your hands on to make me read this!! Thirteenth Tale is amazing, I loveitloveitloveit -- and of course wish I'd started it sooner. Damn real life -- it gets in the way of so many good books.
I have two booktalks tomorrow so don't know if I will finish tonight, if not then definitely this weekend. I'll post when I'm done. :)

Note to Wonder Woman

WW,
I have FINALLY brought home Thirteenth Tale. If my children don't absolutely drag me under tonight, I will start reading. Unfortunately the Dallas/Buffalo game kept me up late last night (yes, occasionally I do put myself through the football paces), so looks like passout time will come earlier than usual. Promise I'll get moving on it, though!
The Hundred Acre Wood was relatively calm today. Scheduled a bunch of booktalks through the rest of the month, and got my paperwork done for the two big conferences this month and next. I'm headed to Hartford for the annual CECA tech/education conference late this month, and then off to NYC next month for a two day authors and reading workshop in conjunction with the NCTE annual conference. FL told me today that I am getting expensive -- told him I am worth every nickel and he knows it! Turned in my annual TEP plan for him to approve today. Changed my description titles (the what are you going to do parts) from last year's very simple "Weed, Feed and Learn" to this year's "Duck and Chuck, Spend the Money Honey, and On to the Fun Stuff". That's basically to see if 1. anyone actually reads this, and 2. if they do, did they notice? We'll see. Not a big deal if I get told to change it -- I don't care. I just get so bloody bored with doing things the straitlaced way.

and a good time was had by all...

What a weekend! The Boy and I had a wonderful time hitting the road together. The drive down on Friday was great (perfect timing in terms of traffic, except we did miss a turn in Baltimore and ended up driving around backtracking for a half hour), the weather was fantastic, and he was a trooper about walking everywhere. Friday afternoon we went to the Natural History museum (dinosaurs and meteorites were on the agenda) and we walked around the mall and the Capitol grounds a little. The brick grotto with the fountain was open and renovated this year, and he thought that was cool. Dinner was at the hotel (overpriced but convenient), and he passed out very quickly afterwards. We're definitely staying elsewhere next year -- they put us in a room facing NJ Ave and there's a fire station directly across the street. Nice for safety, but I was up every hour or so with the fire trucks wailing away. The Boy, of course, sleeps like a rock, so he didn't notice. Time to find a less expensive option sitting on or very near a Metro station!!
Saturday we got up early, had the included breakfast buffet (which was a deal given the amount The Boy ate), and then we went to the Washington Monument. Claustrophobia in check for a few hours, we did the 9:30 tour, and he enjoyed it very much. I was definitely glad to be out of there, though. We found the 15th St public restrooms where the fire alarm was going off for no particular reason and the park service employees were having their coffee in a golf cart nearby. Apparently fire alarms are not enough reason to reschedule a coffee break.
The book festival got going at 10 am, so we were there just after it started. We stopped in and bought books early (not a big line yet), then made our way to the PBS Kids tent, Magic School Bus, Target tent and the information tent. Good thing we hit the giveaways early -- they were running out of a lot of things by noon as the place was mobbed with people later! We got posters and bags, polaroids of The Boy with various cartoon characters (costumed folks), a Magic School Bus book from the Scholastic people, two stuffed parrots from the PBS people, and various coloring books and activity books from other companies. The Target people were giving away what they called reading mats, but were really nice, thick, heavy vinyl-coated bags. One side of the bag has a checkerboard layout, and inside the inner zip pocket of the bag is a set of red and white plastic checkers! We had a good couple games under the trees just across from the children's authors' presentation tent while we listened to David Wiesner, Rosemary Wells, and Judy Schachner talk about their books. I was a little disappointed this year that the lines were so long to get books signed -- I gave up even considering trying since most of the authors were scheduled for only one-hour stints at the book signing stations. The Boy is patient, but he is not that patient. We wandered around the pavilions listening to various authors, though, and that was fun. Most of the pavilions were wall-to-wall people, some standing 8-10 deep around the edge of the chairs. We got to hear part of Terry Pratchett's presentation, and some of Holly Black's, Patricia MacLachlan's, and a few others. It was hard to get to hear complete presentations, not only because of the crowds and distance between pavilions, but because of the schedule! We tried getting from one pavilion to another quickly to hear one author or another, but invariably we missed chunks of the presentations. The LOC was recording all of the sessions, though, so hopefully they will finish the video podcasts soon and we can see what we missed, and I can recommend appropriate ones to teachers.
Met dear family friend BabyBeckie (who is now working in DC), and she wandered the festival with us all afternoon. We went back to the hotel to drop off the stuff (camera, book fest bags o'freebies, and what then felt like 85 pounds of books), and we went to Union Station. We had dinner at one of the nice restaurants there (not NEARLY as expensive as the hotel option!), and we caught the 7pm Old Town Trolley evening monuments tour. The Boy had been very excited about staying up late and seeing the monuments lit up at night, but after walking all day and dinner with ice cream, he passed out on the trolley around 8:45! He missed the FDR memorial, woke up to walk over to the Korean War memorial with me, then I piggybacked him over to the Lincoln Memorial so he could see the Capitol, Washington Monument and WWII all lit up. He liked that a lot, but he was so tired he passed right out again as soon as we got back on, so he missed Iwo Jima. Our driver/tour guide was "Mr. Map" and I highly recommend him as a guide. He was extremely knowledgeable, cracked decent jokes, and asked all of us about ourselves (and remembered it all later when he would point things out and refer to us). BabyBeckie had never seen the monuments at night either, and some of them she hadn't seen at all yet, so we both had a good time on the tour (even with the Boy passed out across my lap).
I think that next year we will 1. stay at a different hotel and avail ourselves of the Metro, 2. get a couple books for different authors who will be there ahead of time and make lists of questions on stickies for the books, and 3. just try to see those few authors' presentations and not worry about going near the signing tents. We're definitely arriving early again next year, though, as that seemed to be key for the fun stuff and freebies. The food choices were limited at best. We had ice cream more than once! I don't know if I can talk Hubby into coming with us next year (so DQ can come too), or if this is going to be a Mom-and-Boy activity for another year. We'll see. I'll be interested in attendance estimates for the festival -- it was definitely more crowded than last year.

SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Yes, Eeyore did the "why wasn't I invited" shit. Am going to tell FL to either invite her officially or tell her no because she is not the goddamn department head with the requisite ass on the line.
Pretty much guarantees her coming to the meeting -- not completely a bad thing, but she gets lost easily and doesn't get the jokes. So I'm annoyed afterward, and given that it's a 9:30 meeting, I can't ameliorate that easily. Maybe I'll see about scheduling my cholesterol test the same day. If I'm going to be underfed, undercaffeinated and pissed, I might as well get to take it out there.
Of course, the sensible thing would be to gently note to FL that avoidance of the issue is as easy as a reschedule to a time during her class. That would get him off the hook nonconfrontationally.
I do notice that he tends to like to notice that shit on his own, however.
So it looks like I'm screwed.
Where's Jimmy's number for the cholesterol screening appt??????

Hundred Acre Wood Update

I miss Wonderland. Not the place necessarily, but my favorite characters, most of whom I went out to dinner with tonight. I had more fun .. need to do that more to ameliorate everything else in my life. Went to the Mirage Cafe in Port Chester, and it was absolutely delightful! The chocolate mousse and the bread pudding were SINFULLY good ... I should have just gotten one or both of those. I had a fish special that was out of this world, though. Next stop will be Coyote Flaco with the DR2B, the Dormouse and the Princess-- should ask them if we can invite Wonder Woman; miss her too. Have to attempt to get them for a Wednesday night since I don't have to teach on Thurs. so therefore a trip to margaritaville wouldn't be so bad. Either that or aim for a weekend -- Hubby has been out with the fellas so it would be a bit of equalization. Like the song says, "Girlfriends kick ass!"
The Hundred Acre Wood is coming along reasonably well given the structural roadblocks that have been thrown in our way by the district (ie budget cuts that mean we have ancient carpet for another year or more, and everything else will have to be held together with bubble gum and baling wire). The kids enjoy coming after school, and I think it's nice to have them chirping away doing homework and talking over things together for a while after school. Kanga gets a kick out of them too -- Eeyore gets a little more bent if the noise goes up and she doesn't think they are doing homework, but they don't seem to mind much when she goes off.
Fearless Leader Round 1: asked me yesterday to present to the two 6th grade parent coffees today. Not a big deal, but it sent Eeyore around the bend last night because she couldn't remember if she had to set anything up for first thing in the morning (no, I set it all up, but it took over 10 minutes to get her off the phone last night when I was trying to get the kids to bed).
FL Round 2: told me he was putting me on ShIT committee (School Improvement Team). Last time I got stuck with that I discovered that it was basically a forum for hyperinvolved parents to bitch and moan. Has it changed? Who knows -- guess I will find out. He OWES me. Like he doesn't already!
FL Round 3 will be the budget meeting next week where we ballpark what we need for next year. That should be fun given we've got a lowball amount for book $ recommendation from the district and I'll have to hit one out of the park to get more on that. I'm sure Eeyore will go ballistic and do the "why wasn't I invited to this?" crap again.
The Boy is very,very,very excited about going to Washington with me this weekend. The Dormouse is getting me the camera so we can take decent pictures from a distance of authors etc at the Book Festival, and we have a couple picked out to go listen to/see etc. We'll see what we accomplish! Actually, I think he is just excited to have room service in his near future. :)

It's that time of year again...

Yes, that would be "obnoxious fundraisers for all the schools the kids are in" time. The preschool sells overpriced candles that you cannot order online, and therefore have to keep track of the order form and the booklet and the checks... needless to say, I lost all of the paperwork twice before I got over to FIL's to tell him to buy some strong candles to cover up the catpee stench in his back stairwell where the elderly kitties occasionally lose control before making it to the basement. He blew $200 on candles and tchotchkes, mostly because his GF went shopping through the catalog and couldn't decide which scent he'd like best -- so she bought a bunch. Whatever floats her boat. Not like he's not going to eat this week because of that! Then there's the wrapping paper/tchotchke sale going on at The Boy's elementary school (same one the other grandkids have going on, and FIL blew $80 on wrapping paper for them). So we ordered some and UJ ordered some. That you can do online thankfully, so the mild guilt trip emails have been sent to Granny, Mame, etc. They'll help. Fortunately the magazine drive is over where I work, but I always order our magazines that way. They gave us the faculty discount, but it only applied to certain magazines, so some I ordered at full price (National Geographic). Anyway, I hate these sales because you get pressured at every turn to sell stuff to other people you may or may not like (both the stuff and the people), and I've always been annoyed by that. I'd really like a PTA option: if you don't want to participate in the sellfest, then give us $40 (or whatever the average order take for the school would be). I'll write you another fucking check just to not have to deal with all of the paperwork and guilt trips!
The Boy is doing quite well with reading, and still adores his new teacher. We went to Open House this past week, and she was quite excited and energetic. She announced to the parents that she will be running her first NY Marathon in Nov, so that was neat. Another reason for a marathon party! She has the kids running their own "Morning Meeting" every day, everyone has a job to do, and they all have bought into her behavior management/positive reinforcement plan (they each have a monkey and their monkeys have a couple bananas -- if you do something wrong, your monkey loses a banana and you have to earn it back). She calls it "No Monkeying Around!" Very cute, but effective so far. The Boy is writing all the time now (he has very interesting spelling, but he has a much better grasp of phonics than some of the kids in his class by the looks of his spelling) and he is whizzing along through the math for grade 1. He got extra worksheets this past week for "enrichment" homework and I'm not sure if that's a sign that he is getting bored (he could do them all easily). Have to talk to her about that.
Drama Queen has been phenomenally dramatic lately -- and stubborn and pissy and whiny and look-right-at-you-and-do-what-you-just-said-no-to kind of rotten child. Must be a phase. I'm thinking of locking her in the basement until this one passes (mornings have been really difficult), but that's one of those lovely mother fantasies. I know I will have to bear the brunt of this until she's gotten through it. I have a feeling that part of this is that all of her friends except one are in the downstairs class, and she misses them. She sees them on the playground, but I think that's about it. Doesn't matter if I gripe about it or express concern or handle it any other way -- they won't switch her simply because they have no room in any class, so I'm thinking that's pretty pointless.
The Hundred Acre Wood will have to wait a while -- it's been up and down lately and I'm too tired to go on about that one just now.

Holy Crap, Batgirl -- You're Published!

We've been having quite the stink here as our school board wants to institute a merit pay system. We are currently in binding arbitration between the teachers' union and the town, and the entire state will be watching as no one else has merit pay in the state. Thus, the decision here will either slam the door shut on this for a while or it will fling it wide.
After going to the school board meeting last week, and hearing everyone else speak on the subject, I read our local state representative's (spoon-fed, rah-rah, this-is-great from the board) opinion supporting merit pay in the local weekly paper, the Greenwich Citizen. I got pissed and wrote the following:

Dear Mr. Harrison, (editor of the Citizen)

I would like to respond to Dolly Powers' article supporting merit pay in Greenwich.

I am a Greenwich homeowner, taxpayer, voter, parent of a first grader and a 3-year-old, and also a teacher. I am starting my thirteenth year working for Greenwich Public Schools (nine non-consecutive years at EMS, four at CMS). Having looked at the board's evaluation plan design and merit pay ideas, I think they are fundamentally flawed.
Let me tell you about my first year teaching. I was hired by Ben Davenport to teach sixth grade language arts and social studies at Eastern Middle School. I walked in with all of the materials I had collected and created in my college classes, hoping that there would be enough there to at least get me started in my new classroom. That concern evaporated almost immediately, as I was taken into the collective fold of the sixth grade team and the EMS faculty as a whole. Joanne Zammit, Jeanne Fachner, Jini Martens, Stacey Goodnow, and many others handed me lessons, resources, and even whole unit folders, saying, "What do you need? Let's see what you can use!" Their doors were always open for any question, whether it was classroom management ideas, curriculum, staff development, paperwork, scheduling, or the myriad other issues that arise daily at school. I have always felt indebted to them for all of the assistance they freely gave me that first year... and for the fact that they have never stopped being willing to help me or any other teacher. I found that environment as well when I moved to Central Middle School in 2002 to become a media specialist, particularly with Judy Peterson, Justine Domuracki, Kevin Krois, and Jo Frame. Even as a seasoned teacher, moving into a new curriculum meant that I needed support from my colleagues and an open, collaborative environment in order to give my students the best experience possible. I have made a conscious effort to be a teacher who is willing to offer to help other teachers as much as I possibly can, because of those formative experiences in my teaching career.
My students through the years did not learn and succeed at school because of me alone. They succeeded because of the efforts of the entire team of teachers that they had at school. That's not just the academic teachers, but also the art teachers who asked them to think critically and creatively, the music and gym teachers who constantly encouraged them, the media specialists who gave them interesting books and taught them computer skills, the Consumer Science (Home Economics) teachers who had them use math and reading skills for directions, recipes and other activities, and all of the other staff who provided them with a well-rounded middle school experience. We have always worked together for the students' benefit.
This is what concerns me about merit pay. I have seen the evaluation plan the board is pushing, and it comes across as a selfish, overly complicated and divisive device. There is no place in the evaluation for noting effective collaboration and cooperation -- it is all about financial incentives for singular personal achievement measured by administrator evaluations and student test scores. The days of new teachers being welcomed and helped the way I was are desperately numbered with this plan. Placing financial incentives in front of teachers for their best lesson plans and ideas means that those lessons and ideas won't be shared with other teachers. That hurts two groups most: our new teachers who need support and nurturing to develop real-world skills and an arsenal of options for all situations in the classroom, and most importantly, this hurts the students of the Greenwich Public Schools. My first-grader has a new teacher at Riverside. I want her to have the support of the Riverside faculty and the other teachers in the district so that she can find the best ways to nurture and challenge him and his classmates. I want all of his future teachers to have that as well -- because I want the absolute best for him. Without collaboration and a system that encourages sharing, this kind of support will wither away as teachers discover that in order to succeed financially they must deny their colleagues access to their ideas and materials. It amazes me that the board thinks that developing this sort of cutthroat atmosphere in our schools is way to attract and retain teachers, and help student scores go up.
Although Dolly Powers wrote about how merit pay has been successful elsewhere, I wonder how that success has been measured in her eyes. Did she also find and read about the districts where merit pay failed (and there are a multitude of those) or did she just take the positive spin from Bill Kelly and the board? I found the most interesting fact in her article to be the amount the federal government has given out to states where there are districts with merit pay ($80 million). I've been wondering what the board's underlying agenda was, and I can't help but think getting a piece of the federal pie would be quite the incentive to them. I've noticed that there are an awful lot more highly paid (non-curriculum-related) administrators down at the Havemeyer building now than there were ten years ago, and yet Dr. Sternberg and the board were lambasted at the most recent board meeting about their refusal to hire more teachers for overcrowded elementary classrooms, where our children need them most.
What do I want? As a taxpayer, I want the board to be judicious and careful stewards of the resources allocated to them by the town. As a teacher, I want to be constructively criticized, fairly evaluated and equitably paid for the work I do at my school with my students, and the work I do for the district. At this point, that's already happening, so I don't see a problem keeping the current system. I want my colleagues to believe that it is in everyone's best interest (students and faculty alike) to share ideas, materials and resources, and I want them to feel encouraged to share, cooperate as teams, and collaborate to create the best learning experiences possible for our students. Our opening day speaker, Ken Kay, made it very clear that those are exactly the skills that our students must have in order to succeed in the 21st century. How will we teach those if we cannot actually set the examples and demonstrate how to do that successfully ourselves? The board is setting teachers up to fail, and that makes me angry as a parent. When the board acts in that manner, they ultimately hurt the students whose interests the board should be acting to protect. And that includes my kids -- my biological ones and the ones who show up in my classroom and the EMS media center every day.

He wrote back and let me know that he was going to publish it in today's paper. I was shocked to see that he didn't cut anything -- he published it as it was written and gave me **half a page** in the paper. And thus I am a published person. Not a novel or anything lengthy, but yet a piece I feel strongly about and one that I hope will cause people to think about how this issue will affect our schools. There are a few people on the board that I really really hope I pissed off by speaking my mind, but my real aim was to simply speak -- exercise my First Amendment rights to my opinion, and in doing so present another side of the issue.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to hell we go...

Well, not literally, but tonight IS the last night of the summer, and it's back to work and time to go into Cuisinart mode tomorrow. Lots of crap on the drawing table coming up, as well as the usual start of year nonsense with schedules and where's-my-shit, and then I have to plan a couple presentations for parents and faculty. The Hundred Acre Wood is looking pretty good (that's relative, given the decrepit shape it's been in). Wall's down, carpet's patched and cleaned, not too much crap everywhere, the book orders came in, and so far only two computers didn't survive the summer. Bad sign: opened my file drawer in my desk and a VERY healthy-looking roach crawled across the tops of my files. EEEUUUUUWWWWWW. Asked the custodians to pleasepleaseplease do something about that. Hopefully they did. Kanga's been in a good mood, Owl has been working hard and has also been in a good mood. Eeyore's son is now in 6th grade and will be (ahem) in one of my classes at some point this year. THAT should be interesting.
The Boy had a birthday party today for one of the boys who was in his K class and will also be in his 1st grade class. They had a wonderful time, and I am really hoping that they will become good friends this year. We were invited over for a get-to-know-you party on Tues (same family, they are hosting a party for all the kids in the new class and the moms) so I am hoping that OFL will let me off for a couple hours to do that with The Boy. He should -- still owes me about 10 hours from last year, and I didn't even mention the time I came in and spent over the summer. Got a letter from The Boy's new teacher (brand new as of about a week ago or so) and he seems to be looking forward to this year. Sea change from last year-- he vehemently announced that "We don't have to talk about her any more" in reference to his K teacher, the Irish Nazi. I'll be making an appointment to see Miss 1st in the first couple weeks of school to talk things over with her.
Granny is here, and The Boy is loving it. DQ is occasionally standoffish, and I have had to get much firmer with both of them in the last month. Don't know if that's a factor of me leaving them in Austin for a couple days or just the stages they are going through. Whatever. Hope it ends soon, as I hate having to haul out "Mean Mommy" and chew them out for being rude or obnoxious every day. On the good side, Granny will let us have a couple dates before she leaves, so that will be the grand sum total of my social life for the next couple months.
Vegas and Austin were great -- more about that later.

off and running tomorrow morning

The kids and I are off to Austin (and then Vegas for me and Hubby) in the morning. Spent today packing, and even with light packing we are still taking the big suitcase and the rolling carryon to check, and then we each have a backpack to carry on. Drama Queen has a surprise in hers -- bought her her own Leapster so she wouldn't have to harass her brother about taking turns with his. Hopefully between that and the seatback individual tv screens on Jetblue, we'll be set for the flight. Have munchies packed in the bags, and I promised them Dunkin Donuts at the airport )egg sandwich first, then a donut).
Just Books was sold out of Eclipse (!) so I am hoping to find it at the airport. We'll see -- one way or another I will locate a copy on the trip. Ordered a signed copy from an Arizona bookstore near where Stephenie Meyer lives, so hopefully that will come relatively soon and I can give the unsigned one to the library.
No word yet from Wome and Mame about whether they located a booster seat for DQ. If not, we'll hit Walmart or Target on the way back from the airport in Austin.
Cheers to a great trip!

Hot, hot, hot...

Welcome to the heat wave. I feel a little guilty labeling weather like this as a heat wave, as I don't think we've even passed 95 yet, and in Oklahoma that's barely a reason to start sweating.. Real heat waves involve temperatures over 100 for days and days on end (and humidity over 90% if you want to nitpick). But this is Connecticut, where the standards and tolerances are much lower, and we've had enough mildly hot days in a row that it qualifies for the announcement. To be fair, those of us who have to hundred-year-old houses with no central air and only window units have to decide how much we want the electric bill to be, and that makes a difference. I've had the kids over at FIL's in the pool and central air for part of most of these days.
Four more days, and then we are officially off to Texas to see Auntie Mame and Uncle Wome. The kids are excited, and I think I will pack relatively light for them (definitely for me as I'm sending a separate suitcase to Vegas with Hubby so I don't have to haul it to Texas and then on to Vegas). Eclipse comes out just before the trip, so I will be schlepping that one along for the ride, and I have to throw some more in the Vegas suitcase.
Went through the toys and shipped two boxes off to Mame for her to tuck into the closet for the kids to have once we arrive (and hopefully keep at her house). Hope the tea set makes it through the trip unscathed. I sent the white ironstone set... it's cute but also big enough to have a "real" teaparty and has a few dings and cracks, so them abusing it won't be a huge deal.
Had a very enlightening discussion with UM regarding the Murphinator. Last week I sent her flowers for her birthday from FIL and me. FIL at least got a terse thank you note. I got nothing. She sent UM an email saying his entire family had "written [her] out of their lives" and she was completely alone and ignored. Right... that was immediately after we had the Happy birthday flowers delivered. She announced a week or so ago that she wants to take their kids to Italy for Christmas, and she wanted him to pay for the trip. He agree to pay for one, so that he is funding half the travel expenses for the kids. Fair -- he says he thinks this is a great opportunity for them and doesn't want them to miss it. I thought that was nice, but something was gnawing at me and it took me a quiet evening doing something else before I realized why that bothered me so much. M has been announcing left and right that she has no money. (and he pays all bills for the house and gives her $2500 a month) She told UM that he had to buy the kids their backpacks for school because she couldn't afford to do it. In January when I went to lunch with her she was going on and on about how she had no money to pay for a lawyer. Three years ago in the aftermath of The Incident, she was at my house in tears for four days going on about how she had no money and no way out... so I gave her an envelope of cash (an amount that was basically 1/6 of my checking account, not much in Greenwich terms but in terms of what I had it was substantial). So how does someone who has no money take two kids to Italy at Christmas??? I asked UM that. His answer: she has multiple savings accounts in her name only totaling six figures, not counting the hundred grand she put into buying the house. She can, according to him, lay hands on five figures in cash any time she wants, as part of the money is in retirement type accounts, but the rest is in regular savings. Apparently the funds came mostly from inheritances from her aunt, mother and grandmother, but that only tells me that she's had that money quite a while. Hmm. Kind of hard to play the abused neglected cashless wife whose husband withholds all money when you have a shitload of money in the bank. I am so pissed at myself for getting played like that. I knew all three of those women had died and I knew she had inheritances, but I never asked how much or whatever because I thought it was a crass topic to bring up. Hell, my grandmothers died and my mother bought us plane tickets for the funerals. Welcome to the grand sum total of my inheritances. Apparently nothing we do (like sending her flowers for her birthday) counts, and she can moan about being broke while having six figures sitting in the bank. Well, fuck her and the horse she rode in on. I told him I am now absolutely done with her. I hope UM can get the divorce wheels moving -- he says his lawyer thinks they can be done in 4-6 months. If he had any sense he made copies of all of her account statements so she can't conveniently forget they exist and not give those over to the court with all of the other financial info they have to provide. I didn't ask whether he had or not -- I don't want to know. But I really hope he did.

Thank you, J.K.R.

Amazon delivered my Deathly Hallows copy yesterday just before noon, and I knew I couldn't open the box until AFTER I'd taken DQ to her friend Noah's birthday party and after we had returned to have dinner with FIL, GF, UM and kids. I finally opened the box and got started reading after the kids were in bed (around 8pm -- I've never started a Harry book so late!) I was up reading until 2am, alternately cheering and sobbing quietly in the living room so I wouldn't wake anyone. My favorite redheaded LitQueen called to tell me she was done as I was 53 pages into the book -- and she too was shocked that I was just getting started! We have yet to have our post-book discussion. Anyway -- today is recovery day, as I am obviously an old fart not used to staying up into the wee hours. :) I loved the book, and I know I will be rereading parts for quite a while. Well done, J.K.R.!

almost there....

Last day of both kids in camp/daycare for the summer - The Boy is done. Drama Queen has a bit more than a week left. Went into work today and did the second coat on the shelving unit behind the circ desk. Didn't get to paint the removable shelves as Zinicoma and Co. were getting started cleaning the carpet and they didn't want anything on the floor in their way. The carpet guys came and put a nice large new rectangle of carpet where the wall used to be. These guys too said "We'll put the new carpet down, but you know it won't match, right?" Did my best fake shock look and said to Ralph, "Did you KNOW that???" Then I laughed my ass off and told them I didn't care if they matched the carpet to the duct tape -- the ancient rug in there is so trashed and so many different colors of blue it doesn't matter WHAT they put down. Anyway, will go back next week or the week after and do the shelves in two days -- one side one day then flip them the next day and do the other side. The Boy can help with that. The Hundred Acre Wood is improving slowly.
Went to our beloved head secretary's non-retirement luncheon (she didn't want a fuss and a bunch of nonsense) Monday. Kanga and Eeyore were there. K was lots of fun as usual, E was... well, E. I did some studious avoiding but didn't pull it off for the entire party. She cornered me toward the end, but I left soon after.
House is getting better -- piles of crap are greatly dimished, still need to pack up or throw out some stuff in the basement, and need to paint my bedroom and makeover the curtain panels. All in all I've gotten a lot done in the last few weeks at home, and I didn't go hellforleather and do it every day (probably should have though).
Harry #7 arrives tomorrow morning (thank you Amazon special delivery) so not much else is getting done this weekend!

I'm Just Wild About Harry...

Went to see Harry Potter 5 (Order of the Phoenix) this afternoon with Beloved Blonde and family. Excellent movie overall! There were whole chunks of the book missing, but if they had tried to shove more in it would have come off piecemeal and rushed, so I'm glad they pruned as they did. Very impressed with the battle in the Dept of Mysteries scene -- extremely well done overall, but missed the statues getting in on Dumbledore's rescue act. Loved the first view of the outside of Azkaban also -- never imagined it quite that way but it made sense and impressed me. No Howler for Aunt Petunia, no Quidditch, no Ron and Hermione as prefects (and all the attendant pissing and moaning from Harry was missing), no visit to St. Mungo's to see Arthur and finding Neville and his vulture-hatted Gran visiting parents, no replacement of Professor Trelawney with Firenze (missed that one -- that would have been good special effects), no swamp in the front hall of the castle, and no disastrous lesson of Hagrid's with the thestrals. Excellent choices of actors for Dolores Umbridge, and for Luna Lovegood's part especially -- she came off with exactly the right intelligent spaciness. Harry was somewhat whiny but it was much more understandable in the amounts they put in the movie -- I didn't have the same "want to slap him into next week" reaction I did when I read the book. Dumbledore's Army was betrayed by Cho (who got grilled by Umbridge with truth serum in her office). In the book it was her friend. This sets up some interesting dilemmas, as Snape reveals she did it under duress, and therefore Harry could conceivably forgive her (doesn't get her out of the way for Ginny). The Half-Blood Prince movie will have to deal with that issue.
This is not in any way a stand-alone movie. It's one where you really have to have seen the other ones for it to make sense, and it does a solid job of setting up the continuing escalation of the conflict in the wizarding world. Can't wait to see what they do with Half-Blood Prince (which now I have to reread to get ready for next weekend's delivery of Deathly Hallows).
After the movie we went to the Mirage Cafe in Port Chester. It's like Piero's in that it is very small, but phenomenal quality. Excellent, excellent food and drink. I was very impressed -- have to take Hubby, FIL and GF there sometime just for fun.
One more day of LA dept curric work, which hopefully will mercifully end early. Today was righteous deadly as 12 English teachers debated the exact language they would use to describe curriculum tasks (do you say writing? editing? revising? composing? do we use nouns or verbs for this?) I ended up finalizing the summer book orders just so I'd feel like I'd done something worth getting paid for today.
Frankenstein came back with a carpet guy who took a sample, and they will be coming to patch the place in the rug where they removed the half wall behind the media desk. Hurray and hallelujah. Apparently Eeyore did not ever give Kanga final info on ordering encyclopedias so that didn't get done, nor did she do anything about ordering coffee tables/ottomans or sharing final info on bookfair. Big surprises all. Guess we'll see what happens in August but my guess is that the usual answer will appear: "I didn't know I was supposed to do that." Fearless Leader said this afternoon that Eeyore and I had both been officially transferred over to him for evaluation next year and his one comment was "she's not going to like it." Hmmmm. Guess we wait to see what that actually means.

And I got paid how much for this?

First day of curriculum work: I did three booktalks, made a few general comments, and listened to the 7th grade teachers discuss their books. I forget what the daily staff work pay is, but even after taxes come out, those were damned expensive booktalks.
I am not seeing a guiding vision of where we're going here -- feels like we are stumbling around in the dark. Also got a lovely tidbit: apparently our kids tanked district-wide in the state reading assessment scores for "reader response" (ie the open-ended questions like "Explain how this applies to your life" or "Briefly describe how this would have altered your existence"). Okay, those are not exactly accurate question examples, but it's all of the short answer, non-multiple choice options. This is going to make things exponentially more complicated, given the fact that all of the media district-level department meetings will be joint with LA this coming year. Why? The amount of CYA that is sure to follow the townwide shitstorm of finger-pointing and blame when the school board has to deal with the test scores publicly. Like that will make any difference in whether or not these kids learn how to deal with questions like those.
Saw the curriculum mapping software again, and heard one of the "real" reasons we are going to have to do this -- the coordinators will be able to track what units and objectives are being taught when and see which objectives and state standards are being addressed "enough". Big Brother, thy name is School Board. They'll be able to tell which books are being taught when (as teachers will be asked to use the software to map out everything chronologically through the year). No doubt this will bring some new statistics and information to the glut, but my question is what will become of those? How useful will those be in terms of moving the district to change successfully? I don't mind doing this if it will help students learn better, or give new teachers more resources, but if the bottom line is that this is a way to watchdog the staff, then I object.
Like that's going to make an ant's left nut cheek of difference in the long run.

Harry Week #1 and Curriculum Nonsense

It's curriculum work week -- so Mon-Thurs I go in to work to discuss books and such with the LA dept. I am still foggy on what we exactly need to get done despite multiple emails from Boss Lady and the LA Lady. Curtains arrived, needing cleaning and sunning. That might happen this week, might not. We'll see. Painting did not happen, scheduled loosely for this coming weekend. Computer desk is much improved, have list going for this week into next as to what else should get done. We'll see -- this week will either be most productive or a total tank.
Order of the Phoenix starts showing (at reasonable hours) Wed, so have a date with the girls for dinner and movie that evening. :) Something to look forward to!