thoughts from ...

They're not going to catch us; we're on a mission from God!

Have a rough outline of lesson plans ready for ELA, Reading, Social Studies and Study Skills for the next 9 weeks. ELA is fairly detailed as are parts or reading and social studies. I ran into a glitch with reading as the Novel we are going to cover is going to take longer than I'd anticipated. It's all good, I'm going to take another look at it tomorrow.
I will have to outline my uses of technology as well as learning stratagies more clearly prior to turning them in. I also need to document what GLE's are being covered. Oh the fun of lesson plans. THen I must also compile assesments and factor in that I have mid-year sped assesments to compelte on the students as well.
Over the course of the next week I have to compile the behavioral documentation on each of the 7th grade MAE students as we are running into some problem areas and I'm hoping to address them in a functional and productive way. I am also hoping that my observations, research, and data will be met with openmindedness. My goal is to present the data in print, offering a more concrete view of the issues rather than an open ended verbal discourse that would tend to sway more toward abstract.
I will be extremely through in relation to one student in particular because I feel he's become an adminisrtative target. Is he always on task and on target, nope. There still seem to be occurances in which he is singled out.
Amazing how I can see all this in relation to other peoples children, but am nearing wits end with my own.
I would love to be able to address so many of these issues on a wide range scale, but I have just a wee little problem.
I can read research data, collect my own observational data, ask that an impartial individual collect a duplicate data set,
but 1) I certainly can't site data if I can not readily recall the source. 2) Don't know the right people or frequent the right events to be in a position to do this effectivly.

Guess on that note I really should shut up and go to sleep.

BTW, Sean have you been working any on that story we talked about?
Marti is still taking a break as I'm at issue on how to create the next flashback point in the story.

San hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas. I'd have sent you a card, but I didn't even buy cards this year and the only creative thing I did was make candy.

Love to all!
Ang

Please forgive spelling errors and typos there are too amny for me to address :)

Hello there my dear Califonian ...hmm, transplants, visitors, POW's... choice is yours!
Hope all is well there. Things are hmmm....... anyway....just kidding. All is well here, how vague can one be.
How are things with Cayla? Is she in Cali or in ?Ohio?. How're band and what not going for Kia? Have no idea what Maggie is into, but hope it's all going well also. (As I write I thank God that I only have one teen in the house and one in Houma to contend with. ) Hope Ryder is still progressing well and that there are indicators of continued improvement for all of your sakes. How is Princess Bella doing? I think I asked this on the phone previously, her dress did fit, correct? Hope all is manageable with Mom and Stac.
I got to wondering the other day, does your dad have a life (please don't take that wrong, one of these days if you guys meet my Dad you'll clearly understand), besides Awful Waffle? We're not that far from him and he is more than welcome to come to functions and get togethers here. I hate to think of him sitting at the house and Waffle House all the time. I know we're not family, but I don't think there have ever been many people we didn't welcome into our family. (And most of those were actually blood relatives:)) We're always getting together to eat. Usually there is fire involved as I'm in the country and some friends of ours from Old Metarie like to come over and light things on fire in the burn pit out back.
On the home front things have been rather odd. Joey is home temporarily for financial reasons.
He will be going back to school no later than March. He flipped a 4-wheeler while in Orlando. Two weeks after he got home
he went to the Dr. appointment I set up and low and behold not only had he broken the clavical, but a few ribs as well.
Conner is playing BAsketball. He's the biggest kid in the league this year. He's now going to math tutoring after school when he doesn't "forget", get on the bus, and come home. We're fairly certain he failed the 2nd 9 weeks of Math. If this is the case then he has failed for the year. He and I discussed this. If he wants to go to 6th grade next year then he has to pass 2nd semester. If he passes and really applies himself then I'll pay to send him to summer school. If he chooses to slack off further and fight tooth and nail to avoid homework and projects then he will be repeating 5th grade. Note, his choice does not in any way impact the amount of involvment I plan to have in the appling of self, or fighting tooth and nail. Not "Free Pass" to do as you please here. I'm trying to swing additional tutoring away from the school setting. I think if Conner could get an applied grasp of the concepts he'd improve greatly. One of my fears is that he is missing some of the core rote memory type skills like mutplication tables. He knows them, but they can't exactly be called rote. Oh, and he may have broken his tailbone today. More on that in a minute.
Mr. Ethan Chase lost his front tooth a week before Christmas. He is having his Tonsils and adnoids removed on Tuesday morning, and I have to try to get him into the eye doctor on  Monday as he broke his glasses in half trying to straighten them himself on the 20th. He si 4'4", weighs 88 lbs. and is an absolute mess, a is his room. He is in T1 this year and I am already getting notes of offtask behavior from the teachers. I am terribly, terribly confused. As a parent and then as a teacher.
As parents we are responsible for nurturing, providing for, and educating our children. To lessen the burden we send our children to facilities that we fund and which provide countless jobs in order to receive their education. While there, we expect that they will be taught mathmatics, literature, sciences, grammer, other languages, and will develop social skills within the group setting that are within social norms.At some point however, the tide shifted if you will. Educators have taken it upon themselves (remember here that I am one, though don't necessarily count myself among this group from my personal standpoint) to decide that parents are not fit conveyers of any form of education to their children. I am not downing sex ed, drug and alchohol awareness, or bullying programs. I think they are fantastic. What I'm more concerned with are the multitude of cirriculums that are now incorporating Higher Order Thinking Stratagies that ,though effective, are biased. As we teach these skills we are not incorparating the cultural variables to the extent that we should. We are also working so diligently to develop these skills at a younger age that we are taking away childhood.
If my six year old stares off into space while sitting for an hour or two doing work, I'm not terribly surprised. He's probably thniking about outside or lunch. I would be and I'm 34. Learning is supposed to be a gradual and life long process. We are not developing the love for learning in our students (or children) by speeding up that process.
Caitlin is 17 now. She's a junior but her boyfrind graduated a year or three ago. Yes, this concerns yes, no- we have no say in it as she doesn't really speak to us often enough for us to say much of anything. Hopefully somewhere in her sub-concious she knows we love her and that we are always here for here. She's decided that rather than study archeology, which has been her dream since she was 2, she wnats to go into nursing via the US Navy. GUess she plans on carrying on the families military tradition. Can't help but wonder how all of that is going to work out.
For Christmas my Papaw (the boys great grandfather) gave my sons a dirt bike. Which was just great since my husband came home with one from Orlando. His is a 200 and theirs is a 50. Pretty cool I guess, however we had a faimily reunion today with my hubby's family and he brought the bikes. Though they are in the country per say, they live on a paved road. Conner had 2 wrocks and fell on his behind both times, hence the possibility that her may have broken his tail bone.
Things have been rather peculiar since Joe has been home. It is truly wonderful to have him home, be we are sort of having to re-examine our roles, and there are adaptations going on as well. While he was gone a number of different behaviors had developed with the kids, adn I've had to determine the best course of action to address them. I couldn't just throw up my hands and move on, or yell excessivly. For instance, though Conner is fairly laid back he can become "spun up" rather quickly in certain situations. When his voice begins to get above an acceptable indoor level (lot of play there in our house) based on tone, I simply put up my hand and tell him enough. Nine times out of ten he has taken a breath there. He generally apologizes and we begin more calmly adressing what ever it is. When the rare 10th time occurs then I send him to his room after I've told him enough and he continues. Once he is behind the closed door of his room he can vent. Once he's calm we begin again. On the other hand, when Chase becomes spun up, depending on the circumstance, I ignore him until he calms down or we go to the bedroom. Generally, O have to pick him up and carry him on a few occasions he has taken himself. He closes his door. This is not a problem on the days he chooses to throw himself on th bed or bean bag. It has become a problem on the days whenre he dups his toy boxes and trashes his room.
My husbands cure all is to yell an spank. It's what he's most familiar with. He can also talk to them and when he chooses to do that calmly it always has a splendid effect. So, in as much as I redirect them, i am trying to help redirect him because he can see the difference in tha tactics as well.  We did have minor incident when he recommended a change to the chore rotation. The problem was that this would be beneficial for some and not others. He and I discussed it privately and he went back to the kids and we straightened out the chore rotation. One of my selling points- when he goes back to FLorida I still have to be functional here. He did get sort of miffed a few times at my asking him to do things. One morning he commented on how he couldn't figure out how I get anything accomplished with as many circles as I go in. (Hey now, my ciclres make complete sense to me) That day sucked, and really got me to thinking. So... we sat down and discussed my perception of the situation as his was quite clear. I pointed out that I hadn't been doing this 100% on my own. I had my family and his(though they stayed rather busy). I also explained that I'd been functoning under the assumption that his wanting to be here with us meant his "reintigration" if you will, back into our daily routines, and our adaptation to his. To this point we'd been functioning solely from the adaptation stand point. I think all in all my perspective made sense to him. Things have been much better since then. It really used to be like walking on eggshells here sometimes. That's really only happened once in the last month, so there is some definate progress.
Well, I imagine that if you are still here you're wondering, we she ever shut up?
yep- love you guys and really do hope that all are well. San... hope to meet you one day soon.

Ang

It is quite intersting that on the heels of my last post,
some friends of ours came over today for lunch and one of the first things Becky said to me was so
do we just look in the mirror one day and realize we're old. As the conversation progressed I found myself
in the middle of my 2nd conversation in so many days on what it means to be "grown up".
World beware, our numbers are growing.

Guess I'll get to work now. Must write an English test.

Ang

Sitting here thinking, and here's what I got.
As "grown ups" we learn to be more gaurded with who we trust and what we trust them with.
I think that could be a true mark of a grown up.
The day we are hit with the epiphany "Wait, I'm not invincible."

When we were younger, though some of us were gaurded, we weren't
shut off like we are now.
I often find myself so far from me that it is amazing.
Sort of like the Billy Joel Song- I can't remember the exact lyrics but it goes something like this
We all have a face that we hide away forever,
but we take them and show ourselves when everyone has gone.
Some are satin, some are steel, some are lace, and some are leather,
they're the faces of the stranger but we love to try them on

Maybe all grown up is is the feeling of needing a front or an alias in the
real world other than the neurotic, warped, rather dysfuntional or totally in sync with societal norms type of
person you may be. If that did turn out to be the case I'd feel rather bad for my mother.
She never had a chance in hell of knowing what to do with me!!!

Apparently I am in much need of sleep!!!

Ang

So much for having wireless.
Guess I can't complain as I am back online.
Think I may have to replace my router.
I can't reset it with my computer as I'm running Vista.
I have to locate someone running XP or older on laptap to configure it.
AGH!!!
Just another of the many reasons Vista leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Chase and I were playing in the kitchen and he was on the floor with the camera.
Oh yeah, and I got about 10 inches of hair cut off :).
Thanks Sandi!!!!
and Sean...even with all my new wrinkles, apparently my nose can still wrinkle.
(A fact that I was honestly, and sadly  unaware of)

We drove to Doug's in Lafayette from Northeast Texas on Thursday.
Our power was back on Friday morning, and we arrived home Friday afternoon.
Have been working on getting my house straight as Mom, Dad, and the grandparents stayed here
during the storm. Have limbs and what not to clean up in the yard.
Need to mow terribly, but my Impatients look great.
Given, they were only underwater for about 18 hours.
Now keeping an eye on Ike, but haven't reached the "We will" or "We won't"
evacuate when/if the time comes.
Going to work on things for school as we go back in the morning.

Taking my kids and my sisters to Texas

After spending 5 years in tornado ally I was thrilled to get back home to swampy, soggy, hurricane prone Louisiana. Thing is, i'd forgotten that the rain here is most prevelent when there are outdoor plans!!! My sister's pool party is today (for her 10th birthday). So, instead of getting to enjoy the calm and peaceful rain, I will be in attendance at an indoor birthday party with a crew of 10 year olds. I will probably spend at least a portion of the event pondering how we can send them outsiide anyway.:)
Hey, they are bringing bathing suits.
Six nights until my hubby will be home for 3. 
I think I figured out today what one of the biggest "little things" I miss is.
I miss the occourance of his smiling at me when I start to get frustreted or aggitated about silly/goffy things, and his walking past and just giving me a hug (and vice versa). 
I also miss his look of beffudlment when I start talking to him mid-thought and forget to  give him the *critical point* of what I'm talking about. 
I've recently realized I occasionally do this to me poor children also. They're fixing me though. "Uh Mom, did you foget some words?"
Hope everyone is having a blessed day/week/month!