Missing?

It has been a long while since I have written on this blog. I am currently taking another class and will be using this blog as a journal for reflection of what we are doing and for some creative writing. At least I will attempt to be creative. :)

"Bah Humbug Halloween!"

Kids are kids for such a short time and I don't think schools should be so anxious to take away the "fun" events and customs of childhood. I don't know how any of you feel about Halloween activities during a school day, but I am ok with some Halloween fun.

My daughter is a 5th grader and the school usually does a first thing in the morning "parade" around the halls of the school. No scary or bloody costumes are allowed in school and people can come to take photos. After that, it was up to the classroom teacher to decide if there was a short "party" at the end of the day.

Being a teacher myself, I understand the stress of all the different "non-educational" things that take away from class time. I think our district's elementary teachers are loaded with standardized testing too. My daughter already took the NECAP (?I think that was the name of the almost two week long test). In a week or two they will be taking the NWEA. The principal in the other elementary school in our district did away with morning recess; leaving it up to individual teachers to decide if they wanted to do something with their own classes. My daughter told me yesterday that there won't be a parade on Thursday (there is no school on Friday because of workshops). I need to investigate some with an email to the principal (5th grader information sometimes leaves out things). The principal is in her 2nd year as an elementary principal and I would hope that she is not trying to do away with a simple event that my kids (as well as myself) look forward to.

SOON my daughter will be talking about boys, checking Facebook, wanting to drive and buying things at Victoria Secrets!!! I want to hold onto all the time I can with her wanting to dress up for Halloween, wanting to watch Disney Channel and wanting to play with Webkins. :(

Oh, Goldilocks! Please Be My Guide!

Goldilocks seemed to have a clear sense of what was "just right" in the world. She knew what was too hot or too cold and what was too soft or too hard. When writing a blog, there is always the question of "is my post too short or too long?" What is the "just right" length???

I suppose it goes back to what the folks in my writing class discussed (on a message board) earlier. It may be more of a matter of what the purpose of the blog post is that may help determine a length that seems "just right." It is also important to keep in mind who the intended audience might be.

The very nature of blogs seems to be to get out information/thoughts fairly easily to as many people who are willing to read it. Along with that, chances are that if someone is reading your blog, they are probably reading others as well. That leaves only so long an individual can devote to reading any one blog post.

I imagine it may be like reading a newspaper or a magazine. I personally do a lot of title surfing and a quick read through the articles that catch my attention or that relates to something I think is important. But, like with my magazines, looking at blogs can be an activity that I can go at my own pace, come back to later, and look over again.

And now I will be guided by the inspiration of Goldilocks and finish this post! :)

Are Red Hot Dogs Really Food??

All high school teachers, at some point in their career, should become a class advisor. Longevity as an advisor is not for everyone however! Earlier in my career, I did work as the class advisor with two different graduating classes and then took a nice long break until last year. You see, I thought it would be a unique mother/son opportunity to become the class advisor for my son's Class of 2013. What was I thinking?

As a new class of students enter into the high school, they get a class advisor who, usually, stays and works with that group of students for the next four years. An advisor helps to "advise" when it comes to events like homecoming. The primary focus however is to get the class to raise as much money as they can to help pay for graduation and the activities surrounding it. Each grade level is responsible for selling home concessions (sophomores with girls soccer and basketball; juniors with boys soccer and basketball; seniors have football).

Needless to say, this has taken up a considerable amount of my time as of late. Tonight we turned 50lbs of potatoes into fresh cut fries tonight (the last football game sold 400lbs when they ran out), steamed plenty of red hot dogs, grilled the grilled cheese and popped lots of salty popcorn. Then comes the cleaning up of the grease, salt and crumbs left behind in the machines. The evening then ends with mopping the floors and dragging trash to the dumpster. I smell like "fried foods" when I return home and my feet are sore.

The positive side about the whole thing is that it has been a good mother/son activity. My son has been helping at just about every game and I doubt he would have otherwise. I get to spend time with students outside of school in an activity that they do enjoy (sometimes a little too much and forget to wait on a customer) and I get to help a group of students and see them through to graduation.

Finding ways to interact with students outside of school is an important part of what we do. Our job as educators is much more than a 9 to 5 job. Our students do need our presence outside of school too. This can be a bit of an overwhelming task to ask of us though. We give so much of ourselves during the school day and most days there is very little left to give to personal lives. But, finding a way to somehow interact with students outside of school is rewarding, AND it doesn't have to be becoming a class officer!

Now my daughter is part of the Class of 2018 and will enter the high school in 4 years. I have to say that I might just enjoy playing parent for her and "help" with concessions. When soccer season is over, I will be glad to not have to see those fries go into the yucky looking oil and I get to take a break from those scarlet red hot dogs for a short time UNTIL basketball starts up that is. Are red hot dogs really food??? My daughter thinks so. I think they are unnatural, but what hot dog isn't I guess??

One Year With Rosie!!

The name of my blog is "My Pug Rosie" and I realize that I have yet to actually write about my pug Rosie. It has been a year since we welcomed our first ever dog into our home. She was 5 months old and I found her on the Uncle Henry's website. Her owner was working long hours and felt she wasn't able to devote the time "Bella" (Rosie's old name) required.

It took quite the convincing by my daughter and myself to get the two men in the home (my husband and son) to agree to getting a dog. I have always considered myself to be a cat person. Whenever the conversation went to dogs, my husband an I would scoff at the idea; BUT, I would always say, that IF I were to get a dog "someday" it would be a pug. That "someday" always looked long ways away. Last summer I was bit by the "pug bug" and started looking at rescue sites and breeders of pugs. My husband thought I was crazy and was not happy even with my new and unexplainable whim.

To make a long story short, we did take Rosie home. It was a lot of work at first trying to adjust to a life with a dog. Having a dog is a huge responsibility and requires a lot of work. Our cat is pretty self-efficient and has been with us for almost 19 years now!!!!!! (She is an "old lady" who was not please with our family's new addition. She can still out run and jump the new pup though.) At the end of the first week with us, my 9 year old daughter asked if we could give Rosie back. She wanted the pup so bad but the adjustment was hard.

It has been a year now and we are all madly in love with our pug Rosie. My husband and 15 year old son will do "doggie talk" and pet her lovingly. My now 10 year old daughter was talking about how much she missed Rosie when the pup went to stay with Grammy during Homecoming week (we were at school until late every night). I don't think any of us could really imagine NOT getting her a year ago.

She is one cute pug, if I don't say so myself. She is silly and lovable. She makes lots of noises: snorts, sniffs and snoring ones. My ten year old daughter just hosted a "One Year with Rosie" anniversary party for Rosie and invited several 5th graders over to help celebrate.

So, there was some information about my pug Rosie!!!!!!!

"Hey, you dang woodchucks! Quit chuckin' my wood!"

There is little time to watch t.v., but somehow I do catch some commercials. GEICO has been running a new series of ads that draw on popular sayings and rhymes. My favorite had been the little piggy who cried "wee, wee, wee" all the way home. Tonight I saw the woodchuck one for the first time!!!

****** I had to take the video clip out because it would run on its own EVERY time you went to this blog. **********

I teach Economics to 12th graders and it is a required course for all students at our high school. It is not easy to get students into a topic like economics but I try to get them to realize it is all around them. Commercials are a great example. We discuss the economics behind t.v. ads including: how the ads match who the networks think are watching (no beer commercials during Oprah or feminine products during football); the affect DVRs and online watching has had on the whole system of t.v. ads; and just overall cost of an ad according to the possible viewership and ratings of a given show (cost of a Superbowl ad vs. an ad on during a 2am show of "Friends.")

It is also important for students to become more aware of the economic psychology of consuming all these ads. I try to point out when the purpose of an advertising has worked on me, like when I see a Pizza Hut ad at 4pm and all of the sudden I want to drive to the nearest one for dinner. It is a form of Consumer Literacy! I know I will remember GEICO for a long time!!! Darn it, I hate it when "the man" has succeed with his ad! I'm still not a customer yet!

Multitasking Mama!

Multitasking is something that, as a mother, I am forced to do quite often. Take tonight for an example; I was cooking steak and baked potatoes for dinner, cooking spaghetti and sauce for a meal later this week, getting some laundry into the wash, checking my Google account for new blog entries, listening to the news and thinking about what I would blog about tonight. (Some evenings there are even more tasks to try to juggle during the same limited time period.)

PBS Frontline did a show titled "Digital Nation" this past winter. The show examined how our ways of living, learning and working today are being altered through technology. We as a society do benefit from technology, but these new and growing digital abilities have also opened new doors to issues and problems that must be confronted. One of those issues is the growing dependence of multitasking.

The episode brought together college students who talked of their multitasking habits of texting, listening to music, doing homework, and checking email ALL AT THE SAME TIME. A MIT professor in the video said these digital distractions (in and outside of class) are making our students less productive, not more and there are studies to prove it. I see this in my own classrooms and in the outside world.

As far as my efficiency tonight while multitasking, my spaghetti was a bit sticky, I forgot the potatoes in the microwave for a bit, the clothes sat in the wash longer, I missed some of the details of the news I was listening to, I forgot to turn off a burner and I was getting frustrated while trying to open some things up in my Google Reader (having to stop every so often to stir something). I got everything done, but if I was able to put more of my focus on any one task (or at least a few less) I bet I would have had faster results AND spaghetti that wasn't sticky!