Tell me..

how does a school run out of it's supply of copy paper in November????

Just Some Thoughts on Union Publications

I was reading through an article in one of the union publications about the importance of family involvement when the kids are in middle and high school. Most of what was in the article seemed like common sense. There was a very interesting statement however. The article talks about a "new brief from the Harvard Family Research Project" and its recommendations for "policymakers, practitioners and researchers." One recommendation is to "facilitate parents' ability to monitor their adolescents' growth and progress." This seems to be a suggestion that says a lot in a few words. It sends the idea that parents are not capable of knowing what is best for their children and that as public school teachers/administrators, we need to tell them. How backwards! But this is the attitude I find in general after teaching for five years. And it is easy when you, as the teacher, spends more time with a child than his or her parents do. It is easy for the role of teacher to supersede that of parent. And perhaps that is why the Bible says that parents are supposed to raise, teach, and have authority over their children's development; because it sure is easy for a society with mass public schooling to think that it is the school's job to completely raise their children, instead of focusing on academics.

Things That Just Brighten Up My Day

It's always fun when kids complement you on something, because they are so earnest in giving the complement. The other day I was sitting at my laptop in school and two girls walked in and were surprised to see me sitting at my desk with my hair pulled up. (Usually I just leave it down..like 99.9% of the time, but it's been getting awfully hot in my classroom lately.) They both immediately exclaimed how pretty I looked with my hair up.

Tuesday night was our parent's night at school and the next morning I found a note from a former student who is now in middle school. She wrote that she was doing both orchestra and chorus this year, and that she missed me a lot. It was very sweet. And as a friend said--a good thing to have hanging up for all of the times when kids decide that they are not going to continue playing.

School's Out!

Woohoo! Friday was the last day with kids; Monday is my last day. Once again, a bittersweet ending to the year. It is hard to say goodbye to the 5th graders I have worked with for 2 or 3 years, but at the same time I am looking forward to working with next year's 4th and 5th graders. It will be so good to have a change of pace and (hopefully) a break this summer. With teaching you go crazy for 10 months and then have two months to recover. Today was the first Saturday in a while where I could get caught up on normal people things like balancing my checkbook and cleaning my desk. Good times!

What a Week....

Two things this week have caused me to be very thankful for what I have. The first is my classroom. Because the NYS Education department sees it necessary to test fourth graders in English, math, and science, the rest of us in the building have to suffer for three weeks out of the year. This week's science testing is the worst because I am actually kicked out of my classroom. As a result, I am having orchestra rehearsals in the gym and teaching lessons in the auditeria (cafeteria/auditorium). So I am shuffling things between four rooms in order to teach this week.

Teaching lessons in the auditeria--here's an example: I was working with a group of 3rd graders yesterday afternoon. The kids are up on the stage playing, I am down on the floor (because that's where the piano is) trying to keep the kids focused and actually accomplish something. As I'm trying to focus them, the custodian walks in and starts folding tables. Lunch ladies are cleaning up around us, and I'm trying to get the kids prepared for an upcoming concert. We are about to start a song and one of the kids turns to a friend and (completely out of the blue) says, "I have a game at home with recipes where you can make cookies." At this point I truly wanted to throw in the towel and go home for the day.

Today a couple of other teachers and myself took a group of kids over to a nursing home to perform and play bingo with the residents. I found out this morning that I was in charge of a whole busload of kids, some were my kids, some were chorus and band kids. It absolutely amazed me that the 3rd graders were quite well behaved and the 5th graders were out of control. Go figure.

We also found out today that one of our student's father passed away last night. When you stop to think about it, that really puts things into perspective. I worked with this student for two years and had many pleasant interactions with this man. I pray that his family would come to know the love of Christ in the midst of this--that He would be their strength during this time.