The sunny side of life....

Some bright spots in the day:

The tile workers worked very very efficiently and got done ahead of schedule. And they were cute!

One of the workers (an outside contractor) gave us some of the left over material for use in another room, and even came in to help install it properly. Such kindness.

I was able to use my sometimes too assertive personality for good rather than evil today! When one of my colleagues felt overwhelmed by the placement of a highly disabled child in her general education class, I helped get her what she needed to feel settled. It was a good moment, but also very revealing. No wonder gen ed teachers get frantic when they face the prospect of having complicated spec ed kids in their class.

Our team of ED teachers are teasing, joking, razzing each other rather freely. It's a good sign.

One out of my 5 students came for Open House. I was worried none would show.

Truly, this year is starting with a happy, positive vibe. I'll continue to appreciate any bright spot in my day, and hold on for an even better tomorrow. Even though, as Rosanne Rosannadanna says "It's always something!", I plan to look on the bright side of anything that comes my way.

At least for now.

We'll see how I feel come late September.....

I'm a little tired right now.....

Imagine this if you will. You have moved the heavy furniture in your classroom with great care. You sorted and reorganized boxed and baskets full of books, manipulatives, art supplies, and files. You plugged in lamps from home, rolled out the area rug, and set up your desk and work spaces. The tapes and books in the listening center are organized, and the toys are ready and waiting.

Tomorrow is Open House. Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, is Day1 of the new school year.

Then comes word that the CARPET REMOVAL WORKERS arrive tonight, and the TILE WORKERS come tomorrow morning. Everything that sits on and in anything that sits on the floor must be moved. By you. Just you.

Get busy.

That was my day.

Posters are strewn across the floor. I'm wondering which ones to use this year. Supplies have been sorted; new classroom library books are organized. We've proudly displayed a few of the best. Please let them attract and "speak to" my students; for a few of my kids, this will be a critical year for their reading development and I need all the help I can get.

I've reviewed the first parts of the internship guide with my new intern, setting the stage for a year of challenges and unsurpassed opportunities for growth. She's enthusiastically helped me trim newly laminated classroom decor and organized the toys and puzzles. She's unafraid of asking questions..... I love that. There are no stupid questions. I mean it, I really do.

I practice my presentation to the staff scheduled for Monday, a 10 minute intro of new aspects of our school-wide positive behavior plan. My job is to outline some new, required activities tied to teaching the school's code of conduct. The principal will stand to the left of me, giving weight to the message, a visual reminder to the staff that sometimes we just have to do what is asked of us. Thank goodness I believe in the message, because the good cop/ bad cop routine is a little weird.

Finally, I embrace my weekend, this the last before the school year actually starts. Sleep in til 9am. Eat breakfast in the warm morning sun on the deck. Read for pleasure. Oh, and finish the clean up of our flooded basement.

Breathe. Before it gets too nuts.

Summer reflections continued.......

The wave slowly rolls over me, the methaphorical tide of excitement and focus that comes with the end of every summer break. At this point, the wave is piddly, just touching my toes, a refreshing tickle, but the promise is there. Soon I'll be completely washed in the joyous frenzy of preparation and planning!

How much will my kids have learned this summer or lost over time? Will they have matured JUST A LITTLE, enough to make a difference in their (our) day? How will the new additions (I expect 2) change our classroom community?

And please Lord, let them all have been protected and safe.

I welcome August with open arms, and expect to live each of the last summer days to the fullest. I'll go to the beach one more time, use a spa gift certificate, and say goodbye to my youngest child as she sets off for college.

So much left to do. So much to look forward to. So much to be grateful for.

WAtch out! I'm in teacher-mode!!!

It's looking like I will get an intern this year!! YEEHA! After a year "off", (the candidate pool was very limited last year), I am so psyched to get into the swing of the mentoring process!! I liked my IA last year, she was talented and accomplished, but my real satisfaction is teaching pre-service teachers.

Instantly, my outlook about the new year is changed. Where there was uncertaintly, I am now blessed with the joyous anticipation! I'm feeling very lucky.

More later as I get my internship guidebook/information together!

Parent-School Connections... tested....

I was wrestling with the problem of an irate parent. She had been receptive, in the school's corner for the 6 weeks since her son started, responding positively to calls and notes home, getting him to school on time, etc. When the principal had to call about her sweetie-throwing rocks at the windows of the trailer units out back of the school, she shape-shifted to a venom spewing supervillian, projecting her intense disatisfaction through the phone.

"Don't you be calling me at work, Moth** F***er!! I can't help what shit my boy does there at school. What you think I can do about it, anyway? He don't listen to me, and now he don't listen to YOU!"

I'd been standing at my boss's desk, at the ready in case the mother had any specific questions I could answer. I was glad from the start that she wanted to call the parent herself, but as I heard the yelling coming across the lines, I was doubly grateful. There are few things less troublesome than a screaming, yelling parent.

In years past, I was so surprised by the tantruming adult, I didnt' get a quick handle on many of the outbursts I faced. It took me three times to learn to quietly hang up the phone on a parent who was threatening to hurt me or cursing voraciously. Believe it or not, I had thought hanging up wasn't even an option.... like I was obligated to listen attentively to the threats/name calling because, after all, we are trying to build the parent-school partnership.

This said, strengthening the home-school connection is one of my goals next year. I've already started dreaming about school again, so I guess summer is farther along than I let myself believe!!

Maine memories.....

Just back from a wonderful week "Down East".... My husband has been trying to get me to go anywhere but the southern beaches for the last 20 years. I've resisted, the southern belle that I am, but am now sorry I was so stubborn. We enjoyed Boston, but the best part was the Down East section of gorgeous Maine!! (See accompanying photos.)

God's country.
Heaven on earth.

And the folks were so very, well, nice. I have been a bigot all my life, thinking southerners were the most hospitable. I have learned, so late in life, that I have been wrong. Maine. Maine. Maine. It's my new mantra, my daily chant into relaxation and rejeuvenation. Maine. And we have already made our reservations for next year.




While I admit we traveled in a relatively small geographic area, I kept wondering as I looked around: Where were all the poorly behaved kids? No screaming toddlers, no militant middle schoolers? Just happy, active children. Everywhere I looked. Although I will confess I wish their parents had been stricter with them about running while in a restaurant, I was amazed at the fun I had "baby gazing". Even the newborns were well-behaved. And when they weren't, who cared anyway? They were just so damn cute. Case in point:

While in LL Bean, I met a young mother feeding one of her twin infants. The other was fussing in his stroller and I asked this lovely, calm woman if I could try and entertain him. She kindly agreed, and I began to talk silly to Keegan in hopes of settling him down. He was just hungry, and very little of my cajoling worked. The mother's three year old little girl Molly ran up to check me out, and together we tried to hush the pathetic, "starving" tot. As the feeding twin finished off his bottle, and the mother began to switch arms to put him away in the stroller, I got a first look at her prosthetic right arm. With a smoothness that surprised me, she made the switcheroo, began to feed little Keegan, the Molly and I got to play with Braedon.

She was a teacher, middle school Math, and so was her husband. She was just waiting for her teenage cousin to finish shopping so she could get her brood back home ASAP. Throughout this torture of shopping-with-babies, she never seemed to get flustered. Not once. I remember tripping up ALL THE TIME when my babies were small, always alittled frazzled.

She was magnificent.

On the way back to our "resort home", I counted my meeting Molly and Keegan and Braedon's mother as one of the joys of our vacation.

That, and the discount prices at LL Bean.

Summer reading...

At the library on Monday, I came across a book for parents titled THE UPS AND DOWNS OF RAISING A BIPOLAR CHILD. As a teacher of several children with mood disorders, I have great interest in the latest research and support mechanisms.Well, this book was short on new information, but chock full of comforting, supportive quips and quotes. Sprinkled throughout the chapters, moms and dads of bipolar children make relevant comments that "bring home" the otherwise practical/technical information.

How diagnosis is usually a long time coming...
The reasons to consider hospitalization....
How to talk to others about your child's illness....
The value of small group, individualized learning environments...

Bingo. That's us.

I try to imagine the pain of being so out of control, of wanting desperately to fit in, and fearing the consequences of acting out so overtly. Our little Sadie comes at me like a whirling dirvish, unable to stop herself at that scary moment in time, and I know she yearns to be calm, settled, "normal".

What's the hardest thing about teaching kids with mood disorders? At this point, it's balancing kids' academic needs in this age of testing and accountability against the need to reduce kids' stress and slow the world down a bit so agitation is minimized.

Well, it's not a tough decision on a day to day basis. I KNOW what schedule to pick when my children show acute signs of irritability and volatility.

The tests be damned, this day, this hour, for now. We'll get back on the ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE path as soon as we can.

I don't "raise" a bipolar child, but I do love me one or two each year. And I am loving taking a break this summer from the heartbreaking ups and downs of doing so. My prayers go out to the families who don't have this luxury.

Summer beckons....

It's amazing how a few days of relative relaxation can foster a more creative mind. When I am as stressed and pressured as I have been since May, all of my capacity for inspiration dwindles. I move in a regulated, step-by-step pattern, focused on getting what needs to get done done. The trouble is, I hate my life when I'm in this kind of rut, and I am so much less a teacher than I want/need to be.

The good news is that I was able to channel some of the last energy I had toward making my daughter's graduation experience wonderful. She was tickled pink, very grateful, and that was sure nice to see.

In my younger years, I suspect I was more able to keep both school and home life moving with creativity and positive vibes. Maybe I was just more physically able to sustain the energy needed. Perhaps I am just fooling myself: it's ALWAYS hard to bring delight and excellence to every aspect of one's life.

In any case,

I am mulling some ideas for classroom research topics for next year. I am leaning toward doing something to boost reading achievement, and will soon begin earnestly exploring research-supported ideas. Any suggestions?

That's enough positive vibe and delight for one day.... I'm off to the pool.

Grateful that it's over.... for now.....

Do I end the year on a scholarly note and comment on the newest research to improve my teaching practice?

Does it make more sense to search the edu-news sites for wild stories worthy of my scathing analysis and caustic humor?

I could report on the way my kids handled the end of the year transition, and how my heart shuddered a bit as I said goodbye.

Instead, I think I will take a minute and express my thanks to my ED team colleagues who stood strong against the winds of change, always focused on what is right for kids. When resistance was called for, we rallied. When polite acceptance made sense, we did so. And when new opportunities beckoned, we weighed the benefits against the risk factors, and again, chose with an open heart.

I am grateful for my students who remind me that the inner spirit is at once vulnerable AND indominable.

I am grateful for my AP who seemed to "get me", even when I didn't "get" myself.

I'm grateful too, for my grade level team. They embraced me, laughed with and at me, and valued my work. Their expertise, committment to kids and to each other is inspiring.

Finally, I am grateful for the love and support shown by my family. They understood my need for a nap each day, even if that meant dinner was alittle late. They laughed and worried with me about my kids, and bragged about me to their friends.

They loved me even when I acted unlovable. Moodiness is a side effect of stress, and they let me off the hook for grumpy behavior more times than is fair.

And for the blogging community, they who share so easily, find joy in reporting and analysing, and never cease to have an opinion...... thank you for that!!!

The TO-DO List is a Killer....

One week and one day til the end of SY 2005-06.

One week until my youngest graduates from high school.

So many mixed emotions about these endings..... and the stress overload caused by massive amounts of paperwork and special activities is maddening. Awards ceremonies, field day, end of year parties, my families' many many graduation obligations, including baccalaureate, my daughter's graduation brunch for 35, the all night grad party, several family and friend graduation bashes.... no wonder I have been MIA from my blog.

On a happy note, my student George, the little guy from Mississippi (also known as "our Katrina kid") will be with us next year. His parents have wrangled their family situation so that their very emotionally fragile first grader can have the stability of continuing here.It's not been easy. The cost of living here in Northern Virginia can be daunting; the pace is never-ending. It's taken much planning and sacrifice for them to be able to stay in our area for one more year. Bless them for their loving commitment.

I'll hold this good feeling about George and his family with me tonight as I lay in bed, mulling the millions things left to get done. The good news is it'll all be over soon.

Distractions....

Things that distract a blogger from regular production:

* planning a party for local high school alumns in an effort to get help to plan a 30th reunion

* blogger's lovely *Hokie Girl* is full out involved in pre-prom activities, including dress shopping, alterations, coordinating dinner plans for 24, and limo aquisition. Next up: graduation festivities

*attending local country music fest reminds said blogger of the hassle of sitting on the lawn among thousands of heavy smokers, drunk teenagers, short-tempered rednecks, and kissing couples who "need to get a room"!

*students and teachers enter the dreaded testing window for state testing and various other required assessments..... anxiety surges, moodiness swells, exhaustion creeps in. Blogger and colleagues try to remind each other why we chose this job in the first place!

So for now, I'm taking everything day by day. Breathe in. Breathe out. I'll return to my more regular blogging ways in due time!!!

Joanne Jacobs is coming......

I ordered Joanne Jacobs' book before it came out because I knew (from her blog) that she's definetly had something to say. She's coming to the area to talk.... and the lucky ones will take the time to go and listen. Here is her info, in her own words:

"I’ll speak and sign books on Thursday, May 11 at 5:30 pm at William E. Doar Jr. (WEDJ) Public Charter School for the Performing Arts, 705 Edgewood St. NE, Washington, DC (near the Rhode Island and Brookland-CUA metro stops). In addition, the school’s musical troupe will perform and I’ll ask guests to donate a children’s book to the school library.


Founded in 2004, WEDJ School enrolls students from all over the city. Students take classes in music, dance and theater and perform in at least one public exhibition or performance each year. A longer school day and Saturday classes ensure enough time for academics and arts. Currently an elementary, the school is adding middle and high school classes in the fall.


On Wednesday, May 17 at 5:30 pm, I’ll speak at Russell Byers Charter School, 1911 Arch St., in downtown Philadelphia. I'll also do a "bookraiser" for the school's library.


Founded in 2001, the school educates children in kindergarten (a two-year program starting at age four) through sixth grade using the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound program. The school was created to honor the memory of Russell Byers, a Daily News columnist killed in a mugging.


Both the Washington and Philadelphia charter schools primarily serve black students. “Our School” follows the principal, teachers and students at Downtown College Prep, a San Jose charter high school that’s 90 percent Hispanic. Most students come from Spanish-speaking immigrant families; most earned D’s and F’s in middle school and enter ninth grade with fifth-grade reading and math skills. They were left behind academically but promoted anyhow. Operating with a work-your-butt-off philosophy, Downtown College Prep now outscores the average California high school on the state’s Academic Performance Index and sends all graduates to four-year colleges.


After 19 years as a San Jose Mercury News editorial writer and Knight Ridder columnist, I quit in 2001 to freelance, start an education blog at joannejacobs.com and report and write “Our School.”


I think “Our School” enables readers to step inside a charter school that’s struggling, learning from mistakes, adapting and improving. "


-- Joanne Jacobs
ourschoolbook.com
joannejacobs.com




Reviews
“Joanne Jacobs's "Our School," a vivid account of the creation and first years of a charter high school in San Jose, Calif., . . . reads like a novel whose characters are both stereotypical and improbable. . . But this isn't fiction. The challenges are real, the stakes high, the lessons important -- and the achievements extraordinary.”
-- Henry Miller, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 17, 2005

The Carnival of Education

This week's edition of The Carnival of Education went up Wednesday. Check it out. There's no better place to get a variety of opinions about education!

The long walk down the hall .....

Sometimes I just have to give myself a break.

I was beating myself up today because I just haven't been able to make headway with a small group of my kids who just can't seem to get the basics of money. They mix up the coins, their value, forget to add on or just plain add wrong. Even with supports like wall posters, number charts, etc., it's just taking so daaaarrrrnnnn lllloooonnnnngggg!!

When my more reasonable side took hold, I remembered that 2 of the 5 kids have severe processing deficits, and, OF COURSE, for them, it will take longer for the concepts to gel. A third child has been absent so much she has missed any sense of continuity of instruction, and the last child often sleeps through Math because of his afternoon meds. His little nap doesn't usually cause a big problem, because I am able to catch him up easily at another time. But he's having trouble with the memorizing needed to identify the coins and match their value. So the challenges continue.

Reasonable or not, I felt like a crummy teacher this afternoon.

I've used all kinds of strategies, including using real coins and playing store, lots of singing songs adapted to teach the names and value of the coins, "drill and kill" (not very successful at this point), peer coaching, whole group and one-on-one instruction, playing money games that teach trading and adding money.... and still we flounder.

My next step? Wander on down the hall to veteran first grade teacher Mrs. A, and get her take on the problem. What other strategies does she use? Her kids are ready for the chapter test... what exactly did she do differently that brought such success. Mrs. A, just what am I missing??

In retrospect, that walk down the hall I plan to take is one way I know I am not such a crummy teacher after all. Crummy teachers don't take the time to think through their challenges and ASK FOR HELP!!

Teaching is hard, and because I have been doing it a long time and fairly well, I forget just how hard it can be. Thank goodness I have my colleagues to turn to. Thank goodness my school is a collaborative learning space, and asking for help is encouraged and honored.

Thank goodness for teachers like Mrs. A.

To expell or not to expell....

A raging child throws over a chair. Another child's tantrum spirals as he kicks his teacher. Another aims a firm push on her teacher's shoulder.

None of these behaviors are acceptable. But in our special program for children with emotional disabilities, they are not uncommmon. We are used to dealing with reactive, aggressive students. But in the interest of building an environment that supports both trust and learning, aggressive behavior must be dealt with swiftly and consistently. We do that, for the most part, everyday, using strong preventative measures AND effective consequences.

I, for one, need to feel everything is being done that can be done in order for me, my colleagues, and our students to be safe. It's just unrealistic, though, to think we will not be subjected to dangerous situations, no matter what kind of preventative programs we put into place.

It comes down to this: it's part of the job.

But when our overtly aggressive students lose their already tenuous grip on rationality, how can we say their reactions are NOT caused by their disability?

That happened this week in a hearing about one of our students who threw a chair directly at a staff member in anger, and then hit her in the face with a closed fist.

While the psychologist who works with the child and his family saw a clear connection between his behavior and his disability, and his teacher agreed, the other two school admin types on the committee voted NOT CAUSAL.... and the child is expelled.

Now, I'm not saying this child should be allowed to return to our program. I'm in agreement that homebound services might be helpful in the short term until a more appropriate placement can be found. And since, even though he is expelled, the county continues to be responsible for providing services for him, I think the whole expulsion issue teeters on nonsense.

But in handing down this decision, the child and his family have lost the one positive connection they had as they struggled through the most horrific kinds of home dysfunction. Ultimately, the child is uprooted, the parent is abandoned.

The powers-that-be say that despite a medical diagnosis and the assertions of the school professionals who work most closely with this child, his emotional disabilities DID NOT cause his aggressive reaction.

He's gone.

Why don't I feel any safer?

Detention unveiled....

It appears my description of “detention” as implemented in our ED program has left the venerable Dr. John at EBD Blog “at sea”!! He’s right though, I did kind of tiptoe around it all.

See if this helps:

Today Calvin was in our crisis room, sitting at a desk in a study carrel with the counselor, discussing the incident that sent him there: when Calvin was directed to go to his desk after morning circle time, he lingered with unrestrained defiance. The other children complied, and the IA made a verbal comment complimenting one of them specifically. At that point, Calvin jumped up and ran at the complimented child, grabbed his face (yes, grabbed, with both hands, taking hold of plump cheeks and nose parts.)

The IA got there before great damage was done, separated the boys, and walked with Calvin to the crisis room. I got the great job of hugging the hurt fella and getting him the TLC he needed.

While in the crisis room, the counselor and Calvin talked a bit, and she determined he wasn’t really “available” yet to be constructive. He demanded the use of a rubber ball, and when she redirected him, he bolted out the door and ran down the hall with reckless abandon. Then, fortuitously or unfortunately, Calvin tripped, fell to the carpeted floor and began to cry loudly. Our counselor helped him to his feet and walked him back to her office.

Her intervention lasted about 20 minutes more, and included a structured 5 minute time out, some time to use the putty for relaxation, and talking through a plan for next time. Our experience with Calvin is that he is highly anxious, often thinks irrationally, and takes a long time to truly settle down. So when he reentered the classroom, he sat at a desk near the coat closet, a bit away from the group. I set a visual timer for 15 minutes, and went over the expectations with him: “No talking or getting up. Draw or read quietly if you choose. Use this time to show us you are ready to put on your listening ears and come back to the group.”

With a minor blip in the routine—Calvin got up to sharpen his pencil, and twice called out to me—he completed his detention time successfully, was heartily invited back to the group where he immediately went to the other boy and apologized/hugged him.

Those extra minutes at the desk really work for most of our kids. Traditional short timeouts are often just not enough time for them to physically settle enough to get back to the stimulating classroom environment. The trick is to find the right balance of extended time so effectiveness is not diminished.

I hope this is a bit clearer. It’s a process, one created by caring and respectful teachers over several years time. It’s really not a detention, more like a last phase of recovery in the crisis cycle. But it works. Targeted behaviors are reduced. Kids are successfully returned to class and instruction. If it didn’t, we would change the procedure, find another way. That’s key to being effective, right?!!!

Can detention really help?

At least bi weekly, we of the ED staff meet together for something we call "Collegial Support". We brainstorm about our students, always with an eye toward improving our approach to instruction and to behavior management. It's a cool forum for supporting each other AND making school a more successful experience for our challenging students.

Recently, an administrator questioned the implementation of a teacher's detention policy, and that got us all to thinking about the value of using detention as part of our continuim of strategies. Because the first step to working through questions about policy is to clearly define and describe, I decided to put to writing my use of detention in my classroom. Here is a copy:

DETENTION Policy and Procedures


Detention is the last phase of a multi-step intervention strategy designed to address dangerous /unsafe behaviors. It is the period of time after a child has moved through the crisis cycle, and is ready to demonstrate behaviors incompatible with the negative, inappropriate behavior previously noted.

Because our emotionally labile students often need more time than the average child to truly settle down, the designated detention time (15-30 minutes depending on the child) is necessary to ensure their success in the next activity.


Unsafe behavior is defined in terms of potential for injury. When a child throws a lego to the ground in frustration, and it is determined that the child was not attempting to injure another, that behavior is not generally deemed “unsafe”. The same lego piece hurled across the room with the apparent goal of striking another person, is, indeed, a dangerous behavior. Moreover, the second behavior, even if it does not hit its mark, works to make the overall climate FEEL unsafe, and we often keep this in mind as we address concerns.


Detention is always part of an intervention strategy directed toward returning the child safely to the classroom setting. As a phase of the de-escalation process, it is child-centered; that is, it meets the immediate needs of a previously out of control child. Detention time provides a generally quieter setting for kids to settle their body/self monitor. It’s a reality: our emotionally labile students usually need more time than the average child to physically settle. There is a legitimate argument to be made for less than thirty minutes for some children (I often reduce the time for my younger students), but for the purposes of consistency and perceived fairness, we in our ED program have generally stuck to the 30 minute time block. Older children who are completing a written plan often use their 30 minutes to finish. Detention in another classroom or space often removes the child from the stimulus that caused agitation, provides a safe area to redirect their attention, and helps to re-establish boundaries. When the requirements of a detention are clearly explained and adhered to, children are likely to experience a reduction of anxiety. Self-monitoring can become a focus, as students work to demonstrate appropriate school behavior, especially with regard to unsafe or disruptive behaviors.

It is my experience that without the clear, consistent, effective detention process, we are setting our children up for repeated failure. The full passage of detention time is one important sign that a child is truly capable of pulling himself together. The ability to demonstrate behaviors incompatible with tantruming is key to reading a child’s “emotional temperature”. Sending a child back to the challenges of class, or to the particular stresses of art, music and pe WITHOUT the full detention process behind him/her appears irresponsible.

Perhaps what is needed then, is a name change. Call it Phase 5? The final phase? Recovery? Whichever, the final phase of the de-escalation process is so much more than a consequence, and supports our goal to help students settle and return to class successfully.

As always, thanks for reading my blog.

It's Wednesday, and I'm still not relaxed!

So it's day three of my spring break, and I am still unable to settle myself and get relaxed. Instead, I piddle around the house, plan shopping expeditions, reorganize closets, think about plans for next week.. all fun and constructive activities, yes. But my mind is still buzzing, my focus still centered on DOING, DOING,DOING.

In years past, when my kids were young, I took this week as a chance to "act as if". That is, I happily slid into the AT-HOME MOMMY mode I secretly coveted. I used the time to enjoy my kids all day long, sans daycare, and I loved it. Yes, we moved in a more relaxed manner throughout our day (no early morning rush out of the house), but real relaxation escaped me, and rightly so. It was all about the kids.

Now, #1 Son doesn't need me (work and grad school keep him busy), and Hokie Girl is wrapped up in the fun of being a high school senior (my social butterfly). This is more or less MY TIME, and I've been unable to use it to the fullest.

I've got to ask myself why.

Habit? Is it just too hard to break the cycle of doing? Are my expectations for relaxation too high?

Fear? Is the silence of the quiet moment too scary? In silence, will I find something I don't want to know?

A good question for another day, another vacation.

In either case, I can't help it. My thoughts wind their way back to the kids and to my teaching, even as I try to leave it all behind. This is probably a good thing. Being a teacher is, after all, something you are, not just something you do.

A Provacative Message

Seen on the back bumper of a car last night:

A Child Is More Than
A Testscore