Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful...

...for new lino in our kitchen and our bathroom. It looks fantastic! I wasn't exactly sure if I loved it when we picked it out, but it suits our house perfectly.

...for soft tissues, hot lemon cold relief and this amazing effervescent vitaminy cold-fighting stuff we discovered at the local pharmacy.

...that I have a cold this week instead of next, when I have to do those long evening parent-teacher interviews. I hope I can shed it before then.

...for the financial ability to take our kids out for supper two nights in a row because we didn't have the use of our stove while the lino-installer guy was here.

...for #1's volleyball coach and team and all that goes along with it. His season is now finished - all except for the pizza lunch wind-up - and he's a little sad about it. He loved being part of a team.

...for #2's Cub leader and troop and for #3's Beaver leader and troop. Tuesday was the investiture. It was just the cutest thing ever, especially the little Beavers. They were told that they were passing from Kit Beavers to Eager Beavers. One of them (there's always at least one know-it-all) shouted out during that part of the ceremony, "A kit is a baby beaver!"

...for colleagues who, even after more years of teaching experience than I have, still are harried during this glorious season of report cards, making me feel a little better that I feel so harried.

...for Diet Coke and light popcorn.

...for my mom's Christmas china, sitting in my china cabinet, awaiting the holiday season.

...for my American friends, especially my American blog friends, as the celebrate the season of gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I may not have time for Thankful Thursday next week, as it's one of my long days, but believe me, I'll be grateful when all of my interviews are over and done with, shortly after 8:00 Thursday evening.

The Classic Canadian T-shirt

I gotta get me one o' these!

I Honestly Can't Think of a Title for This

I hesitate to write yet another "it-sucks-to-be-a-teacher" post after my encounter with Hippo on my last post, but I have to let you in on these "if I didn't laugh, I'd cry" occurences.

Our administration decided to deal with the parent-teacher conference dilemma by allowing the staff to vote on the issue. I appreciated that. Surprisingly, our staff voted 60% - 40% in favour of all evening interviews. At least, that's what we were told. I have no idea who voted in favour; I could only find two out of 25 of us, but what do I know?

Anyway, we sent a note home to parents asking them which evening - Wednesday or Thursday - they would prefer for their conference, in order to help us with our scheduling.

Some of the comments were received back were:

- I work evenings that week. Could we meet before 2:00 some day? (Ummmm, no, I'll be teaching then....)

- We have commitments those two evenings. I am available on the afternoon of Dec. 1. Let me know what time. (Ummmmmm, no, I have that afternoon off because I'm giving up two of my evenings for these friggin' interviews.)

- I am only available between the hours of 4:30 and 6:00 on Wednesday. I wish to see all six of my son's teachers at that time. (Ummmm, no. Because you submitted your preferences two days late, the schedule is already set, and we are not redoing the whole schedule just for you.)

By the way, rest assured that all three of these parents will be on the phone yelling at the secretary next week because their demands cannot be met.

The Brutal Truth

One of my teaching colleagues had a terrible accident.

She was thrown from her horse. Either on the way down or once she was already down, the horse kicked her.

She has three broken ribs, a broken arm, and she may have injured her spleen.

She is in the hospital. Because we have such a tight-knit group, she has actually asked us not to visit. You see, if she didn't say that, we'd all be up there, and I think she wants to take the time to heal.

She has a best friend on staff who did go up to see her last night, and today she reported back that things are looking quite good.

She also related a humorous story back to us.

On the day after my colleague's fall, she was lamenting to her husband how terrible she looked.

He replied, "Oh Honey, you don't look as bad as you do after a day of teaching."

Doesn't that just tell all about our profession?!

Victory

#1's volleyball team (quite unexpectedly) won their playoff game today.

#1 ran over to us after the game.

#1: We're in the semi-finals! We're in the semi-finals!

#3: We're in the semi-finals! We're in the semi-finals!

#2 (to #3): Do you even know what semi-finals are?

#3: No..... but we're in the semi-finals!

I'm Fine

Thought I should get something down to let you all know that I'm fine. It was a full weekend, with moments of high joy and moments of deep sadness.

Yesterday, I started an entry about my friend's memorial service, but time caught up with me and I couldn't finish it. The unfinished entry lays there like a load of laundry waiting to be washed, but I don't want to finish it out of duty. I will wait until I feel ready in every sense of the word to say good-bye.

Also yesterday, I took my class on a field trip. We went to see a live theatre matinee of Just So, a musical based on Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories. It was a wonderful experience all 'round. The play was phenomenal and the students were very well behaved. Two of my students were unable to attend due to illness, so I was able to arrange for Main Man to bring #2 down to the theatre to use one of the empty seats. It was great to share it with him. He's a year younger than my students, but he fit in very nicely.

Report cards and parent-teacher conferences are fast approaching, so my blog entries may continue to be a little sparse over the next couple of weeks.

Don't worry, though. I'm fine.

The Next Roger Ebert

We take our boys to lots of movies. We also rent quite a few movies and watch good ones when they come on TV.

Consequently, they seem to understand - and occasionally quote - some fairly obscure movie references.

I didn't realize how well-versed they were, though, until today.

#2 was looking at the label of some hummus I was nibbling at. He asked, "Is that pronounced hu-mus or hum-mus?"

#3 (He's six years old, remember?) starts to laugh and shouts out, "Soylent green is hu-mus!"

Wow!

Remembrance

Today is Remembrance Day in our country.

I have always felt the gravity of this day. Every year I work hard to help my students and my own children appreciate how important it is to honour those who have fought for our safety, our freedom, our country and our world.

Today though, as fundamental as today's honours are, I know that I will find my mind wandering periodically from thoughts of our veterans and our soldiers to memories of a special person who is now at peace.

Rest well, my friend.....

A Tale for the Teachers

Tonight we played a family game of Urban Myth. A story is read, and everyone indicates on a card whether they think the story is true or a myth.

I won.

#1 and #2 declared the game unfair. Their reasoning?

"But Mom, you're a teacher. You're trained to be smarter than the rest of us!"

Thankful Thursday

It's Thursday once again, and I'm feeling particularly thankful today.

This week, I am thankful...

...for teacher work days. Today is a professional development day, but, unlike many where we have to go to "some other place" to listen to "some expert" who has no clue what our day to day job entails, today is a work day - a catch-up day, which means that I just may have the opportunity to spend my Saturday with my own children this weekend instead of in my empty classroom. (How's that for a lengthy sentence?)

...for staff get-togethers. Last night a bunch of us and many of our significant others met at a favourite watering hole and let loose. (Okay - I know - "let loose" in the vernacular of elementary school teachers is slightly different from that of most others, but we still had fun.)

...for Christmas Concerts. Plans are brewing for my concert at work and for #2's and #3's concert at school. I know lots of teachers loathe them, and I can understand why, so I keep my own excitement under my hat.

...for four-day weekends. This weekend both my boys and I have Friday and Monday off.

...for phenomenal colleagues, who are always willing to supply help, support, a listening ear, an open mind, and a soft shoulder.

...for blue raspberry Children's Advil - the only OTC medicine #2 will take without a fuss. He's had a sore throat this week, and, although he's had some antibiotics, he has still needed painkiller to get him through the day a few times.

Well, I am now in my classroom, enjoying my "work day", so I guess I better start working.

Have a great week, everybody!

Flags of our Fathers

Main Man and I had a date night Saturday night.

We were planning to see The Prestige, but when we arrived at the theatre, the line-up was bizarrely lengthy, so we had to change our plans.

Main Man wanted to see Flags of our Fathers, and, although I had absolutely no interest, I wanted him to be happy, so I agreed to it.

It was a great movie - on a massive level, it was a movie to be seen - truly fine cinema. (For a genuinely intelligent and thought-provoking review of the movie, see what Main Man has to say about it.)

Still, I spent a major part of this fine film with my hands in front of my eyes.

Saturday night was the first time I watched a war movie through a mother's eyes. I think #1 was three or four years old when I saw Saving Private Ryan, probably the last war movie I saw. I watched it through a wife's eyes. Who thinks of their son going off to war when he's a pre-schooler?

#1 is now taller than I am, though, and is seriously discussing which college he plans to attend. I could see him as one of those boys in the movie. There were times when I felt physical pain as I watched those young men face the horrors of war.

For those of you unfamiliar with the general plot, Flags of our Fathers is the story of the young men who were photographed planting the American flag on Iwo Jima. Only three of them made it home alive.

I should have known the movie would be difficult for me when I was moved by a short scene near the beginning. A simple country woman picks up her newspaper and announces to her son that his brother's picture is on the front page. The teenage boy replies, "You can't even see his face; how do you know that's Harlan?"

The mother replies, "I powdered and diapered that bottom for years. I know that's your brother!"

I'm sure the scene was meant as a bit of comedy relief, but I found the scene rather poignant.

Each one of the young men, when they came home - no matter how they came home - came home to their mothers. None of them were married yet. These really were boys.

On another topic, this movie presents a fascinating look at the subject of heroes. The boys who return home are serenaded by brass bands, adorably harmonizing babettes, and the shouts of fawning admirers. These boys are considered heroes; they are lauded for being the special young men who raised that very famous flag. For one of them, this is just too much. He is horrified by his memories of battle, and considers himself anything but a hero.

Upon considering my thoughts of heroism, I realize that this movie has helped them gel. In my mind, in order to be a hero, one must not feel like a hero. The moment one begins to believe the hype and hoop-la, one immediately stops being a hero.

Tomorrow, our school will be holding its annual Remembrance Day Assembly. It will be a solemn time for the students to take time to think about war, and about how lucky we are to live in peace here at home. Every year, I walk that fine line between trying to help the students understand the horrors of war and making sure I don't scare them. Yesterday, I spoke to them about this movie and about heroes. I hope I helped them understand a bit better what this movie helped me understand a bit better.

Priorities?

There's a tempest brewing at work.

Parent-Student-Teacher conferences are fast approaching.

In the distant past, conferences were held on a "non-student" day. This simply meant that the kids got the day off school, except for the 15 minutes they were sitting in the hotseat, being grilled by - oh, I mean, showing their work to - their parents and their teacher.

As a rule, this was a Friday. Conferences were held from 9:00 to 3:30. An average class had 28 students, give or take, and, at 15 minutes a conference and a half hour off for lunch, this constituted the length of a regular school day.

(This previous paragraph does not take into account, of course, the hours of preparation for the conferences, but that doesn't really pertain to this particular tempest.)

About seven years ago, the powers-that-be decided that this particular schedule did not cater enough to our clients - that in many families, both parents work outside the home and are unable to leave work to meet with their children's teacher. The schedule changed to Thursday evening and Friday morning. In lieu of working Thursday evening, we were given Friday afternoon off.

At the time, I was livid. Completing four hours of conferences after teaching a full day exhausted me. And why would I want to work through an evening when I could be spending time with my own children? I already spent a couple of hours every evening doing homework - why would I want to make it worse? Oh, and my reward was an afternoon off when my own kids were in school. Whoopee!

Well - you guessed it. Now they want to have conferences on a Wednesday evening and a Thursday evening, with all day Friday off in lieu.

That's right- two whole twelve hour days in a row, two evenings missed with my own family, with a day off when my own children are not at home.

Oh - and I haven't told you the reason behind this new push.

Evidently, when the hockey coaches in the community learned that there was "no school" on the particular Friday in question, they booked more ice time. Now, it's inconvenient for the families to attend their Parent-Student-Teacher conferences on Friday morning because "Little Johnny has hockey practice" and we all know that hockey practice is sacred in these parts.

I'm really getting fed up with everything else being more important than their child's education. And I'm getting even more fed up with the fact that, in the short term, it always seems to be the teachers who pay for this warped sense of priorities. Of course in the long term, it's the kids themselves who pay.

Somedays I feel as if I've just fallen in the rabbit hole. If I could just find my way out, I could find the sane world that existed before all this craziness.

Debatable

Okay - I'm out of my funk.

Thank you all for your encouraging words.

The tournament has past. As I said to one of the parents after she inquired as to whether or not we were ready, "This tournament is a bit like Christmas; it will come whether we are ready or not."

I will say one thing; I teach in the ultimate environment. Although the pre-planning was up to my partner coach and me, we received a mountain of help from our friends in the actual execution of the plan. Six of our colleagues stayed to help. Some of them stayed and helped for 6 whole hours. Now, that's support!

Every time I started to do something, someone would miraculously appear to ask,"What can I do?" I hardly had to finish anything. I would turn around, and someone would be well on the way to finishing what I had started. Because of all of the help, the tournament was a great success.

The tournament was also a family affair. Main Man helped judge, #1 filled the role of moderator, #2 acted as a time-keeper, and #3 held the door open for the lady who delivered the supper pizza. Everyone pitched in, and I am grateful to my clan for all of their help.

Our team did quite well. In both age categories participating in the tournament, one of our kids got the gold medal for top speaker. In the beginner category, one of our teams got second, and in the intermediate category , we placed second and third.

It still amazes me how brave these kids are. Most of our kids are in the fifth grade, and I think it's marvelous that they can stand in front of strangers and assert themselves in such an organized, poised manner.

It's debatable whether I could do the same.

Thoughtful Thursday

I know it's Thursday.

I know I should be thankful.

I know it would be good for me right now to analyze all of the good things in my life.

But I just can't. It would take too much mental energy at the moment.

I'm exhausted.

School is busy, as always.

Busier than usual, actually ... because not only am I preparing my debate team for a tournament this Friday, but I am preparing the tournament.

Our school is hosting the tournament, and there is a lot to think about.

And I'm tired of Halloween. And I'm tired of the days (especially the school days) after Halloween. I'm tired of the candy wrappers and the hyperactivity and the tempting candy calling to me from my own cupboard at home.

Oh - and I'm tired of being told by my husband that after 18 years of teaching, I should have better coping skills than I do.

So, I'm sorry to my readers who look forward to Thankful Thursday. I'm afraid you're getting the opposite this morning. Hopefully my coping skills will kick in before next Thursday.