I’m just having issues keeping focus on one topic, so today’s blog will simply be a collection of random thoughts that keep jarring my ability to write in a coherent manner!  Please bear with me! 🙂

* I worry about the state of our own state’s educational leaders.  Not so much those in the classroom or school, but those in the governmental levels.  Our governor is holding the fund until “real reform” is passed, with 88% of superintendents stating in a survey that if funding isn’t cleared up, layoffs are coming.  The sheriff is back in town, again, I guess.

 

* All of my seeds are ordered and have made their way to my home.  I love this time of year when seed catalogs bring that glimmer of hope that spring is coming.  I’m trying some new varieties of tomatoes along with giving some grain a try as well.

 

* Our girls basketball team played their last game as “our district” last Saturday.  I went because I coached all those girls except for one, and while they’ve out grown both their sixth grade teacher and jr. high coach, I still look at them as “my girls”.  It was sad to see them lose as it’s the end of an era.  Tonight, our boys face that same task of win and keep going, lose and you are done forever.

 

* I love the fact my daughters are both excited for our whole grade sharing that will be taking place.  If they weren’t, I’m sure I wouldn’t be as optimistic as I am.  My oldest looks at the academic opportunities she’ll be give, my youngest, the new friends she can make.  Both are correct, the opportunities are there if we look for them.  That’s the hard part I have right now with the aggressive nay-sayers. They say “oh we don’t want this”, but then offer nothing up as a Plan B. True, they aren’t the educational leaders, but come on, if you don’t like it, come be part of the solution.  One of the vocal nay-sayers families has a son in my daughter’s class, and his catch phrase is “this is going to suck” and refuses to be part of the conversation.  While I’ll miss the families that choice not to take part in this, I won’t miss that attitude.

 

* While I’m on the whole grade sharing, while I feel we could have been much better prepared (we knew three years ago a tipping point was coming), I’m glad it’s happening. Now, what I need as a teacher is leadership from my administration, which is starting, but yet, I need to know there is a plan forming, that worries in both schools are being dealt with, and that we are planning on moving on.

 

* I’m enjoying my other Twitter account greatly.  The coaching contact and sports related people I’m following help me to deal with some of the stress I feel with my teaching job.  Teaching = coaching = teaching in my own mind, and I love the “teachers” who are out there on the basketball court every single day.

 

* I’m ready to say enough with winter and move on.  I’ve had my snow fix, my ice fix, my “wintery mix” fix, and am ready for this to all be done.  Now, I say that, but yet, I know we’ve got one or two major winter storms yet to come.  Winter is my favorite season (naturally warm and summers can be a killer), but I worry about my own kids as I slide down the road, my wife and her commute, and my own students as they ride the bus on gravel roads that are not maintained well at all!

 

* Finally, our Iowa Assessments begin tomorrow. Whoo hoo! I cannot wait for my teaching, how I help students, to be judged by one bubble test.  I know I’m unorganized and scattered at times, and I know I’m not always the world’s best teacher.  However, I also know that I reach kids, help them through the tough parts of being a student, and there’s no way to measure that. I also know that after those students walk out of my door, no matter how much I want them to do stuff to help themselves get better, many are walking into homes where education is secondary to where the next meal is coming from. I cannot control that.  Is it an excuse? Heck  no, but to say that is doesn’t make a difference, to say that I just need to “try harder to reach them”, or that a bonus is going to make me worker harder then I all ready am, all of that is just silly.  I care and work hard for these kids.  Sometimes, learning can’t be measure with the answer A, B, C, or D.

 

And with that, my mind is mildly clear!  I’m hungry, but not going to eat because I’ve lost 16 pounds since the beginning of the year.  It’s another way that I have to be a role model for my students. I talk a lot about healthy choices, so I’m backing up my talking by walking the  walk!

 

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for allowing me the time in your day to just vent a little bit! 🙂