Tag Archives: history

Last day

Wednesday, June 5, 2013, @ 5:27 amadventure, Family, growing up, history, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, Writingchildren, education, Family, hard work, history, making the days count, reading, seventh grade, Summer Vacation, writingClay

It’s the last day of school. In a few hours, the busses will pull out of the parking lot for the last time and take the kids home for the summer. They are excited and the teachers are, too. But, the last day of school, or of anything, is always the hardest.

It has been a good year and I’m sad to see the group move on – they are all great kids and have done fabulous job in the classroom. They will be great eighth graders. The day is only a partial day and it will be part fun and frenzy. The kids have their yearbooks and they will be asking other kids to sign and leave a note. Many kids will approach me and ask me to sign their yearbooks and I always leave a note and a message. This year’s note will be asking them to make their summer worthwhile and to use all of their 77 days to their fullest. I hope they do, the days go quickly, much quicker than a day in school. Continue reading Last day →

Getting started

Sunday, June 2, 2013, @ 8:53 amadventure, Family, history, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, Weather, WritingAmerican Battle Monuments Commission, dad, education, Family, great days, hard work, history, making the days count, Paris, patriotism, reading, seventh grade, Summer Vacation, weather, World War I, writingClay

aisnes_marne_memorial_day_trumpet2013_cropped — Memorial Day 2013 – A doughboy plays taps – Aisnes-Marne American Cemetery, Belleau, France photo courtesy of Aisnes-Marne American Cemetery Facebook page

This is a bittersweet time for me. The beginning of summer always is. It is a feeling of relief and joy and uncertainty mixed into one. This should be day 2 of summer vacation. It is day 2 of summer, meteorological summer, that is. Celestial summer will arrive just after midnight June 21^st and we’ll have our peak daylight. But, for now I have three days remaining before summer really begins for me.

We had a snow day in March and two flood days in April that threw a wrench in the school calendar and thus mine. It has been a rainy spring, which is nice because last year we had little rain and the fall fruit and harvest was dismal at best around our parts. Friday was warm and muggy, you could feel the energy in the air and Saturday was overcast with afternoon rain. We’ve been spared violent weather thankfully, but we had a spectacular lightning show last Tuesday evening and rain almost every day for the past week. Continue reading Getting started →

Life is Good

Sunday, May 19, 2013, @ 11:04 amFamily, history, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, Writingchildren, church, education, Family, great days, hard work, history, making the days count, reading, seventh grade, Summer Vacation, teaching, writingClay

Summer vacation is three weeks away, a mere twelve class days, but for some reason I find myself mired in EOTSYS – End of the School Year Syndrome. Yesterday was softball and errands and we finished the day playing a fun game as a family. I did not do a darned thing having to do with school. I started to write, but busied myself with other tasks, and now I sit on the deck enjoying the morning and watching Ivy patrol the yard for squirrels. The maple trees are dropping their seeds all over the lilac bush is in bloom, and everywhere nature is working, everyone except me.

The past week presented opportunity for me to reflect and think. Most weeks do, but this week was unique. Continue reading Life is Good →

Postcards from Spring Break – 2013

Friday, April 19, 2013, @ 4:13 pmFamily, history, Hobbies and Fun, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, travel, Writingchildren, education, Family, great days, history, making the days count, postcards, reading, seventh grade, Spring Break, teaching, weather, writingClay

a warm sunny day at Bahia Honda State Park with the Atlantic in background

It has been a great day, a great week, and a great month. I just don’t know where it went. Three weeks ago, I was on a beach on a warm sunny day with the breeze in my hair. It felt like it would last forever and I guess it has. Memories of our vacation to the Keys has sustained me over the past few days – from torrential downpours to flurries in the air, it has been quite a few days.

Yesterday morning, it was raining and I went to the basement and I discovered water pouring in through a crack in the foundation. I soon realized I wouldn’t be able to keep up and woke W who jumped in to the job grudgingly, but soon embraced the task. By 5:30, I knew I had to stay home and was busy writing a quick sub plan when W’s school called the day off. An hour later, my school called off, too. So, I spent the second day of summer vacation (see a NO SNOW snow day) fighting with the water in the basement, moving furniture, bookcases, pulling up soggy carpet up and hauling it to the curb. We were lucky our water was just that, water. Other homes in the area had water coming in from the sewer (yeah, ewwwwww). Continue reading Postcards from Spring Break – 2013 →

Postcards from…

Friday, March 29, 2013, @ 9:07 amadventure, Family, growing up, history, jobs, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, Weather, Writingchildren, education, Family, geography, history, making the days count, postcards, seventh grade, Spring Break, teaching, The Florida Keys, writingClay

It’s Friday morning and I have already started to wonder where the time went, but I already know. Time on vacation goes much faster than real time. Even when you try to make sure time is counting or days are counting.

I remember when my dad would travel, before my parents divorced, he would send us postcards. It was great fun to get a postcard and short message in the mail from him and even after my parents divorced, he would send a postcard now and then, from where he travelled. Of course, this was before e-mail, text messages, smart phones, and Facebook or other social media sites. Postcards were the social media! I have tried to bring back the art of the postcard and send one or two, or even more from wherever I am.

A few summers back my mom sent me all the postcards we had sent her and the ones she had collected. Continue reading Postcards from… →

A NO SNOW snow day

Tuesday, March 5, 2013, @ 8:56 amFamily, history, Life in General, model railroads, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, Weather, Writingchildren, education, Family, great days, history, making the days count, reading, seventh grade, Summer Vacation, teaching, weather, writingClay

stormwarning Normally, I would be driving to school right now, but instead I am home in the basement nestled in my cave. It’s a snow day. The weather guys predicted the storm several days ago and the media is in full hype. Right now, there is less than half an inch covering the sidewalks and roads, but it is predicted to get worse, probably much worse with the bulk of the snow arriving midday just in time to release kids to walk home from elementary schools with unplowed roads and snowy sidewalks. It is just a bad idea.

The call came in at 5:23 from my kid’s school district announcing that “due to the expected heavy snow, all school and afternoon activities for Tuesday, March 5th are cancelled…” My district called a couple of minutes later with the same news. I’d already been waging a war with the alarm clock, and losing, I might add, when the phone rang. I turned the alarm off and W came in to make sure he could sleep until he wakes up, he was excited, but probably not enough to keep him from falling back to sleep. I tried going back to sleep, but I couldn’t so I got up and went downstairs. Continue reading A NO SNOW snow day →

President’s Day Challenge

Monday, February 18, 2013, @ 9:24 amadventure, Family, history, Life in General, pets, Reading, sports, teaching, Weather, Writingchildren, education, Family, Grayling, great days, history, making the days count, patriotism, President's Day, reading, seventh grade, teaching, US Presidents, winter sports, writingClay

Today is President’s Day. It’s the holiday to celebrate all of our presidents, but in particular George Washington’s birthday. I remember in elementary school coloring pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and learning stories of their exploits of how George chopped a cherry tree down and couldn’t tell a lie and Abe was an honest self-educated man who chopped wood. I don’t know if these tales are true, but I do know that these two presidents led our nation in a time when its citizens were uncertain of how events would turn out.

And so being the wise nation that we are, we celebrate our heritage and history by letting the schoolchildren out of school for the day. Now, in the interest of transparency, I do personally benefit from this holiday and all of the other holidays, as well. I am a teacher. However, being a teacher does not imply an endorsement of our holiday practice. Now that that is out in the open, I can continue. Continue reading President’s Day Challenge →

Movies and the Oscars, and thinking, too

Sunday, January 13, 2013, @ 1:04 pmadventure, Family, growing up, history, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, Writingchildren, education, Family, geography, hard work, history, Landfillharmonic, making the days count, reading, seventh grade, teaching, Wasteland, weather, writingClay

Hellfighters with John Wayne was one of the first movies I remember watching as a kid. I saw it at the Palms Theater in Sugar Land when I was in first grade when we were preparing to move to Venezuela. I saw many movies at the Palms; it was the kind of theater that every small town had with one screen, a concession stand, its walls were painted with a tropical theme lit just right before the movie began to give the feeling of being somewhere besides Sugar Land, Texas. I remember the children’s movies I saw there, but Hellfighters was for adults and there was something about watching movies with real action like oil well fires. It was hardly a great movie, but I remember it well. We even saw it at the theater in Venezuela, it was in Spanish with English subtitles, but they had cut the part at the end about Venezuelan rebels. I have seen it many times since and I even have a copy in iTunes my brother Warren gave me a few years ago.

I stopped going to the Palms when I got my driver’s license and I didn’t need mom or my bike to get me to the movies. Continue reading Movies and the Oscars, and thinking, too →

Shaken or stirred

Friday, January 4, 2013, @ 12:03 pmadventure, Family, growing up, history, Life in General, Music, pets, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, WritingBond movies, children, education, Family, great days, history, James Bond, making the days count, movies, reading, seventh grade, writingClay

I did not want to leave, I never do. The last day at the cottage is always the most difficult – especially over winter break. I had a few errands and other odds and ends to do before I left and B and I went through the kid’s skiing pictures and sent some off to be printed. I finished my thank you notes, wrote short notes to my mom, B’s parents, and a cottage neighbor and got them in the mail with the photos. I ran some final errands before packing the Tahoe and driving home last night. It was full with just enough space for W and Ivy. W was comfortable and watched a DVD he had gotten before Christmas and Ivy had just enough space to stretch and lay out. It was a perfect night to drive home – dry roads and hardly any traffic. We made good time and by starting late, we were able to spend almost a full day at the lake before leaving.

The road disappeared before us Continue reading Shaken or stirred →

More numbers…

Sunday, December 16, 2012, @ 10:30 amFamily, history, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, Writingchildren, education, Family, history, reading, Sandy Hook Elementary School, teaching, writingClay

newtown_patriots — image courtesy of the New England Patriots and the NFL

It was a crazy day, Friday. My day began with a meeting, then an impromptu school tour with my advisory students, after the bell rang. We looked at how former students have left their mark on the school. We looked at the support posts, the pillars, which have been decorated with character traits: strength, courage, and patience – to name only a few. They were painted from drawings made by students a few years ago, who have since moved on to high school and, in this case, to college. I took them to down the main hallway, pointing out several spots, which we all pass by without thinking because they have become part of the scenery, like a billboard or a signpost along the road. We ended in the main entry hallway where flags from around the world hang. Continue reading More numbers… →