Reflecting on 2008

I thought it might be a good idea to reflect back on 2008.

2008 was a time of minor change for me. A time for a removal of stress. A time of growth.

It was the first year I had started without Washington, my faithful canine companion, since 1994. In that respect, it was a time of sadness and a time of moving on. It was a time to see that pets' lives are so much shorter than our own and a natural cycle for all pet owners is the death of that pet. It's sad, but it is all part of the circle of life. That is the way God made this world, it is right that the world has death, but that does not mean it is easy.

2008 saw the end of the former leadership in my school district, and a new (although temporary) leadership put in place. With this new leadership, there was a major time of celebration within my school district, almost a freeing from bondage. I don't wish to underestimate the sense of relief when the new leadership was put in place (nor do I wish to get more specific). The district literally heaved a gigantic sigh of relief, those of us who survived and were willing to wait it out. The stress levels throughout the district have dropped tremendously.

2008 saw the long dreamed of deck added to the back of our house. I don't know how many times I stared at the back of my house, anticipating what it would be like to have a nice deck with a door leading onto it. And we were finally able to see that dream come true.

2008 saw a huge maturing of my stepson. I am very proud of the steps Seth has taken to get his life together. He has grown as a person in the last eight months or so, and he seems to be on the right track.

2008 saw me grow as a writer, publishing two new books, and re-publishing my first book, newly updated. Although I am not making more than change on the books, it is a great deal of fun and I shall continue to write.

2008 saw me return to an old love: painting. I have gotten a new set of oil paints and have begun to paint once again (I think it had been ten years since my last painting). I am very rusty, but I am having fun.

2008 saw me falling even more in love with my wife. I know I don't tell her often enough how much she means to me, but she is everything to me. I love her bigger than the trees.

Finally, 2008 saw Cara and me in the best shape we have ever been as a couple as far as finances are concerned. Do we still live paycheck to paycheck? Yes. What else is new there. But we occasionally have a little extra, which is a nice change.

Here is wishing everyone a fantastic 2009!!

Snow Days

Oh, how I love a good snow day. One of the perks to being a teacher is that you get the occasional snow day, a day off from school due to snow or ice.

My wife and I had one yesterday, this being one of the ice-related varieties. I mean, what can be nicer than getting up at 5:15 in the morning, expecting to have to go to work, and finding out you don't. You have an unexpected free day, a day to do nothing. You can't go anywhere due to the weather, so you can't use it as an excuse to do some errands. You get to stay home where it is snug and cozy and relax, do whatever you would like, read a book, watch television, surf the Internet, play a game, anything indoors. If it is very snowy out, you will eventually need to clear the driveway and steps, but since you don't have to got to work, you can do it on your own time.

My problem is that by the time I get that phone call telling me there's no school, or by the time I see my school listed on the bottom of the TV screen on Stormcenter (love their theme music), I am wide awake. There is no way I can go back to sleep. My wife is the opposite. Which means I usually curl up in the recliner in the living room with my latest book (right now I am reading The Toomyknockers by Stephen King) and enjoy a few hours reading, drinking coffee (pumpkin flavored yesterday), and watching the snow come down (or freezing rain, yesterday).

Of course, the biggest drawback is that every time we have a snow day, it means one more day in June we have to go. Some people say, no, there are snow days built into the school calendar, we don't have to make them up until we go over a certain number. Bologna, I say. They are only there to remind people that we are likely to use snow days. If by some chance we don't use them (rarely happens), then we don't go those days. So essentially, every snow day is another day in June.

But, as long as we only have two or three or four snow days, it is more than worth it. Instant gratification, and all that.

Hearing From a Former Student, Too Much Water and Seth Update

I have three topics for this blog entry, as the title of the blog suggests.

First, I got an email today from a former student of mine. When I taught sixth grade, for a couple of years I taught science, in addition to math. I had very little background in science, so I taught what I knew: space. I did a unit on the space program as well as a unit on astronomy. My kids really seemed to enjoy the units. One girl in particular really was especially motivated by the space unit. She emailed me this week. She is going to school at Florida Institute of Technology, with an interest to perhaps work at NASA, perhaps as an astronaut. She was telling me about the program she is in. She has recently been at Kennedy Space Center, where she was taken out to a launchpad, with a Space Shuttle sitting there all ready to launch (scheduled for November 14). I was very impressed. I love hearing from former students, but I particularly like to hear from this former student. This is a young lady who set her sights on working for NASA from the time she was young, perhaps even in sixth grade. She has worked very hard, in school, by attending space camps, and now in college, to meet her goal. I have every reason to believe she will meet that goal. I wish more students could be as goal-oriented and hard-working as this young lady. I am so proud of everything she has done and, whether she ends up working for NASA or not, I will continue to be very proud of her.

Item number two: I discovered a water main break. I was home sick from work Wednesday (I am already feeling 99% recovered) when I noticed that the ditch in front of the house was filled with water. Except when we get heavy rain, this almost never happens, and when it does it drains quickly. I saw that water was coming out of the culvert that crosses under the road fairly steadily. This bugged me and a few hours later I went outside and took a closer look. The ground was beyond saturated along the ditch and, when I checked the other end of the culvert, no water was entering from the other side. To make a long story short, I ended up calling the water department on a hunch and sure enough, the water main was leaking about fifteen feet further up the road. They ended up shutting off the water to the whole street, digging a huge hole and fixing the leak. When I mentioned to Cara (by cell phone as she was on her way home) what had happened, she was impressed. But not with my discovering the leak, but by the fact that I actually called the water district myself.

Update on Seth: Seth is in Vermont working at Sugarbush Ski Resort for the winter. He is making snow for the resort, working very hard, and living in a small apartment near Sugarbush. He sounds very happy and Cara and I are very proud of him. His girlfriend is in Europe and will be back right before Christmas, so the separation is tough on him, but in the long run, it should be strengthen the relationship. I know when Cara and I were first dating, I was in Belfast and she was in Fort Kent and, looking back, I think it helped to strengthen our relationship. Not that I would want to do that all over again.

School Consolidation

In MSAD 56 where I teach and in MSAD 34 where I live, we have just voted to consolidate our school districts.  Despite much trepidation on the part of many people, the vote was really not that close and both school districts voted to combine, beginning in July 2009, less than a year away.

Not that the state gave us much choice.  It is a law that schools must consolidate unless they are already a certain size.  Then they left it up to the people to vote.  However, if the people decided not to consolidate, the state was going to fine the school district a huge chunk of their funding.  The loss of funds would devastate any school district that said no.  I doubt MSAD 56 could have continued to function without the state funds.  I suspect a third of the teaching staff would have been let go and the smallest of our three elementary schools would have been forced to close.  Maybe even the smallest two.  I suspect those of us who survived the cuts would have had more than thirty students per classroom.

Luckily, the people of both school districts made the only decision they could: to consolidate.  For good or for bad, we will soon be one school district.  I suspect the good will far outweigh the bad.  Then again, I usually see the glass half full.

Summer, Slow Down!

Summer vacation has just begun, but by looking at the calendar I see that it is one fourth over already as well. For those of us who teach, summer is a vital time to recharge our mental and physical batteries. Teaching kids, as enjoyable as it is, is both mentally and physically draining. We teachers need the summer to make sure we are ready for the ten-month long school year. And the summer seems to go way too fast.

Cara and I have already spent a week at Camp, the family camp on Center Pond where we love to go to relax, swim, kayak, read, and enjoy each other's company without the day-to-day chores of being at home. We are now readying ourselves for a 2-day yard sale, this Saturday and Sunday. Our dining room, living room and kitchen are loaded with tons of . . . stuff. Hopefully we can get rid of most of it, while at the same time make some money that we hope to put away for a possible trip to Florida next winter or spring. We still have not gotten anywhere on our new deck, which we thought would be done by now. Our carpenter/friend hopes to start next week. Cara's mom is coming for a visit next week and it will be nice having her here. Seth was home for a brief visit this week. We have the annual family reunion in just over a week. The following week I will be at a 3-day conference for school (so much for vacation). Cara and I hope to get back to Camp somewhere in there. The second week of August we will spend with my family at a camp we are renting on a small lake in the southern part of Maine. Cara hopes to get to her Mom's somewhere after that, before she starts back to school a week early this year (due to needing to get out early next spring in order to move her school to her new school before her old school is demolished). Whew! I can tell that this summer, as fast as it is going, may just fly by even faster. Let's hope not.

Camp Kieve a Positive Experience

Last week the entire eighth grade at my school went to Camp Kieve for two days and one night. It was part of their Leadership School, an adventure-based education teaching kids to take healthy challenges. It involves kids climbing on a high ropes course, among many other activities. We actually stayed at Camp Kieve's sister camp across the lake, Camp Wavus. It is an absolutely beautiful campus, right on the lake, with the ropes course located out on a narrow peninsula, with water on all sides. One of the activities involves a giant swing, where students are hoisted thirty-five feet into the air and they swing out over the water.

As a long-time sixth grade teacher, I have always known that the Camp Kieve experience was a positive one, where students came back saying how much fun they had, etc. Until last year, I had no idea just how much personal growth each student returned with. They are able to challenge themselves at any level they choose. I have never seen a program where every student walks away having gotten so much out of the experience. Most were able to do things they never thought they would be able to do. Perhaps they climbed 15 feet off the ground. Maybe they climbed all the way up a tree and walked across a six inch wide pole, 40 feet off the ground. Maybe they paddled a canoe for the first time. Maybe they rode the giant swing. Maybe they just watched, but stayed overnight away from home for the first time. Whatever the challenge, no matter how much gumption it took to meet that challenge, no student was left unchanged. I strongly believe that this camp, this program, has changed the lives of many a young person. I have also been changed by the experience.

Ah, the Life of a Teacher

Just a quick story about what happened at school this morning:

A student of mine that I will not name, a young man who is autistic, came into my room this morning. He congratulated me for my homeroom winning the "pizza party." My homeroom had the best attendance in our grade during our recent round of standardized testing, which won us a pizza party coming up this Friday.
When he said this to me, I immediately remembered that this young man had done some of his testing with my homeroom (even though he is technically not part of any homeroom). I asked if he would like to join us for the pizza party. His response was, "Of course! I would love to join you." I smiled at his enthusiastic answer and made sure he knew when the party was, which he did.
Just after he left the room, I overheard him talking to the lady who works one-on-one with him, saying, "I didn't even have to ask him!"


Another thing happened as well. This happened in one of the other teacher's classes, on the team I teach on, named Josh. A student had finished what the other students were working on, today, and Josh asked if he would find something else to work on while the other students finished up. He told the teacher that he had something he could work on. He took a folded piece of paper out and carefully spread it out on his desk. Josh observed that it was covered in tally marks, four lines with the fifth one crossing the other four, over and over all covering the paper. Next the student pulled out something else, something he unwrapped. It was a Tootsie Pop. The young man took a lick, then added a mark to his paper. He took another lick and added another mark. Josh already knew the answer but decided to ask anyway. Sure enough, the young man said he was doing a scientific experiment to see how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

Snow Day!

It is 9:30 in the morning on a Monday, as I sit at my computer listening to the sound of the snowplow making its second trip up my street since it began snowing early this morning. We have a snow day!

It is not just the kids that look forward to snow days, it is also, and perhaps even more so, the teachers and other school staff that look forward to them. An unexpected day off! What could be better than that?

This is how it generally works at my house:

My alarm goes off at the usual time, 5:00. Instead of hitting the snooze button three times, I usually only hit it once before I am up. I stumble to the kitchen and turn on the small TV we have sitting on the bar. I hear the familiar music of Storm Center, the alternative music played on WLBZ-TV on days when a snow storm is under way. The news anchors, Lee Nelson and Sharon Rose, and the weather man, Kevin Mannix, are wearing sweaters instead of their usual attire. But my eyes are not interested in what they are wearing. They immediately fall to the bottom of the screen where the school cancellations are flashing. I'm looking for SAD 56 (my school) or SAD 3 (Cara's). Meanwhile, my ear is listening for the phone to ring, anticipating the call from one school or the other with the simple message: no school. Usually I see Cara's school on TV first and usually I get the phone call before Cara does. Cara, not waiting for the call from her phone tree, usually calls the next person in line once she hears from me that her school has come up on the TV. (I know, you aren't supposed to do that, but Cara doesn't care.)

Once it has been established that neither of us have school (and only once in seven years has one of us had school and the other not), Cara, who has not yet left bed, goes back to sleep. Me, I am too awake by now to sleep, and get my current book and sit in the recliner and read, while waiting for the coffee to be ready. I usually get a couple hours of reading in before Cara (the smart one) wakes up. Then we spend as much of the day as possible doing nothing. At some point, I will need to scoop and shovel the driveway, but I try not to think of that.

Why do we so look forward to snow days? We do have to make them all up at the end of the year. Most likely, instant gratification. Do we regret it in June when we seem to be the only school still in session? A little. But to be honest, I'd rather go to school a couple extra days in June when I get home from school and have 6 hours of daylight, than to go in the middle of the winter and get home and have 2 hours of daylight. There is something cosy about lazing around the house with the snow falling outside your window knowing there is nothing you need to accomplish today except whatever you feel like.

Well Laid Plans

I had planned to get to school early this morning and get some things prepared for today's math lessons. I was going to try out a new computer program called Noteshare. The way that works is that I prepare some notes ahead of time (in this case a chapter from a mystery that goes right along with our current Math module) and I can electronically "share" those notes with my students. They can all see the exact same thing on their laptops as I have on mine. I had the pages all ready to go, except I needed to use the morning to make sure it worked properly.

I arrived at work at 6:30 this morning, had just quickly photocopied some papers and was getting my laptop out, when the cell phone rang. It was Cara; her car would not start.

I rushed back home (about a 12 minute drive) and tried to jumpstart the car. After several attempts, no luck. It was not going to start. At this point we only had one choice. I would have to drive Cara to school (25 minutes in the opposite direction), then take the car to work. Or she would have to drive me to work and take the car. Obviously, choice number two was the only logical choice. As we started for Searsport, I looked at the car clock. It said 7:17. Students start arriving in my homeroom at 7:15. I called Milaine, our wonderful school secretary, and explained what had happened and that I was ten minutes away. Meanwhile, Cara had already let her school know she would be even later than that.

I arrived at school (for the second time today) at 7:26. My first class started at 7:28, giving me just enough time to take attendance for my homeroom. I did not even try to use Noteshare with my first class. I ended up reading aaloud the part I was going to "share" with them. I explained the predicament and they understood, even though they had been looking forward to trying Noteshare.

During my prep period following my first class, I checked to make sure I understood how to use Noteshare, so I could try it in my next class. I re-familiarized myself with the basics of Noteshare. I wanted to test it, but could not find anyone to test it with, but everything looked like it was working okay. When I tried it out in the next class, it would not work. My computer said I was sharing, but none of the students could find me on their Noteshare network. I'll have to find one of our computer guys and see if I'm doing something wrong.

All in all, it was not a very productive day. But things like that happen. That's life. You have to learn to go with the flow.