Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersScariest conference ever
This afternoon my co-worker Caroline and I attended a professional workshop about Internet safety. Truly, this could have been one of the most worrisome workshops I’ve ever attended. The woman who presented to us was from the state’s attorney’s office in Springfield. Her job is to work on Internet safety prevention in school and with young people. The information she had for us, and even more so the statistics she had to share, were staggering. Cyberbullying is growing at such an astonishing rate that it’s now reported that 1 in 4 teens have been harassed, embarrassed, teased, and/or bullied in some digital format, and only 20% of these teens report the abuse. Cyberbullying has grown so much because it can all be anonymously, and the bully never has to see the actual reaction of the victim, which is often the only thing that makes bullies stop.
It’s so hard to be a teenager these days. One of the points our speaker made really hit home with me. When we were teenagers, there was a built-in filter for many forms of communication that just don’t exist today. For example, we had to get to know our friends’ parents, because when we called their house, the parents answered. Also, we wouldn’t ever take pictures of anything really incriminating, because we knew that those pictures had to be developed in a store, and strangers would see them. Currently, kids have complete peer-to-peer contact at all times. The natural filters are just gone.
Hearing the information presented in this workshop was important, but kind of depressing for me. I hope that we can pass the information along to our staff in a way that will convey the true danger of all of this instant communication. It’s really an important issue in education today.
Ali’s birthday party
Ali is truly one of our kids’ best friends, and tonight we got to celebrate her fourth birthday with her and a lot of other friends. We were at All About Fun in Danvers, IL, which is a big building that has inside it a bouncy house, an air hockey table, a fooseball table, tricycles, hippity hops, chalkboards, and an apparently endless supply of little plastic balls to throw around aimlessly. The place is awesome. Needless to say, everyone had so, so, so much fun.
There’s really no better way to describe the night than with the pictures
I was snapping like a madwoman. I took a million of them, but I think this one sums the night really well. You can’t get the full impression of the place, but the kids all pretty much had the same expressions at all times…one of pure joy!
My favorite picture of the night, though, is this one. It was taken while we were all singing to Ali, and I absolutely love the look being shared by her and Ben. When I saw it on my camera, I said to Ali’s mom, “Look, we can use this on their engagement announcement!” We always call them an old married couple, anyway.
We all had so much fun at that party. It’s really cool seeing Ben and Emma play with and care about their friends. It’s really the start of a phase I am looking forward to…getting to know the kids they choose to be their friends.
Taco night
Tonight our nephew Chris’s family came over for tacos. Chris & Salina’s daughter Bella (yes, I know this means that Dave and I are a Great Uncle and a Great Aunt) is just four months younger than Emma, so it’s always a good time getting them all together. What cracks me up the most, though, is that both Ben and Ems treat Bella like she’s this little baby. Tonight was no exception. Both of them hovered around her and 
followed her every move. And when Salina had to change Bella’s diaper, she had a two-person gallery who thought this event was the most interesting thing in the world.
We had a taco night, and although all of the grown-ups loved it, none of the kids were too thrilled with our menu. Seriously…what kids don’t like tacos? That’s my picky eaters for you. Thankfully, the kids had enough fun playing with an entertaining Bella to get over their disappointment with dinner.
Happy Veteren’s Day
I don’t have any close relatives who served in the armed forces except my Uncle Tom, who served in the Army in the early to mid 60s (getting out before the Viet Nam conflict began) and my brother-in-law Rod, who served in the Navy mid to late 80s (not exactly the most dangerous time in our military history). Even though the military hasn’t personaly touched my life very much, I still appreciate it and it’s awesome history more than I can imagine. Today, there are young women and men throwing themselves into harms way constantly in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I do hope they feel the appreciation of our entire nation.
To the millions of of soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines who have served America in the last 233 years, I say thank you. Thank you for the dedication, for the sacrifice, and for the bravery you have shown. Happy Veteren’s Day, everyone.
So…many…meetings…
I feel like I have hardly been at school much at all lately. At the end of October I attended the ISLMA conference for two days. Then I had an all day literacy team meeting the Monday right after that. Wednesday of that week we had our local department leader meeting, and then today I had another half day meeting for our school core team in the afternoon and a faculty meeting after school. It’s so weird this year…I really do feel like I’m spending a lot more time in meetings than I ever have before. I know it means that I’m becoming more involved with our school and our district, but mixed emotions come with all that. I do understand the importance of meetings and committees like these, but man, it’s hard to miss school, too. I can’t even begin to imagine how a classroom teacher does it. I sure hope that I can find a balance between my actual job and these extra commitments I’ve taken on.
The “last” class
Tuesday nights are y ISU class nights. Typically at this point of the semester, I am ready to be done with my class. You know how it is…no matter how great the semester has gone, there’s always that point when you’re just ready to be done with it all. Right now, I think a big part of that feeling is because I got way behind in my grading, so I had to spend a lot of time last weekend catching up on that. Not fun. I was looking forward to this class for one reason and one reason only; technically, this is my last class of the semester. We really have three more weeks, but two of them will be filled with student presentations, and the third will be the take-home final exam.
Tonight, though, really turned out to be an exceptional class. The newly hired ISU Library Program Supervisor sat in on class, and it seemed like she really enjoyed it. She was making all kinds of positive comments to me, and she added a lot to the class discussion. Afterwards she told me that she loved my teaching style and said that she could tell that I had a lot of expertise in the field. What a great thing to hear from someone in that position! I know that at this point in my career I should know that I’m a good teacher, but it’s always so wonderful to have that reinforced by someone completely unbiased.
It always surprises me to see how much I get out of teaching this class. I hope that the opportunity to teach more of them does come, because I really do love it.
A textbook Sunday
There’s Indian Summer, and then there’s 70° in November. Today, it was sunny and 70° outside. No, I’m not kidding…it really was that warm! Grandma Judy, Grandpa Scott, Brett, and Kelli came down to spend the day with us, and it was a really great day. The kids played with Brett & Kelli so much, and they had a blast. They played downstairs, out in the front yard, downstairs again, out in the back yard, and back downstairs some more. Let me tell you that basement was trashed! I swear they had gotten out every single toy we have down there and none of them seemed to find their way home. But it didn’t matter. Just by looking at it I could tell that it was awesome. I think my favorite thing they had done was to set up our blocks to make a sort of wall in the corner. Ben told me that he was a puppy, and that was his cage. His sleeping bag was in there, and an empty bucket was, too. He said that was his blanket and his food. It cracked me up.
“Were Kelli and Brett your owners?” I asked him.
“Yes, he said, “They took care of me!” He had a huge smile on his face.
I love that he is starting to interact with kids more and he’s joining in with imaginative play. He’s getting so grown up, and I seem to notice more and more changes in him daily. What a mixed feeling that is.
I’m calling this a textbook Sunday because we literally got to do everything I hold near and dear about Sundays. We went to church as a family, we came home and went straight outside to ride bikes, more family arrived and we ate dinner together, we played outside with our neighborhood friends, and we generally had an awesome time just being together. It really reminded me of my childhood Sundays, and I have to say I absolutely loved it. For the first time in a very long time, I dread going to bed tonight!
Emma quote of the day
This afternoon we got out of the van and I put the hood of Emma’s jacket up. “Ohhh…,” she said, “I so ahbayawest!” I looked at her in disbelief.
“You’re what?” I said.
“I so ahbeyawest!” she repeated.
“You’re embarassed?” I asked.
“Yeah…like Gwovah,” she said.
I busted out laughing. She was referencing the end of The Monster at the End of this Book, her recent favorite bedtime story. She aboslutely loves that book…just like I did when I was little. She is such a little mini-me.
We have a contract!
This afternoon our teacher’s union finally ratified a contract. Yes, we’ve been in school for something like 11 weeks now, but we’ve been working without a contract this whole time. Finally, our negotiating team and the school board resolved many of their issues, and a tentative agreement was reached. With this afternoon’s vote, the TA was approved, and I will finally get a raise!
The new contract isn’t offering much of a raise, but it is only a two-year agreement, which is huge. Hopefully the economy will be better in two years, so we’ll be able to ask for more than a 2% increase at that time. The other really beneficial thing for me in the new contract is that a curriculum chair will be created for the IMCs. There will be one representative from the high school level, and there is a good chance that representative will be me. The only person with more seniority than me is retiring in a year and a half, so her salary was locked in three years before her retirement date. I’m excited for this new challenge. We’ve been asking for district level representation for years, so this is a really great advancement.
It’s amazing how rejuvenated I am at work this year. The change in IMC personnel has made a huge difference in my excitement and enjoyment with my job. That makes me very happy…I sure hope it lasts! 
Our daredevil
Well, Emma did it again…we have another facial contusion to add to the list. Last night the kids were downstairs by themselves when we heard loud crying. I ran down and Emma was standing behind the couch crying hard. She ran over to me and I was thrilled that there wasn’t any blood. Shew. But there was a big red blotch near her eye and a scrape and bump on her forhead. I asked her, “Emma, did you fall off the back of the couch?”
“Yes,” she sobbed.
“Now do you understand why Mommy tells you not to climb on the couch?” I asked.
“Whyyyyyyy”, she cried harder. *Sigh* The little girl just doesn’t understand that her daredevil ways lead to injuries. Thankfully, this time, it just looked like she’d just have a shiner and a bump on the head. Yes, I said looked that way. That was last night. Today, however, when I picked them up at Danielle’s, she came running up to me with a big, fat, split lip. Danielle said, “Well, Emma took a little spill. She was trying to climb on the couch.” *Sigh*
I know it could be worse. She’s very lucky that she hasn’t hurt herself too seriously. Knock wood, because I don’t think the message is sinking in.
