Holidays in Middle School

The holidays are here! That means charity. Yes, we do charitable works at school. Every year, one class per teacher adopts a family. This year its second period.
My second period class is a bit unusual. Its a remedial math class and, by the grace of the scheduling gods, its small. I am thankful the class is small so I can really help these kids learn math. However, there are only three girls in the class, the rest are boys. During the Kids Can food drive, we only brought in  20 cans, this is compared to larger classes bringing in hundreds of cans. I asked them why.  The response I got is that they tried and their mama said that no food leaves the house. Its needed right where it sits.
So the Friday before we go off for the furlough days before Thanksgiving, I get our "adopt a family" sheet from the Activities Director at our school. I cringe and then smile. Mercifully, she has given us one kid, a boy named Leonardo. He is age 10 and likes black. I take the information back to second period and tell them.
"Ok guys, its "Adopt a Family time" time again."
"Adopt a what?"asks D.
"Don't you ever pay attention to nothing? That's where the kids that got some give to the ones that got none," one of my girls says. To me she asks,"We don't have a family, do we?"
"No." I reply."We have a boy, Leonardo, age 10. Please get out your agendas and lets write down his info. This way, when you are out and about next week, maybe you can pick something out for him."
"I ain't gettin' nothin' for no strange kid. I need stuff for me." J smiles broadly.
C tells him, "Man, this is Christmas. You probably always had stuff under the tree. This kid need us. Without us, his tree gonna be empty."
"Unfortunately, C is correct guys. Without us, Leonardo will have nothing."
We go on to talk about the program. Why Leonardo and his family were chosen, what it means to them, etc. They ask if they can meet him. I say no. They ask if he needs clothes, I say yes. One of the boys volunteers to get him underwear because every boy needs new ones. They tell me what they liked when they were ten, would I mind if we got him Levis? My family can't afford much, are socks OK? I say yes to all of it hoping their image of Leonardo with an empty tree at Christmas challenges them enough to do something.
I typically dread the holidays at school. Kids are always so restless, worried. They are bombarded by commercial images night and day of what they should want, who they should be, and it robs them of the joy of celebrating. Sometimes, with a less than ideal family situation, they feel badly about themselves. Some kids don't want others to know, especially their peers. I stick to safe topics; where'd you go, who came to visit, or what did you eat?
But this year, we have a focus. So far, Leonardo has socks and underwear and a lot of good intentions. One of my students asked if I could go to Target for him. He handed me $5 in change and said he'd been saving it since before we went off for Thanksgiving. That prompted other kids to ask if they could give me what they'd saved also. It seems they can get the money together, just not the transportation. I told them I would go Monday after school. Looks like Leonardo, and all of us in Ms. Delfino's 2nd period, are going to have a very Happy Holiday.

I am a teacher, I am a member of EGEA

 I am a teacher. I work for the future. I teach people values, manners, and tolerance. I teach so other people may have a better life. I belong to a union, the Elk Grove Education Association a local of the California Teachers Association. I have spent my career working to make each student’s education better. I advocate for kids, because they cannot advocate for themselves. I teach parents how to respond to kids, how to discipline with fairness, how to react to success. I teach parents to celebrate their student’s lives. I am a teacher.

Over the 27 years I have been teaching, I have seen communities revile education and celebrate it. In the early 80’s, I worked with my local union to support a bond measure to build needed schools in the area. I lived in Maricopa County, Arizona at the time. Our opposition was the community of Sun City, an over 55 community that decried every dime spent on the future.  I went door-to-door in Sun City and talked about education. I lobbied for the future of that county and the measure was passed.

In the late ‘80’s, we rode the roller coaster of funding and no funding. Looking for respect and pay that matched the increasing responsibilities of being a teacher. Educational research had replaced “gut feelings” in the classroom and I was at the forefront of the revolution led by Madeline Hunter and her theories. We were given curriculum written like a script with the understanding that if we followed the script our students would all learn whatever the script taught.

Then came the ‘90’s and standards based curriculum. We no longer taught what we wanted; we followed a map of standards that wove through the years of a student’s life. The expectation existed that kids would learn on a straight line. Here again, research has shown us time and again the complexities of learning and the value of not thinking in straight lines.

Now we live in the second decade of this millennium. A time when money is tight and every value Americans hold has come into question. The media throws empty statistics at us about education every time we open our phones, our newspapers, our computers, our tablets. Places and people who once voted for education question our moves, wonder what we’re doing.

Yet, I, and so many others like me, still work in the public school where every kid in America is free to attend. Laws enacted during the Civil Rights movement have mandated a free and appropriate education for all students regardless of disability, ethnicity, economic level or religious affiliation. Every body comes to school in America! That makes every measure, every statistic of Public Education different from private education or from education in any other country. We are an inclusive society with an inclusive school system.

I teach the future. I listen to the woes of burgeoning adolescence. I take notes away that were written in passion. I stop them from fighting and teach them how to avoid conflict. I help them with their homework and teach them how to talk to their parents about their dreams. I fight for them, because they cannot vote and I know them better than the voters do. I tell them the world will be better if they make it so; and I hope they believe me, I hope they make it better. 

Middle School students

I teach 8th graders this year. They are all turning 14 sometime while we are in school, or they are 14 already. The girls look like women and the boys look like, well, boys. How do I describe what it's like? I have done this for 11 years, and every day has been different. I have watched batches of kids go through starting with us in 7th grade and then maturing into 8th grade.
The most difficult transition for students, after the transition into first grade, is the transition to middle school. In EGUSD, that means 6th to 7th grade. Seventh graders start out small, scared and immature. They all want to be grown, but some work very hard to avoid the inevitable. They dress differently in 7th grade then they did in 6th, a little racier; girls wear make-up and boys sag their pants. The average 7th grader really wants to make his or her mark, either by being a good student or by being a popular person at school. Very few want to do both. 7th graders still care what you think, as a significant adult in their life. They may be still listening to their parents and a phone call home is still worth the effort.
This is the time when the law says they can be left at home alone legally. It is also the time most parents indulge their kids with cell phones and other pseudo-adult activities. This is the time when they need your supervision the most. I have seen many students stumble into drugs, alcohol or other bad habits just because no one was checking in on them at home. I could tell you stories....
But I don't want you to get the wrong idea. My students are hard working, with parents who follow up on them and want me to call home when something is wrong. The pressure to succeed is full on them. We are approaching the end of the first term and final grades come out in about 2 1/2 days. This means my students lives will be shaped by the grades on those reports. I know these kids will have rewards or punishments based on their grades.
I was in a Parent-Teacher conference the other day with a student in my Algebra Readiness class who had a "D" in my class and Science and an "F" in History. As the Dad talked about what his son enjoyed (games), he said, "well I guess I need to put the X-Box away until I get a better report card". I quietly said to this Dad, "I love you right now". Was I kidding? Not really. Here is a Dad who cares enough to withhold from his son, until his son does the right thing. That is parenting as a partnership with the school.
Next week, I'll give my classes copies of their term 1 grades. I'll have them calculate and chart their GPA on a bar graph. They will have to set goals for term 2 and for the remainder of the year. I won't talk to them about standardized testing, although I am "supposed" to; we'll talk about tenacity, follow through and self-control. I will attempt to shape their thinking enough to have them believe that they can make it in High School and that college or career training is an option. After all these years, that is what teaching middle school is all about.

EGUSD Superintendent gives up pay increase

But he still makes $243,424. per year! The Sacramento Bee reported that Dr. Ladd "gave up" his pay increase until 2013.  The Superintendent for LA Schools has taken a 17% pay cut. I, and the teachers like me, took almost a 10% cut and we are supposed to be happy that Dr. Ladd had a roll back in pay of 4.1%. We have yet to hear about the rest of the cabinet, those are the Assistant Superintendents. We keep hearing that they are saying us money, because all these people are new at their jobs and further down on the pay scale. Yet, this group of District Administrators has had a raise approved for the next five years of 3.5% every year.

And the children of Elk Grove have 5 less days of instruction due to teacher furlough days!

Dr. Ladd did the right thing. The question I ask is, how can a raise of this kind get past the EGUSD School Board?  What kind of Board of Education approves a raise of this size at this time? In these times of lay-offs and furloughs, pay cuts and district money woes, how can our elected board members look us in the eye while giving a raise to this group of people? At this point, they can give me a lot of excuses, but the EGUSD Superintendent makes over $200,000. a year. His cabinet members each make 6 figures also. How can that salary increase be justified when the money for school programs is so very tight?
I am sure you have all heard of Larry Powell by now, the Fresno County Schools Superintendent. He has a contract with his district to work until 2015. Fresno retired him and now he will be working for the years remaining on his contract for $31,000. a year. What a leader! What commitment to education! His salary will be put back into the pot for school programs.
EGUSD School Board members decided to cut their pay for last year and for this year. They wanted to appear in sync with the employees of the district. What they didn't do, was consider the backlash that the contracts with top administration would cause. The School Board are elected officials. It is their responsibility to safe guard the funds of EGUSD for the students of EGUSD. It is their responsibility to ensure that instructional time is restored to students before district administration gets a raise!

It's time to elect new School Board members. The people of Elk Grove deserve better management of their school district.

Prison educator

About 11 years ago, I left the prison system to teach in the public school.  I started teaching for the State of California with the Department of the Youth Authority in 1992. At this time, CYA was separate from the Department of Corrections. My job was to assess wards in small groups and individually to see if they had learning problems in reading, writing or math. Since the CYA incarcerated wards under the age of 18, they were offered school services as close as possible to what was available near their home. I also wrote their Individual Educational Plans (I.E.P.) before they transferred to their permanent institution.
 The last few years I worked for the Youth Authority, I taught at NRCC on the resident side working with students who were juvenile, mentally ill, felony offenders.  Since I was trained in working with student deficits, I helped many young men learn to read or to calculate enough to maintain a bank account or budget. Several students I worked with went on to graduate from high school or get their GED.
Teaching in a prison changes you as a teacher and a human being. I gained confidence in my abilities to educate by seeing young men learn who had been discarded by society. I learned not to fear the look of a young man, but his true intention. I also learned true intentions are not easy to spot. As time went on, I had several wards tell me I should be working in the public schools where I could make a difference. I told them I thought I was making a difference with them. Their response was that in many cases, they were lost causes. By the time they got as far as the Youth Authority, they would dapple in crime for the rest of their lives. (Recidivism rates for those incarcerated under the age of 18 bear this out.) "Go teach 7th graders," one ward said. "I would be a different person if I had someone care about my education when I was in 7th grade."
So here I am, teaching 7th and 8th graders for my eleventh year. I must admit those young men I met in the YA were correct, it does make a difference when a person cares about a student's education.  We are five weeks into the school year and already I am seeing positive results. I hope its a good year.

Zucchini update

In July,  I only had one garden related visit from Mom this month. (It's getting hotter, I feel more coming) I have asked after the zucchini plants and was told, "it's better not to discuss it". She seemed rather forlorn without the plethora of zucchini she usually has in July.
And then it was August....
Mom stopped by three times already with various vegetables. This is a good tomato year. The tomatillos and peppers are tasty. Her eggplant is thriving and the cucumbers won't stop. Her friend with roots in Oklahoma has okra this year.
She asked me what I wanted the other day, and I said anything but zucchini. She made a face and sighed. So I amended with,"It's OK. I'll take whatever you want to give me."
She smiled and told me that was the correct response. I ventured, "Do you have too much zucchini?"
A funny face again and she replied, "I did it again. I planted way too much." I told her she could give it to me, I had people who would take it. My friend who lives in Israel sent me some great recipes I can try also.
I don't feel sorry for Mom and her zucchini overload. She does this every year. When my dad was alive, he would calm her fears of no zucchini. He only planted one plant a year and she always had enough. He didn't need to worry about getting rid of zucchini. We also had cows at the time. When we had too many zucchini, our bovine friends were more than happy to consume the excess.
Now, its only Mom and her garden. She has her regular delivery route, but there are no cows to eat any uneaten zucchini. And I can't suggest to her, maybe she plants too much. The funny thing is by the end of summer's harvest she'll tell me, "I'm not going to plant too many zucchini next year." It's kinda like a garden resolution that she doesn't remember when the weather begins to warm.
But it's all OK with me. The gardener Mom has become is far better than Mom without a garden. She enjoys herself. That makes me happy.

Standardized Test Scores and Back to School

The first day of school was August 15th. I have done "the first day" for about 27 years as a teacher. I have never regretted my career choice. The current media emphasis on testing and the conversations testing arouses, have required me to concretely examine my profession. Sometime in September, test scores will be released to parents and the media.  Principals received their school's test results in mid-August and the discussion around testing started the minute teachers entered their school buildings. Students are now sitting in a class where they will be given their results and they will have feelings about what they consider to be success or failure.

Does any other profession begin a year like this? NCLB, the national law put into motion by George W. Bush requires all students in the USA be proficient in reading and math by 2014 on a state approved standardized test. Principals are held accountable in a variety of ways for not meeting the testing goals. So they pass it on!  Staff meetings are about analyzing our scores, results made by students who are long gone. Does this make us better at what we do? Do your kids learn more as a result? Maybe. Sitting with our colleagues to share departmental strengths and weaknesses makes for good practice. But teachers do this already at least once a month.

We may be squeezing blood out of a turnip here, when we ask that ALL students reach proficiency in reading and math. I teach students with learning disabilities. The test results from my class depends on the learning rate of my students, the behavior of the group, how many students are living in poverty, and on what they learned before they came to me. Some years, the results are awesome. Some years they are not. However, I have learned I can not compare year to year. I use the best teaching techniques I know, knowing the students respond to them differently. The individual usually improves, but not enough to meet proficiency. Imagine being a student who never makes proficiency! How would you feel about school? Do you blame your teachers? I don't blame the student or myself. I see learning differences as part of life.

One positive result of NCLB has been the way teachers have raised their expectations about what students can accomplish. I have seen students work in classes successfully who have scored poorly on standardized testing for years. Yet they make it! They succeed, even though the tests scores would indicate otherwise. This would indicate that learning is an interactive process. A "moment-in-time" standardized test can not measure that process. Educator expectations must be high for all students. Yet, the standardized test scores can not be the one piece of data we use to judge students.

How do we react as parents to test scores? I remember the first standardized test my nephew J. took. (He is now a high school graduate.) In second grade, he scored advanced in reading and math. Just like many of his peers, it was difficult to determine, was he gifted? Or a good test taker? It turned out J is a good test taker and an average student. He had to be pushed by his family to succeed in some classes, others he flew through. My own daughter was such a poor test-taker her third grade teacher recommended her for special classes (like the ones I teach). Now, she is in college, holds a good job, is successful because she never gives up and loves to learn.

The test results do not define the student, the teacher or the school.  For me, a teacher is best defined by what we do every day in our classroom, how we impart knowledge, how much students want to learn when they move to the next grade level. Students should not be judged completely by one score from one test, but by their performance over time, and where they end up. Any teacher, regardless of student test scores, who takes students through the process of learning and finds the student wants to learn more; must be considered a "good teacher".

Parents and gardening

Half of Mom's garden at sunset.

Every year in late July, I am reminded of my Dad.  He has been gone 12 years now and though I think of him often, late-July is when he seems to be with me the most. The reason? Tomatoes. My Dad grew great tomatoes. They were everything a tomato should be red, juicy, sweet, the heat of the sun in the scent of the fruit.  We ate them every night growing up until the frost hit.
My parents both grew up on farms. Mom, on a Southern California Dairy and Dad, on a St. Helena vineyard. When Mom was born, a cow was set aside for her. Dad learned to drive a tractor when his father bought one after the mule died. Dad already knew a lot about agriculture when we went to Cal Poly for college.
As my brothers and I were forced to work in the garden, we learned the value of using land well. We learned from Dad about rotating crops, beneficial insects, and conservation before it became popular culture. When Dad retired, he tried new gardening methods to get healthier fruit and earlier tomatoes. He taught me the value of learning by improving himself and using new ideas every season. He taught me the value of the earth.
When the grandkids arrived, they sat in the garden with Dad first as toddlers then school age kids. He'd munch on a vegetable and ask the kid, "You don't want any of this, do you?" Without fail, the kid wanted the carrot, bean, tomato, plum, walnut, radish that my Dad seemed to reluctantly offer. Dad's grandkids were the only toddlers I knew who ate fresh vegies with no complaint.
My Mom now has a garden that surpasses anything Dad had imagined. His gardens were kind of messy, yet very functional, with leggy vines and weeds. Mom's is neat, tidy and colorful. She has incorporated flowers into her garden. Mom has taken Dad's garden and translated it into a showplace. Not only does she have tomatoes before July 4, she has eggplant, peppers and cucumbers too. Her melons are the talk of the family. We fight over cantaloupes and watermelons, all of us planning a visit just to get the spoils of her harvest. When she arrives at my door with a box, I always hope for a melon. Talking on the phone, I get the daily melon update.
The Brothers and I keep gardens also. Three raised beds and a pluot tree makes up my city garden. I also have pots of dwarf lemon and lime trees, flowers, roses, herbs. I learned it all from Dad and continue to reap the benefits of Mom's harvest.
Incorporating these lessons into what I teach makes the teaching all that more enjoyable. I have worked on a school wide garden, used a grow lab in the classroom and done many other activities that directly relate to what I learned from Dad. I want students to see the value of keeping the earth healthy and understand their connection to it. Gardens are always a great teaching tool.
Gardening and good soil is my family legacy. Mom is planning on expanding her garden to include more pomegranates and lavender. Her intention is to build a garden empire with these products. I know she can do it. In her mid-70's, the earth is in her blood.

Education- Free for all

The district I work for agreed Wednesday, July 13, to honor the agreement they made with the teachers back in May of 2010. In this agreement, the teachers took a pay cut, the school year was shortened by 5 days, and no one was laid off. This school year has been a tug of war between district officials who were convinced that lay-offs, larger class sizes, and further cuts to the classroom were necessary and teachers who simply wanted to stick to the May 2010 agreement. Over four hundred teachers finished the school year not knowing until last week if they had a job or not. The source of all this turmoil? The uncertainties in the budget for the State of California.
Eleven years ago, I started teaching in Elk Grove. I had grown up here, left, came back. I graduated from Elk Grove High in '77. My daughter graduated from Elk Grove High in 2007. I wanted to teach in Elk Grove because the district and school board had a commitment to students. They sought the best teachers, and got them through a competitive salary schedule and cooperative management. Teachers and management worked together.
That all changed with Dr. Ladd's arrival. Was it him? Or did he arrive just when the state started to short schools on funding? I'm not sure which came first. Now we seem stuck with management who sees teachers as commodities. The attitude is, "well, if you don't like it, you can always go somewhere else". They know we can't go anywhere else. There are too many teacher lay-offs everywhere.
And what about the kids? You know; the consumers of education who can't vote? What about them? In the middle of the shortage of funding and arguments over cuts in the system, the kids are still here! They continue to need an education and they need teachers to provide it. We don' t often hear about the students. When anti-teacher sentiment is rampant and everywhere you turn teachers are blamed, I do not often see students at the center of the conversation.
I propose a change. If you feel compelled to blame, please stop and think a minute about how students will be educated without teachers to do the job. The reality is, without us, there is no school. With fewer teachers, the classes are larger. Thomas Jefferson believed that education should be under the control of the government, free from religious biases, and available to all people irrespective of their status in society. We need teachers to make that happen. We need adequate funding from the State to make that happen. The idea of Free education for all is an American idea. I believe like Jefferson did, that every student should have access to a free education. I hope our conversations around education can focus on that end.

Oregon- Washington coast

We're on vacation! Hubby and I went north a few days ago and landed in Astoria. This is a part of the country we have never been. Have you seen the Columbia River where it meets the sea? Beautiful. We have been drinking a lot of coffee, which leads to a lot of conversations with locals and others. We're staying at the Astoria Inn, a B and B with only 4 rooms. The forest greets us at the back of the house. Endless green, with the scent of rain always on the edge of the breeze.
On the other side of the Columbia river is Washington state. The bridges all seem to be small, skinny and high over the river. Its like a ride at Magic Mountain going across the river! Two lighthouses on Cape Disappointment frame the cape for oncoming boats and ships. The Columbia River has a huge sand bar that has been the ruin of many ships since before Lewis and Clark arrived on this side of the continent. The history of ship wrecks and life on the Columbia is well documented at the Maritime Museum in Astoria. On this lovely day in July, one can hardly believe the tales of rough water and peril faced by the seafarers, fishermen and loggers of long ago.
We traveled East through Portland and found the Columbia river gorge. As some would say, "Gorgeous". Several waterfalls are found on a ten mile stretch of historic Oregon highway 30. We stayed in Bridal Veil at the lodge that has been there since 1926. Across the street is the Bridal Veil fall. A lovely place, so quiet at night.
It was a relaxing time.

College Tuition

It's that time when parents of college age students are writing checks for tuition!! When my daughter, N, signed up for San Francisco State the semester tuition was $2500. By June 27, it had climbed to $2844. July 7 she paid $2960. She was told that she would receive an e-mail telling her that her tuition would increase 14% before school even started.
Remember when college in California was affordable? We went to State Universities for a solid education at a reasonable cost. This generation is being thrown to the wolves with fee hikes and tuition increases that seem to come from no where; unless you follow the state budget.
Ahhh, the State budget! The bane of everyone's existence working or having to live with education in California. Though the government has decided not to touch K-12 education for this year, the UC and CSU system has been hit, yet again, with budget cuts. So many young people have to drop out or delay their degrees due to the cost of college.
I see N. struggling with money issues. She is good with her money. She has worked hard, attended community college to make the whole thing more affordable, shared housing, saved money. God, I love that girl's practicality! But, she is 22 and just starting the University phase. The money I had saved for her to attend a 4 year college was not enough by the time she was ready to enter. It was demoralizing to us both. Then came the market crash, and we were further behind. As a teacher, I received a 9% pay cut around the same time. Because she attend a community college, we were able to recoup our losses.
The thing that gets me is, the funding for all education, K-college, is contingent on the economy's recovery. If California does not raise enough in revenue, everything will change -again- K-12 education will lose days, University tuition will rise again. I wonder if any one of the Republican legislators thinks about the impact of their actions, their refusal to grant the tax extensions and how it affects us. Probably not, they have other ways to pay for college.

Moms and zucchini

My mother is 73 years old . In September, she'll be 74. She is a freak for zucchini. Because she lives on 20 acres, mom has plenty of space for a garden. Every year, she works to have a ripe tomato before July 4. Most vegetable gardeners consider a ripe tomato before July 4 the ultimate in vegetable achievement.
The weather in the Sacramento valley this year has given all gardeners a headache, but my mom has been persistent in her planting. Since I have a small yard, she considers it her duty to plant enough zucchini for me. What she ends up doing is planting enough zucchini for me, my neighbors, and everyone I work with. Sometime in August I will begin to receive bags of zucchini on my porch in the night. I will awaken to the sound of a car door slamming, an engine revving to pull away, and find several grocery bags left clandestinely on my porch. I'll call her at a reasonable hour.
"Mom. You left zucchini on my porch this morning. Why didn't you come in for a visit?" I ask when she answers the phone.
"Well, dear, I didn't want to wake you," she always replies sheepishly. But see, I know what this really means. " I didn't want to wake you" is code for "I didn't want you to tell me I couldn't leave all that zucchini with you".
This year it started early. Last week, she pulled up at 7:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in a state of nervous excitement. She had the tell-tale beer cooler in her hand. I knew there was no beer, just zucchini.
"Lisa, you must try this zucchini. It's a hybrid. I got the seeds at Capitol Nursery when I was looking for the Italian zucchini I love. You must tell me what you think."
She pulled three medium sized squash out of the cooler. They were pale green, looking like unripe zucchini. I asked, "Are these ripe?"
"Of course they are ripe. Everyone knows you do not let zucchini grow too large."
"Have you eaten them?"
"No. That's why I bring them to you. You have to try them."
"OK."
"I gave a few to Lou also. You girls are my test kitchen."
I asked her to come in for a glass of wine, but she had to go. So in a whirlwind of energy, she left me with the beer cooler.
About 45 minutes later, the phone rang. It was Mom asking me if I had tried the zucchini yet. I said, "Mom it's 8:15 p.m. We ate dinner already."
"Oh. Are you going to bed?"
"No. Did you want me to cook the zucchini NOW?"
"Do what you want. I just called to tell you that Lou tried it and said it tastes like mud. I tried it yesterday and couldn't tell what it tasted it like. I put so much stuff on it. You don't have to cook it if you don't want to."
"Ok. I'll cook it if you want me too."
"That's OK. I'm going to go out into the garden and pull up all these plants right now. I found some of the Italian zucchini seeds when we were in Fort Bragg. I'll plant those tonight."
So, from what I can tell, she went out into her garden at 8:30 p.m. on a Tuesday. She pulled up four of the suspected mud-tasting vegetables and planted only God knows how many zucchini seeds. More to come....

Midnight in Paris

We went to see Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" yesterday. The Hubby, Mom-in-law, and me. I liked it. Owen Wilson was the guy struggling with life choices while staying in Paris with his fiancé and future in-laws. He is nostalgic for the '20's and gets transported to that time at midnight. This premise led me to ask "if you could go back to a time, when would you go?"
Hubby wanted to be in Paris before it became so Americanized, the early 1960's. Mom-in-law wanted to live in the U.S. In the 1950's. She perceives this time as innocent. Which led us to a one-sided discussion about "those kids".
You know those kids. They are the ones I teach who walk in front of your car when the middle school or high school let out. The pant sagging, crooked hat wearing, pierced and tattooed future of American. Those kids....
I hear this all the time, being a middle school teacher. "How can you be with those kids all day?"

I don't take their rebellion personally. I did my own version. This generation has it's work cut out for them. Sometimes, they are quite angry about it. I really do not blame them. None of us should. I think as teachers and parents we have the responsibility to guide them. As parents, our job doesn't end at 13 or 18. This parenting thing continues. Somehow, we must help them use the angst and the rebelliousness to make the world better.
Don't judge their rebellious looks or manners. Work with them!

The start of this endeavor...

Hello all! I have wanted to write about my experience as a mother, teacher, aunt, friend, wife for some time. Recently, I realized I have a voice. I am in my fifties and my mother is in her mid-seventies, so is my mother-in-law. We live in a state of wondering when either of them will need more then we can give them.
I teach middle school students. With all the problems in California with the budget, the uncertainty of each school year is real. I never know what to expect! The media takes shots at teachers making us out to be bad guys. I want to tell our side, speak our experience. This is my place to do this.
My daughter is starting SFSU in August. I am her mother and I need to learn how to mother a young woman.
Middle years, middle school, in between raising kids and helping older parents. You with me?