American Dream?

Hello everyone. I don't know why I'm blogging because I'm totally swamped at work and we're not even really back from the break yet! I just wanted to get started on the blog and more involved. My teacher in high school (still teaches here) fell and broke her femur badly...and so who does she want to teach her 12th AP and 11th classes? Me...so I'm knee deep in novels and classics, brushing up on things from long ago...And yet they still hold up of sorts. The tragedies of Willy Loman and Santiago from _The Old Man and the Sea_...the indecision of Hamlet, the apocalyptic world of Mccarthy's _The Road_...These are most decidedly male texts in which we grow up with.

What is the American Dream now? It seems to be to survive somehow the last 8-10 years of big business and war! The dream has become a wish and a desire and a lot of hard work. The dream, for me, is to live without fear...The dream has become something our students do not know or hear about. They see Obama, but...that can seem awfully far away when mom's out on her second job and dad's not around or there's only spaghetti to eat for the fifth time in a row. We expect our politicians to do to much for us. They can only do so much and we, as dreamers, must create new dreams.

One of my American dreams is to see the public school system be everything it can be. This means to be accountable and honorable. It means to be educated, alert, and positive. It means for teachers to be trained in all ways. It means for less technology in the classroom and more training and heart so that the technology will mean more for students. It means that everyone asks questions of themselves and are curious about how to teach better, how to reach farther. It means for people to turn back to compassion and humanity and remember that we are not educating people to be robots. We are educating for lifelong learning and passion of some kind. Without passion, we will die as a culture and as a people. We will turn further and further to our machines for connection and love. And I do see teaching as somewhat of an act of love.

I had conversations recently with two very different teachers. One called herself a "facilitator" of knowledge and novels. She presents material and if the kids get it, they get it. She does not feel she has to get really deep with a novel because the kids aren't interested. I suggested to her that it was her interest that would inspire them--that many kids (if not all) could care less about most novels--and that the enthusiasm would help them learn.

The other teacher makes a commitment to what she teaches. She teaches whatever she teaches for as long as it takes. She says her main concern is that they "get it" or at least see how much SHE "gets it."

Which one do you think has students contacting her years later thanking her for the way she taught them? Which one has students coming back to her in droves when they go to college, thanking her for conferencing them about their drafts, pointing out one-on-one to them their errors, and turning them on to writers they would have never known?

The latter.

She has a loyalty and a love of what she teaches and it shows.
She makes not much money, but she achieves her "dream" and I think it is an American one based on curiosity, seeking, love, loyalty, and commitment.

See you guys on the upswing.

Carlyn

Taking a break

Hey folks, I'm signing off for the night. Wes is trying to rock out on Guitar Hero, and it's a bit distracting. I'll check in tomorrow to see if there are new posts from Rebecca (who rocked some inservice today), Shane, Matt, Renee, and others.

Stress

I can't find my reading glasses or my appointment book. My house is a wreck because I've been pressured into getting organized. But in the process, I have lost those items, and heaven only knows what else, my sense of orientation, and my self-esteem. I've had one meltdown already today over everything including the fact that I've only been assigned one class this semester. Have you seen my student loan? Where's my bailout, Obama?

Resourceful

Hmmm? Games we played as kids. Well, we didn't have much in the way of store bought games, so we had to invent and be creative. Do I hear a murmur of "danger"? You'd be right to think it involved many things that should have had an adult nearby screaming in sheer panic. LOL Ah the wonders of those innocent days.

Small towns and farms are invaluable for learning about those most important lessons, and ways to evade the inherent dangers associated with many of the activities that seemed like such fun.

A few of the things I remember us doing, (I was never alone, however, I was not the youngest); running in a farmyard that was not clean (dairy) and then walking around the inside edge of the slurry pit, (manmade sinking mud[think cattle]), and then having to beware of rats that lived under the hay bales we slid down. We never thought of it as being a tad dangerous.

We walked and bicycled miles with picnics getting home around dinnertime, no adults, and those at home did not drive, no phones, just a carefree way of living, but again, no thought to safety and the ways in which we should be worried. Maybe the tales and memories will improve our taste for safety and a sense of parental watchfulness?

How about wandering the fields, eating the mushrooms we gathered (again think dairy farm), and in summertime picking berries, but eating more than we saved. Pesticides were definitely not an issue. . . But, an old lady who owned a large place with a crab apple tree could be quite scary. As her apples fell each year, she would gather them and leave them in a box. Fisrst come, could take what they wanted. When the box was empty, hmmm, just snag a few of the tree and hope to get out before you were caught. I never knew anyone to get caught, I did get yelled at once. The apples were deliciously sour and made your mouth pucker and zing, it was worth it.

See, it does get safer. . . I think.

When at home, we had several things to do for enjoyment. We would play what you call "Chicken", in the road, summer was best as nights were bright way past bedtime, obviously we won. LOL

On summer days it was great fun to pack a picnic and wander down a lane, only about 10 minutes from home, and then hop a fence, had some rusty barbed wire, but that was hardly likely to stop a bunch of kids intent on reaching the other side where a slab of concrete waited. There's more. At the edge was a three foot drop down to a stream where we could splash and scream with no interruptions. You guessed it, no adults. LOL

There was a bigger part of the river to the stream further up. It used to have a brick bridge that had crumbled around the time of WWII and the debris was scattered within the confines of the banks. My illustrious cousins, siblings, and myself gathered the debris and built a dam. I learned to swim in the small area, Then one day it got cleaned up and we could only paddle.

The river was called "The Avon. It widened out much further in the middle of town. I never dove off the bridge, but we did paddle out too far and had to run/swim quick away from the swans. SURPRISE! I had a parent around that day.

Then of course we had fun jumping downstairs. Step up one and jump, up two, jump. You get the picture. This was no easy feat when you to step 4-5. Then there was a ledge that jutted out and as you jumped, you had to duck. The forehead is quite capable of handling a solid brick bump occasionally. . .

Our safest game, I swear it was safe, was to pull mattresses off the beds and slide down the stairs on them.

How we kids survived is a mystery. A bigger mystery is how our parents survived.

So buy your kids what they want, or they will do anything possible to endanger their lives and ultimately yours. . . LOL

I want Donna's Wii!!!!!!!!

Okay, I'm posting a little early. That's because I'm not going to make it tonight because SOMEONE in my, no Ben's, family thinks that keeping their children means keeping them while they run errands after work. Sorry, had to get that out.

But I really want Donna's Wii. Or maybe just one of my own. And yes, my arms were sore too Donna. The system is fun, but I think I like what it represents-you know enough free time to use it. Maybe when Anna is in college? Or when I finish this degree? When my husband starts ironing? Nevermind, that's probably not going to happen.

This is a mindless, rambling post. Maybe I'll write more later...when SOMEONE picks up her child!!!!!!!!

Game Play

Wes is better than I am at every game on the Wii. That's just a tad discouraging. I don't think of myself as competitive until I'm confronted with it. I tend to be more competitive as a team member than alone, so I guess I'm a collaborative competitive person. Does that even make sense?



We play Pictionary every Christmas Eve, almost the whole family. This year we played Cranium, which completely annoyed my nephew who despised the break with tradition, even though we followed Cranium with Pictionary. Still, one of my favorite holiday moments involved my brother-in-law doing charades to get his team members to guess Richard Nixon. All I'll say for now is that he started with the nickname for Richard. It just got uglier (and funnier) from there.



There are certain games I can't play anymore, such as Monopoly. It bores me. I want something more creative than buying and selling. I love Cranium, which I've only played once. Scattergories is good, but it makes me laugh because the timer always annoys my aunt so much. One time she did the whole card using the wrong letter. It's the only time she ever found an answer for every single category. Another time she used the wrong card. Good times. Good times.



Wes got two new board games for Christmas that we haven't tried yet. Hmm, party idea . . . maybe we should have a game night some time? Anyone want to organize?



And then our best game this Christmas . . . I bought Wes a Wii for Christmas. Now, though, I think I bought it more for me. I love it. I also got the Wii Fit, so I tell myself I'm exercising, but I'm really just playing. Well, maybe the yoga and strength training exercises count, but the balance games are just fun, except that they really should count as rehab since I had knee surgery just three months ago. According to the Wii Fit, my right leg is a bit shaky. Well, duh!



We got Guitar Hero a few days ago, a post-Christmas gift. Wes loves it. It's kind of fun, but it stresses me out. I guess it's too performance-oriented for me. Besides, what if I get booed off the stage? Well, then I would need to hurt someone, and who can I hurt when it's a video game doing the booing? It leaves me confused. Really? Booing? That's too American Idol for me.



Different families have different games too. The Sewells like to guess song titles and artists. We'll be riding down the road listening to the radio, and Wes will ask, "Who sings it?" That's not my favorite game, but it's one all the boys in his family play. Sometimes I'll ask when I don't know just as a preventative measure.



We've done the alphabet game in the car on long car trips, you know, where you look for letters of the alphabet in order. Mostly, though, we read on long car trips since we don't struggle with car sickness. Thank goodness.



Okay, it looks like I'm drifting off topic, so I guess I'll wrap it up for now and see what others are posting.

The Games People Play

Okay, several of you know what prompted this prompt: we got a Wii for Christmas and are enjoying it way too much. So maybe you want to write about your favorite games now or as a kid. Board games? Sports? Truth or dare?

Or maybe you can write about the games people play in relationships.

Or maybe you want to ignore the topic altogether and write about your holidays.

Whatever. We're easy. Just write and share and respond to the writings of others. That's what's it's all about . . . no, wait, that's the hokey pokey. Hmmm. Feel free to include descriptions of good food since we aren't gathered together for soup, sandwiches, chips, coffee, and decadent desserts.