I'm Back!

Kinda like a bad penny, I turn up every month or so to compose some more in my Blog. It's been such a busy month, I didn't even realize the month had gone by.

My work has been so busy at school. I've been doing the annual ESL testing, and it's a new test mandated by the state. Since we can only test 22 students at a time this year, and (also new this year) they have to be tested by their ability levels, I had to do 15 different testing sessions of 75 minutes each, singlehandedly. So it has taken me 3 whole weeks to do it. This to the detriment of my regular classes, which were on-again, off-again. I also have had to test each of my 85 ESL students individually on their speech, which takes 15-20 minutes apiece. I still have 2 full days of that. Whew! The students have been tested in reading, listening, writing and speech. I think they'll be happy to get back to their "regularly scheduled programming". I know I sure will.

As you may or may not know, I have started my own ETSY shop. Go to www.thesquaregrammy.etsy.com to see it. I call it TheSquareGrammy in honor of the Grammy Square, oops, I mean the Granny Square. But also, mostly in honor of my own sweet grandson who now, I can proudly say DOES call me "Grammy"!!! Here he is playing at the beach in the Bahamas, on a cruise that he and his family and my dearest husband and mother-in-law were able to take. Of course I had to miss it because of my lovely job :-(

The weather has made a complete turnaround in NC this week. We had a snow day on Monday, with temperatures in the single digits. And today, Saturday, it's close to 80 degrees!!! People are out in shorts and tank tops mowing their lawns! Daffodills and crocuses are blooming. And the middle school kids at Northview Middle School are getting antsy to be outside instead of cooped up in school all day. I can't say that I blame them, how about you?

By the time I think about writing here again, it'll probably be full-blown springtime! Talk to y'all next time!

I've been Remiss ...

Okay, so I guess I've been so busy I kinda stopped blogging for awhile. So that makes me remiss, or amiss or in "remission"? ... Anyway, I missed it and all of a sudden I come back and find I have 3, count them, 3 followers now instead of my 1 (okay, so she's my daughter :-)

Welcome to my two new followers, and welcome to anybody else who wants to read these blatherings. I know what I write is probably only interesting to me, but, oh whell!

Do you realize how much we all affect each other? I was just thinking about that. You know how much we as parents affect our children, and of course spouses affect each other. It goes without saying that we teachers hope that we have positive effects on our students. I have been affected a lot by my own children, and of course my sweet grandson. I have been changed by my colleagues at school and my students, as well. Even in subtle ways, we can be affected by those we are with for even short times. If the grocery clerk smiles or snaps at you, you're affected for the rest of the day. But for the long term, it's just important to know that what you do or say can be making a difference in the lives of many others around you, not just yourself. You are affecting your spouse, your children, your parents, your co-workers, your students, your pets???, the clerks you buy things from, the other drivers on the road, in short, everyone around you. Wow! What an awesome responsibility when you think about it!

Back Home = Back to School

Home again, Home again, Jiggety-Jig!
I've been back home for awhile now. The nursery rhymes I sang to Dano are just a distant memory - a very, very good memory. I had a wonderful Christmas with my sweetest of all grandsons, and my most wonderful daughter and son-in-law. I really miss them. But now it's time to gear up for my job.

How nice it has been to just relax, kick back, crochet, read some good fiction - the Jodi Picoult book was NOT a disappointment (I finished it just as my plane landed back in good old NC). It was good to be able to ease back into ordinary life - put away Christmas, clean the house, catch up on old friends through Christmas letters, etc. But now the inevitable has arrived.

Yesterday I started doing some research on new theories in teaching ESL students. Since it's a relatively new field, methods for ESL teaching are evolving. Now there is yet another method arriving on the scene that I'm learning about. The trick will be trying to share it with my principal and the other teachers in my school. But, you know what? At 56 it seems to be taking longer and longer for me to grasp what I read. Wonder why that is?

Regardless of my age, today is lesson-planning day. I can no longer avoid it. I plan to "hole up" in my room with my computer and my planbook; my Celine Dion cds and my flavored coffee; and plan next week's lessons. Who knows? Maybe I'll get really inspired, and "knock the socks off" those kids with some really great lessons! Hey! It could happen!

Sooooo - Let the day begin....

Christmas Break at Last!!!!

It's here! I'm off of school for two blessed weeks; no lesson planning, no kids to chase down, no late afternoons staying after school to sell basketball game tickets or attend Christmas concerts or tutor. No stress.

Wait! Did I say no stress? Tomorrow I leave to visit my sweet, sweet grandson, and of course his wonderful parents who gave him to me. BUT - A snowstorm is heading northeast as I write this. I have images of flight delays, sleepovers in airports, and lost luggage dancing through my head. My 3-hour layover in Cleveland looks like a likely night stopover instead, since it also has a storm forecast tomorrow. Instead of a dream trip, this could turn into a nightmare! I just packed a whole package of my migraine meds, because I just might need them all!

But, why not put a positive spin on this all? Waiting on the other side of it all, will be my family. I know I'll eventually get there, even if it might be a bit later than I planned. And I know it will all be very much worth it. The trip could be a horrible disaster, or it could be a grand adven-

ture. It all depends on what I make of it. I plan to make the best of it, and enjoy whatever comes my way. For now, I guess I'd better just finish my packing and go ahead with my plans. When tomorrow comes we'll find out what comes with the day.

A Blessed Christmas Season to all who read this message.

All Decorated!

Well, now that the tree is up and decorated, I feel much better about things. Thanks to John and Erika for that! Thanksgiving, wedding anniversary, and the colonoscopy are behind me (in order of importance, of course) And sadly, John and Erika have gone home and I have that feeling of hollowness down deep inside like I always do after one of my kids leaves me.

The old, fake tree doesn't look too bad after all - a little skimpy compared to the fat mountain-grown Fraser Firs we've been having for 16+ years, but it's very symmetrical, I must say that for it. It's a good foot shorter than I'm used to, and we used a whole string of lights less and almost a box fewer ornaments. But there's more room in the living room this way. And we don't really need much room for gifts anyway this year. It still gives us the beautiful aura of Christmas, and John and Erika and I had a wonderful afternoon Saturday with the Carols and the hot chocolate laced with candy canes and chili powder. Mmmmmmmm! Missed you, Rachel.

Now it's back to the work world for a few weeks. But in less than a month I'll be visiting my very sweet grandbaby. What can I say about that except I CAN HARDLY WAIT! See you soon, DANO!

Bah! Humbug???

I cannot believe this! The two people I live with actually made the preposterous suggestion that, merely because I will not be home for a week at Christmas time we should not decorate the house for Christmas! What a HORRIBLE thought! Simply one person missing for the week of Christmas is no excuse for NOT DECORATING! That is almost like canceling Christmas completely!!!

Okay, I will agree to not going to the mountains to cut down a real Christmas tree, because after all, neither of our two kids are coming home for Christmas. It would be more enjoyable, but I will get out the old, probably very dusty and considerably flat 20-something year-old fake tree, and decorate it. But, NO CHRISTMAS TREE? NOT DECORATE AT ALL? What kind of Scroogey people are these people? In fact, Grandma even asked if we put up a tree before we had kids - of course we put up a tree before we had kids - we WERE kids before we had kids (hee hee). And as far as I'm concerned, I'm STILL a kid deep down. I guess that's why I'm a bit disturbed by the whole idea of not decorating. If I didn't put my decorations up, it would be like going to someone's home and not visiting with them. I need to "visit with" my Christmas decorations every December. I would miss them if I didn't. So many memories are asleep in those boxes, wrapped in the paper and excelsior, waiting for the week after Thanksgiving when I will awaken them and put them in their accustomed places, while the favorite carols are playing, and the rich aroma of spiced cider is wafting through the house. How could I simply skip all of that? IMPOSSIBLE!

I know they meant well - they probably wanted to spare me all the "hard work", knowing that I would be coming back just a few days before going back to school. But that's okay. I'll make time. I just couldn't bear to skip all the wonder of Christmas decorating. I'd rather cut off all my hair! And we all know how I feel about my hair. Right? Right!

People Really Read This Stuff!!

Yessss!!!

I actually attracted some readers! Well, thank you very much, I know you are my children, and my friends, but it is very gratifying to know that someone cared enough to read my blog. You are right, Knitsational, it IS addicting.

I spent most of my Saturday looking online for materials for teaching my ESL classes what Veterans Day is all about. One doesn't think about it, how kids who didn't grow up in our culture know very little about our holidays. So Friday, when I was reminding them that we don't have school on Tuesday because of Veterans Day, most of them had no clue as to what Veterans Day celebrates. Believe me, after Monday in my class, that won't be the case anymore. I now have a plethora of activities and word puzzles to help them along. Plus, we will have vocabulary words all week associated with Veterans Day - beginning of course with the word "veteran"!!

I've been doing a lot of reading these past six months on what ESL students need the most, and vocabulary is one of their biggest needs. So that's what my classes are getting a LOT of this year. The trick is to teach it in an exciting and interesting manner, to keep them enjoying it, and to help them remember those words. Last week we did Hollywood Squares - remember that TV show? They LOVED it! Of course to them, it was merely Tic-Tac-Toe. hee hee!

Enough about work. Enough about everything. As usual, I got carried away again. I need to remember to keep these posts short and sweet. Or I'll lose the only 2 readers I have before I even get started. Sorry...