Merry Christmas!

The best part of Christmas are the traditions. When I come home I sleep in the same room, in the same bed, as when I was a kid. And I reread all the books I read as a kid, just to make sure they're the same. They normally are. I get less sleep at home than I do at school, because there's so much to read.

The music is a tradition. We listen to the same 5 records, all day long, that we listen to every year, on the same record player. The record player can play 3 records in a row, and then the records have to be flipped. I love it.

We always hike way up the hill looking for the perfect Christmas tree, and end up getting the one closest to the house. We cut it down and drag it down the hill into the basement, and leave it there overnight to let the snow melt off it. Then Sunday we decorate the tree with all the random ornaments that have survived over the years.

I love that we open presents on Christmas Eve, after dinner and getting everyone settled and reading Luke's account of Christ's birth. The kids pass out the presents and we open them one at a time from youngest to oldest. If extended family are visiting, this can take some time. After each gift, the reciever must get up and give the gift giver a thank-you hug.

Another treasured tradition is the making and consuming of klub (a Norweigen dish made out of potatoes). This year I was allowed to make klub all by myself, and I felt so grown up. We eat klub for breakfast, lunch, or dinner on special occasions throughout the year. Yum!

Christmas morning we open stockings. Each of us gets a few pieces of fruit, and we combine everything to make a terrific fruit salad for Christmas dinner.

Christmas afternoon we go play outside in the snow - snowshoeing, skiing, skating, hockey, sledding, etc. Then it's back inside to help get Christmas dinner ready.

Favorite traditions that don't happen every year:
When we go to Grandma Marshall's house, on Christmas afternoon we all sit in a circle, each holding a small package. We read the Night Before Christmas poem, and pass the package one person to the left every time the word 'the' is read. When the poem is finished, we can open the package we're holding. The best part about this is trying to figure out what is in each package and what the odds are of ending up with that gift.

When I was little, Grandma Childs would make up a bag for each of the grandchildren that contained 12 small gifts (a comb, stickers, an ornament, etc.). We could open one gift on each of the twelve days of Christmas. That was so exciting!

And, of course, the best tradition of all: being with family! The rest doesn't matter if we're not together. Merry Christmas, everyone!

naming the roads

Sometime in my younger years, the county started numbering the houses so that the fire department could figure out where to go in an emergency. The houses were numbered according to which mile marker was closest (yes, it's rural). A few years after I went to college, some hotshot up in the county government decided that instead of the logical system already in place, a more creative system ought to be established. Each family could name the road they lived on (there's normally only one family per road, so this wasn't a problem). Mom and Dad had a great time with figuring out what to name their road, and they finally settled on Blackberry Lane, since we grow blackberries along our road. Some roads, like ours, are fairly normal: Orchard Lane, Rocky Point Road, Pinewood Drive. Some are more creative: Lake To Sky Drive (it really does go right up the mountain), Hellroaring Road (same mountain, just going down), Lumpy Road Lumpy Road. Some did not get creative: Road 1, Road 2. Some thought they'd get fancy: Hydeaway Lane, Silver Salmon Shores Road. The ones on the Indian Reservation are interesting: Squeque Road, Kaltomee Lane, Amigo Drive (?). My favorite, so far, has been the one where the family wasn't up-to-date on their spelling: Hard Road to Ho. Oops! I'm pretty sure they meant 'hoe' instead of 'ho,' but too late now. Can you imagine writing to your friend (or living at) 1342 Hard Road To Ho? How embarrassing.

It's been snowing steadily since the night before I arrived, and we have nearly two feet now. Almost time to break out the snowshoes! Hooray for winter in Montana!

lunchtime conversation

Today during lunchtime, Mikea appeared at my classroom door (leaving the lunchroom during lunchtime is strictly prohibited): "Ms. Marshall, I need to use the bathroom."

Mikea had the opportunity to use the bathroom 15 minutes before, and had looked me in the eye and told me she didn't need to use it.

Me: Mikea. You need to go back to the lunchroom. You know we don't use the bathroom during lunchtime. Can you hold it for a few minutes until I come to pick up the class?"

Mikea: "Ok." (She leaves.)

Approximately 3 minutes pass. Mikea is at the door again (which is still strictly prohibited): "Ms. Marshall, Zy'Aire burped."

Me: "Mikea. You need to go back to the lunchroom. And stay there."

what are they thinking?

Sometimes I have no idea what kids are thinking. For example, yesterday the other pre-k teacher put her kids in line to get on the bus, just as we have done since mid-August. The entire line walked outside and got on the bus. Except for one pre-k student. Instead of getting on the bus like she has been doing for the last four months, she walked past the bus and started wandering around the parking lot. Twenty minutes later, the mother called, wondering where her child was. The kid was apparently still wandering the parking lot. The mother was furious with the teacher, but what I want to know is....what was that kid thinking?

Sometimes I have no idea what parents are thinking. For example, one of my students has not had her clothes changed or washed for over two weeks. She was really dirty. So we changed her clothes into a pair of extra clothes that she had in the classroom. The little girl was so happy to be in clean clothes. She acted so carefully all day to keep them clean. Twenty minutes (the magic time limit) after we sent her home, her mother called, enraged. She yelled at me, my paraprofessional, and the principal, who finally hung up on her. Apparently all she was mad about was that we hadn't put on her daughter's shirt (because it was too small to fit) and had given her a nice clean shirt in the right size. The mother hasn't sent her daughter to school since then. The mother isn't hurting me - frankly, its a lot easier to teach without her daughter in my class. But she is hurting her own daughter, who needs to be in school every day if she's going to make it through pre-kindergarten. If the kid can't make it through pre-kindergarten, it's going to be a rough life for her. What is that mother thinking?

sand in the water table

We're studying the four seasons at work, and this week we focused on learning all about summer. I put about a quart of sand in the water table (taken from the math resource teacher - I have no idea why she had sand), which spread out to be just enough to cover the bottom of the water table. We had one shovel that the kids had to share, and a couple buckets. I added water to the sand on Wednesday, and the kids didn't want to touch it because it stuck to their hands and they thought it was gross. Aren't these kids ever allowed to get dirty? I had no idea that the sand table would be so popular, or that so many students would have to be banned from it because they threw the sand at each other or smeared it in each other's hair. And then they would burst into tears when I made them leave, as though they couldn't believe that I would be that harsh. Apparently I am a heartless, cruel woman, delighting in their misery. The janitors thought the same thing when they would find sand all over the floor despite our best attempts to clean it up. Next week we're moving on to studying autumn, so no more sand. I guess I'll be bringing in leaves to explore on Monday.

the power of the No Child Left Behind video

In one of my GMU classes this semester, the professor brought in a video about NCLB in a high school in Baltimore. It's been fascinating; those will be my students in ten years, with all the same problems. We've all been mesmerized, and the discussion about that video has been amazing. We can't stop talking about it and how to fix some of the problems we see. The professor only shows it in 1/2 hour segments, which has been killing us. That's the only reason we come to class. I don't think that the professor realizes just how much power that video has on us. I hope she doesn't think we're so engaged because of her amazing discussion facilitating abilities. We finished the video last class period, and we were devastated. There's a rumor that the professor skipped part of it, so we're hoping that we'll be able to see it again next time, but if not, I'm not sure how everyone will get through the class period - I guess the solitaire and sudoku will be coming out. I feel a little bad for the professor when she realizes that we actually don't care about the subject matter - we just want to figure out a way to fix the problems we're all struggling with. I think she may find the discussion quite different from before.

ode to gmu

I want to make sure that the incredible ridiculousness of this all is recorded for future posterity. As part of the Teach For America early childhood cohort, I'm in the Early Childhood Education Curriculum and Instruction master's program at George Mason University. Teach For America is also part of AmeriCorps. As an AmeriCorps member, I am eligible for an education award that can be applied to my George Mason tuition. To get the education award, I contact AmeriCorps and request money to be sent to George Mason. They send the money, and then GMU has to accept it. That's the easy and efficient part. Now comes the good part.

(Prepare yourself.)

Since any reasonable student would expect GMU simply to accept the tuition money that AmeriCorps sent them, time is passing and the first the student realizes that something is wrong is when they are hit with a late fee for not paying their tuition. With a great deal of investigation, the student finds out that GMU, for whatever reason, has given AmeriCorps the wrong office to send the money to. As a result, GMU won't accept the money until the studentcalls them and asks them to accept the money. (What??) Then the money is in the wrong office. It really would be too easy and efficient for GMU to simply send the money to the right office, or even (heaven forbid!) giving the right information to AmeriCorps in the first place.

At this point, the student doesn't know that the money is in the wrong office, and again assumes that all is well - until fined again because they haven't paid tuition. The student, through more agonizing investigation, learns that the student has to call GMU (again) and ask GMU to mail the student the money. GMU then writes a check and mails it to the student, who must take the check to the bank, deposit it, and write out a check of their own and mail it to the correct office at GMU. Is this not the most unbelievable process for any institution to engage in? It has to be mail; faxing or online payment through credit card is not accepted (perhaps because it would save too much time). Since the process relies entirely on mail, it takes several weeks. Meanwhile, the student is fined again because tuition has not been paid or (in some cases) the tuition is sent to a collections agency.

Whomever thought up this procedure has to receive the award for the most difficult way to pay tuition. Or perhaps this is a really awful way for GMU to get extra money from all the late fees they collect from unsuspecting students or even knowing students who fall victim to GMU's inefficiency. After three unsuccessful attempts to pay tuition in a timely manner, I am again attempting to navigate this process. I contacted AmeriCorps in October (I thought I'd get a head start on the process) and got the money sent to GMU. The money sat there for two months, despite my phone calls to get it mailed to me so I could write a check back to the correct office at GMU. However, for unknown reasons, GMU has rejected the AmeriCorps money. Good thing AmeriCorps notified me, or I wouldn't have known. Looks like I better start saving my money to pay late fees.

school policy

Email received from the Pupil Personnel Worker:
"It is State and County policy and procedure for school staff to mark students present if they are present in school (see definitions in policies) and absent if they are absent from school. This is a very serious situation and I hope you will view it as such."

If anyone was wondering what to do with those attendance sheets, this email should have cleared up the confusion.

What's even better is that apparently this email was needed enough for it to be sent.