The Median Sib

My computer at school has been down since last Friday morning. Lord! That’s a WEEK of no computer in my classroom. That means I can’t work on my reading newsletter or the school’s literary magazine since they’re on the school’s server - which I can’t access. I also can’t make quick email checks between reading groups. Instead, I must hike down to the library or the computer lab to use one of their computers to send or read email whenever I get more than a few minutes free.

This afternoon, I went to the computer lab only to discover that a fifth grade class was in there. However since several computers were still open I checked with the teacher to be sure it was okay, and I slipped in next to a student who’s in one of my reading groups. I proceeded to check my email. One of my emails was from another reading specialist (thanks, JeNan). Now imagine how I felt when I had to not laugh and disrupt what the kids were doing and then hope-like-crazy the fifth grader next to me didn’t see the following (she didn’t - she was too engrossed in her math project):

NEVER Fart in a wet suit!

Which brings me to the title of this post - the “F” word. Many years ago when I was teaching second grade, a little boy came up to me and said so seriously, “Mrs. J., Bobby said the ‘F’ word!”

Surprised, I asked, “He did? Tell me exactly what he said.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t say THAT!” He was visibly distressed.

“It’s okay, you’re not saying it - you won’t get into trouble. You are just reporting to me so I can decide what should be done about it.”

With lowered voice, he answered, “Bobby said ‘fart.’”

Later note: Please read the comments for more stories about children and those “special” words.

OK, I’ll qualify what I’m about to relate by stating that I don’t know these people, and I don’t know the context for the remark I overheard. The child was not upset or crying and from outward appearances, she looked reasonably happy. Here’s what happened:

I was walking down the school hallway on Tuesday and passed a mom, dad and daughter who had just left the cafeteria and were headed toward the kindergarten/first grade hallway. That would indicate that the little girl was most likely 5 - 7 years old.

As they walked past me, I overheard the father ask the child, “Did anything bad happen at school today?”

Again, I don’t know the context and I don’t know what prompted the question. We all know that the questions we ask and how we ask the questions determine the information we receive. I can’t think of a good reason to ask that particular question. Can you?

I got this from my friend, JeNan, today - and considering the weather forecast, I felt it was appropriate to share it here. I have no clue who wrote it - it just had initials at the end.

Surfing blogdom again instead of sleeping. Found some good posts that are worth a look-see.

Are You Conservative has THIS post about rewriting history.

And the new issue (#44) of The Carnival of Education just came out. Once again, one of my posts is included. YEA! Go HERE to read all the great articles in this week’s carnival.

And for fun, check out Darren’s post of the greatest movie line of all time at Right on the Left Coast: View From a Conservative Teacher.

I hope everyone who visits THE MEDIAN SIB will also click on the link to Sanity’s Bluff which is on the sidebar. Sanity’s Bluff is written by a trucker who has strong feelings and opinions about what’s going on in the world. He definitely leans right and tells it as he sees it. Whether you’re on the right or on the left or in the middle, you’ll find something you can agree with or argue with on Sanity’s Bluff. Sanity’s Bluff also includes some great photos, art prints, cartoons and drawings to go along with the posts. What do you think of John Kerry? You’ll find one strong opinion HERE. And how about news reporting these days? He’s got an opinion about that, too.

Yesterday morning on my way to school I listened to the Steve Gill Show on WTN, 99.7. I have to admit that my feelings were hurt. Steve was talking about Williamson County School’s consideration of a balanced calendar. Steve does not like the idea.

A few weeks ago every school in our district had a mandatory faculty meeting where the proposed calendar was presented and we were given the opportunity to express our feelings about it and vote on it. The vote turned out in favor of it. Elementary teachers tended to vote for it. High school teachers tended to vote against it. The majority of the arguments against the balanced calendar centered around how it would affect high school athletic programs and band camp, and how it might negatively impact scores on college entrance exams.

Steve raged on about how our director was trying to push things through without giving anyone other than teachers the opportunity for input. Quite simply, he didn’t know what he was talking about. After the teachers voted, there was more discussion and then meetings were set up to get parent and community input. Via our new phone communication system, each family with children in the school system was notified of the proposal and how they could voice their views about it. A discussion board was set up weeks ago for teachers and administrators to debate the pros and cons of it. All along it was stressed that the proposal was simply that - a proposal. Not a done deal. The school district wanted discussion and input in order to make an informed and fair decision.

It’s fine to believe that a balanced calendar is a bad idea. There are many teachers who feel the same way. Here’s where Steve went too far, though. He went into a rant about how STUPID the teachers must be if they thought this NITWIT idea would result in fewer days of school. There isn’t a single teacher who believes that we would get more days off with the proposed calendar. We are intelligent, well educated people who work exceptionally hard at our jobs. Most of us could make much more money and have more opportunity for advancement if we had gone into another field. However, we chose teaching because we care about children and want to make a positive difference in their lives.

Another of Steve’s rants was about how many days off teachers get. He feels that teachers get too much time off. Remember the old joke: What are the three best reasons for being a teacher? June, July, and August! First of all, this past year teachers were back at school the first week in August. Secondly, teachers are ten-month employees. We are not paid for those two months off in the summer although most of us work many days during that time without pay.

So, lay off the teachers, Steve. The balanced calendar is a proposal, and everyone in the community has the opportunity to provide input. It isn’t being forced on anyone. It has been proposed, and now it is being discussed and debated. The final decision will be based on that discussion and debate.

In my never-ceasing crusade to keep my readership well-informed, I am providing documentation for a previous post of mine about the adhesive pest traps in my classroom. I took my digital camera to school today for my documentation effort. The photos show two of the five (that I’ve found) adhesive traps in my classroom. The others were in locations that were too difficult to reach for a photo - and I SURE wasn’t going to move the traps to a more photographic location. Lovely, isn’t it?

I only have five minutes between reading groups, but I had to log on quickly to share the following story.

My third graders were writing in their journals this morning. Jason wrote the following in his:

“Yesterday I pooted up the Chrismis lights. It was fun.”

I loved keeping a straight face and smiling as he eagerly shared his writing with the group. None of the other children noticed anything unusual about it. And haven’t we all felt like pooting up something every now and then?

Just got this from my friend, Dorothy, in Birmingham.

If you consider that there have been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the last 22 months, and a totalof 2112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000. The rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000.That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in our nation’s capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq. Conclusion: We should immediately pull out of Washington D.C.

I have NO idea if the statistics are true or not. Either way, I still love the logic. I heard a very similar comment on the radio the other day, except they referred to San Francisco’s murder rate instead of D.C.

I’m staying up WAY too late! I started surfing blogs, and suddenly several hours have passed! However, I had to go ahead and post the following item.

I saw this post by Darren at Right on the Left Coast: Views From a Conservative Teacher. Here’s an exerpt, although you’ll want to read the entire post.

So we trust teenagers to make some medical decisions for themselves (abortions) but not others (aspirin), and we don’t trust them to drink alcohol. We must keep secrets from their parents, but expect the parents to be responsible for them and their actions. And we help the children keep secrets from their parents. Wow!

Charmaine at Reasoned Audacity has this post related to the topic.

A quick potpouri of items:
I couldn’t access THE MEDIAN SIB after work today because Blogger was shut down. So no new posts for now. I have several in the works, and will post them tomorrow, hopefully.

In the meantime, visit the blog I have highlighted in the sidebar, Sanity’s Bluff. He has strong opinions and expresses them well. I’ll write more about Sanity’s Bluff tomorrow.

For your viewing enjoyment, here’s a cartoon I saw in my high school newsletter this afternoon:

First you have to understand that “the land” is 90 acres with one very rough road going into it for a short distance. And please understand that I’m being incredibly generous to even call it a “road.” The area where we wanted to camp was, naturally, not next to that road. That meant parking the jeep at the end of the road and then carrying our camping supplies down a hill and then up an even bigger and steeper hill. We pared down our supplies as much as possible, but it still involved three round trips for me, and four round trips for PawPaw. Since it had been raining, several of those trips involved lugging dry firewood for the campfire. We both got a good workout making those trips.

I can “rough it” as long as two needs are met: (1) I must have a convenient and reasonably private place for me to take care of bodily functions; and (2) I must have a place that is comfortable to sleep. (All women may now voice their agreement with these two conditions!)

As soon as we determined the spot to pitch the tent, I scouted around nearby to find a potty spot. Men just have an easier time when it comes to peeing in the woods. I found a good place and made sure I could get there easily if the need should arise in the middle of the night (which it didn’t, thank goodness!).

I already had a great “sleep system” worked out - Coleman twin-size air mattress, foam “egg-carton” pad, my pillow and my 30-degree sleeping bag.

So we were set. We put up the tent, cleared a space for our campfire and got the fire going. It was only 4:00 p.m. at that point. No rain so far. We simply sat by the campfire and talked for a long time — occasionally walking around and talking about where to build a house.

The land has a lot of history to it. It is near the site of the Battle of Franklin, and troops camped out on the hill where PawPaw and I were camping. It was sobering to think of the young soldiers who had to camp there without benefit of all the modern camping supplies that we had.

By five it was dark. We started dinner. I brought everything ready to go - a small zip lock bag of chopped onions and peppers, a small package of sliced steak, and a couple potatoes. I cut the potatoes into strips, placed them in some aluminum foil and added water to it so they would steam and not burn, a little s & p and sealed it well and put it directly in the fire. Then I used my nifty little camp stove and sauteed the onions, peppers and steak - added a little worchestershire sauce for flavor. Dinner was fabulous. I always take plastic plates I bought for the grandkids when I go camping because they’re the only non-glass plates I have. So I ate from a Wiggles plate, and PawPaw ate from a Hello Kitty plate.

Sitting around the campfire was nice - talking, listening to the sounds around us. We were on a high ridge and could see for a long distance all around. At one point there was gunfire (yes GUNFIRE!!!) not too far away — 10 shots close together, then 9, then 10 again, and 10 more - we counted. Yes, it made me nervous!! It crossed my mind that if we could see for a long distance all around, then our campfire could be seen from all around, too. A blazing campfire announcing to one and all that some crazy folks were camping up on that hill!

Soon it started to lightly rain. We had put up a tarp over the entrance to the tent and out for a few feets away from it. We put our camp chairs under the tarp and continued to enjoy the fire. We put some water in a pot on the fire and made hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was perfect for such a cold rainy evening. Earlier in the afternoon as I was about to leave my house, I had thought “hmm, I might need a hat and gloves,” and I went back to get them. WISE decision! I would have been uncomfortably cold if I hadn’t brought them.

Around eight we went to bed. It started raining harder, and off and on throughout the night it stormed. At one point the wind was really strong and there was lots of thunder and lightning. We woke briefly but then went back to sleep.

Six o’clock this morning, we were up, and by 6:40 the fire was roaring, the coffee was perking, and we were eating our breakfast of ham and cheese and toast. We did more walking around and talking, and then headed home around nine. It was a great camping trip, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Now I am headed off to relax in the jacuzzi for awhile! From roughing it to luxury!

PawPaw and I are going camping tonight. We’ll camp out on the land that PawPaw is buying. We’re probably nuts because the temperature is hovering near freezing, and it is raining. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll have a full report tomorrow.

Just got back from a funeral. It was the first Catholic funeral I’ve ever attended. It was also the longest funeral I’ve ever attended - well over an hour. However, it was enough to make me consider converting to Catholicism - not really, but I was still impressed. The visitation service last night and the funeral today were both incredible - full of loving remembrances of a man who had touched many lives — his wife of 55 years, nine children, numerous grandchildren, friends and business associates. As PawPaw, Stinkeroo and I left the visitation last night, we all agreed that THAT was what a memorial/funeral service should be like. I may not agree with the Catholic church on other things, but they sure have the right plan when it comes to memorial services.