What if...

One of the most difficult things to deal with in education today is the fear children have of an active shooter in their school. Sadly, this is a very real threat, and one for which we must prepare. Even kindergarteners know that if we have a lockdown we must hide in our classrooms and be silent. 

Life in the cottage brings new challenges to me as an educator when I think about the possibility of such an awful thing happening. In the past when students were worried or frightened, I would tell them things like our door is always locked; the walls are made of concrete and have lockers outside them, so bullets can't get through; I will do whatever I have to to protect you. More than once I've lain awake at night thinking about the what ifs.

Yesterday my students were working in small groups, and the temperature was a comfortable 80º outside. They asked if they could sit outside on the ramp to our room and work. There was no reason not to, so we did. I sat near a group of girls who were working and talking. Their conversation got around to all the drills we must practice throughout the year. Where would we go for bad weather? Where would we go for fire drill? What would we do in case of an active shooter? I answered their questions and told them that I have given the active shooter question some serious thought. 

Our school policy is to hide in our rooms out of site with the door locked. And we could do that, but now instead of concrete walls with lockers protecting us, we have sheet metal and maybe a little insulation. I told the girls I thought maybe we could rip up the floor (we're the last portable in a line of four and we'd probably hear anyone coming and have a little time) and we could hide in the crawl space underneath. Chances are a shooter would assume we were  in the building rather than under it. They thought that was possible, but wondered about me getting in trouble for messing up the building. We determined a better option would be to run for the woods behind our school. They decided that we must zig-zag as we run in order to make it harder for the shooter to get a good aim, and we'll all meet up in the neighborhood on the other side.

I love my kids. They are so real, so thoughtful. It makes me sad that they are growing up in a world where the concern that someone might come into their school and kill someone is real. It makes me furious that legislators and politicians can't see the fear these children have and don't do anything to make it better. They should ask a middle schooler how to fix it. They have an amazing ability to see things for what they truly are. One of my wise ones has come up with a brilliant way to let people keep their guns, but make things safer for the rest of us... make ammunition as expensive as prescription drugs. I'm glad my future will be in their hands!

"Mrs. Wilkinson, ***'s a boy..."

I have had quite a few embarrassing moments in my classroom - backing into a trash can and getting stuck so that a football player had to pull me out, stapling my own finger, slipping and landing flat on my butt with a thump, calling students the wrong name after being corrected countless times, the list could go on and on. I made the biggest blunder of all time the past week and a half. 

I have this amazing student who is kind, articulate, polite. He's everything you hope for in a student. He has a gender neutral name, and I, without bothering to check, assumed he was a girl. I truly believe he would have avoided creating any embarrassment for me for the entire year and not said a word. Thankfully, he has a very good friend who is just as amazing as he is. The friend very politely, at the end of class when no one was listening, pulled me aside and said, "Mrs. Wilkinson, *** is a boy, and you keep calling him a girl. He even wrote it on his name tent." Talk about feeling small! 

I have embarrassed this poor child repeatedly for over a week! And when I went to (privately) apologize the young man did all he could to make me feel better. What amazing parents to teach a child such grace! What an amazing kid to have such grace for others at the ripe old age of 12! I hope I'm as gracious when I grow up!

It's Hot in Here

I'm a south Texas girl. Grew up in the Coastal Bend area where it's 100% humidity most of the time. And we didn't have air conditioning! I can handle the heat.

HOWEVER, I've lived the past couple of weeks on the west side of a metal box with very little insulation during 100º+ temperatures with 30 or so other warm bodies in the room at the same time! The result of all these factors was temperatures of 80º to 85º in my classroom. The kids were great. They didn't complain, but just stated, "It sure is warm in here." I brought in fans and we did our best to deal with the heat.

Workers have been in and out of our room since school began. We just got our wifi connections at the end of this week, we still don't have any type of projector, no flags, ceiling tiles and broken furniture and strewn all around the place... it's really not ready to be inhabited, but we're here and we're making it and we're learning. Since they had signed off on the AC, I assumed that the temperatures were a direct result of the factors listed above. (That makes sense, doesn't it?)

This morning, I wandered in to the office and made some comment about the temperature was down to 80º in my room and it felt positively lovely compared to what we had the day before. Ms. Bekah, our most excellent receptionist/face of Stiles/greeter extraordinaire/filler outer of work orders, said, "WHAT!?! That is NOT okay." She immediately emailed the district office. Within an hour, I had the most amazing AC ever. The kids and I were all even a little cold!

Later, I asked Ms. Bekah how she managed to get such remarkable results. She said she informed district that the children were melting, and we couldn't have that happening... I'm sure her email was extremely entertaining and very polite, but she got some serious results. I love her!

***Oh, and evidently a little freon did the job. So much for saying the AC was working and ready to go.

Last Minute Move In

I'm a planner. The week after school is out, I begin planning for the following year. I love that I get a complete do-over every year. An opportunity to reflect and revise. Usually, I spend a few hours each week in the summer getting my classroom just right. Last May I had to box up all of my belongings and prepare for the second move in two years. I don't mind moving. It forces me to clean out the stuff that I've hoarded that I don't really need, but I need those few hours a week even more if I have to change rooms. This year there was an additional catch to the move. My new room didn't even exist when I was boxing things up. I was being moved to a portable building (aka "Cottage") since our school has outgrown it's orginal building. I packed and boxed and stacked all my precious stuff and flexible seating furniture in a corner of my old room and waited for the cottage to arrive. 

Initially, I was told I would be able to move toward the end of June. Not great for me, but I could live with it. The end of June came and went with NO BUILDING EVEN ON SITE! I began to worry. I had trips planned in July and knew that I was going to be cutting it close, but I tried to have a good attitude. The building got there, but I wasn't allowed to even look inside. I was told, "The district hasn't released the keys yet." Whatever the hell that meant. July left!

Now, school started earlier this year, and teachers had to be back for professional development on August 8th. And there was very little classroom time allotted for us to prep our classrooms. DUH, THIS IS WHY I DO IT ALL SUMMER LONG! Late in the afternoon while I was in a meeting on another campus, I was told I could get in to my new room. I could move my boxes, but I couldn't unpack yet because they weren't finished setting things up. I raced back to my home campus as soon as my meeting was over and moved all my belongings (which had been moved by other people two or three times throughout the summer, so that I wasn't even sure where they were) into my new space - and left the furniture and boxes piled in another corner. And waited for "them" (whoever they were) to finish their work over the weekend. I was feeling a little stressed. No, I was feeling a lot stressed! I had open house on the Tuesday after that weekend! And would be off campus again all day on Monday and in meetings on my campus until 3:00 the day of open house. That gave me a grand total of four hours (including my lunch) to make my room presentable!

Tuesday Morning

I ALMOST did it. The room was presentable, but not anywhere near the way I like it. Friends came in to help in any way they could, our precious head coach repeatedly reminded me that I needed to have a good attitude, and I left all the "decorating" for my eighth grade AVID students to do when they arrived on the first day of school. They did an awesome job and loved making the room theirs! It's going to be an amazing year! It's true what they say - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

I'm BAAACK!!

Ten years ago I started this blog to help keep up with my busy family. Our children were in high school, and I wanted to be able to really enjoy and remember those years. I love teenagers - with all their quirks and smirks. Then, about three years ago I wrote my last post. It had been a difficult year, and I didn't really want to remember it all. 

But now I'm comfortably transitioning into the next phase of my life. I'm working in a middle school with some amazing people, teaching a class I truly believe is a help to students - AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination). I get to teach kids the soft skills they need to be successful in the world. We focus on the academic world, but a good hand shake and some eye contact will go a long way in any world. 

This will be my second year as an AVID elective teacher. I feel like I've got some perspective and some things I can share. My goal is to write something at least once a week. And because my classroom home is just as crazy as my family home we'll still be living in the Looniverse!

The Adventures of Us

Somehow we made it through the past five months. John has taken his heart attack very seriously and has done everything the cardio rehab people have told him... changed his diet, exercised regularly and quit drinking. He is losing weight and looking great. He quit his job (a source of stress) in October and is planning to begin studying to be a home inspector at the first of the year. Thankfully, we sold our last rental property in August so we have a bit of a nest egg to hold us over for a few months.

The girls are both on schedule to graduate in May! DA has decided that she will stay in school and get a second degree and certification to teach English after she graduates with her theatre degree. She will live at home, so she'll be busy driving down to campus and wherever she ends up student teaching

I'm tired...being the primary breadwinner in the family never has been easy for me, but I know I can do it. Especially if that's what it take to keep John alive!

Heart Attack!

John had a heart attack yesterday. We are in Durango, Colorado... WTF?!?