Cameron's First Day of 2nd Grade

Today was a MUCH better day. It was as if all that pressure that had been building up in my brain finally let loose, and I could actually start to think again. I still experienced some headaches, but nothing like I had been the past few days. I wasn't feeling as dizzy or as anxious. (But I also managed to stay far way from Target!). Staying around the house and resting today really did the trick. Your prayers are working! THANK YOU!

Cameron had his first day of school today. Poor kid had to deal with my negligence! I hadn't gotten around to getting him a haircut yet, so he struggled with trying to make it look like something other than a birds' nest.

This is the nicest thing I could get him to wear today.

Max and Ella were excited to see him get on the bus. Here he is with his friend Patrick, his bus buddy and classmate again this year.


And finally, here he is getting on the bus with his big heavy backpack. Like I said, I was somewhat negligent this year in that I didn't send him to school with his supplies until the first day. So needless to say, he had a very full and very heavy backpack. But hey, at least he did have all of his supplies, gym shoes and all.

Here's to a wonderful year in 2nd grade Cameron! Love ya kid!!!!!!!!!!

Interview Blues

You know why I like to write....because I can EDIT!

Which is why I don't really like speaking so much...especially when you're put on the spot and expected to come up with intelligent answers...like in an interview...because you can't go back and change anything.

All you can do is play over and over again in your mind all your dumb answers and what you should have said instead.

Obviously, the interview didn't go as well as I would have liked. It wasn't really bad, but I just felt that I fumbled over a lot of my answers and I just didn't feel prepared for such in depth questions for a library assistant. I've always come out of my teaching interviews feeling incredibly good and confident....once I've landed the interview, I've always gotten the job...but I didn't feel that sense of victory this time around.

Oh well, I'll find out Thursday, when the middle school director is supposed to call me.

Interview tomorrow

As most of you know, last year, after 3 years of taking off to stay home with my kiddos, I was all ready to return to work. I had a part time job, teaching middle school language arts at a nearby school district. After my very first day of district training, I received the phone call from my doctor that I had breast cancer. Needless to say, I didn't return to work that year.

I decided last year that in addition to getting through all my treatments, I'd take the next year off as well, since I'd still be having extensive reconstructive surgery that I'd need some recovery time for, as well as many doctor appointments. Plus, because of my diagnosis, I've had this nagging feeling in my mind that God didn't want me to have that job, so maybe returning to work isn't what I should be doing (but that is a post for another day).

However, no matter what my gut feeling has been, each week I look in the paper at the classifieds....partly out of habit, partly to see what's out there, and partly in hopes that the perfect job, one that will allow me time for my family as well as giving me the opportunity to actually use my degree, would be posted that given week. I haven't actively persued anything. I haven't searched the website/newspaper in the other Twin City that contains more jobs. I haven't looked at individual district's sites that posts more jobs than the newspapers reveal. I just quickly glance through the 2 to 3 columns of jobs to see if any pertain to me. None has.

Until 2 weeks ago.

That's when a job for a library assistant appeared before my eyes....at a very prestigious and expensive private school where I would love for my kids to attend. Now except for my love of adolescent literature and many research projects I've developed with my students, I don't have any "formal" library training. But this job listing didn't require a library science degree. Just someone who had some library experience and an interest in working with middle school and high school students.

Key to this job is that it's parttime. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...full days. But the rest of the week I'd have off.

The pay is crap, compared to what I'd get paid if I was teaching. However, I wouldn't have work to "take home" like a teaching job, and the job comes with benefits. Now I'm not sure what the benefits are, but I'm hoping, praying, that they involve something around tuition reduction if your child attends their school. Now that would be the ultimate benefit.

I had a very brief phone interview with the middle school director. It was kinda funny because one of his questions basically asked me why, with my advanced degree and all the teaching jobs out there that I'm qualified for, why would I just want to be a library assistant. I kinda laughed and told him that I'm looking for a job that allows me to tap into my interest in adolescent literature and to work with middle school and high school students, without the full time committment that a teaching job requires.

I'm actually kinda nervous about my interview. Because I have never interviewed for a library position before, I have no clue what they're going to ask me, and I don't have a prepared portfolio to use to help show my talents for the position. I'm afraid they're going to ask me about a bunch of books I'd suggest, and I'll just go blank under pressure. I don't have a huge amount of experience with high school book suggestions, especially for advanced high school students, so that worries me as well.

I guess instead of writing about my worries, I really should be preparing for this interview. And praying that God helps me through this ordeal and makes it clear the path that I should follow by way of a fulfilling job.

There may also be some childcare issues and surgery recovery issues that I'll have to figure out if I get the job. But I figure that I'll shoot for getting an offer first, and deal with the other issues later.

So right now, a toast of red wine...and then I think I better go figure out who exactly I'm interviewing with. Would be nice if I knew the guy's name when I go into the school office, don't ya think?

Scanning the want ads.

I have a job interview on the 22nd for a parttime position in a school.

Here we go again.

Didn't I do this last year?

My little author

Cameron came home with a portfolio of work today. It was fun reading through his stories. Here is one from the middle of the year. I typed his actual spelling because I find it to be entertaining but put the correct word in parentheses, in case you're not used to reading phonetic spelling.

When my little Bother (brother) named Max said lets fight to me I said bring it on little man. So I bumed (bumped) him by a accidend (accident). My Brother said oow. I said you’re weeck (weak). Then I knocked his body into a wall he fell down. It looked like he fianted (fainted).

I was cracking up. I really don’t meen (mean) like a crack on the sidewalk. I ment (meant) like somebody laughed so hard he coodn’t (couldn’t) stop. That’s what I akchley (actually) ment (meant). And fainted meens (means) he falls down and lands in a waered (weird) pudishin (position). If you look on the pitcher (picture) you’ll know what it looks like. The first picture is colled (called) crash faint. The second picture is colled (called) hot faint. And those were the to (two) fainting pitchers (pictures). Then I ran exstreemly (extremely) fast. But my Brother dojed (dodged) my attack. And he ran exstreemly (extremely) hiper (hyper) fast in a circle. That’s how he stopped my attack from working. I tried to stop his attack. This is what I did. I tried to run a lot exsreemly (extremely) hiper (hyper) speed then (than) my Brother. But he did it faster than me. Then he throo (threw) a hamer (hammer) at me. It hit me on my fourhead (forehead). It hurt very bad. I fell on the ground. When my Brother throo (threw) the hamer (hammer) at me it made me have a bad headack (headache).

So I beat him up really good. I used my hand to punch him under the chin. Max tried to dodge it but he coldent (couldn’t) do it. The dodge he was trieing (trying) to do is called tornato (tornado) get away. I thought (thought) it was funny because he did tornato (tornado) get away and all because of that! He was spining (spinning) everywere (everywhere) in a circle. When he was flying he was sceeming (screeming). Then we got super powers. I got tornato (tornado) power. Max got spydder (spider) robot power. Then Max shot spiy (spy) robots at me. One made my fat foot explode. So I shot a tornato (tornado) at him. His robots got sucked in. And they exploited (exploded). There was one more left. It was the Dad. The dad was so mad because I defeted (defeated) his family. So he tried to use his heet (heat) vision on me. But I used a tornato (tornado) to stop it. It made the tornato be hot lava tornato. Then I had hot lava tornatos. So I shot one at the Daddy. Then he got on fire and xploded (exploded). Then I read with my mom. The end.

At first I thought the story was hilarious, then got a little concerned wondering when all this fighting was actually happening. When I read the part about Max hitting Cameron in the head with a hammer, I was relieved because I realized it was actually a fictional tale. It's quite obvious in the rest of the story. Maybe I should be concerned with all the violence...but I'm not.

It's all political...I'm sure

As the community where I live grows, the schools restructuring from junior highs to middle schools (finally), and a new high school being built, school boundary lines are changing.

Which means people are NOT happy.

There are three plans being considered by our school board, and various neighborhoods in my town are banning together in favor of, or against, particular plans. My own neighborhood has formed committees, discussed strategy, contacted and arranged a photo for the newspapers, met with board members, etc. all to get our opinion out. And boy am I glad that OTHER people like to do that kind of stuff.

The school board is hosting FOUR sessions where they just sit and listen to community input. I went to the second meeting tonight, not to speak, but to show my support for my neighborhood and hear the arguments for the other two plans.

Everyone has valid points. Everyone wants what's best for their kids. I can't really say that one neighborhood has a significantly better argument over another for their chosen plan.

I sat and listened intently to the first few speakers, but after a while, it all started to sound the same. And for some of the speakers, I really couldn't figure out which plan they were supporting. I found myself watching the 3 minute clock (the amount of time each person had to speak), wishing I had one of those canes from the gong show to yank the person away from the podium as soon as the faint buzzer went off.

And then I looked at the school board members, who tried to seem interested. But really, how could they be? They've received countless e-mails from community members. They've already sat through one meeting of these arguments. They knew they were going to have to sit through 2 more in the coming week.

As people made some very valid points, I could just imagine each board member merely hearing, "Blah! Blah! Blah"...knowing damn well that they were just going to vote for whatever works best for their own kids, or for the people they associate with. I hope not. But can you blame them?

We'll see how this all pans out at the end of the month.

I can't keep everything!

Cameron comes home with lots of papers...math worksheets, reading logs, art projects, social studies magazines, permission slips, spelling lists, district and school announcements, etc. I can't possibly keep all of them. Each night (or morning) I go through his folder, deciding what's important, what to display, what to send back with a check, and what to trash, etc. If it's some artwork, I might hang it up, or I often keep it in a pile, wait a couple days to see if he asks for it, and if it's never mentioned again, I trash it.

Today I get an e-mail from Cameron's teacher, stating that the art teacher wanted him to bring back his project because she was going to set up the art winners at the District center tomorrow afternoon.

"Umm, what art project?" was my response.

I finally figured out that it was the one he brought home a couple weeks ago, rolled up, with some line art pieces in a baggie. I had no idea it was in some contest. I hung up the art piece, because I thought it looked pretty cool. Cameron told me that he brought it home to finish. Later that day, with Sara as my witness, I told him that he needed to complete his piece. He told me that he didn't HAVE to finish it...only if he wanted to. At that moment, he chose not to.

I kept the pieces in the baggie around for a couple days, but like all the clutter, since it was never asked for, I tossed it in the trash.

I still have the main piece, but the smaller pieces (a football player, a dinosaur and a finger paint creature) are gone.

Today, when I told him this, he was literally on the ground screaming and crying.

After a really long time of enduring this tantrum, and trying several different tactics, I finally convinced him to settle down. Later he added some pictures to his piece, but I don't think it's what the art teacher really wants, as it now looks very cluttered and messy.

That Mom of the Year Award is slipping farther and farther away!

Progress Report

We met with Cameron’s teacher this past week for the routine conference. I really like his teacher, as she is very organized and really knows what she’s doing…especially in Language Arts.

Academically Cameron’s doing very well. His reading score is above where he’s supposed to be by the end of the year, and he’s excelling in math as well. He loves to write and has even written a 16 page story (1st grade size pages, with room for a pic at the top). As a writing teacher, of course, I couldn’t be happier. His teacher has stated that she’s going to ban anymore stories about video games. As you can imagine, I’m all for that!

We do hope to see more enrichment activities in Math in the coming months, as we feel that this is the one area that the school seems to be lacking. I’ve been in the classroom, and I am certainly aware of all the different levels of kids and the strain this puts on the teacher. But I do wish the school would create some added program, even a pull-out, for the kids in the lower grades who are able to do more. No need for anyone to remain stagnant. Cameron’s been doing single digit addition since preschool. He’s ready for more.

As in previous conferences, Cameron still has organizational issues. As an example, the teacher described a time when he wanted to check the “lost-and-found” for a folder that he couldn’t locate. This in itself wasn’t the problem. The issue came about when the teacher realized that the folder was on his desk, directly in front of him.

His teacher was trying to say it in a more appropriate way, but essentially, she really wanted to say that she couldn’t understand how someone could be so bright, and yet so SPACEY!

I can understand. Really, I can.

What a salesman

Cameron came home on Friday with one of those school fundraisers. You know the ones that get the kids all hyped up about selling items so that they can win really “great” prizes. Cameron said if he sold 25 items he could win some camera that he can put up in his room and when someone walks buy it shouts, “Intruder!” Of course the more he sells of this stuff-that-no-one-really-needs, the better the prize. And if he sells 175 items, he can win a Nintendo Wii game system.

I asked him what his plan was to sell these 175 items.

He didn’t even hesitate, handed me the catalogue and said, “You better start buying.”

If anyone happens to be interested in purchasing something from www.thechipshoppe.com, e-mail me and I’ll send you Cameron’s code.

I LOVE school! Repeat.

Cameron keeps complaining about school. His reasons are completely innocuous, and actually quite preposterous (using the thesaurus…can you tell!). They deal with not getting to play with his friends, not being able to watch movies during snack time (like in Kindergarten), not getting a drink at snack time (like in Kindergarten), etc. I think I’ve lectured him so much about the importance of an education and his attitude about school that whenever anyone asks him if he likes school, and I’m within earshot, he sorta mumbles a “yeah.” I figure that saying it is the first step to believing it. (My brother will probably say that I’m brainwashing the kid).

If anyone should be complaining about going to school, it should be Max. Because his preschool is on the days that I usually get together with his girlfriend’s mom and some other friends. Last week we went to the zoo, and without Max there, well, his Abby decided to move on to younger, more available men.

I guess when the cats away, the mouse will play…even if she’s only three!