Education Begins In The Home.....Doesn't It?

At many schools, the first bit of the school year is the teacher's best chance to use classroom time to assess the skills of new students and review with all students the new skills learned at the end of the previous year.  Our school is no different.

This year, my 7th period class is Language Arts with 8th graders.  What follows is a retelling of an actual encounter I had with an 8th grade boy in this class today.

The assignment today consisted of worksheets with several sentences that needed to be corrected.  They were missing capital letters and punctuation.  There were misspelled words and instances of improper word usage.  Space was provided on the worksheets, and the students were supposed to use the spaces to rewrite the sentences correctly, fixing all the errors.  They had to do this on their own first, and then we would go over it as a class so that the students could make changes to correct errors they might have missed on their own.

A student raised his hand, so I went to see if he had a question about the assignment.

[Guest Blogger] Living the "Golden Rule"

Some of the people who read my blog with any regularity may be slightly surprised to find me posting a guest blog containing Biblical scripture.  However, while I do not affiliate myself with any Christian faith, I am not wholly against many of the principles set forth by New Testament texts.  I find no fault with a faith based upon love and respect for all of mankind, and this is the type of life many of my Christian friends try to live.

When I invite a friend to guest-post on my blog, it is often because that friend has something to say that speaks from a viewpoint other than my own.  Amanda, the author of the post below, has been my friend since we met here in Pensacola in 2001.  At the time, we were both military wives living in the same apartment complex.  Though our life paths have taken us in different directions, both spiritually and geographically, I am glad to still call her my friend.  Read more about Amanda here (open in new window).

========================================================================= 

Matthew 5:38-48

New International Version (NIV)

“You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Avoid Cat Fights By Hangin' With The Dogs

Does a girl need girl friends or guy friends?

A friend posted this quote online a few days ago:

"Men socialize by insulting each other, but not really meaning it. Women socialize by complimenting each other, but not really meaning it either."

Comfortable silence.

Upon reading the quote, I realized how true it really is.  In fact, if is this reality that has shaped the majority of my friendships throughout my life.  This is not to say that I've never had female friends.  In fact, I have several of them right now.  However, over the course of my life, it has always been my guy friends whom I turned to when depressed or lonely or scared or in crisis.  It has also always been my guy friends with whom I would first share happy news and successes.  In fact, at every major life even since I was a teenager, my first call was always to one of my guy friends, and girl friends eventually found out later.  It never occurred to me that things should be any different.

[Guest Blogger] If I Were A Betting Man

The author of this post, David Odom, was one of my classmates at Tate High School here in Pensacola.  Since reconnecting with him on Facebook, I have become a frequent reader of his blog, Better Than Machines.  I particularly appreciated his latest post, and so have gotten his permission to re-post it here for my readers.

Read more about David here (opens in new window).

==================================================

One of the sites I check compulsively each day is Intrade.com. I like to look at the political prediction markets, which give what are essentially the market-determined odds of someone winning an election or a bill passing. I've been watching Obama's odds of re-election for a while now. After Osama bin Laden was killed, they temporarily jumped up to about 70%. The odds stayed above 60% for most of June but then began a slow slide down to around 56%. In August, the numbers plummeted to around 50%. And for a couple of days at the end of last week, for the first time, the market was predicting Obama would probably not be re-elected, with his odds at 49%. (As of this writing it's at 50.5%.) [Note: Odds at 52.1% as Red! Blogger is re-posting this.]

It's fun to watch how the news affects the numbers, but let me tell you why I think Obama is still a good bet: The Field of Republican Candidates.

Happy School Year!

I'll admit it, I'm a complete sucker for the Frosted Mini-Wheats television commercials.  They're clever and adorable, and their "Your Eight Layers Are Showing" catch phrase makes me giggle.  They also do a great job at helping to bring attention to Kellogg's desire to give kids a filling breakfast and start their school days off right.

These little guys are always talking about having eight layers.  Aren't we all a little like that?   Perhaps not in the literal sense, but aren't we all composed of layers?  I am.  I am teacher, co-worker, employee, citizen, daughter, friend, and mother all wrapped in an outer layer of the complete "me."

The Mini-Wheats guy's newest commercial is modeled after a New Year's Eve celebration, where the little Mini-Wheats guys are riding to the first day of a new school year on the shoulders of the students.  They are discussing their School Year's Resolutions, to "keep the kids full and focused," and it got me thinking: Why don't we all make School Year's Resolutions?  I think it would be a great idea for any of us who are involved with kids or school -- parents, teachers, teaching aides, other school personnel, even the kids themselves!

I've decided to do it, for myself.  I've been thinking about aspects of my life, inside and outside of work, that are affected by my job at the school.  I know that making too many resolutions will make it harder to keep any of them and, therefore, make those resolutions more likely to be forgotten.

[Guest Blogger] Day 26: Abortion

Through Facebook, I have become online-friends with an Orthodox Catholic priest, Father Nathan Monk, who lives and works here in Pensacola, FL.  Within some circles, he has gained a bit of local "fame" through his tireless efforts to help the poorest of the poor within our community.  Read more about Father Monk here (opens in new window).

Over this past month, Fr. Monk has been writing a series of notes on Facebook, each addressing a different aspect of his personal life, spiritual life, social beliefs, political beliefs, or some mixture of any of these.  Tonight, with his permission, I am reposting his "Day 26: Abortion" note, in hopes that it may be shared with a greater audience.

==================================================

Once in a while I'll see something that truly makes me wish that I could think and act quicker than time. 

Kind of like after someone insults you, and it's not until you get home that the perfect comeback finally makes it into your brain. But this was so much bigger than that. I was walking along 9th Ave and I was a few blocks up from the abortion clinic, and I hadn't even thought about the fact that it was Friday morning, they day the abortions take place. I heard some commotion and I turned around to witness a small black sedan pulling out of the parking lot. The lone picketer ran up to the car and jumped as close to in front of it as he's legally allowed, holding a graphic sign of an aborted baby with limbs ripped apart, and he yelled, "Look! Look what you did to your baby, your little baby, you killed it! MOMMY WHY DID YOU KILL ME, MOMMY!?" I would have given anything in the world to be able to transport myself into that woman's car and hold her hand and tell her that somehow it would all be ok. That Jesus makes all things new. But instead, I was limited by space and time to be standing there, a few blocks away, helpless.

The Ups & Downs of Parenting a 2-Year-Old

Is he a devil?  Is he an angel?  Yep!

I sometimes feels as if I'm actually parenting two 2-year-olds rather than just my one.  Kaleb's moods and behavior vary so wildly lately from one day to the next, from one hour to the next, sometimes from one minute to the next.  Some days I fall asleep thinking of what a wonderful day I had with my sweet little angel; other nights I lie awake fuming mad or nearly in tears over the horrible day I've spent with my demon spawn....and, of course, I experience a range of feelings between those two extremes.

I suppose this is probably true of most children, at least some time in their lives.  It may even have been true of my child for a while already.  But it was never anything I noticed until a few months ago.  With all the time that Kaleb and I have spent together this summer, while I haven't been working over the summer break, it is something that I notice more and more often.  And never has it been more obvious to me than in the difference between yesterday and today.

Am I Whittling Away My Social Connections?

Over the past year, I have slowly begun to remove people from my "friend" lists on various social networks, people with whom I have little or no contact.  We don't ever get together, talk on the phone, chat online, or even comment on one another's online movements.  Most of this process is playing out between two digital places.

My Facebook friend list has 75 contacts, as of today, down from over 300 just one year ago.  Of these 75 contacts, about a dozen of them are people I see in person with some regularity.  Another dozen are people who are not local enough anymore for us to get together in person.  The other two-thirds or so are people who post statuses that I enjoy reading....and I don't expect them to make efforts to contact me.  A few of them don't even post online but once every few months.