When our kids started out at Expo, we had no idea what amazing teachers they would have. Wow. We lucked out. These fabulous women helped shape our boys into the sweet young men they are becoming. They challenged them, loved them, argued with them, humored them. We were blessed.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
End of an era
When our kids started out at Expo, we had no idea what amazing teachers they would have. Wow. We lucked out. These fabulous women helped shape our boys into the sweet young men they are becoming. They challenged them, loved them, argued with them, humored them. We were blessed.
Finding his own look...
Our last day at Expo Elementary has come and gone. Theo decided to commemorate it by experimenting with accessories. Please note the accessories. Those are American Flags he has stuck in all of his button holes. Well, interspersed with some rainbow flags. I like the look.
For the record
One time this spring I said something really funny. And Theo laughed. Upon being busted laughing at his mom, he thought for a minute and conceded, "Ok. I admit. I find you moderately funny." I'll take it!
DC yet again, this time with my sweet guy
As much as I enjoyed my April trip to DC with colleagues, there was something even more delightful about returning in May with my youngest child. He is the most upbeat, can-do, roll with it, travel partner I could ask for. We got up each morning and walked down toward the mall. We would then plot our route to museums and exhibits and events. By late afternoon we were usually ready for a siesta back at the hotel. Due to a lucky coincidence my old pal John O happened to be in town, so after a rest we would meet up with John for dinner. The first night it was just John, as his family had not yet joined him in DC. Knowing the direct route to my son's heart, John took us out to eat and then to a little hole in the wall shop in China Town, which sold ninja supplies. John and Theo giggled in the back imagining their escapades with the weapons on display while I browsed for less lethal items.
By night two, John had Theo in the palm of his hand. Which was a problem when John's young son entered the picture. He immediately recognized Theo as a rival for his father's attention and loudly proclaimed that he did not like that Theo guy. Which made Theo pause briefly in his conversation with John O, smile, and then go back to hogging John's attention. Linus made more dramatic entreaties to his dad and I decided it was time to redirect Theo's love, back toward me. In the end, after Linus had his dad to himself for several hours, the boys realized that John was even more fun when playing with multiple children. I watched them laugh their way through the National Zoo and commented to John's wife, "You know, Theo is not like this with all adults. He can be quite reserved." She remarked that John had this effect on most children. She has a theory that after just a few minutes with John kids realize that maybe they don't really have to ever grow up, because John hasn't, and they shower him with gratitude and admiration for his denunciation of adulthood. A theory I think is grounded in much research, and one I agree with heartily. Lucky Linus!
By night two, John had Theo in the palm of his hand. Which was a problem when John's young son entered the picture. He immediately recognized Theo as a rival for his father's attention and loudly proclaimed that he did not like that Theo guy. Which made Theo pause briefly in his conversation with John O, smile, and then go back to hogging John's attention. Linus made more dramatic entreaties to his dad and I decided it was time to redirect Theo's love, back toward me. In the end, after Linus had his dad to himself for several hours, the boys realized that John was even more fun when playing with multiple children. I watched them laugh their way through the National Zoo and commented to John's wife, "You know, Theo is not like this with all adults. He can be quite reserved." She remarked that John had this effect on most children. She has a theory that after just a few minutes with John kids realize that maybe they don't really have to ever grow up, because John hasn't, and they shower him with gratitude and admiration for his denunciation of adulthood. A theory I think is grounded in much research, and one I agree with heartily. Lucky Linus!
Taking it up a notch
Theo, who usually dresses in sweat pants, decided to take it up a notch for his 11th birthday. Love this kid.
Senior Presentations take 10
Every single year the onslaught of senior presentation stresses me out. Until I go to them. Then I am wowed and refreshed and amazed. But the planning and the time and the anxiety pulsing out of the seniors- it's nearly too much. I think it was our 10th year of senior presentations and it may have been the best season yet.
Two highlights for me:
I'll call him Fred. Did not want to present. Begged to get out of it. I almost gave in. But then we forced it. I did tell him that if he started panicking and gave me a signal, I would sneak out and pull the fire alarm. At least I knew that I wouldn't have to do that... We gathered a bunch of students in to the Humanities room. Fred stood outside the door, taking a couple last breaths (or so I'm sure he thought). But then he walked in and did a lovely job. I watched as the minutes passed and he relaxed and started standing taller and taller. When it was over and the clapping was done, I helped Fred clean up. He looked over at me and said, "I'm glad I did that. I'd even do it again." Ya-hoo.
Then there's Bob. This guy came to us partly through a somewhat lackluster high school career. Clearly a brilliant kid, but not a lot of motivation. And plenty of distractions. Last fall he really faltered as he searched for a topic that might hold his interest. But then he said that he reflected on what used to make him happy, back when he used to be happy. Wow. Ouch. But he found something. Being outside. So he fashioned his project around wilderness survival. He ended up taking a NOLS survival course. He learned about foraging for food. He took a camping trip with his mom- they had to travel a couple hundred miles south to do practice any foraging due to our odd April snowcover. His presentation in May was wonderful. Started off with an image of him as a happy toddler out in a sandbox as he talked about his motivation for this project. Went into the cools skills he learned through NOLS, the wonder he found as he dug into the biology that relates to foraging, the reconnecting with his mom on their camping trip. He held up the foraging cookbook he had made, and offered us a salad made of foraged greens. Then he got to his final slide. It had a picture of a young man jumping for joy.. Here is what it said:
Effects of my Senior Project:
Two highlights for me:
I'll call him Fred. Did not want to present. Begged to get out of it. I almost gave in. But then we forced it. I did tell him that if he started panicking and gave me a signal, I would sneak out and pull the fire alarm. At least I knew that I wouldn't have to do that... We gathered a bunch of students in to the Humanities room. Fred stood outside the door, taking a couple last breaths (or so I'm sure he thought). But then he walked in and did a lovely job. I watched as the minutes passed and he relaxed and started standing taller and taller. When it was over and the clapping was done, I helped Fred clean up. He looked over at me and said, "I'm glad I did that. I'd even do it again." Ya-hoo.
Then there's Bob. This guy came to us partly through a somewhat lackluster high school career. Clearly a brilliant kid, but not a lot of motivation. And plenty of distractions. Last fall he really faltered as he searched for a topic that might hold his interest. But then he said that he reflected on what used to make him happy, back when he used to be happy. Wow. Ouch. But he found something. Being outside. So he fashioned his project around wilderness survival. He ended up taking a NOLS survival course. He learned about foraging for food. He took a camping trip with his mom- they had to travel a couple hundred miles south to do practice any foraging due to our odd April snowcover. His presentation in May was wonderful. Started off with an image of him as a happy toddler out in a sandbox as he talked about his motivation for this project. Went into the cools skills he learned through NOLS, the wonder he found as he dug into the biology that relates to foraging, the reconnecting with his mom on their camping trip. He held up the foraging cookbook he had made, and offered us a salad made of foraged greens. Then he got to his final slide. It had a picture of a young man jumping for joy.. Here is what it said:
Effects of my Senior Project:
- Happier
- Better ability to focus
- Started eating healthier
- Learned a lot about diverse subjects
- The research launched many other projects
Wow. What more would I ever want a child to get out of some 'homework'? Happier? More focused? More curious? And he's eating better? The power of letting youth take the reins surprises me once more.
A lovely Scottish guest
For a week in late May we had a Scottish house guest. Allan was eventually headed out to spend the summer as a counselor at Camp DuNord, but needed a place to stay while he did his lifeguard training at a local Y. It was a wild week at our house with all of us coming and going at all hours of the day and night, but we decided we could use a visitor to freshen things up. Eli gamely moved on to Theo's floor and opened up his room to Allan.
Lovely young man. Great accent, especially when he called things 'lovely'. Which he did all the time. Even our unseasonably crappy spring. To a Scottish lad, the 15 minutes of sun was apparently an improvement from back home. A lovely one. This new outlook was just what we needed at the end of the single most tiresome spring Minnesota has ever thrown our way.
It wasn't enough time to really get to know Allan, but it was a delight to share our part of the world with him during the time that we had. The guy had some social skills. Beyond calling everything lovely (including our newly passed law that gays could marry!) he was endlessly thanking us. He even slipped each boy a fiver for 'giving up their space' for him. Wow.
Can't wait for another opportunity like this, but Allan has set the bar very high. It is a lovely bar, of course.
Lovely young man. Great accent, especially when he called things 'lovely'. Which he did all the time. Even our unseasonably crappy spring. To a Scottish lad, the 15 minutes of sun was apparently an improvement from back home. A lovely one. This new outlook was just what we needed at the end of the single most tiresome spring Minnesota has ever thrown our way.
It wasn't enough time to really get to know Allan, but it was a delight to share our part of the world with him during the time that we had. The guy had some social skills. Beyond calling everything lovely (including our newly passed law that gays could marry!) he was endlessly thanking us. He even slipped each boy a fiver for 'giving up their space' for him. Wow.
Can't wait for another opportunity like this, but Allan has set the bar very high. It is a lovely bar, of course.
Perching Hawk
So one day after the Theo tromped out the door for school, I sat down at the computer to do a little emailing. Only Theo had not logged out of his account. As I went to switch users, a long string of unopened emails from one sender caught my eye. Some girl had been madly emailing my son. Lots of them. Mostly unopened. Subject lines contained many many punctuation marks. I admit I opened one. There was a brief exchange in this particular convo about telling someone that Theo was her boyfriend. But if he was her boyfriend why did he never email? Why????!?!?!?! I was curious as to Theo's answer, which handily I found in the next email: "My mom watches the computer like a hawk!". What? I do? I really don't think I do, although admittedly I was reading that very email, perhaps the only email I had ever read of Theo's, ironically. Or was it just a bummer? For Theo.
Overall, I thought the whole conversation rather comical and sent it off to Jon for his opinion. As I hit send I realized I was still in Theo's account and had just not only forwarded the email to Jon, but had written something like, "Funny stuff- what do you think??" and then even went on to say that Theo appeared to like the girl for her interest in MineCraft and was that better or worse than liking someone just for their looks?
So I started sweating a little. In my nervous state I didn't think about just deleting that particular email. No. I decided the best course of action was to send another one, this time back to the sender, who was not me, but actually Theo. All it said was "Beware. The hawk is perching."
Several hours later Theo slunk through our door, clearly having had a chance to check his email while at school (it was his school account after all). He had trouble meeting my eyes. But after I spread my wings and made an ominous hawk call we shared a laugh. We went out to the deck to have a private chat about girlfriends and such. I asked him if he had one. He said, "Mom. Why are you making this so hard???" We were talking, not emailing, but those extra punctuation marks were there. I felt them. I swear I was not trying to make anything hard. And suggested that if he was having trouble admitting that he 'had a girlfriend' perhaps he was not ready for a girlfriend. He agreed. After explaining that having a girlfriend meant that they emailed each other. And that perhaps there was a plot for the girl to kiss him on the playground at lunch, a plot he had uncovered and was strenuously avoiding. And I explained that generally I don't perch very actively, but that if my child did appear to be falling too quickly out of my nest, he would feel the claws around that tender little neck. Oh yes he would. I think he was relieved. Until the hawk joke got a little old. In his mind. Still fresh for me.
Overall, I thought the whole conversation rather comical and sent it off to Jon for his opinion. As I hit send I realized I was still in Theo's account and had just not only forwarded the email to Jon, but had written something like, "Funny stuff- what do you think??" and then even went on to say that Theo appeared to like the girl for her interest in MineCraft and was that better or worse than liking someone just for their looks?
So I started sweating a little. In my nervous state I didn't think about just deleting that particular email. No. I decided the best course of action was to send another one, this time back to the sender, who was not me, but actually Theo. All it said was "Beware. The hawk is perching."
Several hours later Theo slunk through our door, clearly having had a chance to check his email while at school (it was his school account after all). He had trouble meeting my eyes. But after I spread my wings and made an ominous hawk call we shared a laugh. We went out to the deck to have a private chat about girlfriends and such. I asked him if he had one. He said, "Mom. Why are you making this so hard???" We were talking, not emailing, but those extra punctuation marks were there. I felt them. I swear I was not trying to make anything hard. And suggested that if he was having trouble admitting that he 'had a girlfriend' perhaps he was not ready for a girlfriend. He agreed. After explaining that having a girlfriend meant that they emailed each other. And that perhaps there was a plot for the girl to kiss him on the playground at lunch, a plot he had uncovered and was strenuously avoiding. And I explained that generally I don't perch very actively, but that if my child did appear to be falling too quickly out of my nest, he would feel the claws around that tender little neck. Oh yes he would. I think he was relieved. Until the hawk joke got a little old. In his mind. Still fresh for me.
Gouda Regret
I took Eli grocery shopping with me. I was hesitating over the display of gouda. I voiced my concern that I couldn't remember if we already had some gouda home in the fridge. Eli swept by me, grabbed a chunk, threw it in the cart and said, "Really, can you ever imagine regretting the purchase of gouda???".
Good point.
Trusting Teachers
My little school is sometimes a force for change in the community. We are often so busy running the school and keeping our heads above water on that front that we don't have time to do what we can in the wider world. But we do have a mission to help re-elevate teaching to the profession it should be. This last spring we held a brief conference highlighting a book entitled "Trusting Teachers with School Success". The author had visited several teacher-run schools and compiled her lessons she learned that could be spread to more traditional schools. The turnout was great- teachers are hungry for change of this type. Anyway- the evening started with a panel of teachers who work in teacher led schools, including two of my co-workers. While they were speaking I admit I began daydreaming a little about the 'old days' and life in Avalon before we had really gotten our 'systems' in to place. The endless meetings, the crazy decisions, the unique duties that fall to a teacher-leader when everything that has to get done has to get done by you, or your co-workers. It made me remember a time when my co-worker Regina was using the freight elevator in our old building in order to move some furniture out to the dumpster. She had a crew of several male students with her. The elevator was not trustworthy and chose to stall with Regina and the students stuck between floors. This was back in the early days of cell phones, and I can't remember if no one had one, or if they didn't work from within that concrete prison. In any case, they were stuck there for over an hour, before anyone realized they were missing and hunted them down. A rescue mission ensued. All good for laughs now.
I dare say that when Regina started down the path toward teaching, she didn't prep herself for an hour locked between floors with a group of students. In fact, so much of what I do daily at Avalon was not foreshadowed in my teacher education. But it is so much better than what I was trained for back in the day. I was really educated to be part of a system- to be a cog- to jump on the treadmill. And as we all know how I do on treadmills (I was once thrown off, twice, within 2 minutes) it's probably for the best that I have stepped off and entered this alternative universe where we are trusted as professionals, and I think, for the most part, we are deserving of that trust.
I dare say that when Regina started down the path toward teaching, she didn't prep herself for an hour locked between floors with a group of students. In fact, so much of what I do daily at Avalon was not foreshadowed in my teacher education. But it is so much better than what I was trained for back in the day. I was really educated to be part of a system- to be a cog- to jump on the treadmill. And as we all know how I do on treadmills (I was once thrown off, twice, within 2 minutes) it's probably for the best that I have stepped off and entered this alternative universe where we are trusted as professionals, and I think, for the most part, we are deserving of that trust.
Just the two of us
Right after my return from DC, Jon and Theo took off for a week up at Widji. Jon had heard that this is a peach of a volunteer gig. You get to hang out in the north woods in the springtime, but your only duties are keeping the 5th and 6th graders in the cabin overnight. During the day the Widji staff whisk the kids out in to the woods. When Jon signed up for the late April/early May trip, I think he was envisioning some great trail runs in the BWCA. Alas, they still had up to 3 feet of snow in the woods. 3 feet. In May. When they arrived the ice was still on the lake. It was not thick enough to walk on, so the group cracked up some ice along shore so that they could still participate in the Widji ritual of a 'dip sauna dip'. That means that my 10 year old son jumped into the a nearly iced over lake, then took a suana, then jumped in again. Turns out that he was so excited about the opportunity that his first dip was done before removing his sweatpants that he had on over his suit. Oh well. He took them off in the sauna and carried on about his business. By all reports, they had a great time.
Back here in Minnesota, Eli and I had some time on our hands. We took a spontaneous evening trip to the Science Museum to see the Body Worlds exhibit. I swear we had the whole exhibit to ourselves. It was fascinating. Another evening we took advantage of the longer hours of daylight to get in a round of after dinner frisbee golf. It was a lovely slow week full of quiet conversation and acting on whims. Sure, we missed the other half of our family, but it was nice to slow it down and take it easy with just my sweet tween.
Back here in Minnesota, Eli and I had some time on our hands. We took a spontaneous evening trip to the Science Museum to see the Body Worlds exhibit. I swear we had the whole exhibit to ourselves. It was fascinating. Another evening we took advantage of the longer hours of daylight to get in a round of after dinner frisbee golf. It was a lovely slow week full of quiet conversation and acting on whims. Sure, we missed the other half of our family, but it was nice to slow it down and take it easy with just my sweet tween.
DC in the springtime
This past April I got the chance to head to DC with a crew of Minnesotans interested in education policy. It was not nearly as boring as that sentence sounds. First of all, when I took off from Minnesota in late April, it was snowing. Snowing. And it was brown and gray and slushy and depressing. Within an hour of landing I had stored my stuff in my hotel room and was out for a run around the mall. It was blindingly green. And the flowers. I experienced running with a spring in my step for the first time in my life. Seriously. I was skipping for joy. And all the DC-ites were just plodding along, already accustomed to the beauty that is spring. Or maybe they are not so sensory deprived as we are here in the mid-west during the winter.
There were other delights beyond the scenery. First of all, my traveling crew was bright, funny, articulate, and engaging. What more could I ask for? So what if the 66 year old leader of our troup misheard me at one point and when I was talking about four co-workers giving birth within a week, he thought I said I was having four 'grandbabies' born within a week. WHAT??? I can't possibly be that old? I did the math after sternly correcting him and that would mean that I would have had to had several children in my early 20s, all of whom were reproducing in their early 20s. Oh. I guess that is not too odd. But at least the rest of the crew thought it funny and didn't just accept it as plausible. God forbid.
The sessions were thought provoking when not down-right entertaining. At one point we had to work as a team (with strangers) in a simulation where our goal was to get re-elected. Not to govern well, but to be re-elected. It was eye-opening. In another session a long-time DC insider (she could have 4 great grandchildren born within a week for sure) gave a talk that was seriously insightful and interesting, but her delivery brought me to tears of laughter. She has worked in the House research department for decades and she shared her top two dumb questions by our elected officials. The runner up was "What are the effects on the body of capital punishment?" The speaker said her email response read "Death." Turns out the guy was looking for details of what happens when administered the drug, but that is not what he asked. The top question of shame was this: "What did President Lincoln do when his term ended?" Her response: "Took a long train ride back to Illinois."
Maybe it doesn't translate well- but the way this four foot tall great grandma was shouting from the stage, still, years later, totally perplexed and amused and enraged by the stupidity of our elected officials, did get me laughing.
It always seems like it is too much bother to get away from work and family and life obligations to take part in opportunities like this one, but I feel like I came home refreshed from the brief spring encounter (it was snowing when I landed back in MN) as well as professionally recharged. I owe my school much gratitude for sending me away. I'm sure they benefited from the situation as well- a week with out me!
There were other delights beyond the scenery. First of all, my traveling crew was bright, funny, articulate, and engaging. What more could I ask for? So what if the 66 year old leader of our troup misheard me at one point and when I was talking about four co-workers giving birth within a week, he thought I said I was having four 'grandbabies' born within a week. WHAT??? I can't possibly be that old? I did the math after sternly correcting him and that would mean that I would have had to had several children in my early 20s, all of whom were reproducing in their early 20s. Oh. I guess that is not too odd. But at least the rest of the crew thought it funny and didn't just accept it as plausible. God forbid.
The sessions were thought provoking when not down-right entertaining. At one point we had to work as a team (with strangers) in a simulation where our goal was to get re-elected. Not to govern well, but to be re-elected. It was eye-opening. In another session a long-time DC insider (she could have 4 great grandchildren born within a week for sure) gave a talk that was seriously insightful and interesting, but her delivery brought me to tears of laughter. She has worked in the House research department for decades and she shared her top two dumb questions by our elected officials. The runner up was "What are the effects on the body of capital punishment?" The speaker said her email response read "Death." Turns out the guy was looking for details of what happens when administered the drug, but that is not what he asked. The top question of shame was this: "What did President Lincoln do when his term ended?" Her response: "Took a long train ride back to Illinois."
Maybe it doesn't translate well- but the way this four foot tall great grandma was shouting from the stage, still, years later, totally perplexed and amused and enraged by the stupidity of our elected officials, did get me laughing.
It always seems like it is too much bother to get away from work and family and life obligations to take part in opportunities like this one, but I feel like I came home refreshed from the brief spring encounter (it was snowing when I landed back in MN) as well as professionally recharged. I owe my school much gratitude for sending me away. I'm sure they benefited from the situation as well- a week with out me!
National update
The National History Day trip was a smashing success. The MN delegation seems to have this whole thing figured out- the experience is like a super fun summer camp for history nerds. There were apparently games and contests and good times late into every night. Sprinkle in there a few rounds of top notch competition on the history front, and you have the makings of one exhausted child. But the boys came back knowing that their documentary film skills are legit- 8th in the nation! The Open delegation had a great showing- Siena's film was in the top 20, and Grace performed so well she took home a bronze medal. Third in the nation. Holy smokes.
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