Closing Out the Year

About 2 weeks ago, in a building located in our nation's capital, I officially went into the record books as being scottish. The headquarters of the DAR (Daughter's of the American Revolution) approved my application to become a member, after several years of hunting down records connecting me with my Scottish immigrant ancestor, Daniel Bartholomew who arrived in America on the fateful day of July 4, 1776.

Becoming a member of this honored society has been a goal for many years and is just one of the many things I am able to celebrate this year. I've got quite a list, as you'll see below.  I don't know why I'm obsessed with my ancestry (Scottish, Italian, English, Germany, Irish & Welsh) but for me, it forms not only who I am but my link with history and all of its discoveries and stories. So each December 31st as people put together their list of resolutions, I prefer to look back at all the good things that have happened over the year. My stories. My history. The resolutions are something I think should be dealt with each day, not just at the dawn of a new year.

And so, if you feel so inclined, my list of celebrations. My little history of 2009 is below. Enjoy.

(In no particular order)

1. Getting a full-time teaching job at Urbana High School

2. Becoming a member of the DAR

3. Adding another year of swing dancing to my dance card

4. Reconnecting with old friends through facebook

5. The birth of another baby amongst my friends

6. Working at Wrigley Field for Rascal Flatts & Billy Joel/Elton John

7. Working for 2 days in the rain for O.A.R. who thanked me with gift cards

8. Moving to Urbana

9. Attending Summerfest in Milwaukee after a 2 year absence

10. Playing beach volleyball

11. Watching Wellspring, my small group, expand and grow

12. Watching my new favorite TV show, Psych

13. Reading Echo in the Bone which finally was released only to be left with more cliffhangers!

14. Participating in Lyrics for Life day in September

15. Participating in the Chicago Olympic Bid process

16. Seeing the Leon's back up from Peru for a few weeks

17. Discovering the music of Snow Patrol & Tyrone Wells

18. Singing in the staff performance at the Winter Assembly in Urbana

19. Many, many nights at Fizz & Summer Dance

20. Watching Park Community Church truly work hard to transform Chicago & its Family

21. Becoming a true WXRT fan

22. Learning the Shim Sham

23. Begin writing as a pen-pal with a distant family member in Italy

24. Watching the final season of BBC's Robin Hood

25. Plenty of time spent with girlfriends

26. Developing new friendships in Urbana

27. Seeing Public Enemies after having watched it being filmed in Chicago

28. Movie/Game nights on Chicago Ave at the crooked apartment

29. Discovering I can become an Italian citizen

30. Being invited to a private swing lesson with Tom, a fellow dancer

31. Finding the Champaign swing scene, despite it being nothing like Chicago's scene

32. A weekend in Michigan with friends before moving

33. Visits by Sarah, Amy & Kathryn to see me in Champaign!

There are plenty more I could add, but that's as long of a list as I'd like to make.

Tomorrow marks the new dawn of a new day. A new year. A new decade. Use it as motivation to do good, be good and share some good with everyone around you! Make your own history. 

KB

Hiatus

School is out! At least for 2009. And it's been a good 1st semester. We've got 2 weeks left of it when the new year ushers us all back through those doors but for now, I get to take a break from writing about school and share some stories from the northern lands (okay, really just Chicago).

I began my vacation with a night seeing Sister Hazel at House of Blues, my usual concert this time of year. They ALWAYS put on a good show and this was no exception. I brought along two Hazel newbies, my friend Laura whom I have known almost forever and Kathryn, whom I have known for a few years through swing dancing. I picked up Laura on my way up to the city. Had a brief play date with her kids (my nephew and niece) and Todd, another long-time friend before celebrating a brief Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony and then driving the rest of the way to Chitown.

Kathryn met us at HOB, reserving a seat in the restaurant for dinner so that we can "pass the line" when doors opened. I had panicked all week that we wouldn't be able to do this fantastic little feature but she was seated at 5:45 and told the staff we wouldn't arrive till 6:15 (which was a pretty rough estimate). They didn't bat an eye and we showed up at Marina City at 6:15 on the nose despite some traffic on Lake Shore. 

The show as always was genuine, rocking and fun. At one point, Drew pulled out $100 a bought drinks for the crowd. We secured one such drink and kept rocking out. The unique thing about their audience compared to most bands is that the crowd is pretty much split 50/50 men and women. It would be a dream to meet my guy at a Hazel show but I'm not sure what fate has in the cards in that department. It is quite funny to see guys singing full bore on rock songs AND the ballads. Love it.

Last night was a gathering of Chicago runners. For those unfamiliar with what a runner is (and I don't mean the athletic kind) we are the folks who basically keep a concert running. We get anything that might be needed for artist and crew (from groceries to truck parts to cigarettes) and drive artist & crew to hotels, the apple store and any other location you can imagine. Next time you are in Chicago or near Assembly Hall in Champaign and see a white, 15-passenger van go by, you may wonder if it is a runner going by with precious cargo. 

Anyway, the runners did their 2nd Annual bowling night. The gathering was a bit smaller than last year but no less fun. There were plenty of stories to go around. Some good. Some less so. artists from all walks of life. People from every facet of the business. Even dirt on each other. There is talk that a yearbook will be created next year. Now THAT will be something to see.

Tonight I am going out dancing. Swing style. It is the 9th annual Christmas Swing, Trivia & Ugly Sweater contest at Fizz, Chicago's premier swing locale on Monday nights. It has been 8 weeks since I have swing danced (Halloween was the last time). Hopefully I still have it. Before that commences though, there is bowling fun to be had with my high school friends. I don't think any of us has bowled in a long time, except my foray last night. With these friends though, it doesn't matter how the bowling goes, its the conversation and togetherness that makes it so special.

Well, I'm off to my adventures. I'll have more hiatus fun when the next blog hits the press. Happy Holidays. May your days be merry and bright. 

KB

Life Got In the Way

Back in 2002 two of my favorite songwriters teamed up to to write a song called Life Got in the Way. (Ken Block & Richard Marx). The song describes how life gets in the way of plans you have for your life from time to time. 

I've had some time to be reflective and introspective the last 2 weeks and can honestly say, life got in the way. I had a lot of plans to get ahead in planning school lessons, getting my evaluation binders back together and getting my finals and review guides ready for January. 

On the Monday before Thanksgiving I found out my Grandmother was approaching her final few days on this side of Heaven. It was at once both a tough phone call to receive and one that was a bit of a stress reliever. Gram has been a victim of alzheimers for the last 3 years. 2 years ago we moved her up from Florida in order to have her n

earer to family members. In that time, my immediate family has spent many a day traveling the hour or so west of Chicago where she was being cared for. This past June was among my last times seeing her. She didn't recognize me or know my name. It was her 90th birthday. While sad, I was nonetheless (great word) happy to share that day with her, her sister and my Mother.

On Wednesday morning on my drive to work I found out Gram had passed away. I knew it was coming, but knowing still doesn't prepare your heart for the floodgates of emotions that surge through you when reality hits. With that one phone call I not only felt much stress depart, at wondering when her passing would happen but also the stress of realizing I wasn't going to be able to do much in the way of planning during what was supposed to be "Thanksgiving Break."

So I sat at our new teacher meeting tonight and frustration that I've felt since coming back from "Break" boiled over,  although its source eluded me until later this evening. Our evaluations are happening now and mine is on Friday. We need to submit our daily lesson plans to our evaluators (mine is the principal). I thought I was bothered by the fact that I technically have 4 preps and had WAY more to submit for evaluation than many other folks. In reality, I think my frustration stems more from the fact that I haven't had a real 2+days off yet since mid-November. I'm still playing catch up with lesson planning. I'm worried about getting review guides done next week. I've got a penchant for being ahead on planning not to-date on planning and it is just plain stressing me out!

Now, only a select few people know all this has happened over the last few weeks. I don't want the world to pity me. It truly is a blessing that Gram has passed as peacefully as she did and that her battle is now finished. There were a lot of folks up There that were calling her home and that thought alone is beautiful.

I think I won't finally be at peace with it all until she is buried, which is sometime in the next few days. In the meantime, I'm going to agree with Ken & Richard and acknowledge that life gets in the way. But it is up to me to push through those roadblocks and trudge forward. I'm a glass 1/2 full person and I need to stop seeing the glass as 1/2 empty in my mind. The good news right now? All these lessons and binders and worksheets that are in my notebook will be done for all of time, minus any tweaking I do down the road.

Now that is some advanced planning....

KB

(This post is dedicated to Gram. Love you always.)

Rookie Mistakes

I made my first big rookie mistake today. It was one of those sounds-great-at-the-time things that ended up probably being more work for me than my students.

On Friday, I gave all 3 of my classes review sheets with the repeated phrase, quiz on Monday. Now, I always give out a review sheet the day before the test and unless I specifically put in their calendar that there is a 2 day study period, it is just a 1 day deal.

My Coop kids walked in and did pretty well on theirs in both classes. My law students...well not so much. Most of them thought the quiz was Tuesday (uh, hello??? Said it several times that quiz was Monday!) Where the mistake you ask? My brain fired up and my mouth responded before I had time to process what my brain was concocting. Here is how it went.

ME: How many people would like one more review day?

STUDENTS: 90% raise hands.

ME: Here's the deal. If you want to take the quiz today, you may take it. If you wait until tomorrow, it will be a much harder quiz. How many of you want to wait till tomorrow? 

STUDENTS: 80% raise their hands.

ME: Okay. How many people want to take the easier quiz today? If you do, please move to the front of the room. Those of you waiting until tomorrow pull out your study guides and move to the back of the classroom.

STUDENTS: 6 students move to the front of the room.

Did you catch it? Yeah, that was more work I created for myself. Fantastic KB! You've cleared your plate for the rest of the week except for grading quizzes, review guides and timesheets and you create MORE work for yourself! Geez!

Now, some of those kids did get 100% on the quiz. Some got D's. I am offering those folks who stepped up a chance at a retake of the quiz tomorrow if they did not like their grade. It's only fair after all. The new quizzes are all typed and copied for tomorrow. An extra 12 questions and 2-3 extra credit instead of 5. (The extra credit consists of terms from earlier in the year to start "reviewing" for the final in January).

The plus side of this scenario is that now I don't have to figure out what video to show on Wednesday. Sweet! The other plus is that I've got the unit on Renting nearly finished for when we come back from break. All I have to do is write the review guide and choose quiz questions. 

I think I may do a review game for the next chapter and make them do the review guide for homework. Force them to study (or copy) answers from their books and notes. I think my game of choice may be good for them. There is only 1 way to find out...

I'm once again off to sleep. What a long day. Teaching. Meeting. Workout. Long phone calls. At least it is Thanksgiving week. And I am thankful for a 4 day weekend!

G'nite y'all.

KB

The Importance of Making Others Important

I realized tonight the great responsibility teachers have. I'm not talking about what we do every day in the classroom. I'm talking about the stuff we do outside the classroom.

This week alone (and it's only Tuesday) I've done some things that I'm beginning to realize are extraordinary in this town. 

For example, I just got home from the 1st Orchestra concert of the year. I have 3 students in orchestra, 2 in Law and 1 in Coop. The three of them represent a variety of learning styles and aptitudes. That's the beautiful thing about music. At any rate, I went to the concert tonight. What I was expecting was a packed auditorium, just like it was when I was in high school or at Sandburg & Hinsdale Central. But here, there was a sprinkling of parents. I didn't see a single person I recognized, including teachers. My heart fell when I entered that room. 

What Urbana is lacking in a major way is support of its students. There are probably 60-80 students in orchestra. There were probably 25 pairs of people there. Really? Even parents don't display support of their children. I understand that many of them may be at work, as this is a working class town, but I have the feeling that many of them just needed a break or had other children to be with. What of the rest of the community? 

This is where my marketing brain fires up. Did they put posters around the community? Was there even a way for the folks detached from the high school to know this was going on? The orchestra teacher is very talented. She definitely showed compassion for her students. I think she talked to them as though they were still in the classroom though. She told them to be quiet. She told them to clean up the stage. She told them how to get on and off the stage "as we practiced." If teachers are the role models and this was a big event, the students need to see us outside of the room we sit in every day and how to role model behavior that demonstrates that in public, in a different forum, things proceed differently. She treated them like they were in the classroom so I think some of them acted like they were in the classroom. After all, many of their parents were not there so who else would keep them in check?

The other thing I did was yesterday. I have 3 students still looking for jobs. I walked the entire mall last night (1.5 hours) and got every job application I could get and inquired to see who was hiring and who had completed the search for holiday workers. (I did skip the maternity stores and jewelry stores). I told both classes of my findings. It was up to them to peek at the applications, tell me which ones they may want to copy and turn in (to the store) or to come see me in my office to get a copy. One of the 3 took up the offer. Another didn't budge. The third was absent for the 5th day in a row. I've also arranged a large number of volunteer hours so that students can get volunteer extra credit (It is work after all). They of course don't see the fact that I'm going to spending HOURS at these locations doing gift wrap or that they are only signing up for an hour or two. Even the ones who desperately need hours aren't signing up (except my one student who took an application). I'm going to have to make it mandatory for the other 2. 

I think one of my goals is going to have to push for greater parent and community involvement in what I do. Or what my students do. It is just so sad to walk into a building where artists, athletes and other talent is being displayed to a little, tiny audience. Time shall have to tell....

For now, I've taken the night 'off' and have just 6 more items to complete before Thanksgiving Break. Then it's DVD time. More on that at a later date.

Stay dry folks! I'm heading to sleep....

KB

Parent Teacher Conferences - Day 1

Yesterday is what some have called the longest day of the year. Parent Teacher Conferences at Urbana run from 4-8 on Thursday and then today, Friday, from 8-11. What that does is give us 1.5 days of work on Thursday and a half day on Friday.  I think I'd rather go all night long then have no work today, but as it is, I'm going to get to work at 8 instead of 7:30 today.

I had 3 scheduled parents yesterday and 1 pop-in parent. My parents are generally half A/B students and half D/F students. My first parent (guardian actually) really just wanted to know how to get her son's grades up. He's slowly increasing his grades in my law class. The conference was quick and pretty good. The 2nd one was a pop in for a A student. His mom is great at keeping him on task. Hopefully he'll take what his mom is teaching him and use it someday in real life. For now, I just had to explain to him that what he learns now is really for future benefit. And the fact that he gets a class like law in high school is really lucky. We didn't have classes that prepped us for the future when I was in high school. Unless you count home ec and econ.

My 3rd parent was for another A student. I had little to share with them outside of what I said to them at Open House. He's a really involved student with great parents and is one of my few true, honest-to-goodness hard workers.

My 4th set of parents were for a Coop student who hasn't really done any work and still hasn't gotten a job (the only 1).  She stepped up this week but the toughest part with this conference was that the students wanted to know how she got into the Coop program! I had to explain that that decision was made in the spring and that hopefully the counselors had made the right decision. They did not like the fact that their daughter, who they felt was a bit irresponsible, was in a program where she could get out of school early. Overall, I expressed what needed to be done so that she could pass and it ended well. 

Today I have 4 more conferences. Update when I can. I'm heading to Chicago so it may be a few days till an update! 

Stay smart.

KB

2 more referrals

Greetings from a scarce dry day in east-central illinois.

As teachers and people go, I'm probably one of the most lenient and willing to give someone a 2nd chance to make a better impression, say the right thing, or prove they are trustworthy. My father taught much the same way (I asked him last night) and so it comes naturally. I like to believe everyone is good and somewhere deep down know that the right way really is the right way.

It's a true fact that teenage brains are still developing. The Y generation is the NOW generation. They want things to be done instantly and want to react instantly. I know it but I have hope that at least a few of my students know when to rein it in. Naive? Maybe. But if I'm teaching as well as I think I am, by the end of the year some of these students will have learned patience and how to bite their tongue.

For now though, we have a long way to go. I have one student who has repeatedly acted defiantly towards me. She didn't have a job for a while. Then she got one after a ton of medical tests required for pre-employment (it was a hospital) and finally after a week of work and complaining how gross the patients could be and how rough washing floors could be, she was fired. There were a few positives in her daily input in class such as how much more over minimum wage those in her position make. Since that firing, she's used every excuse she could give me as to why she can't get a job. She's also missed several days. On top if it all, there is animosity between this student and the others in the class. Typical teenage stuff without any budging from how one feels about the other. Now my fired student has made great strides in trying to communicate and work with the rest in the class (coincidentally my smallest class of students at 7). The other folks not so much. All of these factors erupted into a week of explosions from both groups of students in my little class.

On Tuesday when I went over grades with my students, my fired student told me her excuses and I offered to even sit with her and help her fill out apps on the computer in my office. She had none of it. I was told after a few semi-pleasant exchanges, "kiss my a**". My student then stormed out of the room. I've made a little headway into helping this student feel better about herself. I've praised her writing which is among the best of all my students. I've praised her work ethic when she actually turns assignments in. I've also explained the things she needs to take on herself to succeed. And that's where the rub is apparently. I really, really dislike swearing. I think it's a form of speech that is unnecessary and has lost meaning. Those words you say need not be said and other, more powerful words make more sense than swear words. Check the dictionary. Improve your vocabulary.

Round two of the explosions was yesterday. My student was back and the class was down to 4 that day. We were talking about life lessons. One in particular was that if you think your teachers are tough, wait till you meet your first full-time boss. One of my male students who had been in a tiff with his mother (also his boss) said how he hated his boss right now. My normally quiet, fired student piped up that she thought his mom was a good boss when she worked for her. Well, my male student was like a match lit near a gas pump. He swore at her and said she didn't know what she was talking about. My fired student stormed out of the room for the 2nd day in a row and thus began a 15 minute lecture on my key life lesson: Think before you open your mouth. It's better to fill the air with potpourri than cow pies.

Neither student was in class today. I had submitted a referral for both yesterday afternoon. My fired student was suspended for speaking to me the way she did. The other got saturday detention and a day in dean's restricted assignment. It frustrates me because now both are missing class. And neither are likely learn their lesson or change their ways in the next few days. 

I'm sure there will be a future blog related to this week. I'll let you all know when it arises. In the meantime, I am trying to get every kid a job - even the fired ones. It's holiday hiring season. There are NO excuses. I think some of those sociologists are right. The Y generation is also the Lazy generation. Too much coddling and helping get by. Technology making everything easier. Perhaps that should be my other big life lesson. Paychecks list your "earnings" for a reason.

KB