One more way I am messing up my kids...
Today was Fall Festival at Bun's new school. It was suggested that the boys dress as heros and the girls dress as princesses. I declined to participate. Bun can be whatever she wants, but I am not thrilled about sending a message that boys and girls can only be certain things.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Time off
So I am missing my office hours this morning because Offspring is off school today and tomorrow. I'll still go and teach my class this afternoon, of course.
It's been a hectic week full of mixed messages. I am starting to REALLY look forward to December.
It's been a hectic week full of mixed messages. I am starting to REALLY look forward to December.
Monday, October 25, 2010
The Prof. family's great adventure
Long, long ago, when the Prof. family lived out in Central State, they bought season passes to Six Flags for this year. There was a park relatively nearby, and it was a good deal to go.
Then MommyProf got a new job and the family moved to beautiful NewState, which has many things to recommend it, but proximity to a Six Flags is not one of those things.
Ever looking for a bargain, and seeking to reward Offspring for a detention-free first quarter, the Profs piled in the car to head for one of the nearest Six Flags - two states away - on Friday night. It was a six-hour drive, but the Profs engaged a hotel room about halfway, figuring they could drive in, in the morning. Off they went. About 2 hours into the drive, after a delicious repast at Wendy's and as the setting sun lowered the air temperatures to a chilly 40-something, an odd thumping/flapping sound began.
"Do you hear that?" DaddyProf asked. "Yes," said Mommyprof, rolling down her window. Thumpity-flap. Thumpity-flap.
"Should we pull off?" MommyProf asked. "I'm doing it," said DaddyProf, taking an fortunately handy exit that was nearby. We had to turn, and turned right, ending up in a small park, so small that it didn't actually have a parking lot, just a grassy ramp leading down to a cracked slab of concrete with netless basketball goals looming above it.
Out of the car hopped the parents, MommyProf exhorting Offspring to stay in the car. Sadly, the right passenger tire was a a mere shadow of its former self, having basically begun to disintegrate. So we get the girls out of the car, unload the trunk, and handy Mr. Prof changes the tire for the spare.
The girls are pretty chilly, being as how we expected to be either in our car with heat or a hotel room with heat in the evenings. It's that funny time of the year when it is T-shirt weather at mid-day and jacket weather in the mornings and evenings. I had brought everyone a long-sleeved shirt, just in case, but the girls are still cold. So they end up sitting on the grass, wrapped in Bun's mat/pillow/blanket thingie she uses for naps at daycare. By this point, we have had to move the car ONTO the basketball court, in order to have someplace level.
Spouse gets the spare on, and looks concerned. "It seems pretty low on air," he says. He lowers the car from the jack and the spare immediately comes off its rim. Time for plan B.
Fortunately, we still have AAA. This year, it has been more than worth it, since they have this deal with a relocation company that negotiates with movers for you and saves you like 70% off the cost of the move. That alone has paid for 100 years of AAA membership for the Prof family. But anyway, they also will tow, so we call for one.
We get the girls back in the car to stay warm, crank it up and get our GPS to find the nearest hotel, which is a Super8. I call and get a reservation (the nice lady there gives me a "coupon" rate when I explain about our freezing children on the side of the road who will be there whenever the tow truck gets there.
Which takes 50 minutes. Bun is, at this point, so excited, that she is dancing around, punching the air, and singing a song about how the tow truck driver is here to save us! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!
But the guy is really professional and gets the car loaded up and even lets the 4 of us squeeze into the cab with him for the 1 mile ride to the shop where we leave it and then drops us at the Super8. Major bonus points for AAA and an excellent, courteous operator.
We check in to a room that is not where we were heading for Six Flags, but is decent, if worn. We're all a little wired at this point, so we walk over to the IHop next door for some midnight pancakes, guaranteed to cause strange dreams.
We eat, go back and collapse into bed.
The next day, we walk to the shop and talk to the guy. It's a AAA-certified shop, so they are supposed to be vetted and not hose you, but what do I know? I know that there was some kind of suspension problem that caused the tire to wear as it did and that we need both 4 new tires and to have that problem fixed.
It takes 7 hours. We waited at the shop for a little while, walked back to the Super8 and checked out. We had lunch, visited every store within walking distance (WalMart AND KMart). We waited a little longer and eventually got our car back.
We were not too far from a city Spouse used to go to as a kid, so we head there to visit a mall that we know has an ice-skating rink so the kids can do at least something fun this weekend.
The mall is closed. Boarded up closed. (A visit to Wikipedia when we get home tells us there were 3 gang-related shootouts in 18 months at this mall, which pretty much sent the merchants and clientele running).
So we go home, making it at about 6:30.
I go get a pizza and we watch a movie, and that stands in for our big weekend away.
We remind ourselves that it could be worse - we could have lost control when the tire blew out. It could have been raining. We could have not had AAA.
Then MommyProf got a new job and the family moved to beautiful NewState, which has many things to recommend it, but proximity to a Six Flags is not one of those things.
Ever looking for a bargain, and seeking to reward Offspring for a detention-free first quarter, the Profs piled in the car to head for one of the nearest Six Flags - two states away - on Friday night. It was a six-hour drive, but the Profs engaged a hotel room about halfway, figuring they could drive in, in the morning. Off they went. About 2 hours into the drive, after a delicious repast at Wendy's and as the setting sun lowered the air temperatures to a chilly 40-something, an odd thumping/flapping sound began.
"Do you hear that?" DaddyProf asked. "Yes," said Mommyprof, rolling down her window. Thumpity-flap. Thumpity-flap.
"Should we pull off?" MommyProf asked. "I'm doing it," said DaddyProf, taking an fortunately handy exit that was nearby. We had to turn, and turned right, ending up in a small park, so small that it didn't actually have a parking lot, just a grassy ramp leading down to a cracked slab of concrete with netless basketball goals looming above it.
Out of the car hopped the parents, MommyProf exhorting Offspring to stay in the car. Sadly, the right passenger tire was a a mere shadow of its former self, having basically begun to disintegrate. So we get the girls out of the car, unload the trunk, and handy Mr. Prof changes the tire for the spare.
The girls are pretty chilly, being as how we expected to be either in our car with heat or a hotel room with heat in the evenings. It's that funny time of the year when it is T-shirt weather at mid-day and jacket weather in the mornings and evenings. I had brought everyone a long-sleeved shirt, just in case, but the girls are still cold. So they end up sitting on the grass, wrapped in Bun's mat/pillow/blanket thingie she uses for naps at daycare. By this point, we have had to move the car ONTO the basketball court, in order to have someplace level.
Spouse gets the spare on, and looks concerned. "It seems pretty low on air," he says. He lowers the car from the jack and the spare immediately comes off its rim. Time for plan B.
Fortunately, we still have AAA. This year, it has been more than worth it, since they have this deal with a relocation company that negotiates with movers for you and saves you like 70% off the cost of the move. That alone has paid for 100 years of AAA membership for the Prof family. But anyway, they also will tow, so we call for one.
We get the girls back in the car to stay warm, crank it up and get our GPS to find the nearest hotel, which is a Super8. I call and get a reservation (the nice lady there gives me a "coupon" rate when I explain about our freezing children on the side of the road who will be there whenever the tow truck gets there.
Which takes 50 minutes. Bun is, at this point, so excited, that she is dancing around, punching the air, and singing a song about how the tow truck driver is here to save us! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!
But the guy is really professional and gets the car loaded up and even lets the 4 of us squeeze into the cab with him for the 1 mile ride to the shop where we leave it and then drops us at the Super8. Major bonus points for AAA and an excellent, courteous operator.
We check in to a room that is not where we were heading for Six Flags, but is decent, if worn. We're all a little wired at this point, so we walk over to the IHop next door for some midnight pancakes, guaranteed to cause strange dreams.
We eat, go back and collapse into bed.
The next day, we walk to the shop and talk to the guy. It's a AAA-certified shop, so they are supposed to be vetted and not hose you, but what do I know? I know that there was some kind of suspension problem that caused the tire to wear as it did and that we need both 4 new tires and to have that problem fixed.
It takes 7 hours. We waited at the shop for a little while, walked back to the Super8 and checked out. We had lunch, visited every store within walking distance (WalMart AND KMart). We waited a little longer and eventually got our car back.
We were not too far from a city Spouse used to go to as a kid, so we head there to visit a mall that we know has an ice-skating rink so the kids can do at least something fun this weekend.
The mall is closed. Boarded up closed. (A visit to Wikipedia when we get home tells us there were 3 gang-related shootouts in 18 months at this mall, which pretty much sent the merchants and clientele running).
So we go home, making it at about 6:30.
I go get a pizza and we watch a movie, and that stands in for our big weekend away.
We remind ourselves that it could be worse - we could have lost control when the tire blew out. It could have been raining. We could have not had AAA.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Typical evening in the Prof house
Discussing Halloween costumes:
Offspring: So I thought we could go as a hydrogen atom. I have a T-shirt with a plus sign on it and be a proton, and Bun can have a T-shirt with a minus sign on it and be my electron.
Bun: Electron! Electron!
MommyProf: But won't that be difficult to explain to people?
Offspring: Maybe...wait, I've got it! I can be an egg cell and Bun can be a sperm cell!
Bun: Sperm cell! What's a sperm cell?
DaddyProf: Um, yeah. That will never happen.
Offspring: Why not?
MommyProf: We are not dressing your sister as a sperm cell.
Offspring: Why not?
DaddyProf: They would take you away from us.
*I love our kids.
Offspring: So I thought we could go as a hydrogen atom. I have a T-shirt with a plus sign on it and be a proton, and Bun can have a T-shirt with a minus sign on it and be my electron.
Bun: Electron! Electron!
MommyProf: But won't that be difficult to explain to people?
Offspring: Maybe...wait, I've got it! I can be an egg cell and Bun can be a sperm cell!
Bun: Sperm cell! What's a sperm cell?
DaddyProf: Um, yeah. That will never happen.
Offspring: Why not?
MommyProf: We are not dressing your sister as a sperm cell.
Offspring: Why not?
DaddyProf: They would take you away from us.
*I love our kids.
How to help
When I was in seventh grade, we moved to a new school district, and I had Mr. Legumbre (name changed, obviously!), who was freshly out of college and just plain excited to be there to teach math and science. The problem was that I grew up in a richie town, and most of the kids in my class were obnoxious, entitled little punks. They ate him alive. It got to the point where he was giving out detentions in batches of 5 and it was nearly impossible for him to teach anything, the class was so out of control.
So there's been more drama in the theatre class (no pun intended). Offspring's not in trouble, and has been doing a better job of staying away from the kids who are, but evidently it's pretty bad. Her teacher is really young, and I think she's having a lot of trouble with classroom management. At this point, she's decided that the problem kids are going to sit and do worksheets while the others do theatre stuff. She told the class they are the worst kids she's ever taught and that she dreads the days they go to her class.
I talked with Offspring today about how I feel sorry for her teacher having such a rough time and about what she could do as a student to make things better. I am wondering if I should offer to send in some items for behavior incentives for the students or something, or if it's better to be quiet. I do really feel for her teacher. I even felt for Mr. Legumbre at the time, back when I was a student.
So there's been more drama in the theatre class (no pun intended). Offspring's not in trouble, and has been doing a better job of staying away from the kids who are, but evidently it's pretty bad. Her teacher is really young, and I think she's having a lot of trouble with classroom management. At this point, she's decided that the problem kids are going to sit and do worksheets while the others do theatre stuff. She told the class they are the worst kids she's ever taught and that she dreads the days they go to her class.
I talked with Offspring today about how I feel sorry for her teacher having such a rough time and about what she could do as a student to make things better. I am wondering if I should offer to send in some items for behavior incentives for the students or something, or if it's better to be quiet. I do really feel for her teacher. I even felt for Mr. Legumbre at the time, back when I was a student.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Glurg
Working all day and nothing's done!
Well,
Two lecture/labs done (4 to go, I guess!)
Graded one assignment from grad classes (that's what took me so long today!)
How is it that I had a break and did a ton of work, only to end up still more behind?
Well,
Two lecture/labs done (4 to go, I guess!)
Graded one assignment from grad classes (that's what took me so long today!)
How is it that I had a break and did a ton of work, only to end up still more behind?
Tuesday update
So it's the last day of Fall Break and here's what I've crossed off the list:
Which leaves me with quite a bit to do today. I spent all. damn. day. yesterday getting the stuff done on Spouse's car, which did not help. I used that time to do the reading for my classes/labs, so I should be able to bang those out today.
We also spent all of Saturday at the NewState State Fair, which was a great time for all of us. The girlies got to milk a cow, we ate some crappy fried food (see yesterday's post) and I always enjoy the crafty-type exhibits like the cakes and dresses and flower arrangements as well as giant pumpkins (winner was more than 800 pounds) and the like.
And I'm pretty much caught up on my sleep, so a good time off, overall.
Now I'm off to finish the list.
- Mid-term evaluation reports for undergrads
- Get new tires, an alignment and an oil change for Spouse's car
- Panel proposals for organization I'm an officer in
- Practice new technique I need to use at end of semester (I suck, but that's another story)
- Pick Bun up from school early for some quality time
Which leaves me with quite a bit to do today. I spent all. damn. day. yesterday getting the stuff done on Spouse's car, which did not help. I used that time to do the reading for my classes/labs, so I should be able to bang those out today.
We also spent all of Saturday at the NewState State Fair, which was a great time for all of us. The girlies got to milk a cow, we ate some crappy fried food (see yesterday's post) and I always enjoy the crafty-type exhibits like the cakes and dresses and flower arrangements as well as giant pumpkins (winner was more than 800 pounds) and the like.
And I'm pretty much caught up on my sleep, so a good time off, overall.
Now I'm off to finish the list.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
T for two
So my departmental committee assignment this year is the one that works on policies for the faculty to vote on. This is actually important here, since faculty create policies and they actually become the standards that are enforced (I know - I still can't get over that!)
So we were looking at the statement on scholarship for the department. As I've mentioned before, basketweaving is hybrid field with a research component as well as a professional practice component. To be accredited, you are supposed to count traditional scholarship, creative activity and professional activity as scholarly for P and T and evaluations. The statement we have is really shorting the creative and professional, and we have many faculty who fall on that side of the house, with a MBW (a terminal professional degree) instead of a Ph.D.
This was the case at PrettyGood as well - the department expected both traditional scholarship and creative/professional work, but the statement was not strident about this so the creative/professional was ignored by the administration in evaluations. So I was rather passionate about making things extremely clear in the revision of the statement.
So we were looking at the statement on scholarship for the department. As I've mentioned before, basketweaving is hybrid field with a research component as well as a professional practice component. To be accredited, you are supposed to count traditional scholarship, creative activity and professional activity as scholarly for P and T and evaluations. The statement we have is really shorting the creative and professional, and we have many faculty who fall on that side of the house, with a MBW (a terminal professional degree) instead of a Ph.D.
This was the case at PrettyGood as well - the department expected both traditional scholarship and creative/professional work, but the statement was not strident about this so the creative/professional was ignored by the administration in evaluations. So I was rather passionate about making things extremely clear in the revision of the statement.
Friday, October 15, 2010
How much to tell
As I have blogged about before, Offspring is a rather bright child. It is always hard as a parent to talk about children because on the one hand, you don't want to diminish them, but on the other, you don't want to seem like a helicopter parent who also has a bullhorn, shouting out how great your child is for a largely uninterested crowd. But anyway, Offspring is pretty exceptional in the brains department - like when articles about how gifted doesn't really exist and intellect isn't so important anyway come out , I kind of want to slap the writers' smug little faces. But I digress.
So one of the dilemmas I have as a parent is how much to share with her the rationale behind decisions we make and why things happen.
She started middle school this year (yay). And she's having a bit of social difficulty. i expected this, and, frankly, it's better than I had expected. But it's still not fun for her. In her theater class, she's having an issue with a group of mean girls who are threatening her pretty much on a daily basis, mostly with relational aggression, but she did get hit once. You can expect that these things are going to happen in middle school. I was not thrilled about the hitting, but it hasn't re-occurred and I think it is unlikely to. But, generally it's the time of mean girls and everyone is socially stupid and Offspring needs to learn to deal with that (especially since I run into adults from time to time who seem to have never moved past that stage of social development, but that's another post).
So how do I handle this with her - tell her to try to ignore them and tell the teacher if she gets hit again? Talk with her about the originals of relational aggression in girls? Let her read a book or an article? An intellectual-level understanding is how she would deal best, but I don't know that she needs to be going around school thinking "That girl has low self-esteem and that's why she is acting out." Even worse, she might say that to that girl!
A separate issue is homework, which has increased greatly this year. It's not an unreasonable amount overall, but combined with her lengthy bus ride that gets her home at 5:30, it requires a substantial portion of her home time to get done. She's never been a champ at organization, but this year, staying on top of stuff is critically important, particularly as she cannot get detention, the consequence of choice in junior high, because Spouse and my's class schedule would not allow us to pick her up from school after serving her time. The school wants us to initial her assignment book, but I feel like I am doing her a disservice if I am organizing all of her many long-term projects for her. So far, that's what's been happening, but particularly after reading this post from the New York Times parenting blog, I feel like I need to be transitioning to her keeping everything straight herself. A) I have other things to do and B) I'm not planning on going to college with her, so she's got to get that sometime. But doing it is trickier. If I say "I'm going to stop planning everything for you," she feels like she is bad because she can't do this herself. If she misses or is late on some assignments, it's instructive, but difficult for her to deal with the lowered grades. So do I talk to her about the process of developing responsibility? Do I talk about how I might let her do things that I know she will fail at in order to learn from them? She's bright, but she's not an adult, and I don't know that I want her looking at things that way, yet.
So one of the dilemmas I have as a parent is how much to share with her the rationale behind decisions we make and why things happen.
She started middle school this year (yay). And she's having a bit of social difficulty. i expected this, and, frankly, it's better than I had expected. But it's still not fun for her. In her theater class, she's having an issue with a group of mean girls who are threatening her pretty much on a daily basis, mostly with relational aggression, but she did get hit once. You can expect that these things are going to happen in middle school. I was not thrilled about the hitting, but it hasn't re-occurred and I think it is unlikely to. But, generally it's the time of mean girls and everyone is socially stupid and Offspring needs to learn to deal with that (especially since I run into adults from time to time who seem to have never moved past that stage of social development, but that's another post).
So how do I handle this with her - tell her to try to ignore them and tell the teacher if she gets hit again? Talk with her about the originals of relational aggression in girls? Let her read a book or an article? An intellectual-level understanding is how she would deal best, but I don't know that she needs to be going around school thinking "That girl has low self-esteem and that's why she is acting out." Even worse, she might say that to that girl!
A separate issue is homework, which has increased greatly this year. It's not an unreasonable amount overall, but combined with her lengthy bus ride that gets her home at 5:30, it requires a substantial portion of her home time to get done. She's never been a champ at organization, but this year, staying on top of stuff is critically important, particularly as she cannot get detention, the consequence of choice in junior high, because Spouse and my's class schedule would not allow us to pick her up from school after serving her time. The school wants us to initial her assignment book, but I feel like I am doing her a disservice if I am organizing all of her many long-term projects for her. So far, that's what's been happening, but particularly after reading this post from the New York Times parenting blog, I feel like I need to be transitioning to her keeping everything straight herself. A) I have other things to do and B) I'm not planning on going to college with her, so she's got to get that sometime. But doing it is trickier. If I say "I'm going to stop planning everything for you," she feels like she is bad because she can't do this herself. If she misses or is late on some assignments, it's instructive, but difficult for her to deal with the lowered grades. So do I talk to her about the process of developing responsibility? Do I talk about how I might let her do things that I know she will fail at in order to learn from them? She's bright, but she's not an adult, and I don't know that I want her looking at things that way, yet.
Fall Break
I don't have classes on Fridays this semester, and NewSchool has Fall Break on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Since all of our breaks are different (Spouse's were the start of this week, Offspring and Bun's at the end of the month), we can't do anything as a family. Spouse took Bun down to see his folks, and went on a field trip with Offspring. I had considered taking Bun up for a trip in the mountains, but I think I am just going to stay here and get some things done like car repairs and unpacking the last 5 boxes. I'd like it if I could also get ahead on my classes some - especially since I have some things coming up that I haven't really taught before. Sadly, I know that big plans like this often end up not getting all done over breaks.
I feel bad about doing this right after bellyaching about the lack of blog posts, but here is my list of things I'd like to get done in the next five days:
Exciting, huh?
I feel bad about doing this right after bellyaching about the lack of blog posts, but here is my list of things I'd like to get done in the next five days:
- Grade assignment from Grad classes
- Grade other assignment from Grad classes
- Arrangements for trip I am taking undergrads on at the end of the semester
- Mid-term evaluation reports for undergrads
- Get new tires, an alignment and an oil change for Spouse's car
- Get an oil change for my car
- Unpack the last boxes
- Finish prettying up my office
- Get all the paperwork from buying the townhouse filed
- Get our drawers switched over to winter
- Goodwill
- Finish IRB proposals
- Run through paper I'd like to get submitted this semester
- Panel proposals for organization I'm an officer in
- 3 lectures/labs ready for grads
- 3 lectures/labs ready for undergrads
- Practice new technique I need to use at end of semester
- Pick Bun up from school early for some quality time
Exciting, huh?
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Where have all the bloggers gone?
My Google reader is sad. Many of the bloggers I used to read (most of them really) have gone dark (Lookin' at you, manfc and bitch) or have gone to super infrequent posting (right back at ya queen and pigs).
Has blogging become passé? Have I missed something?
Has blogging become passé? Have I missed something?
Monday, October 11, 2010
Living in the age of anxiety
There are 6 new job postings in Spouse's area today. One of them is here in NewState, but it's at a juco that is 4 hours from NewSchool, so that's out.
How do I know this? That would be because I check the job postings everyone morning.
As I've posted before, NewState is in a huge economic mess - unemployment in our new county is above the national average and lots of people are hurting. Spouse's present institution, where he's not so happy, is a state school that is getting its budget cut, so the chances of him continuing there are not good. A story that changed on the first day of fall classes.
Fortunately, Spouse is in a field with a robust industry analog, and a major hub for that industry is pretty close to here. But he's not so excited about working in that industry, mostly because he likes to have the stretches of time with his kids since he works so hard during the semester.. We already gave up a lot of that to come here - we used to all have the same Spring break, but now we have 3 different ones. Spouse is on Fall break today. Mine is next week. The girls - at the end of the month. So I know he wouldn't be that excited about getting 2 weeks a year off.
We are finding ourselves looking at our unsold house back in Central State and wondering if we have made a huge mistake.
Maybe Spouse's new school will come through, although we probably wouldn't know until July if it will. Maybe something else will open up. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. We're sitting on a pack of Maybe.
How do I know this? That would be because I check the job postings everyone morning.
As I've posted before, NewState is in a huge economic mess - unemployment in our new county is above the national average and lots of people are hurting. Spouse's present institution, where he's not so happy, is a state school that is getting its budget cut, so the chances of him continuing there are not good. A story that changed on the first day of fall classes.
Fortunately, Spouse is in a field with a robust industry analog, and a major hub for that industry is pretty close to here. But he's not so excited about working in that industry, mostly because he likes to have the stretches of time with his kids since he works so hard during the semester.. We already gave up a lot of that to come here - we used to all have the same Spring break, but now we have 3 different ones. Spouse is on Fall break today. Mine is next week. The girls - at the end of the month. So I know he wouldn't be that excited about getting 2 weeks a year off.
We are finding ourselves looking at our unsold house back in Central State and wondering if we have made a huge mistake.
Maybe Spouse's new school will come through, although we probably wouldn't know until July if it will. Maybe something else will open up. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. We're sitting on a pack of Maybe.
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Trying to stay upbeat
Work, kids, worrying about work, etc. is really eating our lunch right now. So a musical interlude:
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
The poor value of euphemisms
So Offspring's school has a robo-caller thingie, which has apparently grown in popularity. They use it a lot. I get calls at least twice a week with announcements like that fundraiser stuff is due and there are volleyball practices and tryouts coming up.
Yesterday, while sitting in my school's monthly faculty meeting, my phone, which I forgot to silence, goes off. This is the first time this has ever happened to me, and I was not thrilled about being that person. Thank goodness it was in my pocket, so I got to it midway through the first ring.
Anyway, it was Offspring's school, and so I let it ring through, which left a voicemail. They called twice more last night, all with the same message from her principal that there had been an incident involving one of the students at the school who, at school, had had an "encounter" with an adult she didn't know that involved "inappropriate activity," that the adult was found to be "employed by the school district" and that "majorcity police are investigating."
Now, how useless is that? This could have been anything from the lunch lady getting a fourth grader to skip a class in order to practice songs from Glee to the groundskeeper killing an eighth grader.
So it's up to me as the parent to figure this out, because I darned well want to talk to my kid about it.
The local newspaper has a brief piece on its website saying that a teacher from the high school across the street was charged with (insert state legal euphemism here) and was arrested and is in jail. I have to look up (insert state legal euphemism here) in the state code to get an idea of what this might be.
Finally, I find a local TV station with enough of the story for me to know what to say to my kid. The victim was in Offspring's grade, was outside waiting on her mom to pick her up, the teacher pulled up in a car, motioned the girl over, and groped her under her skirt.
So now I know some things, including that as much as the traffic pattern around the school is abysmal, you shouldn't tell your kid to walk to another place so you can pick them up more easily, that I need to review stranger danger with my kid (who promptly told me "MOM, I'm not five!" until I told her what happened at her school) and that it would have been a lot better to be straightforward about what happened in the first place.
Yesterday, while sitting in my school's monthly faculty meeting, my phone, which I forgot to silence, goes off. This is the first time this has ever happened to me, and I was not thrilled about being that person. Thank goodness it was in my pocket, so I got to it midway through the first ring.
Anyway, it was Offspring's school, and so I let it ring through, which left a voicemail. They called twice more last night, all with the same message from her principal that there had been an incident involving one of the students at the school who, at school, had had an "encounter" with an adult she didn't know that involved "inappropriate activity," that the adult was found to be "employed by the school district" and that "majorcity police are investigating."
Now, how useless is that? This could have been anything from the lunch lady getting a fourth grader to skip a class in order to practice songs from Glee to the groundskeeper killing an eighth grader.
So it's up to me as the parent to figure this out, because I darned well want to talk to my kid about it.
The local newspaper has a brief piece on its website saying that a teacher from the high school across the street was charged with (insert state legal euphemism here) and was arrested and is in jail. I have to look up (insert state legal euphemism here) in the state code to get an idea of what this might be.
Finally, I find a local TV station with enough of the story for me to know what to say to my kid. The victim was in Offspring's grade, was outside waiting on her mom to pick her up, the teacher pulled up in a car, motioned the girl over, and groped her under her skirt.
So now I know some things, including that as much as the traffic pattern around the school is abysmal, you shouldn't tell your kid to walk to another place so you can pick them up more easily, that I need to review stranger danger with my kid (who promptly told me "MOM, I'm not five!" until I told her what happened at her school) and that it would have been a lot better to be straightforward about what happened in the first place.
Monday, October 04, 2010
I didn't plan on that!
So of course, here I am blogging, I had a nice weekend that, aside from the 2 hours of lecture prep and 2 hours of "meet the parents" Parent's Weekend festivities, was pretty work-free.
So of course, today I am a bit behind.
I spent some time this morning planning for the rest of the semester in both my classes. I'd like to say that I had everything all planned out before-hand, and I did, but it turned out that my students were quite different from what I had expected, so I've had to make a lot of changes.
It will be ok, but I have a lot of catching up to do.
Sorry - crappy post, I know.
So of course, today I am a bit behind.
I spent some time this morning planning for the rest of the semester in both my classes. I'd like to say that I had everything all planned out before-hand, and I did, but it turned out that my students were quite different from what I had expected, so I've had to make a lot of changes.
It will be ok, but I have a lot of catching up to do.
Sorry - crappy post, I know.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Faculty mtg
Sitting in a full faculty meeting right now. What a change - faculty voted policy becomes university policy. They have pre-printed ballot forms. So different.
RBOC Friday edition
1. I have traveled enough to know what culture shock is like. I am experiencing it here. I know it will go away, but it is not fun feeling like you have no idea what you are doing and are therefore incompetent. It also does not help with the feelings of inadequacy that faculty seem to chronically have.
2. Offspring's going to a school that is 30 minutes away has been more of a problem than we anticipated.
3. We were hoping to make a trip to NiceState, which is adjacent to NewState, to drop off some things and enjoy seeing it at a different time of year, but we can't get a decent room anywhere, so we are putting it off.
4. So we are going to try to get the last of the boxes unpacked.
5. When we found out that Steve Burns (Blue's Clues Steve) had actually quit the show in part to pursue a music career, we bought this album that he did. I'm listening to it right now, and the quality of his voice still says Blue's Clues to me, despite the instrumentals, etc., and it is making me smile.
6. I would like to do some great research. But when do I have the time?
7. Spouse doesn't get to see the kids much because of his evening class schedule and commuting.
8. We got another low-ball offer on the house from someone with credit problems. We can wait pretty much indefinitely for it to sell, but I think the few potential buyers out there think we must be desperate because we already moved?
2. Offspring's going to a school that is 30 minutes away has been more of a problem than we anticipated.
3. We were hoping to make a trip to NiceState, which is adjacent to NewState, to drop off some things and enjoy seeing it at a different time of year, but we can't get a decent room anywhere, so we are putting it off.
4. So we are going to try to get the last of the boxes unpacked.
5. When we found out that Steve Burns (Blue's Clues Steve) had actually quit the show in part to pursue a music career, we bought this album that he did. I'm listening to it right now, and the quality of his voice still says Blue's Clues to me, despite the instrumentals, etc., and it is making me smile.
6. I would like to do some great research. But when do I have the time?
7. Spouse doesn't get to see the kids much because of his evening class schedule and commuting.
8. We got another low-ball offer on the house from someone with credit problems. We can wait pretty much indefinitely for it to sell, but I think the few potential buyers out there think we must be desperate because we already moved?
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