March Madness

I think it's always appropriate that College Basketball Tournaments are this month. March truly is Mad, but in other ways than basketball. Here's what I've been up to, bullet style:

* Junior Prom. The first week of the month brought on the Junior Prom, which I advise with a few other teachers. Mostly it's the ladies (me and one other teacher) that run the show. We've been planning and ordering and running fundraisers since the beginning of the year. During the week of prom, we decorate every night and practice dancing all week. It's a crazy mad dash until Saturday. The night turned out beautifully. Kids danced all night, girls looked gorgeous in their dresses and boys were dashing in their sharp tuxes. In the end it went off without a hitch, and I'm in gear for next year.

* Region Speech. In the middle of the week, I helped our speech coach (who is also the other adviser for the prom ironically) run Region Speech. It was our turn to host, so for two days I was helping run a tab room with my mentor Stella Hill (my old speech coach). She taught me a lot about how a tab room should work. I've seen a lot of coaches run a meet in the past few years and it was cool to be one of the decision makers finally. I got to stand up against some cheating, something I didn't stand up for last year and cost our school a place at Region. Though, because I didn't give half the competitors a bye and a free win to qualify them for State, I've made an enemy of our close rival North Sevier. Oh well. A little hateful competition is always healthy right? :)

* State Speech. This weekend I went to State Speech with our speech team. We left Friday for sunny St. George and competed in individual events. It was a great day, with a few minor drawbacks. A few of my students chose to participate in some illicit activities. No charges yet, but I think they underestimate the power of my hearing and innate goodness of the few of the students they told about their shenanigans. Anyway, students did well. A few of our kids made it to the final rounds of individual events and debate. In the end the school took 3rd place. My star public forum debate team didn't do as well as normal, but that happens. One of our other teams got to be in the spotlight and I must say they deserved it.
I also got to see Bret and Lori for a minute. We went karaoke-ing at our favorite place Honolulu Grill. Super fun. It was great to see them, even for a short time. My friends Cassey and Landon came over to my hotel too, and had an excellent talk. I love catching up with old friends.
The team had some pretty cool adventures over the weekend. At our hotel, we saw a full scale drug bust. Teams of drug units and their dogs invaded a room and arrested several guys and took them off in discrete white vans. Plus on the way home our bus broke down in Cedar City. Thank heavens our bus driver used to drive for Iron County and knew just who to call. A mechanic came but couldn't get the engine to turn over. In the end they lent us a bus to come home in. We got home at 1 a.m. and it was late. Overall I had a blast getting to know my students a little better and I'm proud of the work they did over the weekend. Way to represent.

Coming up: I'm headed to Washington D.C. this weekend for an essay contest ceremony with one of my students. We'll find out what place she took in the top 3, and we'll also get to see some pretty great sites. I love D.C. It's one of my favorite places to visit. I'm flying in a day early to see Doug and the family. The rest of the four days I'm there will be too busy to see much of them. I can't wait.
The next week (the last week of March and first of April) I'm flying to San Francisco to visit my good friend Margaret. I planned this trip to see her last summer when we were at school. I've never been to that part of California and I'm stoked. We have plans to see the Redwoods and many other things. I can't imagine a better way to start Spring Break.

After that, who knows. I have no April plans but I'm waiting for things to happen. Easter and General Conference are in there somewhere. But I really am looking forward to a little break from the Madness that is March. So have fun with all the bracketology and I'll see you when the madness is over. :)

Pleasant President's Day

Hey, guess what? This blog post will have nothing to do with ranting! I know. I can hardly believe it myself. :) Here's the thing: winter has been hard, but it's almost over. For President's Day weekend I had an awesome time. Cody and Kim decided they needed a weekend away and picked my house as their destination. It was great to spend time with them. We went swimming on Friday; I watched the kids while Kim and Cody went to the temple Saturday morning; And we spent Sunday around the house and out taking family photos. We were relaxed and just enjoyed hanging out together. It was super nice to have people around the house and spend some quality time with my nephews and niece. Anyway, I really just wanted to post these pictures I took of Kim and Cody. I'm super amateur but they turned out pretty cute.

Time for Another Teacher Rant

I got my Time magazine this week, and the cover article is about “Tiger Moms.” It’s the new tough-love for those of you who haven’t heard about it yet (I hadn’t until the article). The article is about Chinese-parenting and making kids achieve a certain level of greatness. It’s all no-nonsense; “You don’t get to sleep or eat or pee until you can play this song on the violin. Stop your whining.” I think it’s great. Make your kids achieve greatness. Awesome. But I see it will never be the American way and that is “awesome” in its own right. Who wants to beat math, reading, and science into people and never acknowledge the importance for free thought and personal/individual accomplishment? Not me. Freedom is it’s own education in a way. I wonder if on these international tests there is ever a section of creativity or thought. I doubt it. But the truth remains. U.S. students are no longer achieving enough to compete in the world we live in. They aren’t prepared, and I’m not prepared for the future we are creating for ourselves. These kids in my classes are, after all, the same people who will be running this country when I’m 60. Sometimes that thought scares me. All I’ve prepared them for is a world full of second chances and no responsibility. I think that’s what we’ve all prepared them for unfortunately.
We still live in a world where entertainment is a billion dollar industry. After all, people may be out of work, but that won’t stop us from watching the Super Bowl or canceling our subscriptions to NetFlix. I think this is one of our biggest problems. We are born and bread as consumers, not creators or workers. We get things and buy things never really understanding what it means to have them. What happened to work ethic, or gratitude for that matter? Where did all this ‘expectance’ come from?
Now, in December President Obama mentioned that we are in the education version of Sputnik right now with China. They are blowing past the world in terms of economic growth and education. One area we expect to dominate has not been our strong suit for quite some time, and I feel a little defeated. I begin thinking, “What do we do?” or worse “Can I get out now and leave the problem to someone else?” I’m writing a portfolio of teaching philosophy right now for an award for which I was nominated. I find myself writing in a circle because I keep avoiding the question of why do I stay in the profession. Too much work and too few rewards, and for once I don’t mean money. I can’t tell you the last time I think one of my students took upon themselves to learn anything. Every day I get asked every variety of the same question “How little work can I do for enough credit?” No longer do students put effort in to learn. They ask for requirements for points. When I actually look at the quality of some of my student's work, I feel ashamed for them . . . and myself. How do I keep going?
I want to say the solution is in facing consequences and dealing with responsibility, even if it means failing. I can't say enough that sometimes we have to stop protecting kids from consequences. Maybe the real question is how do we start?

'Tis the Season

I mentioned in my last post that I would post again when I found my camera cord. Well, instead of finding the cord I bought a new camera. Thanks to a great Black Friday deal I have a pretty great new camera. I am enjoying testing it out. It doesn't do some things I liked with my last one, but I'm still adapting. I feel like a nerd when I'm reading my owner's guide to choose the appropriate setting for the light I'm in. :) I have never really Black Friday shopped before and I don't know that I'll do it again, but can I just say, I will be having a very Merry Christmas because I was pretty selfish on that day. Anyway, that seems like old news. In fact, it was nearly a month ago. Who knows where time goes?
In recent memory, life has been awesome. I went to Salt Lake last weekend for a pre-Christmas getaway with my family to the north. I shopped a little with my mom, saw "Tangled" with Cody, Kim and my nephews. Super cute flick by the way. I also visited with my dad and grandma, went to Temple Square to look at lights and watch our high school girl's choir sing in the Assembly Hall, and I even got in stand-by to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and David Archuleta concert. It was phenomenal; in fact it moved me to tears at least once. We stood in the rain for more than an hour, but it was a fun way to spend the Sabbath morning. That evening I enjoyed seeing my cousins and aunts and uncles at the Olsen Christmas Party. As always we had good food and good company. My niece was even awake long enough to smile at me (she's kind of a sleepy little one). In all, a great weekend. I didn't even grade one essay (which I paid for with lost sleep later).
This week so far has been awesome. I mean, Monday felt like a Monday of a short school week with students begging me to be the teacher that shows a movie, but I didn't cave. We took quizzes instead, mwhahaha (maniacal laugh here). Tuesday was a great day. For the second time since I started teaching, we had a snow day. A joyous occasion. After finding out about the cancellation of school, I went back to bed, only to wake up to more than 14 inches of snow in 24 hours. I spent several hours shoveling the driveway the hard way (is there an easy way?). My arms still ache. But I spent the day doing exactly what I wanted. I assembled my Christmas cards, wrapped presents, cooked. . . It was nice. Though because I didn't grade anything I was up half the night doing that, so I need to work on my priorities.
Today I am off officially. No school (except I have to chaperone a dance this evening). I'm heading south for the holiday, spending it with my brothers Holland and Bret and Lori and Faye. The next week I plan on skiing at least once. Holler if you are interested in joining me. If I don't see you between now and Saturday, I wish you a warm and happy Christmas. =>>>*