All of a sudden, on June 23rd, I had to go down to the Appleton Hospital.  I was experiencing some major pains in my upper abdomen.  The pains were so horrible, it led me to throwing up like every 15-20 minutes, increasing to about 5-10 minutes after a couple of hours from the first round.

They got me all checked in quickly there.  Thank goodness I already had a chart on file when I needed a TB test done a couple of years back.  I was barely there for about 30 minutes before they made the final decision that I had to be transported by ambulance an hour away to Willmar, Minn. 

The diagnosis came down to pancreatitis.  It came from the fact that my lipids, cholesterol, and triglycerides were way out of whack.  The levels were extreme high and way over the normal, and instead in a seriously dangerous area that effected my healthy dramatically.

I ended up staying in the hospital for six days.  It was a horrible experience.  I wasn’t allowed to eat for almost three days, having to live off of saline through IV, morphine for pain, and some kind of medicine for nausea. 

I now have to watch what I eat at a different angle: low fat diet.  I have to eat smaller portions (that should be a given for anyone!), watch the fat content, and eat more often.  This means more snacks, which are equally as healthy to the low fat content.

It isn’t as hard as it sounds, especially since I feel like I have been given a chance to start over.  I can barely eat as it is.  I just put smaller portions on my plate when we eat at home.  When we eat out, I just cut the portions in thirds or in half and take the rest home to eat the next day.

Tonight was the first time I had eaten out since being on this new diet.  I did fairly well!  I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and french fries.  I normally order broasted chicken and fries.  I can’t eat that anymore.  I only ate half of the order, and took the other half home.

I am grateful this happened here versus back home in Las Vegas.  I would have been just another number and pushed out me out a lot more quickly than I was at the hospital in Willmar.  They would have problem sent me home still in pain, barely through a decent treatment to cure the problem, just with a higher dosage of pain killers and medicine for nausea.  They really took care of me over there!

I have learned my lesson and appreciate I have a second chance to make things right.  Had I ignored the problem and dealt with the pain, I could have died.  Literally!  It was a pretty bad case!

For now, I will enjoy life properly.

While eating out is not the healthiest alternative in most aspects, especially when it comes to eating at McDonald’s, it makes me wonder who really is in control of a child’s diet.  Commercials and advertisements are created all the time to lure in potential consumers to buy the newest product, the most popular product, something that will make life easier.

Happy Meals offered by McDonald’s usually include the choices of a hamburger, cheeseburger, or four pieces of chicken nuggets.  The choices go even further with the choice of a side (french fries or Apple Dippers, and the drink (soda, white milk, or chocolate milk).  Those who are a little older, or something a little more hungry, can opt for what is called a Mighty Kids Meal.  These meals have the choice of six pieces of chicken nuggets or a double cheeseburger, with the same choices for a side and drink.

Yes, the calories can quickly add up, which means the more likely our nation’s children will have a harder fight against being obese.  But here is my gripe: who makes the ultimate decision on what a child eats?

In my household, Scott and I are the ones who flip the bill when we eat out, not our children.  Michael is almost five years old, while Leilani is ten years old.  The last time I checked, the parents have the final decision and say of what a child should eat.  There are times where we eat at McDonald’s and have to deal with Michael throwing a fit over not getting a toy because we did not order a Happy Meal.  As parents, we deal with it and move on.

Furthermore, I’d like to point out that McDonald’s does not serve up those smile-encouraging meals with the best quality of toys anymore.  In all honesty, I feel that most of the toys are pretty much just cheap, tacky crap.  I can make balloon animals a lot more appealing than some of the toys McDonald’s offers.

Did I fall for the same deception as a child? Of course! However, my parents always put their foot down on the final decision on what we ate.  As a matter of fact, McDonald’s was rarely eaten in my household until I was in high school and was able to purchase my own food.  My parents totally avoided McDonald’s because they knew my brother and I would beg for a Happy Meal, just to gawk at the toy and ignore the food.

Parents really need to take an active role in what their children are eating.  Personally, I feel it is okay to eat out anywhere in moderation.  Our children are active and play a lot.  They burn of their calories a lot more quickly than I do. 

Furthermore, parents need not break down and actually purchase a Happy Meal just to make their children happy.  Children need to learn that it is not always necessary to get the toy.  Used to be that McDonald’s was the bribe when I was growing up.  You only went there when you had straight As on your report card, or chose to eat there when it was your special choice of whatever given event that popped up.

Parents, and this so-called “watch” group, also need to understand that there has to be a healthy balance between eating and exercising.  Children who are obese are not obese simply because they stock up on junk foods and fast foods.  They are obese because no one really encourages them (or back when I was growing up, FORCES them) to go outside and play, or become more active in sports. 

I know of at least four children in my condominium community that are obese.  I constantly see them with either junk or fast foods in their hands, they are constantly spotted holing up in the house on the couch, playing some form of video games, and I rarely see them outside playing.

So, here is the thing: I get why this group feels the need to threaten McDonald’s.  As a parent, watching what my children eat is constantly running across my mind.  What I don’t understand is why they feel the need to be responsible for such actions when parents should be standing up for their children’s health.

In my eyes, this is just another way for parents to shrug off blame onto someone else.  This group is allowing parents to skirt their responsibilities when it comes to their children’s health.  While there may be parents that are active members of this watch group, I do not believe it is their sole responsibility to take on such a task for children that are not even theirs.  It should be the parents who stand up and take action AGAINST their children.

Parents need to learn how to say no, to teach their children how to make healthy choices when they eat, to encourage them sternly to be more active in their play.  These type of actions should not be up to a watch group.  I am sorry, but this watch group does not speak up for my children: I do!

While I applaud such a gutsy move by this watch group, I do not agree with the thought process behind the actions.  Parents should control what the children eat.  It is McDonald’s choice whether they want to put toys or money in their Happy Meals.  Is it a horrible scam to ensure consumers continue to return to the coveted Golden Arches? Of course! But what company has ever really stayed on the honest, “for the people” track when it comes to advertising to potential consumers?  Every company always has a hidden, personal agenda when advertising to the public. 

McDonald’s has even found out many parents are unable to just say “no” to their children.  Why should they be knocked for making quick money off of this harsh fact of reality?  If people really want to hit McDonald’s where it hurts (their profits), then they would just boycott purchasing the Happy Meals altogether.

Article Credits:

“Consumer Group Wants Happy Meals Sold Without Toys.” WCCO
http://wcco.com/health/ban.toys.from.2.1767029.html

“Happy Meals.” McDonald’s
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/meal_bundles/happy_meals.html

“Mighty Kids Meals.” McDonald’s
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/meal_bundles/mighty_kids_meals.html

Happy Meal image CBS
http://llnw.image.cbslocal.com/26/2010/04/29/175×131/happymealtoyban.jpg

For our family, it means our annual road trip to Minnesota.  This takes about two and a half days, and it can get pretty tedious.  However, the end result is well worth it when we think about escaping the blistering, blazing heat of Las Vegas, for cooler weather in Appleton, Minn. 

In years past, our trips usually only had one purpose, to visit Scott’s grandmother.  She was getting older, and Scott was very close to her.  She passed away at the end of last August, and this year’s trip seems to lack that purpose.  In a way, it feels kind of empty making the trip, knowing she isn’t here at the end of the journey to visit.

This year, however, I have a new purpose to the trip.  While I have to help clean out the old house and hopefully get it prepared to be sold so an interested buyer, I intend to do smaller things with the kids.  For the first time, the kids will be able to play outside in a bigger back yard since we are now staying at Scott’s parents’ house, which is being rented out by his aunt.  There are bikes in the garage, so this means Leilani will also be learning how to ride a bike this summer as well.

But I also intend to do things that I haven’t been able to do since Leilani was little herself.  Every other summer, I have been pushing through course work.  Last summer was supposed to be the first summer where I was supposed to relax, but ended up scrambling to find my first teaching job.

This summer, even if I am off from work, I still have other small things to do.  But I also want to revisit two passions I have neglected in the past few years: writing and photography.

With the photography, I can bring the kids with me, or leave early in the morning and do it on my own.  The kids and I can visit different small places that are offered around these parts (wayside parks, small lakes, etc.) and take in what this side of the country has to offer.

My next big goal of a vacation: Black Hills, South Dakota.  Leilani remembers that vacation like it was yesterday, even if it were only for a couple of days.  Next year, we plan to spend a week there as a family. 

Now, the only thing I have to really work on is figuring out what I will do with the kids when we return back to Las Vegas …

With that in mind, be on the look out for articles on how to spend your summer days with the kids in Las Vegas, Nevada!

Today was not any different!

My sophomores wants to complain and whine that they had way too much work to do.  They only had a quiz of written responses.  My seniors wanted to whine and complain that they did not have enough time to write their written responses for their short essays.  They only had a week.

See where I am going with this?

I am often in this world where all I hear are the complaints and whining of children.  I feel like even when I make life easy for them, like breaking down exactly what type of information I am looking for in each paragraph of an essay, they are ungrateful.

The odd thing is that they are quite sensitive to me and my well-being.  Today was no exception.

I came into work realizing that perhaps one more day off of work would have been beneficial, but I do not think I would have slept through the whole day like I did yesterday.  The students were quite aware that I was not feeling well at all when the only instructions left were written on the board, and nothing else for the substitute teacher.  No one called or texted me yesterday until the afternoon, in which I slept through anything that was not directly related to my own personal dream world.

My seniors, while whining, were most aware I was not feeling well.  Now, even though they joked around with “We should have an easy day so you can rest,” they knew it was an easy day when I just said “Get your final drafts in by the end of the period.”  I am normally asking for peer edit and review, checking their rough drafts, and then having them do their final drafts.

Not today!

They should know what I am looking for by now!

My sophomores actually left me alone, other than the initial complaints about actual work on a school day.  Yes, they complain every single day that they have to work.  I would hate to see how my little angels cope with the real world when they have to work everyday to pay bills!

Needless to say, just like my own children, my students take care of me.  They made sure my supplies were topped off (paper, returning pens and pencils).  They made sure I had water in my cup (I keep a gallon of water next to me at all times).  They even sanitized their hands before pouring my water.  There was no point to sniff the water to see if they poisoned it because I could not smell for my life.  They continually asked if I was okay, mainly because it appeared that I might have fainted or passed out at any moment. 

So, even though they attempt to push me over the proverbial cliff with my buttons, they are not all that bad.  Even though I have students that do absolutely no work, they respect me and would stand up for me if needed.  I think it takes a lot to show up to a class everyday and do absolutely no work, but have the most respect for the teacher.  Not every teacher can boast that.  Most teachers have those same kids causing chaos and havoc in their classrooms.  In my own classroom, they are angels when it comes to behavior.

This weekend, I plan to rest.  I pick up my iPhone tomorrow from a friend of mine who is nice enough to allow me to dip my toes in the Apple Pool for a cheap ticket price.  Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day, so we will be driving around town tomorrow, picking up all the freebies we can.  I have a LOT of reading to do for my reading group on the book studies my school is doing to improve school culture.  I plan to pretty much veg.

Have a good weekend all!

Right before spring break, I hurt myself.  My right ankle has its ups and downs where it will just give out without notice.  I know, a sign of old age.  I am only 31!  Anyway, usually this ends up happening when I am near a wall, or something to grab quickly and not fall.  This last time, I was in the middle of the bus loading area at work, on my way out to my portable.My

It hurt so bad, I could not even walk on it.  I thought it was broken in some way because I heard something physically snap within my foot.  Lo and behold, I only sprained my ankle.  I beg to differ with the doctor, considering everything else BUT my ankle was swollen.  Even as of today, there is still quite a bit of pain in my foot, no actual pain within the ankle.

This happened Wednesday before break.  I ended up going to urgent care right after work, and then taking that Thursday off.  I was sent home with an air cast for my ankle and a pair of crutches.  I went back to work on Friday with the crutches.  It was brutal.

Spring break went a little better.  We went to Tucson, AZ, to visit Scott’s family.  While we were down there, I drove up to Phoenix for a day of training with the Microsoft Institute for Teachers.  After eight hours of interactive sessions, I was deemed a certified Microsoft Institute Teacher.  I will be posting more about that on my teaching blog.  It was pretty cool.  As of now, I am the only teacher in Las Vegas, NV, to be coveted with this particular title and training.  I was the only out-of-towner, other than the presenters and instructors, at the training.  Everyone else was from the Phoenix and Tucson areas. 

Yes, I am a geek…

Getting back to work this week was pretty hard for me, considering I had to administer mock writing proficiencies to my sophomores.  It was hard for me because (1) I quite a few of my students would not work on the essays, (2) I had to give up a whole wee of instruction in order to administer them, and (3) while I feel it is a novel idea to find out where each student’s writing stands, I knew for some of my students it was a week to just do absolutely nothing productive.

As I tell my students: No, listening to music and at least being quiet is NOT being productive in my book.

My seniors started the novel Accidental Love by Gary Soto this week.  This is the novel I chose for the Just Voices reading and writing project I am taking part in with another teacher on campus.  We are bringing Gary Soto on campus to hold an author visit with our students for two sessions.  My students are pretty excited about this because they will actually get a real world connection with the writer of the novel.  The students have enjoyed reading the novel so far, and have gawked at the fact that within one week we have conquered reading half of the novel.  I thought they would think the novel as a little too childish for them to read, but they like the fact it is a light read that they can really connect with.

Plus, they have all see the connection to the contemporary connection to Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”.  We should finish the novel this week and I have a creative art project that incorporates certain key points from the novel the students will be working on. 

The one thing I absolutely love about my seniors is that they enjoy working in groups.  I never have to actually pick their groups, and they are productive without prodding.  You give them the instructions and rubric, and they go at it!  Why can’t my sophomores be like my seniors?

My sophomores will be starting their fourth quarter novel this week, Animal Farm by George Orwell.  I think they think that this novel will be some weird fluff piece I am forcing down their throats.  What they do not realize is that my students can identify with the different ideas and oppressions that pop up within the novel.

Yes, I am one sneaky teacher!

As for life itself, I just take it as it comes.  I have been given the courses I will be teaching next year: English IV and Modern Literature Honors.  This means all seniors next year.  I am quite grateful for this as seniors tend to take their school work more seriously.  Perhaps I will take on sophomores in a couple of more years when I can establish my own teaching style and strategies in a more sound execution.  As of now, sophomores tend to give me nightmares where I feel I have failed them for not getting them motivated enough to at least pass my class with at least a C average.  Many of them just do not care and see school as a socialization function.

Yes, every single day, it is Socialization 101 that I fight with.  I am constantly reminded that my seventh graders last year were more productive than my sophomores this year.

I am looking forward to next year for different reasons as well.  While I did enjoy teaching all English courses, I did miss having a little more literature incorporated within the courses.  Do not get me wrong, I pretty much have free reign of what I teach within my classes, but I had to incorporate more of the grammar and mechanics into my classes because they are developmental/regular students.  Next year, I will have Honors students.  This means that they will come a little more prepared with the grammar and mechanics to where I can focus a little more on the literature.  That will be a great change up to my teaching day!

Also, I will be there from day one.  This has been a hard transition for my students and me this school year.  For me, I have had to go with a lot of compromising to keep my sanity within my classroom.  For my students, they see that they can wear me down.  Not so much my seniors, but the sophomores have yet to get over the fact that they did not do anything for the first seven weeks of the school year.

I am still paying for this dearly here in the fourth quarter.  They feel I should hand them the answers, give them movies left and right, and this is not going to happen!  They will thank me (hopefully!) when I did it all out of love and for their sake.

I should probably go and download the audio files for the Animal Farm novel and get some other things done before Michael’s afternoon nap (which also is Mommy’s naptime…).  Have a good Sunday!

I ended up taking module courses because I am a new teacher this year.  These are required for my contract.  The sad part is that while our district has been facing heavy budget cuts since 2008, they feel it is important to force people to RE-LEARN their craft that they just graduated from.  Do not get me wrong, I do not think that the program is a total waste… for those who have been out of the “teaching” game for awhile.  My question is what is the point of forcing me to regurgitate these things when I just graduated from a college that bases its education degree upon the sole standards and curriculum our state department of education put forth to be the working gears of our schools’ foundation?

It is time and money wasted!

You should see how many people they have on hand to “teach” these courses.  The modules aren’t even grade or content specific, and in the end most of the stuff I sit through end up being geared toward elementary school grades.

Can anyone tell me how I will benefit from tools of the trade from a third grade or first grade teacher when I teach sophomores and seniors?

I honestly, and probably could guarantee, that we can save a few teachers’ salaries if we cut back on this program they force all new teachers to participate in.  If we refuse to participate in the courses, we do not get our step increase for the next school year.

WAIT! Budget cuts are coming along, and we may not even see that increase.  This means that the almost 30 hours I poured into this program because I was promised a step increase would have been for nothing.  I spent time away from my family for something I already knew.  Why not at least allow me to take professional development courses, workshops, seminars and conferences in lieu of classes that reinforce research-based practices?

I will tell you a secret about teachers and research-based practices and strategies.  While it is all good and great to hear how research has proven that X can work with Y because A and B are great strategies, it is ultimately up to the teacher to tweak it and mold it to fit their teaching style.  It is like students and learning, not all students learn the same way.  We have to differentiate instruction for our students to reach them all.  Why does this practice not apply to teachers in their learning world?  When teachers step back into their student role, why must they conform to learning the same way?

Kind of defeats the purpose of piping up for differentiated instruction when teachers cannot even get differentiated instruction to meet their needs and demands of their learning processes and styles…

So, while I have become the mother figure to 180 other students at the high school I once graced as a student myself, my children have been thriving and growing like weeds!  I enjoy my job immensely, and thoroughly love the fact that I can be home in the evenings to tuck my children into bed, be there for bedtime stories, and not have to be frazzled over procrastinating on papers (Ah, those were the days, huh Greg?).  I now worry about things like lesson plans, how to get my students motivated and encourage them to learn, figure out how to connect my standards to the real world, etc.  We all know the infamous question of “When will I use this in the real world” will inevitably come up at least five times a week.  Yes, at least once a day, but times that by five because it will pop up in each class period I teach.

So, what is my answer to that infamous question?  I am so glad my readers are so inquisitive!

I tell them they need to learn how to read different types of literature, and write in different ways.  They will never know when they have to give answers, verbally or written, in different ways.  I explained to them that when I interviewed people to work for me at McDonald’s, I had asked questions that were reality-based like “If a customer came up to you yelling and screaming that they found a hair in their hamburger, and showed you the hamburger but no hair, how would you handle the situation?”  They need to know that “I’d tell them to calm their ass down and stop disrespecting me” is not a professional answer.  So, just on that one experience alone, they need to know the different between informal and formal languages.

“Why do I need to learn how to write poetry, Miss?”  Because you never know when being poetic might give you an edge on a position at a place of employment, or it might be the one thing that becomes their romantic trademark among the ladies, or gentlemen.

“Why do we need to know how to write essays, Miss?”  Because most employment applications require short written responses now, and it helps frame your mind for thoughtful, logic answers to verbal questions.

{Sigh} Yes, I love my job, but it does get a bit tiring to connect the real world so simplistic like that, but I work with students who come from homes that are about survival day to day.  They have to work for what they want, and it isn’t ever just handed to them.  So, I have to be as simplistic and to the point with my answers, while exposing them to meatier texts.  I don’t want them thinking those that go off to college are only privileged to the text I expose them to!

Back to my two kids of flesh and blood…

Leilani just finished her CRT testing.  From what I understand, she did very well.  Last year, she got the highest score in math for her grade level.  This year, I was told that her math levels are a 22 when the norm for her grade level is 12.  She is on target for everything else.  She is just starting to get into creative writing, but detests essay writing.  I keep telling her it is like a puzzle: find the right pieces to fit together, and you have one awesome picture in the end.  She has yet to see the fruit of this analogy. 

Michael has been doing great in pre-Kindergarten.  He loves socializing and playing with his guy friends, but still will refuse to play with most of the girls.  We enrolled him in the phonics program his preschool offers, also.  We were worried he would not be ready for Kindergarten if we decided not to.  We had allowed him to attend one session, and he love it.  He talked nonstop about it for three days.  We knew we had to put him into the program then.  How can you deny them to learn when they are excited about it?  He has been doing great with it and enjoys his weekly sessions.  The great part about the program is that the teacher types up her evaluations and then sends home the activities and songs they worked with so we can enforce them at home!

I can finally say that I feel life is heading in the right direction for us.  It took a lot for us to get hear, a lot more tears and exhaustion on my end because I was working full-time and going to school full-time, but I can safely say that it is starting to pay off.  I can finally say that I am completely happy with my job, and that our family finally has some kind of consistency to Mommy being around!

I had so much on my plate the last few years that it I wasn’t really taking care of myself.  I’d skip my vitamins, skip meals, and even ignore the signs of when my body would scream for sleep or rest.  Ultimately, the result of the lack of taking care of me would be my being sick constantly, usually around midterms and finals.

I’d get these colds that I couldn’t shake for a month.  I’d lose my voice and have to teach in a hoarse whisper, while using a microphone to amplify my weak voice.  I’d sleep through weekends because I would stay up until 12-1am in the morning working on my projects and papers, only to turn around and get up at 5am to get myself and the kids ready to head out of the door.  It was this vicious repeated cycle that never allowed me to catch up with myself.

I know that stress was a contributing factor to my health now, especially since I really haven’t been sick this school year.  I only called out once, and that was a stomach bug I could not shake with Pepto Bismal.  That was a gross day to deal with, and I will leave it at that.  However, the most I have had to deal with this year is my allergies.

Up until now.

I believe this is the first time since Fall 2008 that I have felt like I could sleep a week to make whatever is attempting to break me down go away.  My ears have been bothering me, my nose has been running, and my forehead has been feeling like a huge semi-truck has just crashed into my cranium at about 100+mph.  The meds I take that help me feel so much better makes me very drowsy.  I suppose the intent of the medicine is to make me sleepy to get rest.  The rest results in my immune system building back up.  If only I could find a non-drowsy that works just as well as the meds I take, I’d be on cloud nine!

But it also comes down to my skipping my vitamins and other meds again.  I have been completely lazy last week when I should have known better.  I knew my allergies were bothering me, and when I cut out the vitamins, getting hit with a sinus infection is always the bitter case that takes over my sanity. 

Procrastination.  Don’t allow it to consume you, people!  Don’t allow procrastination to persuade you into putting off the small, minor things in life.  All it will do is snowball into one huge problem.  In my case, I feel it snowballing into a sinus infection.

I have no one else to blame but myself.  I mean, I could blame society for allowing my students to come in sick as dogs, coughing and sneezing everywhere.  Parents should not allow their kids to come to school sick, but they do.  The various reasons are so widespread, it really isn’t worth getting into.  I just try to make them feel as comfortable as possible by keeping plenty of tissues on hand, as well as copious amounts of hand sanitizer.  I have been spraying my desks and chairs down with Clorox Hard Surfaces spray every other day to break down the germs in the classroom. 

So, this week, I am going to keep it light and easy for all of us.  With proficiency testing going on with most of my students, they do not need the added pressure of new lessons.  We will be working on propaganda techniques used in skits.  This will allow me to take a breather of trying to gear in actual lessons into a deceptive song and dance to get them to learn, and they will get a break from hurting their brains even more.

So, I am going to take my own advice and get some rest.  I have a few small things to finish up, and then I will turn in early for the night.

You get the drift.

I am noticing that since I graduated from college, I have slowly become a procrastinator once more.  It is pretty pitiful, if you ask me.  What do I have to procrastinate for, anyway?

I work all day.  However, my day starts way before I even get the car into the parking lot at school.  I am up and out of bed by 500am the latest.  I not only have to get myself ready, which sometimes includes ironing if I was lazy the night before, but I also have to get Leilani and Michael ready.

After fighting (yes, fighting!) with the kids to get them up and then prodding them repeatedly to get moving and ready, we are out the door by 645am the latest.  I drop them off at daycare, and then finally work on my commute to work.

My work day officially starts at 725am, but I often arrive by 715am.  I am often at work until about 300pm.  If you are new to my blog, I am a high school English teacher.  It can be a drain on my motivation to get my own personal things done, but I love it! 

This brings me to the procrastination.

When I get home, I just want to veg.  This is becoming a problem.  I am not motivated to read, or to write (blog, poems, short stories, the whole writing realm!), and it then carries on into not having any motivation to cook dinner.  Scott rarely cooks, unless I have a class at night and am not home to actually cook, so asking him to do it more often is like asking a wall to move six inches.

Today, I am going to bite this horrible problem in the hind end!  I am tired of being so unmotivated.  I know that it starts with me, so I am going to start thinking more positively throughout the WHOLE day.  It takes so much out of me to do this at work, that I often feel I can flip the switch off once I am driving away from work.  This cannot be the case. 

While playing around on Facebook is a great time killer, it isn’t productive.  I love my games on FB, but they consume my attention once I get into them.  Productivity before play time!

So, here is my plan.  Today, I am going to sit down and figure out my resolutions, outside the writing aspect of my life.  This is what I have thought of so far, which I also have listed on my iTouch.

2010 Resolutions:

1. Blog once a day.
2. Write at least 500 words a day on either short stories, novel, or poetry.
3. Clean the kitchen daily. (loading/unloading the dishwasher, keeping the counters clutter-free, sweep the floors.)
4. Clean bathrooms on the weekends.
5. Work and write before play when I get home from work.
6. Grade everyday to avoid bringing any work home on weekends.
7. Search for at least five teaching resources a day via Twitter, Facebook, and Google.
8. Figure out how to create iPhone/iTouch apps and begin creating more teacher-based apps.
9. Read at least one hour a day.

Eventually, I will add exercise and dieting to my resolutions.  I have to start small.  Once I see the small accomplishments adding up, then I will move onto the more challenging aspects of my life.  Exercise and dieting are challenging for me.  Eating more healthy is challenging, especially when my children are used to eating crap.  Yes, I said crap, and I will admit it is crap.  Again, all in due time, the changes will be made and conquered.

My main focus right now is to get my life back onto a positive path that will get me where I need to be emotionally and mentally.  Making the small changes will lead to bigger changes that will allow me to live a healthier life all around.

I know I work a full-time job.  Teaching does take a lot out of a person, especially when it is also an emotional commitment to get the students to buy into the fact that they do need their education as a vital resource of survival.  My sophomores just do not either get it, or choose to deny it and themselves.

I have been having some weird dreams lately about my students.  The short version: I am a student in the classroom, and one of my students happens to be the teacher.

I know what my subconscious is telling me.  I think it is time I reel in the reigns a little on my seniors.  I give them way too many liberties.  I know this, but I thought it was working for everyone involved.  Apparently, I am starting to see a shift that I was not consciously aware of.  So, time to put my foot down a little more.

Home life has been okay.  Michael is fully potty-trained, and yet he has taken into peeing his pants again.  I am curious to why all of a sudden he is having accidents again.  He has been attempting to hold his pee way over the threshold of what his bladder can handle and has been tinkling in his underwear.  I will literally see him to the pee-pee dance, and he will flat our refuse he has to go pee!  Is this normal for four-year old boys?

Leilani has been pretty defiant lately, as well.  She has been doing more in the lying category.  She has been attempting to sneak out money and toys to school.  The one thing I have in my favor is that she is unable to lie without giving herself away.  She is unable to tell a lie without looking down to the ground, avoiding eye contact, and there are just these small mannerisms that just give her away.  We can tell when she gets caught lying when she busts out the tears and getting very angry versus her actually telling the truth where she is just collapsing into a meltdown.  While it does not sound like there is a difference, there is.

Professionally, things are going well for me.  I feel I am finally fitting into a mold within my school.  The students like me, overall.  Many of my sophomores refuse to do work, but at least I can get them to show up almost everyday and at least participate verbally.  It is a start!  I am currently working on a project where we will be bringing Gary Soto, the author of great novels like The Afterlife and Buried Onions.  He will be speaking to three of our English classes on campus.  We had all pooled in with essays and applications to get him to our school and we were one of the chosen schools of about ten total, I believe.  It will be a great experience!  Only my seniors will be participating with this project.  I originally wanted to do all of my classes, but I cannot accommodate all of them within the last two class periods of the day.  So, it was easier to consider the seniors since I have them later on in the day.

Life is good.  I think I am finally where I should be within this crazy world.  Teaching is what I was meant to do.  I mean, I am already a mom.  Now it is time for me to take that to another level and give that maternal love to my students as well.  At first, I did not want to admit to the fact that two other teaching contracts fell through before I was offered to go back to my alma mater.  It wasn’t just fate, it was destined that I go back to where I grew up and help those who feel they have nothing else to work toward.

My goal this year is to ensure as many of my students pass their classes and my seniors graduate as I can get.  No attached number to this goal.  I am not going to go bent out of shape for the ones who truly do not want to try and work for themselves.  But I will definitely be there for those who want me to help them succeed in this chapter of their life.

People did it for Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit, as well as when Hurricane Katrina and Rita hit the southern states of the US.

But here is my question I want to pose to my readers: What about those who are in your local areas?

It really saddens me, disturbs me, that people are so willing to dig into their pockets to help others globally yet feel the necessity to skirt helping those here in their own community.

Here are some people in my own community who I know could use just the same amount of help as those in need in Haiti:

1. The homeless – Yes, I am aware many of them take advantage of the “system” and get belligerent.  However, after seeing the news last night of how many are upset that they are not getting help fast enough in Haiti, they were pretty irate and belligerent!  I get that they need help, but they do not factor in that they are in the middle of massive heaps of rubble and dead bodies.  It is hard to work around that.  It isn’t going to help the situation by becoming very negative like that.
2. Title I students – For those who are not aware of what Title I is, here is the gist of it: the students who come from homes of poverty, or have no homes at all.  They get their food and clothes from charities that collect items for them to have in order to stay on track with school and work.  Not many stepped up to ensure the Three Squares program that provides meals for these students through the USDA Free/Reduced School Lunch Program and when there are breaks in school (weekends, winter break, spring break, and summer break).  It takes a lot for these charities to scramble enough for those who have been hit hard in these times.  It has becoming a growing demand since the foreclosures in our city have growing increasingly quick!
3. Diseases research and foundations – While I know not ALL of us are effected by the different diseases and syndromes out there, many of us do have people who we hold close and dear to us become effected or have lost them to such natural things in life.  Even just walking in the different walks for causes and paying the registration fee helps.  Not many actually participate, though.  For me personally, I have dealt with juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and various cancers that I have either lost close friends and family to or are currently fighting the good fight to stay alive.
4. Our education system – I know that technically the educational system that is under the public sector is supported by local, state, and federal taxes.  In the private sector, they are supported by those who enroll and pay tuition.  However, people can still help in different ways.  Businesses can donate their goods or money to help when school districts cannot get funding.  For instance, Clark County School District (CCSD) faces harsh times here in the near future.  We have already had drastic budget cuts and have gone through a reduction in force (RIF) process with most of the entities that are present in our district.  Teachers have been surplused out and shifted around.  Supplies are not being provided by parents because they cannot afford them.  Teachers are trying to supply as much as they can, but we cannot afford much ourselves.

This list can go on, I am sure.  I am pretty positive those who read this can add a few more.  But my point is pretty clear: we do not help those around us as much as we should.

I don’t know about others, but I feel I have a civic duty as a community member to help those around me.  This is not a new concept to come up in my writing prior to this school year.  It has not changed simply because I do work at a Title I school, a high school in a low-income neighborhood.  My standing on this has always been the same: help those when I can.  I now do it mostly in my classroom, but nonetheless, I help.  I purchase school supplies when they are on outstanding sales ( mostly the penny sales, or anything that is at least $0.25 or less).  I scramble around helping my students through different charities and resources I have worked with in the past.  I listen and counsel.  I read and work at my children’s daycare when I can to promote literacy among those young kids that will be entering our school district in the next year or so.  I donate our items we no longer use to Shade Tree and we save up money and buy toys throughout the year to donate to the KLUC Toy Drive that is held every year to help support Help of Southern Nevada.  We buy fleece and create blankets for the blanket drive every year. 

When I say we, I mean my family.  I feel it is important to instill these lessons in my children as well.  I don’t just promote these ideas in my classroom, but also in my home.

I guess what saddens me the most is that many families do not instill these values and carry them out in their communities.  While seeing Haiti in need and promoting a sense of togetherness by helping them is a novel and awesome idea, it just seems unfair to those who are closer to our own homes.