Pirate Flags and Good Night Moon

So, I don't think most pirates fly flags.  I think they're sneaky.

They want you to think they're something or someone else.  They are NOT going to go around flying a flag announcing, "Hey, I'm a pirate."

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People who talk about the "stupidity" of children fly their own type of flag.

Big ANNOUNCEMENT:

If a child has less experiences, they won't know as much as others who have had more experiences.

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Teachers are paid to help students learn.  Sometimes a teacher gets a child that just needs some facilitation.  Sometimes you get an empty vessel and you need a pitcher to fill it.  However, the teacher sometimes needs a snow shovel to fill the vessel.  And frankly, I've had folks that have needed a steam shovel, a back hoe, and a caterpillar bulldozer....and it wasn't enough.  If you haven't taught school, I resent your critique of teachers.

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Parents don't keep their best students at home.

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The news for this week is that the "successful" child has heard 30 million words before entering school.  30 million.

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I have an idea.  (Or as Mary Michael says, "I have an I.D."

When the soon-to-be new parent(s) is(are) taking the required car seat course, I propose the instructor gives them the "read everyday to your child" pep talk.  AND maybe we should give every parent a copy of the children's book "Good Night Moon" and tell the parents they have to read it 232,559 times aloud to their child before the child enters Pre-K.  [Note:  There are 129 words in the book.  30,000,000 divided by 129 = 232, 559  (I ROUNDED UP.)]

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I want students to learn.  I want teachers to teach.  But I also want our boys and girls ready to learn.  So, moms and dads out in the Blogosphere, get your books and start reading.  Fly the flag that says, "Successful."

Let's ALL Worry About Our Make-Up

It's funny when I intentionally put on make-up like eye shadow.  I think that I look like I have make-up on.  I obviously must be playing grown up.  But that's just me-- I love how people look who really enhance their beauty with carefully applied make-up.  That just isn't one of my strengths!  That zombie look is easy for me to achieve.

hahahahahahahah

It's always bizarre when I hear women talking about other people who DON'T wear make-up.

Folks, welcome to 2013.  Don't impose your values on me.

Remember that lipstick from the 1060's called Tangerine?  Oooooooooo, it was the rage in junior high. Bad idea:  it's not cool on a sixty year old.  It would look more natural if I went around wearing those parafin lips.

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It's not the make-up on the outside that we need to worry about-- it's the "MAKE UP" on the inside that we need focus on.

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Someone asked me if I had a big head now that I worked "downtown."  "No, I don't think I do," I replied.  "I am consistently amazed at how hard some people work.  I am also amazed at those who think they are owed a paycheck for not doing anything throughout the system." NOTE:  I am beginning to know who you are.

If I start acting like a know-it-all, please knock me up the side of the head with a Bible.

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As I have been moving throughout the county,  I have intentionally NOT worn my name badge.  I want all of us to be treated equally.  I don't want special privileges.  I want to hear the tone of voice adults use with each other and with their students.  I want to hear the students' tone when talking to the teachers.

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I was asked in a very snotty tone with a sneer, "What exactly are you doing at our school?"  The person then turned their back on me.

"I'm the kindness police, " I sweetly said.

The person turned quickly back around as I was putting on my badge.

Shazam!  Behavior modification at it's finest!


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The big question is the definition of "help".  For those of you that have worked with me before, you have heard me use the phrase, "I want to help everyone be successful."  For some of us, it might be changing seats on the bus.  For some, it might be getting off the bus.  For others, it might be learning how to drive the bus.  Some folks don't even know there is a bus-- God bless their little hearts.

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It's the make-up inside of us.  Values, hopes, dreams, beliefs, work ethic...... It's not the make-up on the outside of us!

Proverbs 10:4

A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

2 Thessalonians 3:10
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat." 

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Pretty is as pretty does, as granny used to say!  

Assistant Principals' Lives are Measured in Dog Years

Work is work.  I like it.  I like solving problems.

I've been working a little over two months.  (Sing a chorus of "Back in the Saddle Again.")  The days fly by.  The nights fly by.  I enjoy listening to WDEN as I drive into town.  I am happy.  Change is in the air.  We're working on the work.  Noses to the ground.  Shoulders to the grindstone.

I've met hundreds of great teachers and thousands of terrific students.

Most days it's like being an assistant principal on steroids.

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Currently, I talk to lots of people with problems.  Most of it is in the communication between people.  There are very few absolutes in my line of work.  Education is not for the faint of heart.

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Most of my crazy, funny stories come from my stint as an assistant principal.  Now, that's a job that should be measured in dog years on the salary scale!

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Ten Years Ago-- Circa 2003

Friday night.  I'm finally home.  The phone rings.

I answer.

Mother of wronged child states in her best Law and Order Voice, "I am an attorney. My child has been wrongly accused of smoking a cigarette.  She would never do this.  She told me so.  She said you are out to get her. Why did you call me and tell me that she was smoking, Dr. Weaver?  She has told me repeatedly that she was not smoking.  Why are you so unfair?  Why did you make it up?"  Woooo, she was ramped up.

"Ma'am, I saw her.  I saw her with my own two eyes."

"Dr. Weaver, she says she was not smoking."

"Well," I began.  "Ask her if she was holding a lit cigarette out in back of the vocational building and if she had smoke coming out of her mouth when I saw her.  She was either smoking or she was on fire."

LONG, LONG, LONG pause of the other end of the telephone conversation as mom and daughter discuss the semantics of the phrase "smoking a cigarette".

Words sweet as honey then greeted me from my formerly irate attorney mom, "Dr. Weaver, I hope you have a nice evening.  Thank you so much for dealing with my lying child.  I will be taking care of this at my end.  Please accept my apologies for acting like a fool."

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Slam Dunk

Being Responsible is not All It's Cracked Up To Be.

I watch what I put on Facebook and in my blog.  I'm usually pretty truthful but sometimes I need to clean up my act.

I just have to lay it on the line at times.

AND sometimes I need to tape my mouth with duct tape....or duck tape as my little friends called it.  I would use the zebra striped "DUCK" tape.

However-- whoop, whoop, Happy Hump Day!

I love Wednesdays!

Pre-Dempsey-- They'll Leave the Light on for Me

I'm innately friendly.  I like people.  I like little people.  I like older adults.  I visit.

(When I was in junior high and high school I worked in a nursing home feeding people supper.  I learned to carry on a conversation with people who couldn't talk.  I would move from patient to patient feeding them supper and visiting up a storm.   It has been said I could talk to a lamp and have a great time.)

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Remember, I'm growing my wavy hair to give to a group who makes wigs for cancer patients....it's getting long and wild.  Free-flowing hair-- wildly blowing hair-- hair that looks like the long gray haired guy in the Oakridge Boys.  I might look like a witch-- scratch that, I really have a very easy time looking like a witch.

Remember, I have another bad knee.  My left knee is getting better after a bout of "dog pulling woman down the front steps while having a sprained knee, i.e. taking painful knees to the next level."  I am still limping like Tiny Tim in a Christmas carol.   Aspercream is my new favorite beauty product.

Remember, I love to walk to Jeannene's restaurant to have a vegetable plate and have twenty minutes of quiet time. It's in downtown Macon.  It's about a block from where I work but it's worth the pain and the agony of walking.  Yes, I love their chocolate pie.

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I have a hitch in my giddy-up.

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So, I'm moving slowly, limping back from a nice lunch with my hair blowing wildly in the winds of September when I was stopped by a street lady.

"Say, dearie, did you used to live at the Dempsey Hotel?"

"No, Ma'am," I replied.  "But I'm about ready to move in."

"Well, we'd love to have you."

"Thank you.  You're so sweet to me."


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The Dempsey is a beautiful, old hotel in downtown Macon.  It was converted into 194 apartments for the elderly, those on government assistance and the disabled.

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I guess I fit two out of the three categories.

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And, I can't take any tube socks.  Right, Carol?

A Little Recess is Good for ALL of US

I think play is underrated.  It scares me how many children never get to go outside and run amuck.  I enjoyed that part of my childhood.  Running amock is something I still do quite well.

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We have students so entrenched in school.  So focused.  So stressed.  I liked the parts of school that would be considered frivolous today-- I always loved coloring leaves the fall colors of red, orange, and yellow.  There's probably not a standard that matches that activity.

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"Go outside and get some of this energy used up."  I remember all of my teachers telling that to our class.  We had a short recess at 10:00, after lunch, and at 2:00.  "Time to get back to work."

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I am watchful when I'm keeping Mary Michael and Sally.  Bugs, hidden perils, unyielding ground, steep steps, bath water, stove, dogs, cats, running in the house.  I sure don't want them hurting themselves. Sharp pencils, running with sticks, fire, glass, poison ivy-- I am on Red Alert when the girls are here.

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Let me tell you about the time I:

1.  Played with matches

2.  Petted strange dogs

3.  Created a bug zoo

4.  Raced to see how fast I could ride my bike down a hill

5.  Climbed a tree and hung out over a highway to see what was on the tops of semi trucks

6.  Tried to see if we could shoot a neighbor with a bee bee gun (we could and did)

7.  Watched a Kindergarten friend fall off the top of the slide and break his arm (the teacher was right-- do not stand up on that platform) (the teacher did get more credibility in my 5 year old eyes)

8.  Rode a mean Shetland pony all around Colo, Iowa with a friend, Deb Liston, for  $5.00 per day

9.  Took my clamp on roller skates to school for recess-- we all skated

10.  Left Kindergarten and walked home by myself because I was tired of her (the teacher) bossing people around.   That was not a good idea.

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Obviously, I wasn't the easiest child with whom to deal, but I don't think I was horrid.  I might have been challenging.  I could also read upside down and made sure I knew everything on the teacher's desk-- everyday.  I could have been a spy.  I still could be a spy if my eyesight was better.

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So, I'm hear to tell you that we all need to run a little more, laugh a little more, love a little more, and learn a little more.  School is serious business....but our children need to the benefit of all of our knowledge....and that knowledge includes knowing that "play is a child's work and work can be their play."  Instruction can have depth of focus and still be fun-- I learned most of my physics content from my bike accidents, my biology by my collections of crazy outside stuff, and my chemistry by cooking with Daria.

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I am not on my high horse tonight.....I am still thinking about that mean little Shetland pony.  That was $5.00 well spent.  Right, Deb?

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Those side effects-- boredom, apathy, a selfish me me me world.  Playgrounds teach the negotiation skills, agility, and strength of character.  A pick up kick ball game creates sequential thinking, analytical reasoning, and evaluation of fellow team members.

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So, it might be worth your while to take a recess, folks.  We're "grown up" but it wouldn't hurt any of us to "go outside" and "get rid of some of that energy".  It's time to get along and compromise.  Grow and love.  Take time to watch the clouds and smell the flowers.  Me, I'm going to find a Shetland pony to love!

Starry, starry morning!

Raggs and I were up at the usual time-- zero dark thirty.  We had to go outside in the crisp morning air.

Fall was there-- we felt it.

The stars sparkled.