I Think I'm In Love

Well, maybe not the way you think.

On Thursday, one of my students' mothers brought by some jeans for our clothing closet (Students who need clothes get them from donations made to the closet...it is pretty spectacular!). While she was in, she dropped by the classroom with two puppies. They are only two weeks old and way too cute! Their mother is a Yorkie and their daddy is a Maltese. Both puppies are female. One is brown and white while the other is completely white.

I got to hold the white pup, and she immediately climbed under my chin. I was hooked from that moment. I couldn't let her go. As you can imagine, the sight of these adorable puppies caused quite a stir on the hallway.

As I walked the pup from room to room, the student's mom told me she was giving these two puppies away in several weeks. I asked her to put me down for the white one. She is just too adorable to let go.

Honestly, I have been looking for a pet, but I haven't found one I connected with yet. The student's mom offered to babysit for me when I had to be out of town. (That would be the biggest concern for me is my traveling.)

So, it looks like I may be a daddy! I should get her at spring break which is late in March.

Any ideas for names???

My students suggestions, so far:
- Snowflake
- Ducky (because of my obvious obsession with rubber ducks)
- Snowball

Today's Protest

Look out Wisconsin...here comes Tennessee's teachers!

Looks as though the Tennessee legislature is launching an all-out war on our public schools and public school teachers. There are now 28 pieces of "education reform" legislation in the house and senate, and not a one of them has to do with actually educating my kids!

This week has been quite an interesting week. I have spent this week on the front page of two newspapers, I have had three television interviews, and a variety of other interviews/news spots. No one told me two years ago that becoming president of our school system's education association would keep me in the spotlight or this busy! However, I am happy to step out there for my teachers and my students.

Around mid-week a private citizen here in our city launched a Facebook drive for a rally/protest to take place today. The purpose of the rally was to support our teachers. It was amazing. About 200-300 people showed up to line the street in support of teachers. I was flabbergasted by the outpouring of support from the community. As people drove by, they would slow down and honk their horns in support. Even our superintendent made the drive by a few times, slowed to parade speed, and honked. It is nice to know he supports us!

After I got home I discovered I got my first sunburn of the year.

All-in-all, it was a great day! I cannot wait to get to Nashville next Saturday for the protest rally. It will be one major undertaking. Until then, see below for a few pictures I snapped during the rally.

It's Time to Fight Back

Welcome to my post that is probably going to royally tick someone off, but I have got to get it out of my system.

I am sick and tired of everyone picking on teachers and our education associations (aka unions)! 


Across this country right now there is a mass movement to bring down teachers and affiliates of the National Education Association. What is worse is that these legislators are toting these attacks as "education reform." Most of the bills they are presenting are aimed at destroying these states' education associations.

This week I sat and watched a Senate Education Committee meeting here in my homestate. I was appalled as I continually heard the senator sponsoring the bill kept referring to the education association as the big-bad union. It was all I could do not to jump out of my seat and scream at the top of my lungs. All I kept hearing was that the education association was nothing more than a bunch of ultra-liberals who deserved to be kicked out and destroyed.

During the discussion amongst the senators on the committee, they kept asking "what do the real teachers say?" I wanted to stand up and say "I am a member of the education association and I am a real teacher. Furthermore, according to my students' performance on your blessed mandated state tests, I am a darned excellent one too!"

I was frustrated beyond belief that these legislators think the education association is nothing more than a bunch of liberal union officials who have no focus on student well-being. Give it a rest! Our associations are composed of teachers and support staff whose sole purpose is the well-being of our students. Believe me...I don't do it for the money! I teach because I care for those kids and where they go in life. I happen to be a member of an education association whose purpose is to protect our students, our schools, and our teaching professionals.

I am also sick of people's misconceptions of tenure. Every time there is a discussion about tenure, these people make reference to a "lifetime guarantee" of a job. Get your facts straight! Tenure is only a guarantee of due process in the event of being let go from my job. If I am let go as a tenured teacher, I have the right to a review by an impartial judge. Having tenure does not mean I have my job for life. Believe me, in my school system, if you are not making the gains with your kids you will be let go! Honestly, take my tenure...I don't care! I am going to kick butt at my job and teach my kids like I always have...and THEY WILL SUCCEED!

Why am I on my blog complaining about all of this now? I have been watching the events in Wisconsin this week. If I wasn't teaching this week, I would have been right there with my brothers and sisters in education. The Wisconsin teachers, and their education association, are under attack! What I found amazing was that the police, firefighters, parents, and students were all joining the teachers in Wisconsin as they converged on the capital. It is not over yet, and I don't know what will happen there.

The scary part is that much of the harmful legislation being proposed in Wisconsin is also being presented here in Tennessee. We are next on the list. I have been working my butt off keeping my teachers informed of all the legislation being proposed in Nashville. Today there are at least 26 "education reform" bills in the senate that would be taking steps backward in education. A number of the bills are aimed at taking down the state education association. I am not making accusations here. The Lieutenant Governor told a group of people (myself included) that he will work this year to take down the association!

What happened to professional courtesy in this world? How about "do unto others...?"

Well, it seems that we no longer have a choice. We are going to gather and converge on our state capital in two weeks. March 5 will be the day we assemble at our state capital in Nashville to let our legislators know that they are making the wrong choices in education reform. We will let them know we will no longer stand by while they try to silence our teachers!

Look out, Nashville, here we come!

How Did That Happen?

I was on Facebook tonight. (That is not unusual!) I was looking through all of the status updates of my friends. I glanced over to the sidebar and saw the "People You May Know" section. I clicked on one guy's profile because it said we had 18 friends in common. I clicked on the mutual friends list to see who knew this character. I began rolling in the floor when I realized that all 18 of those mutual friends were Mormon.

Side note: I was raised Southern Baptist. 


My only thought was "How did I get so many Mormon friends? No wonder people sometimes suspect me to be Mormon!"

Guess I am just blessed to know some awesome people!

Happy Valentines Day

To all of those with a love in your life...Happy Valentines Day!

Here is a Valentines Day Mix for you.

(Some of it may be a bit cheesy, but on this day you can afford a little cheese-o-rama!)

Keeping a Watchful Eye

I have often shared with friends that one of my greatest fears of teaching is losing a child. I don't know that I could handle my own personal grief. I tend to get very attached to these rascals in my life.

Everyone breathe...I am not losing a child this week!

However, I am keeping a very watchful eye over one of them. I have a student named Micah. He is a spitfire of a young man. He is definitely one of those kids who you bond with simply because of his personality. He is just a ball of energy at school. He may not be the brightest on in the class, but he has one of the quickest wits.

Micah is the youngest of four sons in his family. He has two brothers in high school and one in college. His father is the senior pastor at a local church, and his mother work in the teen ministry.

Unbeknown to me, Micah's mother has been very ill. None of us knew. It has never shown on his face or in his personality. He is always this glowing ball of energy! This week is the week we all found out about his mom's illness.

We learned of her illness this week when it popped up on one of my colleague's Facebook account. I took some time to talk with Micah about his mom's illness, but he would not divulge too much information. Believe me when I tell you that his silence is uncommon. I became very worried. On Wednesday, Micah was absent. I immediately thought something had happened to his mother. I was right. Turns out that complication to her illness caused her to have a heart attack or stroke. (I am not 100% positive as to which one it was.) She is now in a coma on life-support.

Micah actually came to school on Thursday, and I was stunned. I pulled him aside to ask about his mom and why he was at school. He made it clear that he asked his dad to let him go to school. The boy just needed some normalcy in his life. It was clear something was wrong with him, but luckily he has some fantastic friends who kept his mind occupied during the rest of the week.

I have been watching Facebook to keep up this weekend on his mother. It is clear that she will not be here much longer. I worry so much about Micah losing his mother and the effects it will have on him. I cannot imagine losing my mother (or father) at such a young age.

My teammates and I feel helpless in this situation. We have offered our support however we are needed. It is clear we will be needed to help Micah adjust when the time comes.

Now I find myself at a loss. I am not used to feeling helpless. I want to help, but I also know that there are people all around this family helping them with whatever they may need.

I guess I will continue to pray for this family.

2 Days - 2 Students - 2 Police Reports

I don't know what has been going on this week, but it seems that insanity has struck my students!

Day 1 of Fun
On Tuesday morning our school resource officer is at my classroom door looking for one of our girls. After about an hour we finally learn what was going on with this student. Seems Katie (names changed, of course) decided to make a phone call on her friends cell phone during the bus ride home on Monday. In fact, she made fifty-five (55) phone calls...to 9-1-1. She decided to make prank calls to the police department. She made reports that people were shooting at the bus, that a student had a knife on the bus, that two kids on the bus were threatening to kill, etc. The police department called the director of transit to locate the bus, and they went out to stop the bus.

To make matters worse, Katie lied to the police and told them two elementary (younger and smaller) kids stole the phone and made the prank calls. The parents of those kids were called and questioned. It was an absolute mess! To add to the fun, turns out the phone wasn't even hers. It belonged to her friend, Cheyenne.

Did I mention why she decided to prank call 9-1-1? She called them because it was the only number the phone was able to call. Ugh!

Since this was first a bus incident, she was assigned 3 days of in-school suspension. But there is more. The police are filing charges against her for filing a false police report. Good grief!


Day Two of Fun
I got to work this morning and my teammate couldn't wait to tell me about the fiasco that ensued on Tuesday afternoon. One of our boys, Trey, got home from the bus with red all over his face, head, hands, and even inside his mouth. He told his grandmother (who is his guardian) that another student, Seth, gave him a piece of exploding bubble gum. The grandmother was supposedly histerical and took Trey to the emergency room. The doctors and social worker at the hospital called the police and the poison control center. Then, they called the school and spoke to our assistant principal. Evidently, the police wanted to know why we were allowing our children to be poisoned. (GOOD GRIEF!) The principal calls Seth's mother to inquire about the exploding bubble gum. Seth tells his mother that Trey had bit into a red pen and spread all the ink all over himself because he did not want to go to school the next day. A few other kids on the bus were questioned and corroborated Seth's explanation of the event. However, this bit of info was not shared with Trey's grandmother just yet. That comes later. Consequently, the police file a report, take photos, etc.

Guess who came to school this morning...Trey. His hands and face were still pinkish-red from the ink they were unable to get off his skin. This will take time. Trey spent the morning telling every human being in sight about how Seth gave him this exploding bubble gum and that his grandmother was filing charges against Seth for this.

The principal spent the day interviewing students trying to get to the root of it all. Finally, at around 2:00 today, they finally got Trey to confess to the lies. He did bite into the pen and make this mess on his own. Seth was an innocent student. Trey's grandmother came into the school this afternoon, and a meeting took place with Trey, his grandmother, two principals, a guidance counselor, and our school resource officer. Trey confessed in front of his grandmother. She was shocked, embarrassed, and extremely pissed off!

Trey will be getting three days of in-school suspension. The principal explained that since this was mostly an after-school incident there wasn't much recourse they could do. (The three days were really for bullying which stemmed from spreading the lies about Seth across the school.) However, the principal did stress to the grandmother and our school resource officer that he believes the police should file charges against Trey for filing a false report. There was also mention of Trey needed to, at some point, apologizing to Seth and his parents for putting them through all this ridiculousness.


It was definitely and interesting few days. Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds.

Gotta Love Facebook

These Facebook ads on the side of my screen tend to make my skin crawl. I don't like that they are gathering information about me and trying to produce ads on my page that will tempt me to visit.

Today I found this on the side of my Facebook page. All I kept thinking was "What the..."

Just a note to Facebook - REALLY???

Marry Me

I am completely in love with this song...so simple yet so powerful!