That good, ol' "back to school" feeling...

I miss it! I've been out of the physical classroom as a teacher for two years and I miss the feeling of back to school.

The excitement and anticipation of students coming back.

The burst of new ideas for lessons and activities.

The arranging and re-arranging of desks, tables, and chairs, and trying to make the most of classroom space.

The creation of bulletin boards.

Getting school supplies and books stored and ready for use.

Writing beginning-of-the-school-year letters to parents and students.

Seeing colleagues, catching up on what's new, and exchanging ideas.

There is just something about this time of year that I've always enjoyed as a teacher. It feels like the start of something new and great. Such an optimistic time of year full of energy, excitement, and sense of renewal.

Good luck to all of you who are going back to school--teachers, students, young and old!

GREAT Blog Post by a Teacher: I Ruined Everything

Brandi Martin, an art teacher in Illinois, wrote a blog post that's worth sharing and reading ten times over. It's called I Ruined Everything and is about the barrage of negative and often outright despicable comments aimed at teachers.

I live in Wisconsin, where the governor, Scott Walker, declared six months ago that teachers and other public workers are the enemies of society, that public workers are the reason for the state (and the nation) being in so much debt. Walker essentially encouraged others to believe in this notion as well, and ever since then, I have heard and read countless cruel and bitter comments aimed at public workers, especially teachers. It seems Walker made it suddenly okay to treat teachers and public workers with open disdain.

Last week, for example, I was in my backyard grilling and overheard my "nice" neighbor in his backyard talking to someone and completely ripping on teachers. He went on a rant for a long time about how teachers get the summers off, get paid so well, have such good benefits, get in-service days to "train" when they should really be with the students instead, and have the easiest job in the world--anybody could do it. Teachers are "assholes" and "leeches," according to my neighbor.

I have heard these types of negative comments so much in the last six months that it's at times disheartening and very sad. I give public school teachers who continually go into the classroom with a smile on their face all the credit in the world.

So to my neighbor and to all the other angry, resentful people out there who are blaming teachers for society's ills, I give you Brandi Martin's blog post entitled I Ruined Everything.

Read it. Because it's true.

Kids and Technology Dependency

My oldest daughter has become more and more dependent on her iPod and laptop, just to function. She will also hole herself up in her room and probably never see the light of day if she isn't forced to.

It's been an ongoing problem for quite awhile.

Originally, the deal was that she could have her iPod from 5pm - 9pm (after homework and chores were done). And she could have her laptop from 4pm - 6pm (earlier than the iPod for homework purposes). However, it didn't turn out that way. Sneaky bugger!

So my husband and I made the decision to take both of those items away from her.

She hasn't had them for over a month now. And let me tell you, there was much pain and misery in our household as she went through what appeared to be withdrawal syndrome. Major anxiety and depression. Tears, and shouts, and anger, and happiness for awhile, and then back to tears and shouts and anger. Again and again. Up and down.

It was enough to make my husband and me pause and wonder, "What the hell did we get ourselves into?!" Still, we didn't give in. If there's one thing about me, it's that I'm stubborn as hell, and even that kind of bad behavior doesn't get me to back down.

Thankfully, she's adjusting better now. It took about two weeks, but things have calmed down. A lot.

She now hangs out with us in the living room and kitchen. She talks to us. She talks to her little sisters too and plays with them. She's nicer to them. She practices her dancing. She takes walks to the parks with us. She swims in our pool. She mows the lawn. She helps to clean the house.

It's beautiful. She's my girl again. Thank God.

But now what? Questions of when to allow her to use her iPod and laptop again, and how to manage/monitor her use of them lingers in the air. And no, I am not anywhere ready to begin contemplating her having a cellphone. Nope.