A Reading Life

On my way to work today (Friday), I decided to stop by Neighbors' Cafe in downtown Lees Summit and treat myself to breakfast.  Of course, I had a book to keep me company, although my children would be aghast at the thought of me eating alone.  Since it's 105, or it seems like that, I ordered an ice tea instead of my usual coffee and sat down with "I Wish I'd Been There", a book I've assigned for summer reading.  As I began, I checked my email and I had a new post from the Nerdy Book Club blog that I follow.  Today's post was about developing a habit of reading over a lifetime.  As I sat with my breakfast, I reminisced about how I became a reader.

The easy answer is that I'm not sure.  I remember loving to learn to read in Mrs. Hazel Schulte's first grade class room.  We read from the "Dick and Jane" primer series and I can still remember the magic as I decoded the first words, "See Dick run."   Mrs. Schulte also taught phonics but I missed about 1/4 of my first grade year so phonics never really "took" and I became a sight reader.  I still today have some trouble pronouncing words that I have never heard (or seen) before.  In Third grade, Mrs. Kallenbach read to us every day after recess.  Here I heard Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer and Strawberry Girl.  Sometimes I think I should read to my AP class, just a few pages every day of some good work of fiction.  Perhaps I will this year, despite the rigors of the AP curriculum which has us running from Columbus to Clinton in just 9 short months.

By 3rd and 4th grade, I was a voracious reader.  Sometimes I attribute my love of reading to the fact that I grew up in the country.  My best friend moved to Tucson when I was in 4th grade and I remember the rest of that year and the following ones, until she returned in 8th grade, as lonely.  My two brothers were busy building forts in the back yard and catching minnows and I was more than content to curl up on the sofa with a good book.  My mother fed my love of books.  I still remember that she would walk to the Jefferson City library on her lunch hour and with the help of the young adult librarian, select a stack of books for my reading  pleasure.  She did this every week, especially in the summers.  And, then there was my Grandmother Lizzie who loved to read.  She started me on the Little House series and I read all of them and then later read them all to my own girls from the same set she had given me.

Mom turned me on to the Zane Grey series and for a while I read only westerns.  Then, grandma introduced me to the fiction of Frances Parkinson Keyes and I became immersed in the world of the antebellum south.  I read all the Nancy Drew books and eagerly awaited new titles.  These were the only books I bought until I was much older.  I also read the entire Hardy Boys series and Trixie Belden, solidifying my current love of mysteries.

It was great fun in the summer to go with Grandma (who couldn't drive) and my aunt (who visited all summer) to the bookmobile.  I still remember climbing into the van and having such fun selecting books.  I read everything.  Books about raising puppies and books about gardening and novels and histories.  Grandma and I would each emerge with a stack to enjoy until the bookmobile came around again.  I posted its scheduled and eagerly awaited its arrival.

Later in high school, I read through virtually every book in our tiny library, enjoying for the first time the work of Kenneth Roberts.  His Northwest Passage still is one of the best works of historical fiction that I have read.  Our English teacher, Pam Breedlove, encouraged my love of reading and urged me to read in genres that I had not explored.

As a young mom, I read all the classics to and with my kids.  Goodnight Moon was a perpetual bedtime favorite as was Runaway Bunny, the Velveteen Rabbit, and Go, Dog, Go.  And, although my kids enjoy reading, they are most definitely not members of the Nerdy Book Club, pulled in other directions by the allure organized sports.  It remains one of the great mysteries of my life why I, who love to read, have children who do not.

Today, I am surrounded by books.  On my summer reading list and nightstand are the books I've assigned to my AP class, (Devil in the Shape of a Woman and the aforementioned I Wish I'd Been There), the books that our Honors Sophomores English students are reading (Bean Trees and Cold, Sassy Tree)
the Hemmingses of Monticello, a Pulitzer prize winning tome by Annette Gordon-Reed, Devil's Brood,
a fictional tale of the family of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and some professional education books, required for my current coursework.    I have books stacked up in my Kindle and am eagerly planning to purchase a Nook.  I read on my iPad through the Kindle app and I Tunes books.  I read the Christian Science Monitor and Time and some of the Washington Post each day.  I'm listening to Fallen Giants on my android phone and generally have at least one book tucked into my purse and another few on tape in the car.

Books have shaped my life and are one of the great joys of my life.  Trying to encourage my AP students to read widely and for pleasure, as well as for education, remains one of my most important goals each year.

Happy Reading!

Swimming and Summer

I finally made it back to the pool today.  It was wonderful!

Some of my best memories are associated with swimming.  I remember those glorious summer nights when Dad would take us to the pool at the golf club in Eldon.  We would swim for two or three hours with the Luetkemeyers, playing Marco Polo, while Dad and Vic looked on with a drink or two.   Dad took us at least two or three times a week, giving Mom a much needed rest and completely wearing us out.  In July and August, Cousin Ron would tag along for even more fun.  Dad was the pool manager and found that a particularly thankless task but we reveled in the pool.

I got my first job as a lifeguard at El Rancho.  Fortunately, I never had to deal with a serious infraction, which was fortunate, because it was a relatively shallow pool, only 6 feet, with a diving board.  I took many lessons there as a child as well.

There were the chilly summer mornings when my brothers and I climbed aboard the Miller County R-III school bus and were off to swimming lessons at Lake Ozark.  I still remember the boats that sprayed what I think was DTD while we were splashing around, learning to swim and teaching wee ones.  For whatever reason, I always had the little ones who were afraid of the water.  My best friend, Connie, had the advanced class, something I envied until one of her students disappeared while swimming.  We found him after several minutes of panic, hiding under a dock.  6th graders haven't changed all that much....I cannot smell rubbing alcohol without thinking of Shirley Phillips putting drops into our ears to kill the lake bacteria.  And, I remember some serious cases of swimmer's ear.  I will always be thankful to Shirley who took some extra time to re-certify my lifeguard certification, after a particularly nasty class conducted by some college boys who were more concerned with looking good than certifying us as lifeguards.

And, when my own kids were little we joined the Y in South Kansas City.  I still remember standing in the pool with Matt, as a baby, watching while Becca climbed the slide.  I calmly called to the lifeguard "you'll have to get her, she can't swim."  "What?" he responded as Becca came down the slide and he bailed in.  She thought it was a great time!  And, we joined another pool and spent delightful afternoons with the Storms family, swimming and sunning.  There were afternoons at the old Lees Summit pool.

So, it seems natural to be back in the water at Legacy.

I am in the office today, pretty much alone, which is okay because we are technically closed on Fridays.  I like to work on days like these because I have time to think, to check my twitter feed, to read some history books that are piling up in my "to read stack", and to catch up on some of the never ending paperwork and organizational tasks that I can never quite get a handle on.

One of the things I've been reading and thinking about are my evaluations that our principal gave me today.  I was somewhat apprehensive as I approached them, relatively sure that they would be positive, but concerned that the views expressed in these anonymous evaluations would be both honest and helpful.  And, as I have read them, I am both humbled and challenged.  It's pretty easy to see which comments are from staff that are both friends and colleagues and those are deeply appreciated.  My strengths, if these evaluations tell the story (and I am not sure they tell the WHOLE story but they definitely reveal an important element in the story) are in compassion, communication, and empathy.  Those are definitely important aspects of my job.  Some of the challenges that these evaluations reveal are also important. . .being more visible in the hallways for both staff AND students. . .becoming better organized in terms of tasks. . .student services. . .and a couple of more personal challenges that I shall not share here but to which I am committed to changing.   We will see if those changes are noted in next year's evaluations.  (insert smiley face)

I did a self evaluation for our principal that was eerily similar to the evaluations I received, noting some strengths and some weaknesses.  So I am thinking. . .of what to do and how to do it.  Details to follow. . .maybe next Friday.

What Motivates Us

Interesting video about the value of rewards...from a teaching perspective...It makes me think about our traditional grading system...this as I am writing questions for the new AP US History exam.

Still Learning

I'm 57.  But, I swear this week I felt as though I was back in high school.  17 and unsure.  I re-learned two important lessons this week... 1) gossip is ALWAYS bad and 2) rules are rules... Lesson 1 comes from my primary job where I was reminded...again... that gossip is gossip and is almost always hurtful....that people will respect you far more for what you do than for what you say...and that what you say can be misinterpreted and isn't easily forgotten, once its said.   And, yet, as I was reminded, we of the human condition are quite ordinary and fallible, prone to stupidity, ignorance and self-aggrandizement.  And.....lesson # 2 from my part time job where despite giving 110%, upper management chose to focus on what I wasn't doing, instead of on what I was doing....


So, in addition to the reminder that I'm still learning about how to act, I am reminded that listening is perhaps the skill that I need to work on the most.   A passionate listener is something that we all long for when we are talking, but it's so much harder to be that person, the person who listens with all of her heart and mind...who engages in the conversation...who puts the to do list on the shelf for a bit...who pays attention to the speaker and doesn't focus on the million other things that vie for attention.


I feel myself pulled in a million different directions.  It's as though when I am at work, part of me is worrying about the kids or my dad or the bills.  And, when I'm home, I'm worried about my colleagues, my to do list, my students, my content.  So, part of trying to commit to being a better listener is commiting to simply BEING THERE wherever I am.  

A Mom's View by an Assistant Principal

As an assistant principal, a student, a teacher, and the mother of a teacher I think that I have a unique perspective on the business of school.  Today, Sarah got a less than terrific evaluation from her principal which is a shame because she’s one of the best young teachers that I know.  It caused me to reflect a bit on this time of year in schools and on some of the fundamental differences between Catholic and public schools. 

I have worked most of my teaching career in Catholic schools, specifically Archbishop O’Hara High School.  And, as most of us who have worked in Catholic schools have thought from time to time, I’ve wondered whether I sacrificed too much in terms of salary or teacher retirement in staying in one place for so long.   But today, again, I feel reaffirmed in my decision.  Sarah’s principal is a product of the public school mind set, as I have come to see it during my course work for my master’s.    Cultivating strong relationships, helping teachers to grow and improve, caring for the whole child…these appear not much a part of her agenda, nor of the agenda of many of the public school principals that I’ve interacted with over the past year. 

It’s too bad.  Sarah is a terrific teacher, and I don’t just say that because she is my daughter.  Her cooperating teacher at her student teaching assignment saw it, her professors at Creighton recognized it, and her evaluations by this principal have been strong, until today.  The summative evaluation that the principal filled out was undoubtedly influenced by the harpings of an older crowd of teachers who disapproved of Sarah’s methods and were probably jealous of her youth, enthusiasm and energy.  That a principal could be influenced by a cadre of cronies could happen in a Catholic school, but it seems less likely too.  Catholic school teachers that I know are not much threatened by innovation, energy, or enthusiasm…probably because they’re too busy teaching, cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming, and doing all of the other myriad of tasks that parochial school teachers do as a matter of course.  I have to confess that as a Catholic school teacher I haven’t been regularly evaluated and yet I know because of my regular interaction with my principal and colleagues when I’ve done a good job and when I haven’t.  When problems arise, as they always do, I talk them out with a colleague or the principal and it’s been that way since I started at O’Hara.  The staff is congenial and there’s no jealously, or at least not much.    No one worries about tenure because it doesn’t exist for us.  Even when we’re mad or frustrated or angry, it’s like a family squabble.  No one worries much about politics. 

It’s no wonder that young teachers get discouraged in the impersonal, meat-grinder atmosphere of many public schools.  I know that it’s not that way in all schools, but in far too many, emphasis is on management, not teaching; regulation, not learning; control, not care.   My advice to all young teachers…hold on, stay tough, don’t let the older or embittered or bureaucratic wear you down.  You are important in the life of a child.  Remember and hold on to that and when you are a principal, or a department chair, remember to embrace the new teachers. . .encourage them. . .make them a part of your community.  Then, and only then, will education be improved in this country. . .unless, of course, public schools embrace the Catholic model.  Spoken like a Lasallian educator.

Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day and I miss my mom. I did a bit of research and discovered that we have Julia Ward Howe and the carnage of the Civil War to thank for the idea of Mother's Day. Julia Ward Howe who is better known as the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic proposed a day to celebrate Mothers and Peace after she witnessed the thousands dead. And, so today we honor moms. I remember those friends and family who are moms and I thank them for their gifts. There are so many moms whose stories give me courage and hope, who inspire...For Joan, who lost a job and beat cancer and found the courage to start anew....For Maura and Michelle whose fierce determination to give their sons with Down Syndrome a Catholic education that will help them be all that they can be....For Walter whose wife died and had to be both mom and dad for his two young children....for the nameless moms...the mother of Moses who set her son in a basket of rushes and watched from afar as he was raised in a stranger's home....for the Jewish moms of Nazi Germany who sent their children away to save them, knowing that they would likely never see them again....for the mother of Frederick Douglass who walked miles in the night to lie with her son for a few precious hours before she had to walk home to begin her day of labor on the plantation...for the young moms at O'Hara who spend countless hours juggling their role as teacher and mom and do so with grace and enthusiasm...for the countless Catholic sisters who chose not to have children so they could teach and nurse and pray for the children of others...for the young mom in Lees Summit whose baby died in her car while she taught the children of others...for the moms who have lost their child...For Cathy and Eileen and Kim...who somehow found the courage to go on. For all moms, everywhere, for those who live in grinding poverty and who lack the basic necessities of water and food and shelter...for those moms in the nursing home whose daughters come each day to feed them and talk with them, even though they do not understand. . .for those moms who accept grubby, half dead flowers from little hands and know that they've received a precious, invaluable gift. . .Thank you for your sacrifice. Your stories are mine because I too am a mom. It's the best thing I've ever done and ever hope to do and each day brings smiles and tears, hope and fear. Does any mom hear an ambulance go by and not wonder where her children are at that moment. . .We want so much for our kids. Mostly I want them to live lives that are filled with hope and relationships that bring them mostly joy. And, I hope that my kids know that I love being a mom. My mom and I were close but now that she is gone, I find myself wondering and thinking more about her as a woman. What were her fears and hopes and dreams? We talked every day but I feel as though I never really knew her. And, oh, how I wish I had known her better. I knew she didn't really like living in Tuscumbia but she did it anyway. She worked most of her life outside the home. How did she feel about that? She was smart and had gone to secretarial school...did she ever wish she had done more? She had some friends but I don't know who she confided in about us or about her marriage. Mom was a pragmatist and a realist...perhaps she didn't think about these things, but I remember that she would spend 2 or 3 nights a week on the river, fishing...normally by herslef, although sometimes one of the boys or my dad would go with her. I think there she found peace and solitude and had time to reflect. I wish I had sat with her....even in silence I would have learned more about her. I miss you mom. Happy Mother's day.