Holiday Reflection

La Familia Scribe survived the OBX Snowpocalypse, and returned to the DC area to discover 50-degree temps heralding the New Year. This snap captures our attempt at a "beachy" Christmas tree (courtesy of K-Mart), with the roiling Atlantic reflected in the glass.

We're welcoming 2011 at home tonite. Both chicas are scattered to the winds ~ one down FLA way, and the other back at school in the Upper Midwest.

And while I'm not often caught quoting Oprah, I'd like to leave you with this New Year's nugget:

"Cheers to a new year, and another chance for us to get it right." Who knew the Queen of Daytime TV could be so profound?

Cookies for Santa, and More

When my Chicas come home, I'm frequently forced to take a step back; to marvel that my babies aren't babies anymore. They're all grown up but, in a sense, will always be the little girls I carried.

Ella Numera Una worked on a project over the Christmas weekend. While both my gals spend a preponderance of the day tapping away on their laptops, Una seemed a tad more engaged than usual. That, plus yesterday, when I tried to cuddle and take a glance over her shoulder, she shrugged away from me.

She had a secret, for sure.

But when Una wrapped things up yesterday evening, she showed me she still has the element of surprise down pat.

Presenting Ella Numera Una, the latest of the Blogger Chicks in La Familia Scribe. Her newest effort, how do I boil water? was inspired by her fondness for The Food Network and her strong survival instinct.

"After 18 years of having home-cooked meals by Mom, four years of a dining hall and pizza delivery, I had to start relying on myself (apparently, you need to cook in order to eat)," Ella Numera Una says in her new blog's "About Me."

"I was terrified at first, but soon learned cooking isn't too hard and can even be fun," galfriend says.

Please drop by how do I boil water? to catch favorite recipes, observations and food critiques. Una characterizes her new creative effort as an "experiment." And she'd love to have the blogging community join her in trying new things.

OBX Snowpocalypse

10 inches;

no plows

slipping,

sliding...

Staying in

and watching the ocean

crash on the snow-salted sand..

No plows,

nowhere to go.

A beautiful,

belated

gift.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Feeling the poetic muse? Scribble some verse, post it at your place, and link back here.

No fuss, no Mr. Linky, no muss.

Merry Christmas from the Outer Banks!

Hello, Frosty!

I'll Be Home for Christmas

My Chicas are home.

Christmas stands complete. Let the

wild rumpus begin!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you a poet? Do you know it? Just scribble a poem, and post it!
No Mr. Linky required. Just link up and enjoy your day...

Tubby Time

~ "I think a lot of contemplation happens in bathtubs. It does for me.
Nothing like a hot bath to ease the tension
and think about what's going to happen next." ~

~ Sara McLachlan ~

Orange You Glad It's Almost Over?

Well, this ol' high school teacher certainly is! I don't think my cherubs could possibly get spazzier as the holidays approach. We suffered our first snowstorm today (a measly three inches still tied up everything in DC and beyond), and you'd think we'd experienced another Blizzard of 2010.

Don't think I'm quite ready for that again. Yet.

For now, I'll dream of happier times ~ coming next week ~ when La Familia Scribe migrates down to North Carolina's Outer Banks for a little Yuletide R & R.

Thanks to all who voted for us in the Edublog Awards Competition. My little MOO and I are most appreciative!

Thanks for Giving Me a Hand!

The Christmas Shoes

Tuesday is the last day to vote for The Scholastic Scribe
and MOO in the 2010 Edublog Awards...Thanks!

Every time I hear that maudlin little holiday song, about the boy and his ailing mama and the shoes, I exercise my prerogative to change the station on the car radio.

The "socks" I prefer hearken back to happier times. Our first married Christmas, and Mr. Fairway's Aunt Eileen, who crocheted us a pair of beautiful stockings.

The chili pepper lights that hang from the fireplace came all the way from Texas with us when we moved to DC. These Christmas socks inspire real memories. I pity the poor person who has to conjur Christmas in a commercial endeavor.

It's a Small World, After All

Please vote for The Scholastic Scribe

and MOO in the 2010 Edublog Awards!

As we slog
into the last 10 days
of 2010
(schoolwise, anyway),

I'm put in mind
of Disney
and that
"wind up"
attraction.

We're wound up,
strung out,
parsed over
and full, up to HERE
with
holiday cheer.

I'm going
on auto-pilot
until December 22.

It's a small world,
after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you'd like to participate in Mrs. Scribe's Poetry Slam, there's no fuss, no muss. You won't see Mr. Linky, but we'd greatly appreciate if you linked up to this post. The more, the merrier, correctamundo?

Classroom Management 101

Should I throw the book at her?

Over 16+ years at Our Humble High School, I've learned a thing or two about classroom management. CM, of course, is the euphemistic, "professional," teacher-type term for knowing when to kick a kid to the curb for violating decorum in Room 215.

One of the points in my favor is that I know many of my cherubs over time. That means they enter my Journalism Program just wet behind the ears as 14-year-old froshies. I then have the privilege of watching them mature into sober-thinking young adults. Although I have to say that even the most mature 18-year-old can act like a 5-year-old, at times.

Case-in-point: One of my senior journalistas has been acting up as of late. She's always been a little, as we educators say, "spirited." The fact is she's afflicted with a double dose of ADHD, and she certainly marches to the beat of her own drummer. But this year she's seriously out-of-control. She works when she wants to, and plays all of the time.

Let's just put it this way: If there's ever a disruption in Room 215, this lovely young woman probably has something to do with it. Music blaring from the PC; video games going 24/7; large guffawing and carrying on. Baiting timid kids into acting out themselves. And recently, smart-mouthing the teacher, on top of everything else.

But attachment, in my case, has made the heart grow fonder. Said cherub started doing her work, after a fashion, yesterday. She's probably just kissing up. And she's gotten on my last nerve, with all her carrying-on.

Should I throw the book at her?

PS: The Superior Snap is from Ella Numera Dos, who is running a strong race in the 2010 Edublog Awards Competition. If you have a minute, please Click Here to vote for MOO as Best Student Blog. And while you're at it, please Click Here to vote for The Scholastic Scribe as Best Teacher Blog. Thank you for your support!

Imagine

Please vote for The Scholastic Scribe
and MOO in the 2010 Edublog Awards!

He was a goofy 9th-grade boy. By the time he graduated, he had become a man.

At a funeral a couple of years ago, the boy who usually wore cargo shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops dressed in a beautiful wool suit. He escorted one of my Yearbook editors to the service. He sat behind me in the church and when I started to cry, he put his right hand on my left shoulder.

He's at college now. His little sister is one of my journalistas this year. They visited New York City last weekend, and they thought of me.

In a tchotchke shop downtown, the brother and the sister saw some John Lennon paraphernalia, on display in advance of the 30th anniversary of the great man's death.

"Mrs. Scribe would love this," the young man said to his sister. He remembered my passion for all things Beatles.

They purchased this magnet, which features a small, snow-globe-type glass over a photo of Lennon. In his well-known and much-copied New York City T-shirt.

The young man's sister gave me a small box tied with a pretty bow after class yesterday. She told me her brother had remembered the good times, and wanted to give me a special gift. The magnet is now affixed to the blackboard behind my desk, a space reserved for special memories. If you look really hard, you can see the reflection of Room 215 in the curved glass.

Imagine.

"It's Elementary, My Dear Watson!"

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and MOO in the 2010 Edublog Awards!

Mama Kat's Prompt today? "Enchanted."

Recent Facebook posts by elementary school friends reveal a "different" side of teaching, which I don't often see:

Kindergartener #1: "Ms. Teacher! How do you color so good?"

Kindergartener #2: "Because she's magic!"

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sooo, Ms. Teacher, if it's winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and summer in the Southern Hemisphere, but it's still Christmas there...won't Santa get really hot when he goes to Australia?"

~~~~~~~~~~~

After being told that "hug time" was over and that they needed to sit and do their work, one girl said, "I wish we went to hug school where we could hug all day long."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ms. Teacher, so do you just party all night long?"

"What? No, why do you think that?"

"Because you're young!"

~~~~~~~~~~~

Small child quote of the day: "Smell my leaf!"

~~~~~~~~~~~

‎"Ms. Teacher, next time can you play more music that's like from modern times? No offense!"

~~~~~~~~~~~

‎"Sooo, Ms. Teacher, an appliance is just like a machine that does things for you so that you can make it your slave?"

~~~~~~~~

Child 1: "Ms. Teacher, are strawberries made of oranges?"

Ms. Teacher: "No, Silly!"

Child 2: "Ms. Teacher, you are made of mud!"

O.M.G.

Please vote for The Scholastic Scribe
and
MOO in the 2010 Edublog Awards!

Endured another mindless inservice yesterday afternoon. The agenda? We were "tasked" (their word, not mine) to congregate in a basement computer lab for 50 minutes to learn about the newest bells and whistles offered by a site that our school district spent millions to acquire, but which doesn't give us more than a plug nickel of satisfaction on any given day.

The plan seemed inane, but since less than an hour's time was involved, I figured I could catch up with my e-mail if things got slow.

And, yes, they did. Get slow. As molasses frozen to the rump of a hippopotamus in the Arctic Circle.

OK, I've never heard that analogy before either, but you might possibly get my drift if I explain one more quick problema: The class was "taught" by a woman whose job it is to inform us of cutting-edge technological advances in the field of education.

Except she's really a former profesora de Español, who, I'm pretty sure, got out of the teaching biz because a) she was tired of the rug-rats; b) she wanted to make more dinero and/or c) no one was going to challenge her on her technological expertise because those in Central Administration aren't that tech-savvy, either.

I'd love to suffer through a tech-prep inservice just once in my career where I actually learn something.

This is how my afternoon went yesterday: First, the software didn't work. Then it did, but our teacher was going way too fast for the clientle. And she kept using complicated techie buzzwords like "this thingy" and "that doo-hickey." And on more than one occasion, she called the computer ~ or perhaps the software program, I'm not sure ~ an "idiot."

But her SmartBoard (they go for about $1,500 a pop, and Our Humble High School is equipped with dozens, but I haven't received a raise in two years) was pretty darn nifty. Bells and whistles will wow 'em every time, correctamundo?

The older teachers among us kept saying, "What? WHAT?" For my part, I looked up and smiled occasionally, and kept plugging away at my e-mail.

In her defense, our "teacher" only had a quick sec, in tech terms, to impart crucially important knowledge.

To coin another comparison, the session left me feeling more than a tad like Sisyphus, the king in Greek mythology who was condemned to roll the gigantic boulder uphill, only to have it roll back down the hill. Over and over and over again.

So much for "teacher training." And yes, I know The Scholastic Scribe is a family site, but the above graphic seemed oh so appropos, somehow.

Up on The Rooftop?

Please vote for The Scholastic Scribe

and

MOO in the 2010 Edublog Awards!

NOT!

No one climbs
up on the rooftop

in La Familia Scribe.

Well, except for Santa,
unless

there's a blizzard
and the TV reception
goes
out.

Then Mr. Fairway
will
lead
the
charge.

Our professions

of holiday spirit
are
mostly

at street level,
and beautiful

inside and out.

If you'd like to participate in Mrs. Scribe's Poetry Slam, just jump on in! Scribble a bit o' verse over at your own place, and let your readers know we're over here, OK?

Sweet Success!

Perhaps you've seen the TLC show, "DC Cupcakes"? Well, as they say, we've been there, done that. The show is set in the cutest little bakery at 33rd and M Streets in DC. Georgetown Cupcake makes the most divine sweets, and Ella Numera Dos is quite the afficionado!

All the more reason to send my chica a congratulatory care package. You see, she's in the running for this year's Edublog Awards. Please click here to vote for MOO as Best Student Blog. Dos and her blog, MOO, came in third last year, so we'd like to move her up to the top in 2010, OK?

And while you're at it, please click here to vote for The Scholastic Scribe as Best Teacher Blog. I've come in second two years in a row. I'd say it's about time to pin a blue ribbon on my chest, wouldn't you?

I'd love to tell y'all that if we have a winner in the family, I'll spring for cupcakes all around, but that might get a little too sweet. So instead, I'm planning on a little surprise for one special reader when the voting ends December 14, OK?

So, as they say in DC, "Vote early...and often!"

Trial Balloon

Cracking down isn't too much fun.

Last week, for the first time in my teaching career, one of my journalistas told me that I'm "so not cool." The next day, another expressed frustration, saying, "You used to be so chill."

Yes, I'm the teacher whose students, on occasion, have climbed out my classroom window onto the roof and have made a quick dashes to the Bagel Bakery between classes. I promise, I've never condoned this behavior, and have punished said cherubs for such actions. But I do let my kiddos eat in Room 215 and have always looked "the other way" when a kid wants to plug into his iPod while working on the newspaper or yearbook.

All of the above are verboten behaviors at Our Humble High School. The first two, obviously, for safety's sake. And I even "get" the ban on "electronic gadgets" ~ iPods, cellies, computer games, and the like ~ during serious "core" classes such as English and Math.

But I've never cottoned to the all-out ban on electronics and food in a classroom that simulates the work environment, such as my high school journalism classes.

Things have gotten out of hand, though. My cherubs have taken to ordering Domino's, Chinese and Chipotle during 5th period. They're texting away on their cellies at the slightest provocation. And I'm pretty sure their musical selections and computer games are not work-related.

So I've started taking iPods and cellphones, and turning them in to Security. I've banned "carry-out" from the classroom. As much as I adore them, I'm tired of the little hellions taking advantage of me.

But playing Bad Cop certainly comes with a price. I'm exhausted!

Pink Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight

As we enter the final stretch of 2010, my yearbookies face the consequences of their own morality ~ and maturity.

Let me explain.

My little journalistas of the yearbook variety are up against a monthly deadline. Unlike the student newspaper, the yearbook ~ its pages, its photos, its stories, its captions ~ is pretty much an entity etched in stone. Because this annual publication is a book, after all, my cherubs have very little deadlne wiggle room

And herein lies the problema. Big-time.

Those of you familiar with kids ~ ranging in age from pre-school to high school seniors ~ know that while we're facing the most wonderful time of the year, we also face the most spazzy interlude in the public school calendar.

You'd think I'd fed them Skittles. Non-stop. 24/7.Or that I'd installed an old-fashioned soda fountain in Room 215 ~ as part of a mandatory sugar-loading program, for goodness' sake.

Bottom line, the natives are restless. Downright giddy. Christmas is coming, and they have some time off, just around the corner. So they'll fart around for the next three weeks, deadlines be damned.

As I told the kiddos today, "I've already been to high school. I put my time in. I graduated. This time around, it's not my yearbook, after all."

Except that it is my cross to bear, correctamundo? I signed a contract, after all. I put my John Hancock on the dotted line, guaranteeing a yearbook, come June or high water. But the fine print didn't say anything about quality.

Serenity now, as George's dad would say. I've got Christmas in my sights, too. And a trip to the OBX is under my tree.

Open Wide...

I’m riffing on Mama Kat’s Prompt #4 today: What inspires you to write?

I’ve always been a writer. As I’ve told my cherubs countless times, I was inspired by my high school journalism teacher. She set me on a path that proved to be self-fulfilling. My career as a high school newspaper and yearbook adviser was, I think, inevitable.

The circle remains unbroken.

I try to inspire my journalistas. They, in turn, inspire me. And, I think, they keep me young.

I started blogging, as an outlet of sorts, two-and-a-half years ago. I’m not hard-core like, perhaps, my friend Mama Kat, but I try to remain diligent. I used to post daily. When I felt comfortable enough to give myself permission, I’d miss the occasional day or two. In recent months, I’ve created a comfortable rhythm for myself.

I returned to daily blogging during the month of November for my annual foray with NaBloPoMo, and I have to say, folks, it nearly killed me.

But hyperbole aside, I know myself, I know what I’m good at. So here I am.

The Edublog Awards have rolled around again, and I’m told that I’ve been nominated. Having come in second in different categories the last two years, I know what it’s like to snatch, as they say, defeat from the jaws of victory. I’m hoping for a better outcome this time around, but also would like to share the wealth.

I’ve got two nominations to make this year. Both bloggers are students; both are young and enthusiastic; both have something to say, using different mediums to do so.

• Best Student Blog: MOO Yes, she’s my chica, also known as Ella Numera Dos. She’s a college photography major, and the world is her canvas. MOO was Second Runner-Up in this Edublog Awards category last year. I believe she deserves more. She’s participating in Flickr’s Project 365 this year. That’s right, folks—posting a photo a day for an entire calendar year. I'm awful darn proud of her!


• Best New Blog: amywhipple.com One of my former journalistas, who is pursuing a writing career her own self. Ames writes about popular culture, mostly, or just about anything else that comes into her head. Her motto is “Write what you love.” She loves, she claims, “television, Virginia Woolf, Sweet Valley High, awkward moments, and liminal spaces.” I learned the word "liminal" from reading her blog bio. Yes, indeedy...you can teach an old dog new tricks!

I really think you should give these gals a look-see. And, of course, your vote, if they make the final cut. Nominations for the 2010 Edublog Awards close tomorrow; you’ll be able to vote through Tuesday, December 14. Awards will be conferred December 15.

Yes, that’s moi, hanging out in my classroom just yesterday. Perhaps I was speaking sternly to my cherubs, but with a twinkle in my eye. And come to think of it, I might possibly resemble William Shakespeare (take a gander at the image of the Bard, to the left of the white board). But I have no clue how to sing. Just write, methinks.