playing with the pictures from Matt and Angus wedding and picnik

Ok so finding out about picnik has caused me to play editor with lots of pictures. :)

From Our life as an Air Force Family

From Our life as an Air Force Family

From Our life as an Air Force Family

From Our life as an Air Force Family

From Our life as an Air Force Family

From Our life as an Air Force Family

From Our life as an Air Force Family

Great Cabbage Patch Adventure

Our third graders are participating the the state wide cabbage growing contest for third graders. We planted our plants between the two wings of the building and will be checking in on their growth weekly. But today was lots of fun planting. :)

Watch this space for growth updates. :)

Jay marking the dividing line between the two classes.

Prior to planting.

Playing in the snow and playing with Picnik

Different views of the same pictures, just playing with Picnik.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dxuUHk7ICTRvot8NlHlfhw?authkey=Gv1sRgCPrnm4rK6aqdKw&feat=embedwebsite"> src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_UNwiDEGCsG6i3Mexeqx6IqhGMYm7YcSNakkcGLP_7nAdvHbjIqsxtTsZ7l1aX5MXRv1VvErCoq7Y3VFLetbbR4WfyIGso13zjSR7sASwyCABnnUlC6CllT882Bd76TIEbVJ5/s800/None.jpg" />

From Our'>http://picasaweb.google.com/scienceesl/OurLifeAsAnAirForceFamily04?authkey=Gv1sRgCPrnm4rK6aqdKw&feat=embedwebsite">Our life as an Air Force Family

From Our life as an Air Force Family

From Our life as an Air Force Family

From Our life as an Air Force Family

From Our life as an Air Force Family

From Our life as an Air Force Family

From Our life as an Air Force Family

i heart faces photography contest~Messy Faces

I saw this contest on another blog today and thought the contest looked cute. So i broke out an oldie but a favorite of mine of DJ's, from his first birthday party in England.


Swing on over to I heart faces and check out all of the entries, and maybe enter yourself.

Then just cause I have fallen for Picnik I had to play, you know I did.

From Our life as an Air Force Family

I may not know how to work my camera to save my life, but I have fun with picnik. ;)

Monkey Joe's

DJ and I went out on a date night on Saturday afternoon/evening. Jerry took the girls to the free movie on base, while the two of us went to Monkey Joe's. I think Jerry got the better end of the deal, because Monkey Joe's was packed, with lots of older kids. It was the oldest average age of kids that I have ever seen in there. Normally the average age is between 4 and 6, Saturday I would have said the average age was 9 or 10, which there is nothing wrong with, just not what we are used to.

Filed under What were they thinking?

Did you see this?

Woman cited for breast feeding while driving.


I think she missed the point of if she was in an accident that baby that she
"had" to feed right then, could have gone flying out the windshield.

WOW!

Fiction or non-fiction

I was talking with a counselor on Friday, and she asked me what I did for "me" time. I had a hard time answering her. Not because I don't do me time, but I don't think I do. But it wound around to reading, and she asked what types of books I read.

Which of course the answer was fiction.

When she asked why not non-fiction, my answer was because they are too real. Duh...

I then explained that I deal with enough reality in my day to day life, between Jerry's health problems, my kids, and my students. I know what is out there in the world, and the bad things that can happen. I don't need to read about someone else's life, or troubles to know that they are out there.

Gathering on the steps of the State Capitol for Education~Sticky post

PLEASE JOIN GAE FOR A Gathering on the Steps of the Capitol!

WHERE: Steps of the Capitol near Washington Street

WHEN: Monday, March 2, 2009 (Legislative Conference Day at the Capitol)

TIME: 10:00 a.m.

WHO: ALL concerned educators, parents, and others who stand for education

ISSUES: 2009 and 2010 State Budgets
(For more information on the GAE Legislative Conference, visit our website – http://www.gae1.org/)

(1) Help Keep our Kids Safe at the School House;
Save our School Nurses Program

(2) Education relief is not spelled VOUCHER

(3) National Board Certified Teachers help raise student achievement
We have invited the Georgia Association of School Nurses and the National Board
of Professional and Teaching Standards to stand with us on this day.

The Georgia Association of Educators understands well that our state is experiencing severe economic challenges unlike any we have endured in quite some time. Market conditions have worsened the fiscal projections for the state. Still in these challenging times it is critical that our state continues to do its part to invest in public education.

The safety of our children cannot be jeopardized due to lack of funding for school nurses.

Each child in Georgia deserves access to a great public school funded by the state—VOUCHERS will encourage families to leave their neighborhood schools to potentially attend a private school at the expense of others.

Vouchers lack the accountability and transparency that taxpayers deserve.

We often speak of investments—National Board Certified Teachers have made investments and personal sacrifices to be the best for Georgia's children—Georgia should keep its promise to them.

In consideration of proposals to eliminate these programs and institute a full-fledge Voucher program, GAE invites you to stand “Shoulder to Shoulder” with other stakeholder organizations to show support for public schools as a whole. The more we demonstrate that all of these issues matter, the more we will be taken seriously.

I know that I will be teaching on this day, but I encourage all that can attend this to please do so!

Secretary Duncan wants longer school years

I saw this article today, and thought good for him.

Good for us.

Good for America.

Good for kids.

But I am realistic to know that he is going to meet a LOT of resistance.

Secretary Duncan is proposing longer school days, and longer school years. Which is a great idea, in theory. Other countries are doing it, and their students are leaps and bounds above where our students are.

However, one has to take into account the money that we are talking here. Teacher's salaries, bus drivers, gas, food, support staff etc. With districts talking about cutting back on staff, bus trips etc, I am wondering how hard of a sell job he is going to have to push this through.

Districts are already cutting back on professional development days in attempt to save money, but that just means that we as teachers spend more of our unpaid time getting ready, taking classes, doing whatever we can to help these children, and in some cases spending more of our own money doing these things.

Perhaps Secretary Duncan is proposing that teachers teach more days for the salary that we make now at 190 working days. I sincerely hope not, since most of us actually work on work for our classrooms/schools between 210 and 230 days on our own without getting paid now. This is when you take into account the nights of PTO, faculty meetings, board meetings, parent teacher conferences where we are at our schools until 5, 6, 7, even 8 pm, and not recieving over time for it. Take into account that on average each teacher spends an hour or two each afternoon after their dismissal time working on grading papers, writing tests, communicating with parents, and revamping their lesson plans because something didn't happen when it should have. Then you take into account the 6 to 8 hours each weekend working on lesson plans, grading papers, researching activities for our students to do. And you have to take into account the days spent over holidays, when the school is open that we go into the school to prepare on our own, our classrooms.

I hope he is not going to propose we do more for less, we work more for the same. We already spend hundreds if not thousands of our own money out of our own pockets to make our student's lives a little bit nicer, and we are only given a tax break for $250 for it. Trust me, I had that spent before July was out, for this school year, not counting the money I spent on the classrooms I was subbing in last year.

I hope that in this grand plan of his that he takes into account the extra money on supplies, like paper, copier ink, pencils, and pens. Things that schools start running out of about now in the school year, things that teachers really start sweating about now.

I hope in this grand plan of his he has a plan for how to provide more money for more food for the students who get free and reduced lunches every day.

I hope in this grand plan that he puts in provisions for how we as schools can better handle behavior issues. Because the longer we are in school, the more those issues come out. Gives the schools more options on how they can help, or handle the problems.

I hope in this grand plan he puts in provisions on how to handle the parents that do not support the school no matter what. Their child is right and that adult talking about their child is wrong and there is not anything anyone can say about it.

I see where he is coming from with this grand plan and I understand what he thinks needs to happen and even why it needs to happen. But the piddly amount of money from the stimulus plan that is being tossed towards education is not going to get us there.

I agree that the education system needs changes, and that more days in school would probably help our students achieve greater hieghts. I am just realistic enough to look at the challenges that we are facing.

More and More Snow!

It should be stopping soon, we will have school tomorrow. But it was fun while it lasted!

More snow!

Its starting to stick! Yes I know I am a dork. But its the first snow we have seen since my Grandma's funeral in 2006, almost 3 years ago (March 15th).

SNOW!!! IN GEORGIA!!!!

I slept in the morning, because the thunderstorms over night kept waking me up. When I got up I went in the kitchen to get some breakfast and this is what I saw out the kitchen window. SNOW!!! I ran through the house waking the rest of the family up with screams of LOOK OUT SIDE!!!!

DJ couldn't quite figure out what was going on until we told him it was snow. Of course when I first got up, it was more like sleet.

Now however its coming down as big fat snow flakes! Plus its starting to stick on the patio umbrella, and some of DJ's toys. I think it got to us too late in the day to really stick where we can have any fun with it, but its pretty.