educator

I have my 16 month old grandbaby living with me, who is to say at the least a handful. She is very active and curious and she never ever slows down. She has always been difficult to get to sleep, and she isn’t showing any signs of getting any better. She wakes up a couple of times a night. She is still very much attached to the bottle. We have tried the weaning process, but she has always been so sick with ear aches and colds that the right time never seems to be here. The bottle is her lifeline to sleep. She is too hyper to sleep with us, and that isn’t the perfect solution anyway, but when we have tried this, she just climbs and tosses all over the bed. We have tried letting her cry it out, some, but as I said she is often sick, and I hate to let a sick baby cry too long. If any of you out there in cyber world have any ideas, let me in on any hidden secrets. When my son was little we eventually cleared out his room of almost everything except bean bags and safe toys, and he would get up in the middle of the night and play himself to sleep. He did this until he was 7-8 years old. Even then, he would get in bed and read himself to sleep. He is 23 now and he still only needs 5-6 hours a night. This is ABNORMAL behavior, but I think my grandbaby is following in her uncle’s footsteps, and I don’t know if I can handle this crazyness! Serena

The whole family is sick, and I was all a bragging about how good I was feeling… well, not feeling so good any more. It’s ok as I still have some days off from work, but we are planning on leaving for a mini vacation in a couple of days up to the mountains. Hope I feel better. We are taking the grandbaby, and she hasn’t seen snow so we are hoping she is well and can enjoy it. We are staying in a cabin. I can’t wait!! It is absolutely beautiful. The town is always decorated to the hilt for Christmas so it should be really pretty. Hope all had a wonderful Christmas. I know I sure did. Too good! I don’t want to go back to work, but I guess I’ll be dragging my worthless butt back in a few days even if it kills me!! Serena

As I mentioned in the past I teach English and Social Studies to high schoolers. I have tried several projects in the past with success that might help my fellow educators out there. This one covers both of my subject areas and the children seem to enjoy it. We start with a copy of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the FIre”. Most of them are familiar with it surprisingly. It is a two fold lesson. We research all the lyrics and their historical relevance, and then we write our own modern day version. A few of them even try to sing it for the class. We post both sets of lyrics in the classroom. It is amazing how creative the kids can be. We read magazines and newspapers forcurrent ideas when they run short. Some of them eve begin to watch the news for ideas. I give them about a week to complete the assignment. It is a lot of fun. Try it and see how it works in your class room. I reccommend it for 11th. grade American history, but it would work for governemnt also.
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I am out of school right now, and I really shouldn’t be thinking of work, but I have decided to start posts on teaching ideas that I have used with success in the past. I teach secondary English and Social Studies. For English I started a Wall Of Fame for some of the exceptional writing that I received in class. The kids really started striving to see who could make the wall, and other classes would come in and get a kick out of trying to guess who wrote what. I also did an assignment where I brought a rock to class and told the class to write about it. After about 10 minutes, I had them stop, and I asked them to raise their hands if they used typical words like, rough, hard, jagged, dirty… to describe the rock. Most raised their hands and wanted to know immediately how I knew this. I told them it was easy as they were all writing about this rock and these would be very normal words to use. I then told them not to write a bout rocks, but to write about a particular rock. They then continued to write very creative stories about their own personal rock. I have alo done this with a coffee cup. Any ordinary object will do. It really got them going. More next time…

I am breathing a huge sigh of relief as semester finals are done. AND…. drum roll please… I am totally through with my grading, including the research papers! This means I can go home and have Christmas without doing any school work over the holidays! Merry Christmas to me! I hope everyone is going to have as great of a Christmas as I am planning to. I am going to go wrap up, ha ha, get it , my shopping this weekend, and then I will have nothing to do but be all merry. Love ya, Serena

President Bush will be moving soon to an upscale Dallas neighborhood. It is rumored that his home is in the $8 million dollar price range. I would say he made out rather well these past eight years. I am not a Bush fan, and I respect everyone’s opinion, but I don’t think I could live with myself if I were to buy a house at this cost with the economy in shambles. I wonder how many people have lost their homes during his administration? In my opinion, the man has no shame. I know it is America and I guess he made his fortune so he can spend it as he sees fit, maybe I’m jealous. I just think a little decorum might be called for. Serena

I have always put small, simple gifts in my stockings, but I have become aware of people loading these things up. What is your famil’s custom? I usually put fast food gift cards and lotto tickets in my teens, but my hubby, I just can’t come up with any ideas. I used to put fishing lures in his, which he never used even though he is an avid fisherman. Finally, he explained to me that fishing lures are as personal to men as lip stick colors are to women. Who knew? I thought any of them would do. So… that still leaves me stuck as to what should be his stocking stuffer. I may just do the same as for the kids. I mean who doesn’t like fast food and the possibility of becoming a millionaire? If any of you bloggers out there have any better ideas, send them my way, Serena

It is a terrible story. If the mother used chloroform to make the child go to sleep so that she could party, then that is just disgusting. I have been scared for a while now at the levels of partying that goes on with my high school students. It has reached epidemic proportions with no factoring in of possible consequences. If this is what happened to this poor child, my heart just breaks for her sad liitle life. My students at age 15-16 are telling me that they think they are alcoholics. They are taking nyquil to sleep through things that they don’t want to endure and they are taking things to keep them awake so they can stay awake longer to do more things. What is wrong with the world today. Couldn’t partying wait until the child was cared for? It breaks my heart, and I can’t wait for justice to be done.

I have watched this soap for years, about 30 to be precise. I used to watch it on a tiny little black and white tv in my dorm room. I know it is a soap, but I wish every now and then they would let a couple stay happy for more than an hour. I was really enjoying Carly and Jax. Jax can be a jerk, but he has been royally screwed over in the love department. I still haven’t forgiven him for the Sky fiasco, but Brenda and Carly, the man just got kicked in the teeth again and again. Plus, I hate to say it, but I’m getting a little tired of the mob story over and over. Sonny is looking a little old to be the leading man that gets every female within a 2000 mile radius. And Jason, well don’t even get me started. Let’s just say that I wish I could find a job where I could just stare and emote NOTHING, and people would call it acting. Don’t get the character. I never even thought he was that good looking, but I guess I must be wrong because there is obviously some appeal out there for the character and the actor. Still the show is my secret little pleasure. I record and watch it when I am off work. Sometimes I catch it on tv at night on the soap channel. Both GH and I have come a long way in 30 plus years. Happy viewing Genral Hospital fans, Serena

I’m the editor for my school’s yearbook. We are always looking at books from the past to get ideas for the current issue. This would be fine if I didn’t teach at the school that I graduated from, well a few years ago. The kids are always dragging out my old books from days gone by. Yikes! There were some really emabarrasing pictures of me back in the day. Don’t know what I was thinking. It is hilarious, but a little humiliating at the same time. Oh well, I guess it is good for some laughs to break the tension of the day. I knew I should have locked those books up, but it is too late now. We always use my old yearbooks to get the ideas of what NOT to do. It is too funny. Anyone out there ever go look at their old books? Love, Serena