Office

Here's what my office looks like for a few days. While it is the beach, it is pretty dreary and extremely cold!!!!

Movie Mania

George is with me at a conference in Orange Beach for a few days. We have been trying to do things we could not normally do at home with kids. So far we have seen 2 movies. We saw Night at the Museum last night and Freedom Writers tonight. Both have turned out to be great movies!

My favorite of the 2: Freedom Writers because it is an educational flick. However, it is so much more than that. Hillary Swank plays a first year teacher and chooses to teach in a district that has voluntary integration in California. It is a very diverse group of students who are labeled as worthless. She is to teach them English.

It stereotypes most school systems perfectly. There are the "chosen" administrators who care less about kids and blame students when they act uncouth in their classroom. However, they never think to examine their own teaching techniques as the cause for the misbehavior.

Of course I won't give it away but Hillary does what is right for her students in the end.

I am so thankful to be employed with a system that believes in students and challenges teachers to do whatever it takes to get kids to learn at high levels. I get sad sometimes that I never was able to teach kids in that sort of environment. Most of my teaching was done in a system that cared more about their rules and regulations than what kids actually learned. If the desks were in a row and kids were quiet and working then you were a good teacher.

I am so thankful that my kids will learn in an environment that is open to do whatever to reach kids. If it means they stand on tables or sit on bare floors to learn- that's great. Sometimes doing what has always been done is not the best thing to do.

Spiritually speaking, I have to examine my life that way too. Sometimes I get into ruts and I do what I have always done but don't accomplish much. Staying comfortable can often be dangerous. I thank God for the freedom to write whatever I want on this blog and my prayers are with those who have to keep their thoughts private for fear of death. That is a reality for many people in this world. Go see Freedom Writers and if you are not inspired to write- something is wrong with you.

"Phone ears"

Can you believe that preschoolers have MP3 players? My kids have FP3 players from Fisher Price and they are loving it. Sadie calls the ear phones her phone ears when she is in a hurry and it cracks us up. I have downloaded all sorts of Disney tunes for them. It is so funny to listen to them sing because it is so loud. The nice thing about these is that they are kid proof and also have stories you can pair with icon pictures.

These kids are growing up in such a digital age and you just cannot help but wonder what they will be when they grow up. Where will technology take them? I read Freidman's book, The World is Flat last summer and it is an eye opener for what our world is becoming due to technology. It affects all facets of our world.

Anyway- my intent was that these new gadgets would keep my kids occupied on the plane, during long waits in line and just during boring times! So far so good- they both fell asleep last night with them and I had to pry them off their ears.