Christmas prep (without the boy)

With almost no help from me (and no help from Vincent - AWOL in Ohio - last year he and then girlfriend Samantha helped a little), Stephanie assembled and decorated the tree and the house.

Soon after Stephanie - whose father had taken her to see The Nutcracker ballet in Columbus - took Vincent to see The Nutcracker - Stephanie began getting Vincent novelty nutcrackers. My favorite is still a Halloween present from a year or two ago: the Dracula nutcracker. This year we've gotten two new nutcrackers for Vincent, but haven't gotten to given them to him - one for Thansksgiving (the pilgrim) and then the cool rock 'n roll Elvis nutcracker (both below).

Stephanie (pictured below) gazed approvingly at her work.

She also put some of our older nutcrackers and other Christmas items on the mantle, around the clocks.

The Christmas tree (pictured below) is an artificial tree Stephanie acquired several years ago. The decorations are ones we've acquired over the years or - in some cases - inherited from our families.

-- Perry

Eventful week

Stephanie has had an eventful week plus at school. Last Thursday a pre-programmed lesson in her READ 180 curriculum has students – remember, English as a new language and other students – discuss immigration. Several of her ENL students talked about harrowing journeys to the United States – including above the train a la the movie Sin Nombre Stephanie and I saw earlier this year – and it was interesting for them to talk about and for other students to hear. One of her newest students seemed to remember a particularly tough journey.

Then on Friday Stephanie accompanied some of the 4th graders to the Kentucky Center for the Arts, where – a few weeks earlier – we had seen a dance performance with Penny – to see The Nutcracker, a childhood favorite of Stephanie and Vincent – and ours. The students from Stephanie’s school who went were from a special etiquette/citizenship afterschool program that the school guidance counselor helped lead (for the first year – separately – for boys too). The kids came dressed in suits and dresses and were trained and urged to be on their best behavior. When they got to the Kentucky Center – for a kids’ day shortened performance – they were the best dressed and – as it turns out, from the nosebleed seats – the best behaved kids there. Stephanie was very proud of her students.

Also late last week the principal at Stephanie’s school did her usual surprise evaluation and Friday Stephanie got good marks: excellents and a couple of goods.

This week continued to be eventful at school for Stephanie. Already this year – in an effort to boost middle school standardized test scores – Stephanie and two of her colleagues have been teaching READ 180 to a mix of ENL and non-ENL students who are OK but still below-grade-level readers. This fall the new district superintendent has also pushed schools to regularly test all students and math and then divide students in each grade level into several groups based on their math skills and have different staff teach them, then re-test them regularly. At Stephanie’s small school, this will involve pulling all possible staff to help teach math. Already this fall, as part of Stephanie dropping in to help out in classes with a number of ENL students, Stephanie has been taking a small group of students to her classroom to teach math – but the classroom teacher has been doing all of the lesson plans. Now, Stephanie will have to do the lesson plans also – and she’ll be teaching a mix of ENL and non-ENL students, as in her READ 180 class. I believe this will start in January.

Also this past week, as in December 2008, Stephanie had students in one of her classes draw pictures of their favorite foods, and then we scanned and color-printed them, and then they make books out of these pages, as presents for their parents. Today the students put their books together.

Today Stephanie also lost two of her ENL teaching colleagues for a short time. This past weekend the school’s other ENL teacher, also named Stephanie, gave birth to a baby (her fourth – twins two years ago!), and she’ll miss teaching during part of the winter months. The translator-aide who works with the other Stephanie most, Annabelle, is taking education classes and will do her student teaching during the first few months of 2010 and so won’t be back until around April. I believe a teacher who covered for a colleague of Stephanie on medical leave will take over for the other Stephanie this winter. Stephanie and some of her colleagues gathered after work today to talk shop and celebrate the end of the year, and this ended a busy 10 days for Stephanie and her colleagues.

-- Perry

Storm

As a winter storm approaches, temperatures or plunging and winds up to 50 mph knocked down and - unfortunately - broke a new outside Christmas decoration that Stephanie had put up for the first time after Thanskgiving.

-- Perry

Unusual events

Several unusual things happened Monday and Tuesday:We got our first snow (see above) and Stephanie got to stay home two extra hours: two-hour delay, thanks to the school buses having trouble up in the Knobs. With the delay, Stephanie got a light day at work – until Monday afternoon, when her next to last Culture Club produced a Fairmont Elementary first: a call home to a parent because of the behavior of a child (a non-English as a new language Culture Club participant, no less).

Tuesday brought other unusual occurrences: This fall some of Stephanie’s Fairmont colleagues have once or twice a week been gathering together for a workout with a Hip Hop Abs video that they play on a wide screen TV in the school. Tuesday after school Stephanie joined them for the first time. Monday – nine days after we’d dropped off Vincent’s phone for repair – Stephanie’s mother and grandmother dropped the phone off at Vincent's apartment complex (thanks, Nancy!) and his father’s apartment complex. And so Tuesday Stephanie called Vincent as she left work and talked with him for 22 minutes (first time we’d called him when he wasn’t asleep or home with his father).

Tuesday we also completed our first week splitting a Community Supported Agriculture basket of winter vegetables, eggs, and milk with my colleague Gail. We both paid in advance and for 10 weeks split the produce (plus chicken we bought and cheese Gail bought) from local farmers. Stephanie cooked the last of the mushrooms and tatsoi (plus some more of the turkey Pape Larry brought us at Thanksgiving) for dinner Tuesday.

After dinner Tuesday, to get ready for a church officer potluck Wednesday, I did something I hadn’t done much lately – or ever. With some help from Stephanie, I made a fruit salad for the event (pictured below) (and I haven’t really cooked for months – and I’ve never made a fruit salad).

-- Perry

Tutoring

For the second year in a row, Stephanie is being paid by a U.S. government "21st Century schools" grant to stay after school on Monday and Wednesday. Monday at 4:30 is Culture Club, but Monday and Wednesday at 3:30 is tutoring - with four or five usually non-English as a new language students. Stephanie helps the students work on their homework and then usually does some sort of joint reading (Monday) or math (Wednesday) skills activity. I stopped by there on a Monday last month to bring Stephanie a replacement pair of shoes, after her shoes broke.



At 4:15 the tutorees break for snack and Stephanie goes to the lunchroom as sees other teachers - on Monday - getting ready for activities like basketball and Culture Club.



Below is Sammy, one of Stephanie's Culture Club students, as they get ready for Culture Club.

Since Culture Club last month and the visit of the school district administrator who talked about how the district's elementary schools could help the district pass Average Yearly Progress, two startling events have occurred. . . . Racing to pick up his kid from Culture Club, one of Stephanie's students' parents was stopped for speeding, which has sent him into the immigration crackdown spiral. This could be the first of Stephanie's Indiana families that is really deported. Some Southern IN law enforcement officials apparently don't make immigration referrals, but this one did. Stephanie ended up driving the kid home from Culture Club and noticed no parents (just an older sibling) was home - but it turns out because the dad was in trouble. . . . Also - after Thanksgiving - the new district superintendent offered golden parachutes to a number of top district administrators - including the person in charge of the ENL program for the district - who has been very generous with Stephanie's program - as well as the person who spoke at Stephanie's school last month. Stephanie will miss working with the ENL administrator and has to wonder how things will work out with whoever gets the job next.

-- Perry

One more game

I like to tell people I arrived in Tallahassee the same year as Coach Bobby Bowden. Even though I had grown up in Gainesville as a Gator, I made an easy transition. As a North Floridian, I already knew college football was king. Bowden made the 1970s an exciting time to be in Tallahassee: the upset victories against Top 10 opponents, the crowds shutting down the Tennessee Street "Strip," Renegade, and the war chant. This was all before that incredible 1987-2000 run of 10-win, Top 4 finishes. Perhaps because I remember that period and even have an inkling of what life was like for FSU football before Bowden, I'm much more charitable to Bowden than some of the younger people in our KY Seminole Club, who were out for Bowden going back to the Jeff Bowden as offensive coordinator period. Some of my best and worst memories are tied to FSU football. Watching in Tallahassee on TV FSU's incredible comeback against the Gators, where we went from being down 28-3 to tying 31-31, with Danny Kanell. Watching by myself in Brooklyn and Washington Heights several depressing Wide Right etc. games against Miami and that 1981 Orange Bowl when we led Oklahoma with 1 minute to go. Bittersweet classroom memories also link to Bowden and the football team. I remind folks that I taught three starters on the 1999 national championship team - Social Inequality, a class in which the two African American players - one of them later an NFL star - were fairly radical - without explaining how - perhaps a tiny bit with the looming presence of those players - that was one of the worst classroom experiences of my life. I also began my job talk at what became my first tenure-track job - ill-fated in some ways - at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul - with a quip about Chris Weinke, the Heisman Trophy winner who led that 1999 team and was from St. Thomas' nearby feeder high school, Cretin-Durham High School. I never met Bowden - though I've driven by his house in Killearn - but I have heard him speak. Memorably, one of my big business newspaper sources, J.T. Williams, introduced him, as he warmed up the crowd at what is - for now - called Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium - for Johnny Cash and June Carter and then Billy Graham at my only Billy Graham revival. I've quipped for years that as long as Bowden was still coaching, my Mom could still work. Unfortunately, I fear the Bowden debate this fall in Tallahassee - that has centered on whether people in their late 70s can still work - may have focused unneeded attention on Mom. Either way, it may be time. I wish the university had really let Bowden decide whether to stay on for another. Perhaps Mom will get another year

-- Perry

Lightning

My colleague Gail (pictured below), her son Tugi, and I went to the inaugural game of Louisville's new professional indoor soccer team, the Lightning, at a soccer arena between home and work. I'd only been to one similar event - the final game of the ill-fated Tallahassee Scorpions at the Civic Center - although of course I'd been to half a dozen indoor soccer games that Vincent played in in St. Paul. Tugi had played soccer in a league here and so they recognized some people. One kid from church was also there. The Lightning led while I was there, but Cincinnati ended up rallying

-- Perry