Reflections on the National Principals Conference

For the past two years, my sister and I have attended the National Principals Conference together. This year’s conference was in Philadelphia and I had the privilege of presenting a session on Family and Community Engagement along with my principal and our reading specialist. As I reflect on this experience I can’t help but think about my paternal grandmother- Hazel Turner. She was a master at getting families and the community involved in her classroom. You see she didn’t really have choice. She attended Bowie Normal School (now Bowie State University) in 1930 and received her certification to teach grades 1-7. Her first teaching job was on the Eastern Shore of MD in a one room school house. Back then schools and churches were the heart of the African American community. She walked about 2 miles to get to work making sure she arrived early to start a fire in the coal burning pot-bellied stove. She earned $65 monthly until the depression and then her salary was reduced to $56 a month. The state gave the school food staples such as flour, butter, rice, raisins, fatback, etc. and since she knew how to cook she would make rolls, raisin bread (that I remember eating as a kid) Spanish rice, vegetable soup and other items for students who needed food to eat for lunch. Parents and neighbors would offer to bake the bread and bring vegetables to the school for her to cook on the pot-bellied stove. She knew all her students’ families and they all knew her. This was family and community engagement at its finest! Now Grandma knew my sister always wanted to be an educator but she passed away before I decided to become one too. She attended my college graduation and watched me get a degree in political science with the intention of going to law school. But, love and my hatred for a constitutional law class changed those plans. I married a military officer, moved around a bit- worked in the federal government, state government and private industry. Ten years after graduating from undergrad I decided to become a teacher. I hate that I was never able to swap teacher stories with my grandma but I can share her story. And just look at Hazel’s granddaughters now, I’m an assistant principal and my sister is an associate superintendent- I do believe Grandma would be proud!

Almost 5 years since my last post...

Well today I got a text message from my sister...." if you are going to put your blog as the tagline on emails you should at least update it." Yes she is right and actually I forgot I had this blog...so today I am updating it for the first time since 2011. Wow a lot has changed since 2011. Our little guy is becoming a big "little" guy. Stay tuned for my update.

Fall Fun

Well since I have been called a slacker mom for not posting pictures of the little guy in his Halloween costume I decided to do a slide show of all of our fall activities. This is for you SRGN :-)
To think I am a working mom of only one child... and am barely functional, LOL
I was able to join the Pre-K class on two field trips- to an apple orchard and to the pumpkin patch. I originally hadn't planned to go to the pumpkin patch so I asked my parents if they wanted to go with their youngest grandchild. Thank goodness they changed the date of the trip and I was able to go also. Now my parents were supposed to going along to chaperone their grandchild, but it was so cold that day they ditched us after the hayride, got some hot cider at the snack bar and headed back to vehicle. When we got back to the car the heat was on full blast, they had eaten the lunches I packed and they were reading the newspaper. My mom said, "Boy are we glad you decided to come and drive!"

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Welcome 2011

Well since I posted on the last of 2010 I felt it would only be fitting to post on the first day of 2011. I can't believe winter break is coming to an end and once again I am finding myself behind the power curve with home organization!!! Of course the little one is riding around the house on his Diego big wheel,crashing into walls and running over his new toys. The big one is lying on the couch watching tv. I should be washing and folding clothes, thinking about taking down Christmas decorations, etc. but what am I doing?? sitting behind the computer... I figure if the rest of them are being unproductive so should I. Who in the world came up with the household norms that say I should be doing all the work???
Happy New Year!!!!

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Merry Christmas!!!

I thought I would finish out 2010 with a post to my blog. I admire those of you who can keep this up. I guess I could if I would carve out a block of time strictly devoted to this. But unfortunately I have found that I have a touch of ADD and I tend to jump from one thing to another. As a result I have a lot of undone projects. Perhaps I should incorporate this weakness into a New Year's Resolution!! Ha Ha!!

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Fall Fun

This post is for you know who you are(LOL). Since I hadn't updated my blog since the snowstorm of 2010 thought I would post some fall pictures.

The Big Snow

Well the east coast got hit pretty hard this past weekend! I can't believe how much snow we have had this winter. To think, they are forecasting another major snowstorm for tomorrow. I guess schools will remain closed for the rest of this week and hopefully I can be productive while snowed in. Of course all I feel like doing is laying around on the couch, LOL! The little man loves the snow and we have to suffer his major meltdowns when we make him go in the house to warm up!