What a Weekend

It is Saturday night. I have spent yesterday and today and will spend tomorrow at a short class on Native American studies. It is about multicultural education. Last night we discussed the Civil Rights movement focusing on education and today we spent the whole day learning about the history of education and rights for the Native Americans. To hear the stories of the children who were taken from loving families and forced to live in an industrial, prison like setting the whites called boarding schools broke my heart. The idea was to "Kill the Indian and save the child" by robbing them of their heritage. They were beaten if they spoke their native tongue or did any ceremonies or spoke of their beliefs or ways. Christianity was forced down their throats as was English. They were taught menial trades and given a lower level education than a white child. But many of these students turned it on the White man. They took the education and used it to help their people. They could read English so they understood what the treaties stated. They learned about law and began to educate themselves to fight the whites for their rights in court. Since in the boarding schools there were many different tribes who now all spoke English and could understand each other they began to unite. The tough thing was they were separated from role models like parents so they did not know how to parent and this is apparent even today. The grandparents that went to boarding school at a young age were disconnected from their families when they came back every nine months. A lot of students lived at the boarding school the whole time they were in school. They came home after they graduated and did not fit into their families anymore. There is a lot of abuse in Native families today and we can trace it back to the abuse the students in boarding schools suffered. There is also a lot of neglect. It is not that these Native parents do not love their kids, they do. But their parents never learned by example how to raise them and the abuse and neglect cycle goes on today. It just breaks my heart.

I had a wonderful day learning all this and North Dakota history at the Heritage Center Museum in Bismarck. It was a long drive but a wonderful day. When I got home I rushed to clean my house. I decided to turn on my self cleaning oven forgetting I put a plate of baklava in there. I put the baklava in the oven because it was left over from what I made for my class to experience Greek food for social studies. You cannot put baklava in a covered dish because it gets soggy. So I put it on a plate and stuck it in my oven so I did not attract any mice into my house since it is spring and they are starting to become very active. Then of course, I forgot about it. I cleaned my house and turned on the self cleaning oven and took a shower. Imagine my surprise when I came out of my bathroom and my whole house is full of smoke. I now know I need to check my smoke alarm because it did not go off. I ran into the kitchen choking and crying because of the smoke and saw the plate on fire. I immediately turned off the stove but it will not let me open the door till it is cool. The fire is out but it is still billowing smoke. I have fans on and doors and windows open. I am soo smart it surprises me. Now that I am sitting here waiting for the smoke to clear and the oven to cool, I realize I could have kept the baklava in the microwave. Duh. It is a wonder I have lived as long as I have. Thank God I did not decide to go to bed while my oven was cleaning itself. "Here's your sign" as the old country and western song from the blue collar comedy guy goes.

Spring?

Apparently I have spoken too soon. I woke up this morning and there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground. It is 32 degrees with an Arctic wind. The day has been gray all day and it is not warming up and the snow is not melting. The only bright light I have is that according to the weather man it will be 56 degrees on Sunday. I am sick of the snow. I hope it goes away soon.

Spring is Here

The sun is out and the air is warm. It is around 40 degrees no wind and the snow is leaving inch by inch. The grass is starting to turn green. The birds are coming home and oh what beautiful songs. They get so noisy that class is distracted when we have the windows open. It has been so long since we have heard the song we all stop and listen for a few moments. It is staying light till 7:30. I am going to work in the sun and coming home in the sun. Wow what a change. Oh and the cows and horses are back. They have not been rubbing against my house, just leaving me piles of presents in the yard. I have not seen any flowers yet but I feel like planting some just to enjoy the color. I don't know what grows here besides grass and sunflowers though.

I am taking an accredited class for credits to go towards my license. Teachers have to have so many credits to increase their education and keep be able to renew their license. I am taking an online math about problem solving in the real world. It is all about making connections to the real world for students to make math more real and interesting. I have gotten some good lesson plan ideas that I may be able to use in another school but our school has a scripted curriculum that we cannot deviate from. This weekend I am excited about my next class. It is a class on Native American studies. It is for three days and we go to Bismarck to a museum and other places with back grounds and belief systems of Native Americans. I can hardly wait. It will be a marathon class but it sounds like loads of fun and very interesting. Also it is a feather in my cap. Not many teachers in Oregon have Native American studies on their resume. It adds to teaching diversity which is big in Oregon.

Baring any more school stopping winter storms (God forbid) I will have a spring break. That is four whole days over Easter. I am going to make another trip with my Native friend to South Dakota. I hope to go to Ft Laramie this time. I will let the "skins" (natives) do their thing while this Mishia (white girl) goes and gawks at the sights like an enthusiastic tourist. Maybe I will meet a nice skin with long hair, bulging muscles, all his hair, teeth and sober. I hear those are only in the movies. I also hear that natives never stole white girls and took them to their teepees. Dang all my dreams are up in smoke. LOL

Three Day Weekend

It is Friday and I have had a nice quiet day after sleeping in. What a nice thing to do on a Friday. It is a three day weekend for me because we have not had a school closure due to a storm. They snow is almost gone. It was around 40 degrees almost all week. Today, however it is cold and snowing. I don't see any accumulation on the ground though. I am waiting for spring. I am not holding my breath due to the fact that I hear we can have snow on the ground to May. I thought they were kidding. Well it looks like they weren't.

Our basket ball team went to state this weekend. The first time in eight years. We lost yesterdays game but today we are playing for fifth place. Doesn' t matter where we place the kid's goal was to make it to state and they reached their goal. I did not go to the game nor did I watch it on TV. I took a lot of flack for that because as a teacher I should support my students. Well none of my students were on the team and I don't like basketball so there.

I am really enjoying my three days off and I am going to continue enjoying it now. I will chat with you soon. Oh I have three applications to Tillamook for next years school year. I would love to come home to Oregon and living on or that near the coast would be so fantastic. God is good no matter what He decides for where I will teach next year but it wouldn't hurt to have some prayers to bend His ear a little. Thanks for all your support and prayers.

Another cold in a month ugg.

I am taking my first sick day. I have another cold, thanks to my darling students. They think it is funny to cough and not cover their mouths. SO, of course, since I am over worked and over stressed my immune system is lower than usual. I did not catch the cold symptoms in time so now I have sinus pain. It is funny. I have worked so long where I had little or no sick leave that I feel guilty using a sick day.

Tonight, I got a sub and called my boss and did not have to go into any big explanation about how sick I was or anything. He did not even try to talk me into coming into work anyway. That is what always happened in my other jobs. I got to where I would just go into work no matter what because it was easier than calling in sick. But tomorrow, the world will have to do without me because I am taking it easy and sleeping/laying around.

I feel a little guilty but I know that is residual from my many years of working for nasty bosses. Okay not all my old bosses were nasty. Well I got to go to bed so I can get some rest and hopefully feel better before Tuesday. Stupid cold anyway. At least I do not have to face Monday and a cold this week.

By Popular Demand

Here are two pictures of the outfits I wore to school last week. The one with the shawl I was gothic and I had a sleave of temporary tatoos. These pictures are quick recreations so I have not sleave in this picture but you get the idea. The power went out before I could change into my 50's clothes and I am going to bed now. More to come.