Focus... A Blogger's Dilemma

It has been a while since I have written a blog entry. It’s not that I haven’t had anything to say. No. Quite the contrary. I think I have had too much to say and too many topics to pick from. I could never decide what to focus on. For instance, here is my dilemma...

Back in August I had planned to write about how I was now living the life of my typical 60’s mother. Our tiny patch of three tomato plants and four cucumber plants had given us an abundance of fruit that we were unable to eat. I decided to can them. And pickle them. I had rediscovered a large blue canning pot that we had used for our camping club’s annual August boiled dinner. I invested in the jars and the pickling salt and the spices and the general paraphernalia needed to  complete the job. I spent three very hot days/afternoons slicing and dicing and boiling and capping. And unexpectedly enjoying the little popping sound the lids made as the jars cooled and sealed. Along with all the knitting and quilting that I did for baby shower gifts and the occasional bread baking, I ended the summer feeling much like Ma on ‘Little House on the Prairie.’

At the end of August I planned to write about the preparations for my 51st first day of school. Yep. You heard right. I have been celebrating the first day of school as a student, a teacher and a parent for fifty one consecutive years. This year my first school day was spent at a morning rally for my school district’s employees. We enjoyed reconnecting after the summer break with a continental breakfast before our district staff meeting. We listened to the usual rah-rah of the district’s welcome back message, accomplishments and plans for the upcoming school year. It’s a kind of familiar exhilaration to see familiar faces again... everyone was sun drenched and excited about getting back into the classroom. They were looking forward to getting to know this year’s crop of ‘their kids.’ But nothing made me prouder to be a HVS employee than the video presented to the district’s personnel by our new union president, Josh Gignac. I have worked on staff with Josh. I have served on several committees with him. I know his humor. And I know his dedication to his profession and the people he serves. He managed to put a lot of heart – and a few giggles - into his little video… and got a standing ovation for it too. It was the PERFECT way to kick off the year. (You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNyGN5boO6M)

And thus my 51st school year began.

In early September I had planned a rundown of my new school year.  Approximately seven hundred students regularly pass through my computer labs weekly in four different elementary buildings this year. I am immensely proud that my school district – Huron Valley Schools - remains committed to providing regular technology instruction to its third through fifth graders. In a perfect world, every kid would have access to their own computer and they wouldn’t need what we teach. And who knows, as fast as technology evolves, they may not need what we are teaching to succeed in their future. But we press on and practice keyboarding skills, how to create and manage documents and power points, how to research responsibly and to practice internet safety. We also give them confidence and the ability to explore new things. Hopefully we are instilling the skills to use their computers as a means of communicating in a kindly and effective way. I see seven hundred students in a week. Every week.

And I was seriously thinking about skipping the flu shot this year. Heh.

On September 11th I was planning to write about feeling all moved and melancholy about the 10th year observance of the fall of the Twin Towers in New York. Everyone was all ‘do you remember where you were.’ Yes. I do. I was in a Kindergarten classroom. I had accidently flipped the wrong switch on my CD player and the parents helping in my classroom heard a snippet of the initial news reports before I switched back to Dr. Jean’s  ‘Alpha-size’ song. I spent the day – along with the rest of my colleagues – teaching school to kiddos who didn’t know and didn’t care about anything other than that the weather was beautiful and we were going outside for recess. At every possible free minute we adults were glued to various television sets in the building. I picked my children up at their school and went home to the television there to see the repeated news reports about the
devastation in New York over and over again. My own children were seven and a half and six years old. They seemed oblivious to what was happening. Until the next morning. Suddenly my son seemed panicked and driven to write a ‘report.’  (His genius of a second grade Teacher had made report writing a privilege in her classroom. When students were finished with their work they were ‘allowed’ to search her collection of fact books for material to write about). That particular morning he saw pictures in the morning newspaper and he was suddenly a mini-man on a mission searching for scissors, glue sticks, tape, paper and a stapler. He put together a simplistic recap. His 4 page report read simply, ‘Planes crashed. Buildings fell. People ran.’ It was illustrated with pictures cut from the newspaper. I helped him add the last page. I meant for it to be a calming force in his mind and heart. It read, ‘The helpers are here.’ The pictures he found for that page showed firemen and police officers covered in dust, civilians serving food, dispensing drinks... and praying. 

It was a master piece.

He took it to school to share and later in the day his teacher approached me in the hall to thank me. She said she had struggled all night and morning about how to talk to her second graders about what had happened. She’d gone through the papers on her desk and found my son’s report. It was perfect. A horrible event perceived through the mind of a child. It was a perfect catalyst to allow her  students to express their thoughts and fears about what they were seeing and hearing all around them in the aftermath of 9/11. Ten years ago.

And so now it’s October. Those second graders of ten years ago are now high school seniors. My son’s final high school soccer season is winding to a close. His last homecoming dance has come and gone. He is – at last- starting to focus on college applications. My niece is getting married soon in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  For once we contemplate embarking on an out of town trip that does NOT involve soccer. My soccer playing daughter tripped over another player in a recent game
and injured her back so now we are dealing with physical therapy, CAT scans and a possible MRI instead of practice, tournaments and games.

So you can see my dilemma. We are still here. I am still writing. It’s the focus that’s the problem.  

Welcome - once again - to my life.

Sigh.