Super Scary Day...

Backstory: Reagan is not one to place her feelings on her sleeve. Braelyn yes, Reagan no. When Reagan is upset, she will walk away and process it alone, just like her Dad. Braelyn will go all out: yell and scream,and cry, and feel better in the end; just like me. 

Reagan started Middle School this week. She was excited, nervous, chatty, and super talkative about all her friends that were in her classes, her locker, her new clothes, the route she would ride her bike on the way to school, who she would be meeting, etc, etc. The first day came and it was lots of sharing and telling us all about it...especially her Social Studies teacher, who she was not fond of. Whew...she survived. 

Thursday evening, she comes into my room at 1030, an hour past what time she is supposed to put her phone away in our room on a weeknight. I was woken, and so mad that it was so late. I was yelling at her and told her to just go to bed! I am still so mad that I check her phone to see what the hell she was doing so late (probably just reading her Harry Potter Fan Fiction and got carried away). On the home screen, I see this notification from "I am Sober"...ummm what?

I knock on her locked door, and she yells "I am sleeping..."(Do ya think she is ticked that I yelled at her for staying up late?) She opens the door and I ask/demand to know what is this app. She loses it. 

She could not speak, she is almost to the point of hyperventilating. I calmly sit on the ground and completely change my demeanor, I am calm and patient. I tell her that no matter what it is, I will not be mad. I want to help her so that she is not going to get in trouble. I am in the mode of panic at this point...

I get her to sit with me and she is ugly crying, but she opens the app and shows me a feature on app that says "17 days no Self Harm". OMFG...I have never ever been so scared in my entire life. Deep breaths, don't get mad, don't show emotion...your daughter needs you. 

I tell her that I am not mad at her at all and I am so proud of her for telling me the truth and showing this to me. I calmly ask her, what are you doing that is causing you to hurt yourself...deep breaths...deep breaths..."When I get really nervous, I pinch myself"...Ok, I think to myself.... could be worse...but still not ok. I asked her why she thinks she does that "I was nervous about school and all my friend drama"...ok normal...I think? 

I tell her how proud I am of her for finding something that will help her feel better and I explain to her that sometimes people do things to help them destress, I use to bite my nails....(kinda the same???IDK?) I told her that we love her and that we are going to do everything we can to help her get some strategies for making herself feel better and not so sad or anxious. I told her that I would call our doctor to see if she could think of anything...preparing her. She hugs me and cries and I tell her everything will be ok. I tell her how proud of am of her. 

I put her to bed and immediately call Tony and ask when he is coming home. He was just around the corner, so I waited for him on the couch in the dark. I know what he was thinking...he thought his ass was in trouble for something, cause that is usually what happens. I tell him all about it and his first instinct is to say (not his fault, it's just how he was feeling and I get it), "What does she have to worry about, she is 11 and we give her everything". I calmly explained that it does not have anything to do with that...insert eye roll. 

We start diving deep into her phone to see if there are any other signs. It was all pretty typical; makeup youtube videos, Harry Potter books, and an app that has calming/goal setting with a little online critter (super cute). But nothing out of the ordinary. So we went to bed...or Tony went to bed and I stayed up and foolishly Googled all that I could on self-harm. I then tossed and turned all night, cause that is how I problem solve best. Minutes of sleep: 30.

The next morning Tony called the pediatrician who did recommend that we take her to Alexian Brothers to get an evaluation done. I walked through the rest of my school day in a complete fog and luckily was able to talk it over with my Mom during lunch, who assured me that this was the right thing to do and get her the help she needs. 

I got home and calmly told Reagan that we were able to get into the doctor this afternoon but for her to bring something to do, cause it might be a long wait. She was totally fine and ready to go as if we were going to the dentist or something. We stopped and got some snacks at the gas station...a rarety in the Hernandez house. On our way, she talked the whole damn time...chattering away about her day at school, her social studies teacher, her friends, her new business idea to sell Puppy Chow after school to hungry middle schoolers, on and on. I was like, am I really taking you to get a behavior evaluation, you seem totally fine. What the hell? 

We get into the office and complete the paperwork, she answers the questionnaire about her social and emotional being. They ask us to take our bags to the car, as they only allow phones and purses into the waiting area. 

We waited for 2 and a half hours for her evaluation. There were other families in there with their children and spouses barely saying 2 words to one another. I have had students that have gone to this very location for support, and I know that sometimes those families have to leave their children there for weeks, so it is not a happy place to be. But obviously, Reagan did not know this, she was chattering away, showing me her calming app, showing me her funny Harry Potter memes.I am sure those other families were like "What the hell is wrong with your kid, lady?" It was 2.5 hours of mind games...plus there was a one-way mirror wall, and I'm sure they were watching our moves...creepy. 

The woman that met with us, invited us both in to chat. She asked Reagan questions about why she thought she was there, what she was doing to herself, and why she felt that her family wanted her to come here. Reagan was amazing, I didn't have to talk at all. She identified that she sometimes scratched her legs and pinched herself because she was worried about things. She said that she had been really worreid about school and she sometimes worried about all the drama that her friends were going through. She mentioned that when we went to Denver she was really worried because she might not have packed the right things and the schedule we would follow...(hmmm, I had the same worries too.) She talked about who she can talk to when she is worried, her friends and "yeah, her mom". (Phew). The lady was so nice and sweet to her, and I was so proud of how honest and aware Reagan was. The woman told us that these things are all "typical" behaviors for a middle schooler. She said that Reagan seemed like she was a "worry wart" and also a 'people pleaser". She suggested that we do have her talk to a counselor that would be able to give her strategies to help her when she worried a lot and how to handle some of those friendship things. The woman asked if I had anything to add, and I mentioned that a lot of what Reagan said was how I feel sometimes too, and we talked about the app. She said that it was great that Reagan found a tool to help her cause she knew that that was not right and that she was scratching her legs and pinching herself. 

I walked out of that building with tears in my eyes, so grateful and humble. I absolutely know families that had to leave their children at that very facility, not knowing what the future would look like for them. I got to walk out with my daughter knowing that we are able to get her a counselor that she can talk to, knowing that she has a huge family that supports her, and knowing that she is going to be ok because we are now aware that she is struggling with something and we are going to do everything we can to help her. Reagan has had a great weekend, she went to an event at the high school with her friends, we had a Bath and Body shopping extravaganza and dinner, and she is super pumped to do her math homework. ha. She is doing great and looking forward to a good week of school. 

As a Mom, I am totally feeling guilty and sad. Maybe she has too much screen time, maybe she needs to be in a Fall sport, maybe we need more social interactions, maybe we need LESS social interactions, maybe we shouldn't have gotten her a phone, maybe we needed to talk more about how we are feeling, maybe I should be doing the lessons at home, that I am delivering to my students every day about social-emotional health, maybe we need to have her do fewer chores, maybe...maybe...maybe. We are going to be more aware of what we can do to spend quality time with each of them, cause just like we value our marriage and spending time alone together, we need to make that a priority with our kids too. So step one, monthly "dates" with each kid. We will think of step two next month and see what the counselor suggests too. I need to remember that I can't just blame myself...we are trying our best. 

I share this because I wholeheartedly believe that mental health is something that needs to be shared and discussed, it is not a stigma. If we had a disease, we would not hide it away, we would talk all about it. I hope that this "baby problem" that we had in our family encourages others to share and to know that getting help is for everyone. I also am beyond grateful that we had made the decision to take her phone from her at night...had I not had the inkling to look at her phone, then I would never have been aware that she was struggling with something. What is a molehill could have been a great big Volcano? Thank you for your love and support, Reagan is looking forward to getting a chance to go talk to someone all about her. Honestly, I am thinking that I need to go talk to someone too...Who couldn't use some strategies? 

Teaching with No Shoes On

 

In my ever-loving imagination, did I ever think that I would experience a school year like this one? Where my commute is drinking a cup of coffee while I walk up my stairs, where my dog is my co-worker, where I sit in a tiny room all alone and am basically talking to myself for 8 hours day, and where my every teaching move is dictated by four monitors and 2 iPads. Today is the last day of school and I am reflecting on the most unique year that I know I will never experience again. 

When it was announced on July 13th that all Empower, ISC, Reading,

and Math Specialists, would need to go back to the classroom to support smaller class sizes and a remote elementary environment, the adventure began. I was watching the Board of Education meeting live and as the words came out of the announcement, an email popped up to confirm. I have never received so many text messages within one hour in my life...Shock, anger, sadness, excitement, anxiousness; we were being told to pivot again and with only one month till school started it was...emotional

Volunteer teachers were then asked to teach remotely and choose a grade. When I applied I stated that I was pretty versed in technology and also that I needed to be home for my girls since they would be doing half days at their school and half days from home. I wanted to be home for them to save us, what would have been a small fortune or a lot of Grandparent help if I had to go back to work in a building. I was accepted to teach 4th grade Remotely from home along with the most amazing 4th-grade team, filled with LRC directors, ISC's, 4th Grade teachers, all of us bringing in expertise that was needed for a successful team. I was given a very fortunate experience to work with that great team and be home for my family, along with not having to worry about masks, and sanitizing, and 6 feet apart...

 4th grade was chosen by me for their basic set of reading, writing, some typing, and basic understanding of technology, plus I had already taught 4th for 4 years. Did you know that Kindergarteners do not know how to read MUTE or the symbol for the microphone...I can not even imagine! Plus I had the ability to tell 4th grade parents to go and do their own work, and we would call them if we needed them. I know many primary teachers, spend all 174 days with their students and parents alongside them...That is a lot of ears listening to my many blunders and I couldn't handle that. 

The month leading up to school was a whirlwind of emotions, and worry, and excitement for this new challenge; by me, my colleagues, parents, and I am sure everyone behind the scenes in IT, Admin, and others. As a tech-savvy person, I was contacted often by fellow teachers that had very very little tech experience and had also not been in the classroom for many years. My heart broke for them, and many of them honestly believed that this was not a possible way to spend a year. I think many of us look back today and think about that first day of school and believe that we would never reach the last...I know that I didn't. 

Although I did feel that I was prepared tech-wise, nothing could prepare me for full-time synchronous teaching with 26 students (and their parents) on that first day. I clicked Start Meeting with butterflies in my stomach. Every single first day of school is a day of talking and talking and talking by the teacher. Setting up rules, and directions, and how-tos and routines. Then the next few weeks are reinforcing those rules, and expectations, and how-tos. This first day was no different. Lots of teacher talking, lots of showing them how to use the chat, and email me, and get to the correct platforms. The biggest issue that we had was glitchy computers, and navigating the use of the mute button..."No, you can not unmute anytime you want 4th graders" "Please keep your camera on, so I know you are there". 

Most of the students I had were pretty tech-savvy, but since they were all from different schools, I was not aware of how different our schools had evolved their students into different platforms such as Google Classroom, Seesaw, Docs, Flipgrid, Epic, Nearpod, and other...It was starting from scratch to get them on the same page. I know that these kids will go back to in-person 2-3 years advance in their tech skills and that makes me proud. ;-)

Our class picture...all cameras on! 

We got through that first few months on Google Meet, where they had not yet created break-out rooms. My goal was for me to get my 26 students talking to one another. Listening to me and a few students each day is not a way to learn or grow. With my fancy 6 monitors/devices, I set up separate codes for them to be able to meet and talk to a small group of friends each day. Luckily for us, our district did purchase Zoom for our use, and after a few hiccups, and about an hour trying to get every kid into Zoom, we were then successfully able to move in and out of Breakout rooms for class discussions, games, activities, sharing. All an essential part of elementary students need to connect for their learning and social-emotional needs. I honestly feel that Zoom was the best tech tool this year because of that feature. 

After our routines, expectations, and tech glitches were straighten out, it was time to liven it up a bit. They were getting bored with the routines, and honestly so was I! My favorite thing about D303 is the fact that innovation and thinking outside the box is encouraged. So...I gathered my pile of hats and got started creating gamified units to support their learning routines. We started with a Regions Airlines game, where we discovered different regions of the US and each activity that was completed was a point earned. After that, we moved into a Pirate theme, where I, Queen Hernandez was in charge of the pirate ships and each task allowed your ship to move into the different islands. Finally, with motivation from the student's obsession for Roblox and the book the City of Ember, we created a "Brookhaven" type of world which included tiny houses, mansions, and farms, student-owned businesses, along with a suspicious "Mayor" that would visit and motivate them to complete their work. Honestly...whatever it takes! 

 

A favorite aspect of 4th grade that I love is the fact that they are becoming little adults. I repeatedly told them that they are beginning to have "Big Ears"; where they are listening to their parents, and teachers, and the news/ world and starting to have an understanding, an nd opinion of it all. So many of the events we talked about such as the Dust Bowl, the American Revolution, The Chicago Fire, and Nazi Germany, we were able to reflect on those major events and compare them to our experience during the Covid Pandemic. I always told them "Remember this, cause you will have to tell your grandchildren about this experience one day".

This class will be one that I will never soon forget. I am so grateful for their perseverance, their ideas, their willingness to try new/hard things, and for their commitment to learning, even though they were also at home. I am also grateful for their parent's patience, grace, understanding, and encouragement. I could NOT have done it without them. I am eternally grateful for my 4th-grade team, who was there via bi-weekly meetings and hundreds of text messages to share stories, laughs frustrations, and so many ideas! I am equally thankful to Dana, Tanis, Jolene, Jenni, Sarah, Kim, and Megan for their encouragement, ideas, and ears through this unique experience.Was this easy...NO WAY! Was it rewarding...YES! Did I love being home with my dog and no shoes on each day...ABSOLUTELY! Did I miss "real" people...SOMETIMES???

 I certainly don't think that anyone will forget this: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

All Vaxed up! A few of the 4th grade Remote Teachers

Jolene and I

As I read the last line of my "Last Day of School" book, Oh the Places You Will Go, I busted out my tears even more blubbery than usual, cause this truly will not be a year that is never forgotten. As I told my students, today is bitter-sweet. We are sweet for going into the world without masks, and summer adventures, and going back to school next year, but we are bitter about leaving this comfy environment; with our dogs, new friends, and way of learning from home with no shoes on. 

The Last Pledge

4TH Yearbook:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jxznZW9TdiuFUDVSDkvtSYH2ctDcyxFXXLqG2yYNJ5A/edit

A day that will go down as...anti-climactic (A Memory for my daughters about Covid 19 Quarantine)

I woke up early as usual, got my coffee, turned on Alexa for the news and started typing away. That was pretty typical in my position as an Innovation/Technology specialist at Anderson Elementary. I woke up because I needed to make some tweaks before I sent out my "masterpiece" for others to take a peek at, having no clue what a big deal it was going to be for me and I clicked SEND to a few Instructional Support Coaches and my boss. It wasn't really a masterpiece, so much as a format that I wanted to share with my teachers on what their lesson plans might look like if we were to move into e-Learning.

The Toilet Paper we got from HomeDepot

The signs of Covid 19 started in the months before. Covid was in the news, but we had heard it before from SARS, H1N1, etc. Tony said that masks were being hard to come by at Home Depot. Our friend who, sold dental equipment mentioned that he could't keep mask in stock cause they were all shipping to Washington State. A friend at work who said she had some insider information, said that she knew that schools were going to be closed. Then Auntie Kaylee, a Sophmore at ISU, was told not to go back after Spring Break. Just the Wednesday before "Covid Day", I had booked a $200 round trip flight to San Francisco at the end of April to see my new baby niece. Then of course, there was the "run" on toilet paper at the stores...Luckily Tony had gotten a new shipment at work, and I told him to pick some up cause our Amazon shipment said that they would not be fulfilling it. My mom was currently in California waiting for my sister to have her baby girl and I was nervous for her to get stuck there.

Friday, March 13th, will be the most influential days I think that I will ever have in my teaching career and ironically that was the day that my niece was born, so I will always remember. After my tweaking, I got to school and found every single 1st and Kindergarten teacher that I had not yet gotten a hold of and said that I wanted to get their students into a program that we call SeeSaw, to get the students ready to use that tool independently. It was a "hail Mary" but I needed to know that if we had to go remote learning that these students "kind of" knew how to do that.

It was becoming around 11 and I got a 630 number, so I answered it. It was our Teachers Union president, he said that he needed me to come down to the Administration office immediately and that I needed to keep it quiet. My heart was racing and my adrenaline was pumping. I casually got my stuff and said that the needed me in a "meeting". On the way, I called my mom and told her that I thought that they were going to bring me to the Superintendent and "rip me a new one" for causing panic to the masses by sending my "masterpiece" ideas along to 20 teachers and ISC's. I assumed that this would be a small room with a few people. Not a small room a big room...The Board room.  I turned the corner and was met with applause and cheering. My upper lip started quivering and I almost started to cry. The room was filled with Admin and, Instructional Support Coaches from all grades, people that I had admired throughout my 14 year career and they were grateful for ME! This group had been brought together to create the very plan that I had already started. My name and work was brought up when the task came at hand, and it was suggested that I be brought in to assist.

I felt like we were in the "situation room" at the White House, we were planning and "what if"ing  tweaking to make a more robust document for our teachers to plan instruction for 2 weeks and was to be sent out to teachers as soon as it was ready.  While I was creating with these ISC's, Anderson Elementary and the rest of the district, was being told at noon, by email, that they needed to send all Chromebooks and essential supplies home and that the students would not be back for 2 weeks. Looking back on this now, I am very grateful that I got to "be in the room where it happened" but guilty that I wasn't there to help the teachers, or get to see the students one last time. The day ended at 430 and when I got home the Governor had announced that schools would be closed till the end of March.

My last day with Kindergarten Teachers

The weekend will full of creating and planning and thinking. . Monday morning at 7am, I was at Anderson and ready to help those teachers to show them every single tip and trick that I could think of to make this two weeks be as successful as it could be. I taught See Saw, Screencastify, Google Meet, Google Forms, Google Classroom, you name it...I felt so needed and loved and appreciated, but did not leave till about 530 that night with maybe just one pee break. That night I took the girls to Sam's Club because I had a computer monitor on my wishlist, so that I wasn't having to stare at my little screen while working. I made this an essential item for these 2 weeks and I honestly think it was the best purchase I had make in 10 years.

I woke up on Tuesday ready for this exciting day of e-learning and to get some energy in me, I drove to the Gym, but it had already been closed down for the foreseeable future. So I headed to Walmart to get one last cord for my monitor and for some reason a cute pair of shoes...not knowing that that would be the last time that I stepped in a store in 68 days from today.

I enjoyed being home for a bit... I like sleeping, I liked my commute up the stairs with a cup of coffee. I do take a shower, get dressed, put on makeup, just to have a sense of normalcy. I have been so grateful during this remote learning time that I have been able to be helpful, not only to my teachers but to teachers and leadership across the district. I was even more honored when they  asked me to assist with professional learning to help them with those tech tools that they needed. It has been very rewarding for me to feel so needed and appreciated. I have absolutely loved my work that I had contributed.

As for the world....its a roller coaster. People being told to stay home and Netflix it out. 2 weeks was fun, but had I known that I would have stretched my Tiger King binge for a few more weeks. Schools were closed through the end of the school year, so as I write this we are at March 70th. With Restaurants closed, we try our best to eat out local as a family 1x per week and I have been making it a tradition to go to Big Apple Bagel every Monday morning from Bagels and Coffee. Reagan's 9th Birthday was a huge success with ordering out for dinner and a surprise Birthday Parade with all her friends and family. I hope she always remembers that.

Tony's work has been very busy. Being a disaster relief store, people are using that to paint their house, work on their garden and many other things that people need to do to keep busy and not bored, not exactly essential, but I understand peoples need. Unfortunately, they are also giving their employees lots of paid sick time, so they are  short staffed, which makes every one of  Tony's' work day "Black Fridays". He is tired.

Reagan has her school work, she gets it done, but needs an extra set of eyes on it to make sure it is completed properly. Braelyn has a folder of papers that we give to her, 2 per day and usually a video from the pre-school. I am so lucky that they are old enough to just need me sometimes, and  for the most part they know that when I am working they are to go be bored and go play. We made a rule that at 9am you will be off the iPad, dressed and ready for school. I had high hopes that the school work would last all day, but Reagan is usually finished by 11am. Reagan and Braelyn are getting along pretty well considering that they have to be each others best friends till whenever we can break out of this.

Each week we look forward to choosing a local restaurant to eat out at. Easter is usually full of people and good food hosted at our house but that weekend we kept busy by creating drawings on about 20 of our friends and family's driveways and then ding dong ditching them, if we didn't get caught. We had a nice breakfast of creapes and Mimosas and Tony smoked a ham and Mac and Cheese. We look forward to Zoom calls with our friends every so often. The strangest thing is drinking while Zooming and then getting off and realizing you were actually alone the whole time. Thankfully the girls have also keep connected with family and friends through FB messenger and phone calls. They have even come up with a way to play hide and go seek. The girls got caterpillars that will turn into Butterflies so that is something to look forward to. They miss their Grandparents, so on day 60ish, we snuck out and had a driveway party with Baba and Grandpa and then the next day Grandma Deb came for dinner outside.

We are so so so fortunate to be riding this out with food on our table, warm beds at night, a large house to spread out in, a WHOLE lot of alcohol, and knocking on Springtime. We know that not all families are as lucky as ours. We hope that this will bring us and others back to the simple things in life. I like to be a optimistic that this will allow people to connect to their families, value education, value their health, value receiving a paycheck, value work, value freedoms that I do think that we took for granted.

Zooming with our family

Had to keep busy some how

Lines outside Home Depot (Only 100 let in)

Gas is sooo cheap. 

Reagan's Birthday Parade

Our ding dong ditch Easter Weekend

Auntie Kaylee made masks for the masses! 

A Gif for our PD that I created...oh Lori! 

The Caterpillars

Reagan's New Loft Bed made by Daddy

Zoom meeting with her Pre-School Class

Oh the Lori Lightfoot Memes

Girls and I made a Scavenger Hunt..that was only day 5. 

This was just funny, so I made it into a meme with our friends. 

Breaking the rules with Driveway Party with Baba and Grandpa

We are more alike than different RIGHT (or LEFT?)

My Mama says "Don't talk about sex, religion or politics?" I just don't know if Mama knows that's best.

I am obsessed with politics! Tony rolls his eyes every...single...time that I bring politics up, which is pretty often. Yes, even to strangers. Sometimes he will give me a warning not to talk politics, cause he might just not be in the mood to have to listen to it. The banter, the questions, the topics, the learning, the wondering...My favorite!!!

I have said it before, that I feel that I live in a bubble of Northern Illinois, I am surrounded by the deepest "Blue" within 2,000 miles. Since "that day", I have read, and researched, and asked questions that I have never asked before. I didn't "get it" and, sometimes still "don't get it", but I have tried to change because now I LISTEN to others, instead of secretly rolling my eyes.

Maybe it is because I have gotten older, or maybe it is because of all the questions and listening, but I realize that I am certainly not, duh, duh duh...a Democrat. I thought I had to be because I was a teacher; pro-union, pro-education, pro-big government. The thing is that my mind has changed a bit, and that is ok to do! (NO really...)

Don't get too worried, because I am def not a Republican either!!! Oh no, no, no. Pro-choice is my number one reason...sorry not sorry.

I think..think... I have convince my husband too that we are Libertarians. We believe if you want to have an abortion (or in-vetro fertilization), its your body, your choice for your family and the government has no reason to tell you what to do. You want to own a gun, good for you, just get a license and don't freckin' kill anyone.  You want to be a hooker and get paid for it, Work It Girl (might just want to wrap it up).  You want to send your kid to private school, sure but make sure it aligns with your beliefs. You want to go to college; Coo, coo, best work at JCPenney to pay for that shit, just like I did.

The last election, I stayed "quiet" (but not silent) because I was so cocky and sure of the results. A smug eye roll and assuring glance at Tony every time it was brought up. But who was smug on November 9 crying in their bathroom at 5am...me! So this time is different, I am going to ask questions, I am going to try to understand, I am going to attempt to convince others of my opinions, in my most respectful and resourced way. I am going to try my best to convince, OR not be so naive.

My challenge for you is to not keep quiet and be smug. I encourage you to respectfully ask questions and sometimes you even have to say "I am just trying to understand your opinion", or "I don't have a lot of information on that, can you tell me more". Sometimes you do have to fact check to see if their sources are current if you don't believe something (thanks Android phone) but maybe you want to check to see if YOU were misinformed..opps!

I don't have a news station, so the best I can do is a Facebook group titled "Let's Step into the Other Room (and talk politics)" in honor of my brother in law and my political talks that are always greeted with eye rolls and "you aren't talking politics again". So we take that cue, grab our drinks, and head into the other room, and always with respect for one another, will talk politics and even send text talking about our favorite political topics. Todd, you have taught me a lot about seeing others opinions, so thanks for participating. I hope this group too helps move everyone's learning and processing forward in the respectful way that I have tried to have over the past 3 years in my political conversations. Feel free to join us, invite others, chime in, or just observe.

I believe in LISTENING, sharing your opinions/perspectives/backgrounds, be willing to change your mind, or even be willing to "agree to disagree". This is where we can realize that we are MORE ALIKE THAN DIFFERENT.

A Letter to My Children's Teacher

To the hard working Educators that have and will teach my Daughters:

First of all thank you for all that you do. This job is fun, hard, exciting, exhausting, mind blowing, exhilarating, full-filling, and draining, but always rewarding.

There are a few things that I want to do my very best to promise to you:

1. I promise to always call you by Mr., Mrs., Doctor, or whatever other name that you wish for my child to call you, because we are not friends. You are my child's teacher, and I want to show you the fullest respect. My child will call me Mom, and Dad, will be called Dad.  They will never call us by our first names EVER!  I will never call my Dentist, Andrew or call my Gynecologist... Jenny. Therefor in person, over email, at the Costco, and the Bar on Friday night, you will be called Mr, or Mrs. Whatever...ALWAYS!

2. My child is always wrong.....
Until further investigation by adults occurs, I will ALWAYS believe you. Even if you are wrong, my daughters will never know the difference. I will never assume that my child is telling me the truth, as children most likely do not have the maturity to admit fault for their wrong doings. If they did they would probably not need to be in school,  and would be driving, or have jobs. I understand that teachers do not send emails, make phone calls, or ask for meetings on Friday afternoons, unless they absolutely feel that there was a problem with my child.  I am certain that you have better things to do, like creating lesson plans, analyzing data, or giving my child feedback to make them more successful. I thank you for contacting me regarding my child's behaviors, as I am fully aware that my child is NOT perfect, and that telling a parent that their "precious" being was not being respectful to adults, children or property in school, is NEVER an easy conversation to have.

3. I value your feedback
When you tell me that my child is struggling with being kind to others,or their  multiplication  facts are difficult, bringing a healthy snack is a challenge, or their reading fluency is poor, or they are having difficulty   making friends,or her desk is a hot mess, etc, I promise to do everything in my power to make sure that I am doing everything that I can to help them. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention,  I am sure that you have data, observations, and have had conversations about my child on how to make them the best that they can be.
Recommending websites, resources, etc, are greatly appreciated, and I know that it took a lot of time to gather those for us. Thank you for involving me in the conversation, as this child will be forever mine (and maybe in my basement at one time) and any feedback that I receive in regard to their social and academics is amazing.  Grandmas only tell me how wonderful they are...they/we are biased, so an outsiders perspective is beyond appreciated.

4. I promise to never talk about you in front of  my child or on Social Media: 
Just as I would never want you to talk about me in front of my child,  I promise to never talk about you in front of them either, as this makes my child seem that they do not have to respect you, because I am not respecting you.  I am sure there will be things that I will not agree with you upon, but I will either keep those to myself, or confront you. If we can not agree, I will then follow the chain of command and go to your principal, but I will never go behind your back or above you, because we are adults.  Good or Bad,  no one deserves to have their name posted on Facebook/Twitter/etc, without their knowledge (ex. I got Mrs Hernandez, I heard she is strict). Teachers are not celebrities, and certainly do not get paid like a celebrity, so they should not be discussed in public forum as celebrities are.

5. I will never buy you something with an Apple
Teachers do not get paid enough, and if I knew that you needed more Sharpies, or pencils, or crayons, I would buy you that, just let me and other parents know, I am sure that those markers will be used  by my child, as she is a Marker Whore just like her Mama! For the holidays, I will never buy you an apple key chain, or a soap set...Do Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks sound ok?  If I knew what kind of liquor that you liked, I would buy you that....

Thank you for everything that you do for my child. I absolutely could not teach my child... in fact...do you have any plans for Spring Break???????

Kind Regards,
A fellow Teacher and Parent

Are they just words?

Words like crybaby, flake, low life, low IQ, clown, dummy, phony, dopey, weird, slob and so many more, could all be accusations that are brought to me by 3rd graders on a daily basis. The way that I as a 3rd grade teacher handle this, is to bring student forward and have a chat about only using nice words to our friends at school. Usually at this point in the year, we have a whole class chat about how we need to treat our classmates with respect and that name calling is not the way to get what you want. We talk about how in fact, it make your classmates not want to be your friend, because who wants to be friends with a bully? And no, these words were not used by my 3rd graders, but were used by some top political officials.

I am at a cross point that I wonder if this seeming correct advice that I give my students is complete crap? Am I wrong, do adults get ahead in life by slinging insults to make other feel less then they should and this get what they want?  Do men and woman in board rooms scream "clown" across the room and miraculously everyone is willing to sign a million dollar deal?  At Best Buy, does a customer call my husband a "beaner" and all of  a sudden Mr. Hernandez gives them that television at the discount that they asked for? At United Airlines, does my mom give a customer that had problem with their flight a flying voucher because they call her a cunt?  Is that what I need to teach my students how to convince other to get what they want?

Why the hell would I vote for you?  You felt it was acceptable to re- posted on your personal Facebook from the Rotten Illinois Politicans page about "Jelly Butt Pritzker etc, etc, etc.". Even though I have never voted for a Republican in my life, I almost voted for you, because I thought you had some great ideas about how to make Elgin be successful. However, from what I observed you feel that insulting someones weight helps to prove your point about political issues. In my opinion, you need to work on having some better ideas to convince me to vote for you. Give me facts about your work, ways your going to bring jobs to Elgin, and make our downtown better, instead of criticizing someones weight...because you lost my vote with that irresponsible repost,  and I will work to let everyone I know not to vote for you either. Sorry not sorry, please be better.

I tell my students,if you are witnessing something that is not ok, you are just as guilty. If you do not speak up and say something, then you are guilty too. So when people ask my political opinion, I say that some people treat others in ways that I can not defend, and if I don't speak up an say something than I am just as guilty.  How can I preach one way to my students and own children, and then believe a different way in my leaders. Melania Trumps initiative is called #bebest. I will keep working on this initiative in my classroom to teach my students ab, out well-being and social media use and I hope that my friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, school districts, and elected officials will too. I will  be voting this year: I will vote for decency and kindness, no matter what your political party.

Do you know what Innovation is?

Maybe  I am naive, or hopeful, or maybe it's because I have entered down a dark rabbit hole and I am freckin' going back...

Have you seen the latest iPhone...I don't know what number they are on now, maybe like 13 or something, but point being that we don't have these anymore
... and thank god, because I don't think that brick does Snapchat...or even has the Dunkin Donuts app on it. Have you heard of Amazon? Did you know they are not popular for just books anymore? They have innovated their business to make it better for their customers....

See, companies have to make their products better, if they didn't then they would be out of business.  They are CONSTANTLY evolving, they have to. Why can't teachers evolve, why can't we ask our customers/students what they need and make it work for them? Why don't we ask our parents what they want to see from their child's classrooms? Students and parents are our customers, why don't we do what every business does and ask them. 56l

An Innovation Specialist is a teacher, that works within schools to  help teachers create lessons engaging, real world, hands on, "techie", collaborative, project based, community involved and FUN! When my 3rd grade students need to understand why we have to learn multiplication, we can create a  hands on project that requires them to create their dream house with game rooms and luxurious bedrooms with pools in them, and 5 car garages. We can then use the tiles on the floor to show square feet and discuss how they can use that measurement to map out their 40 x 200 foot bathroom. Then we have them use centimeter grid paper to shrink down their mansion to fit onto a poster paper. We then have them decorate their house with expensive furniture that they researched on the internet with only a budget of $10000. After that they might understand the purpose of multiplication

If they are hesitant to learn their multiplication tables,we can create a land of wizards, that earn shields, satchels, wands, wizard hats, crowns, and wings for every multiplication table they conquer. With this simple change, we can get even the most reluctant math students to be begging to be  We can teach elections not by reading about them in the newspaper, but by creating a real life caucus. We can fund raise for our field trip by creating a business plan with advertising, and charts, and calculations to show them how math and speaking and listening and writing are all connected.  The problem with all of these projects is that there is just not enough time between the follow up phone calls to parents, the chat in the hallway with lunch monitors, planning supply list for next year, the interventions, the grading giving of test, the grading of test, the recess duty, the PTO meetings, and on and on, and on.

This position that was almost, is my DREAM job, it's what I know that I am made for. Last spring and summer, I was fortunate to teach a class called Innovation Inside the Box, which district teachers took to be able to learn about ways that they could be innovative in their classroom lessons. It was so amazing to see that teachers sometimes just didn't know where to start, they were afraid that they couldn't align the standards to these projects, and that they had to read their lessons out of the manual. It was incredible to see their projects that they created to make their classrooms interactive and exciting not just for their students but for them too. I wish that I could have been with them to help and adjust and give feedback right there while they were teaching, that is what an innovation specialist can do.

I know what you are thinking, this does not sound like what would happen in a school, but maybe what would happen in a business when a consult comes in to spark some ideas and give feedback, you are absolutely correct and why not?  Teachers need to learn, and collaborate, and reach out, and create too; just like a business does.

A perfect classroom to me, is a classroom where students are working in groups, making...something, maybe it is a poster, a cardboard marble run, a map of their new land, an online game they created,  a math project that uses real world problems, interacting and collaborating with students across town on a project via their laptops, graphs with data they collected for their writing pieces, etc, etc, etc, and of course there is more that I don't even know about YET!

The problem with this new position is that our Learning Resource Directors positions were in jeopardy. Now, before we get on a debate about libraries/librarians being obsolete, I have to say that I am not NOT anti-library or anti-librarian. If you have ever read the brochure, or walked into the most beautiful library in the world, Gail Borden in Elgin, you will see that this is not a place to be quite and read books. Those librarians have created a magical world of everything that the families of Elgin could ever dream of. There are games, their are robots, their are computers, their are STEAM activities, their is crafts, a creativity lab, their is a 3D printer, their are movies, there are diversity seminars...this library has evolved, just like that iPhone 19. We need to be better and although our new district plan is start, it is still missing that teacher collaboration piece that elementary school teachers need.

A perfect classroom to me, is a classroom where students are working in groups, making...something... maybe it is a poster, a cardboard marble run, a map of their new land, an online game they created, a math project that uses real world problems, interacting and collaborating with students across town on a project via their laptops, graphs with data they collected for their writing pieces, etc, etc, etc, and of course there is more that I don't even know about YET!

Even if I were not to get my dream job, I NEED this position in my building. I need some someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to throw the Hail Mary to and then get feedback from, someone that has some time beyond emailing parents about missing lunches, to create "stuff" and would also have the time to align my crazy ideas to a standard or more, and be able to justify the lessons with test data. Teachers are busy, and we all want to do better, but especially in the elementary school there is just not enough time.