9/11 Never Forget

When we went to California last week for the funeral of a friend (Paula Giles), we spent Monday in Malibu. Pepperdine University students had placed nearly 3,000 flags on their lawn at the corner of Malibu Canyon Drive and Pacific Coast Highway, overlooking the ocean in remembrance of the victims of 9/11. This display was left up from Sept 11-19. I wish everyone could have seen it! What a beautiful way to remember those heroes. Many people were stopping and photographing the memorial. I decided to share a few of my favorites. (I have more on Facebook, if you want to have a look.) Never forget! If you want to see the whole story click on this link.
http://www.pepperdine.edu/pr/releases/2010/september/9-11-flag-display-2010.htm

Honeymooners

So today was the first day back at school. I woke up with a headache just thinking about the problems and the horrible behavior that the kids would have today coming back. Guess what? They were really good, but the headache persisted even though I only had minor problems...
Minor Problem #1....a kid knocking on the door for twenty mins this morning hoping that I would bring out the balls... he just kept knocking and staring in the window, and despite the fact that he could see that I was there and was not going to get up and bring out the balls, he kept knocking. I wanted him to get the clue that he needs to be polite and just let me work whether or not he can see that I am in the room or not. So when he came in, he got to start off the new year by changing his card at 9:01 am. Hahahaha.....
Minor Problem #2 could be expected by a child I will call Billy. Billy is somewhat of a brat, if I can say so. He is always arguing with me before he even checks to see what I am talking about. For example, if he gets a question wrong, he will whine, "no it's not" before he even sees if he put an answer down. So today, he brought a paper up to me and I said, "Billy, you didn't put your name on your paper." Then it came, the protest, as if I would lie to him... "Yes, I diiiiiiiiiiiiid!!" So I said, "Billy please go change your card." Then, the same thing as always, "Ohhhh I'm sorry," and the crying begins. What can I do to keep my sanity here?
Minor Problem #3 . . . Another somewhat challenging, but very bright, highly gifted boy who likes to get into power struggles was not paying very good attention and after a couple of requests to focus more, warning him that the next time he was not looking at the board and listening, he would change his card, he decided to roll his eyes at me. Hellooooo? How rude! So I said, "Did you just roll your eyes at me?" No answer. Please go change your card. He was fine the rest of the day.

So, I guess it was actually a really great day, after all. But, I can't be too excited. It will be back to "normal" here in a few days. This is what we in the education world call the "Honeymoon Period," which happens at the beginning of the year and after long vacations, if you are lucky. But you can't let it fool you. Don't judge the kids as angels until they prove to be that good even after a week or so.

Some pictures from my summer

Hidden Valley Ward girls and leaders

Hidden Valley Ward Camp Leaders

I had so much fun!

Mom and me at Flathead Lake, Montana