Northern Noise

So a new threshold has been crossed in the world of Hadaways.  Last night, Jed had his first sleepover.  For some crazy reason, his teacher and the other 2nd/3rd grade multiage class have a sleepover at the school at the end of the year.  Jed had initially said he wasn't going to go, but changed his mind the morning of.  So after school yesterday, he looked carefully at the packing list, prepared and packed his duffel bag, and waited for his father to get home and take him. To say he was a little wound up with excitement is a true understatement.  I actually worried one of his sisters would kill him before he was able to depart.  Finally, I sent him out on to the porch to watch for his papa.  He started on the porch, and soon had his duffle bag in the yard while he ran up the porch and down the driveway watching for Bob's truck.  I sat inside, listening to him talk to the dogs until eventually, I heard the pickup in the driveway.  Then, s...

I had a post that is gone... so strange... maybe I'm not as funny as I think I am....

"Because I could not stop for Death / He kindly stopped for me" These words from an Emily Dickinson poem have run through my head several times in the past few days.  Death, it seems, has a sense of humor because I have what my family and co-workers are calling the "death cough" and instead of moving it, it's just hanging around. I think the term "death cough" is really not appropriate, especially given the way I feel.  I'm more of a poet at heart and would describe it as, "the sounds of a pot party in the asthma ward."  It's hard to believe that the noises coming from me are the sounds of only one person.  And I feel like my old '84 Blazer looked after 8 seasons driving a washboard road to work every day.  Falling apart one piece at a time, I rattle when I start up, and eventually even when I sit still, and folks who look at me think, "that horse should be put out to pasture." Now that I've mixed a bunch of me...

It's funny, Lori L. commented on my last post about the title, and how she thought it might be about something, or someone, else.   We've been having lots of good conversations at our house lately about that "something else."  Like kids all over, my own children have been seeing a lot on the news about the death of Osama Bin Laden.  We've discussed the basic premise that, we don't ever celebrate someone's murder, even if they're a bad person.  On this point, we're all agreed. It's a little harder to talk about what makes a person a good person or a bad person.  Or to figure out whether revenge is ever okay, or what justice is.  Ali is reading Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies and Julius Caesar , all texts that address these issues of the strong exploiting the weak, the noble ideal vs. the real, fear vs. love.  The death of Osama Bin Laden, the chaos of the Middle East, the daily news all provide worldly venues for the ideas to manifest in actua...

So apparently the second grade class my son is in has a large contingency of Barney haters.  That's right, I said Barney.  As in the big purple dinosaur that teachers children how to be friendly and kind to one another.  I don't know why Barney has become the target of their twisted 8 year old minds, but apparently he has.  I know this because each day my son comes home and sings another variation of an "I hate Barney" song.  Today's song is sung to the tune of the sweet holiday carol, "Joy to the World:" Joy to the World, Barney is dead! We bar-becued his head! What happened to the bo-dy? We flushed it down the po-tty, Around around it goes, Around around it goes, A-ro-und, a-ro-und around it goes! Yes, the song is disturbing.  Yes, I'm concerned about my son's sense of humor, even though he assures me that "everyone is doing it."  And I guess the peer pressure to sing anti-Barney songs isn't as unhealthy as peer pressure...

Somehow I've become a bit of a techie.  I started this blog in 2008 when I wasn't even 100% sure what a blog was.  Since then, I found a few readers, and I've learned to put a link to a video or include an image.  Then, I took a new job where I had time to learn "stuff."  I had always wanted to learn to use technology in my classroom, but never took the time, nor did I really think I could figure it all out without taking away from my content.  This year, I began by creating my own work website to share resources and teaching ideas.  I have taught courses on using Garageband to create poetry podcasts.  I have taught students to use Noodle Tools and Google Earth.  I even led the professional development presentation on the school district's draft technology curriculum. Now I'm taking a course for my master's degree called something like "Integrating Technology."  Our first assignment was to create a blog and to create a Delicious account....