Do I Care?

By and large, I've found becoming a secondary level teacher librarian interesting. I'm still working out some of the prickly spots, but still am enjoying the atmosphere of serious learning and high school hi-jinx. Yesterday, though, an passing comment from a student has me thinking. I checked on my one student completing an on-line course. It was Friday, last block, so I wasn't horribly surprised that he was taking a game break. He's a self-motivated kind of student. He's making steady, if unspectacular progress. He wants to graduate, so he'll get it done. He automatically switched screens when I came in - students aren't supposed to be playing games in the library.
I said, "go back, it looks interesting." He showed me the battle strategy game and explained a little to me. His comment to my checking was that he didn't think I would care (about the game playing). I told him I did care, about the school work, him and his progress, but that I trusted him as a 17 year old to manage his own time responsibly. There was no one else around him and he was taking a break. No big deal.
It's definitely time to think about my philosophy of what libraries are for and what my responsibilities to my students are.

Decisions, decisions

How do you move the perfect country setting closer to the city??? I wish I could continue living in this wonderful, little community. The problem is finding the right match for our son. For our daughter, it's a good fit. If we could find jobs close by and a good school for Robbie, then we'd stay. We love the access to locally grown food, the recreation for the kids and us, the peace and quiet and our beautiful house. This is one of the hardest decisions I've ever made! Mostly, I think I'll miss the greenery. Kamloops is so brown and it's soooo green here! It's restful on the eyes and body.

April fool?

I can't believe it's April and I haven't posted, but time flies when you're having fun! Catie is pulling up and standing for short periods of time. She now has a walker and enjoys getting around in it immensely. Robbie is starting baseball for the first time and seems to enjoy it. He's got the family hand/eye thing going, so he catches on pretty quick for a rookie. The yard sits waiting for attention, but right now the house is a priority, so that we can get it ready for...sale, possibly. Country life is wonderful, but we haven't made a true transition out here. Robbie's at school in town, and Catie will be too, so what's the point? We spend too much time on the road. Packing and house-hunting again.
Just to add to the insanity, I put my name in as a candidate for the 1st Vice president's job with the local union. Campaigning has been interesting and stressful. I'm reading A New Earth at the moment and, in some ways, it is helping place this campaign and union work in general into a right perspective. The most important thing is the now. Right now, I need to make lunch, so off I go.

Post Halloween

Yes - Halloween is over and life is supposed to slow down a little before it revs up for Christmas. My list of to-do's this year is just weird with planning the trip. As for Halloween - we had a cute bunny and a blonde Harry Potter. He was so surprised that everyone knew who he was even though he was blonde. It was very cute! Best of all, he always asked for a treat for his little sister, too. Decent trick or treating out here in the country! Most surprising and the community Halloween party was pretty decent, too. The only thing missing was a good fireworks display. Guess we'll have to organize that ourselves.

How many times can you listen to "Bananaphone" - the sped up version? We did at least 15 times in a row on YouTube listening to various versions. Yeah, Raffi!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vWm47yPLGc
If only we had video of the kids watching this - it was hilarious watching them dance to it.

Thinking of others...

Of late, Robbie has been challenging us with behaviour that is very self-focused and wild. Yesterday was particularly testing and we laid the old parental "you need to think of others before yourself" credo on him. This morning the wee boy decides that perhaps donating the money he got from organizing all our recyclable bottles/cans/tetra's could be given to the Food Bank and SPCA. This is the money he earned towards buying a big remote control truck he's wanted for awhile. He looked up at my husband and asked "Is that thinking of others before myself?" Sigh.....

How?

Lately, Catie's naps have begun to be very busy. She is trying some interesting sleeping positions.