This was written by a friend and fellow Syracuse University mom. During the course of my four years and her three, we have shared many, many thoughts and emotions via our fabulous facebook page. Mary's daughter and my son attend(ed) Syracuse and now and forever, bleed orange, as do we, their proud moms.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2014/08/22/learning-college-mom/MSLiYQa8aOPQSumRkTdmqL/story.html?event=event25&s_campaign=sm_gp&hl=en-US
http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2014/08/22/learning-college-mom/MSLiYQa8aOPQSumRkTdmqL/story.html?event=event25&s_campaign=sm_gp&hl=en-US

Walker Blaggins-Battery Steele 08-20-2014

A friend asked me, "As an adult away on vacation, a trip or just away, what is it that you miss? Do you yearn for home or do you gravitate back to childhood? Do you miss your hometown?"

I posted a quick thought, but I know I will add to this.

I miss the me I was; the wide eyed innocent, trusting child. I miss the strength of my dad's hug and the security of knowing mom was home. I miss knowing that my best friend was just a few doors down the street and that no matter where I ended up in town, someone knew me.  I miss the prickly feel of the dry grass on my legs and shoulders, as I watched, stretched out in a field of Queen Ann's lace, the clouds form all sorts of images against a deep blue sky. They say you can never return, but you can. Just close your eyes, be still a moment, breathe and it will come to you, fleetingly at first, but if you allow it, it will flood in on a wave of warm summer air, punctuated with a smile. Also my fiend, Dorothy told me to click my heels, that works too!

This is a facebook post from my much loved son, who is realizing he is not going back to Syracuse University. His time is done. He graduated this past May.......

Kj Mills

9 hours ago

So last night I had my first dream about school since I graduated. I think it's because it is getting close to the time where I would be going back to Syracuse. If this were last year I would be getting prepared to leave in 12 days. Having a full time job has made me think less about not going back to Syracuse, but it is now getting to the point where I'm going to start missing it. In May people asked me if I was sad, and I said no, I will feel sad when it is time to go back and I won't be. But my dream also said something else. For my Syracuse friends I will describe it. I was running up university place trying to catch the bus but then realizing that I don't have one, and that a bus will never come to college place for me again. I stopped running out of breath at the corner of university place and comstock and realized that I am out of place here. There was no place for me to go and stay. And I needed to get home and continue my work. My interpretation is that yes I am sad that I will never be a student at Syracuse again, but it is a good thing because I would be out of place there and I have my career to fill up my life. I will always cherish my time there and will come back every year as a visitor, not a resident. If you read all of this thank you so much for listening to me.

This is is what I sent to him.....

When you learned to walk, I held your hand; then you let go. Tall Spire showed you feathers, Waybright gave them to you, Saugus High School showed you how to choose the best feathers and think about flying. Syracuse University held those wings for you, improved those wings, handed them to you on May 12th and you let go and soared. What you didn’t count on was the gossamer thread SU attached to your wings; invisible yet strong, that will always hold you close, wrapping around your heart sometimes so tight you feel you can’t breathe. But you will learn to let go, one tiny step at a time, just like you did all those years ago. You will continue to soar, but never so far that you can’t find your way back, you just have to follow your heart, and that thread back to where the Vale of Onondaga meets the eastern sky, where you can always return, but can never go back. Transitions are hard; I still get antsy stepping off an escalator! (Heart strings to heart strings)

For these few things, I am grateful...

I was asked by the awesome Beth Browdy Gonyea to participate in this,with her. Please join me in this exercise. Each day for 5 days post 3 things you are grateful for & tag 3 friends each day as well to join.

Here are my three things for today:

1. I am infinitely grateful that I wake up everyday with the same body and mind that I had when I went to sleep. So many times you hear of someone "passing away in their sleep" and how fortunate that is. You hear of sudden strokes and the slow confusion of Alzheimer's; a fall down a flight of stairs or a push down that same flight of stairs. So yes, I am grateful for every blizzard to slog through, every drop of rain that manages to find its way into my house, every degree of heat and humidity that slows me to a crawl, as well as every bright star in the winter sky, rainbow, sunrise and sunset.

2. I am grateful for DNA; yes DNA, for without my own particular strands of DNA I would not have my dad's eyes or my mom's hair. Without their genetics I would not have Gram's hands or Pop's big toe; Ma's smile or Pa's patience. I am grateful that when I look into my daughter's eyes, I see my dad and when my son smiles a certain way, I discovered Uncle Jim. I see that look in my brothers eyes and smile too. When I see my nephew, I see my dad as a young man and my niece has his sense of humor. I am grateful my cousins share the hands and feet of our grand-genes and that we have all been woven with the threads that bind us together, though some of us are quite "textured!" Where this DNA began, I have not figured this out yet, but I know I will. I am hoping to mull this over for many more years, but when it comes time for the final answer, I know I have lived as close honesty and faith as I could and will await the next questions with hope and trust.

3. The last in this very short list of gratefulness are the people who have woven their own threads into my life.  Some threads have broken, yet they are still part of my tapestry. There are some who are hidden below, but are still weaving quietly, waiting to surface when the time is right. There are

bright splashes of Syracuse Orange, Keany Blue, Sachem Red, Warrior Red; the Blue and Gold of NASC, the Maroon of BPU and now Tanner Blue.

There are the muted grays and browns of sadness, the bright yellows of new babies being born and the breath taking whites of those taken too soon. The clerk at the store who helped me find chutney and laughed with me about the silliness of the word, chutney; the young man who flipped me the bird as I was driving along at my own pace, the students who amaze me with their resiliance, the dog who greets me with a whole body wag, the dogs who live in my memory. The cats, the bunnies the fish the turtles, they are all part of the tapestry I will finish, many years from now, if at all. I may be able to keep working on it, "later." As I said, I haven't figured that out yet. But for today, this minute, this breath, I gather you all close, marvel at the colors you all have given me, and I continue with the thread I was given at 4:30 pm, July 30, 1956 and say, thank you.

This is so simple

This is a "must read!"
https://medium.com/teaching-learning/an-open-letter-to-my-sons-kindergarten-teacher-ed1f90239ae7

I had to add in my two cents, as well.....

When my kids were little, I got into a heap of "conversation" with their Principal, because they did not submit their four summer reading projects (written) when they returned to school. They did however, spend the a part of that summer learning about all the core subjects; they calculated and estimated how many logs and branches it took to build a fort in the woods. They learned geography remembering how to find that fort in the deep woods! They learned about the planets and stars, while stretched out on their backs under a humid night sky, watching the Perseid Meteor showers grace the sky. They learned about the moon's pull on our tides and how to form letters at low tide and watch them wash into the ocean at the neap tide. They even learned how to make a sun dial to tell them when to come home. They were blessed to be able to vacation for a week or so where they could experience this, but what stayed with them when they returned to their bustling home and town, was the curiosity and ability to seek answers that is still ingrained in them at ages 20 and 22. I look back on that summer and have to thank that Principal for instilling a resolve in me to never, ever try to make my students, "fit the mold!" They are not "common" and their "frameworks" are most certainly, "outside the box" if I have properly done my job!

Go 'Cuse!

Waiting to watch Syracuse University play Dayton.  GO CUSE!
https://twitter.com/SUsocksistas

February Vacation!!!!!!

Although I have not actively written here in the blog, I have kept a paper journal with hen scratch notes!
I made it through to my first "paid" vacation and I so need it!  I have been working on evidence for MCAS Alt Portfolios since November and am looking forward to finishing them up early in the week to be able to take some much needed time off.

I have all 5 students folders lined up in the spare room and am busily matching evidence of progress to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.  I am running into a real issue because the Know Atom program (7th grade) I have been following does not align with 8th grade standards.

To apostrophe or not to apostrophe; that is the question.

ARGHHHH! I FORGOT THE APOSTROPHE!!!!!!

Thank you to my brother, Tom the last standing member of our family's grammar police (did I get the apostrophe correct???) for pointing out my incorrect use of the dreaded apostrophe in my blog title....Mea Culpa! I created this blog as an assignment in graduate school and no one there caught it...That should have been a clue!  If any one can help me un-do my era, I will be foevah indetted to youse! Good to know my brother is still taking care of me!

Keep calm and carry on.

Field trip went great....only a wee bit of drama (love those adolescent hormones), a few tears (not mine) and a big disappointment (.....mine and one student) Nothing that a good strong cup of tea won't cure......ummmm.....or a teeny martini! Keep calm and carry on!

Stink, stinking, stank, stunk

I had to have a "talk" with the 6th graders yesterday, and draw from my Health Teacher Hat......(Yes, this is still my first love of teaching...wish I could get hired as such!)  Many of the staff have have been complaining about a particular student's odor; the student ultimately being sent to the nurse. The student admitted he hadn't showered for 3 weeks.  I highly doubt that, as he appears to be grime free, but as a mother, I recognize that particular, on the brink of puberty, stench!  So. I pulled the, "we have a few items on the agenda." chat.....segueing from missing assignments, to cold weather cautions to facing the gossip wagon of," ewwww, so and so stinks!"  I broad brushed it to, there comes a time in everyones' life that we all stink,,,,our hair stinks, our breath stinks, the toe jam stinks, arm-pits and knee-pits stink........and there is a time when we ALL have stunk the worst....EVERYONE has.....when our bodies start changing from little kids to adolescents.....the dreaded puberty........then I switched to actual body maintenance....we brush our teeth to keep gums and teeth healthy, we exercise to keep heart and lungs healthy, we go to school to keep our brains healthy.....so let's not forget the biggest organ in our body, which is...............YOUR SKIN!  We talked about how it is so important to keep skin  whole and healthy to act as the protector of all the other body parts and how it is so important to wash it every day, especially during the big change!  We also talked about how important it is to keep it clean by covering it with clean clothes......

Today, the student who precipitated this talk, came in to school shiny and clean wearing fresh clean clothes; not a skink in the air!  Success........I hope it lasts!  Baby steps.......I love the Health Teacher Hat.

January 2, 2013
Back to school!  I faced today with both excitement and trepidation.  I know I wanted a few more days of vacation and I am sure the kids did, too!  But once I beeped into the school and saw how the custodians had really worked to shine it up, I was actually glad to be back and looking forward to seeing my kids.

We had a sad occurrence during the break, as we lost a student to a very rare, but fatal infliction, (HLH) I asked Paulette if she knew anything about it, and in her 40 years of being a Pediatrician, she had neither seen nor heard of it.  This, I passed on to the kids who were struggling with Julio's death, and were confused at how and why he caught it.  I used Paulette's word, "just, dumb, awful luck.....really bad luck...."  This seemed to help.

I got my lesson plan binder back from Rich, today....looks like I dodged that bullet.  There were no comments!  I may have Stephanie Doucette look at it anyway to get some insight.  But for right now, so far, so good.

I firmed up the lunches for the field trip on the 10th.  Looks like we are set to go!  I just have to get the permission slips out and signed... collect $3.00 from each student and hold my breath!  I LOVE field trips, and I know something will go wrong, but I really think we will have an amazing time!

My 6th graders came in today, with tales of seeing Orion in the sky during  break and had truly checked it out on the Internet!  They even asked what was that big bright, non-twinkling star-thingy in the low horizon.....JUPITER!  They were psyched, but not as much as I was!

This week, I am going to have them play with the triple beam balance and try to grow some soil/yeast.......

Next week we move on to the ice-age in anticipation of the Wooly Mamouth and Mastidon exhibit at the museum,

I am saving up some of the Know Atom activities for Spring, when I know we will have some down time to fill.soil growing may be one of them!

Exerpts from my TMMS journal

December 14, 2012

The first half of today went really well.  All of my kids are really becoming avid star watchers, with most having watched the Geminid Meteor Showers last night!~ and today I was able to have Ken be a” phone a friend” and answer all sorts of Astronomy questions from them! I was amazed at how much thought they have put into this unit.  Rony asked me the other day, “How long does it take to work for that Space thingy?” (NASA) He wants to be a part of building a colony on Mars. Honestly he has some great Ideas! All the kids are working very hard on their Postcards from Mars and can’t wait to see them hanging up!  I am going to ask if we can put them in the display case.

The kids have had a very tough week; Jerome has been suspended again; this time for breaking a desk in Julia’s room.  I heard he took out a few lockers too.  Word has it that he also had to be restrained. Somehow, maybe it’s because I am not Tootle the Train and I never stay on the tracks, they have been OK in my classes.  A few little dust-ups but nothing I can’t work with.

Deunta told me I was “fuckin’whacked” when I asked him to begin his postcard, (suspensions and absences) cuz, “I ain’t goin to do that shit.” Unfortunately he had to leave…..He did return with an apology and was able to participate in the “phone a friend” asking Ken about what was the big fuzzy thing in “the dude’s sword? (Orion’s sword/nebula)  Gotta love it….the dude…. 

……Then, Cheryl showed me a text she had received about the Sandy Hook shooting.  My first thought was about my Syracuse friend, JoAnn, who is an elementary school teacher “somewhere”in CT.

My next thoughts were of KJ and Ellie and how much I needed to hold them.  I had the same awful gut wrenching sick feeling I had when my two babies were at Waybright Elementary School and the planes hit the Trade Center in NY.

These are some of my FB posts and blogs. The FB page is where JoAnn and I have a lot of mutual friends who are teachers (Syracuse University)

Profoundly sad.  As a public school teacher, I spend 5 days a week with students with whom I have become very fond. I do not teach them, they teach me. I guide them and help them learn.  I encourage them when they fall, to pick themselves up, turn it around a try another way. I laugh with them, I cry with them. I listen to them, I hug them and yes, I discipline them. They have become, “my kids” too. I would throw myself under a train for KJ and Ellie as I also would do for my TMMS kids. An on occasion, I have already.

I have no words to express how, profoundly, utterly helpless I would feel if I could not have protected my kids from the animal who attacked them, today.

We had our first lock-down drill about 3 weeks ago and my "kids" did great. It was routine and business as usual.....Never again, will I ever. ever take this drill as routine and business as usual. I am sure that each and every drill we have, will open this horrific wound. The next one we have is going to be very, very hard for everyone. Peaceful thoughts are wished to all; we all need them, we all have been touched by this tragedy.

December 17, 2012

I  sat in a circle with my 8th graders and reminded them that when they walked through my door on the first day of school, they became "my kids" and that our door to the hall will be locked and remain so until further notice. I also told them that if, IF someone broke through the door, the first thing they would see is the flat screen ....really close up, followed by the rock I use for a paper-weight, the tape dispenser, the scissors and my great big teeth, biting them.....and the list goes on......simply locking the door brought a visible relaxing of the shoulders. I do not have shades for my huge windows, but I am going to break out the sewing machine and make some this vacation, so we can hide better. That also reassured.......so sad that in a community where violence is not uncommon to "my kids," the last bastion of security, our school, is questioned.

December 25, 2012

Peace to all

First official teaching job.....

I can't believe I've made it this long at Marshall Middle School.  I had been two solid years, subbing , teaching and being a para at the High School level, that the switch back to middle school was daunting. When I was in the Wakefield system, I started out,, almost six years ago at Galvin Middle School, and seamlessly moved back and forth as the preferred substitute teacher between there and  Wakefield High School. I was working in my hometown, wandering the halls that were familiar to me and following y father's legacy. The students I first met in 6th grade at Galvin are now Juniors and Seniors! Some of the students I interacted with at the High School are graduating from college! Some go to college with my own children and some have even dated my daughter and son.

This year, I tried something new. I was hired to teach Science to low level Middle School learners, at an inner city, very poor and very socially challenging school.  My "tough kids" in Wakefield can't hold a candle to my Lynn kids.  There was poverty in Wakefield; there was abuse and neglect, but it was hidden.  I developed a good nose for who had slept in their clothes.I knew who was sliding down the slippery slope, after all, I had known their families for years, I knew them!  I knew nothing about my Lynn kids, except that they walked into my classroom, "the old in-house room" skeptical, distrusting, rolling their eyes at the new "old" teacher.Many were conversing in Spanish and all carried a swagger a mile wide.  Ok, I reminded myself that "kids are kids" and that I could do this, I had done this many times, but not here, not Science and not at a school where the students were rumored to run the school. (I had worked for six months at English High School in Lynn, prior to my switch to TMMS.)

I also found out very quickly, that part of the "problem" here was no one seemed to have a firm hand at the helm.  Memos would go out, then get corrected, then get recalled, only to go out in the original two days later.  Meetings were called, hours after I had gone for the day, and I would be chastised like a child, for missing them.  I was forced to attend long new teacher meetings as a stipulation of my hiring, I was assigned a mentor........Imagine, I was shown all there tricks of the trade to help me as a "new teacher!" Hello???? I had been a substitute teacher for five years and had been "mentored" by so many wonderful veteran teachers ,many with  whom, I continue to collaborate!  I have made many lesson plans, followed many units and managed many a classroom of diverse and challenging children. I've written many IEPs, chaired numerous meetings, been to many, many "back to school nights.  This was TORTURE!

As the weeks go by, the meetings have been less intrusive and I have been able to connect and teach the way I love to teach, by letting the kids take the reins and question everything. 

December 14th was a heart-wrenching and horrible last half of the day.  I was helping the kids finish their wonderfl Mars post-cards and models when I foujnd out about the school shooting in Newtown CT.  I looked around my tiny, cozy classroom, and saw my kids in a different light. I do love what I do

When we talk of no child left behind, yet still require all "children" to take standardized tests like MCAS, SATs and MTEL to prove acquisition of materials presented, just how many "children" are actually left behind? If everyone is encouraged to shine their own lights, what a brighter world in which we would live! 

Morsels and Millimeters http://juliemorse-mills.blogspot.com
My Graduate School Blog

Leave No Child Inside | Richard Louv | Orion Magazine

Leave No Child Inside Richard Louv Orion Magazine

21st Century Learning

Everyday I hear people grousing and complaining about all the kids, texting, facebooking, IM-ing....Geesh! I think it is absolutely wonderful! To be a witness to a world so full of changes and technology is utterly breathtaking for me. I grew up marveling at "color tv!" Pong changed the world! Lucky were the kids whose parents could afford Pong! We would gather around the enormous 19" screen and were mesmerized for hours, watching that tiny white ball lobbed back and forth , ponging its merry way from side to side.

I wonder, lately how much of a help or hindrance getting my Masters was.

What an interesting thought, lets talk!: Within each learner, just below the surface, there...

What an interesting thought, lets talk!: Within each learner, just below the surface, there...: Within each learner, just below the surface, there lie many gifts; these gifts are quirky and funny, solemn and intuitive, fresh, insightful...

Within each learner, just below the surface, there lie many
gifts; these gifts are quirky and funny, solemn and intuitive, fresh,
insightful and valuable; unique. Each
learner begins to use these gifts to weave the fabric, however nubby and
textures with bumps and twists, or smooth, well planned and seemingly
flawless. The materials our learners use
to begin their life’s work are also unique, dependant upon their culture,
family life, support systems, socio-economic contributions, hope, dreams and
fears.
The one of a kind weave they create begins with what they
feel most comfortable or confident with.
A child, who sings and dances, weaves in one way; a child who builds
towers of blocks and then knocks them down, another. Children who go to sleep
at night with all their “loveys” surrounding them or the little one who
clutches a favorite book are all showing the world, what kind of learners they
will be.
Harvard psychologist and author of several books regarding
the multiple ways learners’ access and process learning describe these gifts as
Multiple Intelligences. It is my belief,
my personal philosophy of Education that these gifts are to be celebrated,
shared and woven into the unique fabric that showcases the wonderful talents,
strengths and skills of each and every learner.
As virtually everyone has the capacity to develop, to a
reasonably high level of performance, these multiple layers of intelligences, a
more holistic approach to teaching should seamlessly be woven into each
learner’s fabric. Teachers as guides or
facilitators need to understand that all we need to do is hold those first bits
of color the learner chooses, until their work becomes to come together. We then need only to guide and suggest
different threads and stitches that might make more sense or create a stronger
fabric. After all, this is not the
teacher’s design, it is the learners own, unique pattern and weave. Teachers
also need to become collectors and documenters of fabrics designed by their
students. Learners will often reveal
their designs and patterns through misbehaviors and it is these, not
achievements, teachers discover the true self, document and portfolio these
designs for total understanding of the learner as a whole person. It is from
missteps and miscalculations that learning takes the greatest leap.
Recognizing the many layers of learning or multiple
intelligences is not a new philosophy. Plato observed that if you allow
“education to be a sort of amusement; you will then be better able to find out
the nature of the bent.” (Plato-The Dialogues of Plato; Encyclopedia
Britannica). Incorporating multimodal techniques into everyday learning brings
learning to higher levels of comprehension, confidence and clarity.
Maria Montessori is recognized as observing that “nature endows
a child with a sensitiveness to order, which distinguishes the relationship
between objects, that makes a whole of an environment,” from distinct and
separate components.
Rather than focus on learning deficits as a paradigm in
Special Education, we need to work within the parameters of a growth
paradigm. Teachers need examine our
basic descriptive vocabulary when describing strengths and
exceptionalities. We need to promote
growth through rich and varied interactions, real life activities and hands-on
projects. We need to insure that we
foster connections with learners and their peers, collaborate with our own
colleagues, and seek innovation daily through technology and traditional
methodology.
As teachers and guides we need to become expert detectives,
determining the “who, what, when, where and why” of our learners and their
strengths and challenges. We need to be
at the ready to offer a steady hand to their loom as they weave through
turbulent times and soar through exciting achievements! It is essential that we collaborate, with
parity with colleagues, Administrators, parents and care-givers to achieve the
goal of opening all avenues, doors, windows and minds to insure that no stone
is left unturned, no thread left tangled nor any cloth cast aside in dismay.
Response to intervention at all levels should be employed to
move learners away from substantially separate classrooms and unnecessary
special education settings that segregate learners by disability and or
social/emotional behaviors.
I see a changing role of Special Educators in that more
districts are recognizing the need to identify strengths earlier in learners
and to foster self esteem, increase the appreciation of all learning styles and
to recognize the unique gifts all learners have to offer.
21st Century learning is an exciting frontier to
be embarked upon and embraced by all, as weavers or the world. Global Learning is here, it is now; diversity
and technology abound! Our learners,
once creative weavers on rudimentary looms, are now able to weave more color,
greater texture and endless fabrics into their life’s work, using technologies
and information that, twenty years ago was in it’s infancy; mere dream of
Master Weavers.
I
am a weaver, a dreamer, a guide and an admirer of designs. I am a teacher.

Weavers and Teachers

Ribbons, strings. threads and yarns; We're talking kids here!

When I think about teaching, the last thing I want to do is lecture in front of rows upon rows of learners, struggling to stay awake. How awful that must be! Learning new things or revisiting old, should be exciting and fun. Who better to set the tone for learning, than the learners themselves!
I like to think of kids, my students as bits of yarn, or strands of thread; ribbons all shiny and blowing in the breeze. With the right instruction and a skilled hand, these colorful bits and pieces begin to weave together and form a wonderful fabric; the designs, the colors, the stories all unique.
It is my job to take hold of all those little beginnings and help guide my learners across the fabric, through other bits of the weave, connecting and entwining in the pieces of their peers, their families and their communities, to become a part of this wonderful and wonder filled, fabric
The richness of color, diversity of experiences and strength of community will make a beautiful display and a treasure for all.