Back to it

Okay, time to ramp it up here, and actually write in my blog. I started a blog with my students, which, so far, has been pretty successful. But it has consumed my time so I haven’t really thought much about my own sites. Enough of that nonsense! I spend enough time online that I should actually make it worthwhile. So here goes…What do I have to write about?  Guess I can start with that which I know best, school…Yes, school started about a month ago, and there was much kicking and screaming and gnashing of teeth…and that was just the teachers! Seriously, it’s always hard to go back after having that glorious time off we call summer vacation. But it has been a good start, for the most part. The kids are nice, the overall atmosphere has been mellow and peaceful, and I’ve survived this first month unscathed…until today, when I woke up feeling all headachy with a scratchy throat and swollen glands. Decided to nip this sucker in the bud, and take the day off to sleep and recuperate. Anyway, when I awoke a bit before noon, I jumped on our district’s webmail to see what I’ve been missing, and damn if I hadn’t missed out on some great emails! We’ve been using a new records management/gradebook system this year, created by and based on our former system, which nobody was really in love with. Well, nobody’s terribly in love with this new one, either, especially since it seems to still be in beta and we’re their free test pilots/lab monkeys. I’m sure there will be more on this to follow, but for now, I’m outta here… 

Catching up is hard to do

I started this blog back in, what, March or so, with the intention of making regular entries. Regular meaning at least once or twice a week, maybe more. But ah, we know what can happen to good intentions…so here it is, the middle of summer (okay, more like early summer, but it sure seems to be the middle, what with the temps in the high 90’s and low 100’s, and the 4th of July come and gone, but I do digress…) Anyway, here I am, a teacher on vacation, with quite a bit of time on her hands, idle time, if you will, time to rant and rave and reflect on anything and everything around me. Where to begin?

I could begin with the libraries…you may remember, back in the spring, when I blogged about southern Oregon, Jackson County to be exact, suffering from a dire lack of money and facing the largest library closure in the country. I was sure there would be a last minute effort that would save our esteemed halls of literature, that the county voters would cast a resounding “yes” to a (poorly designed) ballot measure. Nope, didn’t happen. It was slapped down by either an illiterate bunch of fools, or a lot of property owners who were fed up with carrying the load that a state sales tax could easily relieve. Or both. Doesn’t really matter, ’cause here I am, on holiday, a time of year when I typically catch up on my reading, but, oh, wait, can’t read, no libraries. Oh, yeah, I could drop a bundle at B & N, or Bloomsbury, or even, heaven forbid, Costco…but that would require money, and I’m a teacher, and we know teachers aren’t exactly rolling in the dough. So, I buy a book now and then, or borrow one from a friend, or maybe hit one of the used bookstores around, but it’s just not the same. Just not the same as summers gone by, when I’d walk downtown with a friend, have a cold coffee drink at Bad Ass, wander across the street to our beautiful new library, and browse, read, maybe do a little surfing on my PowerBook…ah, those were the days. May we get to experience them again.

I Love Spring Break! but I do digress…

Yes, today is the first day of spring break for those of us lucky enough to work or go to school in SD4, otherwise known as Phoenix-Talent. And it helps to have chosen a profession that honors the fact that sometimes, we need a break. We especially need that break when we spend the bulk of our days answering a million little questions, breaking up spats, holding our water until the next bell, which could be over an hour a way…but I do digress, as this is about spring break. And for me, and my colleagues and students, spring break begins two days earlier than everybody else’s, and those two days I think of as “my days”…
So I’m sitting here in one of my favorite hangouts, Bad Ass Coffee, drinking coffee, surfing the net, watching people go by…and avoiding the noise of the scary men on my roof. No, wait, the men aren’t scary…but the noise certainly is, as they stomp and pound and drag in the course of my reroof. Anyway, Bad Ass has been one of my favorite places since they opened their doors here a few years back. Good coffee, nice people, indoor and outdoor seating, and the crowning gem, free wireless. What more could a girl ask for?
From my seat here at the Bad Donkey, as my friend’s mom calls it since she thinks “ass” is a bad word (look in the bible honey! it’s in there too!), I have a direct view of another of my favorite places, the Medford branch of the Jackson County library. Looking at the rather hulking but beautiful building makes me very sad. If you’re not from around here, you might be asking, why does it make you sad? Because in two weeks, not only will the Medford branch close its doors, but every branch in the library will close also, and those that are currently under construction will not even open. Unless, that is, the people in this county come to their senses and vote on a levy May 15th to fund the libraries via property taxes. Hmmm, this really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, as it doesn’t share the burden with all those who use the libraries most. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll vote for (almost) whatever it takes to ge the libraries back on track. But since the closure was mostly due to Congress’ failure to renew the Secure Rural Schools and Self-Determination Act, it seems that the federal government has some responsibility in the task of bringing the libraries back. Oops, I digressed again
On to happier topics – yes, it’s spring, I’m on vacation, I’m enjoying my first morning of freedom, listening to Flogging Molly sing “Drunken Lullabies”, nowhere in particular to go, the sun is shining, I’ll soon have a new roof on my house…as the t-shirts say, ilfe is good.