Positive interactions

The school year is underway! This week we have multiple information sessions and meet the teacher events to attend. I also have several other social events - meeting friends of a friend, having company for the long weekend, squeezing a couple last minute swim dates in our pool before it gets too cold.  I've signed up for some new committees, and I've been tossing out an idea for a high school youth group that will supplement the confirmation class with social events with a purpose to all the Catholic high school parents I run into.  Still sounding out other families who might be interested in getting together for something like this, but wanting something more for my older kids' faith formation.

What a contrast to this time last year! I was feeling sick to my stomach regretting the decision we'd made to rent this house with all the dangers - the pool, the busy street, the widely spaced banisters on the upstairs hallway. . .  And I was regretting public school, although even the Catholic schools have issues with friends, social media abuse, and also alcohol and cliques... But I do like the teachers and administrators at the public high school. And I have met some really nice potential new friends - or at least acquaintances that are good people who are also sending their high schoolers to the public school, too.

The one child in Catholic school is the least happy about back to school days.  I almost pulled her out this spring.  But at the end of the school year, I sat in the all school Mass and felt grateful to be participating in the faith as a community, and paid the tuition deposit that day.  I am still unsure of the decision and occasionally contemplate home schooling her for a year or two, especially since my favorite teacher at the school pulled her kids out to home school them this year. Not a sign of a healthy school, right? Plus the fifth graders all just got ipads, which are already a distraction and malfunctioning. But inertia is difficult to overcome. And I was not the best teacher the last time I homeschooled. I looked forward too much to the time after lunch when my "teaching" was done for the day.

I was halfway hoping we would be moving next summer, but the whisper is that my husband will receive follow on orders.  I am happy for my high schooler. The kids love it here; they love their freedom and the ability to walk to playgrounds and to free movies on the base and to hang out with friends without recruiting a mom to drive. My emotions are mixed, and going back to the Midwest for a time with the extended family always amplifies these uncertainties. But we don't really have a choice or control over the matter right now. In five years we might have more say in where we go, if my husband doesn't think the next promotion will happen. Still a long way away, but becoming more real.

Over the weekend, I was talking to my mom on the phone and sirens started blaring. Emergency vehicles and police careened onto our street and stopped a few doors down. My nosy ten year old went out to see what she could see, but dinner was almost ready, and I was afraid it was a domestic dispute because of the number of police cars.

It turns out the emergency vehicles were tending a 51 year man, apparently supposed to be in great shape, who had just died of a heart attack.  They didn't make it in time to save him.  He had a high school aged son in boy scouts with my sons and a middle school daughter, but he was alone at the time and found by a real estate agent coming over to list his house for sale. I suspect the police were there in full force because his wife had worked for the police department here, part of a small cadre of officers. I didn't know them, but it is the kind of news that unsettles you, makes you realize the temporality of things. We also saw a bad accident on our road trip. There was the girl who was hit while riding her bike in front of our house. I received word that my track coaches' wife was killed by a car while she was riding her bike.  We can't live in fear of death, but it is coming.

I just finished Thornton Wilder's Bridge Over San Luis Rey, which is about the same idea - why do apparently good people- and some bad - die for no reason?  Wilder saves their stories and memorializes them. Quotes coming. Just not right now because it is time for bed.

Can you see the flecks of gold in the sand? 

Unknown flower at the park; photo taken by my child

Orchid show

Sand castle show

Bucket List item: Prince Edward Island

One of the pleasures of our summer vacation was visiting with my husband's sister and her family who currently live in Newfoundland, but came back to get warm and see family in OKC for a couple weeks. They love Newfoundland and love living abroad  - this is their 4th country. (They are not military.) They lived in Norway shortly after their first was born, then northern England, Spain, and now Newfoundland, where they had their sixth baby shortly after LCJ was born. We were blessed to be able to take a military space available flight to see them when they lived in Spain with the whole family, but I always regret not visiting them when they lived in England.  Their home base is in Houston, where they anticipate returning in a year or two - we've visited there, also, although not so exotic.  I was hoping that if we got sent to DC, our whole family could make a trek up the East Coast and visit them and other cousins in New York state, but recently we've heard whispers that we'll be staying in San Diego for our next tour (about which I have mixed feelings...).

That family history is prelude to sharing some links I just came across that set me thinking that perhaps a trip east might be in order -- one is a photo journal of a trip to Prince Edward Island to visit Lucy Maud Montgomery's home and the other is a notice about a new Anne of Green Gables miniseries coming to Netflix.  PEI was on my list of places to go on our honeymoon. I just googled flights and trips to Halifax aren't too, too expensive.  This IS our 20th anniversary year that we keep celebrating ...

I may have to reread some LCM just in case. Or just to dream. . .

Back Home Again

The annual summer vacation is now over, including both our trek back to the midwest and the summer off from school. The kids head back to class this morning - 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th. The two college students are now checked in and reading diligently, I hope.

Below are some photos from our trip. I thought I took a lot, but I did not take as many as I imagined, and they are mostly of the cousins rather than my own kids. We went to visit both sets of grandparents in OK and IN, and saw lots of kids. The two year old was in heaven. She loves other children.  I really need to find some friends for her because she still is talking about the two little kids I babysat for a couple times, but whom we haven't seen in months. I think they are her imaginary friends.

We need an oil change now on the car - several thousand miles logged. We started the vacation with a trip up to our old community for a friend's retirement ceremony. Then we hightailed it across eastern California, through New Mexico, to a cheap hotel, where we stayed long enough to watch the Olympic opening ceremonies and get some sleep. The Olympics was timed just right; since we don't have tv access, we were able to gorge at the grandparents' house on sports and drama. We got in lots of swimming with the cousins in OKC, as well. In IN/KY, we saw all the cousins for a day at my aunt's long planned family reunion, a day of much merriment and mayhem.  Everyone gorged on sugar and cream there, in addition to good pork BBQ.

The rest of the vacation slipped by quickly but quietly.  The two older boys organized the rest of their college stuff. I drove them to school, while my husband took on the heroic duty of driving the 5 youngest home - 32 some hours of driving over 3 days. I've done a couple 12 hour days by myself with the kids, but I've never done 3 days in a row. He earned a ribbon for that one.

I did get some reading done - and maybe I'll post about it. Glennon Doyle Melton's Carry On, Warrior.  And Amy Andrews and Jessica Messman Griffith's Love and Salt: A Spiritual Friendship in Letters. Can you guess which one I liked best and which one my book club will like best?  With the 10 year old I read Sing Down the Moon and The Secret of Smuggler's Cove, her summer reading assignments. And I read lots of research papers because my courses were just ending halfway through the vacation. There were a couple good ones, like one on happiness and one that was some original research on learning online. And there was the obligatory marijuana paper. Next time someone writes about this topic, I'm going to ask a few more pointed questions.  Finished that class, now on to the next thing!

Summer sparkle

Coneflowers in bloom.

19 going on 9.

Good things hidden among the weeds

Sweetness hiding behind the sting

A fungus among us

The family museum. Baby clothes of my aunt and father. Wedding vest of my great-grandfather and great-great grandfather.

Grandma's wedding shoes and other family mementos.

A little knit outfit my grandmother made that I wore a few times. A great great aunt's fan and shawl. The hymn of my grandmother's wedding gown. Her aunt's school marm dress with the checks. And a graduation dress that my great aunt made and wore, and I wore also.

No joke when you are at a family reunion with at least 60 kids under 20. 

Where the teens were: party barn, badminton, and, hiding in the background, full of bacteria and viruses, was the pirate jumpy.

My grandfather's garden children.

A little friend.

Notes on teaching online

Back in March I started teaching a couple English composition classes online for a military education program. This term I also have a literature class the covers Homer to Shakespeare. Most of my classes last 8 weeks. This one is only 6 weeks. Six weeks to cover over 2000 years of storytelling. It's a challenge.

I have been cogitating, somewhat out of the frustration of creating these classes and somewhat out of the frustration with the online learning that my kids were doing through their school, on the nature of online learning.  I fully understand the usefulness of it for my military students who are limited in their ability to attend class, especially those who are deployed. I also am grateful to have finally found a teaching job that I can perhaps take with me with when we move next. I usually meet with many of my students 3 times a term (but not the six week class).  Since the classes are for military members, frequently the in-person meetings are just a portion of the students enrolled, and we usually just have time to cover basics - no time for discussion.

This is a loss to me.  Teaching online just isn't as much fun. For one, I don't get a night out each week to go talk about books and writing.  And I miss live, actual discussions. Discussion boards last all of 1 comment. If it is really good there might be a reply, but usually just a post into the void.  Maybe I need to get better at asking questions - or make the discussions happen in real time. In live classes the discussions are what bring about the ah -ha moments are what made teaching most enjoyable.  To a certain extent, in the online "discussions" there are some exchanges of ideas and perhaps some learning that takes place in the forced comments.  But more of an "Oh that's a neat idea" kind of way, not an "I comprehend!" "I am moved!" "I see more/differently/deeper!" sort of way.

Another drawback to me is the presentation of information. I am not technologically savvy enough to create fancy video lectures. The couple lectures I recorded were extremely boring and took forever to upload. Then I tried Jing - which is a little more user friendly but only allows for 5 minute recordings over a static image.  So I mostly rely on written information - which probably are read about 67% of the time and to 57%  of completeness.  I also post links to the full version of selected readings and to video productions of many of the works - or in the case of the writing class, to other teacher's snazzier presentations of material. But I do very little textual analysis - another item lost when not teaching in person. It's something I should add, but I am afraid more written material will overwhelm students who don't like reading (even though they are taking a reading class).

In addition to modelling how to read analytically, when I teach in person I try to model how to do some writing strategies - or have other students share their ideas and their work in order to demonstrate the kind of content complexity and grammatical proficiency I look am looking for in written work. Online I simply assign a paper and then post a link to a sample paper somewhere on the internet. And every term there is someone who tries to copy a paper on the internet, or a portion of one, perhaps accidentally. No fear! There is a plagiarism detector for that!

(Every term I also have a student who writes about the benefits of legalizing marijuana. Benefits for whom, I have to ask? A benefit for students in online classes who can smoke while typing?)

Of course, online education doesn't allow for the type of immediate clarification that happens when a student needs reassurance or assistance - like how to take the marijuana article a step deeper.  I can answer emails and send messages, but what I share isn't instantly available to all. I know I could do more realtime class meetings, but right now I haven't set up the technology to do so, and since half my students are on ships or stationed on remote island missile ranges, I don't think realtime class meetings would be beneficial for everyone.

Finally, there is the weak community. Some of my students do know each other, and they meet at our brief meets, but there is little real community.  No one is motivated by a computer, but if a friend says, hey read this, you are more likely to actually read it.

The thing that makes me feel like a hoax is that this six week course is supposed to be the same amount of work as an eight week course or a 16 week course.  Does anyone really believe this? Does anyone look closely enough at a transcript later in life? I assign plenty to read, but it's impossible to expect a student taking two classes and working full time and juggling family responsibilities to read the Odyssey in a week. So I post summaries and summaries of summaries, and try to balance reading, writing, and life.

I am absolutely unconvinced students learn better online.  Is there any data for this? Any surveys that have mapped deep learning online? Students may be able to learn, but unless they are incredibly self motivated, it's too easy not to to do the reading, let alone engage with it. Some students give it their best effort, but others do not give it much thought. But there are lazy students who come to in person classses unprepared, too. Here's hoping I reach them all with something to remember about literature.

Some of the things

Baby got a cast and got it off

We had a birthday

We went to a parade.

We had another birthday.

We saw lily pads.

We admired orchids.

We hiked around a lake while kids did volleyball and lifeguard and swim lessons.

We went to a sand castle contest.

We discovered dressing up.

We made a Pacman pinata.

We surfed with friends.

We pretended to surf with friends. The cast did not stay on for long. 

We hiked with friends.

We listened to the captain of the USS Cole talk about the bombing. 

We went to buy the new Harry Potter book at midnight (the kids say it's disappointing).

That same night we also went to see Hamlet at our community theater. The new 14 year old and I went to see "Sense and Sensibility" the musical. Not as good, most likely, as Hamilton the musical, which my 19 year old offhandedly announced he bought tickets for with his friend for  March show in Chicago. Surprise. The 19 year old finally came back from college after working  there all summer.  The summer is quickly drawing to a close for us. Soon we pack up for the yearly trip across the country to see family.  We bought new tires and new brakes for the occasion. As it happens with these things, we had just celebrated paying off the car and discussing what we would do with that money. Now we know: pay for repairs.
But since it is no fun to end with a talk about car payments, I'll close with this video of a group we heard play the other day at our church "date night."  The duo, Adam and I, were super talented, but need to be discovered. Listen and enjoy: