The horror that is Senate Bill No. 6...oh and some baby updates! Yea!

Well, the talk of Teachertown is Senate Bill No. 6. introduced by Sen. John Thrasher. And what a scary little bill that it is.

What? What you say? You don't know what Senate Bill No. 6 is about? Well, neither do the majority of people who are on the outside of the school system.

Let me break it down.

It is a merit based plan. Pay-for-performance. And this pay will be based on "learning gains." "Learning gains" is a secret code word used by Mr Thrasher which really means "FCAT scores."
"FCAT" is a secret code word used by teachers that really means...."annoying pain in my rear".

The bill does away with job security, doing away with tenure and instead replacing it with yearly contracts.

It also does away with the pay-incentive for National Board Standing. A process that is long and achieved by teachers who desire to increase their teaching excellence and have met high standards.

Sen. Thrasher feels this is the way to weed out "bad" teachers. Can we apply this same idea to every professional? How about weeding out "bad" doctors? Every patients that has high cholestrol....doctors can be penalized....Or dentists....every patient with cavities...and if the cavities increase or don't improve over a years time....they are penalized. Or, or, or....how about government officials....for every person who is on welfare....catch my drift?

So the general outcry teachers have is how can you base salary on the outcome of tests that you as the teacher have absolutely NO control over? Sure you teach them...you teach the curriculum, you teach to the test, and every pre-made practice FCAT that is handed out....but in the long run...who's taking the test? The kids. Kids who have paid attention, kids who are taking the test seriously, knowing it can affect the rest of their 3rd grade little lives forever. Who else is taking the test? The kids who didnt eat breakfast that morning. The kids that got yelled at for not picking up their socks for the billionith time. The kids that are so stressed out by even just by the mention of the word "FCAT" due to the amount of pressure put on them by the school. The kids who have missed 10 plus days of school are taking this test. Kids who don't care about learning. ESOL students, with limited language skills, are taking this test....a test that is already flawed in many areas. These are the kids...the ones who are well prepared and the ones who aren't so prepared...that are holding a teacher salary in their little hands.

Bill 6 will be voted on Tueday and teachers are watching like hawks....well except for the time they are...you know....teaching. Teaching with limited resources. Teaching with little time for creativity in the classroom. Teaching because they enjoy working with children.

Sigghhh..

Anyway.

Baby update:
Addison Marie is due at the end of April, by c-section. I am measuring a week ahead so it looks like I will have another ginormous baby on my hands soon. (Connor was 9lbs and 12 oz, 21 1/4 inches long. Every nurse who would walk into my hospital room would take a look at him, look at me, and back at him and say "You DID have a c-section right?" Yes, I did....now please administer my pain medicine, Nursey!)

It occured to me this past week, that just because Connor showed no signs of making his debut early, doesn't mean Addison won't. Labor would be a new experience for me even though Ive already had one child. But there's no chance of a labored delivery....even if I do go into labor...it will still be a c-section anyway.

So in the meantime....I'm working on putting her room together and such. Trying to spend as much mommy time with Connor, knowing I wont be able to snuggle up with him as much once I come home from the c-section. He has a baby doll to practice treating a baby the way we should. I spend a lot of time saying, "No we dont throw the baby in the bed. No we don't hold the baby by the legs." But he does like to feed his baby a bottle, and then pat him on the back to burp him. (Complete with sound effects). He calls him Baby Ernie....which is great....or sometimes it's "Baby with the dirty butt." (Which is another story).

So more updates to come...

Really, California? Really?

Dear California School District,

Seriously?

Sincerely,

Common Sense

So if you havent heard, a California School Disrict just added one more to the banned book list. And it is the ever so haunting...ever so shameful...ever so shocking....Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (gasp!) www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584010,00.html

So supposedly some 4th grader got "lost" looking up a word between "oralism" and "orang" and found a shocking entry of the term "oral sex." Here's my first question. What word was this fourth grader exactly looking for? Let's not be stupid here....children know more than what we give them credit for and dont always seem like the innocent they may portray. Maybe mom and dad should sit junior down for a talk instead of running to the school board claiming "Bad form." (Yes, I just quoted "Hook." Dustin Hoffman would understand.)

Do I think it is unfortunate that this came up in a 4th grade classroom? Yep. Would I want my kid discovering the words "oral sex" at a 4th grade age....Nope!!! Do I think it's right to start slinging around the words "banned book list" when it comes to the dictionary? Ridiculous. Get a grip California. It's a dictionary and the job of a dictionary is to define words in the English language.

Here's an idea....how about...oh I don't know...put materials in your classrooms that are deemed age appropriate in the first place? If I told a kid to look up a word and plopped down the mammoth sized portion of Merriam Webster down on a kid's desk, I would expect to have tears, whining, or a cry for help in a matter of a minute.

Let's look at the word "collegiate" for a moment, shall we? Seeing how these 4th grade students are looking at a Collegiate dictionary, maybe we should open up Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and look up the word itself.

What say you, Merriam Webster?

Collegiate col-le-giate

Function: adjective

Definition:

Designed for or characteristic of COLLEGE students.

Soooo .....California School District....you are appalled at the entry of an "age-innapropriate" word for 4th graders....in a COLLEGIATE dictionary....hmmmmmmm. Anyone else see the irony of the word "innapropriate"?

So to wrap up:

Collegiate dictionaries being used for 4th grade students: bad

Age appropriate Children's dictionaries used for 4th grade students: good

Banning the dictionary in schools: bad

Taking a big breath before you utter the words "banned book": good

Dustin Hoffman in the role of Tootsie: bad

Dustin Hoffman in the role of James Hook: good.

Move over Martha!

I am totally Martha Stewart. Wait...maybe I should rethink that statement....okay...I am NOT Martha Stewart, but darn it, I think I am pretty crafty....not like crafty as in devious....crafty as in "artsy-fartsy" crafty.

Oh forget it. Look what I did.

It's a Valentine mailbox for Connor, so that on Valentine's day I can put goodies in it.

It's adorable if I do say so myself and it only took me 2 hours to do it and 5 pokes of the sewing needle on my finger!

The best and worst of the decade

Sooo, I'm back! I'm sure all 3 people who read my blog from time to time were concerned about my lack of posting. But never fear. I'm back. Breathe a sigh of relief.

In celebration of a new decade, I'd like to dedicate the following portion of this post to things that happened in the last decade that deserve some kudos and some boo hisses. I will call this section: Me likey and Not So Much.

Me Likey: graduating highschool, graduating college, getting a real job, getting married.
Not So Much: the thought of my highschool reunion, graduating to middle age soon, the stupid pointless paperwork that went with the real job, and my parents' divorce.

Me Likey: Amazing Race, America's Top Model, Project Runway
Not So Much: American Idol, Survivor, and The Swan-where you became as beautiful as you are on the inside, with the help of Botox and Plastic Surgery.

Me Likey: The Birth of my beautiful son
Not so Much: The birth of horrible celb-duo nicknames...TomKat, Bennifer, and Brangelina

Me Likey: The fact that kids will wait in line for a book premiere at a Barnes and Noble
Not So Much: Horrible movies from amazing children's books...Yes I am talking to you Disney, whom theme parks I love, but HATE what you have done to Bridge to Terebithia. Shameful.

Me Likey: Sesame Street celebrates it's 40th anniversary.
Not So Much: Einstein Baby does not make babies Einsteins at all. Instead it makes them piles of goo. This shouldnt really be shocking. Sitting your baby in front of the TV will not cause them to become geniuses! Whoops!

Me Likey: Finding out we are pregnant with a little girl.
Not so much: Finding out Jon Gosselin left his family for another girl.

Not me Monday

So back to "Not Me Monday." I've been slacking I know. Give me a break. I'm growing a baby.

Here we go...

I did not open the Halloween candy already. Like a month ago. And I also did not eat half the bag already.

(Speaking of Halloween, which was something I did not experience myself as a kid. My mom had strong feelings against this holiday, so my brother and I did not particiapte, much to my brother's dismay. I, however, was oblivious, but I do enjoy our church's alternative to Halloween, Noah's Arkade. The kids can dress up like a Bible character or an animal. My son is going as a cowboy. Which is neither a Bible character or an animal. But I'm pretty sure I saw Buzz Lightyear there last year so I think I'm in the clear. Last year he went as a penguin. Or possibly a nun. It was an interpretive costume.)

Anyway....on the cowboy note.

I didn't spend most the afternoon this past week making a pair of chaps. For Connor. Really.

I also did not poke myself 20 times with the needle before I seriously considered pulling out the hot glue gun to finish the project.

Switching topics....

Now that Connor is two, I felt the time has come for potty training. No one tells you how exhausting potty training is. Or maybe thats just me and every other mother in the world potty trains their child with little to no frustration and their children run with giddy excitement to the potty. ....ugh I hope not.

So...I certainly did not put our potty training on hold for a while which will resume at an undetermined time because I was simply tired of training. I did not spend an entire week indoors, with a diaperless child chasing him around the house constantly asking, "Do you need to potty? Do you need to potty?" To which he would reply "NO Mommy!!!" and run away from me. And I do not secretly feel happy about holding off on potty training for another month or so.My son is a smart cookie. I think he holds all his potty needs until it is nap time when he has his diaper on and then its like Niagra Falls has been released.

So until then our Elmo potty seat will have to wait to be seated upon. And our Frog Potty chair (portable baby potty) will just have to continue to be a fashionable plastic blue hat for Connor until he is ready for its intended use.

Well, I'm off to go finish a cowboy vest. Connor's of course. Not mine. Really.

An interview with my unborn child...

Q. What is your favorite food you like your mommy to eat?
Baby: Nothing....I much perfer Mommy to have an empty stomache. Makes more room for me. It is after all, all about me!

Q. So then I guess the food you like least is.....
Baby: Yeah...everything. Food is gross.

Q. Don't you feel bad about making your mommy sick every morning?
Baby: She's a strong lady. She can handle it. Besides, who wants to digest food anyway right?

Q. So what do you think you are going as for Halloween?
Baby: A case of indigestion.

Q. Hmmm interesting. So is there any indication when the morning sickness will come to an end?
Baby: Well they always say the end of the first trimester which is in 2 weeks. Holidays are coming up soon. I might just let mommy enjoy Christmas Cookies. Of course that could just be a campaign promise as well. Time will tell.

Oh baby!

So I think most everyone knows...well everyone who are in our circles. It's quite possible the weird neighbors we dont talk to dont know....and the guy who bags our groceries at Publix doesnt know....but for everybody else....you know by now...we're pregnant!!!

We are technically due May 2...but the doctor told us it's another C-section for us this go around at 39 weeks so looks like it will be a late April baby. Late April seems to be a good month for Elkins' babies. Sean's brother and cousin were both born on the 28th of April.

You may be wondering...wow...C-section. Scary?
No not so much. I personally think God understands my fear of throwing up during labored delivery or my guess that I would probably pass out. One of the two. So C-section was the best option.

Of course....it's not like I asked the doctor or God for a c-section. Going under a knife and having surgery was definitely not my plan when we had Connor. In fact when they told me he would be a C-section delivery because of how big he was measuring, I cried for two days. I had not prepared myself for this option....not that I really prepared myself for a laboring delivery either though. (hangs head and covers eyes) We didnt take the labor and delivery classes. I know. Stupid. What were we thinking? I think I just didnt want to face the video where they show a women going through delivery. I could see me now...."No...no thanks...I dont think I'm going to do that."


So to answer any other questions you may have at this time:

1. How are you feeling?
I am in a constant state of nausea. Morning till night. Gingerale is my new best friend.

2. Craving anything yet?
The mere sight of food or a smell...can send me shaking my head violently and closing my eyes in disgust. My biggest shock this past week...I made chocolate eclair pie for a family gathering. This by far is my most favorite dessert and I never turn it down. (Ive been known to lick my plate...dont judge me) and while making it...the sight of chocolate frosting grossed me out. siiiighh I didnt even taste it. What a waste of good pie.

3. Do you know if its a boy or girl yet?
No right now this little one is like a little blobby with arms and legs lol. We will find out around 20 weeks...I am only about 9 weeks now.

4. Are you going to get the swine flu vaccine recommended for pregnant women?
I am wrestling with this one. Do I want swine flu? No of course not. Then again do I want to take something that has had no testing on pregnant women with no idea what it could do to my unborn child and inject it into my body? Not so much.

5. How is Connor adjusting to the idea of being a big brother?
So far so good...he's only 2 and doesnt comprehend this idea too much yet. He does know there will be a baby in the family... "Momma, Daddy, Me,.....baby." He gives the baby kisses (my tummy). He also claims I have 20 babies in my tummy. (Thankfully that is untrue) and according to him, I am the baby's "house." (Which has some truth I guess. Not that I love being referred to as a "house.")