4-17-13

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Boston

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When you're a teacher, especially of Kindergarten students, your adult interactions are pretty limited during the day.  Sometimes, that drives you crazy, but other times it's a relief.

Today it was a relief.

We're doing a wonderful Wizard of Oz unit as our end of torture...I mean testing...celebration.  We've read two different versions of the story and watched the original movie. 

This morning the students walked into a building that had yellow paper rolled down the hallway so they could follow the yellow brick road to their class.

There were laughs and looks of surprise from the kids as I crossed arms with two other teachers and skipped down the hall singing,"We're off to see the Wizard." One of my students even declared, "Ms. Brown has gone crazy!"

We spent the morning discussing the traits of fairy tales ~ magic, royalty, mean characters, the mistreated underdog, the rewards for goodness and living happily ever after.  We talked about what we would wish for if we could click our heels together ~ going to California, going to a Chili's restaurant, having a million dollars, having a lot of candy, being on Splash Mountain, eating ice cream everyday.

OK, the ice cream wish was mine, but you've got to admit it's a pretty good one!

It wasn't until school ended that I heard about Boston and what happened there. 

It's been eight years since I was last in Boston.  It's a beautiful city with amazingly wonderful people.  We were there in early June and it was obvious that we were tourist.  The locals were enjoying what was warm weather to them ~  We were wearing sweat shirts and missing the Miami sunshine.  There was more than one occasion where we stood on the sidewalk trying to decide which direction we needed to walk in order to reach our destination.  We didn't stand there for long, because each time someone stopped and asked if we were lost or if we needed directions and each time they smiled and told us to enjoy our visit.

I love Miami, but I don't think our tourist always receive that kind of welcome.

So, today, I was grateful that I was cut off from adult interaction and news reports.  I am glad that I was able to spend a few extra hours in my fairy tale world before the real world came crashing through.

I hope my students have been spared from the news so that they fall to sleep with thoughts of fairy tales and living happily ever after. 



My friend Carla shared this picture/prayer on Facebook earlier today.  I'm not sure who created it, but it expresses my hopes for Boston wonderfully...

4-15-13

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4-14-13

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4-13-13

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My love/hate relationship with UPS continues...

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I've ranted before about how much I really, really very strongly dislike UPS.  OCG says it a wonder I ever receive a package that isn't broken and doesn't have the UPS drivers footprints all over it.  lol!  My response is always,"Hey, even that would be better than not getting my packages at all."

I missed a delivery on Thursday and I knew that I would miss it on Friday also, so I called and asked if I could pick the package up and said that it would be wonderful if I could pick it up today.  I was told someone would call me back. 

I get a call back saying my package will be available for pick up between 7 & 7:30 PM in Hialeah.  I drive out to Hialeah, which is a place I never ever go to, only to learn that my package is still out with the driver and he's not expected back until 9PM.  Of course, by that time the customer center will be closed so they can either redeliver it or hold it so that I can drive out there again to pick it up.

I was not a happy camper!

After several phone calls and a few emails I still don't have my package, but within two weeks I"ll be receiving a check from UPS for $25 to reimburse me for the gas I wasted trying to pick up a package that wasn't available when they said it would be.

The company that sent me the package?  Well, I also contacted them to let them know that I didn't have the package and I wouldn't be receiving the package because UPS sucks and that they are now losing a customer and they can thank UPS for that. They're duplicating my order and sending it out using another carrier.

UPS could learn a few things about customer service from.....well, lets be honest.....ANYONE ANYWHERE could teach UPS a few things about customer service.  They stink!

It's over...for now!

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The torture that is standarized testing is over for now.  I celebrated with several margaritas!

Next week the torture process starts for the older kids. 

At some point someone needs to realize that we're hurting these kids with all of these test.  We're teaching an entire generation to hate school. 

When we aren't forced to give them the actual test, we are forced to give them interim tests to predict how they'll do on the actual test.  We're so busy testing the kids that we don't have time to actually teach them.

It's sad and scary.