A race adventure in Seattle

We went to Seattle on Friday morning for an overnight trip for a half marathon.  We spent Friday afternoon at the Rock 'n Roll Seattle race expo.  The kids won prizes, stocked up on the giveaways from each of the vendor booths, and had a lot of fun just roaming around.  Aubrey, Savvy and I each bought a new Sweaty Bands headbands that are so cute.

After the expo we headed to our hotel and checked in.  Next we walked across the street to Whole Foods to get some dinner.  We have learned that the night before a race you don't even try to find a seat in an Italian restaurant.  It is best to either get take-out spaghetti or to find another option entirely.  Whole Foods is perfect.

We got an amazing surprise when we got to Whole Foods.  There was a sign at the front of the store saying that Fabio was going to be there....June 22nd....4:30-8:30 PM.  I was stunned to realize that we had walked into the place exactly when Fabio was there.  My kids were freaking out.  If you have not seen Fabio on the episodes of Ned's Declassified then you are missing out.  This is what my kids know of Fabio--that he was in one episode of Ned's and also a couple of episodes of Big Time Rush.  And now they all know that he is quite handy in the kitchen!

So we snapped some stealthy pictures of Fabio promoting his new whey protein powder.    Noah said that was the best birthday EVER because he got to talk to Fabio.

We were in a hotel near the Space Needle starting line (and finish line).  After a birthday celebration for Noah, we hit the sack to be ready to wake up early for the race.   But first we had to do our traditional bib-pinning and arm-swishing.

Race morning we walked to the start line, and later Aubrey brought Savvy, Noah and Zack to the finish line to watch the runners finish.  I loved having a little cheering section just before the finish line.

Mark and I ran this race as a training run for the 4th of July Sauvie Island Flat half marathon in a couple of weeks.  We took it easy.  For Mark, that meant he ran it in 1:34.  For me, it was 2:20.   Jacob didn't train AT ALL and was just hoping to survive.  I passed him at about mile 9 even though he had started at least 15 minutes ahead of me.  He finished sometime around 2:50.

But Joel dazzled us all.  He had trained to run up to 8 miles, and was planning to just walk miles 7-8 because of the race profile. But when it came to that point, he saw the hills for real and he decided to see what he could do, and he ran the entire race!  I beat him by only 6 minutes.  But I beat him, and that's all I cared about.  When a mom of 7 can beat her two teenage sons in a half-marathon, that is a good thing.

The post-race concert was not my favorite.  When I heard which band was playing after the race I told the kids it was just some strange band I had never heard of... Gym Class something.  They all freaked out....  "YOU MEAN GYM CLASS HEROES?"  Indeed, that was the one.  Apparently they are on the radio quite frequently, but when my cd player is full of Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, John Denver and Sesame Street I really had no way of knowing this.

I thought they were all idiots.  The kids demanded to know how I could think such a thing.  I told them to take one look at him and tell me why I shouldn't think so.   I like 80's music as much as the next person who grew up that excellent decade; however, Hall and Oates tattooed on your hands?  Not the biggest sign of intelligence in my book.  So I'm not their biggest fan.  But we had a great time, and it was fun to see the kids all dancing around and singing along.

But no matter the band, it is fun to be in a crowd of runners enjoying a post-race concert.

As the concert ended, the rain started.  We scurried back to our hotel, checked out and loaded up in the van for the drive home.

It was a fun weekend, and we have already signed up for the race next year.

Substitute diary

So this past week I had some interesting sub gigs.  After the alternative school day of sitting around doing nothing I had the opposite experience.

Teaching kindergarten.

I took this job with a bit of trepidation.  But it was at an awesome school that I wanted to get in with, so I accepted the job.  It was the longest day of my life--and entirely frustrating.  The classes each had 32 students, and the room was enormous.  The tables were spread waaaay out around the room, so I never quite figured out how to engage the entire class at one time, especially with their backs to me.  Plus, this classroom had a full-time assistant and I felt like the kids looked to her as the authority figure and me as just some stupid visitor that they didn't need to listen to.  It was really not an enjoyable day, but it was good experience and I survived.

This week I had 4 sub jobs.  I started Monday at the same elementary school as a "roving sub."  The teachers all went to a meeting throughout the day, and so I stayed an hour or so in 4 different rooms of all different ages.  Luckily the kindergarten was not on my schedule this day!  I had 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th grades.  I was fine until I got to 5th grade and had to teach math for that hour.  I was stunned to see what a typical public school math class was like--I had totally forgotten.  My guys have been at charter schools forever where you go where you need to go for math regardless of your age.  No stigma either up or down--just go where you are learning and feel successful and it is all good.  I had forgotten the other side of life.

This classroom had 33 kids in it, and all 33 were taught the same lesson about the order of operations.  I came in just after this lesson and was told to pass out a worksheet for them to do.  I passed out the worksheet and then came the powerful reminder of why we switched to the charter school.  One boy came up to me within 5 minutes and told me he was finished--and 45 minutes were remaining of "math".  The teacher's instructions were for those who finished early to read.  So this boy misses out every day on future math development because it is inconvenient to teach him as much as his brain can handle.  Over the next 5 minutes there were a few more kids who finished, and they grudgingly pulled out a book.  And then there was a large group who finished at about the same time, and then a handful of kids who had absolutely no hope of ever finishing the math sheet.  They had no idea what was going on.

The public schools here believe it is detrimental to self-esteem to group kids by ability levels.  I feel that these kids sitting in a class staring at their worksheet watching other kids all around them breeze through the same thing is more damaging than having each child sit with a teacher who can work with them to be successful at whatever math concept their brains are able to handle.

But what do I know?

The next day I had a dream job--high school English teacher.  AT MY KID'S HIGH SCHOOL!

It was finals week--half days with 2 classes each day.  This teacher I subbed for had one of those classes which was all seniors (who had graduated the previous week).  So I actually did nothing for quite a while.  Finally my other class came.  I took attendance, and passed out their final exam.  I made my way around the room, and then settled into the back of the room.  After about 10 minutes I noticed that two kids had open notebooks on the floor!  I walked around and casually picked up their books.  Each boy had his notebook conveniently open to their Animal Farm vocabulary notes!  I left them with their exams to finish, and after class told them that I would not give the books back.  They were stunned.  Pretty much the school has a strict "zero points if you are caught cheating" policy.  Busted!

Yesterday I subbed for a class with no students.  It was a "make-up day" for kids who had things to turn in or tests to take.  I graded finals for the other teachers for a couple of hours, but other than that I did nothing all day.  I ended up getting an offer to come teach Medical Terminology for two periods a day at this school next year.  It would be fun, and I love the school, faculty and kids there, but I don't think it would be worth the commitment of being there every day.  Then I couldn't take any other sub jobs, either.

Today I got a sweet gig, though.  A teacher at Joel's middle school decided she didn't have energy to make it through Field Day this afternoon, so she called in a sub and went home.  I got paid for following 6th graders around to their different stations for the afternoon.

Now school is over, and so are my sub jobs.   It was a busy week, but I made some great connections at the two high schools and am on their preferred sub lists for the upcoming school year.  I am so excited about that.

Let summer begin!

Graduation day for Abram

Time flies.  My little Abram is now all grown up.

He has always been such a good boy.  Always helpful, always listens, always obedient, always a great student, always practiced his instrument, always loads the dishwasher, always tells me he loves me, always tells me I am right.

We will all miss him when he leaves for college at the end of the summer.

I dread graduations because they are soooooo long.  But this one was actually tolerable.  Only 90 minutes long, AND Abram was one of the speakers, so I checked my bad attitude at the door and actually enjoyed the night.

 Abram's friend Heidi had her graduation right before his, so Abram went to her graduation first, and then she came along with us to his graduation.  Crazy kids.

We found our seats quickly and waited for the program to start.  The kids filed in and Abram took his spot.  Then he did what EVERY child does--started looking for his parents in the audience.

He looked once...

He looked twice...

And then he found us.

And gave a salute so we knew that he knew exactly where he was sitting.

Abram gave such an excellent speech.  He ended with Winston Churchill's quote about the Battle of Britain, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."  He did a perfect job of writing and delivering the speech.  He has no fear of public speaking.

 And then it was time to walk.
He waved to us,

And then hugged his awesome history teacher,

 And then hugged his awesome biology teacher,

and took his seat again,

 And then gave us the thumbs up.

 The program ended and everyone threw their caps in the air to celebrate.  Abram took off for the all-night party and we headed home.  It was 11PM and waaay past my bedtime.

Hooray for Abram!

Teaching again

After spending 18 years in a filing cabinet, my teaching license is officially active again.  I was able to register with the local subfinder system, and last Friday and yesterday I taught school for the first time since baby Abram was born.

I have had an easy re-introduction to teaching.  My first gig was an elementary school English Language Learner classroom where I taught groups of 8 kids (Hispanic and Russian) a basic grammar lesson.  For sure this would be a dreamy job.  Small group of kids, no homework to grade, teaching English grammar (which I tend to do anyway even when not teaching school)?  Wow!  It was very fun, and the kids were delightful.

Yesterday was also pretty easy.  At first it was a let-down, because when I clicked on the job it said "General Science grades 6-8."  I jumped for joy.  That is exactly what I love--science!  I was so excited.   I noticed that it was at an alternative school, but I figured that just meant it would be a smaller group, and maybe kind of watered-down science.  But science is science and I couldn't wait.

When I arrived at the school I learned that the teacher I was subbing for was not a science teacher.  She was a case manager and spent 3 of her 7 periods each day doing paperwork, testing, and working to keep kids motivated to stay in school.  So I ended up spending 2 periods baby-sitting a computer lab class, helping 4 kids finish essays, and then teaching one girl a math lesson.

There are still 7 days of school.  We'll see what kind of experiences I get before the year is over.  Maybe an actual classroom of kids?  Maybe?