March 17, 2005

Spring Break Musings…

I let Chickie talk me into going with her to get my nails done yesterday. I used to get my nails done all the time – back before I had kids and bills! Of course, it was always fairly staid. I was proud that I polished with what I called “Corporate” colors. You know – goes with anything, stays in the background sort of colors. Well this is how things have changed. Check out the manicures Chickie and I got:

Kinda looks like the Easter Bunny took a detour all over our fingers, doesn’t it? CERTAINLY not Corporate Colors! And I’ve got a little secret for you……shhhhhh……..my toes are done also – the big toes have squiggly lines and sparkles to match my manicure!

On a more somber note…

Today is the final Friday before our Spring Break – and we’re on partial lockdown. Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? In a way – it is.

Yesterday afternoon there was an attempted abduction at one of the elementary schools From an article in today’s newspaper:

About 9:45 a.m., the 10- year- old and an 11-year-old girl were walking to the school’s media center when a man approached them and asked about their class and teacher, Tampa police said.

The girls ignored him. The man grabbed the 10-year-old by the hair and collar, police spokesman Joe Durkin said.

Both girls screamed. The 11- year-old pulled her friend free, and the man ran toward Hillsborough Avenue, Durkin said.

Police and the school officials think the man entered the fenced property through a security gate that had either not closed completely or not latched properly.

The gates open from the inside and should lock automatically; a faculty or staff member opens them for arriving children each morning.

“This is very brazen and very disturbing,” Durkin said. “Both young ladies showed remarkable poise and courage.”

Spokesperson Durkin has an interesting point there. It IS very disturbing. But not merely for the implied reason, I think. Does that picture disturb you? It does me. Did any of YOU go to elementary school in a cage? I didn’t. The fact that it is necessary to install these gates in elementary schools here is disturbing.

Another abuduction attempt was reported at a middle school this morning. Thus the semi-lockdown. All the doors between hallways are locked. All classrooms are to have their doors locked at all times. Students can only leave the classrooms during class in pairs. It’s all a little tense, on a day which is normally whack-o anyway becuase it’s the day before vacation. Double insanity day. What fun. How satressful for parents, students and teachers.

By the way – in the 2 mile area surrounding my school that comprises our district – there are approximately 18-20 registered sex offenders in residence. How’s that for food for thought?

Curriculum Notes:

Here’s what my after school program kids were doing yesterday…..

First we boiled and colored them……..and then we made egg salad and deviled eggs and pigged out!

For my regular classes yesterday it was:

And I gotta tell you – it looks ten thousand times better than the slop they serve in the cough-it-up-ateria here.

On the softer side:

Because its the final day before spring break I knew that I would get very little work out of my babies today so I put together a packet of work which included a simple maze, Easter word searches in English, French AND Spanish, a crossword puzzle and 4 or 5 pictures of easter eggs and Winnie the Pooh to color. Too babyish?

The street-hardened, cursing, sexually active, rap and hip-hop lovin’ tough guys and girls – spent their time coloring easter eggs today – and asking me to print them off more coloring sheets with Bugs Bunny and Sponge Bob on them. So……..do you think our kids are growing up too fast????? Did I mention the boys were just as into the coloring as the girls were?

Chickie is in crisis yet again. It is so hard to be her right now. I can say that here and be calm, but when I come face to face with that rabid, venomous, hormonal, pscho-teen that is my daughter – it’s all I can do to maintain even the tiniest grip on my sanity.

In a few minutes the faculty/student volleyball game will begin. I need to go get my refereing skills honed. Let’s see…….it’s volleyball. Do I yell GOAL!!! or TOUCHDOWN!!!

whowhatwhere

March 18, 2005

Fancy nails! I wrote about that almost abduction too. And now that I think about it, I didn’t go to school in a cage. Course, back where I come from the schools are the same as they were, no fences, course everything you need is inside.

lulu

fancy ladies, fun nails ;o) … te abduction, fences, gates, lockdowns – all of it turns my stomach and makes me sad.. unreal..

aquaphoric

eep– scary. no to the school in a cage, but stuff like that still happened. . .

Queen Wysiwyg

What pretty long artistic fingers you both have! Lockdowns are scary . . . aside from everything else, it scares me that they’re keeping US from reaching our kids. Having participated on both sides of a lockdown, I think it’d just be better to electrify the perimeter of the school and give the PTA president the buzzer! If the intruder looks like a stalker – BZZT. Have a great Spring Break!

FallingDog

Happy Spring Break!!! (Cool manicures!)

Wooden Sandals

‘Look Out’ would work in either situation! I don’t know how the kids are able to adapt to all the changes they have to face in one day, something gets lost. It was heartening to see how you bring back the kid in them.

lifeisuhmistury

Cool nails…and toes match…woo-hoo! Caged in classes and schools…scary.

Willy & Wilma

Your classroom is a haven of normalcy

BBe

March 19, 2005

I thought you yelled…. hey batta batta batta, swing! 😉 Love those nails!!!! You two did this together? Good FOR you. I know it’s a shame that our kids grow up so fast in the streets. I think it’s great that they can actually express their youth in your class. Keep it up.

Ainekate

Oohie baby! Way cool nails. Go girl. Hi hun, I’m back again. I’ve missed you. Have to agree about the cage being disturbing. Thank God we haven’t resorted to things like that up here. That’s gotta to leave all kinds of trauma on the school kids. What has the world come to? Jeesh! Have fun on your Spring Break. *warmest hugs*

a mote, floating

The “cage” was the first thing that hit me in that picture. About the Easter eggs: I remember my mother’s stories (inner city HS) about a student who wrote the most delicate nature poetry and yet had to carry a switchblade. I read student essays that showed how much these kids were really children forced to grow up too fast. Love the nails! And laughed at the “cough-it-up-ateria.”

Mns

fun nails!

darkart

March 20, 2005

🙁 Yeah it is quite sad that those kids have to go to school behind cages. Doesn’t seem right at all. Anyway, haha its true, the weird stuff they serve at my cookhouse is just crazy but we eat it anyway cos the alternative is nothing. Bah those evil chefs.

*ryn* Yes, I am nuts. I need no further proof! How long do you imagine it will take me to recover? I think I have a twitch. Maybe its just a tic. Maybe it was a stroke and I’m too tired to recognize it. lolololol It was so much fun, though, ‘playing’ was my occupation for almost 24 hours, how great is that?

crystal butterfly

the nails are great. I like both sets. What you are having your class do is probably just exactly what they need to do

songbird

It’s hard to believe the world is so full of child-stealers, kidnappers, molesters and killers, but it is. A terrible thing that despite all the precautions our babies still aren’t safe…like little Jessica. Heart-breakingly sad. Neat pictures, great entry…

The Efficient Oak

March 21, 2005

Looks more like a prison than a school to me. Schools here have to have fences around now, but they’re not mesh ones and don’t lock during the school day. Our college, on the other hand, has no fence but does have a public right of way though the centre of it!

Arbi

Love those nails! I hope you are enjoying flashing them about on your Spring Break. How sad that the children were on partial lock-down. I’m not sure what bothers me more – the danger of abduction or the danger of the students developing a permanent perception that the world out there is a dangerous place, to be avoided whenever possible. But I’m sure those eggs brought happiness!

*ryn* Yeppers, I received quite the education this weekend. I’m not sure if I’m ready for prime time. lol

Starbright

March 22, 2005

Love the Easter colored nails…hate what’s happing at the elementary schools there. Absolutely frightening.

.imp.

Your nails are so Vegas! I love it. The abduction/cage stuff is SO freaky. Lion endured an extra large rant on fvcking freaks Saturday after I heard on the news that the scumbag copped to snatching the 9-year-old. I’m going to go look at your nails again to cheer myself up.