Proud of Where I Work

I work at Greene County Middle School in the school library. My technical job title is school library media coordinator. I have worked there for 11 years. I always thought I would have a hard time adapting to this age group since my background was high school English. Amazingly enough, I don't know if I could go back to the high school level now that I have spent so much time with middle school. People raise their eyebrows when they find out that I work in a middle school. Believe me, it is no easy task. Hormones are emerging and raging full force. EVERYTHING is drama. You can tell when there is a full moon. Still, I love the kids I serve and I love the people with whom I work. My job offers a lot of variety, so I never get bored. My school is in a very rural community. It reminds me a lot of Martin County and I guess that is what attracted me to this school system. This year, our school has been fortunate enough to have an 8th grade language arts teacher who is also a published author. She has written a book for the 1st year teacher. She has also written an article about Greene County Middle School here. The article is titled, "How One School Is Fighting Poverty." A few of us actually got to read the article about GCMS before it was published so that we could offer our thoughts on it. GCMS has struggled in recent years to reach AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) and our test scores could have been higher, but this article lets people know that good things are going on at our school. I am just so pleased that someone has come in from the outside and is able to see these things and actually appreciate them! Thank you Mrs. V.!

Over the Last Few Weeks....

Okay so it has been a while since I have posted. But man, have we been busy...

During the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, we were all sick with a stomach bug. Seth got it first, bought it home to us--Thanks for sharing, baby! Then I got it and two days later Rob got it. Ughh....we all felt like we had been run over by trucks.

A couple of weekends ago, we put Seth down for his nap on Saturday. I sat down at the kitchen table to work on my grocery list. I could hear Seth settling down in his room--he always fights us with his naps on the weekends. All of sudden, I felt a presence at the gate that blocks Seth's room and the front bedroom from the den. I looked up and Seth was standing at the gate. "Hey Mommy!" is what he said. It was so hard for me not to laugh. I shrieked, "Seth Bright! What are you doing out of your crib?" So I scooped him up and carried him back in there. I threatened to take his poppy (paci) if he did that again. I also removed the pillow underneath his mattress, which I believe gave him his leverage. He has not climbed out since. I am not ready for his transition to the big boy bed yet.

So we got our seasonal weather, but now I am ready for SNOW. I want Seth to be able to experience snow. We had a chance of it a few weekends ago, but it turned out to be a fluke. People were really badmouthing the weathermen. I am not giving up hope on SNOW--we had our biggest snow I remember in March 1980--I was 9. What a wonderful childhood memory that is!

Rob and I were in the kitchen talking last weekend and he was saying something about reserving a Saturday to go over to his parents' to fellowship with his dad's family. He said several family members had birthdays and anniversaries during the month of February. Well, Seth strolls by and begins singing, "Happy Birthday to you......Happy Birthday to you......" I looked and Rob and said, "I didn't even know he knew how to sing." He is quite the chatterbox and copycat these days. We really have to watch what we say. Whoa Dude!