I love spending my summer attending conferences!

And I'm not being smart.  I really enjoy them.  Especially when I get to learn new experiments to do with my kiddies.  This week I am attending a genetics conference in Huntsville, Alabama.  The first day we extracted DNA from strawberries!  My students are going to love doing that next year!  This is the third conference I've attended this summer, but it is by far the most exciting.  Yesterday we toured a cancer research laboratory and learned all the new treatments for assorted cancers.  Today we will be studying transcription and translation of RNA.  This is a very intensive, two week long conference, but I will receive thousands of dollars worth of experiments and supplies for my students next year, so I'm all for that!  Lord knows how bad I need supplies in my lab!  I'll post some pictures of the strawberry extraction soon!

I almost got arrested for breaking in school!

Talk about a crazy night.  We are moving from our old school building into our new school building.  Since I have to move not only my classroom, but my biology lab, the biology lab storage closet, my classroom storage closet and another science teacher's room who quit a few weeks ago, I have been staying really late packing things. Night before last, I was there until 9:30 pm moving boxes from one place to another.  As I was walking back to the school, I notice two cop cars hovering around my car (which is parked in front of the old building).  They drive off and I decide to call it a night and go home.  Yesterday morning the seniors pulled what is known as "senior prank".  They rolled the yard and inside the building with toilet paper, painted 2013 on the back wall and spread garbage and feces throughout the building.  Sixty kids get arrested in connection with it.  So, yesterday afternoon, I am taking boxes and moving stuff.  My car is the only one in front of the building.  (the other science teacher parks his car around back, close to his room).  I come out of the building around 8 pm and there is a cop parked behind my car.  He gets out of his car and says "hold it just a sec."  I say, "yes?"  He asks me what I am doing here.  I show him my name tag and tell him I am moving boxes into the new building.  He informs me that last night when he made rounds that my car was the last car here last night and this morning all that "prank" stuff happened.  I jokingly say that he got me.  I was pranking the seniors by doing all this and blaming it on them.  He is not amused.  He informs me that the cafeteria door is open.  I tell him that I have not been anywhere near the cafeteria and that I have keys to the front door only.  He then makes me walk the entire school building with him checking locks!  I tell him I really need to be moving boxes.  He doesn't care.  He then informs me that my car is "hot".  Apparently, he checked my tags and every cop in the area is on the lookout for my car.  WTF?  I tell him that his captain knows me and my car.  He angrily informs me that HE is the supervisor for second shift and that the captain doesn't tell them anything.  At this point, I am mentally slapping myself for not having anybody's number from school that I can call and verify things with.  First thing Monday, I'm getting the principal's home number!  The funny thing was that the other science teacher had taken a load to the new school and wasn't around during my fun times.  He did get a good laugh about it when I finally showed up to unload my car.  Now I'm scared to drive around town.  And I realized that my tags expire at the end of this month.  What a great start to spring break, eh?  Luckily for me, the kids couldn't wait to rat each other out, so I'm off the hook.  Whew!

Not sure if I'm happy or sad

Ever have one of those days where you don't really know how you are feeling?  I'm having one of those days today.  I'm not really depressed, but not really happy either.  Sort of a non-feeling day.  While I'm still under 170, which is great, I'm not as low as I was last week, which is not too great.

Maybe it's all the rain we've been having around here.  Or it could be that my house smells like wet dog.  Anyway, been watching a lot of Gallagher on You Tube lately.  I hate that he has had heart attacks.  He always seemed so in shape.  And I hate to hear that he has been divorced twice and that he has lost all his money and lives in hotels now.  And I really hate that he is doing his final show and retiring.  He is my favorite comedian of all.  On the plus side, I love that I can watch his old routines from the 80's online now.  I've even found some I have never seen before.

So, if you've never heard of Gallagher before, check out his routines on You Tube.  My favorite is "Mad as Hell".  You'll laugh til milk comes out your nose!

Drama is over and school has resumed

Great news!  Little Ethan is safe and the bad guy is history.  We started back to school this week.  I really have to commend this area.  They really stepped in to help out.  It seems like everyone, young and old, was banded together during this tragic event.  I saw senior citizens working with children to deliver food, blankets and miscellaneous items to the law enforcement and television crews standing vigil at the scene.  Thousands of people gathered to pray and discuss what was going on.  The restaurants were fabulous by donating food to all the people involved.  Mr. Poland's funeral service was so nice.  Hundreds turned out for it.  Some of our JROTC students attended in uniform and lines of buses led the processional. It just goes to show you how strong a community can be.  This past Monday, when the students returned to school, I didn't hear anyone complaining about being back in school. There was no fear of riding the school bus or anger or hostility towards the man responsible or his family.  It really does a soul good to be able to witness the unity of an area when tragedy occurs.  I feel very privileged to call these people my neighbors and friends.  They have included me, an outsider, into their community with open arms and I am so grateful.  I have lived places where that type of good Christian neighborliness doesn't happen.  I have lived places where people are suspicious of outsiders.  I have lived in areas where people who are different in any way are made to feel like they don't belong.  I have heard false friends gossip and lie about people out of jealousy or fear.  Sometimes, teachers get to the point where they believe it's them against the world.  They feel as if they are not making any positive impact on their students.  Sometimes, they get to the point where they throw their hands up and say, "what's the use?"  I notice how when teachers mistreat students it makes the papers worldwide, however, when students mistreat teachers, no one seems to care.  Can you imagine what the news would look like if every time a student abused a teacher, it made the news?  CNN would have to add a "Student News" studio and have 24 hours of non-stop news about it.  We spend so much time keeping the adults in line that we forget that kids are accountable for their behavior too.  Okay, I'll get off my soapbox.  For now, all is safe and happy...at least in my little spot of the world.

Ongoing hostage saga

The standoff between the Vietnam vet with the 6 year old boy and the cops is ongoing.  Both the county and city schools are out for the rest of the week.  I'm heading to a prayer vigil at a local church, then back home to monitor the situation.  It finally made national news today. I hate that they didn't mention how heroic the bus driver was.  He tripped the alarm and reversed the bus to try to protect the children. The link is below:

http://gma.yahoo.com/gunman-shoots-bus-driver-ala-takes-child-hostage-085919180--abc-news-topstories.html

Tragic events in this area today

I know people are beginning to get numb to situations like this, but if you are right in the middle of it, it's downright scary.  A bus driver for the county I live in was taking kids home after school today, when a man boarded the bus and shot him 4 times, killing him - with a bus full of children on board.  He then took a 6 year old child off the bus and is currently holed up in a church with police all around.  Someone told me that he also shot a child, but I can't confirm that yet.  Horrible tragedy, but what was the scariest was that all the teachers were talking about bringing guns and how to stay safe.  It's looking like before long we will have federal marshals on school buses like we have them on flights now.  Prayers go out to the family of the bus driver and all who were witness to this horrible act of violence.

Tragic News in Connecticut

I was in the lab dissecting pigs with my anatomy kids when we heard of the news in CT.  As shocked as I was, as we all were, it allowed a perfect opportunity to reiterate the importance of lock down drills.  At my school, the kids think that a lock down drill is a joke.  Instead of huddling in a corner out of sight and remaining quiet, they walk around, talk, ask to go to the bathroom.  This tragedy provided an opening.

For some reason, when the kids get upset, it helps me become calmer.  I quieted them down and agreed that it was a horrible thing that happened.  Then I began discussing how they never know when the lock down drills will become necessary. One day, one of these drills might be the real thing.  Finally, we got back to our dissection, but the mood was very somber.  I think maybe the kids were imagining those children's faces in their specimens.  What a day to dissect stuff.  I think next week, for the two days we are there, I will make ice cream with them.  After their test, of course.  

My thoughts and prayers go out to all the students, teachers, administrators and parents who were involved in the shooting.  Special prayers for the shooter's father.  How do you handle knowing your child was responsible for something like that?  My son is 21 and it really makes me think about how much I don't know him.  Would he ever do anything like that?  I assure myself that he wouldn't, but then think about how the shooter's mom was a teacher and how she was divorced.  Can't help but compare, you know?

I promise my next blog will be a happier subject.  I'll show you how to make all natural ice cream with a baggie, milk, sugar, vanilla, salt and ice. Yummy!