Mel's Box of Chocolates

As a teacher, I like the idea of projects for families to do with their children. Projects provide connections between home and school and are a time for the kids to share what they're learning and for parents to spend quality time with them. Switching hats, as a mom, I confess that projects can be annoying. Finding the materials, finding the time, pestering the kid, and being tempted to just do it yourself can ruin the fun of any project. That quality time with your kid becomes a nightmare. Currently, Zoe has a book report project due for her ELA class and a project display board for her academic challenge class. Yes, we have known about both projects for about a month. One project was due this week and the other deadline right around the corner. No, we had not started putting anything together before this week. We had talked about what she was going to do, but the actually doing part was lacking. This week though with some unexpected snow days, I have had a blast working ...

It was one of those weeks. If you are not a believer in astrology, or at least how the natural world impacts life, please feel free to come visit my classroom, or pretty much any classroom, during a full moon. You will believe! Between the full moon, report cards, new standardized assessments, evening trainings, teaching college class, being told you just weren't good enough, family drama, and the heater at home dying, let's just say it was not my week. From early college days, teachers are ingrained with the mentality of "fake it until you make it". You can't let the kids see your emotions. Whatever happens in your life, it stays outside the classroom door. Usually, I'd say that I'm pretty good at doing this. I'm pretty good at putting on a game face. I'm pretty good at smiling and staying positive on the outside while the inside is frowning and discouraged. That was not the case this week. I failed at the faking. I was boring. ...

Always follow your mother's intuition. I finally understand what my mom meant when she would tell me she "just knows things." This week, I just knew.   Back-story:  Dylan received an iPhone at the beginning of the school year. He comes home by himself and we don't have a home phone so we agreed he would get an iPhone for his 14th birthday.  That way Zoe could get his hand me down phone to have in the house in case there were times when she would get home and Dylan was not already here. While I know some parents who actually have written contracts for cell phones, Dave and I just agreed on some boundaries with Dylan. First and foremost, the phone belongs to us. It is our property. At any time we can take the phone for a random phone check. We can (and will) look at messages, photos, apps, and anything else we want. Because after all...it is OUR phone. Over the last 6 months we've had frequent phone checks. Dylan would laugh because he said he was always...