- "Feelin' Alright" has to be added to the list of perfect music. I'm not generally a Joe Cocker fan, but I love piano and percussion and this song has both in abundance. I even sat down at the piano and figured out how to play it. Me, with absolutely no non-classical ear training! But I figured it out -- just two chords, really -- and can do a decent job with it. Now all I need is a conga player. And Joe Cocker.
- Lots to add to the list by Marvin Gaye, too: "Mercy, Mercy Me," "What's Goin' On," "Let's Get it On," even "I Heard it Through the Grapevine." Good, good stuff.
- I got myself out of a stressful situation on my own terms. Can't elaborate but it's all good.
- Abby is going to have a "lockdown drill" next week at school. A support person who works with Abby at school has asked me how we would like her to prepare Abby, and I'm stumped. It sounds like a pretty intense experience: police there, kids in a designated area of the room, door locked, lights and computers off, and kids silent for up to 20 minutes. At least it won't feature any alarms or flashing lights, which would be big problems for Abby. I just need to think about how best to prepare her (with the support staff) for this event, without getting too much into why the drill is important for student safety. How can you explain that to any child, let alone one with anxiety problems?
- Suddenly, Earl is into basketball, too. Sigh.
- As I wrote today to a long-lost college friend, facebook is the best and worst thing to happen to me in a long time. Best, for renewing old friendships and making new connections; worst, for the insane amount of time I spend logged onto the thing.
- Having good work to do is a blessing. How very lucky I am, that I get to do what I love and get paid for it, too.
- I finally started my Christmas shopping today.
- I'm feeling more and more Christmas-y all the time. I haven't sprung this on Earl yet, but I want to put up our tree this weekend. It's time.
- I still have "Feelin' Alright" in my head. Can barely sit still to type.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Potpourri
A few random things, none of which merits its own blog post. Or maybe I'm just feeling lazy.
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1 comment:
About the drill-
I've run a few of these now (when I was an administrator) and, depending upon how it's done, it can be intense.
In the most serious, police simulate what they would do in the event there is an intruder in the school. Sometimes an actor/detective will actually come in and take a room. Since there are students involved in this one, it may not be so intense.
The ones I've done have had the actor come in, lose control in an office or hallway, fire a blank pistol, and head off into the school. Kids are ordered into lockdown mode, and the police, with guns (no ammo, clips removed, verified by a safety officer) practice their clearance and assault formations and procedures.
I though it was a very valuable lesson for staff and police. I'm still not 100% on kids being involved. Two of my teachers were in tears because the actor was calling for his fictional daughter Jennifer throughout the assault. Both having the name Jennifer, they thought he was after them, and he was a very good actor.
I'm guessing that if kids are involved, it will be a relatively tame experience, but kids will ask questions such as "why do we need to do this" and that brings up the more terrifying discussion of what could happen in a school. I would suggest having that discussion at home. I often have discussions like that telling the kids that I want them to feel safe AND the discussion can be scary to OTHER kids, so I want them to be able to get their answers at home so as not to scare some of the others. They like the trust/confidence it shows in them, and look at it more clinically.
I hope it goes well. You probably cannot be an observer (they don't like anyone seeing their playbook) but you might want to make sure you're available on that day, in case you need to pop in at lunch.
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