American Spirit Day

Every month Sabi's school has a special spirit day in addition to the once a week school spirit day. The special spirit day is a theme based day such as Disney Day, Hat Day and Hawaiian Day. Today was American Spirit Day. Sabina ended up wearing her school spirit shirt, a red turtleneck and jeans for the red, white and blue colors because that is all that she had to match the color scheme. Sabi loves spirit days. She likes the idea of everyone doing the same thing, schoolwide. She also likes helping her class out by dressing up because if they have the highest percentage of kids dressed up, they win some kind of prize.

When Sabi got home she told me that the whole school wrote letters to soldiers today. I started to get a little bent out of shape at hearing this news but calmly asked her why they would be doing such a thing. She responded that since it was American Spirit day the kids were all to make a cut out of their hands and then write a note on them to send to soldiers. I went on to ask her what she did. She told me that she told her teacher that her family doesn't believe in the war and think it is ok. She asked her teacher if it would be acceptable for her to opt out of the project. Her teacher told her that it was ok and that not everyone supports the war and she had the right to opt out.

This brings up some issues for me.

On the negative side...

1) I am really upset that the school would have the entire student body do this activity. It is an endorsement of the military and the war. There is no place for this in a public school. If teachers or administrators want to do something to show their support, by all means they should act. They should not however pull their students into it though.

2) Why didn't the school inform parents about this ahead of time? They made the false assumption that everyone would support the letter writing. I didn't even have the opportunity to opt my daughter out of the activity.

3) What about the educational time lost today when the kids were busy letter writing? With the standards/test prep driven trend that we are currently in, how can time set aside for this be justified?

On the positive side:

3) I am comforted that Sabina's teacher responded so appropriately to Sabina. (Not that I am surprised because she is FABULOUS!) It is quite clear that she has an extremely approachable style that has made her students feel safe about speaking their minds because Sabina had no problem discussing this assignment with her.


4) I was really impressed at Sabina's response. When she told me how she reacted, she was heartfelt and not looking to seek my approval for her behavior. She is really becoming an independent thinker and is not afraid to speak up and make decisions that may not be popular. In my opinion, that is true American patriotism.

La Familia Telerin

I just found a blast from the past on You Tube. When I was little and lived in Panama I used to watch La Familia Telerin sing their good night song. I think that I hadstickers of La Familia Telerin on the headboard of my bed. I particularly remember the blue-headed girl. how fun to run across this again!

Para Ganar Obama

I saw this over on Latinopundit's site and had to share. Love it!

Science Fair News

Sabina had to work on a science for school. It was her first time and she had a rocky start. The hardest part for her was deciding on her project and figuring out how to put the idea together since she didn't see the big picture. For me, the hardest part was trying to not do the project for her. I did help her with the rubric and showing her how to check the rubric to make sure she included everything that was required. It was a stretch for both of us. She had to learn about the process as well as stick with the project for extended periods of time. My patience was tested many times over. When the day to turn the project in arrived I don't know who was more excited, me or Sabina!

The science fair came two days later. It was very nice to see all of the projects in one room. There were some really great projects. To make the night even better, the StarLab was onsite and available for the kids to go in and learn.

This week Sabi found out that she won first place. This qualifies her to go on to the County Science Fair. Pretty Cool!

Weekend Update

Sabi and I are beginning our five day weekend today. Yay! We will be heading down to Southern California tomorrow with my mom and brother to spend some time with my aunt and uncle. While there we will also go watch The Color Purple. I just opened up a weather update from my aunt and we are looking at weather in the mid to high 70's while in LA. WOW! That will be just FABULOUS! I can't wait!!!

How are you spending your President's Day weekend?

What kind of High School Kid Were You?

All American Kid

Popular but not plastic. Athletic but not a jock. Smart but not a brain. You were well rounded and well liked in high school.

Who Were You In High School?

Election Notes

Once again, my polling place was not all that it could be. I was at the polling place within the first 10 minutes of it opening and the people running the place really didn't know what to do. Most annoying though was that the ballot machine didn't work. I have yet to vote in an election where the machine actually works while I am present. 3 hours later I visited the polling place at my school with my students and their machine was not working either. What is going on?

In addition to taking my students to the polling place I gave them a brief overview of the election process. I asked them if they knew that we were voting on a potential president? Only 1 or 2 knew that. I then asked if they had heard any of the candidates names. When I mentioned Paul, McCain, Romney and Huckabee they looked at me with glazed over faces. When I mentioned Obama and Clinton they became animated and did indeed recognize the names. I told them that I wanted them to watch the news that night and come back on Wednesday with some type of election night news to share with the class. Guess what? One brought a piece of paper with some election results the very next day. The paper listed Clinton and Obama's names and mentioned some states that they had each won. I was so happy that one of my kidlets actually took the time to do it. Today, one more slip of paper showed up on my desk. It said Jilari Clinton #1. The girl who turned it in didn't say too much about it but she was proud to turn it in to me!

Reggaeton Obama

Yesterday afternoon I heard a reggaeton campaign song for Obama and it stuck in my head! Here is the link to the site where you can hear the song and download it, if you like.

Don't forget to vote today folks!

I Stand Corrected!

My mom informed me this morning that my latest blog was incorrect. She did not walk/run 60 miles last month. Mom walked/ran 75 miles. Excuse me! Go MOM! :-)

End of the Month Resolution Check

The resolution for this year was to move more. My mom, my youngest brother and I are all working hard at this resolution. Yesterday was the end of the month and we all met our goals. I walked/ran 30 miles. That is 5 more than I set for the month. It isn't huge but it is more than I did in any month last year! I think my mom walked/ran 60 miles. The big number came from my little brother...100 miles! You go boy!

I hope we can keep this up!