Proud of my Son

I am so proud of my son who is 10 years old and in the Academically Gifted program at his elementary school. They had a assignment to come up with an invention. It will be displayed and judged at a county wide Invention Convention at the end of this month. The guidelines were that the invention had to be something not invented or an improvement on something that already exists.

My son had an idea right away and he finished the project yesterday. He and his Dad worked on the construction of it and he put together his display board. When I would look into his eyes while he was working on it, I saw how weary and tired he was getting, but he kept working on it. This morning when he got up he looked so tired. He really wore himself out on the project. Good boy.

Review for Seaside Inn on Isle of Palms, SC

Review for Seaside Inn on Isle of Palms, SC

The Seaside Inn 

Pros:

Right on the beach.

Has a pool 
Rooms are newly renovated (as of 2012).
Friendly staff.
Coupons and discounts offered and honored.

Cons:

Pool is very small and is not heated.
Rooms are small.

Are you the type to take vacations on the fly? Do you like to just take off with your family on weekend trips to the beach or to the mountains for a short two day get away?

We are and we just took a trip to Isle of Palms to spend two days at the beach. We spent less than $600. 

The meals that we had were at June and Olie’s, Windjammer and Dunleavey’s on Sullivan’s Island. We had time to go downtown Charleston to walk around the Waterside Park at Battery Park.

Wonderful time to explore this laid back place. Even though Mount Pleasant, the community right beside Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island have grown exponentially, the Islands have stayed the same. Wonderfully laid back area. 

Focus vs. Well Rounded

Focus vs. Well Rounded

By Merritt N. Shaw

August 28, 2013

​

I was talking with my husband today as we lie together on the couch, about an interview I

heard on NPR with Conan O’Brien. He talked about how children know subconsciously

what they will be like when they get older. He was saying that he knew that he was

leaning toward being a comedian when he was eight years old because all the things that

he does as a talk show host/comedian (girl growl, pulling a string to move his hips,

hissing, wacky off-beat stuff) were things that he did when he was young. He said there are

kids who just know innately that they will be a good athlete, or do well in science or being

a goof ball. 

This made me start thinking about what makes someone that way. Are we nutured into that

way of thinking or is a pre-disposition, whether we are athletic or not or smart or not. I

think it’s both, but why are some people prone to focus on one thing in life and be an expert

in the field and other people like to do many different things and not become an expert.

For example, I want to teach my children to be well-rounded. Not to focus on one thing

because that could get boring, but if a person likes that one thing, it could be something that

sustains him for the rest of his life and he would love what he does, but he will not have

options.

What does successful mean? Is being someone like a Steve Jobs or a Mark Cuban, 

successful business men who behave badly or who drop out of college (usually considered

the successful route), considered successful?

The American Dream is life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness. But what is happiness?

Is it money? Is it making the most money you can make, having the best material things and

being in debt up to your ears, or is it having just enough to be comfortable and not having

the pressures and stress of a high stacks job. I say it’s the latter. I would take going on little

three-day, weekend trips with the family over a high stakes, well paying job any day! Lots

of people have made the decision to leave the “great job” to spend more time at home or

with their family. That is the key to happiness. Doing the things you love to do. Now if we

could just get people to love doing the things that need to be done.

So, I question myself of how I should raise my children. Should I raise them to become

something that will bring them lots of money or should I teach them to focus on what they

love to do? Do what comes naturally to them? Let me clarify. They are not allowed to lay

around the couch and watch TV because, “that is what comes naturally to them,” but if they

love science or love skate boarding even though you may not think that will lead to

anything “successful,” I think it’s important to cultivate and support the things they love to 

do, but they also need to learn from other people, and their parents, the things they could 

possibly love to do.

​

School Improvement Project

I had a meeting with Mrs. Parker, Traveler's teacher, today to discuss how we can improve the school to help the third grade students pass the EOG's and to get the school and this class of students back on track.

Some of the things we discussed were things I had outlined in a little report I created when we were supposed to have our first meeting that ended up being cancelled at the last minute.

Ideas for School Improvement

East Franklin Elementary School

1/16/14

What are the things we would do, to solve the problem of failing reading and math scores, if we had the time, money and unlimited resources? If we had these things would it solve the problem?

1.     More money?

2.     More teachers?

3.     More tutors?

4.     More time?

5.     Textbooks that align with the common core?

6.     Unlimited materials?

7.     Enough room and qualified teachers to teach the Response to Intervention

Three Tier system?

What else?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ideas:

1.     Time Management:

We should work “smarter not harder.” Use the time we have with the students more efficiently to allow for more tutoring or one-on-one time.

If we could work tutoring or one-on-one time into the regular school day what extraneous time could be carved out and be replaced with tutoring, but still get all of the essentials for a well rounded day for the student?

Ideas for carving time:

a.      Cut out trips to the library where the librarian reads a book to a class or lets them watch a movie for 30 minutes.

b.     Cut lunch by five or 10 minutes.

c.      Combine PE and recess and use that time for tutoring.

d.     Add 30 minutes onto the school day to allow that time for tutoring.

e.      Open the school at 7:15 am for tutoring before the school day starts.

f.        Possibly implement project based learning so math, reading, exercise and computer skills are being learned at the same time. 

2.     Focus Group:

Create a focus group to do a study on the other schools in the county that are Schools of Excellence and who have higher AYP reading and math scores. There has got to be a reason why some schools continue to succeed and other schools continue to have lower scores.  

What should be evaluated?

1.     School Administration (What are the Principals and Assistant Principals doing that might be different)

2.     Teaching techniques

3.     Classroom management

4.     Classroom size

5.     Demographics (in each school compare: ratio of lower level performers to average and higher level performers, ethnic diversity, economic difference in those areas of Franklin)

6.     School Administration

7.     Type of programs offered and how they are different from other schools.

8.     What seems to be making a difference?

3.     Volunteer Tutoring Program (After School and Weekends):

Create a volunteer program for one-on-one tutoring.

a.      Volunteers

The pool of volunteers can be retirees, parents or teachers. Need a coordinator to organize and find volunteers. The Literacy Council has this service in Highlands.  Possibly get Rotary and other civic organizations involved. They are there to help the community and this would be where the rubber could meet the road for them.

b.     Parents

The parents need to be on board and believe that tutoring after school hours and on the weekends is important for their children’s academic well being and their futures. They will need support such as transportation services and meals or snacks, etc. and maybe an interpreter.

c.      Community (Tax Incentives for Local Business):

Partner with the town and the county to see if they will offer a tax incentive or a tax break to businesses to allow their employees or the business owners themselves to take time out of their work schedule (once a week) to volunteer to tutor. Maybe that tax break or incentive could trickle down to the employee and they would get a paid day to volunteer. This would be a way for the business owners to give back to the community that may be their employees or patrons someday in the future.

4.     Continuing Education for Teachers

Continuing Education should be mandatory and should be free to the teachers, but should have accountability to show whether what they have learned, works or not. But make the accountability efficient so it doesn’t takes away from teaching time.

5.     Conduct an anonymous teacher survey.

Ask advice from the ones who live it every day. Conduct an anonymous teacher survey to ask the teachers who see how students are struggling every day, what it is they think they need to help them succeed. It would be anonymous so they could be free to say what they want, no matter how outrageous or outside of the box the ideas might be.

6.     Grant writer.

Recruit a volunteer grant writer or create a grant writing committee to focus on raising money for specific school needs that are not met by the PTO. Possibly have the committee focus strictly on fundraising for materials, money to hire tutors or continuing education.

7.     Evaluate Teaching Techniques.

Evaluate K-2 teaching techniques to makes sure students are getting the basics of what they need to succeed in 3^rd grade.

8.     Crowdfunding

Research Crowdfunding (or Crowdsourcing) as a possible fund raising source.

The need for me to find a job that is flexible has consumed my life for the past four or five months. Actually I think it has consumed my life for the past five years because I have not been able to stop thinking about it for that long. A year after I started working at Wildcat Cliffs, I knew I needed to leave that job, but I couldn't find anything that I could move into laterally. So, I got my bills as low as I could get them by refinancing my car, then traded it in for a smaller car with lower payments, eliminated some extraneous bills (what I now consider luxuries). Then I made the bold move to take any job I could get no matter how little it paid, so I could say I had a job before I left that job.

The job I left Wildcat to do, I left after two weeks because the boss misrepresented the accounts I would have. I thought I would be the only sales person and I would have the majority of th accounts, but I quickly found out after getting on the job that I would only have the accounts that on the outskirts of the town or the accounts that the publisher couldn't get to advertise. All I could see was my finances turning upside down, with little to no money coming in to pay my bills. They paid mileage, but it was a minimal amount. So, I gave notice. 

In the meantime, I got a job at Wolfgang's Restaurant and at Madison's Restaurant as a server, but only kept the Wolfgang's job because I didn't want to be a professional server and it was too hard on my body to do both jobs. I am now on unemployment because Wolfgang's closes for January and February and I'm close to getting my real estate license (they haven't sent it in the mail yet and I fear a problem). I just passed the state exam to become a real estate agent, but that profession takes money to make money. Luckily I have found a place that will support me a little bit. I'm torn between two professions...teaching and real estate. I am just two classes away from becoming a certified teacher. It has been seven days, so I fear a problem. If it doesn't come today, I am going to call the North Carolina Real Estate Commission to see why there is a delay.