Turkey Day at LJPS

What a crazy day! Friday, November 17th was Literacy Day and Thanksgiving Luncheon Day at school. I got to wear two of my many hats at once: mom and teacher. LJPS (Liza Jackson Prep) holds a traditional Thanksgiving Luncheon every year. The families of all students are invited to share a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, prepared by our cooks, in the Liza Cafe. We are lucky enough to have an amazing cafeteria staff that makes incredible school lunches, so this was actually very good. Our student council decorates and transforms the entire cafeteria and helps serve the luncheon. The cafeteria serves about 4 times as many people as usual. Having taught previously at a school where most parents couldn't pass the volunteer background check, it still amazes me to see so many parents show up at school events. We even have a Christmas tree in the Cafe! This is definitely the South, where political correctness is not a priority and no one celebrates "Winter Break." The halls are decked and the little kids are learning Christmas Carols for the Christmas Program. There are parts of the South that are difficult for me to adjust to but there are parts of it that I really like and this is one of them. We manage to include everyone from Christmas to Hannukah to Kwanzaa but there is no "ban" on holiday things that might "offend someone" - we just celebrate everything in the big and overdone southern tradition, with lots of fried food. :)

In addition to the Cafeteria chaos of Thanksgiving Feast Luncheon, we added in Literacy Day, where every child gets to dress up as a character from a book. As we normally wear uniforms at LJPS, this was a hugely exciting day. Most of my middle schoolers were desperately brainstorming characters that would allow them to wear jeans or PJ's to school. Kaitlyn was the butterfly from Eric Carl's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." At the end of the day, the elementary students parade through the halls and the middle grade students stand outside their classrooms and clap for them. It was a blast but completely chaotic. Duane came to meet us for lunch and one of the parents covered my class while I went to eat lunch with the Kaiti and the rest of the Pre-K. We had tons of food and tons of fun. It was cute to see all the big kids cheering for the little ones. I love teaching middle school, but it is fun to have little ones so close by. I included a picture of my crazy students who love to have their pics taken. :)

Happy Early Turkey Day to All!

Halloween!

Our first Halloween in Florida! The girls were very excited this year to dress up, especially because they didn't have to wear five layers of clothing beneath their costumes to keep warm! The sun was shining, fall leaves were falling and the weather was in the 70's! For a Washington native, Halloween without an umbrella and five layers of fleece underneath the costume was quite an experience. Kaitlyn noticed some Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleading uniforms at the store and determined that both she and her sister needed to be "twin cheerleaders" and carry some "Ra Ra's" (Pom Pom's). SO....we dug out Mom's old Pom Poms from college and our Trick or Treat bags and away we went...............

Our first stop of Halloween Week was at the 6th Ranger Training Battalion Family Halloween Event. Our Family Readiness Group coordinated with the local chapter of the World Wide Ranger Association, Swamp Rangers, to have a huge fall shindig at one of the retiree's farm in Crestview, Florida. It was abosultely beautiful weather and we had a wonderful time doing sack races, pumpkin hunts, hay rides and costume parades with the kids and the retirees. We had a huge catered BBQ from a very southern mom and pop restaurant. We sat around watching the kids and listning to the stories of crusty old Rangers. All in all, it was a great day.

On Halloween night the tiny neighborhood of Rudderville took the kids out to Trick or Treat. It takes all of 15 minutes to make it around the neighborhood and everyone comes out together to watch the kids. After Trick or Treating, one of our neighbors organized a big hay ride through the back woods and airfield on Camp Rudder. The whole neighborhood piled in and all the Dads and teenage kids dressed up as monsters and popped out of the woods at various points during our ride. The kids were scared and a few of us moms were a little terrorized too! :) As always, the whole neighborhood got involved and it was a great time. Hope you all had a great Halloween and enjoyed dressing up!

School Days.......

We are just getting the blog set up so I thought I would include a few pictures taken earlier this year. This is Kaitlyn on her very first day of school at Liza Jackson Preparatory School in Mary Esther, Florida. Kaitlyn is attending full day Pre-K and I teach 7th grade Language Arts at the same school. LJPS is a charter school which means it is funded by state money and is free to students but operates separately from the school district. LJPS has been in operation for 6 years now and a charter to continue the school for 15 more years and add the 9th grade was recently approved. Our board of directors is comprised of retired educators who went to the community and asked "what would the perfect school be?" They took the info they received from families and their own experiences as educators to create a school that would meet the individual needs of students in a small community setting. I have really enjoyed my first semester here. Our students wear uniforms and so do we, the teachers! Kaitlyn wears khaki or navy skorts, skirts, shorts or pants with navy or white polos and the LJPS logo. On dress uniform days she wears an adorable plaid jumper. I love the uniforms! :) Our middle schoolers wear a slightly different uniform but with the same strict standards, including only 1 set of earrings, no unnatural hair colors, no more than one necklace, no bright makeup colors, etc. Teachers wear white blouses and khaki bottoms and navy blazers. We have Pre-K through the 8th grade in one building and I have really enjoyed being just down the hall from Kaiti and getting to see little ones every day. I love that good manners and every day courtesy are strongly enforced at this school. Students always reply to questions with a "Yes Ma'am" or "Yes Sir" - the southern influence is strong! We actually eat with our students and even the Pre-K kiddos are expected to learn and practice good table manners. As a mom and an educator, I am loving our experience at LJPS so far. More school pics to follow.......