A Modern Day Calling

I don’t know any teachers that are on a mission to destroy your child’s life but they do learn very quickly that they are expected to keep control of their classrooms or they’ll be the ones facing the consequences.
When I was in school I was totally convinced that at least one or maybe even two, ok most of my high school teachers were sent there by some unknown source to make my life a living hell. I discovered very quickly just how far I could go and not step over that imaginary line, never realizing that I was not only hurting myself but everyone else in the class. It was all about the next laugh and the 3 o’clock bell. It’s not a big surprise that I wasn’t an “A” student but I did do just well enough to get by. I’m sure to many teachers this is an all too familiar scenario and something that plagues me to this day. Let’s just say that my spell check regularly begs me to turn it off and give it a break, I married a woman who is an avid reader and has to be one of the best spellers I know, and as luck would have it, we have a son who is an English teacher. God does have a sense of humor!
That being said I’m around a lot of teachers from time to time and as I hear stories of first year teachers being seen out in the halls with face in hands trying to hold back the tears of frustration and literally trying to build up enough courage to return to the classroom, I find myself thinking, I was one of those kids. I was that student who not only wasted my time but had to have most of my teachers rethink their profession.
Things have changed a lot since I was in school. There were no alternative schools you just got your butt worn out. I will never forget being in class and “rudely” woke up by a math teacher asking me to complete a math problem she had written on the board. Of course I just stared at it until I heard her say, “You’re just like your dad” and then I felt the shock of my life. This little 5 foot tall, 70 year old lady showed me she could swing a well used 2 ½ foot paddle. I’m in no way saying this is the answer to our problems but amazingly I found the correct answer to the one on the board and never fell asleep in her class again. I fondly remember her as one of my better teachers, maybe because I started listening. She later told me that she had also taught my father and had to use the same teaching techniques on him, more than once.
Teachers now days are caught in the middle of “no child left behind”, parents who are too busy or are just not interested in keeping up with their children’s progress and an administration that has to answer to the school board. Is there any wonder why there’s such a shortage of teacher’s in this country?
I have found out over the years as a parent, that if a teacher says there’s a problem, they’re usually right. With our first child I was the parent who was always there defending him to the last breath. I was sure without a doubt my son was perfect and this teacher just had to have it in for him. But after a while we learned this just wasn’t the case and he became a much better student. With our youngest son things were quite different even though there were times I felt we needed parent /teacher conferences, there were very few times we needed to go up the chain of command. The second child always has it rougher; “it’s just a broken arm, shake it off you’ll be fine”.
We as parents can do our children a great disservice by not attending the schools functions like open houses, if you can’t be there at least send a trusted family member or friend to talk to the teacher so they know you’re involved and interested in your child’s educational future. If you have questions contact the teacher by phone or email. Email seems to work the best now days. If you don’t get a response call the school’s office and let them know you’ve emailed and tried to reach the teacher by leaving messages and ask that a person in administration call you.
Keep in mind that teachers are people too. They not only put up with your little angel all day but then have to grade papers, go to meetings and some even coach school sports, then are expected to further their education to meet certain state requirements and somehow in the mist of all this, make time for their own families.
Some people say this career was by choice, and for some that’s true, but then there are those that you never forget as making a difference in your life. I truly believe they are there for a much higher cause. I consider it nothing less than a modern day calling.

Just Saying!

Odes Roberts

Cutting Down, Cutting Back, Cutting Out

Cutting down, cutting back and cutting out. That seems to be what I’m not only hearing but doing in our on household. I really find it intriguing to try new ways to save a dollar and I’m finding a lot of it is just taking advantage of things I already have like my cell phone. I use the cheap free one that you can get every two years. I did add unlimited texting after I looked at one of our bills and found out that teenagers don’t talk anymore they just text their fingers off. I actually called my cell phone provider when I was scanning my bill and saw that we had over 4000 text messages in one month. I didn’t realize someone could actually send that many messages without damaging some part of their anatomy but obviously they can, because that seems to be the average per month over the last year. I found out that we weren’t using all of our minutes so to save money I lowered our minutes and went to unlimited texting. It seems to be working, so far and we’ve saved money every month. To get information on phone numbers, weather, directions, temperature and a bunch of other things you may or may not use, you can text 466453 (Google) and put in a business or persons name and location. You will be texted back the information you desire. If you want to know the weather just put in the word weather plus the zip code and it will text you back the weather. I haven’t kept up with the savings but we never have a charge for directory assistance anymore. You will either be charged for texting or it will go against your plan like a regular text so keep that in mind if you don’t have unlimited texting. It’s a way to save on charges if you’re not at your computer.Do you ever get tired of getting calls every time you sit down even after you’ve added your name to the no call list? I know we did. I mean really, could there be that many surveys? In most places you can keep your DSL and turn the phone off, it’s called a naked line. Since we already had cell phones we rarely used the landline anyway, so we said good bye to Ma Bell and just kept the DSL for $19.95 and saved about another $30 a month. We’ve been trying out another gadget called Magic Jack. If you have DSL and at least XP on your computer this is another nifty little gadget we have been using for the last year. I have to admit it’s not perfect but gives us a way to save on cell phone minutes while we’re at home. It just plugs into your computer’s USB and after you follow the first time directions, you plug in a regular phone and you have a dial tone. You can choose an area code for most places in the USA and I’ve heard you may even be able to use your own phone number very soon. It’s really nice if you live in a place you don’t have great cell phone reception or I understand some people even use it to call back to the States while out of the country. It may not be for everybody but it’s worked for us and it also comes with free long distance, voice mail, directory assistance and lot of other things. We paid $39.95 for the Magic Jack, including the first year of service and then its $19.95 per year after that. You can get more information at www.magicjack.com. We do find that sometimes the connection isn’t always perfect and have to unplug the device every once in a while and restart it, and that seems to do the trick. We also have been able to use our fax machine with this but found we had to slow down the fax speed for it to work. It seems that along with HDTV, Online TV will also be one of the next big things. You can take advantage of the DSL you already have by connecting your newer flat screen TV directly to your computer and watch your favorite shows at your convenience and it’s FREE. It’s not the best quality yet but it’s on the way and they’re adding new websites all of the time. You could also just watch it on the computer but we like the bigger screen. All the major networks already have their own websites. We’ve been able to not only catch up on past episodes that we’ve missed but have actually found new shows to enjoy and its available 24/7. We have found websites like hulu.com and many others that are free. There are devices that you can buy to connect your TV directly to the internet but the prices I’ve found, are still too high.

These are just a few of the fun ways we’ve found to save a little cash. May or may not be for you.

Have you found a way that saves you money without the pain of doing without? I would like to know what’s working for you.

Just Saying!

Odes Roberts

Can You Hear Me Now

My wife and I walk almost every day and have watched in dismay the decline of Main Street in Walhalla. It’s disheartening to see a town of such possibilities go to seed, especially after the Oktoberfest weekend when there were so many happy people everywhere. The sidewalks were full and Main Street was being used for something besides a road that led consumers to Highland’s or some other mountain destination.
Although I’m not an actual resident of this town, I used to be and even served on their city council. Way back then, I made the comment that it would seem that a town with such a rich German heritage would take advantage of it. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that Walhalla didn’t want to be another Helen, Georgia, which at the time was attracting huge amounts of tourism for a town its size.
As the years have passed so have a lot of opportunities to capitalize on this and most of the business owners have grown old and retired or moved to greener pastures. As a result there are lot of empty buildings and decaying store fronts.
It seems to me that this little town is nothing less than the land of opportunity! You could almost open any basic business and have little, if any, competition. Walhalla has got to be an entrepreneur’s dream. Now I’m not saying that just any business would have a 100% chance of making it but chances of success would have to be a lot higher than in a town that has 20 of the same thing.
Like I said, we walk as much as we can and one of the best things I’ve seen in a while and something that can really sharpen up a town’s image and shopping appeal are new sidewalks, which are being poured at this very moment. It only makes sense that you have to first have a safe way to enter an establishment. I for one think it’s a wonderful improvement on the little German Town that could be.
Just Saying!
oer
I've enjoyed the feedback.
You can email me at odeseroberts@gmail.com