Tawdry quirk curators
// January 2nd, 2012 // No Comments » // flickr, knoxville
Today’s KNS has a story about the amazing “Jeffries Fine Lumber” that they describe as “an old South Knoxville warehouse surrounded by a chain-link fence.” It’s much cooler than they reveal.
// April 16th, 2011 // No Comments » // flickr, knoxville
The hat looks best on this guy.
// March 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // knoxville, school
Step one: Find the perfect venue for an end of eighth grade party/dance.
Step two: Sundown in the City schedule ruins perfectness of venue.
Step three: Find different, but equally awesome venue.
Step four: Principal changes date of event and neither venue is available.
Step five: Pound head on wall for several hours.
Step six: Begin step one.
If the PTA ever updates their site, they should add a community guide to assist with planning for local school events.
*We have a venue that works with the new date. I’m holding my breath that it’s in our budget.
// December 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // kid quotes, knoxville
In the wee hours of the morning, I heard thunder and pulled the covers up tighter. Doug went to check for flooding and/or tree damage. Evan crawled in our bed for snugglies. When we all got out of bed a few hours later, we learned the noise was something worse than any of us imagined. The children listened as adults discussed it at the bus stop. Then, just like the adults, they tried to make sense of it. They just did it their own way.
“I think that house blew up because the rain got on their outside power box, but my friend C said it was probably cause somebody peed on the refrigerator.”
// December 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // knoxville, weather
In what has to be a rarer occurrence than a Bigfoot sighting, everyone in Knoxville woke up to snow on Saturday. It may have been gone by afternoon, but for a few blissful hours, the children and dogs may as well have been riding unicorns down rainbows.
// November 16th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // knoxville, school
When a very opinionated senior wasn’t entertaining me with his tales and ideas that made me grit my teeth (“You don’t need school if you’re going to pour concrete.”), I spent Saturday listening to people discuss the unacceptable graduation statistics in our school system. While we were separated into smaller groups based on each public high school, I suspect that every single group made the claim that someone in our group made. “We have to think outside of the box, because things that work in other schools, won’t work in ours.” The better statement would be what a wise teacher tacked on to that claim. “Each student has unique circumstances and needs. One size does not fit all.” That teacher voiced the one thing that everyone in our group could agree on as a solution. Every student needs a caring, supportive adult in their life.
Then, the invisible wall that keeps Knoxville from going from scruffy to shiny made its’ inevitable appearance. “It still galls me that we have kids who belong in other schools at our school. We are a community and those kids know they don’t belong in our community.” The hair on my arms assumed the porcupine pose, but I bit my tongue. Half a dozen high schools are a fifteen minute drive from my house. This is not MY school. These are OUR schoolS. Those teenagers strutting their feathers like peacocks at the mall, concert and party attend all of our schools. The teenagers committing vandalism, shoplifting and assault attend all of our schools. The teenagers excelling at academic and athletic competitions attend all of our schools. The teenagers adrift in the murky bog between childhood and adulthood attend all of our schools. The teenagers without the motivation, support or ability to graduate from high school, attend all of our schools. The drop-outs without literacy or skills to work have and will continue to affect each and every one of us.
If a student is enrolled in your school, they ARE a part of that community and anyone who thinks otherwise is a part of the problem instead of the solution. This feudalistic attitude about tiny geographic segments of Knoxville hurts our city and the people who live in it. Knoxville is too small for this us vs. them behavior. We have to work together to help every school. We have to embrace every student in every school. If you won’t even connect to the students in your own classroom because you see some of them as usurpers, we won’t succeed. If they are sitting there, they belong. If they live in Knoxville, they belong in ANY of our schools. Celebrate the fact that every student in the room is a student who still has the opportunity to graduate. Don’t pretend they are not a part of your community. Those students in that OTHER school are your community too.
// September 13th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // child welfare, knoxville, school
“Since launching in 2000, DonorsChoose.org has empowered more than 200,000 teachers and citizen philanthropists to become change makers. Our vision is of a nation where students in every community have the resources they need to learn.”
A small Knox County school has a common sense project posted on DonorsChoose.org that needs to be funded. Please help if you can and definitely spread the word to your blog, Facebook, Twitter and e-mail friends.
“I am a 3rd grade classroom teacher in a rural community school. I have taught 24 years in this school. I am in a self-contained classroom, so I teach all subject areas. My students are 9 and 10 years old. The small classroom that I teach in was built in 1938. Storage is a daily issue for my students. They only have a small area to store their backpacks and very limited space in their desks for supplies.
I would like to help my students with this problem. I feel by providing them with an extra space on the backs on their chairs, I can help them be more organized. The students will feel better about their assignments, because the supplies they need will be at their fingertips.
Many of my students receive their school supplies from area churches at the beginning of the school year. These supplies are very important to them. When they misplace something it bothers them. My students realize that these supplies will not be replaced by their parents. I have tried many ways to help my students keep up with these items. I hope that these pockets will solve this problem.
My students need 25 pockets designed to store their supplies on their chair. The cost of this proposal is $383, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment.”
Please help this school.
Still needed: $383.22 Project funded! Hooray! You guys are the BEST!
// August 30th, 2009 // 6 Comments » // knoxville, local, people, school
Since High School Tour 2009 will be published Tuesday morning, here is some of the stuff that won’t be included in the print or online versions of the tour.
While I sat in the school office, woman number one pulled out her cell phone to call someone and get copies of paperwork needed to complete the registration process. When she didn’t find the phone number on her SIM card, she asked the two women on the other side of the desk if they had a phone book nearby. The woman seated behind a computer, looked in all the drawers of her desk before mumbling that she couldn’t find her copy of the phone book. At the same time, the other woman looked away from the computer where she was typing and pulled a very nice smart phone out of her purse. “What number do you call for information?”
In another school office, on another day, a vice principal re-enacted a scene from “Pump Up The Volume.” I’m sure I didn’t have a p-p-p-poker face reaction, since she looked at me and declared that “they make us be this way.”
In yet another school building, a teacher actually wept for a student who made a series of bad decisions that led to a tragedy.
The high school tours and the time I spent with school administrators was one of the best experiences of my life. I highly recommend that anyone who “hears” this or that about a school, call and schedule a visit to see and hear the truth.
Copyright © 2012 Domestic Psychology. All rights reserved.
