Piano burning

Before the burn

 Last night we spent the evening burning a piano. No joke. Over the past year or so we've become great friends with Bob and Shannon who own our local music store. A few years ago they started a tradition of burning a useless piano. So last night the piano from our musical last year was the victim. Of course it was awesome to watch a piano burn and then collapse into a heap of ash and iron, but what was more enjoyable was the time spent with so many great people.


I fell asleep last night...er...early this morning...thinking about the friendships we've been blessed with here in Ogallala. When we moved here, we thought we'd never have friends! These people are genuine, honest, hilarious, and a host of other adjectives. Many have become almost like family to us. It will be difficult to leave and say goodbye to these people....

Enough sap. Here are some photos from the evening:

Shannon plays while Bob laughs :)

Yeah, this isn't from the piano burning. Today we frolicked through Meadowlark Hills Lilac Farm in between here and Grant. It was beautiful and smelled so nice!

Marathon update

The hard part of my training is over. Yesterday I ran 20 miles--my longest run of training. My running partner and good friend, Kristin, was kind enough to bring me Gatorade and Kleenex at mile 5. Then she met me at mile 8 to run the rest of the way with me. She's a great distraction! At mile 19.5 when I began making faint noises of discomfort, she was quick to encourage me, and it helped carry me through the last half mile which seemed to last FOREVER. It was a nice, cool, misty, rainy run. The sun peeked its way through the clouds about 14 miles in and warmed us up. Overall, it was a good run. My legs aren't too sore today, and I feel ready to tackle 26.2 miles in three weeks. I am thankful that my mileage begins to taper this week and will continue to diminish until race day: May 6th.

This year my husband, Nate, and his sister and younger brother will be running the half-marathon. This will be Nate's fourth half, Amy's second, and Scott's first. I'm excited to run the first half with them as they're a fun bunch of people. When Nate, Amy, and I ran our first 5k sometime around 2007, Scott cheered us on with a McDonald's breakfast burrito in hand. He's come a loooong way and has made some great lifestyle changes in the past few years. So though he may not see it as this, I look at it as a celebration of his accomplishments. I'm proud of him. I'm also proud of Amy for training for the half during the last stretch of her dissertation (a slightly time consuming process). And my dear husband despises running...so, I'm proud of him for coming back to it year after year.

This year our nieces (Denelle, who will soon be 6, and Alexis who is 7 going on 17) are running the kids mile around the state capital the day before the marathon. Alexis was a little hesitant to consent to such a feat, but Denelle proudly proclaimed that she is signed up for the mile run. Last weekend we were back home for Easter, and right before I set out for my Saturday morning run, Deni stumbled into the living room half-asleep. "Are you going running?" she asked. When I confirmed that I was in fact going running, she stated sleepily, "Well I'm running the mile marathon the day before your marathon." It was super cute. I will be there the day before the marathon with signs for the girls and hugs to offer at the finish line. And I'll probably tear up when Amy, Scott, and Nate turn off at 13.1 to enter the stadium and cross the finish line. I will likely be a blubbering wreck when I cross the finish line myself.


Needless to say, I'm excited for the weekend of the marathon :)

Should teachers be disciplined for online lives?

Note: This post is edited from one I recently composed for our district's Professional Learning Network. Since this is my "personal" blog (I say that a bit sardonically), I added in a few of my own thoughts, some "one-two punches" as my dad calls them.

Should teachers be disciplined for online lives? What a question! This contentious issue was one of the topics on NPR's Talk of the Nation today. Two college professors, Jonathan Turley (Prof. of Civil Law) from George Washington University and Elizabeth Meyer (Asst. Prof. of Education) from California Polytechnic State University, discussed the issue with callers on today's program. I listened to the podcast of the episode today and found it incredibly relevant for teachers even in a small, rural district like ours.

As the title implies, teachers across the nation have been disciplined for online activity. One teacher was disciplined after he posted a blog entry containing his opinions on the topic of gay marriage (by the way...this same guy was previously awarded Teacher of the Year in Florida), others have been let go for posting photos on social networking sites of themselves drinking alcohol, and the infamous Philadelphia teacher who blogged about her students being "rude, disengaged, lazy whiners" was also fired. Though this may seem to some like immoral behavior, as one caller (a pre-service teacher) points out, it's all perfectly legal and within each teacher's right as an American citizen under the first amendment.

"Teachers are denied the full range of freedoms adults have" states Turley. Turley's argument throughout the show is that teachers work long hours for low pay, and they should be allowed the full freedoms that every other citizen is allowed. Meyer argues that there is no separation between a teacher's career life and his/her personal life. "Schools are public compulsory, therefore it's essential that teachers are held to a higher standard," she states.

While I agree that teachers should model social media responsibility (as well as civic responsibility), I completely disagree with disciplining teachers for online activity if the activity displayed is within that teacher's legal rights. When I moved to a small town to teach, I understood I was moving into conservative country. I understood that my privacy probably wouldn't exist anymore. Like both professors mention in the radio show, teachers have to know their communities and live responsibly in them. But if we start limiting what teachers can or cannot post on social media sites, should we begin policing grocery stores or other public places to monitor conversations teachers have with community members? And who will be tasked with this monitoring? Who will ensure that discipline is issued equitably? If morality clauses are introduced into teacher contracts, who will define "morality"?

I've only been a teacher for 4 years...technically, if you're familiar with my crazy student-teaching experience, 3.5, but already in this short time, education has changed radically. It will be...interesting (for lack of better terms) to see what other crazy policies, bills, and changes wiggle their way into the world of education.....