However, I can’t stop being mom. Seven o’clock each morning, I have left and gone south past the high school to drop my eighteen-year-old off at work in a field where he is changing irrigation pipe. My thirteen-year-old earned a part in the local adult theater group’s Christmas play which means extra trips north throughout the week.

I have been so busy with school and family that several book events have fell to the side. Wednesday while at school, I had a moment to check email and saw a Twitter notice of a blog post. It was my post on Vox Dei’s webpage! I had forgotten it was to air that day. As my eighteen-year-old says, “Face palm!” The next day, I had another similar experience. I checked email just before lunch during my prep period and found a Twitter announcement of my cover reveal for The One Who Sees Me. How could I have forgotten that! I knew I needed to get a better grip on my calendar.

Saturday loomed big in my vision. I had to be ready for the book signing and release party of Dragon’s Future. My husband and eighteen-year-old would be off at a men’s retreat which left my nineteen-year-old and thirteen-year-old at home.

Grandprize packet of swag and a signed book went to a high school senior.

My thirteen-year-old and I enjoyed the Cranberry Parade at the local festival, and then we headed to the art gallery and used book store which was hosting the signing. After frantically trying to find parking, I was able to elicit help from some friends to carry books and supplies to the gallery. My three hours were fun and profitable. Many came through to purchase books, and I even met a journalist for the local paper who wants to do an author interview. We’ll see what happens.

In the meantime, I am ready for another week of school. I will try my hardest to be better at budgeting my time between family, school, and author work. It is a challenge this year, but it can be done.

Our district is a small district; it doesn’t have a lot of funds or a lot of students. What it does have is community support. We have people from the community who say, “I know your kid. I read with him in SMART reading.” Or “I know her; I worked with her for ASPIRE.” We see the gym packed for basketball, but just as crowded for winter and spring concerts and graduation.

So, what does this have to do with Book Week? Well, you see you can read because of a teacher. Those teachers put in time, energy, and creativity to make their classes worth it to the kids. They want the kids to succeed. They work their tails off with multiple hats to make ends meet for themselves, but to see your child do the best he or she can. Kids learn to read or learn to love to read based on teachers. My son struggled through first and second grade with reading. It was torture! Then along came Miss Eve. She piloted some computer programs, she learned about brain games, she put energy into my son. By fourth grade, we went to Hollywood to share the success of one of the piloted computer programs. By then, my son was reading above grade level! It was a teacher who helped.

As you go about your day today, remember those teachers who helped to shape and mold you. If you know a teacher, encourage them. The year is almost over, and kids are antsy to be outside. It takes extra energy and enthusiasm to make it through the end. And if you have a chance, swing by and read the article and watch the video done by The World Newspaper. If you watch the video, you’ll see my daughter welding and you’ll catch a glimpse of my Eighth Grade Spanish class. You’ll be introduced to my town.

Pacific High Pirate

The last several weeks at school, my Spanish 2 students have been working on a fantasy story. The majority of them thought the story up in English and then are translating it over into Spanish with varying success. The real success though is watching them work. The process was noisy to begin with as they looked at the fantasy motifs and hero’s round that I handed out. They talked and talked and talked. “Hey, what about…” “I know, I’ll…” “What if the dragons become dinosaurs!” Then as the stories were shared with their classmates and put into English, the noise level dropped. They studiously began working on translation. They learned a lot about how to transfer ideas into another language. Finally, they began talking again as they illustrated their books. “Would you draw a dinosaur for the army?” “Here’s my story” “My illustrations will never compare to yours!”

These stories though have great potential for children’s books. We have the dinosaurs versus elephants with a mighty glowing peanut and a spatula made from lightning from the gods. We have an angel who falls in love with a “man” who turns out to be the god of Hades; they have a little girl who is watched over by a special person. We have a twist on Hansel and Gretel. All of them deserve recognition.

Every once in a blue moon, one of these types of stories makes it into the publishing world–Tom Bombadilo from Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Peter Pan, Dragon’s Future. Wait! What was that last one? Yep, a story that I wrote and read to my son will be published by Booktrope. It is scheduled to come out this summer. Because my story managed to make it into publishing, I have encouraged my students to try. Why not dream big? Why not put forth the effort to put your story into someone’s hands? In the meantime, the Spanish stories will be turned in and then cherished by some of them. I wish I could mass produce a few of them. But I will encourage them to grow, learn, keep trying, and above all–Dream Big!

Later that evening, we met El Broussard. What impressed me was that despite the fact that there were several hundred students in attendance, El knew that he had spoken with my students and that they were good kids. The kids loved his workshop.  They encouraged me to attend the advisor’s workshop the next day. When I did, El again mentioned that he remembered my kids. He stressed information that I had learned as a step-mom. Relationships are the key to teaching and life.  As a step-mom and parent, I learned that I could not effectively discipline or teach my kids without a relationship. Last year in the middle of the school year, I was asked to co-teach an eighth grade PE class.  I was told that the students were trouble. However, I started looking at the class roster and I knew these were the ‘good’ kids. I couldn’t understand how they were trouble. As I began teaching, I learned that many of the students just weren’t athletic. I built relationships with them and things got better.

On Monday, we began with Heather Schultz. I came away with a ton of quotes from her. She told the story of her pregnancy just a few years ago. It was one where she got emotionally and physically sick. She cried over milk–no, she bawled. When her baby was born, she was eight pounds less than her pre-pregnancy weight and she had been in the hospital 26 times! At 24 weeks after conception, she had to have an emergency c-section. Her little girl was born weighing one pound and fitting into the palm of her hand. After many months, her little daughter came home. We learned a lot about life from this little girl. I’ll give these insights in my twitter account this week.

The way home was different than the way to the conference. The students still plugged into their music, but there were discussions as well. “Who was your favorite speaker?” After everyone answered, the next question came up. “What do you want to do because of what you learned?” The encouraging thing was that I wasn’t the one asking the questions. It was students.  I’m excited to see what next year holds. The students want to be a part of leadership class. They are enthusiastic to do the fundraising for the fall conference.

So, this week as you go about your days, remember “life is pain, Princess.” So, make sure that “no one is a leftover” and that you make relationships with those around you–even those who are difficult to get along with.