Three Beautiful Things 10/24/14: Registered Marylander, Home Alone, The Deke's Instincts

1.  Sure, it took close to a couple of hours, but the Subaru is now a registered and titled vehicle in the state of Maryland, is the proud bearer of Chesapeake Bay plates with a heron on them, and I am not only a licensed driver in Maryland, but a registered voter.  The bonus?  Both of the women who helped me get everything taken care of were great to work with, friendly, knowledgeable, and, in the case of the registration woman, patient.  She was about my age with a good sense of humor and enjoyed me telling her that I find Maryland beautiful!

2.  For the first time since moving into our apartment home, I left the corgis home alone for a somewhat extended period of time while I was at the Motor Vehicle Administration.  I returned back to our apartment home and there were no angry residents of Lakeside North Apartment Homes waiting for me at my door to tell me to get my dogs to shut up; nor were there any angry notes on my door.  In fact, as best I can tell, the dogs were just fine in my absence.  I think they might be adjusting to life in our apartment home and are feeling at home themselves.  Let's hope.

3.  The Deke's third graders will always be difficult.  This is a given.  But, this evening the Deke told me of some ways she's doing some things that many of these students love and she had some good moments today.  Mainly (and this is my way of putting it) she's got to come at them from left field with stuff they don't expect.  The standard mode of operation at this school seems to center on worksheets (they are measurable) and the students, even at eight years old, know that math worksheet after math worksheet is an awful way to learn.  Worksheets are not in the Deke's teaching wheelhouse, but she's finding ways to do what is -- and get the worksheets done, too (I think).  Every night, she tells me about the challenges she faces.  Her work really tires her out.  But the Deke has strong teaching instincts and a very reliable moral compass and when she follows her instincts and is guided by her compass, especially with noisy, hyperactive children (yelling at them doesn't help one bit), things go better. Who knows, maybe as this year goes along, more and more of these students will come to see that the Deke doesn't not see them as worksheet machines, but as children whose curiosity she wants to excite.  And, she tells me every day that she's glad we moved to Maryland and that she enjoys our new apartment home. Me, too.