20 Nov
Schoolhouse rock
My sister Katie, the dean of administration at a Boston-based charter school, sent the following note yesterday morning. I’m posting it because it’s a cool glimpse into the the efforts often required for positive media coverage, and also because I think she’s awesome.
We had a pretty exciting day at Excel yesterday. The Governor’s office called around 4:30pm Tuesday night and said, “The Governor will be at your school tomorrow morning. He’ll be making an address in your auditorium. Oh, and we have two of his event staffers sitting in your parking lot ready to come in and let you know what we need you to do before 7:30am tomorrow.”
Um, okay. We had to quickly break the news that we had no auditorium. (I was told I couldn’t blame that fact on the Governor’s charter school funding formula in his or his staffers’ presence.) They came into the building, did a walk-through, created the minute-by-minute schedule that the Governor would follow during his “random” tour of the school, and told us that we would need to change our schedule around to accommodate his visit.
We don’t normally change things to accommodate visitors or do anything that might be disruptive to our academic program, but given the likelihood that this visit would get several politicians and members of the media through our doors…and since we have been trying to get to them to the school since the beginning, we figured it made good sense to meet their needs.
We ended up having 4-5 government officials visit, including the Governor, the Secretary of Education, and our State Senator. There were at least 12-15 members of the media in the building throughout the day.
The Governor’s office requested our cutest, littlest kids to attend the assembly, so we gave them our 5th graders…kids who love school and get excited about pretty much anything. During the assembly, one of our kids raised her hand and said, “I just want you to know that we’re not faking it for you. We’re always this smart and well-behaved.” Pretty classic.
As the Governor was leaving, he turned to our Executive Director and said,”I love this school.” We’re wishing one of the 15 cameras in the building would have caught that.
Katie saw a great return on investment. Excel received coverage in this video, the Governor’s Flicker photo account, an article in the Boston Herald and one in the Boston Globe. Way to go, Kate!
18 Nov
Overheard: Handy husband edition
Bryan, upon fixing the broken dishwasher: Yeah! Why don’t you blog that shit?!
18 Nov
Baking powder biscuits
I made these baking powder biscuits from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook this weekend. They were simple, easy and pretty darn good, though I think they would have benefited from another minute or two in the oven.
The only problem is that I used all of my baking powder. Any guesses as to how many recipes I will start and not be able to finish before I remember to add it to my grocery list? Probably quite a few.
17 Nov
Olivia!
Lately, Olivia’s test driving two with tantrums, talking back and actions that are pretty far outside her normal realm.
For instance, bedtime has become a bit of battle. Normally, I read a book, sing a couple of songs, rock for a bit, then put her down without so much as a whimper.
She’s clearly to an age where she realizes there’s more exciting things going on downstairs come 8 pm. The past week or two, Olivia stands up before she even hits the mattress and launches babies or books (or pacifiers) at my head as I close the door. She has an amazing aim, but that’s another post.
Most nights, though, she settles down once I place all of her accouterments back in her crib.
Last night, I heard her laughing and calling for me. I opened her door and found her wearing only a grin.
She was stark naked in her crib—her pajamas and diaper tossed out on to the floor—and she was quite pleased with herself.
She said, “I need a diaper change.”
Apparently.
16 Nov
First snowfall of the season
When I posted this photo a few minutes ago, I hadn’t yet checked the forecast. I thought this was fleeting, but it sounds like we may end up with two to six inches of snow today! The nice thing about Kansas is that it will likely be gone tomorrow.
15 Nov
Huskers at heart
Bryan managed to snag us six tickets for the KU/Husker game yesterday. Doug and Karyl came down to join us, and we took the girls as well. (For the first half, anyway.) Later in the evening, Doug got these great shots of the girls in their Husker gear.
12 Nov
Olivia Fix
I think we are approaching the terrible twos…
I long for the days when I thought that stage had to be the most challenging.
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