My Teaching Career

My Teaching Career

   I am writing about my teaching career because I want to have a record of my memories of my career. As I get older it is getting harder and harder to remember things and facts. Just today I had to ask Pat how old I am going to be this next month.  I think he lied to me when he told me 62.  Physically I feel in great shape this week, not sure about next week.   I do worry about my brain 10 years from now, so now I will have a record to read and say I was a teacher if someone in my nursing home asks.  I feel that I would never have been able to have a more exciting rewarding career as a teacher.  Sure it was a lot of hard work and stress but so worth it.  I still am in communication with former teachers, staff, and students. Hi Julie G and Jen O, I know you will be reading this.  Keep reading since I may mention you again later.  I was going to list other past students that may also follow my blog but chose not to for fear I might leave someone out.  I did promise Julie G. that I would mention her BFF Liz V who was one of my students also.  Hi Liz V.

      I retired from public school teaching back in May 8, 2013.   My last day of teaching for Millard was 1-24-12.  I took a year off to try to get better after the stroke, but decided to retire that year.   I would have been a special needs teacher teaching special needs young adults. Plus that whole transportation issue of getting to school and to the job sites, since I could no longer drive.  I still have trouble with that issue.  The law allows the deaf to drive but not the blind.  What is up with that; discrimination against the blind? I had a blind teacher in high school and he did fine.  I did what my family wanted and retired.  Pat really wanted to travel, so he bought an RV so we can travel the country.  Sure he has to describe the sights to me, such as look at that whale tail or the moose along the road.  My mind sees them but not my eyes it is very hard to explain how that works. 

     When I retired, Millard Public gave me a clock and a free dinner for myself and Pat.  I love free dinners.  I also got a pass to get into Millard sporting events.  They were boring back in the day when I watched the girls play, so they would even be more boring today.   I am still teaching, so only retired from paid teaching.  I get to sub for my daughter Julie as I help teach my four grandkids since they are homeschooled.  Even if they were in public school, I would still be teaching them.

Grandma teaching

     I am going to write this in sections and start with the end of my teaching experiences as a grandma in 6/2014.  I love this part of my teaching career the best.  Yes, I still wrote out lesson plans when I had them for a week.  I did my plans plus Julie’s.  One day Jocelyn said, “Grandma, we usually don’t work on school this long.”  It was then time for her favorite subject of all-ART.  So it was ok to put in a really long day.  We spent some of that day cleaning up the huge mess that they made while working on a science/art project that involved flour and a flour fight.  Picture a food fight but with flour.  Did not realize how hard it is to clean flour from the cracks and crevices of a wood floor, but not as bad as getting glitter out of carpet.  I made that mistake years ago.  We could get away with this mess because the principal Grandpa was working.  He could not yell at us for the mess.  It all started when the teacher got a phone call and had left the room.  When I arrived back in the classroom/kitchen, the two littlest in the class now had white hair and clothes.  All I could do was smile and say, “Don’t try this at home with mom. “ Maybe I yelled a little at the girls for not watching the little ones.  As we all cleaned the mess, I just kept thinking memories and was glad Pat was working that day.  Katelyn tried to clean with a rag with too much water which turned the flour into a paste/glue mess.  That was a science lesson in itself.   The boys had an early bath that day.

      Last month I got to spend the week with my grandkids in Grand Island.  I was able to teach Easton how to crack an egg as we made an egg dish for lunch.  He was so excited and did a super job.  I had to only pick a few shells out and wipe up two eggs that landed on the countertop as he missed the cup.  I read an American Girl novel with the girls along with other books on subjects of interest.  We would each take turns reading a few pages.  We would discuss words that they could pronounce but did not know the meaning.  They boys enjoyed their reading times also.  I read the Sleepy Fairy maybe 6 times that week.  We were able to discuss how Fairies are not real and are only in books and on TV. Weston had to ask about monsters and if they were real.  I had Easton read to me his reading books and we worked on his spelling words.  They all love learning.  Katelyn loves spelling and math.  Jocelyn is getting better at spelling.  One vacation in the RV, while working on spelling she would not work with me at all.  It was as if I was the sub teacher, and she was giving me the hardest time.  “Mommy doesn’t do it this way.”  That brought back memories of subbing in the public schools.  I will discuss that later.  One time Jocelyn was trying to pump me for information about how babies are born.  So I gave her the edited version, God made the babies.  Her reply was, “Grandma, I know that” followed by more questions.  I continued to avoid the question with other facts she knew.  I did not have a signed note from her parents stating that she could participate in that decision in class today.  I always did that when teaching on those subjects.  Parents needed to be informed of all the subjects that their child was learning in school. 
That means open lines of communication and newsletters, emails, and phone calls, etc.
      That week when Julie had surgery, each of the kids took turns helping Grandma make something for lunch or dinner.  Katelyn is good really good with cutting up fruits and vegetables for salads.  The girls also have experience cooking and baking things when they visit my house.  They love making deviled eggs and of course anything sweet.  That week in Grand Island we spent a few days cleaning and organizing.       I want to hope the girls and boys will remember the lessons they learned and will no longer stuff and hide toys, clutter, and trash but really clean and put things back where they belong.  They seemed to enjoy cleaning since we found so many lost treasures that had be stuffed away and forgotten.  Jocelyn so reminds me of how Angie cleaned back when she was little.  Things stuffed in bags, hid under the bed, stuffed in closets or drawers.  Angie grew out of that, so Jocelyn will to.  Now Angie is a clean freak.  She no longer stuffs Hostess sweet treat wrappers in the couch cushions or under the couch.  If she would have just thrown the wrappers in the trash, I would never have known that she had taken them out of the downstairs freezer.  I could go on and on about the joys of teaching as a grandma but you must be bored by now.  Just be thankful I am not sharing with you a handful of pictures of my precious grandkids.  You can check my daughters Facebook page or her blog for those pictures.

Motherhood

  My teaching career with children began with the birth of my oldest Angie on 3-3-77.  Sure I had taught adults as I worked before her birth at Thrifty Drug, Mutual of Omaha, and Northwestern Bell.  A mother is the greatest teacher the child will ever have.  I told that to many moms during parent teacher conferences, and when I talked with parents as I sold reading and teaching materials door to door.  I always started by sales pitch with, “ You are the number one teacher your child will ever have.”  They are with you ___ many hours vs ____ in the classroom.  I would then end up selling them- World Book products.  I still have those products and use them with the grandkids when teaching.  I don’t have to talk much about this because everyone knows how we parents do this. We start the teaching the day they are born until the day we or they die.  I just did some teaching to Angie during my phone call with her today.  I call it teaching, while she might call it nagging.

      I am going to digress a little back to 1975 before Angie was born.  I was married in 1974 and was sitting at my desk before work started at Northwestern Bell.  Big difference from school hours, I started work at 8 and stopped at 4 and I had a real lunch break.  Plus no homework! You heard that right a lunch break eating and chatting with adults not one eating with the students while supervising. I was waiting for the clock to strike 8, and thinking about my life and where I was heading.  I had no goal of going to college, but just wanted to be a wife which I now was.  I also wanted to be a mom.  I started praying which was very odd back then.  I only thought prayer was for church on Sundays.  I did not know anything about the Bible God’s word. I went to church out of fear that God would strike me down if I missed mass and had a sin on my soul.  My prayer started with, “God if you are really up there and care about me, could you see about a better paying job for Pat. He’s my husband in case you don’t know him.   I really don’t want to spend my life working, because I really want to be a mom, Amen.” At the time I was filling in entries to win a dream home, so I added another prayer to that, please have my name drawn to win this dream home.  Pat called right after that Amen.  He was getting a transfer from the police station to the Civic Auditorium.  Big pay raise as he was going to be trained to be an engineer for heating/boilers and air-conditioning etc.  I then began to pray for the second time that day and said, “God you are really up there and you do care about me. “ I then picked up a tract called the Four Spiritual Laws that a coworker had left on the desk.  I read it and learned that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, and rose from the dead -For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, least anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9.  I had been going to church and trying to be a good person, but that is not the way it works.  It is a free gift of grace by faith. I now knew that I was going to spend eternity in heaven.  I was a sinner saved by grace.   I accepted His free gift and began to read God’s Word and call upon Him many more times.

    Soon after that in July of 1975 I found I really need God’s help and peace after being omitted to the hospital with massive stomach pains.  I had waited too long at work with the pain and had an ovarian cyst the size of a grapefruit rupture that had to be removed.  I remember the doctor saying it was going to be very difficult to get pregnant and to not wait to have children later in life.  I was reminded through God’s
Word that He is the giver of life.  Angie was a gift of the Lord even if she was coming butt first, so I had to have a C section.  Julie was born on 1-23-79 and was my second gift of motherhood from the Lord.  Yes another C-section, but this time completely put out.  Fast forward to the present and God continued His blessings with the four grandchildren, our dogs and grand dog.  Yes I call myself mom and Pat dad to the dogs.  I am old and can get away with that.  I just asked Riley if daddy fed him yet?  The grand dog is spending her vacation at grandma and grandpa’s house this week/month.

Childcare

   When the girls were growing up I always did childcare for others to earn a little money.  Back then it was a little money. Some moms could not afford much, so I did it for free or very little.  I had many different childcare children.  Some called me their summer mom, while others like one toddler kicked and screamed when her mom came to pick her up.  She did not want to go home with her mom.  This was so hard on mom that she quit her job to spend more time with her daughter.  We had many babysitting kids coming and going throughout the years.  A para that I had at the Young Adult Program husband came to school to pick her up, and said that I used to babysit him. Sometimes moms would drop off their children when they went to play golf or out for lunch at the country club. Those moms I charged more.  I would also do weekend childcare when the moms went on business trips or vacations with their husbands.  We could then use their backyard pools for something to do that was free.  

     The girls always had someone over to play with.  They even had boys that would play Barbies with them.  We had a huge collection of Fisher price toys that the kids would set up in the basement and play with.  Julie always had someone to play school with.  She had a classroom chalk board that she would decorate and post the date, lunch menu, lesson plans, names of those who could not go out for recess or had to stay after school. She grew up to be a high school teacher and now is a preschool/elementary teacher to the grandkids.  Angie also went into the teaching field at Boystown and teaches adult staff plus the sweethearts who have broken the law or other reasons who are placed in her Washington DC site.  She also does all that other boring part of teaching called the paperwork that the gov. and organizations need.             They both followed in my steps and each received their Master degrees.  They had to put up with all the childcare kids, but they learned patience through those experiences.  I do remember Julie getting mad with one of the Carlson girls and as she was unloading the dishwasher, she hit one of them over the head with a cookie sheet.  Facebook allows me to keep track of some of those kids that spent time at our house while their parents worked.

Teaching Pre School 

    When the girls were preschool age I taught preschool at Learning Tree Christian Preschool at Millard Community Church.  It was a paid job but not much.  This gave me some extra spending money for garage sales.  I taught a few classes under the direction of the director Carole Owen from 1983-86.  I also taught various ages of Sunday school classes and vacation Bible school classes.  I remember using a curriculum called Peter Panda.  Peter Panda and his flannel board friends taught Christian morals to the preschoolers.  Subjects like sharing, obeying your parents, kindness, etc.  Years later, I loaned this curriculum to some unknown person at this time, and they never returned it.  I would love to be able to do the flannel board stories with my grandkids.  I also taught summer school preschool for Millard SPED during the years of 90 and 91.  I even had Julie come and help me with the preschoolers.  I taught some Head Start and Chapter 1 preschool classes for OPS and having to drive to South Omaha or Conestoga, in North Omaha, was not fun. 

University Education 

   The summer of 1985 was another life event that led me deep into teaching.  We were coming back from a camping trip to Disney World, and I was thinking about my life and where I was heading.  Julie was going into kindergarten and what was I going to do with my life?  I could go back and do office/computer work like I did at Northwestern Bell, but then I would have to have childcare for the girls. My last day of work for Northwestern Bell was the day before Angie was born.  In fact I missed my big going away party that they were throwing me.

      Question time: What town in Iowa was the first computerized white pages directory that Northwestern Bell put out?  How big was that computer, and do you know how data was entered into the computer?  I worked on that project called “Direct Project”.  Answers:  Mason City, huge the size of a room, and keypunch cards.  This job paid overtime and I could work as many hours that I wanted and boy did I work a lot of hours.  Weekends even paid more. We were still living off my savings that I had built up while working on this project, so we had money to see Mickey and his Friends.

     Maybe I could get a job in a bakery I thought, and only work when the girls were in school, but then I would eat all the store products and really gain weight. I could not do that since I was still carrying around the weight gain from the girl’s births.  Carole Owen had been going to UNO and had encouraged me to take classes.  In the car coming back from seeing Mickey I was fighting with my thoughts.  Go to school to be a teacher, no I would say!  I can’t. Then I made excuses: like I am too old, too much money, I am not smart enough, it would take me years, and I and Angie would graduation the same year, she from high school and me from college.  It was just fear of the unknown; we all have experienced this fear.

     I prayed about this major life change and was led to sign up for classes during fall of 88 at UNO.  I still did childcare when not taking classes.  I graduated Dec. 88 with a Bachelor in Elementary Education with endorsements in Elementary Ed and Early Childhood GPA of 3.838.  Summer of 91 back at UNO and May of 1995 graduated with a Master’s of Science Teaching the Mentally Retarded with a Mild/Moderate endorsement GPA 4.000.  Then I worked on a Specialist degree as a school transition specialist at UNL from Spring 02 and completed it in 05.  Continued to take classes but no more degrees because that is what you have to do with your summers off when teaching.

      I remember telling UNL back in 05 that I was tired of going to school and did not want to work on the next degree of Doctorate. I was looking forward to retirement, and had no desire to teach at the University level.  The professors that I had kept encouraging me to go on, but I kept declining.  They really just wanted more money out of me.  I don’t even want to think about what it cost me for my so called education just to get that piece of paper to do a job.  It is just about as bad as thinking about the price of gas today.  Pat has been planning some RV trips for this year, so I have been worrying about that.  I need a rest break because my blood pressure is going up just thinking about the cost of a college education and gas prices.  PS I never had to take out a student loan, nor did we ever have to help our daughters with paying for their educations.  We may have only bought them books when they were short on money for books, but only did that a couple of times. 

Substitute Teaching

     I loved substitute teaching.  I think I would still be a substitute teacher in my retirement years if things would have been different.  I started substitute teaching back in 1989, as soon as I graduated.  I signed up to sub for Millard in the beginning, since I did my student teaching in K and 3^rd grade at Cody.  I subbed in elementary to begin with.  I had a sub bag that I carried.  It was loaded with finger plays, puppets(Amy the rabbit and Zac the monkey), and a couple of my favorite books, songs on a cassette, along with other fun activities for the down time, when we got finished with the teacher’s plan early.  I became a popular sub for the younger grades.  For the upper grades we would do word puzzles/plexers and try to solve mysteries.  I had overheads that they would solve.  One mystery that I still remember, “I shoot people for my job, and my parents are happy about this career.  What do I do?”  Photographer. I also carried upper level books to read to the older elementary students.   

      In 1990 I got a request from Westside schools to sub for them.  They had called Millard requesting a sub for a special education class that was located in a Millard school.  Millard contracted with Westside to educate special education students.  The next thing I knew was I was subbing even more now working for two districts.  So then I figured why not sign up to sub for OPS? I seemed to be working every day.  I found myself getting called for Special Education classrooms a lot.  No one seemed to want to teach those classes.  I enjoyed them, and they always had the greatest para educators to help with the changing, feeding, behavior problems, routine, etc. 

     I first met a para named Sue Wolfe back in one of those special education classrooms.  Many years later while at YAP (Young Adult Program) I sat in an interview to hire her for our program.  And of course I insisted on hiring her.  Our special education classrooms would not function without the paras help.  Spending all that time subbing in SPED rooms lead me to go on and get my Masters in SPED.  That meant that I would have to student teach and not sub.   That would mean no extra garage sale money for me to spend that year.  I got a call from Westside asking for me to do a long term at Swanson for a 2^nd grade teacher who had just found out that she had cancer.  It was early in the school year of 1993, so it was an easy transition for the students since they only had their teacher for a few weeks.

      I first told Westside that I could not do this assignment since I was working on student teaching for my Masters.  They worked things out with UNO to sub in that classroom.  I would get paid plus do my student teaching under the supervision of the other 2^nd grade teacher.  That school had assigned all the special education students in 2^nd grade to be in that class, since the teacher with cancer was also getting her masters and was going to student teach in her own classroom.

      It is amazing how things work out at times in one’s lifetime.  That is when I said, “Thank you Lord.”  I spent the whole year in that classroom, as the teacher then went on to have a bone marrow transplant.  She came in one morning to see everyone and was crying and upset.  The doctor told her that she would never be able to have children.  She had one son at the time.  I shared with her how the doctor is not in charge of opening her womb but God is.  She later was able to teach the following school year and had two more sons.  Yes, God answers prayers.  Sometimes with a no but in her case a yes.

Public School Teaching for Westside

      After that school year during the summer of 94, Westside called again and wanted me to teach at Westside Middle School for a 7^th and 8^th grade resource rooms.  That was when I prayed and asked God, “Why middle school?”  I still was working on my Masters but was to graduate in ’95.  Westside worked on the paperwork from the state to allow me to do that.  That summer along with the middle school sped director, I worked on writing my first IEP (individualized education plan) for a blind student. That IEP turned out to be 20 plus pages long. This was hand written.  We did not have computer programs for IEP’s like we do today.  I also worked on many more that beginning of the year, since all IEP’s had to be rewritten to match middle school goals.

      I had a good year.  I liked working in middle school, plus I was getting teacher pay not sub pay.  I taught learning strategies to 7^th and 8^th grade students.  I was told what to teach and when, so all I had to do was learn the curriculum and then teach it.  I again had two great paras.  One of my paras was was a guy who would help me lift one of the students to the toilet twice a day. I can’t remember if the school had lifts back then, but we did the two man lift with him.  The student was a big kid, who only had a life expectancy of maybe ten more years. My back did go out right after school ended that year.  I had one student that came to class with a full time nurse who took care of all his needs.  My para just had to take notes for him.  The blind student received help from the district vision person.  I received a lot of direction from the middle school sped director.  He later told me that he had learned something from watching me teach and deal with the students.  He said that he learned that one can discipline with dignity from me.  He was a yeller and at times I would jump when he yelled at a student to sit up or shut up. 

     That teaching assignment lasted only one school year, due to the fact that Millard was not contracting with Westside anymore to education the sped students.  This meant that I got bumped from my job to another teacher in the building that had more seniority.  Then Westside sends me to Oakdale to teach 6^th grade.  I taught there from 95 to 97.  I had very bright students to some very low sped students, which meant a lot of planning for the different levels.  I had all the major subjects to teach plus then reaching all students.  This took some creative teaching along with a great time commitment.  Some long, long days at school were spent.  I can remember looking at the clock that said 9:00 pm and deciding I better get home.  The grading took for ever since I tend to want to comment on my students papers.  I also had to learn a grading system that meant grades were entered into the computer.  We also had to learn and use the Boys Town Social Skills in the classroom. Since this was a “regular” ed classroom, I had no para help with the sped students.  I also had to buy my own extra teaching supplies. 

       The teaching year of 96-97 was a strange year.  I had a parent that did not like me, so she did a petition drive to end my teaching career with Westside.  I did not realize that she hated me, and thought we were getting along.  Sure she did not like my phone calls regarding her daughter’s behavior, or the time she had to stay after due to behavior.  I was accused of yelling, losing papers of students, (her daughter had refused to do the assignments), requiring the students to do too much reading (district selected the reading curriculum), not getting them ready for middle school, sending students to the resource room due to behavior problems that I did not want to deal with (it was part of the Boys Town Social Skills that the school was using).  Some parents encouraged me to fight these false charges, because they wanted me to continue at Oakdale and teach their other children.  One parent an attorney worked on the paperwork to request a board hearing.  I had a hearing and many people came and spoke along with sending letters. The hearing lasted for hours, due to those wanting to talk in my behalf. The parent that hated me did not even come to speak that night, or the other five parents that she encouraged to sign the petition. 

     The board voted to send me back to middle school, since I could not work with a principal that did not support his teachers.  Everything that I was accused of turned out false.  A parent from the year before spoke on how all the students made the honor roll their first year in middle school, except one due to that fact that he moved away.  One parent broke down and cried due to the fact that his daughter had the best school year she had ever had in my classroom.  She had been one of the sped students.  She would even talk her parents into bike riding in the park behind us.  At times I would see her at the back fence just a waving away.

      I am going to fast forward.  I did not go back to Westside Middle that next school year.  The board met in closed session without me or my attorney that summer and took a new vote that was close but not close enough.  The reason for the vote against me was that I would be a risk.  That meeting broke the open meeting law, so my attorney brought this case to the district court who then sent it to the NE Supreme Court.  It was such an interesting case that it was chosen to be presented to the Creighton Law students.  I was able to take the day off from teaching since now at Kiewitt Middle school for Millard.  My attorney presented the case and all the law students had to take notes and discuss the case.

      I did not have to pay anything for my attorney due to the fact that the parents that supported me were still paying him.  He was asking for back pay, fees, and my job back, that I really did not want due to the fact that I was now teaching for Millard.  The Supreme Court ruled the year I was to begin at Millard Young Adult Program in 2000.  They said that since I was a probational teacher the district had the right to not rehire me.  That is what can happen as a three year teacher with a district. I believe that is a good law, you don’t want to get stuck with some crazy, pervert teacher and can’t get rid of him or her.   Back to I was a risk, I had taught a year as a sub at Swanson, two years at Oakdale, and one at Westside Middle. That is four years not three. The district broke some kind of a law having me sub a year and not get paid like a teacher.  Of course I did not say anything back then. I also did not belong to the union. 

     Westside tried to talk me out of the hearing in the first place, but I needed to clear my name.  Sure I was fearful, but my teaching career was at stake.  It was amazing how many Christian parents who had students at Oakdale came forward to tell me that they were praying for me and some even sent flowers.  I am so glad that I was not accused of doing something even worse.  That student that accused me of yelling, accused her special needs adult neighbor of talking her into going to his room to look at a puppy. He then raped her.  He was arrested the night of my hearing, but later released.  Plus the student was at school the next day like nothing had happen, but she sure had gotten lot of attention.  I later ran into that student who was now in high school at one of the student’s funeral.  I told her Hi, and I hope she was still writing, since she was a great writer back and story teller back when she was in 6^th grade.  I really did not say story teller, but should of.  She refused to answer me or give me eye contact.   The student whose funeral we were attending, was left to die in a drinking and driving car accident that his so called friend who was drunk ran off and left him.  I remember discussing with his parents back in 6^th grade that I was seeing a behavior change due to negative peer pressure.  More funerals followed, one was a suicide for a student that I tutored.  I am sure there will be more to attend.

Tutoring  

   I also did tutoring in my home for years during the summer months and on weekends.  We worked on the various skills that the students need to survive in the public school system.  With the older students we worked on what I call learning strategies; how to take notes, how to take tests, how to write papers, etc.  Younger ones we worked on the basics of learning to read, write, spell, and math.

Teaching for Millard

     I went back to subbing in 97 but only for Millard.  I am so glad that I was not teaching that school year, since that was the year that my dad found out he had cancer and then died. I spent a lot of travel time visiting him in KC and helping my mom out in Pierce City,Mo.  This whole Westside thing was God working to get me out of Westside and into Millard.  Amazing how He works in our lives.  At the time we do not realize it, but when looking back we see how much He loves us and wants the best for His children. 

     I did a long term for a teacher who had a baby at Kiewitt Middle School in 98.  She decided not to come back the next year, so I taught Resource during the 99/2000  school year.  She then changes her mind and wants to come back to Kiewitt for the 2000/01 year.  I had accepted a transfer to the Young Adult Program at Echo Hills.  A few months later I get a call from Kiewitt to come back and teach for them, since that teacher took a transfer to high school.  They called just in case I did not like the YAP.  I said no, that I loved the YAP. I was teaching students ages 18-21 with special needs and behavioral problems.  I did not have a high school student teaching experience, so back to UNO to do student teaching in my own classroom under the supervision of Aline  Jones, who I taught with up until her retirement a few years ago.   Then on to UNL to get a Specialist Degree in Transition ages 18-21.   Now I am going to take a little break and do the math.  How many years did I teach at the YAP?  Started the school year of 2000 retired in May 2013 minus the year of sick leave, so that is 12 years. 

Young Adult Program

      I have to say it again, I loved teaching at the Young Adult Program.  I knew I would and did not have to interview for this position back in 2000.    I had been working for Martin Luther groups homes for adults with special needs for a few years when not teaching and during the summers.  I would be teaching some of the same skills, like independent living, job, social, academic, etc.  I started the YAP in a house with two teachers and maybe 10 students.  When I retired we had a building next to Central Middle school and an off site Voc Center.  We now had four teachers and many paras, with up to 50-60 students.  We had a great program, but this did take a lot of time, summer hours, weekend, and long nights at school to have a great program like the YAP.  How do I know this?  It is because my students are out there working and keeping their jobs, which is the major goal of our program.

      One student Jen O is doing a super job working at HyVee and has matured to an adult who loves writing poetry, reading, and traveling.  Another one Dan G. has kept his job at Wal Mart and has also matured into a responsible adult.  He is saving his money to buy a dryer for his mom.    Julie G.  I told you I was going to write about you.  You also are now an adult: hanging out with your BFF Liz, chatting on Facebook, going to camp, getting foot surgery, and playing ball in your wheel chair that allows you to position it to standing position.  Yes, Julie G. you always have a smile on your face along with Jen W. who is Jen O. BFF who is also has a beautiful smile and spirit.  I could go on and on about how proud I am of my YAP students.  I need to stop naming students, so if you are reading this and did not see your name, I did not forget you.  I know what you are doing, and what you like since I see you on Facebook.  I love how you are still friends, some of you are dating each other and doing things together and NOT being a couch potato.  If you are reading this and are still a couch potato, call a friend or get a job.  Maybe even take a break from video games and clean up your room or surprise mom with making dinner.  Miss you all, I have you in my prayers and memories.

Some final thoughts

     As I think back, I loved teaching every grade level.  If it was preschool, I found myself saying.  “I love teaching preschool.”  2^nd grade, same thing, middle school, same thing, subbing same thing, I love subbing.  Every day is something different, never knowing what to expect.  Some days I did not even know the curriculum, like when teaching high school welding, computers, foreign language, and the dreaded upper level math classes.  Thank you Lord for teachers who left answers to the assignments and plans.  I learned to enter the classrooms and act like I knew what I was doing.  While subbing once for a PE class for an OPS middle school, the plans were for the students to play soccer.  I had never seen a soccer game in my life and had no idea how many balls to bring out.  I grabbed my whistle that I carried in my subbing bag and went out to introduce myself and help them play soccer.  I will admit that I had major troubles taking role call for some of the different names I came across.  Jesus is not the way I thought it was pronounced.

     Teaching is a lot of hard work and a big time commitment.  Did I mention the stress and the damage it can do to the body?  Cost of education? meetings, paperwork.?  I must think of the positive, the changing of lives, the growth and maturity, changes in behavior for the better, learning and using of social skills, being a role model, learning the curriculum, applying job skills,  friendships, etc.

     I have to end with stressing how much I love my new teaching position of being a GRANDMA to Jocelyn, Katelyn, Easton, and Weston.  I can’t forget that MOM teaching thing that continues even when grown.  Love you Angie and Julie.  This teaching thing does not work with husbands.  Pat does not want to hear about the sugar and wasted calories in the donut that he ate at church this morning.  He also does not want to hear my lecture on “wants and needs” when he is spending money.  Thanks Pat for putting up with me during my crazy teaching career and our future years together.  Love you!

My Father's Day Blog

                                           My father, Richard Bedrosky with one of his pigeons.

     My father Richard (Dick)Charles Bedrosky was born on 3-18-29 in Omaha at St. Catherine’s Hospital.  His father was Felix Bedrosky but went by Phil Boyd was 23.  He was born in Poland and was a laborer when Richard was born.  Dick and Deloris my mother later cared for Phil in his last years when they lived in West Branson.  On Richard’s baptism records his name is Richard Carolus Biodrowski. His father Felix Biodrowski and mother Emily Hladik. (correct spelling this time).  Richard’s birth certificate states his mother was Emily Headik(spelling was wrong Hladik) and she was a housewife and was 19. I was told that Dick spelled his name Bedrosky due to a misspelling on his birth certificate.  His father Felix Bedrosky was listed on his birth certificate.  She later married John Lucid (1906-1970) and went by the name Emily Lucid. Richard had one brother William “Bill” Bidrowski (1934-2009)  Dick grew up at 2733 S.11^th  .

  Richard died of Lymphoma cancer on 9-11-97.  He has a grave stone site at Evergreen in Omaha with Deloris but his ashes are in a in a columbarium building east on the hill.  Deloris had requested his ashes be buried with her.  This did not happen at her death on 2-12-14.  

     Richard and Deloris were married on 7-28-51 at St. Frances Cabrini formerly St. Philomen’s in Omaha.  Richard built a house for his family on  A St. up from 48^th on the west side of the street. They had four children Rene Juanita(7-1-52), Nannette Kay (3-9-54) David Richard (3-9-55 to 12-5-12), and Gary James (2-6-56) I married Pat McQuinn 2-2-74, David married Catherine, (DeDee) Parsons 3-18-78, and Gary married Carol Becic 6-18-94.  Dick and Deloris had five granddaughters, Angela McQuinn (3-3-77), Theresa Bedrosky (11-19-78), Julie McQuinn (1-23-79), Rachel Bedrosky (3-21-95) and her last grandchild Jessica Bedrosky (6-3-98). 

      My parents moved to 1403 Elm in Omaha when I was in 2^nd grade.  They owned that house until sometime in the late 90’s.  They rented a building in the Old Market at 1208 Howard  and called the art gallery Chezar 11.  On 1-18-95 there was a fire in Deloris’ art gallery, so they rented out the house on Elm and moved to West Branson, MO.  They rented a building on a major intersection and called the shop Lost Silver Mine Jewelry.  Then they moved to Pierce City Mo, 111 E Commercial St. That place was called Ariels Gallery.  They paid $10,000 for that building.  My dad went along with my mother’s many travels and adventures.  I never heard him complain about this new or old thing that she would do.  Most things dealt with her desire to be an artist and sell her art work.  They loved each other very much, even when yelling at each other.  Yes a few times my father would sit his coffee on the dashboard and take off meanwhile the coffee is spilled all over my mother.  I think the coffee holder was too full of trash from their travels.  My mother was not known for her cleaning skills.  She hired me to come to her various places like the old market, Elm St house, and the Pierce City building to clean and organize.   She paid me off in her art work.  I have a great collection that my grandkids will receive in the future.

      Richard died on 9-11-97 In a Kansas City, MO VA hospital. His death certificate lists Sepsis, over whelming penohnitis due to lymphoma, acute renal failure. He died of cancer.  We went to Pierce City in July to visit and my dad was fine then.  They had been to Omaha for Julie’s graduation.  I remember my mom saying that she did not paint during this time due to taking care of my dad.  They did not have health insurance and my dad would have to get his care in KC at the VA hospital.  He was in the KC hospital for a short time.  I can remember making a trip or two there to visit him.  On my last trip he did not look very good.  He was very full of fluids.  We were planning on another trip to KC on Sept. 11 but got the news that he had died.  We then went to the hospital to be with the McQuinn’s since Ross my nephew was in critical condition due to a truck accident. Ross died later that day.  He was a senior at Millard South.  Two back to back funerals that following week is something I never want to repeat.

      Deloris lived in Pierce City until her stroke in the winter of 2000 and went to a nursing home in Springfield, Mo.  She was moved to Douglas County Care Center in Omaha 4/2001 and lived there until her death on 2-12-14.

     My dad was in the army during the early 50’s .  He was on leave for their marriage on 7-28- 51 and he was in Germany when I was born 7-1-52.  He was home for my sister’s birth in March of 54.  He was in an Army picture dated Oct 1951.  CO G 109 inf. Rect-28 Division, camp Atterbury, Indiana Oct. 1951 is what is on the photo.  I did find out that the 28^th Infantry Division was ordered into active federal service Sept. 5 1950 following the outbreak of the Korean War.  The Division re-opened the mothballed Camp Atterbury, Indiana and remained there from Sept 13, 1950 to Nov 23,1951.  It was sent to Germany to augment NATO forces in Germany.  During the Korean War, the 28^th was mobilized and deployed to Europe as a part of the NATO command defending Western Europe from the threat of Soviet attack and remained on federal service until May 22, 1954. Info from Wikipedia.org. 

      It sounds like my parents married due to the fact that my dad was being sent to Germany.  My dad would talk about returning to Germany someday but never did.  He did attend the reunions that his company had.  He communicated by mail with those in Germany that raised pigeons like he did. I remember him trying to find someone to translate his letters written in German.  I think that was his tie to Germany and why he loved pigeons so much.  I still have two of the treasures that he brought back from Germany.  One is my birth necklace a ruby set in silver.  Later I found out it was not a real ruby.  I also have in my living room a pair of white pigeons.  Can’t believe they have not broken throughout all the years of babysitting kids, my children, grandchildren, and Pat.  

 
     My dad could build and fix most things.  He was a self-employed carpenter contractor.  In his younger years, he worked for Burlington Railroad as a mailbag handler.  Not sure how many years he did that.  My memories are my dad working as a carpenter.  He built our first home on A St., rebuild the one on Elm St, that one had an outhouse when we first moved in, and repaired and remolded their home in Pierce City.  My dad had a lot of various carpenter jobs.  When he worked for older ladies, he would come home with meals that they had cooked for his family.  He did work on Packers National bank that was on 24^th St in downtown South Omaha.  That job provided a steady income coming in.  He also worked for a convent for nuns that could not leave or talk with the outside world.  My dad could also do plumbing, electrical, framing, drywall, design, and other things.  He was not a fast worker because a job had to be just right or it was redone.  My mother called him a perfectionist.  It took him forever to finish the house on Elm, my mother would complain.  He was tired from doing others remodeling work.  So he did not have time to do the work around the house that my mother wanted him to do.  We lived with studs for walls until he had time to cover with drywall.  It may have been years living like that.  I still have a huge gray dresser that he built in my basement that holds all the things that I am saving that I do not need to save.  Jocelyn loves going down and looking through the drawers for craft projects that she can make.

     My dad did not graduate from high school.  I don’t ever remember him talking about school.  He did attend St.Wenceslasus School for grade school.  I have a picture of him in a class photo with a cap and gown on.  It could have been an 8^th grade graduation picture but the students look like teens.  The picture is not dated.  My dad was not the school/book type.  He was of that generation that learned a trade and worked with their hands. He was of the generation that served their country and provided for their family with hard work. 

     We never took vacations, but would go out to my great aunt’s cabin which was along a river south of Omaha which I think was the Platte.   We called her Auntie.  He enjoyed going there for some R&R.  I don’t remember him fishing but just sitting around with his family and of course eating.  My dad loved his steaks and potatoes.  Not a pasta kind of guy, but did love the pork, dumplings and sauerkraut that his mom would make every weekend for him, along with sweets treats of all kinds.  We kids would take turns walking to my grandma’s to pickup our Sat. meals and then helping ourselves to the sweet treats along the way.  We already had treats while visiting with Grandma Em as we called her. I loved the apricot kolaches the best along with the red velvet cake with the best frosting ever.  No canned frosting for my Grandma.  I know they did not have that nasty frosting back in the day.  

     My dad had a stroke after I left home and was married.  I can’t remember the year but it was sometime in the mid 70’s.  He was in the VA hospital for awhile.  The stroke left one side of his body weaker than the other.  His speech was also affected and had a hard time expressing his thoughts.  He also would lose his temper with my mother.  He had his stroke while working on a roof job with one of my brothers.  He often took them on jobs with him, and they learned various job skills from him.  Yes strokes run in my family.  My dad, mother, brother, and myself all have had major strokes.   I really think our bodies can’t handle the processed foods, salt and sugar that causes the high blood pressure.  When I eat right and exercise the blood pressure is normal.

      For many years my dad drove a cargo type van that was covered with candy pictures because the previous owner had been a candy salesman. He got tired of the pictures and children asking for candy, so he problem solved and covered up the pictures with spray paint.  In his later years he had a blue pickup truck with a camper shell until his death.  I only remember him owning those two work vehicles.  My parents would travel and then sleep in the back on a mattress.

     My dad loved living in MO and traveling the Ozark area.  He walked his dog Feathers every night around the block in Pierce City.  He raised fancy pigeons and showed them at fairs, or sold them.  He built a huge pigeon pen on Elm Street, and had a little one in Pierce City. He enjoyed visiting and communicating with other pigeon breeders.  He enjoyed reading pigeon magazines and showing them.   Feathers was a black and white Shih Tzu and before that he had Jenny a cream colored dog that had belonged to his father Phil.  When he lived on Elm Street he had a dog called Mookie that was a black Pekingese and a large dog named Rolly.   

     He and my mother would come to Omaha and stay for awhile in my basement.  They loved visiting with the grandchildren and watching them grow up. The grandkids came to visit MO on holidays and in the summer.   The Pierce City building only had a window air conditioner and ceiling fans to stay cool during the hot summer weather in MO.   Dick kept busy working on various remolding projects on the building in Pierce City.  He and Kent Anderson ( kind of a foster brother) remodeled the 1^st floor into an art gallery for Deloris.  She did her painting down there and sold things such as jewelry, crystals, books, and art work.  The building was on main street with a grocery store next door, and an art gallery across the street with antique stores up and down the street.  

     My dad and mother was what I call hoarders.  He collected construction items for future projects and had so many tools and other things.  He would haul home old things from a thrift store that the store did not want.  When I and my daughter Julie closed down the building we found many vacuum cleaners and phones.  Not sure if he thought he could fix them, or use them.  We had an estate sale and gave away many items.  We also made trips during the night to the local thrift store to drop off my parent’s treasures.  We saved and stored household items for my mother for when she got better after her first stoke in 2000.  She never did need the items, since she lived in a nursing home until her death.  The building in Pierce City is no longer standing.  A tornado struck it later after we moved her to Omaha.  Their house on Elm St is no longer there.  Eating places, gas stations are on that area now.  My Grandma Em's place is still standing on 11th St.  My brother Gary and his family live there.  They do not have to use an outhouse or bucket in the house like my grandma did.  I did not have any sleep overs at my grandma's due to maybe that fact of having to use an outhouse.

      I could look out my bedroom window and see the stadium lights on during the summer months and hear the games being called.  Late at night I might even hear a roar of a lion calling out, “build this Riverview park zoo into a world class top zoo, please.”  This area of south Omaha was a great place to grow up in. We had many places to walk to and visit and hang out in back in the day.  We had fields to play and roam in.  In the later teen years we ever had a dump to explore in.  We called it a dump, but the city called it a landfill that kept getting closer and closer to the backyard.  My brothers got very good with guns and could shoot and kill as many rats that they wanted.  I remember the dump catching fire one year and it burned and burned for months.  I remember one of my brothers telling the story that they thought that dad started the fire because he was so mad about the dump.  Back then we could burn our trash in a barrel in our back yard, so maybe it was true.  

     Yes, I had a great childhood due to a loving dad and mother, and other family members.  My dad was not the kind of dad that would say “ I love you.”  But then, I was not the daughter that said it either, when I was younger.  We knew that he did love us and would do everything in his power to provide food, clothing, and shelter for his family.  We did not need vacations, RV’s, trips to Disney Land, allowances for spending money, eating out, movies, more than one black and white tv, no video games back then or I would have said that. Or the many other ways that parents spoil their children with now days.  We did have a father’s love.