I still struggle with balance in all facets of my life. With a husband, kids, a career, and a plethora of extended family, balance is a struggle that can create havoc in all areas. Therefore, I am going to make a conscious effort to become more balanced with everything I do.
Balanced is my #oneword for 2017. A couple of years ago, I started this blog to document the balancing act of Online and offline activities. I cancelled my Facebook account which had consumed me.
I still struggle with balance in all facets of my life. With a husband, kids, a career, and a plethora of extended family, balance is a struggle that can create havoc in all areas. Therefore, I am going to make a conscious effort to become more balanced with everything I do.
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There are many reasons to live in the Paris of the Plains; cost of living, beautiful parks, plenty of space, and Arts that rival larger cities. Kansas City is an ideal location for growing families. However, for the last 30 years, there has been one huge boulder of a problem within its urban core; the Kansas City Missouri School District. Due to the revolving door of superintendents, careless spending, and low test scores, the school district has had a bad reputation for numerous years. In its heyday of the early 1970's, the Kansas City Missouri School District housed a large African-American population with schools that were busting at the seams with students. At that time, most African-American families lived within the urban core and black communities were filled with hard working families. As the school system deteriorated and real estate opportunities began to open for minorities to purchase homes in surrounding suburbs, African-Americans began the mass exodus of leaving the urban core for greener pastures. School districts like Hickman Mills, Raytown, and North Kansas City began to grow exponentially. The golden age of the suburbs brought African-Americans in droves to outlying areas leaving those remaining within the urban core to deal with failing schools, crime, and drugs. Homes within the core were being taken by the city if a home was considered a "drug house". Those homes were later boarded up or demolished leaving entire city blocks full of uninhabited homes. As the city looks to turn the corner by building up its downtown and schools within the core beginning to rebound to accredidation; the inner city of Kansas City has become precious land. LandTrust has gobbled up abandoned properties along with wealthy businessmen to sale homes to gain huge profits. With this growing trend, many "well-to-do" suburbanites are selling their homes for the "urban scheik" city that many African-Americans gave away for pennies on the dollar. I sometimes wonder what would it have been like if our community would have stayed within our own community. Would it have taken 30 years to get our schools back on track? Would Blue Springs win countless football titles and Ray South win countless basketball titles without the help of those student athletes whose families uprooted from the urban core? As I look at my "suburbafied" sons that get disgusted with me everytime I tell them that I am looking to buy a home within the urban core, I wonder if I should have raised them within the city limits. Now my sons did get a top notch public school education but I often wonder if they really got what they needed to be successful in a country who's racial timebomb is ticking. Last school year, I met an intelligent, creative, and capable, 2nd grade black girl. She was inquisitive and wise way beyond her years. I figured from her conversation that she was a young girl that by circumstance, had to deal with some very adult situations. She missed days of school often but would always catch up her work when she returned. In the spring of the year, she walked into my class with her head down. I knew something was wrong as this proud black girl always walked into class with a smile. As the rest of the class entered the room, I pulled her aside to check on her well-being. She began to cry as I asked what her issue was. She told me that this was going to be her last day of school because she was being "put out" of our school by the administration because of her inconsistent attendance. Shaken by the news, I held it together and gave her a hug. I gave her my personal cell phone number and told her that if she ever wanted to talk she could call me anytime. A month or so later, in the middle of the school day, I recieved a call from her. I took the call in the middle class expressing to her how much she was missed and that I would call her after class. We spoke briefly and she told me the name of the new school she was attending. The next school year, I took a new position at the Board of Education in the school district that she was attending. I looked her up only to find out she was at a school that was 2 minute drive from my job. I got the email address of her teacher and I explained to her new teacher who I was and that I would like to come up to the school to have lunch with the student. The teacher thought it was a good idea so I explained to her that I would email her to make sure that the student was at school on the day that I chose to have lunch with her. I went to the school and waited for her to come down the hall. When she saw me, her face lit up like a child who sees all the presents left for them on Christmas morning. We hugged and had lunch in the school cafeteria. I told her that I would come to her school for lunch once a month just to check and see how she was doing. Our once a month lunch dates brings joy to us both. We laugh, sometimes cry, and sometimes we just eat in each others company. There are so many children that just want a trusted adult to communicate with. Sometimes they just want someone to listen. Just think if we all took an hour a month to just hang out with a child to see life through their eyes. It could make an immeasurable difference in the lives of our children. With this being the first day of the year, I implore those who are able to take some time out to just communicate with a child. Leave your electronic devices in your purse or pocket and gaze into their eyes. Let them know that they are special. Happy New Year! This summer of 2015, the weather in Kansas City has been unsettling. Thunderstorm and tornado warnings have become a daily ritual. Thousands have suffered many summer days without power due to the inclement weather. After a huge storm, I went to an IHOP restaurant for breakfast. The restaurant was packed to the gills at 7a.m., which is pretty early for a weekday morning. As I walked in and took my place in the waiting area, I noticed an older caucasian gentleman wearing a LSU tigers t-shirt. Immediately I asked him how he thinks the Tigers were going to do this upcoming season. This one question sparked up a conversation that I will never forget for the rest of my life. The gentleman went into why he thinks the Tigers were going to have a great season and how much he loved Louisiana. He talked about having family there and the southern hospitality that he has experienced which keeps him visiting several times a year. Next he asked if I was an LSU fan and I explained to him that I really am a fan of one of their biiter rivals. We laughed about it when the waitress came up and told him that his table was ready. He asked me to join him for breakfast and I did. Unsure what made me so comfortable with this stranger that I never met but our conversation was chicken soup for the soul. He was a heart surgeon at one of the best heart hospitals in the country. We talked about his career and his family. He was on his way to work on his vacation home that he and his wife were building in a small town a few hours outside of the city. We also talked about my family and career and how family is so important. Three hours later, we decided to part ways as our one day friendship ended. You just never know what life has in store for you. That day, was one of the best ones. It is almost unimaginable how my career has evolved. If I had not lived it, I would not have believed it was possible. I have held many positions in my work career; some I have loved and some I have detested. One thing is for sure , I always believed that I had to love my career in order for me to stick with a career. It's funny when I think back to high school and how I wanted to work at a record store. {For you digital natives, that is a store that sold music on 12 inch pieces of vinyl}. I wanted a job there so bad that I visited the record store everyday after school. I would speak with the manger who made it clear that they were not hiring. I still visited the record store everyday and asked for a job. My persistence paid off in a couple of months once the manager noticed that I was not going to stop coming. I then think back to a position that I held in my 30's where I was making an excellent wage. The job was very interesting and required swift thinking and high paced energy. I was required to work the overnight shift which did not work well for me mentally, physically, or emotionally. I was missing out on raising my children and I was not doing what I loved. Now, I am in my 40's and I finally have found my love. I have taken a position as an Educational Technology Specialist at a Charter School in the inner city of Kansas City. I can't even explain how much I love what I do. Working with children has always been something that I liked to do but when you add teaching technology to the mix, it created the perfect combination. I am physically, mentally, and emotionally challenged everyday to learn and to lead. I couldn't be happier. If you would have told me at this time a year ago that I would have purposefully deactivated my Facebook account for over five months, I would have laughed. Now, as five months has flown by like a seven-forty-seven in the skies, I can't imagine having the idle time to spend on Facebook. Actually, I have been more happier with my personal life without the constant "knowing" of what friends and family are doing in their every day lives at every moment of the day. When I think about how my life would be with Facebook after this year long journey, I think that I may have to spend more time researching how to divide my Facebook account into sections or groups and deciding which group I am in the mood for at that time. For example, I would group family, school friends, work friends, and childhood friends into separate categories. I would then decide on which ones I wanted to follow or communicate with at that time. However, in the mean time I am gonna sit back and enjoy the ride of living my life Facebook Free. Tonight, I was holding a conversation with one of my sons in regards to working hard and how it is important to work hard in everything you do. I told him about this quote by my favorite "active" NBA player, Kevin Durant. Sometimes kids believe that just because they are talented in something, they do not have to work hard at it. Kids fail to realize that their is someone that may be less talented that work harder than they do and have more success. Hard work pays off in the long run.
If you are an educator, you probably are aware of the dark days of February. This is the time of the school year when its cold inside and outside of the classroom, students and teachers struggle with motivation, and tempers begin to flare up like forest fires. This is the the time of year when the adults have to stop and think before speaking to coworkers. Educators have to take that moment to marinate their thoughts. The majority of people in the workplace are there for the children and sometime a quick break can deflect a quick lapse in judgement. Remember to stop and think. A few days ago, I was creating a syllabus for an online course I am designing. After brainstorming, I came up with a plan on how to get the syllabus created. About a month ago, I bought a new laptop/tablet hybrid thingamabob that I was using to create the syllabus. I tried to click on Microsoft Word and realized I had not added the product key. I took a few minutes to get that done when I noticed some changes in Powerpoint. I clicked on the "commercial" to learn more and became mesmerized with this new product. Office Mix is an add-on for Powerpoint that makes your Powerpoint presentations interactive. I was so enthralled by the product that I decided to use it to create my syllabus. Here is a link to my final product https://mix.office.com/watch/qrugrccm13ye |
AuthorAndrea Cook is an ed. technologist striving to achieve a life balance between online and offline activities. Archives
January 2017
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