Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Out with the Old in with the New (and Vaguely Familiar)

I’ve been writing entries for my blog…I just haven’t posted them.  Why?  Pick a reason; too busy to proofread, the holidays are here and I worked myself into a haze of butterball cookies and cheesecake, writer insecurities…really the list is endless.  However here I am itching to write something, or plan something for my students and I remembered; I can do both.  I have the same survey I pass out each year to my student, and this year will be no different. 
But why Shannon?  Why write down resolutions when you know most are broken anyway.  And really what does it accomplish?  Simply put, it’s good to have goals.  It’s good to reflect on your life.  And why not do that during the time of year when everything is changing?  So without further ado…

Name: Mom, Shannon, Mrs. McLoud, Miss Shannon
Favorite Food:  Chocolate…this never changes!
Age:  36 (normally I don’t answer this, but the kids figured it out this year!)
Favorite activity: Reading/writing
Favorite color: Pink!
Favorite book:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Jane Eyre, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird…it changes with my mood.  This is not a fair question! 

Highlights of 2015

Greatest Lesson Learned:
Hmmm…to take a page from Elsa and “Let it Go”.  I have not achieved this, I do from time to time obsess over things.  This year I have learned that when I do let things go, I am happier, and my stress goes way down.  Less stress is a good thing! 

Hardest Thing This Year:
Finding the balance between work and life!  I haven’t achieved this entirely, however I have been doing more work at school, which gives me more time at home to enjoy my family. 

Favorite Memory:
I feel that it’s the same memory every year, but once again yes, the family trip to Disney makes the list!  This year we went for twelve days.  Twelve days in the family bubble, and the icing on the cake was time spent with Dave’s cousin and his family.  The guys didn’t grow up together since they live so far away from one another but you wouldn’t know that when we get together!  It was one of those moments that illustrate the importance of family.  I had a ton of those moments this year, but the Disney trip really illustrated that.

What I Loved About 2015:
Looking back, 2015 was a pretty great year.  There was a lot to love!  Some highlights…
Getting my own classroom!  Last school year I traveled rooms each period, and I found out in August this year that I would have my own classroom!  I was able to decorate it in my geeky glory, and it validated me as an educator.  I FEEL like part of the faculty this year, not just the nomad teacher!

I co-wrote a play that was part of the Providence Fringe Fest-that was an amazing feeling!  And I started writing for a newspaper writing about something I love-theatre.

I also staged a play in the most unlikely of places-a local bookstore.  I was in geek heaven!

Looking Forward to 2016!

Want to Learn:
I always want to learn more effective ways of teaching.  At this point it’s a given, but I feel that I should write it down each year as a constant reminder that I’m not done yet! 

How to have a life while enjoying my career.  I don’t think I realized what a hermit type life I live during the school year, until this week.  I don’t make the time to hang out with friends, or sit and write, or sometimes do laundry.

And yes, cooking is still on the docket.  When my child is frightened when he sees me go to the kitchen, it’s time to learn how to cook!

Want to Get Better At:                                      
Time management and organization.  Every year I think about this, and every year I am optimistic that it will happen.  This year, I’ll be a realist.  I would like to get better at organizing a corner of my life, not my entire life.  And I would like to get better at time management when grades are due!  Baby steps!

Goals for 2016:
Before I make goals, I have to look at last year’s goals.  Did I make them?  After this year’s production of Carol’s Christmas, I can certainly say, with confidence that RTC is growing.  Watching an audience enjoy something that literally takes a village to build, is amazing.  I’m really proud of it.  But there is still much work to be done!

I did NOT run my third 5K.

I did NOT publish my novel.  (Although I did have my students participate in NANOWRIMO so that was amazing!)

So my new goals? 
Certainly to continue making theatre.  It’s time consuming, and stressful at times…but I can’t picture my life without it!

To run a 5K.  I enjoy running.  It helps me think, and obviously it helps me fit into my clothes.  And I haven’t done any running in about six months.  There aren’t any excuses there except that I’m not making the time for it.  And I know you can’t just jump up and run a 5K…so I need to get my butt in gear and return to running!

Publish my novel.  It would be really nice not to see this under my goals next year.  I’m not looking for an agent, in fact I really feel that self-publishing (similar to my plays) is the way to go.  So what am I waiting for?  (Besides a good editor!)  So this is it.  I am going to publish my novel this year.  If it’s in writing it will happen right?  Otherwise I’m going to have to have this picture follow me around.



I can’t just start 2016 with the same goals from last year however, so let’s add to these shall we?

Professionally:  I would like to begin next school year OWNING my position. 

Academically:  I finished my MA in 2015, so you would think academics would no longer be a goal.  However, I wouldn’t mind looking into my NCTE Certification.  And begin to pay off my loans!

Personally:  These are staying the same…run, write, create!

So there you have it….2015.  You were a good year!  Looking forward to 2016 with hope and optimism!


Monday, November 16, 2015

My Dad


I know I post this every year, but it's my yearly tribute in memory of my Dad...

How exactly do you eulogize a man like James Vescera?  He was many things to many people; husband, Dad, father in law, uncle, brother, brother in law, friend.  All roles he performed with the utmost of importance.  I could stand here and tell you what a horrible disease this is, that took my Dad from us far too early, but when I look back on my life, and when I tell stories about him to Brady or any of mine and David’s future children, I will not focus on HD, I’ll focus on all the little things that made my Dad so great.  Like Halloween.  Every Halloween he would put on this ridiculous old guy mask, to take us trick or treating.  Every year.  
I’ll remember the father and daughter dances where he would do what I called his Frankenstein dance, and I would get annoyed.  Not at his lack of dancing ability because as we all know, I can’t dance either, but I would get annoyed that every other Dad at these dances had to come up and talk to my Dad.  Or how every Christmas it was hard to see who was more excited, Jay and myself, or our Dad.  And how much he loved to tease my Mom every year for Christmas or her Birthday with the worst wrapping job known to man.  Or how he would make up little annoying nicknames for my Mom.  How proud he was whenever I was in a play, no matter how bad some of them were.  How he coached my brother’s T-Ball team, and never was the Dad to get ultra competitive, he would just laugh when instead of looking for fly balls Jay was looking for bugs.  How even though he had to take a night job, that was far below his qualifications because he was getting sick, he still took the time to take me out driving so I could learn to drive, which is probably why I can parallel park, and have a huge love for the Doors and Classic rock.  I’ll think of all of our family trips, North Conway where we would cross country ski, go to the Polar Caves, our trip to Disney, Dad loved amusement park rides, and to this day I can’t think of Disney without picturing his face after the Back to the Future ride.  
 I’ll remember the wood car he and my brother made for Boy Scouts one year, he was so proud to have done that.  I’ll never forget how he even designed our house in Scituate, did so much of the construction, the electrical, and even the painstakingly hard job of hardwood floors, plank by plank with my grandfather.  How every Sunday at my Grandparents, we knew if there was a new recipe, Jimmy would like it.  Or how he was teased by his friends earning him the longest nickname in history “Jim V as in Victor e-s-c-e-r-a.”
I’ll remember having chocolate cake or cold pizza sometimes in the morning for breakfast, and how he used to let my friends tease him about his minor beer belly.  
I’ll remember his fabulous sense of humor.  Even at times where most parents would be aggravated, we could say something and he would find humor in the situation.
I’ll remember times where he stood up for what he believed in, when it came to his brother Danny, or Tommy, or even once a friend of mine in Elementary School
I’ll remember how much he loved his grandchildren, Jay and myself, David and Courtney, and my Mom.
I’ll remember how he never once complained about his illness, how he took it on like he took on everything, with courage and strength.

The saying is a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.  After last night and today, it is obvious our Dad had a large heart.  Thank you for loving our Dad.

So, just how do you eulogize a great man like my Dad?  By going out and living like he did, hug your loved ones, never let a minute go by to tell them you love them.  Laugh every day.  Be courageous, strong and above all be selfless.  That is the kind of daily tribute you could all give my Dad.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Don't Read That-It's For GIRLS!

I’m a Mom of a funny, adorable, smart, little boy.  He likes soccer, hockey, the Patriots, Legos, trucks, radio controlled planes, riding his bike, making a mess, art, musicals, and television.  He likes watching cooking shows that feature Bobby Flay, cartoons like Star Wars Rebels, Scooby Doo, Wild Kratts, and yes Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First.  GASP!  Aren’t those shows for girls?  As parents, we have never classified anything as “for boys” or “for girls.”  You like what you like, and that’s the end of it.  There are no “girl colors” and there are no “boy jobs.”  We have done this for two reasons.  One, I don’t want him to feel that there are things he can’t enjoy because he’s a boy, and two, I don’t want him to treat women as if they, and their interests, are inferior.  

I am doing my best to let him make his own choices.
I am doing my best to teach him that men and women are equal.
I am doing my best to not raise a chauvinistic man.

Unfortunately, sometimes the outside world doesn’t help.  Since entering the public school system, my son has come home from time to time asking if something is “girly” and if he is allowed to like something.  When it comes to t.v. shows I explain that they are written by writers, just like Mommy writes plays.  I then ask him if my plays are only for girls, or only for boys.  The answer generally satisfies him and he goes back to doing whatever he was doing.

This week a friend shared an author’s blog on Facebook.  The blog shared was Shannon Hale’s, author of the Princess Academy series.  This is not a series I am familiar with, but after reading her blog, I have to pick up one of her books.  The blog entry that is circulating is about the troubling phenomenon that happens at her appearances, mainly schools.  It seems that when she visits a school, the boys are not invited to the assembly.  Shannon does not write books about the female body, or books that are anti-boy.  Apparently her faux pas is far worse; she uses the word princess is in the title of her books. 

As a society, we seem so worried about how girls perceive themselves.  And rightly so.  I was raised by a mother who constantly told me that only my looks mattered during my most impressionable years.  (Luckily I’ve always been a bit of a rebel and didn’t abide by her backwards school of thought!)  I understand the importance of empowering girls.  I hope I do so as an educator, and if I ever have a daughter, I hope to do so as a mother.  However, it seems that boys get lost in the mix today.  Where is the movement to let our boys know that it is okay to use a pink Easy Bake Oven, or watch a television show that has a girl as the protagonist; or God forbid, a book?  Telling boys that some colors, shows, or books, are not for them and are only for girls teaches them that there is a difference between the sexes and should be treated so.  If we really want to empower girls, let’s tell the boys that it’s okay to like whatever it is that they like.  We often hear of women getting less pay than men, but we start out telling boys that their interests are superior to girls, as long as they don’t share a common ground.  Because when you do, it’s “girlie” and “not for boys” which undeniably sends the message to our impressionable boys that girls, then women, are inferior.


I attached Shannon Hale’s blog.  Her story is a good one.  She made me think, and I bet she’ll make you think as well!  I haven’t blogged in ages, in fact this is the first time I have done so in 2015.  Her words made me jump up and start writing.