Hectic Holiday or Holiday Hum Drum...

So the holidays bring on plenty of stress without having a teenager in the house.  But, the years of middle school mayhem are inevitable....
So,here is some basic survival information about teenagers, middle schools, and the holidays.
1.  Gift Giving --if young teenagers are involved in a relationship, the questions of appropriate gifts come to the surface.  Is it too early for jewelry, what clothing items are appropriate (no lingerie), what if you buy a gift for person that you care for, but the feelings are unappreciated.  Some tips about appropriate gift buying in middle school include:  Stay within your price range, look for subtle hints about what your boy/girlfriend likes, and start slow (no diamonds engagement rings in 7th grade, and yes it has happened)(http://www.wikihow.com/Pick-the-Perfect-Gift-for-Your-Boyfriend-or-Girlfriend-in-Middle-School)

               


2.  School Break--While teachers are counting down the number of days between and Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation (13 days from today for those of you who are wondering! but I am not counting or anything like that).  Any....way, the issue at hand here is that schools provide a lot of consistency for students.  It is the place that students spend time with their friends, eat two of their three meals during the day, and make connections with their teachers and staff members.  During the winter break, depending on what day those holidays fall, some schools can be out for an entire two weeks.  (Teachers unfortunately have to stay at home as well :)  you can't teach when the students are there, oh darn!  For some students, this means a break in consistency and structure.  The greater majority of students do well with structure and consistency, and they is the true reason why so many are really ready to return to school when the January winds begin to blow.  There are some great tips of things to do with your students all over the internet.  It is a google search that will be outdone before the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve.  But, if that is too much work, here are few quick tips:  have a regular mealtime during break just like at school (it helps to keep the routine), build in time during each day for learning or hands on activities (video games do not count here!), try to maintain a regular bedtime (even if it is later than a usual school night).                            

3.  Keep up with the Jones'--or the Smith's, or the Tyler's or the Johnson's, or whomever your student's best friend's last name during this holiday season.  After opening presents during your particular holiday season, the second best thing is finding out what everyone else got.  Social Media makes this process faster and easier for teens to click away during the ceremonial gift giving process.  However, it also makes it worse for those students that don't receive gifts that are up to par with the rest of the social group to which they belong.  So, how do we tackle this dreadful and age old problem of  "I got better gifts than you"?  Simply by giving!! Make the focus of your holiday about giving instead of receiving.  Let's be the people that change
"I got better gifts than you" to "I gave gifts, did you?"
Finally remember, most of all, to make memories with your students.  Before long, you will be wishing them back into these years of middle school mayhem.  You will long for the fights in the kitchen, the laughter in the living room, and the scamper of feet on these cold winter mornings as they quickly fade back to the school schedule in January!!!
  

Wishing you and yours the best of holiday seasons of whichever you choose to celebrate.  Celebrate it with love, with family, and with laughter!!!! 

Lean on Me....

Sometimes in our lives
We all have pain, we all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there's always tomorrow

Lean on me when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need somebody to lean on

These are lyrics from one of my favorite songs--"Lean on Me".  And they are perfect for the topic that has been on my mind most of this week.  

It has become blatantly obvious how easy it is for me to take for granted the simple things that I have at my disposal everyday.  Access to healthcare, medication, healthy children, and family support seemed to at the top of the list throughout the week.  

I hadn't really taken into consideration how fortunate it was for me to be able to understand each person that I encounter every day.  When I walk into a hospital seeking medical attention for my children, I have no problem communicating my needs or problems to the nurses and doctors.  In an eye opening experience this week, I realized it is a luxury that I take for granted.  Not being able to tell someone how my child is hurting or not understanding what a doctor is telling me would be so frustrating when my child needs help.  As parents we just want the best for our children, and when our children are in crisis, anything that prevents us from getting help for our children just escalates the crisis even more.  

To complicate the matters, how do you know where to schedule your medical appointments.  Could you go to France and find a dentist?  Could you go to Mexico and find a doctor?  These are all daily tasks  fluent English speaking people just go into naturally in this country because they are just basic daily activities.  

All of this is a long round about way to say that I think we need to help people be more aware of what resources are available in our communities.  United Way has a great way to start.  2-1-1!  If you dial 2-1-1, you will be connected to an agent to help get you connected to services in your community.  These services range from Basic Human Needs, Physical and Mental Health Resources, Work Initiatives, Support for Seniors, Children, Youth, Families, and People with Disabilities, and  Volunteering opportunities!  This would have been a great resource for the family in need of translation services.  Helping that family getting hooked into their community and finding local resources for medical care for their children will increase school attendance, improve the students self esteem, and increase grade performance.  

We all need someone to lean on in a time of crisis, new communities, and unfamiliar territories.  Who can you lean on to help you through those rough times?  But, more importantly, who can lean on you???

Good Grief...

There are plenty of things that parents expect to happen during the three years of middle school.  Puberty, parties, and painful trips to the mall to name a few!  While middle school has become a rite of passage for the generation that we are serving now, there are some experiences that we would prefer they did without.  And Grief would be at the top of that list.  Losing parents, classmates or even teachers just isn't what comes to mind when you think of sending your student off to school each day. Unfortunately, there are way too many students having to experience these intense emotions during one of the most difficult physical transitions of their lives.  While the body is already sending them on an emotional and hormonal roller coaster, a significant loss serves to complicate the process even more.
Grief is a natural process that everyone goes through, but, as with many other emotions, adults complicate the process with other emotions like pride, anger and ego.  Helping a child to process their grief while the adult is also grieving can be a difficult as well.
While most of the blogs that I have been focusing on have been discussing the trials and tribulations of the interactions of middle school students, the number of middle school students grieving the loss of a loved one has crept up and become a prominent part of my weekly schedule.
Many of these students are trying to make sense of their new life and sudden loss all while trying to understand this new body they are living in and find out who they really are.
Luckily for these parents and families, there are some great resources out there.  My go to book for grieving children is "When Children Grieve" by John W. James and Russell Friedman.  I came upon this book at the recommendation of my favorite pastor.  She recommended that I read it to process some of my own unresolved grief issues.  After I finished reading the copy that she loaned me, I knew I would have to have my own copy for future reference.  And refer to it I have, on a very regular basis I will add.

One of the best pieces of advise this book offers is to let the child grieve in their own way.  While adults can model appropriate ways to grieve, allow each child to grieve in the way they see fit.  Younger students will grieve in a simple and uncomplicated manor.  Adults let emotions, guilt, anger and pride get in the way of processing the true emotions of our grief.  An important thing to keep in mind for your child is to model the grieving process and not hide it from them. Grief is a natural part of our human existence.  Acknowledging that you are struggling and sad gives your child permission to acknowledge their own feelings.  There are many ways for adolescents to process through their feelings of grief and loss, and they don't have to look like a group counseling session in your living room.  Sometimes it means looking through old pictures, remembering old times, or reminiscing about your favorite memory of the person who is now gone.  All these activities help the healing process and validate the students feeling of loss.  While the adolescents are looking to discover who they are about to become, working through their grief and loss can help them to remember who they were!

8 things all girls should have...

This entire blog post is about a fantastic list that I found on my Twitter account.  http://funnzoo.com/site/post/502

The thing I like most about this list is that it is not a list of materialist things that you purchase at high end salons or fashion boutiques.  These items are begotten, they are earned , they are achieved.  Young women (and men for that matter) are looking for affiliation and inclusion in their social groups through their sense of style and personality.  What this list expresses to young adults is the most important thing that you can put on everyday is what ever makes you feel your best.  

Take the example of the perfume.  When I was in high school, I always wore Liz Claibourne perfume that came in a yellow triangle bottle.  ( I understand that you young peeps have no idea about this product, but it was the rage, I promise).  Anyway, if there was another girl who wore that specific fragrance, she may encounter a comment such as "Oh, that is Sara's favorite".  Which rarely was taken very kindly by the person on the receiving end.  But, that fragrance was as known to me as my red hair--inseparable.  And , I never left home without it.  More importantly than the actual fragrance or the type of bottle it came in, was how that made me feel.  I loved the compliments that I received when I wore that fragrance, and I loved how I felt when I wore it.  I felt beautiful.  Now, at the beginning of the post, I said you couldn't purchase the items on this list, they had to been earned.  You technically can purchase perfume, bracelets, and sunglasses to give you that look or scent that makes you, you.  But the real point here is about becoming the person that you want to be.  With the attributes on this list, making friends and the social awkwardness of middle school mayhem will fall away.  

That is what this list is trying to do for young people.  Help them find the things to make them feel beautiful, make them feel strong, make them feel empowered, and make them feel powerful.  

Challenging Changes...

We are well into the school year and the rumor mills are turning faster than windmill in Western KS.  (a joke most students won't get :) )  I knew that this would be part of the job when I moved to the middle school population, but what I didn't count on was how constant and complicated the problems would get.  Tangled webs is an understatement compared to what some of the middle school students are able to create here.  If these students spent half of the energy on their classwork as they do on these rumors and deceitful comments, we would have a school full of scholars. 
The teasing and the rude comments are hard enough when you are in middle school, and they lead to attendance problems all across the country.  However, the deceitful comments and straight out lies about the other students are the problems that are causing the greatest difficulty for many of the students.  There are students having to choose sides and pick between friends when the story doesn't have any truth to it in the first place.  Does anyone else remember playing the telephone game when they were in elementary school or at sleep overs?  You remember the game, where you sit in a circle and someone says something crazy, but they can only say it one time.  The next person has to repeat the sentence as they heard it, and so it goes.  Those are the politics of middle school.
Re-reading over the last several blogs, it is a wonder that any of us survived middle school at all.  But times are different now.  Social media is making middle school a different game altogether.  The best analogy I can come up with is that when we were kids we shopped with cash, and now our kids are shopping with debit cards.
Not that what we did was wrong, or what our kids are doing is wrong either.  It is just different.  A saying from my old school was "What we know today, doesn't make yesterday wrong, it makes tomorrow better".



With that information in hand, parents we have to start arming ourselves with the same information that our kids have.  We need to educate ourselves on the social media forms that you are kids are using.  We need to know how to use their forms of technology so that we can monitor and supervise them with an educated mind.
Parents, we can not control every aspect of our student's lives (trust me I have tried, and they are very resistant to that process).  However, we can continue to have informed conversations with our students.  I am not talking about the hard conversations about sex, drugs, and violence.  I am talking about everyday conversations about how their friends are doing, where they are going, and how they are spending their time on their devices.  Have your student teach you the latest and greatest new social media craze.  What a great way to empower a child, learn a new skill, and develop your relationship.  Who said middle school had to be all bad?

...And there is more

It is so strange how some things happen, but one of my co-workers (Thanks Michele!) sent me article that I felt had to be shared.  I am working really  hard to make sure that I blog each week, but this one really couldn't wait.

In Middle School, I frequently get confronted by students stating that they have been bullied. Bullying is the new buzz word.  But this article does a great job of talking about the differences in rude behavior, mean behavior, and bullying behavior.  I couldn't have said it better myself.  Take the time to read and review with your student.  

Rude vs. Mean vs. Bullying

Girls vs. Boys, there is a difference!

We have surely all heard of the school yard bully that took lunch money from the scrawny little kid in a alley on the way to school.  When we discuss bullying that is the image that comes to mind for many of us.  But unfortunately, bullying has taken on many different forms and fashions here in the fourteenth year of the twenty-first century.
The thing that is becoming glaringly apparent is that boys and girls both participate in bullying, but they do so in a very different way.  Boys tend to play out the physical aspects of bullying: fighting,  taking lunch money, and teaming up against one kid. Girls are another story entirely.  They can be downright evil with their behavior.  Now, before everyone starts getting mad at me, I am not saying that girls are evil. (In fact, some of my favorite people are the girls). It is some of their behaviors that are evil.  Relational aggression is the term being used to define girl bullying.  This term is more accurate than bullying because girls use their RELATIONSHIPS to gain power over others.  Some examples of this include exclusion, spreading rumors, and reveling secrets.  Girls can be cruel and demeaning with their behavior.  This relational aggression is what keeps my door revolving during the school day.  "...This person said this about me, and now my best friend doesn't like me anymore."  "Why does my friend believe those rumors when they know that they aren't true?"  And so goes the angst of the middle school mayhem.
So, why have I gone of this little tyrant telling you about the difference between girl and boys and their bullying styles?  Great question!!  My sole intention is to let everyone know that bullying no longer fits in a neat little box like it used to when Ralphy was walking home from school in "The Christmas Story" facing his school yard bully.



Bullying takes on the face of the girls in the movie mean girls.



Anyone can be bully, and anyone can be a target.  Our next steps are teaching our students resiliency and how to handle the bullying behavior.  While we can not prevent our students from becoming a target, we can prevent them from becoming a victim!  

Social Media Madness

It has only been three weeks since the start of school and already things have returned to the normal motion of the mid-year mayhem.  What do you think we have to thank for this constant chaos?  Of course, it is the silly social media networking sites!  Facebook, twitter, instagram and snapchat were all great ideas when there were created, and the majority of their content and intent is great.  However, it is when the intent takes the content and uses the power for evil that it creates total turmoil in the middle school building for the better part of the school week.
School counselors can site example after example of students whose lives are turned upside down because of these media sites.  A simple text conversation they were having with a friend is screen shot and shared with the masses.  The intent of the original conversation is twisted and distorted until the real meaning is lost in translation like the telephone game played at elementary sleep overs.  Numerous hours of academic classes are lost due to students refusing to come to school, talking with counselors, or just skipping classes.  Theses students fall behind in their classwork and become segregated from their peer groups as their situations increase the anxiety until the next incident of teenage drama comes along.  Fortunately for some of these students, it only takes a week or two.  For others, it is months of alienation and seclusion by their peer groups.

So, what do we do about it?  COMMUNICATE, Communicate, communicate!!!  Check your students phones, computers, and ipads.  I know that student privacy is a sticky subject with many adults, but I am going to get on the soapbox here and stand up for the adults for a change.  You own everything the student has, and it is better to check it early and often, then find out too late to do anything.  Ask any parent of a student who has lost a child to suicide.  I am almost positive they will tell you to check.  Parents, talk to your students, and then check to verify.  It doesn't mean you don't believe them, it just means that you care about them.  Parents, you have to have their back. If they can fool you, then who do they have to count on when life really gets hard....like HIGH SCHOOL!

The Bullying begins...

The school year is underway. Students are starting to settle into their routine, and parents are relieved to have their days filled and nights with homework again. But along with the school hours come the angst of middle school. Our school was not even through the first week before the bullying, backstabbing, and bickering began. As parents it can be very difficult to watch your child go to school every day knowing they are facing a bully at school. So, it is time to define bullying behavior and how parents can help at home.

The Bullying word is the new hot topic. Anytime a student uses the Bullying word, all the teachers make a big fuss. However, most of the behaviors happening in the schools do not meet the criteria for Bullying. Bullying Behavior must meet the following three criteria:

1. Behavior must be intended to cause harm (physical or emotional)

2. Behavior must be repetitive

3. Behavior must create a power position between the two parties, or the behavior gives the bully power over the victim.

If the behavior does not meet all of these criteria, then the behavior does not qualify as bullying. Now hold on, I know that I have a lot of people screaming at their computer screens that I seriously do not know what I am talking about. But, let me finish! The behavior may not be bullying, but that does not make it right. It is still hurtful, disruptive and needs to be addressed with the student. For instance, one of the students who came to me discussed behavior that we clearly not repetitive, but we still addressed the behaviors with that student and warned them about what consequences would happen if the behaviors continued. These behaviors need to be and should be addressed as quickly as possible to prevent those behaviors from becoming bullying behaviors.

Parents, there are a lot of great resources all over the internet to help your student with bullying. Here is an article that is a great place to start.

http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_What_Do_About/

The thing I personally like about this particular article is the discussion about making the school your ally. The reality is that your child is at school eight hours a day. Our teachers spend more waking hours with our students than we do. (Some parents may be thankful for that, others may be crying) So, creating a positive working relationship with your child's school is so imperative to helping your student find success at school. Teach your child how to reach out and ask for help at school and who to reach out to. Getting help before the problem gets too big is better than not getting help and getting lost to a bully.

Equal Opportunity Educator???

In two weeks, an entire high school of students will be receiving brand new mini ipads to use for the school year.  The school has chosen to purchase ipads for the students instead of textbooks.  While I can agree that this is the trend of the future, and education technology supports this endeavor, is this really a great idea?

The community has known about this initiative for some time, and there are people on both sides of the fence.  The obvious first response is what is going to happen when one of the ipads is lost or stolen.  Rest assured, that each ipad is equipped with a tracking device.  So, that issue does seem to have been addressed.  What happens when the ipad is damaged or irreparable?  Some parents are stating they are not going to be responsible for the damages, and others are willing to step up and accept the responsibility to replace the product.  But it is unclear as of yet whose responsibility it is to replace said ipad.  The biggest concern that I have with this process is the message that we are sending about what our society expects for the standard of living.   Wireless internet, or any internet at all for that matter, are not a necessary utility.  When we are discussing what priorities are needed to keep a family together, internet service does not come close to the top of the list.  By making these ipads the only method of student learning in their homes, we are telling families that they must make internet service their priority.  While schools could make copies of text books available for those students without internet service to complete their assignments at home, what student is going to acknowledge that in front of their peer group.  That would be similar to acknowledging that they have to get in line for the soup kitchen as well.  (Social stigma at its worst) We wouldn't do it as adults, why would be expect our kids to do it. 

By now, you are saying to yourself, Sara get over it.  These students can go to a relative’s house to use their internet, they can go to the library, or they can go to McDonald's.  There is free Wi-Fi everywhere now-a-days.  And, my response to you would be, really, and how often do you leave your house to use Wi-Fi when your internet is down.  Or do you scream at the computer and disconnect every wire until it comes back on?  Those internet services do exist, but most families without internet are also without transportation and without family resources.  This is the reality that they are living in.  That is the reality that we need to address when we are discussing passing middle class values on poverty stricken individuals and telling them they have to rise to meet a different level of standards that they can't meet.  A friend gave me a great analogy today.  If I gave every student a box cake mix and told them to go home and make a cake, could everyone do it?  NO!!!  Because not every student has water, eggs and oil at home.  Not every student has a working stove or electricity.  And not every student had the access to internet to give them an equal opportunity to learn.  Do you want your student to be afforded the same opportunity?

The place a bully can't go...

Part of middle school is preparing for all of the changes that happen to the body during the normal process of puberty.  There is absolutely no way for any one person to predict exactly how another person's body is going to respond to the hormonal surge. (If I had that answer, I would be a millionaire, and be typing this blog from some Bahaman Hide-away instead of a hotel waiting for training to start!)  One thing that you can be sure of, is that middle school will bring on the ridicule from your friends and not-so-friendly friends as your body does begin to change.  Acne, sweat, clumsiness, facial hair, and breasts are just a few of the joys that come along with the middle school mayhem.  However, the absences of these things can be just as traumatic as their overwhelming presence.  A boy that is too short or too tall and the girl that is too developed or never develops as all can get just as much heckling as the most acne ridden student in the school.  Unfortunately, these forms of hazing are as old as the times.  Until recently, they were considered a right of passage, or something that everyone had to endure in the maturation process. 

The technology era has taken bullying to a new level.  Now, there is no where to escape from their ridicule.  While bullying used to be just in the school yard, it is now in our homes and on our phones.  Students that experience cyberbullying are surrounded by their bullies everywhere they go.  The message is no longer just heard at school, it is spread like wildfire, virally within minutes.  What used to be able to be contained by classroom walls, is now spinning out of control before anyone knows what is happening.  Students are losing their lives in a desperate measure to outrun the bully.   This is the only place that they can feel safe from the bully....in death.  This is the only place where there will be no more pain, no more rumors, no more laughing, and no more exclusion.  This is the place to be free.  This video is only a few of the students who have chosen this path to escape from their bully...

 

It is time for everyone to stand up against bullying.  It is not a one person job; it is an every person job.  Statistically speaking, someone reading this blog will either have a student or know a teacher who has a student who commits suicide this school year due to bullying of some kind.  Will it be one of your students? It will take all of the faculty, all of the students, and all of the community to admit this problem, and address this problem.  Parents will have to recognize the bullying behavior in their own children and stop it.  Teachers will have to believe in students who report bullying behaviors even when they are small.  Students will have to support victims and rise up against bullies.  Give power to the victim or target.  These small steps will be in the right direction.  This is a problem that needs to be acknowledged; this is a problem that needs to be addressed everyday at every school. 

 

Thank you to Joey Thomas for the video.  The song is Wanda's Song by the Readings.  Video can be found on Youtube.  

School Supplies or Coffins

Students are gearing up for the back to school push.  My kids are already counting the number of days until they return to their normal social calendar that summer called a halt to.  But, due to unnecessary violence in the community, one family is selecting a coffin for their son instead of buying school supplies.  There are not words to express enough sympathy or comfort for the parents and family of this young person.  Grief and Loss will soon need to be part of the curriculum in our schools because so many of our students are struggling through this as they try to navigate the nuances of adolescence (like that isn't complicatd enough).
There are so many people out there looking for the answers to fix the problem, and the unfortunate reality is that there is no immediate answer.  There is no quick fix.  It is not one problem that can be eliminated that will restore our society to the days of old when you could sleep with your doors open and  walk down the street without fear.  The problem is complicated, the solution will need to come from many areas, many people, and many levels.  It is not impossible, but it will be HARD!!!  As these students prepare for school, is school violence on your to do list for the first week of school?

Team work at its finest...

In my previous post, I discussed a situation where one of teacher is making the decision to tell her students about her cancer diagnosis.  This is a personal decision, and as stated in that post, the verdict can go either way.  The part that everyone does seem to agree on is that a team approach is the best method to handling this situation and others similar in nature.  Processing this situation and getting ready to tackle this challenge has me thinking about my tip for teachers, staff and all school personnel.

Working together as a team.

No one teacher or person works in a vacuum in their classroom by themselves.  We all have a team of people that we rely on to help make our jobs easier or a little less painful.  These people include the lunch ladies, the custodians, and the secretaries (let's get real--they have all the real secrets and knowledge of the working of the school).  At the end of the day, we vent or cry or celebrate (truly depending on how successful or awful the days activities were).  Staff need to remember that it is okay to lean on these teammates in our time of crisis and need and when we need that little nudge to make it through a bad day.  The teacher facing a new cancer diagnosis is going to need support through these trying times.  It would be easier in a building where relationships are established and bonds forged, but remember half our staff are new to this building and this teacher is one of those staff.    Those deep rooted relationships are not already in place.  The people in our school buildings become our sounding boards, our counselors, our family, and this will likely be no exception.  This middle school community is going to have to rally around one of our own early and often, and I am sure that we are ready to do so.  That is what makes us exceptional at our job.  It is the amount of dedication that we not only delivery to our students on a daily basis, but to the staff that we spend countless waking hours with as well. Our team, our support, our family!

Telling students about Cancer

Our mayhem took a turn to the serious side when we learned that one of the staff members that will be new to the building this fall has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  The research about telling students about their cancer diagnosis goes both ways.  If you take the time to google the topic, the blogs will give you opinions along the entire spectum.  I found an article that focused more on the topic of appropriate disclosure ( http://works.bepress.com/bobeckhart/1/). 

This teacher was smart to inform our staff early so that we can all work together to develop a plan to help her feel more comfortable as we begin the new school year.  The teacher has a positivie up beat attitude and wants the focus of the school year to be on the students and their great experience with middle school. 

I applaud this teacher.  I am not sure that I could have the resolve that she is demonstrating.  I believe that it speaks volumes about her character and personality. 

If this is the advice that we are offering....

I have been thinking about getting ready for this school year, and I ran across this great piece of advice for these middle school students.

This video shows all the horrors that moving to middle school can bring.  Brotherly bad advice, parents not ready to let students grow up, puberty, relationships and so many other fun things to look forward to.  (Maybe I should have thought about this decision to move a middle school a little longer)  Clearly in the next few weeks, I need to come up with a few survival tips for us first timers to make it through the first week.  Here's to hoping that with some planning and communication, we can avoid some of the scenarios from the video.  However, can anyone tell me if these students bite? :)

Welcome to Middle School

Beginning middle school can be an anxious situation for most students.  But, now I am experiencing those feelings along with all of those students as well.  After 20 years in social work, and 10 years in alternative education, this fall I am making the leap to a regular education setting. A middle school with hormones, girl drama, sports programs, and PTAs.  All new things to me, half the staff, and the majority of the students walking through those doors in Mid-August. 
Our district is completing the final steps of a reorganization and transition process.  This fall we will open 6 middle school and 3 high schools with new staff members, new administrators, and new policies and procedures.  So, it seemed like the perfect time for me to jump into the middle school game. 
This blog is going to be my adventure in babysitting, I mean, middle school antics that come our way.  Join me for the ride that will be known as Braces, Bullies, and BFFs, the mischievious middle school mayheim.