HTT - Hair to There and that girl is 39

To think that I've been so busy as to not mention my 39th birthday, which was on the 9th of this month is just plain sad! I went to work that day and my students sang happy birthday to me in every class. Some made me hand made cards and brought me gifts. They are just too sweet!!! We'll I'm well on my way and all is chugging right along this school year. Sixth graders are a unique age group. They are coming into finding their identity and enjoying freedoms middle school provides. They also remind me of how I'm getting older. I consider them my kids because I'm old enough to be their mothers. I think in some ways they think of me as such. Some even tell me that some of the stuff I say is what their mom would say. The mantra is, love your students and they will love you back. I concur. Thank you Dr. Michael Wesch and especially your wife Sarah.

OAN, Jen's got her own updates, she's hopefully posting on her blog soon, but I wanted to post a few pics and discuss this Hair To There or aka, HTT. I must admit, I was used to having other peoples HTT for years, but to have my own has got me really thinking what is this all about. Next month will make 6 yrs of me having Sisterlocks and it has been an amazing 6yrs.




But as my locks grow longer and longer, I can't imagine how ladies who have longer Sisterlocks even manage. I'm curious about those who think having HTT is what this journey is all about. I must admit, I NEVER in a million years would have thought my hair could grow this long, EVER! But, in the same breath, I truly miss having a length that could be shampooed, rolled and styled a lot faster and would last a lot longer. I don't know. I'm curious to hear from those who are on the quest to having their locks grown down their backs. I'll post more later.

Checking in- Back to school teaching Middle School Math

I'm teaching at the same school, Carver Academy. This time I'm teaching only 6th grade math. My children are adorable and most work hard and are eager to please and learn. I decided about two weeks ago to shampoo, condition and bantu my locks. The kids noticed quickly, my new "do". It was so cute, when most of the compliments came from my little AA boys. "Miss E, you look pretty today
...I like your hair...you look really nice today." The girls gave compliments as well, all colors, but to think that adding a little curl made all that whoopla was interesting. The curls came out tight and are still squiggling around now. Jen's promising to help me finish retightening my hair this weekend, so I'm looking forward to another shampoo and set. Maybe this time, I'll try soft spike curls or a braidout. I used setting lotion and stayed under the dryer. I know when I do that after bantuing that the style will last well into two weeks like it has. If I use no setting lotion, I'm lucky if I make it a week. My locks are getting soooo long. It's hard to believe that in 8 weeks, I'll be celebrating 6 years with my Sisterlocks. Amazing! I'll update more after my birthday.

Kalee's getting married!

Jen and I are heading to Houston/Galveston for my god daughter's wedding on Saturday.
The older picture was taken almost 8 years ago when I had my 1st and last two-strand twists. I was so nervous heading home to Houston from Sacramento when I got my hair done. Everyone was used to me having braids in my hair alll the time. Of course three years later I got me some Sisterlocks. More updates when we return. Wish us safe traveling grace, please.

Heading to CAMT in the morning! Plus Teaching Update

I'll be attending CAMT until Friday in Dallas and hope to bring back a lot of useful material to use with my students. I'll be rooming with some other teachers from another district at Hotel Lawrence but the meetings will be at the Sheraton, formally the Adam's Mark. I am thankful the school district's professional development department is helping me attend this much needed math conference. Thank you Dr. H. and WISD!

I realized I hadn't given an update on my students with their 7th Math TAKS test. We made our number, however our school is still rated unacceptable by TEA standards. We didn't meet the standard in another subject/grade level. Even though TEA closed down two of the four schools who were in the same situation as my school, the strides our students made across the board in all other subject areas didn't warrant closing our middle school. Whew! The kids worked really hard. I had only four students get commended, but many were eight or less questions from getting commended. The end of the year was easy breezy because the kids were feeling "so smart" because of their successes. We ended the year on a great note! I did have more than I wanted who failed, but most were to be expected from being a couple of grades below level, poor attendance, behavior, and a sour taste in their mouthes about Math I just couldn't sweeten them up on. I tried my best, and only anticipate more improvement from them next year and years to come.

One of the sweetest memories I'll have from my babies was having a few of them tell me constantly at the beginning of the year, and throughout the year for that matter, that they hated math and didn't understand why they had to do it. Some of those very same students not only passed their math TAKS test, but came to me before school ended and said, "Miss Evans, I used to didn't like math, but I kinda like it now. Thank you."

Well, to add more good news, a few who were over-aged went to accelerated summer school and will be skipped up to the 9th grade, their right grade in the fall. You don't want to know how many over-aged students I had. I think it's an epidemic. Nonetheless, you keep on striving, never giving up.

Not because I intended it or planned it, but by timing beyond my control, I was offered a transfer back to the school I subbed 8th Math/Algebra 1 long term back in the fall of '06. I will not be a grade level math teacher, but primarily focusing on TAKS Math & Reading. It will be a challenging assignment as I will have 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, for both Math and Reading. My biggest concern is that since this is only my 2nd year teaching, I'll be struggling to build up my supplies without having to constantly "borrow" other teachers' supplies.

With that being said, I am doing what I put off doing last year, which is having an "on-line" teacher shower. I'm asking for anyone who wants to "donate" to my supply fund, to do so by either my email address, mymk1070 @ yahoo.com paypal account, or by sending donations directly to the teacher supply places in town The Learning Center. I also find plenty of manipulatives and supplies at Mardel, Office Max and of course Walmart/Sam's. I lived in each of these stores, mostly dreaming of supplies I wished I could buy for my classroom and the kids. I know I gave probably a whole paycheck easily to them last year, cause it was just necessary. I know it will be the same because I'm not "taking" over another teacher's position, with their Math and Reading supplies on the shelf. That very thought scares me. My principal assures me that I can use anything in the "math closet", but for those of you who are teachers, you know that having your "own" TI graphing calculator is not the same as a teacher as "checking" one out. So for those who would like to share in my on-line "teacher shower, please do. I appreciate any help and thank you in advance. Blessings and good night!

So much to do...so little time

I can get a project done. My problem is, I get bored easily and find myself looking into doing something else. I know I have TONS of stuff on my plate (cleaning my house would be #1), however I get easily distracted. For instance, I have soooo many videos from previous lock gatherings that I wanted to upload. See a year or so ago we had this big idea to put something together to send to Oprah, with hopes she'd invite Dr. Cornwell on the show to talk about natural hair, specifically Sisterlocks and the such. Well, those many videos are hidden on my external hard drive feeling much neglect. So as a forewarning, those of you ladies who volunteered to allow me to video you, just know that you will see some "way back" videos of your own hair, which will give testimony of how far you've come from. Sooo, please be patient with me. With that being said, I planned on doing a good ole' video of my 2, 3, and 4 yr mark and it never transpired. I did however find a sister who posted someone's 4 yr anniversary on her blog and it gave me inspiration to get something accomplished this summer while I have a little time off. So, here's the video. Enjoy! And look for something from me in the near or distant future. Peace...

PPR Exam tomorrow

Greetings blog family,

I just wanted to drop by and send a quick note and request for prayers for me. Tomorrow at 2pm, I take the Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities Exam at Baylor for my alternative teacher's certification program. I'm ready to take it and get it behind me. I've been busy as a bee studying and trying to catch up on various tasks since my trip to NY for my cousin's graduation, which was wonderful. I have lots to update everyone on and lots of emails off line to respond to. So, if you think of me, just send up a prayer or even think good thoughts! Those are welcomed, too! I will get the results back on line July 7th! So I'll be checking their website to find out if I passed.

The picture of me is in front of the flagship Carol's Daughter. Since I only had carry on bags for the trip, I could only purchase items under 4 oz. I ended up getting the 2 oz. sizes of the Lemongrass and Geranium Toner and Khoret Amen Hair Oil,

I wanted to get the Wash Away the Oil Gentle Face Wash but they were out. Bummer. I used some of my cousin's and it made my face feel so clean and fresh. I called Creyole while I was there and she said I could pick up what ever I didn't get here at Macy's when we road trip to Dallas again. With that I was well pleased.

**Carol's Daughter can be found at Sephora in the DFW area. Thanks Creyole!!***

Happy Easter and a few updates!

I have two more 8 hr Saturday classes and I'm done with school. So the next two weeks I'll be finishing up getting my portfolio for 20% of my final grade, preparing for the PPR final and TeXeS Exam in June. So with that being said, I'm a lil' behind in updating my blog and getting back to folks off line with "honey-dos". Can't right now. I'm also teaching in another long term assignment (7th Math) til May 1st or so and it's TAKS time so that in itself is quite stressful.

When I take a break I 'll lurk blogs and comment from time to time, but that's about it. It did snow yesterday here in Central Texas and I can only assume the weather may have been unusual in many parts of the nation. I did capture a lil bit for your viewing pleasure. Now remember, we live out in the country. So don't mind the roosters crowing!! Until I update my blog again, here's the Easter Remix.

Maryee

Maryee and Jen updated pics

Taken 6-11-06

Watch out now!!!

Jen and I are at our 30 month (2 1/2 yr) mark. I was locked 11-28-03 and Jen 12-13-03. It has been such an exciting journey for the both of us, mixed with more ups than downs. My stress level has actually gone down considerable since getting locked. Cause I promise you, I've lived a full 30+ yrs of hair care drama until getting Sisterlocks. I am sure I would have had high blood pressure by now considering most everyone on both sides of my family (mom and dad included) have hypertension. If you aren't familiar with it's deadly effects on Blacks, I'd suggest you click on the link above.

As you can see there has been tremendous growth, in more ways than one. As a matter of fact, for me this has been the longest my hair has ever been in my life. I always knew I had it in me (he he), but when you are a child and you have no control over the maintenance of your hair, you well, submit to what's given to you, right? Then when it was time to "take control" of my hair, I was rather ignorant of the "how-to"s of it all. Like India.Arie said in her song, I Am Not My Hair, I called myself getting a perm at 15 and by the Spring of the next year, it had all fallen out, thus forcing me back into a Jherri Curl and only 1 inch of hair for the beautician to work with. I'll have to upload pics later. Not to mention, I'd already suffered during my formative years under being misidentified as a "cute little boy". That does a lot for the self esteem doesn't it?

I'm getting closer and closer to my "summer ponytail", but I shant fret. Patience is a virtue they tell me. It's all good. I do think I need to get one of Denise Reed's loc socs Leighann and others have spoken about. I promise to post some fun and interesting stuff here real soon.

Last week was a major transition week. Jen and I found out we can't substitute teach over the summer because we're not "certified" to teach. With the No Child Left Behind Act and all they want more than just college educated folks teaching today's youth. They want proof you got some kind of training to reach and teach young people. When you read my guestbook of students who've visited my website, you'd have to wonder if certification means expertise. hmmm?? It's all good.

So we've been hanging out a lot at Beatnix Coffeehouse hosting Open Mic Poetry and staying Creative. I need to be listing more stuff to sell at Sweet Pea's Corner on Ebay, clearing out all these books, reading more, working on my soundclick and of course writing more. And I am...day by day.

Well, I'll leave you for now. Check back soon or visit my fotki album. There's some updated pics there, well a few anyway. Thanks B for the nudge!

Just poppin in...

This picture of me was taken this past Saturday at a birthday party I attended. The birthday girl turned a mere 70 yrs old. My hair is really growing.

OAN, I'm still having computer problems, but I'm gonna make it. It took almost 5 minutes to upload this picture on Jen's laptop. Ughh! I'm having driver problems on my desktop that has my computer still crashing. So needless to say, it's slowing me down in a few areas. I'll post an important message by Thursday. Stay tuned!!

Month 26 and my computer is broken :-(

Saturday will make 26 months with my Sisterlocks. I need to retighten my hair bad, but really I need a professional retightening because March will make a year of me doing it "on my own", including the 3-4 month spell of having no retightening at all. When my money gets correct, I'll be making an appointment with GiGi. Hopefully soon. Since I need a retightening I don't mess with my hair much. There are small and thin root beds which in my humble opinion are too weak to be manipulating. I've been combining locks to save them and have been retightening here and there. It's growing rather fast. Free style is all I can do right now. Although, I am dreaming of other options with the length. I love my sister's hair. Even though her mane is thick, I like the way it has it's own salon style cut. I think they call it "Lock envy".
For the last week or so, my computer has been broken. Of course, EVERYTHING is on my internal hard drive, which I cannot get into. Oh well. I have been using Jen's Mac G4, and patiently waiting for some help from my computer technician back in California to give me some tips on what to do and a quote to fix the thing.

This has surely slowed down my photo blogging, and writing on my desktop in general. I have been trying to post something/anything that comes to mind on my blogspot writing blog. My goal is to transfer a lot of stuff I've written on my Live Journal onto my writing blog so it will all be in one place. Blogger is more user friendly to me than Live Journal. Props still go out to Live Journal, cause that's where I cut my teeth with this blogging thing over two years ago. My other struggle is learning how to get back into my website to make changes since they upgraded my account. So much to do, so little time.

I took this picture of myself with a few locks over my eye with the macro feature on my camera. Click on the picture to enlarge it. Cool, huh?