It's been a long time indeed. Well, where to start?
Those (if any) that have been following along, may know that my daughter was diagnosed with a heart condition last Spring. She was prescribed meds, and eventually the meds weren't working. Plus the meds would have long term side effects, something we weren't interested in because this would be lifelong medicine. Thus, we opted for surgery, better known as an ablation. Surgery took place at the end of July, and went very smoothly. Besides having a fear of almost anything for the week following surgery, Jess has been doing great. She's back to normal, participating in Girls on the Run at her school, and doing everything a kid should be able to do at the ripe old age of 9. So thanks for your thoughts and positive vibes that helped to get us through a tough time. Also, the summer was a very busy one professionally. I attended another NEH session, this time in Cleveland, MS. Before I arrived, I had never even heard of the place before. The session was entitled "The Most Southern Place: Music, History, and Culture of the Mississippi Delta." I learned a ton and was able to work with some pretty great teachers from across the country. We had teachers from as far and wide as Alaska, California, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Vermont, and so on. All told, it was over 30 states represented. I was in the heart of "blues" country, as in the music of the blues. I was able to visit Robert Johnson's gravesite, as well as Dockery Farms where the artform was invented/created. We met folks who marched with MLK in the South, as well as Fannie Lou Hamer. In Memphis, we visited Stax Records, ate lunch at the same place MLK did on the day he was assassinated, and visited the Lorraine Motel and Civil Rights Museum. It was an unbelievable experience that I won't soon forget. After the session in MS, I returned to pick up my family in KY (who were visiting my wife's family) and headed back to MD. After a few days I packed up again and headed to Richmond, VA for a class on the Holocaust. The class was headquartered at the Virginia Holocaust Museum but we stayed at the University of Richmond. I was attracted to the class after the spending the summer of 2014 in CA studying WWII. We were able to meet and talk with actual Rosie the Riveters there and I wanted to pursue other ways I could talk to actual folks immersed in the experience. We lose so many of the "Greatest Generation" everyday, that they'll all be gone in a few years. In Richmond I was able to meet and talk with survivors of the Holocaust. Some survived the concentration camps while others survived out in the open, assuming other names/roles so that people wouldn't think they were Jewish. It was hard to learn other aspects of the Holocaust that I wasn't formerly aware of, but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Since then, I've been busy with teaching, etc. However, what's taken most of my time is getting used to the new major pieces of software at school. We've only received limited training and both of them are full of holes/problems. Everyday is an adventure, and so exhausting. It's a frustrating experience that makes most teachers very easily disillusioned. And fairly soon they will be taking the place of any teacher websites/blogs, etc. We'll see how that works out...
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Well folks, it's been a couple of months. It's interesting to look over the last post, and notice the general idea of the fact that you never know the burden someone is carrying. Interesting, because I've been carrying my own since Spring Break.
I don't know if many of you know, but my son has always been pretty ill. By age 3 he was diagnosed with acute cough variant asthma. Around the same time he also had some left hand surgery for a venous malformation that he was born with. While at Johns Hopkins for the surgery, he was also diagnosed with a heart condition known as SVT (super ventricular tachycardia). This is where the heart rate will just speed up for no reason whatsoever. Sometimes there are triggers, and luckily we know what his triggers are. And when he is having an episode, we are trained in maneuvers to try and keep things under control. Since his condition was recognized and diagnosed so early, they're hopeful that he can outgrow it (and maybe the asthma too). Well, the day before Spring Break, my daughter was rushed to the hospital from her school via ambulance. She approached my wife in the building (who happened to be subbing that day) and said her chest hurt and that it felt like her heart was racing. Immediately she was taken into the health room, and through the experience, my wife thought it was all too eerily familiar to what our son goes through. After arriving at the hospital, her heart rate steadily went down over a three hour period. She was to follow up with our pediatric cardiologist over break. She was put on a 30-day halter monitor to try and record any abnormal activity. Wouldn't you know it, that she would have another episode two days after break was over, at school again, requiring another trip to the ER in the ambulance. This time they took her to Johns Hopkins instead of Howard Co. Luckily she didn't need meds to bring her heart rate down, but it did take a while for it to naturally slide. That day she was prescribed meds in an attempt to keep her in a normal "sinus" rhythm. Overall she's had a total of five episodes since that Friday before break. The most recent happened while on the meds, which means she is "breaking through" the prescription. Thus they've doubled one of the meds and she will require heart ablation surgery this Summer. Unfortunately, we couldn't get it as soon as we wanted, so it will be in late July. My wife and I know that we are fortunate. Things could always be worse. That's what we hold on to on a daily basis. However, it's hard to sleep, worrying when the next shoe is going to drop. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers while we hope to get our daughter healthy again and try to achieve some normalcy in our daily routines. Thank you. Well, I know where I'll be going and studying this Summer. I'll be in the Delta! I was accepted to another NEH Teacher Fellowship this time in Mississippi. It is a class entitled, The Most Southern Place on Earth: Music, Culture, and History in the Mississippi Delta. It will infuse local culture with the topics of racism and blues music in the south. I couldn't be more excited, as colleagues of mine (that I've met through my NEH travels) have recommended this one very highly. It is bittersweet though, as I will have to take off the last day of school to start driving down to the Delta.
And if things couldn't get better, I've also been accepted to a class at the University of Richmond in July. This will be a class on the Holocaust and how to talk about the topic with children. It will be a very studious Summer, indeed. Former Towson president still inspiring, serving campus despite terminal cancer
This one hurts a great deal. I can't say that I knew her very well. However, she had a great impact on me, but even more so on Towson University. She was the dean of COFAC when I was a Tiger, and would then return a few years ago to lead the entire university. I remember that she had such an easy way about her; very easy to talk to, intelligent, subtle. I don't know if it was her ease with acting (being that she led the drama dept. for a while too), but when she walked it was almost as if she glided down the hall, floating on air. I also remember watching her in a version of Love Letters at the university, such a joy to watch. I worked with her many times with stuff when I was president of Students Supporting the Arts. And when I graduated, I gave her a huge hug when I walked across the stage. It's amazing that under her circumstances, she's still making that same impact today. Take this as a lesson. Everyone deals with issues on a daily basis, some worse than others. You never know quite how heavy someone's burden is, or what they may be dealing with. Handle everyone with kindness and understanding. Live every day to it's fullest with no regrets. Hug your loved ones everyday and do something for others. Be remembered for leaving an impact on someone or something. Had a great time tonight again at the BMA courtesy of the Chamber Jazz Society of Baltimore. Tonight's show was the Terell Stafford Quintet. Because of the snow, my parents never made it up here from NC. Normally my Dad goes to the entire season of shows at the BMA sponsored by the BCJS. This time he sent up his ticket, along with his friend's ticket, and we took the whole family. It was my son's first concert. We had such a great time. I urge you all to check out the BCJS. There's two more shows for the season left, one in April and another in May.
I know it's been quite some time since the last post. This year has been more difficult to keep up for sure. You see, I'm down a staff member at school, because of some wonderful equations the district uses to figure out staffing, specifically in music and art. Because we lost so many students at the end of last year, and over the summer, I'm now back to "holding down the fort" on my own again. I should be used to it, I guess. I mean, out of my almost 17 years of teaching at CCES, I've been solo for at least 12 of them. Maybe it's age, maybe responsibilities both personal and professional, but it's just harder, more time consuming than it used to be. I try to still have fun, try to instill the love of art and all things associated in the children, try to make kids culturally aware. I think I'm successful. Some days are better than others. But there's always a lack of time, for planning, for grading, for reflection, for assessment. But I digress...
The last month has been particularly rough. It started with the death of my wife's grandmother. She passed away early in the morning, on the Monday before Thanksgiving. It's not as though it wasn't expected. She had been in the hospital since early October. She went in initially for bronchitis/pneumonia symptoms. That later turned out to be lymphoma throughout her lungs. She already suffered from COPD, sleep apnea, and general difficulties from aging, after all she was going on 87. But it's a phone call that you don't want to get, a reality you don't want to confront. You may say, " She wasn't your grandmother." And you'd be correct. But she was more of a grandmother to me in the 17 years I knew her than my own were to me. And especially over the last 5+ years, since my own two grandmothers have been battling dementia/Alzheimer's. But that's a whole other story for another time and place. Not only did I see her every Summer, as my wife and kids would visit her while I would take classes. After my classes would conclude, I'd meet up with Melissa and the kids in Kentucky. But my wife would talk to her on the phone everyday, and she was always up to date on what was happening with my children. It was imperative that we make the funeral. The problem was making the trek to KY in the middle of Thanksgiving, especially because of parent/teacher conferences. Also, as we embarked that Tuesday, it was still up in the air exactly when the arrangements would be because of the holiday. So we wouldn't be sure until we arrived from our long drive. Luckily, the HCPSS grants me five days of bereavement leave for the loss of immediate family of a spouse. We made the drive, all 10+ hours, and the arrangements were Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving day with the maternal side of my wife's family (her grandmother that died was her paternal). It was nice, since we don't get the chance to do that ever, but you couldn't ignore the reason that we were truly in KY. So it hurt...a lot. Reminders were all around us while driving around KY of Mamaw, as well as stories being told right and left about her life, character, and love for others. As if things weren't bad enough, grieving for Mamaw, upon our arrival home, our son became quite ill. He was already suffering from a sinus infection that was diagnosed prior to our travels. The antibiotic played trouble with his stomach the entire time we were gone. However, somehow he came down with mono, and that just took the life right out of him. He was dehydrated, achy, feverish, lethargic, drowsy, you name it, he had it. Unfortunately there's not much you can do to fight mono, except fluids, ibuprofen, etc. He had a short stay at Johns Hopkins to get IV fluids and to be observed awhile. But he missed school for 7 days overall from the mono, 9 if you count the funeral, etc. This also meant that I missed two weeks total from school because of having to help take care of our son, help get my daughter to school, etc. Luckily, he's doing much better now, but it's always dangerous when he gets sick because of his severe cough-variant asthma and his heart condition (SVT). Every little germ effects him so much. So it was a long two weeks, emotionally, psychologically, professionally, etc., you name it. It's something I don't want to repeat for sure. I felt behind at work in a myriad of areas, grading, planning, goals, ordering, etc. I missed two major county deadlines, the majority of parent/teacher conferences, and the conferences for my own children as well. I'm still playing catch up at school and home. My heart still hurts, as does the rest of the family. Our son has had a particular hard time. He still cries from time to time at night, needing consoling in bed. Mamaw's birthday would have been 12/27. Our laundry is overflowing, and to top it all off my wife was just diagnosed with Flu A. Hopefully, it won't ruin the holidays. The hits just keep on coming. We'll keep our heads up high, and do the best we can. It's all we can do after all. Every year artwork is chosen from the Columbia Mall Show to travel to other places for display, etc. One of those places, and typically the first for the school year is at the county government complex in Ellicott City. It was another great night held at the Banneker Room at the George Howard Building in Ellicott City. The members of County Council always go out of their way to make sure the kids feel welcomed. Wow! What a night! I had the great opportunity to meet and listen to a contemporary master artist tonight. Eric Fischl gave a lecture at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in DC. The lecture was followed by a meet and greet and an hors d'oeuvre reception in the atrium. It was a great experience, made even greater by being able to attend it with a wonderful art teacher friend of mine. I was able to talk with Mr. Fischl for probably about 20 minutes. This kind of access doesn't come around very often. We talked painting, teaching, a whole host of things. And it was especially fitting that my art teacher friend was able to speak with him, because Fischl gave a lecture to his class during grad school almost 30 years ago! He was very kind and down to earth. The evening was topped off by meeting a person who works in art fraud across the world. They're trying to get a system up and running that would attach DNA to the back of modern works in order to track their provenance to curb fraud/forgeries. The DNA could be scanned using a smartphone. What a neat and novel idea! What a great weekend with the family. We started off on Saturday, braving the elements to catch the Blue Angels fly in Baltimore. We tried avoiding the big crowd at Fort McHenry and went back to Canton Waterfront Park, like we did two years ago. Although it rained, and the show was delayed by 90 minutes, I'd do it all over again just to hear the roar of the aircraft, and my children. Today, we tried making it to see the landing of the Blue Angels at Martin State Airport. I knew we'd be cutting it close, because I teach senior citizens every Sunday at Heartlands in Ellicott City. I took the fam with me to class, and then rushed to try and make it. Unfortunately, we were stuck in traffic because of an accident. And then upon arrival, parking was a bit of a problem because the folks directing traffic weren't being very nice about accessing the parking lot. So we missed the actually landing. However, we were able to make it so that the kids could meet one or two of the pilots as they were on the flight deck shaking hands and signing autographs. We didn't have anything for them to sign, but it worked out just fine. The pilot of the #2 plane actually grabbed both of my children (one at a time of course) and held them in order to get their picture taken with them. The grins were from ear to ear. It was so nice of the pilot to do that. I won't forget it for quite some time. I'm about to send a thank you email because the pilot truly went above and beyond for my children... Well, sorry it's been so long. Been a little busy. I had a great intern this Spring. Ms. Weiss was great. And as much as people think having an intern is easy, it really isn't. It's a lot of supervision, a lot of paperwork, and a lot of constant review and conversation. But she did wonderfully. The kids loved her and she had great ideas to do with the kids. Good news is that she's been hired already, not even a week after she graduated. Bad news is that it was in AA Co., unfortunately not Howard. Great opportunity for her though, and now she can rest easy over the summer and get ready to start fresh. No stressing over getting a job, etc. I wish her all of the luck in the world. She'll do a wonderful job, I just know it.
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B.D.SchmittHusband, Father, Archives
November 2015
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