This morning, I had to have some serious conversations with my students about a bullying situation that I have been watching unfold for the past couple of days. It's the typical situation where a new kid arrives at a school and is targeted by other kids who have been there for a long time. Add the fact that they are females and that the new kid is beautiful and drawing the attention of the male students and you have a recipe for disaster. I enlisted the assistance of a lot of people to help me get this anti-bullying message out to my students including fellow staff members, parents of the children who were involved, and even older siblings of these girls. As a united front, we met with a few classes and discussed with them the fact that we have a zero tolerance policy regarding bullying or any kind of violence or aggression in school. Additionally, we talked to them about the dangers of being the victim of bullying such as low self-esteem and thoughts of suicide. We even … [Read more...]
Let The Soul Doctor Soothe Your Soul! @SoulDoctor #Review
*This post was written by me on behalf of Culture Mom Media LLC. I received complimentary tickets to review the show. All opinions are 100% mine. My love affair with Broadway began years ago when I took my class on a trip to see Les Miserables. Everything about seeing a show live on stage absolutely enchanted me, from the bright lights to the beautiful costumes and beyond. Since then, anytime I have the opportunity to go see a play, it excites me. However, when I received news that I would have the chance to see Soul Doctor on Broadway, I wondered if I would be able to connect to the subject matter since I am not an overly religious person and I assumed that the show would be laden with boring religious overtones and connotations that I would not be able to relate to. Nothing could have been further from the truth... Soul Doctor tells the story of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach who is credited with being the father of popular Jewish music. His ascent to this title … [Read more...]
7 Years Bad Luck?
I have been extremely superstitious since I was a little girl. It all stems back to my childhood in Spain being raised by my Grandmother. She would always tell me stories about the region of Spain we were from called Galicia and how it was known for being the land of witches and incantations. Fast forward a few years to my maternal grandmother who was very superstitious and warned us about the bad luck that would befall us if we put our shoes on the table, opened an umbrella in the house, or walked past a black cat. I never fully understood why doing these things was considered bad but I definitely sensed the foreboding and fear in her eyes as she warned us against doing any of them. Now, don't go thinking that I'm a witch or anything because there is always that random reader who reads too much into posts and will go on a rant in the comments below about how they are unsubscribing because I have "wandered into the dark side." Rest assured that this is not the case … [Read more...]
What Can You Do To Improve Your Community? #MealsPerHour @Toyota #Sponsored
*This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Stiletto Media. All opinions are 100% mine. Last year, Hurricane Sandy ripped through the East Coast and had a profound impact on the lives of us New Yorkers. After witnessing so much devastation caused by this disaster, many of us were left with questions about how to prioritize our lives and how to support and improve the communities that we lived in. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes a tragedy to cause people to take a step back and make changes for the better. You don't even have to make drastic changes in your life in order to improve your community for yourself and the rest of its residents. In my neighborhood, we are all very concerned with the quality of life that our children have. It is important that they be able to play outdoors and be safe within a clean environment. The homeowners in our community take special care to clean the sidewalks and curbs in front of their homes to make sure that garbage and debris … [Read more...]
Enough Is Enough! #SandyHook #Newton #DemandAction #VoteGunSense #Moms
*This post is part of the project, "Sorrow, Anger, ACTION! - A Gathering of Voices Against Gun Violence," organized by MomsRising, PICO Network, UltraViolet, Children's Defense Fund and the National Network to End Domestic Violence. I have been a New York City public school teacher for the past thirteen years and, during that time, I have attended my share of funerals for past students. Way too many of our children have become casualties of war in this feud between gun companies and our federal government. The sad part is that it seems that the gun companies are winning the battle because more and more guns are becoming available on our streets and Congress seems to think that if we don’t talk about it, it will all go away. "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." I’m here to speak for all of the mothers, fathers, family members, friends, and educators who have buried their children due to the terrible gun violence that plagues our communities like a thief that … [Read more...]
Noodle Education Is A Life Long Education Search Engine For All! @NoodleEducation #Ad
*This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Noodle.org. All opinions are 100% mine. I am very excited to announce that Noodle.org is supporting Tough Cookie Mommy as I attend a blogging conference this year! This collaboration is a virtual match made in heaven for this veteran of the New York City public school system and the first education search engine. It truly is an honor to be representing Noodle.org at any event where I am networking with fellow bloggers and educators. Noodle is the first and only FREE, life-long education related search company in the world. Founded by John Katzman in 2011, who is the founder of the Princeton Review, the goal of Noodle.org is to help anyone find educational opportunities at any level. This is an invaluable tool because the task of searching for educational opportunities can seem daunting when one considers the plethora of overwhelming information that is available. Noodle.org offers extensive data on over 150,000 … [Read more...]
Tragedy Struck Close To Home Today…
This morning, a tragic event took place in my neighborhood, right around the corner from my house. It all started at approximately 7:45 a.m. I was driving to work and talking to my mother on the Bluetooth while I was driving. While we were talking, I heard the faint sound of sirens in the background behind her and remember thinking it was weird because we live in a very quiet community where you hardly hear any city sounds at all. Since I was rushing to get to work, I never even had time to ask her what was going on and eventually ended the conversation and entered my job. Fast forward to this afternoon, I am driving home from work when I notice at least 4 different news vans parked all around the corner at the end of my block. I immediately started wondering if the sirens I had heard that morning while I was talking to my Mom had anything to do with it. Without stopping, I drove up to my house and called my husband who proceeded to tell me that a fire had broken … [Read more...]
Let The Girls Shoot!
As many of you know, my older son is very athletic and his favorite sport to play is basketball. Currently, he is playing on an intramural team since his regular season for the school Bantam team has finished. Today, as I was sitting in the bleachers watching the game, I noticed that whenever one of the girls on either of the teams had possession of the ball, the coaches would call out to the male players, "Let her shoot!" Now, I'm all for being a gentleman and chivalry but, am I the only one who thinks that this is sending the wrong message out to all the kids about gender equality. By telling the boys to back away and allow the girls to shoot the ball they are saying, in essence, that the girls are not as skilled at basketball as they boys are and that a special set of rules applies to them. I wonder if professional female basketball players would be offended if they were playing on the same team or against their male counterparts and this took place. It sends the … [Read more...]
Judge My Character, Not My Tattoos!
Today I had an interesting conversation on social media about the correlation between tattoos and piercings and a lack of professionalism in the workplace, specifically in the education field. Let me begin by saying that I have both tattoos and piercings and have been an educator for the past thirteen years. Of those years, I have always been regarded as an exemplary teacher by my supervisors as well as my colleagues. The way that I choose to express myself has never been an issue nor has it impeded me from being a true professional. Frankly, I take offense to statements that suggest that people with tattoos or piercings are inappropriate or unprofessional. My excellence as a teacher should not depend on how I look or what I'm wearing. As a matter of fact, some of the least qualified or unprepared educators that I have encountered throughout my career had neither tattoos or piercings so what does that say? The way that I choose to express myself or my individuality does … [Read more...]
