Jenn Kirkland
Bio
I'm a kinda-suburban, chubby, white, brunette, widowed mom of a teen and a twenty-something, special services school bus driver, word nerd, grammar geek, gamer girl, liberal snowflake social justice bard, and proud of it.
Stories (56)
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On Eggs
Another short (this one a poem) from the late Laston Kirkland, edited and published by his widow, Jennifer Kirkland. Due to its status as a poem, I have left spelling/punctuation/grammar intact as the author wrote it; I don't know what (if anything) was deliberate on his part.
By Jenn Kirkland3 years ago in Poets
The Pros and Cons
I love my job. (seriously, click the link) There are two problems with it. Three if you count parents who think their experience with handling a household is relevant to an entire school district's worth of logistics and/or believe that rules aren't for their kid and/or the other myriad problems that mostly affect the teachers and students and parents, rather than the transportation department. I go into this in more depth in several other stories here on Vocal.
By Jenn Kirkland3 years ago in Education
One Size Fits All
It really, really doesn't. Not literally OR figuratively. Our school district has been great about our IEP, but a few of L's team still seem to want to go One Size Fits All. They do know that when L is upset or raging, the best possible thing they could do is give her space for about ten minutes so she can get hold of herself, but one or two of them insist on asking her *why* she did things before she's ready. When she's in that state, she doesn't KNOW why. Give the kid like ten feet of space and ten minutes and she'll be able to discuss it calmly, see what she did that's against the rules, and learn from it.
By Jenn Kirkland4 years ago in Education
What is Being Tested Here?
This is an article - or a rant if you like - about the curiously arbitrary rules regarding testing at the state or even federal level. I'm not talking about tests to achieve a driving license or anything practical, these are school tests. And they are the sort of thing that confuses the teachers, the parents, and the students being tested.
By Jenn Kirkland4 years ago in Education
Health Aids
I wear glasses. I always have, or very nearly. I was two when I got my first pair, bifocals at six, and exercises that I very very vaguely remember...one was something to do with a number of chocolate chips spread on the table in front of me and if I got the real one I got to eat it. If I got the "ghost" one they would take one away. Being crosseyed meant seeing double, so they were trying to train my eyes to work properly. Another was something with a pair of cords strung with beads out in front of me, and I imagine it was to test depth perception.
By Jenn Kirkland4 years ago in Viva
The Owl at Night
Read these stories first; this is the third in the series. Green for Go: Jery'la Cold as Ice: Kura'hy ~~~~~~~ Even as Kura'hy was in the Depths, and Jery'la was on the land, so there was a third Traveler of the Home Realms now on the small planet out at the Edge. After Jery'la's mishap with the wheeled transports of the species who called themselves human, it was decided that there should not only be teams of two as had previously been discussed in the Travelers' Conclave, but in fact teams of three. Even four, if the planet being explored had sentient beings in any other medium than land, water, or air.
By Jenn Kirkland4 years ago in Fiction
