Weekly Recap

Much like Mindy does, although a tad bit different:

The best part of the week: Getting my district math test scores back. My students rocked the test!! I am so proud of them. The test was very, very difficult and required mastery on skills when we just don't have time to stop and teach for mastery. But these kids rose to the challenge. I'm so happy!

The weekly read: Just finished American Wife by Curtis Suttenfeld. I enjoyed this fictional account of the life of a First Lady of the United States.

Food I'm Totally In Love With: Has to be the cupcakes from The Cupcakery in Las Vegas. Brought some back last weekend and YUM! It's a very good thing I can't order online and have them shipped.

Weekly Comment: The phone call from the parent of a child who is moving. To another school in another district. The parent called to thank me for being such a good teacher. That touched me!

Productive

With only two days left until I'm officially back to school, today was VERY PRODUCTIVE. Went to the grocery store (my cupboard was bare!), did several loads of laundry, made a cake -- from scratch -- for Madison to take to her end-of-summer party at day camp, took Madison shopping for her new school uniforms, and made spaghetti for dinner. AND sat in traffic on the freeway for an hour (that darn uniform shop is not close, and somebody rolled his car while we were shopping). In between, I did some schoolwork -- put paper in folders and printed out some of the things I've created for the new school year. Not a bad day's work!

Still have some schoolwork I want to get done tonight. When I went to the gifted education conference in June, I learned about independent research projects and I want to get some material ready for the kids. I've made a Staples run and have everything I need, just need to put it all together. The Cardinals are on TV and Madison has promised to help me...

Tomorrow is my first day of physical therapy for my knee. My doctor wants to try therapy instead of surgery. I'm all for that. I think tomorrow is more of an evaluation at the therapy place, it's in the same center as the doctor, a sports clinic. I just want to not have any more pain.

Weekend Getaway

Went up to Santa Barbara for the weekend. Just to get away...it was nice. I had never been up there. The downtown was cute, kinda reminded me of Miami, not as vibrant or hip, but it definitely had a 'feel' to it. Quite expensive, shopping-wise. Took Madison to see the mission she did her 4th grade report on -- La Purisima Concepcion. It was about an hour outside of Santa Barbara, near Lompoc. It's the only mission that is a California State Park. I was pleasantly surprised by how clean and nice the mission was. The volunteers all dress in period clothes (early 1800's) and answered all our questions, and gave us a bit of history.


Bought a pair of custom made jeans. Lori mentioned the site on her blog, and I decided to jump in and give it a try. The process seemed very thorough and there is a guarantee on the jeans -- if I don't like them, I can have another pair made or get my money back. The downside will be waiting 4 to 6 weeks for the jeans to arrive. That makes sense, given that they are being made just for me. But still, I'd like them sooner!

Tomorrow I have a one day training on an Intervention Program I volunteered to teach. My district, in an effort to save money, did away with summer school. Instead, we're asking kids to stay after school an hour two days a week for this program, from September until Thanksgiving. No one wanted to teach the program, and I do mean no one. I finally volunteered because I figured there was no way my school year could be any harder than last year, and I know I will do a good job with the kids. Did I just jinx myself by saying my year won't be harder? I hope not!

Dude, you aren't that important

So I'm at this training with a room full of teachers. Most of them are cool. One of them is -- well, full of himself. California went "hands free" with cell phones in cars July 1st. This guy comes into the training wearing his hands free ear piece on his ear. And he keeps it on ALL DAY. He hasn't received one call but that doesn't matter -- the ear piece stays on...

I can see wearing an ear piece if a person's job requires them to be on the phone. Or if an important call is expected. But to keep it on all day? And never get a call? Come on. Get over yourself. You aren't that important. Really. If you are expecting a call, put your cell phone on vibrate, like the rest of us.

We're sitting by grade level and my grade level happens to be in the back so I have a view of the back of this guy's head. ALL DAY LONG. Yesterday, the guy sitting next to me asked, "Is he wearing his Bluetooth? Are you kidding me?" so I'm not the only one annoyed. Can you tell I'm about done with the training? It's only day 4...I have the rest of today and all day tomorrow to go...SIGH!!

Training

I'm attending a week long reading training this week with my friend Carol. Carol was my first friend at work, 15 years ago, and we have continued to be good friends both in and out of work. The training is at a local university and goes all day, Monday through Friday. Breakfast and lunch is included, and Carol and I have been meeting for breakfast each day. It's been nice to catch up with Carol -- she has a terrific sense of humor and is just plain FUN. This morning I decided to 'do' my hair and make-up -- the whole nine yards. Carol said, "You look great! Are you sure you aren't going on a date instead of here?" Ha! She made me feel good. I used my new Too Faced eye shadow insurance, Laura Gellar eye shadow, Too Faced mascara, Michael Marcus Prime and powder, Michael Marcus blush, and Michael Marcus lip gloss. The Michael Marcus items I bought at Takashimaya in New York City and the rest is from Sephora.

Other than that, the training is -- well, draining. I've taught the reading program for several years and most of the material is review. There have been several nuggets of information I can take back, but they are few and far between. The best part is meeting new people. There are 26 people in my session (Carol is in a different session, she teaches a different grade level), none of whom teach at my school, so everyone is new to me.

My "welcome back to work" letter came in the mail today. I officially report back to school next Thursday. WHERE DID THE SUMMER GO?? After this LOOONG week, I have a single day training Monday (on an after-school intervention program I volunteered to teach) and then Tuesday and Wednesday off...then back to work....fall is coming!

Wondering

What is it with people? People who change plans, who call you up and say "Oops, sorry, know that thing we were supposed to do? Can't make it. Let's reschedule." Uh huh. And then, after a time or two of not making the rescheduling, when you are finally DONE with the whole thing -- said person gets annoyed with YOU for being over it. Yeah. What's with those people?

To make myself feel better, I made the ultimate comfort food lunch (for me). Growing up in Las Vegas, the best lunch/dinner/breakfast/whatever was a toasted cheese tortilla. Just cheddar cheese on a flour tortilla, in the broiler. Today I fancied it up with a sliced avocado after it came out. Oh yeah!

And to make myself feel EVEN BETTER, I think I'm going to take a weekend in September (I have two from which to choose) and fly to St. Louis to see my beloved Cardinals. I can fly out Saturday morning, catch an evening game, stay the night, see a Sunday afternoon game, and fly home Sunday night. Doesn't that sound perfect for me?!

Went to work today for three hours and put paper on the walls. One thing I hate about changing classrooms is how the room doesn't feel like me. After today, it's starting to...I'm planning on another visit this week. Maybe two more. Next week I have training and the week after that (on Thursday) it's back to work...

Drama, Tears, and One Tired Teacher

Walked in this morning to find my student teacher in tears. She was in tears again at lunch. And again at the end of the day. My day was framed with her tears. Agreeing to have a student teacher sounded like such a good idea -- let me just say, NEVER AGAIN. N E V E R.

Yesterday the students misbehaved during her math lesson. And C (the student teacher) didn't fully review the math concept, forgetting the final step of simplifying the answer when working with fractions. OK. Then, in the afternoon, I left the room as C was teaching a lesson on natural resources. The principal saw me leave and decided to step into classroom. After three minutes, the principal asked C to take a slooooow walk to the office and a slooooow walk back. Not good. C was crying this morning because, "No one ever tells me anything, the kids said I'm going to be fired!"

C's perception of the lesson was that the kids were behaving, were on-task, and participating. I said, "That's not what the principal saw. She saw four kids paying attention and the rest not. You have no engagement strategies and the students were giving you silly answers. They were being rude and disrespectful." Not a good start to the day.

At math time today, I left the room. (I'm leaving because next week -- GULP -- I'm supposed to turn the classroom over to her completely and I want her to get used to it.) One student called C a fat ass. Several more flat out refused to do their work. C started crying in class and didn't stop. At lunch I asked her if she wanted me to stay in the room the rest of the day and she nodded YES.

After school the principal called her up. C was gone a loooong time and was crying when she came back. Who knows what was said, except that it can't have been good. C's trying, she really is. I've tried everything I know to do -- I started talking to her University supervisor the first week, when I realized there was a problem. I've modeled every behavior management strategy I know, as well as different student engagement strategies. The principal and assistant principal have talked to her (and the students), trying to offer support. This is C's third student teaching placement; how can she have been allowed to get this far with this much of a problem?

Part of the problem is a lack of personality. Maybe it's shyness. C doesn't talk to other teachers, or me. At lunch, she sits next to me but doesn't say A SINGLE WORD. She's been with me since the end of March and will not even say HELLO when she passes someone in the hallway. My team leader said today that she's starting to feel anger toward C because of it -- that's not good.

AARGH! Thirteen more days. I can get through this. Really, I can....but can the students?