Someone told me that my Saturday post just now showed up today, Tuesday on my blog. I don't know what's going on with that-when I posted Saturday, I took a look at the blog and it was on there, so, go figure. One of those internet anomolies.
Today was busy for me. I got to go to a meeting this morning, then this afternoon, I: observed and worked with a kindergartener who is 7 years old, but yet, is unable to write his name, recognize any letters, or hold his pencil correctly, counseled a student who had an "accident" at school, tried to fix a pair of glasses for a student which needed a screw in the frame, gave a little time and a package of Smarties to a troubled kid for a good day, met with a mental health worker regarding another troubled student, visited with 3 teachers, and, periodically checked on a second grader who came to school so mad he could spit nails about something going on at home, but de-escalated and had a good day. Oh, and helped with 2 suspensions, both for fairly major infractions. There ya go. A somewhat typical day. And, I got to leave at 4:45, which was good.
My son tells me he doesn't read my blog entries because they are way too long. Fine. I'll try to write oftener and shorter. (Maybe.)
Somebody asked me how my health is, since I deleted my health blog. Fine just fine. Last A1C was 5.7. If you're diabetic you know that that is an excellent A1C number. (Waiting for applause.) THEN, my youngest son, a Starbucks junkie (when he has the money) bought a "Java Chip Frap" for me when we were out running errands last Saturday. Applause can stop. I looked up nutritional info on the net. A small one of those (which, you can't get anything "small" at Starbucks, the smallest size is "Tall", does this make sense to you?) was wonderfully refreshing, and, had, (wait for it), ...40 grams of sugar in it. There are 4 grams of sugar in one teaspoon. Putting my math skills to work, I deduced that in one small tall Java Chip Frap, I ingested...ta dah! 10 teaspoons of sugar. I may as well have had a can of real pop, which I have avoided like the plague for the last 3 years. So I told him this, and he looked at me and said, "Well! You cannot do that ANY MORE!!" No kidding, Jack. No more.
Life is good. Even without Java Chip Fraps.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
This 'n That
I think I'm about ready to be recouperated from having a 3 day headache and some dizziness-all due to a sinus problem I had no idea I was having. As I explained to the nurse on the phone, I have no drainage, either throat or nose, and had no idea I even had any kind of sinus problem, except for the awful frontal and on top of my head ache which consumed my energies since Wednesday. I thought Thursday that it might be a migraine, however, after taking some sinus pain and pressure decongestants on Friday evening, finally today, I have a little relief. So, maybe it WAS sinus problems and not migraine problems. I dunno. It hurt so bad Thursday night that I would have gladly handed you my head on a platter to do with what you will. So, I didn't go to school Friday, and my son (who has strep) and I made a sickly couple of people in this house.
I've got stuff to do at both schools, so Monday will see a busy week. We have 4 staffings scheduled at one school in September and a couple at the other school, so there's no time to let grass grow under my feet. I've had a week now, to get used to new management styles at both schools, and new staff at both schools, both of these things are sometimes difficult to adjust to, but flexibility must be a part of this job. The "new sheriff in town" is doing a great job, and for the most part, has been well received. There are a few parents who do not appreciate her zero tolerance policy, but they will soon either grow to appreciate it, or transfer their children to another school.
Last night (ironically trying to get to a theater to see "Evan Almighty"), we had rain rain and more rain, and it was very welcome. I kept hoping we would get some heavenly precip so I wouldn't have to water the tomatoes so extensively, but I really waited too long. The one tomato plant is showing signs of distress as the leaves are yellowing, and some tomatoes I picked this morning had mold on them.
I got my car back from the shop and it's just wonderful how it drives now, 1200.00 later. It SHOULD, for that kind of money. The work on our leaky roof will start next week, so there's a lot of money flowing out of our household-actually, there's a lot of introductory offer credit card checks flowing out of our household. If I have to borrow money, I sorta like those 4% interest rates.
Well, I'm going to the fruit store to see if there are any home grown peaches left, then to do some other errands. I like Saturdays, but they go by fast.
I've got stuff to do at both schools, so Monday will see a busy week. We have 4 staffings scheduled at one school in September and a couple at the other school, so there's no time to let grass grow under my feet. I've had a week now, to get used to new management styles at both schools, and new staff at both schools, both of these things are sometimes difficult to adjust to, but flexibility must be a part of this job. The "new sheriff in town" is doing a great job, and for the most part, has been well received. There are a few parents who do not appreciate her zero tolerance policy, but they will soon either grow to appreciate it, or transfer their children to another school.
Last night (ironically trying to get to a theater to see "Evan Almighty"), we had rain rain and more rain, and it was very welcome. I kept hoping we would get some heavenly precip so I wouldn't have to water the tomatoes so extensively, but I really waited too long. The one tomato plant is showing signs of distress as the leaves are yellowing, and some tomatoes I picked this morning had mold on them.
I got my car back from the shop and it's just wonderful how it drives now, 1200.00 later. It SHOULD, for that kind of money. The work on our leaky roof will start next week, so there's a lot of money flowing out of our household-actually, there's a lot of introductory offer credit card checks flowing out of our household. If I have to borrow money, I sorta like those 4% interest rates.
Well, I'm going to the fruit store to see if there are any home grown peaches left, then to do some other errands. I like Saturdays, but they go by fast.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
A good day
First week of school is over. First DAY of school was this past Wednesday. In "Dodge City" (a reference to the school with a new "Matt Dillon" in town), we suspended a kid at 1:45pm. First day. Thursday the sheriff suspended 2, and Friday, she told 4 kids to go home early. I told her it was getting worse, and she said that actually, she was anticipating suspending at least 10 on Friday, so she thought the day went fine! Her zero tolerance policy will get a workout in the next two weeks, as many of our troublemakers are still on a "honeymoon". There's another situation developing with a student who is never picked up on time after school. She sadly waits in the front of the school for sometimes as long as an hour. Not surprisingly, she is one of our students who also has behavioral issues (she was suspended the 2nd day of school), but yesterday, she flew into my office after the bell rang and announced to me that she had had a good day. When I inquired about her day and gave her a thumbs up, she said, "I had a good day because I did NOT get into trouble!" And grinned at me. Knowing quite a bit about her, I know that school is about the only place where adults care what happens to her. As her "village", what an awesome responsibility we have!
Monday, August 13, 2007
Two blogs are not a good idea
Don't send me an email telling me my health blog link doesn't work because I deleted it. I found it difficult to post to TWO blogs (imagine that). I think someone in my family, or even more than one someone told me I was ambitious to try to keep up with two. I may try again sometime, but for now, we'll just see if we can post on this one regularly. Yeah. Post regularly. What a concept!
So I've been through 4 days of inservice. I have one more to go, tomorrow, then school starts on Wednesday. For you teachers, I know inservices are not your favorite thing to do, and they are for sure something I approach with dread. We were in the library today, discussing data points, local, district, and state assessments, curriculum changes, yadda yadda yadda. Nothing was really applicable to me and how I do my job, yet, I was required to attend. Now, I will say, I have been to a few meetings over the past several days that WERE applicable to me, and not only that, were, get a hold of yourself, semi-enjoyable. For example, tomorrow is "BIST" training, and I'm looking forward to learning how to implement this new behavior program at one of my schools. Also tomorrow night is open house, and I will be in attendance at an assembly, where our new principal is going to not only welcome parents, but make her expectations for their children very clear. It'll be interesting. She was assigned to us to help us get things under control and my oh my, I am so very impressed with this outspoken, talented, and firmly compassionate educator! I hope to have good news to report all year from this little formerly hopelessly dysfunctional little school.
In other news, as it is in most of the central region of the United States, it is hot hot hot here. We had buckets of rain and more rain from March to July, now it's hot and dry and even though it's August, in Kansas, and it's supposed to be hot, people seem to be surprised by this turn of events. "My it's hot!" That's what ya get when you live in AC most of the time. When I was a kid, I didn't know it was unbearably hot. I just knew it was summer, and there were all kinds of things to do outside. Building treehouses, jumping off an 8 foot step ladder onto a gunny sack swing suspended in the air, picking rows of green beans and digging potatoes, skating, (remember the metal skates that you needed a skate KEY to tighten, and that pinched your toes?), playing in the dirt, riding bikes, playing "hide and seek" or "kick the can", even making mud pies once in a great while were all to be had, just by stepping out the back door.
Well, enough reminiscing. This will make me nostalgic and I don't wanna go there!
Are you enjoying any garden tomatoes? I finally had several that turned color all at once and although they are kinda ugly and cracked, they really taste pretty good. The grape tomatoes are nice and sweet. Enjoy the last vestiges of your garden, and your hot hot summer-beautiful fall will be here before you know it.
So I've been through 4 days of inservice. I have one more to go, tomorrow, then school starts on Wednesday. For you teachers, I know inservices are not your favorite thing to do, and they are for sure something I approach with dread. We were in the library today, discussing data points, local, district, and state assessments, curriculum changes, yadda yadda yadda. Nothing was really applicable to me and how I do my job, yet, I was required to attend. Now, I will say, I have been to a few meetings over the past several days that WERE applicable to me, and not only that, were, get a hold of yourself, semi-enjoyable. For example, tomorrow is "BIST" training, and I'm looking forward to learning how to implement this new behavior program at one of my schools. Also tomorrow night is open house, and I will be in attendance at an assembly, where our new principal is going to not only welcome parents, but make her expectations for their children very clear. It'll be interesting. She was assigned to us to help us get things under control and my oh my, I am so very impressed with this outspoken, talented, and firmly compassionate educator! I hope to have good news to report all year from this little formerly hopelessly dysfunctional little school.
In other news, as it is in most of the central region of the United States, it is hot hot hot here. We had buckets of rain and more rain from March to July, now it's hot and dry and even though it's August, in Kansas, and it's supposed to be hot, people seem to be surprised by this turn of events. "My it's hot!" That's what ya get when you live in AC most of the time. When I was a kid, I didn't know it was unbearably hot. I just knew it was summer, and there were all kinds of things to do outside. Building treehouses, jumping off an 8 foot step ladder onto a gunny sack swing suspended in the air, picking rows of green beans and digging potatoes, skating, (remember the metal skates that you needed a skate KEY to tighten, and that pinched your toes?), playing in the dirt, riding bikes, playing "hide and seek" or "kick the can", even making mud pies once in a great while were all to be had, just by stepping out the back door.
Well, enough reminiscing. This will make me nostalgic and I don't wanna go there!
Are you enjoying any garden tomatoes? I finally had several that turned color all at once and although they are kinda ugly and cracked, they really taste pretty good. The grape tomatoes are nice and sweet. Enjoy the last vestiges of your garden, and your hot hot summer-beautiful fall will be here before you know it.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Vacation is about over!
Wow. It's been like 3 weeks since I've blogged. Good heavenly days. It's just been one day right after another. !
My brother blogs much more faithfully than I do, and I enjoy reading what he's been up to on a daily basis. Maybe I think he has a more exciting life than me, and in some ways, he does. He's WORKING this summer, and I, well, I did not have to be employed. How cool is that!
Speaking of work, I get to go back on August 8, which is next Wednesday. I did make a visit to both schools this last week, and met with both principals, as well as the psych coordinator downtown. All meetings were productive, which is not what I'm going to be able to assert after 5 days of inservice meetings, the 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, and 14th. School starts here on the 15th, which is fairly early.
Have any of you heard of "BIST"? It stands for "Behavior Intervention Support Team", and is a program one of my schools is adopting in order to deal with problem student behavior. The website is http://www.bist.org/index.html . I get to attend an all day session in order to learn about this program. I gotta tell you, this school needs to do SOMETHING in order to get things under control besides just a change of staff. In MY day (don't you just love it when old people like me start out sentences with, "In MY day...") you could get in trouble in school for: chewing gum, if you were female-wearing jeans or slacks, closing a classroom window, not showing up to class without parents calling in, backtalking a teacher, and printing assignments rather than using cursive writing. At this particular school I'm at, one day last year we had a student bring marijuana in a pocket in his shoe, and another student bring a pellet gun. All in one day. We expelled several students, and there were many days that cops were throughout our building. Neighborhood shootings were in the news. Yet for the most part, teachers did an admirable job.
Did I say I'm looking forward to this year? I am. I really am.
My brother blogs much more faithfully than I do, and I enjoy reading what he's been up to on a daily basis. Maybe I think he has a more exciting life than me, and in some ways, he does. He's WORKING this summer, and I, well, I did not have to be employed. How cool is that!
Speaking of work, I get to go back on August 8, which is next Wednesday. I did make a visit to both schools this last week, and met with both principals, as well as the psych coordinator downtown. All meetings were productive, which is not what I'm going to be able to assert after 5 days of inservice meetings, the 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, and 14th. School starts here on the 15th, which is fairly early.
Have any of you heard of "BIST"? It stands for "Behavior Intervention Support Team", and is a program one of my schools is adopting in order to deal with problem student behavior. The website is http://www.bist.org/index.html . I get to attend an all day session in order to learn about this program. I gotta tell you, this school needs to do SOMETHING in order to get things under control besides just a change of staff. In MY day (don't you just love it when old people like me start out sentences with, "In MY day...") you could get in trouble in school for: chewing gum, if you were female-wearing jeans or slacks, closing a classroom window, not showing up to class without parents calling in, backtalking a teacher, and printing assignments rather than using cursive writing. At this particular school I'm at, one day last year we had a student bring marijuana in a pocket in his shoe, and another student bring a pellet gun. All in one day. We expelled several students, and there were many days that cops were throughout our building. Neighborhood shootings were in the news. Yet for the most part, teachers did an admirable job.
Did I say I'm looking forward to this year? I am. I really am.
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