It's Been That Kind Of Day

Another day of in-service began with a lawyer telling us all the different ways we can get ourselves into trouble, facebook and e-mail heading the list.  But also don't let any bullying or misconduct go unreported, confidentiality is a must, best advice - do not text students, don't give students rides home, don't be alone with one student... Yikes, our floors are covered with egg shells.

Catered lunch.

The new evaluation tool, The Tulsa Model for Teacher and Leader Effectiveness observation and evaluation, filled our afternoon.  It has 5 domains, 17 dimensions and 2-4 criteria for meeting each dimension.  Why can't we speak English? My brain was aching long before the presentation was over.

At the end of the day, our superintendent warned us that tomorrow will be the hard day. I'm trying not to think about it.

I've discovered the cure for brain pain, a visit to the gym.  Blood pumping, oxygen flowing, endorphins bubbling...the non-physical pain melts away and you feel good again. I just wish I'd worn matching shoes.

Back To School Day

6:30 a.m. - The alarm rings. I don't want to get up.  I don't want to go to school.

6:50 a.m. - I get up and begin the morning routine.  I have to give it some thought since I haven't done this since last May. My favorite part is drinking coffee at my computer.

8:30 a.m. - At school. The meetings are in the library, my room. A table of fruit, cheese, bread and crackers.  A table of donuts and other sweets.  An ice chest of sodas.  An ice chest of water.  Where's the coffee? What?!?  No coffee? Get your priorities straight!

9:00 a.m. - The presentations begin. So many mandated trainings that we have to "learn" every year: Blood borne pathogens, Special Ed Confidentiality, FERPA... Because they're important, we go over them year after year.

10:15 a.m. - We hear about local programs: Speech Therapy, Study Island, School-wide Book Read (Hey, that's me!), 21st Century Grant ($1 million over 5 years).

11:30 a.m. - LUNCH.  I stay in the library and eat a ham and cheese croissant sandwich with carrots, celery and baby tomatoes followed by strawberries, grapes, pineapple chunks and a plum. Tasty.

12:30 p.m. - Principal is up. He goes over lesson plans, grade book, Common Core, pacing calendars, remediation, credit recovery, school handbook, class syllabi, State Department of Ed. website, and the new evaluation tool.

2:30 p.m. - Superintendent presents about bullying and how to eliminate it and strategies to improve our students' writing.

3:30 p.m. - Let's blow this joint.

We have homework: study the new evaluation tool and have questions to ask tomorrow.  My question is, why is this information so boring?  It doesn't have to be. With the emphasis on better writing, the challenge is to write instructions, explanations, and other tedious information creatively so that people will want to read it. The most popular non-fiction genre in current publishing is creative nonfiction.  Get with the program!

8:00 p.m. - The Closer final episode.

9:00 p.m. - Major Crimes, spin-off from The Closer.

10:15 p.m. - Finish blog post.

11:00 p.m. - Go to bed.  Tomorrow's another day.

Sunday Friends

Owen and Diego are two of the few Children who attend our church.  When church started this morning, Owen was the only child there so he and I did acolyte duty together. Owen didn't want to but he reluctantly helped his Gingie since he is the expert and I am the novice.

Before it was time for the children's sermon, Diego and his sister arrived with their Grandma. Owen was so happy that he hugged Diego and they happily danced their way to the front of the church to help Herwannah with her children's message.

After church, Diego announced that it would be OK with his mom if he came home with us after church.  He joined us for a Subway/Sonic lunch and then fun and frivolity at MeMe's and then back at our house.  These two boys can fuss like brothers and have fun like best friends. They beg to spend time together and then they spend their time in separate activities.  Diego played with toys in the living room with me while Owen was in the back with Pa on the computer.  Later they went upstairs. Diego played Mario carts on the Wii in one room while Owen played with trains in another.

Daryl (Pa) grew up in this same church going home with Herwannah after church.  Herwannah's son is like a brother to Daryl and I hope I am seeing history repeat itself.

Candy Prompts

This week was all about candy.  I don't eat much candy so I probably won't have much to say.  Which prompt could you write about?  Leave me a message with the answer to that prompt.

• Monday, August 6, 2012 --- What was the first candy you ever tried?

Oh my gosh!  I'm 62 years old, how would I remember the first candy I ate?

• Tuesday, August 7, 2012 --- What candy did you eat once that you wish you could get again?

I'd like to eat German chocolate in Germany again.

• Wednesday, August 8, 2012 --- Talk about a memory tied to a certain candy, especially if it involves another person or a place.

My most memorable candy experience was being in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Beth, Owen and I were taking Mari back to college in Maryland and nipped a little out of the way to visit Hershey.  It was worth it.

Hershey, the sweetest place on earth. Lamp posts with lights like kisses line the streets. The whole town smells like chocolate. Divine. I'm sure that's what heaven will smell like. If you haven't been, you should go.  Click the link and see how fun it is in Hershey, PA.

• Thursday, August 9, 2012 --- Are there any candies that you just can't stomach?

I don't think there are any candies I can't stomach, but there are several that I would say, "Why bother?" Candy corn tops that list. If I'm going to eat empty calories and raise my blood sugar, I want it to be something that tastes good.

• Friday, August 10, 2012 --- What was the last piece of candy that you gave someone else?

It was at the public library.  Lee walked to the desk, placed a bag of Hershey's kisses in front of me and said, "You need to gain some weight," and walked away. Perplexing, the last thing I need to do is gain weight.

 Later that evening, Drej made his nightly appearance and started out with, "Wow! Where'd you get the bag of kisses?" I gave it to him and he became as giddy as a little kid on Christmas morning.

Connect

Go:
Some people view computers and the Internet as detrimental to connecting with other people. Spending time on facebook instead of in face-to-face real live connection building relationships by spending time, doing things and being with people.  And this is true.

But computers and the Internet can connect us with friends and family from whom we'd otherwise be separated.  My daughter lives in Baton Rouge, my sisters live in California, I'm stuck here in Oklahoma. but we connect through email, facebook and playing games like DrawSomething and Words with Friends. We  leave comments that encourage and create laughter as we play.  It's fun and it's connective.

I've connected with new friends on the Internet too.  I met Maria from India via Ireland while blogging on NaBloPoMo. Another blogging friend from Kentucky home schools her children.  She wanted to teach them Spanish so she searched for a Spanish speaking family who wanted to learn English. Connection made.

Who will you connect with today?
Stop.

Sweet

NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month, now part of Blogher.com) has a different writing theme for each new month. The theme for August 2012 is "Sweet." I like the expression "Sweet!" and the way teenagers use it.

Along with the theme are week-daily prompts.  In the past I've taken the prompts and "answered" all of them on Saturday.  The first Saturday of this month was moving day for one daughter and traveling day for the other daughter so I wrote about that instead.

I had wordless Wednesday on Thursday so I'll have Prompt Saturday on Thursday too.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012 --- Name something sweet you ate today.

As a general rule, I don't eat sugar. When you don't eat refined white sugar, the natural sugars in food taste sweeter. Even carrots are a sweet crunchy treat. Berries in Greek yogurt with Splenda. I splurged on Wednesday, August 1st and got a sugar free, frozen yogurt, vanilla milk shake at Braum's. Sweet!

Thursday, August 2, 2012 --- What is the sweetest thing someone said to you today?

I got the sweetest thank you card from a student, thanking me for a graduation gift. I wanted to post it on facebook but decided not to chance making her regret sending me the card. I think it will be less embarrassing here.

Mrs. Perry,

Thank you for being such an amazing teacher. I really enjoyed your class this year. Also, thank you for the beautiful journal and money.

Love, 

Brittany

We all need to share sweet words more often, making the world a nicer place one ripple at a time.

Friday, August 3, 2012 --- What is the sweetest thing someone did for you today?

My friend from the Lawton Public Library, Afzal from Pakistan, sent me an email with a story for our library blog. It was a charming episode of life at the library, you can read it here. I work very part-time at the public library so I need help keeping the library blog current.  It was so sweet of Afzal to write a guest post.

Wordless Wednesday on Thursday

I forgot to blog yesterday. Life got busy and I meant to do a post after I put the grandson to bed.  But instead I laid down with him and went to sleep. I'm going to finish the month anyway.

Mom and Dad

Nothing written on the back of the photo. I don't know where the picture was taken, when it was taken, how old they were... Any guesses?

Daddy was a handsome man. He drove me to school one day in his old pick up truck.  Some girlfriends asked me, "Who's that cute boy who brought you to school?" They thought I was keeping some big secret from them. 

"That was my dad," I answered in a 1960's incredulous teenage accent, thinking they might be embarrassed that they thought someone's father was cute.  

Instead, they said together, (translated into current teen language, "Your dad is hot!"  Yeah, he was.