While I worked on Saturday, October 19th from 11:30 - 7:30 pm, I got so much accomplished and feel like I have a handle on work and what is going on so it was a necessary evil. While I worked most of the day, I did go to the Poly High School Homecoming game that night and spent time with Kennedy and Elyse Roe. On Sunday, October 20th Jessica Roe and I got to hang out at the apartment and just talk and watch movies. It was so nice to be able to just have some downtime and chat with each other. She is turning not just into a best friend but a sister to me. We really like spending time together and can talk about anything together. I am thankful to have the wife of one of the educational professionals I admire as a friend and sister. On Sunday night I was able to meet with another friend and her daughter to eat dinner together. It was nice to re-connect and be able to catch up on the past year of our lives. I must say that while it was a busy weekend, it was very much a relaxing weekend at the same time.
The week at school was very interesting. It seems like it was non-stop from parents who were complaining about teachers, teachers complaining about students to students complaining about anyone that would listen. It was a challenge to work though some of the parent issues with teachers and I am happy to say that I feel like we were successful in finding choices that worked for everyone that was involved. I am also lucky to say that I work with some of the best teachers at JW North (after being with the LDHS Science Dept and LR5 Science teachers, you know that this means a lot). I worked with a fairly new teacher this week to hopefully help with some classroom management issues with one particular student. I am excited at how this novice teacher is handling the situation as he works with a very difficult student who wants to be older than they really are. Imagine that - teens who are 40 - I know, I know, we all did it to our parents. I also had to start being mean this week. We are progressing forward in the discipline cycle and I have a number of students who are onto In School Suspensions (ISS) also called Supervised Study Room (SSR) and Saturday school. Yes, folks, my school does Saturday school. The students come in at 8:00 and stay until 12:15 pm and have to sit in a room quietly and study. You guys know that I love t his idea and in SC we were not allowed to do this as a discipline method. We have some students that don't have a free Saturday until December, because they are cutting classes. I have also had to put the "lock down" on two students. I sent an email to their teachers and told them they are not allowed out of class unless they contact me and have an email from me stating they are allowed to go. Now, while you are probably saying - "Leann that is so mean!!" Let me also say that these two wander the campus, find every excuse not to be in class and continuously get others in trouble. And they are SENIORS!!! So I have to keep them in class to get them to graduate! We will see how this goes! If any of you have other ideas, feel free to let me know.
This week we also celebrated Trevor Painton's time at JW North High School as we said good-bye to him. The staff had a drop in with ice cream and cake for him and while it was fun, it is sad to have a principal leaving. However, I am excited he is being promoted to another position in another district to grow. As Christina Melton always tells me - "Take the opportunities, they don't come along very often." So I am thrilled that a professional colleague is moving forward with his career.
This week, I also got to learn about Unions and how to document unsatisfactory workers to move through the process to let them go. It is just like disciplining students and is really not very different than what we would do in SC. My issue is really just learning the Collective Bargaining Agreement and figuring out how to navigate that as an Assistant Principal. I really don't have much to do with it until I become a principal so I am okay for now. However, always good information to know.
Friday brought another football game against a team in Moreno Valley called Rancho Verde. We lost this game and it was not a pretty loss at all. However, we are hoping for the last two games to be a win. One of these games is against Poly High School where Michael John Roe is the principal so this should be an interesting game. I keep telling Roe that Poly is going down, however he does not believe it. LOL!!!
On Saturday I had the chance to go hiking again and seized the opportunity to be outside. It was a much better day with less fog and the sights were beautiful. More time was spent exploring some of the rock formations and looking into crevices and noticing the weathering process. It is a lot of fun to look at the science and historical perspective of the area. I need to check out some of the other trails. I don't really like to go by myself unless it is a heavily traveled trail like Iron Mountain so I need to do some reading. I ate dinner with my friend Erin and made banana bread with some of the bananas from the farewell event on Thursday.
Well the new week is about to start and I thank all of you who have supported me, sent me well wishes and take time out of your schedules to talk with me or spend time with me. I have been trying to make sure that I document events as well. I have started jars of "memories" where I put the date and the event on a stone and put it in a jar. I consider myself extremely lucky to have all of you in my lives and am thankful for you letting me in yours whether you are in SC or CA - I hope to have a stone with you soon.
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