Last week of March

Monday, March 24, 2014 and Tuesday, March 25, 2014 

I was at Rigorous Curriculum Design (RCD) in Carlsbad.  The conference who was directed by Leadership and Learning Center put it on.  The training was based on Larry Ainsworth Book, Rigorous Curriculum Design.  It was a great conference and I learned a lot.  While I had read the book already, it was nice to hear the steps laid out and explained, especially the Priority Standards surrounded by the supporting standards so I truly understood what it is Ainsworth was saying in the book.  The Sheraton Conference Center was beautiful and they the facilities were great.  I drove down on Monday morning and it took about an hour from my apartment.  I stayed the evening and the bed was huge and room was beautiful.  I slept really well and woke to raindrops outside, which is really unusual for CA.  The second day was great as well and I learned a lot.  I love the fact that how I planned my curriculum in the classroom was the same as how Ainsworth suggests.  The only thing that I did not do as deeply as what Ainsworth suggests is as many planned and organized formative assessments.  While I provided them, I did not do them as strategically as Ainsworth suggests.  What I am finding is the most difficult part of using RCD to develop curriculum is the teacher persistence to create.  In developing middle school curriculum and high school curriculum in Laurens, I found many times we got into a "get it done" mindset because of the time and therefore we did not include all the parts required and laid out by RCD.  The really great thing about RCD is that is focuses on the standards and not the textbook.  This allows us to work on really focusing on the standard and using the materials that we have and then filling in the gaps with pieces rather than buying a pre-made curriculum.

When I left Carlsbad, I headed to Ulta in the San Marcos area and then went to eat dinner at one of my most favorite places.  It is a placed called Hungry Bear and it has the absolute best sub sandwiches.  They get very high marks on Yelp and people who I talk to who do not hang out down in the San Marcos area know about this small little sub shop.  They do everything fresh, like the del it that I worked at in Irmo and I love that about the Hungry Bear Restaurant.  YUM!!!!!

Wednesday
Today I had my first explosion panel.  I got there at 8:00 am to be sure that I could read the packet before the panel started and to meet Alex the hearing supervisor.  I was on the panel with Dale who is a principal in the district.  The hearings went well and both students will be able to finish their education and graduate so all is well.  It was interesting to see the process and I am very glad that I did before I have to present a panel on my own.  Seeing one in action and hearing the questions that will be asked was extremely beneficial in the planning stages and why it is so important that the packet be put together correctly.

When I got back to school I had an IEP meeting for a student and then went to do a few observations of some teaches.  Next it was back to the office for parent meetings.  It was a very busy day and apparently there was a lot going on around the school.  We had a teacher act as an admin designee and work on some of the discipline that needed to be done - the regular electronic violations, missed teacher detentions and so on.  Elizabeth got a lot done for all of us and it was great that some of that is taken off the plates of us before Spring Break.

View after school on Wednesday.

I stayed really late trying to put everything together for the next day and get things together and try and get ahead.  I was able to get all the paperwork done for discipline the next day and I tried to watch some of the videos to get ready for SBAC testing.  However, while I get the part of how to get the test started, I still am not sure how to upload students into the system for them to test.   That is where my problem really is!!!!! I am going to meet with Dan next week and see if that will help.

Thursday
So, someone has put something in the water in Riverside and the kids are drinking it.  Today was crazy.  We had one kid after another getting in trouble and being sent to the office.  It was a little nutty.  While I tried to get a lot of the discipline done in the morning it seemed I kept running into road blocks with trying to get things complete.  Between reports of bullying, bringing edibles laced with inappropriate contents and trying to do my normal work, it was basically almost impossible to get anything complete. I was at school pretty late on Thursday as well trying to get things done.  Thursday afternoon was also early release PD with Social Studies and then a meeting at the District Office on creating a Coaches Policy and Procedure manual.  It has been a crazy day!!!!

Friday
Today was a very upsetting day today.  I had a big decision I had to make and I am still not sure that I am sure that I made the right one but I cannot go back and change the decision now.  However, I gave my decision at 8:30 am and by 10:30 am I was regretting my decision.  However, it would not be fair to  go back and change it.  From 10:30 am till the end of the day it just felt as though nothing was going right and every time I tried to sit down and relax to decompress something else would happen to make it worse and fill me with regret.  I kept saying, why did I not wait???  However, I promised my answer in the morning and I felt waiting was inconsiderate.  I came home emotionally drained and did nothing but sit and relax in the evening.

Squeak likes when I am home.

I was sitting at the computer and felt the chair shake and thought to myself what the heck is going on what is up with my chair.  I also heard a strange noise outside but did not really think much of it.  I started to also get woozy and then I realized what was happening.  It was an earthquake.  It seemed to last a fairly long time because my chair kept shaking.  Then I started getting texts from different people to see if I felt it.  However, I was still about 60 miles from it.  It was not a major shake, just enough to make me realize that something was not correct.  It was an interesting feeling as well.

I ended up going to be early and falling asleep quickly.  I did not set any alarms and had the plan to sleep as long as I wanted to on Saturday morning and get as much rest as possible over Spring Break.  I am doing a Staycation to get work on the PhD done, which is one of the things that affected my decision and if that was not hanging over my head I would feel better about things in general.  I am so close that I need to be done but just don't want to do the last parts because I really dislike writing.  Ugh!!!

Saturday
I really woke up this morning not feeling very good.  I decided today would be a "Boxer" day.  Get rest and finish up those tasks around the apartment that are not pressing but take a few minutes to get done.  Some of these including updating the resume, doing the blog, and working on moving some files around.  I did a load of laundry and watched TV.  I also took a NAP!  Yes, I took a NAP.  Anyone who knows me well knows that I do not nap during the day easily.  Squeak and I laid down together on the couch and took a 40 minute nap.  I feel much better now and I halfway wonder if the earthquakes don't make me a little woozy.

Reading with my baby!!

I am going to sign off for two weeks.  Starting tomorrow I am going into PhD mode and will not be doing much but sitting around reading and typing so there will not be much to tell.  I am going to work two days this week because I will be working summer school but that will be for testing purposes and planning for next school year.  So I will see you the second week of April.