Struggling This Week to End on a Good Note

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Well I have to say I am feeling very odd this week.  I am not sure what the word is but I think melancholy comes to mind.  I can't say that anything major happened.  It has been a typical week with lots of activity.

I had a dentist appointment on Monday, October 13 and while it is not my dentist from South Carolina, it should not matter because George Levkoff had retired so it is not like that was bothersome. Now I really do not like going to the dentist, not because it hurts or anything but the sound of when they scrap your teeth for tarter is like fingernails on the chalkboard to me and it drives me a little nuts.  I made it through the cleaning and went on to work with no incidents.  I walked into work on Monday to the admin meeting which lasted all morning and even after lunch.  That was followed immediately by an Academy meeting and then yet another meeting about the future of other programs at the school and classes to be added, deleted or changed.    On Monday night the BFAW's got together for dinner at the Mission Inn and the company was fabulous!  I know that all of us are tired and many of us are doing new jobs so we are all tired and are not sure where to start at times so it is even more important that we spend time together and share what we know.

Tuesday, October 14 brought with it some discipline for me to do and help catch up on from the office.  I know that we have all been busy and the discipline has been piling up so I wanted to make sure that I could help.  I was able to call in some students that I have a relationship with from last year and work with them some in hoes to change their behavior.  We will see how it goes.  As of Thursday, I am hearing that it has made some difference from the teacher's point of view.    Tuesday I stayed late at work to get a lot of the little tasks done that needed to be taken care of and emails complete.  I have several things on my "To Do" list that need to be worked on and it will get done but it is a matter of when so I needed to get some of that taken care of.

Wednesday, October 15 was the PSAT that happened with all 10th graders at North.  I am lucky enough to work with some wonderful guidance staff and Relondo Flores took care of the entire test.  I know that Jaque and Alison helped him a lot but I was so proud of him for taking this under his wing and completing the tasks at hand!!  Thank you Relondo!!!  The day was just busy and every time I turned around there seemed to be another person who needed to ask me a question, have a meeting or let me know about another situation.   Last year, the RUSD Union allowed teachers to vote to remove the Advisory Program from the high school.  Now, a few years earlier the teachers voted to have it put in and stated hey did not remember voting and it was admin who had it put it.  However, this was on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) so it was something the teachers agreed to.  Well, we are having some issues with the MYP requirements and Data Teams.  So, some of the teachers seem to think we might need to vote on this.  However, the difference is this is not an MOU.  MYP is a district and school initiative.  Data Teams is a school initiative that many schools in the district are doing.  It has been interesting to hear about this process and see how individuals interact.  Remember, SC teachers are not unionized so this is all new to me.  I am learning a lot and while I have always been open minded and ready to work, some of the items some teachers are concerned about baffle me and I don't feel like they are union issues.  But hey, what do I know, I am learning about the contract and all the parts to it.  All day today my office was a revolving door of meetings between kids and adults.   Some of the items have been coming down the road for 5-10 years now and North is just late in its implementation in some cases.    Wednesday was a long day and fairly hard in the evening after teaching Zumba and moving around equipment.  I got home and crashed right away to try and get a lot of sleep.  However, I am eating poorly and not getting the sleep that I need and it might be starting to take affect because I had a huge headache and have been forgetting to make a few phone calls.  LOL!!!    I did not finish any task I started today and therefore was there until about 9:30 pm.

Thursday brought with it another late night and one that I am frustrated with.  I was suppose to be off campus today but when I got to work, I found out that Aeries ABI, the teacher attendance and grading system was down.  I ended up working on that until about 8:30 am, after the presentation I was supposed to be at started.  After Aeries was working again, I decided to stay at school and called the group I was supposed to be with.  There were several administrators on and off campus today and since today was the great Shake Out, which is the earthquake drill the entire state did, I felt like I should have stayed.  We did a full evacuation outside but without the set up of the materials.  Today was a little slower since I was not supposed to be at school and therefore I used the time to get caught up on items. However, in the afternoon it was one thing after another so I did not leave until late.  I had a planning meeting with Liz about our presentation on Saturday, October 25.  This presentation is using math and science together with TI equipment.  Now, I updated the computer and calculators this past Sunday with the new operating system and now I cannot get the Gas Pressure sensor to work correctly.  I am not sure if it is me or the equipment but I have done this experiment several times without any problems but all of a sudden it is not working which has me a little worried since the presentation is next week.  I have contacted a few of my TI friends to see if the changes they have made are affecting the gas pressure sensor and / or calculator.  I had to call my friend Jeff and see if I could get some help but I am still waiting to see what he thinks is going on with it.  I tried the hard reset like he suggested but that did not really help me at all.  It just continued to do the same thing - it will not record a single data point!!!

I just feel like I am at a point where I am ineffective at work and it bothers me right now.  I know that I am making progress but this week has been difficult.  I don't miss SC and the weather and I do love my job and CA.  However,  I do miss my friends in SC that I talk to and did things with a lot of the time.   Ali and I are going to Disney this weekend and I am taking off Monday, October 20th and was looking forward to doing something fun and working on my PhD in the afternoon or vice versa.  Hopefully this will help some of this melancholy feeling that I am having right now.


Sunday, October 19, 2014
Wow, Friday was busy, busy, busy and I want to know where the day went.  While we were on Assembly schedule the day went by too quick.  Probably because I was dealing with a few issues that took up more time than I thought it would.  However, one of the highlights of the morning was the cheerleaders who finished their dance that I have been watching come together over the past 6 weeks.  The cheerleaders have been practicing in the MPR as we get ready to start Zumba so we have seen pieces and parts of the dance and Friday was the first time I saw it all put together!

At the Assembly

Theater Teacher - Extraordinaire!!!!!

This was a busy but fun weekend for me.  Friday night I went to the play at school called Proposals (directed by the wonderful teacher in the picture above) and it was really fun and fabulous.  The kids did a fantastic job.  It was a long play with only about 9 main characters but the kids did a fabulous job!!

After the Assembly the guidance counselors had students they were calling in for conferences on CELDT.  I also had the opportunity to work with a student that I dearly adore as we planned what to do with him over the next few weeks due to some home issues and behavior at school.

Guidance Counselors Rocking it with CELDT Conferences

I was also able to see some great teaching this week.  I have a science teacher doing work with Chromebooks on enzymes as seen below and another talking about precision and accuracy with her students.  She is trying to get student to remember the difference between the two terms and used some really great examples to demonstrate the vocabulary.

Chromebooks in Action 

Precision and Accuracy Lab

Here we go with dough balls!!!

I did not make it to the Football game on Friday night because I covered the Fall Theater Production.  However, the band director was kind enough to send me a picture of the band!!  Do you see him!!!!!  He is there twice!!!  Pete has had a rough few weeks since the big storm the second week of school and has had to be out of the band room for renovations due to water damage.  They are back in now but he is still having to clean up a lot of items and the kids are helping.

Do you see Pete Jackson????  2x???

On Saturday morning I ate at IHOP for the first time since I have been in CA.  I met a friend in San Marcos for breakfast and it was a much needed breakfast and time to decompress and get to see someone who is not going to ask me questions about work other than how it is going.  I don't have to explain a strategic plan or be on my "p's" and "q's" wondering if there is another reason someone is asking me a question.  It was nice to be able to share and not worry if I was going to hurt any one's feelings or say something offensive that will get back to someone at the school.  Sometimes you just need some downtime!!!!

After breakfast I met up with Ali for our Girls Weekend in Disneyland!!!  We had a great time and it was wonderful to just be at Disney with no stress.  We got to Disneyland and checked into our hotel about 12:00 pm.  Our room was not ready but we dropped out items off with bell services and went to the parks.  Ali and I spent time watching side shows, characters and people watching.  Notice we have Peter Pan and Mad Hatter in the background.

We ate dinner at The Wine Country restaurant and got passes for preferential seating for World of Color, which is one of the reasons we were at Disneyland.  I wanted to see the show, I have not seen it since 2009 so this was a great way to use our time.  While you would think that we would get bored, it was fun to be there without kids in tow and hang out doing adult things and just sitting.  We were able to drink a glass of wine, sit and relax with some fabulous food and take our time.  After dinner, we did hit Space Mountain because it supposedly has been "Halloweened" up with some scary things.  I have to tell you that while they did put in some ghoulish things it was not bad.  It was like the little dude from Tales From The Crypt was coming out of the ceiling but it was not really that bad.  It reminded me of something from Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Angel in the last seasons when they were trying to do some scary things.  It was neat to see but not scary.   We did get into the hotel room and low and behold we were on the 11th floor overlooking Disneyland.  On this floor there are several special suites and no, we were not in one.  Here are pictures of our room thought and the special suite names.

Overlooking Disneyland out the Window

Fresh Flowers in the Room - Yes, they are real.

Two sinks and a big tub!

Headboard of the beds - Do you see the hidden Mickey?

There was also a Fairy Tale Suite but my picture did not come out of that one.  However, on Sunday morning they were cleaning the room and the housekeeper let us in to see the room.  It is gorgeous!!!!  My pictures did not all come out but it is a corner room that is glassed in so that you can see all around Disney.  On the wall is this picture.  Notice Belle in the yellow dress in the middle!!

Picture on Wall

Tile Picture over the Garden Tub 

Figurine in the Wall - there was one of Belle and the Beast also and the Flower but the pictures did not come out.

We asked if we could get into the Mickey Penthouse to take a look around but the people had not checked out yet so we could not get in to see what it looked like.  You can look online but I think the rooms are smaller than what the pictures appear them to be.

On Sunday morning we got up and at 6:00 am and hit the water rides at 7:00 am for magic morning hours, which we got to take advantage of and used it well.  We hit Toy Story, Screaming, Soaring, Roaring Rapids, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion and ate breakfast at the Belle Terrace all by 9:30 am.

We went back to the hotel to check out by 11:00 am and then met Christy and her son Thunder in the park at Tower of Terror which we rode together and then headed to Disneyland where we went on Tom Sawyer's island and played Hide and Seek in teams.

Yes, you read that correctly, I played Hide and Seek in Disneyland on Tom Sawyer's island and we had a blast!!!  We ate late lunch at the Golden Horseshoe and watched the "play" which was hilarious.

The play was about a town that was putting on a play and the mayor's daughter wanted to be the lead but the mayor's daughter is an extremely unattractive young lady.  The group did a great job and it was really funny.  We even had Ice Cream Nachos that we all shared at the play also.

Ice Cream Nachos

Ali and I went to ride Pirates of the Caribbean and then it was time to head home.  :(  We had so much fun.  We downloaded a Hidden Mickey App and Disney Trivia to play while we were in lines and it was fun to try and find out where all the Mickey's are and answer the questions about various aspects of the Disney Empire including history, movies, locations and such.  It was a much needed Girl's weekend and I am lucky that Ali was there to join me and we met Christy and Thunder there!!!  We had a blast!!!

I was even able to find something with Pete's Dragon on it for Jamie.  It was only a pencil but look there is Elliot!!  Don't worry Jamie, I put it in the mail!  It is on its way to you!!!

Looking forward to a great week!!!!  Hope it happens!!!