Hello Everyone,
I am not sure even how or where to start this week's blog. I can't believe the week is finished before it started and when I go and think back on the last week, I am not sure where it went, just that it was extremely busy!
Monday
Started off busy and stayed that way. We were in Admin meetings until almost 2:00 with a break for lunch duty. At the same time we had the RUSD guidance counselors on campus for meetings also, of which I was supposed to be there. Well, I did not make it because Admin meetings ran over. At the end of the day we had another occurrence on campus of which took up time and therefore I did not make it to Dan Patterson's goodbye reception on Monday afternoon.
I did make it home on Monday evening by 8:00 pm and worked out on the elliptical for a little bit. I got to spend some time with the cats and I remember thinking, "I need to leave school every day by 6:30 pm so that I can have some time at home getting things done." Well, this was a fleeting thought because I am just having a hard time making sure that is going to happen as the week moved on.
Tuesday
The Assistant Principal's of Guidance get together once a month to share information with one another and make sure that we are all understanding what is being asked of us. This meeting seemed like it would be a short agenda. We had Pupil Services come and answer questions for us in the morning and then we discussed a variety of other topics that was great because we got information on programs that have changed, adjusted or been modified over the past years. However, for a meeting that was only supposed to last till 9:30, I did not get back to campus until 11:00 am. I quickly had my two meetings with students and made it halfway to lunch duty before I got called back in for a guidance problem.
In addition, to the crazy day, we had a program meeting to plan for what we are calling Program Recruitment Day. We are going to model a Greek Rush week to really celebrate and make it special for students who get into the program. We also had games on campus and therefore I was at school until about 8:30 pm trying to get things accomplished.
Wednesday
So this morning was a meeting with an Assistant Superintendent to talk about the use of technology at school. We discussed what we need to do to move forward for teachers to have new computers and for North to go to a 1:1 device for students. We walked around the school a little bit and let her see the different media presentations that we have and discussed how none of them are standardized and that we need to do something for the teachers and classrooms. Of course, we also got our hands slapped for not using ThinkCERCA of which I did not know she spent money on and was leaving it for another person to take the lead on. I guess I am taking the lead on this now and I had to set up a meeting for Tuesday with the English Dept head and one of the teachers that was trained.
After the Asst Superintendent left, I spent the rest of the morning running around the school trying to catch 35 teachers and trying to get them to print out their gradebooks for the first semester so they hare on file. We have to have a hard copy to make it official at this point and time. I literally spent 2 hours trying to chase down these papers. I don't mind doing this to a certain extent...I know that teachers are busy and with everything being electronic it is ridiculous we need a hard copy. However, if a teacher had to do this, they would provide zeros for all their students. I would love to provide all zeros to the teachers and put them in the time out box for the time it took me to go and collect the grade sheets. Especially during such a busy week.
Right after lunch, I had the first non-grad meeting for this year. I had to meet with a student and his mom to let him know that it did not look like he would be able to complete all the classes here on campus and that he would be better at another location in which he could concentrate more and have less distractions at school.
I then had to run over to the district office for the testing meeting for the year. That ended and it was back to the high school to deal with other issues. The problem with today is that I was supposed to be at a WASC meeting while I was at the Testing Meeting. I hate when I am double booked and then let someone down. I spent the evening trying to get things caught up proposals written and information out to people. There is just too much to do and I cannot seem to get ahead or even caught up.
Thursday
This morning started with a meeting about the future remodel of the training room. The principal from King High School, who is also an athletic trainer came over to look at the training room and make some suggestions and provide really awesome ideas!!! I truly appreciate the extra help and guidance from him.
During the day we also had the Mid-Winter Assembly with the theme of Star Wars. We had a RCC application workshop in the library and I had three student appointments. From there I had a 1:30 conference call, a student teacher interview and a scheduling committee meeting. This was amid another student who was threatening to attempt suicide and therefore that pulled the guidance team from 1:30 - 4:30 pm to deal with that situation. This was only to be followed up with a Cash for College Workshop that evening with the guidance counselors that went from 5:30 - 9:00 pm.
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| Some of the Admin Team at Mid Winter Assembly |
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| Chewy made an appearance as well. |
Weeeelllll...the student who I met with yesterday with the guidance counselor who will most likely be a non-grad had a discussion last night and the family decided this young man would not go to an alternative site and would rather stay at John W. North High School. However......this morning the student skipped Period 0, skipped the first assembly he was supposed to be in. He was supposed to go back to class but rather decided since he did not get to see the assembly during the first part of the day, he skipped the class to go back to the assembly. He then skipped 5th period and did not go into his guidance counselor's office for his new schedule. His guidance counselor called mom to again reiterate this young man most likely will not graduate. He is not going to the classes he needs to graduate nor has he come to get his new schedule to provide him with the classes he needs to graduate.
Friday
Follow-up on student from the last two days....he skipped class again and I found him in the morning sitting in the discipline office and crying over getting in trouble for skipping class yesterday and talking back to the campus supervisors. This is the frustrating thing about students, they just think they will graduate and they don't have to do anything. I don't understand it, no matter how much I try and it bothers me that this student who has the perfect opportunity to be in a better environment refuses to go. It makes me wonder what ulterior motives he has to stay on campus?
Friday morning also involved student meetings due to two situations that have happened with students in the last few days. It has been a crazy week!! I really have not had a chance to sit and get work done. I met my mentor for lunch at Panera and we had a really good conversation about things happening at RUSD and the future the district is moving. I left Panera to go to RCC to pick up materials for North students and then back to school to continue to put out fires and plan.
Ali and I were supposed to leave school at 3:00 pm to go and get materials for Janell's baby shower on Saturday but we had students from another school try to come on campus. Since they could not get on campus they went to a local store parking lot to fight so of course that starts another issue all together and more work for my co-administrators. Ali and I finally were able to leave the school at 5:30 pm to run and get the items we needed for the baby shower. I feel terrible that I will not be around to help more on Saturday and that Ali and Miranda are doing so much for this shower.
After we shopped I had to meet a teacher that night who is out of workers comp leave to give provide her the W2 form and her paycheck since she lives near me and just had surgery. I finally got home about 9:00 pm only to clean up a little, take a shower and sleep because Saturday is CRAZY!!!
Saturday
OMG!!! Today was hard. I got up at 5:30 am to get dressed and get to University Middle School for National History Day. I was there from 8:00 to 12:30 to judge Junior Websites. I left there to meet Dee to pick up the cupcakes for the Baby Shower that I was supposed to be hosting at Ali's house. But if we are honest, Ali is hosting.
Ali has really gotten into the decorating, creating and tea theme! Miranda also got involved and I was able to just show up and they had EVERYTHING done. I feel so bad that I did not contribute as much as I wanted to. The shower was great and we had a wonderful turnout and it was a lot of fun.
I took a cat nap on Ali's couch for an hour before getting dressed to attend Mid-Winter which went from 8-12 am. I ran to Starbucks to pick up a latte to try and stay away but I have to say around 10:30 pm, I had to start sitting down. It was getting crazy for me to stand because I could feel myself starting to get dizzy from lack of sleep. The kids were great and the dance was fun. No major occurrences or problems other than near the end when some drunk guys leaving a bar tried to pick up a few of our high school students who were leaving.
I made it home by 1:15 am and just dropped everything on the floor, took off my make up and got into bed to sleep.
Sunday
Today has been a recovery day for me. I woke up at 6:30 am but more because of the cats than anything. They were climbing all over me crying. I got up and fed them and went back to bed and fell asleep (thanks to my blackout curtains) and found myself waking up and looking at the clock to see it was 11:30 am. OMG!!!!! I have not slept that long in FOREVER!!!!!!
I will say it was ALMOST a boxer day (thank you Chris Alford)! Unfortunately I had to go to the store to get items for this week or I would have stayed in my PJ's all day long. I got up and started laundry, changed the sheets, vacuumed the apartment, ran to the store and came back to make veggie soup, Curry carrots, and cut up lettuce for salad this week for lunch. I spent the afternoon paying bills, emptying the dishwasher, folding laundry, hanging clothes and getting ready for the week and I still am not done. Ugh!!!!
I found this quote earlier this week. I think it is true of my life right now. I am going to have to pick and choose what I can do and make sure that what I am doing is worth my attention and the most immediate concern right now.
This was the other quote I found and one that I really need to remember when things get crazy! I have to continue to get better. I have strengths (discipline, focus, responsibility, significance, and achiever) that are different from others I work with and I must use these to get better and influence others.
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