Next Week

Next week Ryan and I officially start work. We both have to attend a week long "New Teacher Academy", mine starting Monday with all the new teachers meeting with the principal and then meeting with our Job-Alike-Mentors for a few hours. The Job-Alike-Mentor is a retired teacher from our content or grade speciality. They are going to basically help us get familiar with the districts curriculum, policies, assessment, etc. On Tuesday I get to sit through speeches by people I will probably see never again and through some mumbo jumbo on assessing literacy (which does not apply to me), through another benefits presentation (redundancy is this districts speciality apparently) and finally a discussion on legal responsibilities regarding TAG, ELL, SpEd, etc. I helped myself out for Wednesday though and took one of the classes today so I do not have to attend it then, which means my day won't start until 12:30, only 3 1/2 hours that day! Thursday is a "Diversity Summit" from 8am until 3pm....boy I can't wait for that. I am not sure of what exactly Ryan's schedule looks like next week, but I know he was not required to attend the Monday presentations for his district, so he obviously opted to not go. He will be going to a bunch of BS all day like me for majority of the week though, and I'm sure he will have similar sessions and speeches to mine.

As I mentioned above, today I went to a "class" about the e-mail and grading system we use in our district. Really, the only purpose of this class was to get your log on information, at least if you are tech savvy like me ;) For three hours the instructor took us through the e-mail program we use and how to do silly things like unsend an e-mail or attach a signature to your e-mail...I was sooooooooooooo bored. Then she took us through how to use the grading system, it's called eSIS, if you were curious. Although that information was important, most of it didn't apply to me because I am a specialist and don't do grades for multiple subjects and only 25 kids. The last two minutes of class she showed how a specialist would do grades for their subject. So, to summarize I sat in a computer lab for 3 hours, oh but she let us out 6 minutes early! Woo hoo! It can be frustrating being a specialist because most of the seminars and staff development we are required to do does not apply to us or it's computers 101 for dummies in today's case. After that wonderful waste of 3 hours of my life Ryan and I had to go to Target to exchange our Airwick Scented Oil warmer because it didn't get warm and then we headed to Petco (where the Pet's go, although Hank didn't go this time) to get the big guy some food and treats. We got a 32 lb. bag of food for $21, yay for Petco P.A.L.S. cards and we are hoping he will enjoy this new food better than the last. We decided to get the bulk treats so we could mix and match, and it was cheaper that way (He liked the "fruit loops" and "chicken leg" so far). When we finished there we walked down to La Fogata, a yummy Mexican food restaurant, for lunch. I got the chicken taquitos with rice and beans in place of guac and sour cream, and Ryan got the biggest burrito I have ever seen...and he still has most of it.

I concluded my running about by going to coffee with the music teacher at my school. I thought it was nice of him to want to chat and discuss some school stuff, and he bought my coffee! I also met the other secretary at my school and the evening custodian. I was planning on doing some inventory and organizing of my equipment room after coffee, but they are waxing my floors so I chose not to. The current layer of wax was dry and we could walk on it, but he was getting ready to put on another layer, apparently they are putting a trillion coats so my floor will shine. The rest of my day has been relaxing by taking a nap and taking the dog on a W-A-L-K. Now though, I will probably go watch some more Olympics. I can't believe that girl on the US gymnastics team choked on the beam AND floor and lost the gold for us, hopefully she'll be able to try again in 4 years, although she may be too old and past her prime at the point. Anywho, hope you're staying cool in the hot weather!