Blogfail with an update

(Eiffel Tower in Vegas)

My intentions were good as I set out to participate in the daily blogger posting thing-a-ma-jig. However, last week I was forced okay not really to go to Las Vegas with my husband who had to accept an award for the shop he manages. It was really quite the chore, yes I'm lying to have to go to Vegas, seeing all the great sites, eating the great food, and partaking in a wonderful show by Cirque De Soleil, The Beatles: Love.

When we got back, I had to make up for the three days that I was out of town, being miserable in Vegas nothing could be further from the truth.

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This past week has been crazy again. The school district is anticipating closing and/or consolidating a few schools. One of their plans is to make one of the elementary schools a dual-immersion program, focusing on spanish/english. This is great in theory. However, this particular school has a very low Hispanic population. The teachers at this school have a lot of technology and art experience and want the Board to consider a magnet school that focuses on their particular area of expertise. Another elementary school being discussed for closure would fit better in the dual-immersion model that the Board wants to implement. This school's surrounding neighborhood has a very high Hispanic population.

Both schools are neighborhood schools in which many of the parents walk their kids to school. It just feels like someone came up with a great idea without really thinking about where it would fit best.

We shall see if the teachers suggested proposals fall once again on deaf ears. We are, afterall, only teachers who work daily with students, whereas those making the big decisions rarely come into contact with the kids we work with!

Two forums were held this past week to seek community and staff input. Very little trust remains with the Board or District officials as many strongly believe that the decision has already been made and the forums are nothing but a show. We've become very cynical in this District as many decisions that have been made seem to benefit the few at the cost of many. It would be nice if the Board surprised the community and actually takes to heart some of the proposals that were suggested.

It will be very interesting, indeed, to see how it all shakes out in the end.

Got Milk?

This came from Jon B. Gray, who works for Fleishman-Hillar in Kansas City on behalf of the Midwest Dairy Council.

Jon wants my readers to know that the Midwest Dairy Council has valuable, free resources for teachers to use in their classrooms.

Quoting Jon:

It is a curriculum of educational tools designed to help students better understand the importance of healthy snacking from both a health and economic perspective.

This curriculum includes downloadable “Make Change” lesson plans, appropriate for any lessons focusing on health, family and consumer science (FACS), or general classroom discussion. The lesson plans and accompanying tools are located inside the “Educator’s Resource Center” at http://dairymakessense.com/educator/.

Here, you’ll find posters, a PowerPoint presentation, lesson plans and interactive “cow-culator” activity, hand-outs, charts, recipes, and nutrition guides, all available free of charge (and all of these resources have been teacher-reviewed.)

Educators can also apply for a $500 school grant from Midwest Dairy Council to help empower students to take action for their health and improve their school environment. Fifteen $500 grants will be distributed. The grants are only available to schools in the Midwest Dairy region, which includes IA, ND, SD, MN, IL, MO, AR, KS, and eastern OK.

Thank you Jon for providing my readers with this information!

randomness

• If you're in a van going up a somewhat steep incline, it might behoove you to move out of the passing lane, especially if there are cars behind you. I'm just saying . . .
• Today is election day. Vote wisely. Here's hoping that the citizens of Maine choose to vote for equality and against discrimination & bigotry.
• I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our endorses candidate for school board wins a seat. We really need to change the face of the board. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
• My daughter has been on a couple of interviews and hasn't received any calls back. Employers, if you tell people that you will call in a week regardless of the decision, please follow through.
• Tomorrow my husband and I are leaving on a mini-vacation to Vegas. We do not have an itinerary set in place and I'm fine with that.
• I don't think that kids understand that once trust is broken, it is so hard to regain it. This will not be understood until they have kids of their own.
• Wonders when will politicians and policy wonks understand that tying teachers pay to student test scores will not make me (nor my colleagues) better teachers.
  

Day 2

I had another busy day today. Since mid-August, I've put on about 4,000 miles on my car. I do a lot of driving on a daily basis. My car is two years old and in those two years, I've managed to put 29,000 miles on it. In August, it only had about 24,000 miles. I'm filling it up about twice a week.

My husband thinks I should buy a Prius. However, in the next breath, he's asking what I think about the new Challenger. Um, I'm thinking I like my interest free loan.

Exhausting and Exhilarating

That is what I have felt in my new role. My weeks have been jam-packed with meetings, events, and working on getting our endorsed candidate elected on the school board. Come the week-end, I've been so worn out that every intention to clean house is put off to another day. I've a feeling that it's what I'll be doing over the Thanksgiving break.

I've decided that perhaps I'll participate in NaBloPoMo so that the 94 (?!!) followers that I have will not think that I've completely dropped off the face of the earth.

So, Did ya miss me?

Yes, it's been awhile and yes, I've been insanely busy trying to learn this new job of P R E Z. This has been made somewhat difficult for a variety of reasons, least of which due to cattiness on the part of some and illness on the part of another.

That being said, I've only managed to make one "major" gaffe for which I'm sure I'll be smarting from for a long time to come.(However I also have a feeling that this mistake will only be noticed by a few and hope that this is the proverbial molehill). I'll admit that one of my flaws is my tendency to want to be self-reliant. This means that while I won't hesitate to ask for help if I don't think it will burden anyone, if I believe that person with whom I need to ask for help is preoccupied in some sort of way, then I'll try to muddle through on my own.

However, let me also say that I'm the first to apologize when I feel that I need to own up to a mistake.

The learning curve has been huge. I'm still learning. I hope that people understand this.

I love these penguins!

These baby penguins are marching to their new home at the
San Francisco Zoo. Photo from HuffPo. Click here for
even more adorable pictures!

The Best Part about Blogging

Is the people you meet. When I posted this yesterday, it never occurred to me that someone would offer to help me with my speech. Mrs. Chili responded to that post stating that she would help me! Now, if you don't know Mrs. Chili (you should) she has taught speech and English classes at her local college. I'm not dumb, so of course, I jumped at the chance to have her proof my speech.

The speech is now pretty much written after receiving many helpful suggestions from Mrs. Chili. I will spend a lot of time practicing it tomorrow. I'm still nervous, but feel much better about it.

So a huge Thank YOU to Mrs. Chili for all of your help!!