I'm still not sure what's going on with my maternity leave stuff. Still getting two different stories...one from HSTA, one from our SASA. I like the HSTA answer better, but now I'm having second thoughts on which one is correct. I don't want it to be contentious, but I want it to be correct and contractual.

Today was the first day of no cross country practice for Dave. Woohoo. I love that he coaches, but I'm always happy when a season gets done. This season, though, his kids were actually enjoyable and good...we'll see how track is. The only good thing about cross country is at least his weekly practices result in several races...I hate when it's track season, he practices for months with his kids, and they have one or two freakin' races. So poho.

I'm worried about what's going to happen with my kids when I'm gone for third quarter. That's a pretty critical quarter and also the quarter that they really start to slack off and need that extra push. And I'm worried about how some of them will be with a sub...I'm lucky that most of my kids this year are super good so there's only a handful I'm worried about. I don't even know who my sub is yet. And I know that I don't have to provide sub plans, but I have to leave something so my kids can actually get worthwhile curriculum. I'm just nervous.

I'm tired. Tomorrow's Wednesday. Then we gotta go doctor. After which time I think we're going to be having to drive into town every week (besides to pick up Tash) for doctor. Great. Good thing we only paid $2.69 for gas this past weekend. Filled up our gas light on empty tank for $25. How wonderful is that?

Two Seasons Over

Yesterday, the kids ran their last cross country race of the season. I really thought we had a chance to get third overall for both boys and girls races, but it was not meant to be. The boys ended up 5th and the girls ended up 4th (lost to 3rd by 9 points). I was a little bit disappointed but at least most of the kids did their very best. When they announced the winners, you could see looks of disappointment. It's funny to see them look at me after and I have to just tell them, "It's okay, you guys did very well." Even though inside, I'm dying. We had three boys in the top 20 (Zach, Lane, and Jared), and two girls in the top 20 (Roblynn and Alix). I have to admit that the girls ran hard cause they had 6 in the top 45; but just wasn't enough to get them that trophy they wanted. Most of them ran their fastest times, at least. Anyway, the team was kinda sad that it's the last race and we won't have practices anymore. I told them to come by after school on Monday for some pizza and soda. I'm kinda happy the season's done because of all the forms, setting up buses and the meets, and the practices; but then again, I did enjoy the kids company. I guess I just gotta wait for February to come around for Track and Field. Most of them come back anyway.
Another heartache..the Boston Red Sox. Their season came to an end last week and I'm still feeling it. I really thought they were going to pull of another come back. Dang Rays. I hope the Phillies kick their ass.

Random thoughts...

I am SO tired. I feel like just making it through the day is a struggle. Then to think of coming home, cooking dinner, and then planning and looking at my kids' work...I have NOT gotten to the last part yet this week and doubt I will until Saturday or Sunday. Plus my mom is here so that's another excuse for why I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do. Luckily I only have one assessment to look at (for their book #1) and the rest of the classwork we're doing isn't something I have to really look at cuz we're assessing it in class. LOVE the constructed response rubric so the kids can look at their work/partner's work and grade and edit. The multiple choice and defense is so easy to quickly glance over and have them change immediately too. Thanks, Deena!!!! Leish, you sure you no like move 8th grade?? Hehe. No, Deena, you cannot move back down to 7th!!!

Another Wednesday, another wonderful Faculty Meeting. Boss actually ran the WHOLE thing...surprise surprise. And, not a surprise, the whole mandatory online training for 3 credits didn't come out the way it was supposed to, nor did it go over very well. I'm all for 6 free credits...I guess if you're at the top of the pay scale, though, or don't think you could benefit from additional support in the areas of rigor and relevance, you wouldn't see why you should do it. Today's whole thing just showed me that we need more practice or even direct instruction on what rigor, relevance, and quadrant D are all about. Quadrant D has nothing to do with whether or not the lesson is differentiated for all students...it would help if the lesson was differentiated, but that has nothing to do with whether it is or is not D. Finding the area of something DOES have to do with math.

MyAccess takes a lot longer than I thought it would. Well, we only did it with co-teach so far, but just going through with the kids the rules for using the computer, the login and password, getting to the starting point, took almost a period. Today we had the kids actually start writing and they take FOREVER and a day cuz they don't know how to type. I'm appalled at their typing skills. I swear we had typing every year in elementary and in intermediate to teach us the proper way to type. These kids one finger type, two finger at best. It's ridiculous.

JayJay came over today...Dave stayed home with him while my mom and I went to Sam's Club...he threw a fit almost the whole time we were gone. Dave tried everything to keep him entertained but he was fussy as heck. We got home, I took him, he calmed down. I think he just likes females better. Later on, though, he started fussing. Then he proceeded to drink his whole bottle and eat two of his baby mum mum crackers...he wasn't fussy, he was just starving!!!

Reading some literature on saving money for groceries. Gotta figure out how Dave and I are going to survive if I stay home next year and our income takes a dip. I'm amazed at how much money we spend on food, and we don't even eat out that much. I wonder how people make ends meet when they do eat out more often! And we're trying to do the whole unplug all our appliances during the day to see if it will make a difference in our electricity bill, which to me should be under $100, but hasn't been for a few months now.

Kay, dat's all. I figured I'd write something to waste more time....hehe.

pics from Haleakala and with JayJay

Back to the daily grind...

Say it with me...CRAP!! Where did our break go??

I gotta say that Jay's right. When you want a break to last long, you should just stay home and cruise. Going on a trip and doing stuff just makes it fly by so dang fast; next thing you know, it's back to school. The Maui trip was fine (Meet the Fockers V) and quite relaxing, but it's not the same relaxation you get at your own home. You don't get to fart freely, snore away, watch all the soft porn you can, and (don't laugh) but really, really plan lessons for the coming week. I think I can get away with pretty much winging it tomorrow but I sure do need to plan how to start this quarter off well so that my kids do better. Guarantee that my kids have forgotten most of what they did in the first quarter, so at least I can review stuff for the first couple of days, but after that, I for real gotta plan. I wish I was more efficient and actually did some planning during the break. What's worse is that I have no prep tomorrow, got cross country practice after school, and class after that. Sheesh. AND Wednesday we got doctor's appt. AND Friday we have a cross country meet at Kapiolani Park. Dang. This week is getting hella full.

Yay. We went to another Teacher's Institute Day. Usually I don't listen to the speeches at all, but today I actually listened a little bit. It was actually not bad. Semi-interesting.

Then we went to eat lunch at Old Spaghetti Factory. Dangit, that was my choice, and it sucked. The food didn't suck (except for the pewb in Mark's lasagna), but being in a hot, sticky, yucky restaurant with no a.c. and being seated by the biggest, hottest window in the place definitely did suck. But the company was good...hehe. Conversation was good...hehe. My stomach is super full and I'm trying not to take a nap so that I can get a good night's rest tonight.

2nd quarter starts tomorrow. Nutts. I'm going to take full advantage of looking at the quarterly assessment to help me figure out what I gotta weed out and change in curriculum this quarter. I'm so glad to finally have someone else to bounce ideas off of and share stuff with this year...I've missed that since moving up to 8th grade!!! I think it's funny when J tells me that he always thought our department was so united and on the same page...I would never think that about us...we are the epitome of "do your own thing." In some ways I've liked that for the past couple years, but now that I know what it's like to reciprocally share curriculum again, I'm appreciative.

Kay, I better go figure out what's going on for my week.

We've returned to real life. No more laying around like lazy bums all day. Today was actually pretty productive...all our laundry is done, kitchen is more sparkling clean than it was even when we moved in here (thanks, Deena, for mentioning scrubbing floors like Cinderella...I had to try it, and though it sucks to do, the floor feels SO much better), we no longer have a moldy shower curtain liner, Dave's hair is cut, grades are done. Now I'm about to go to bed and Dave is playing his baseball game because Boston has a game tomorrow and if he doesn't play and win his playstation baseball game using Boston, he jinxes them from winning (he believes this...I guess others could probably understand, tho I don't).

About the grading...I have a nagging yucky feeling in my stomach because though I tried to do the whole standards based grading with summative and formative assessments separate and a 5 point scale, I still don't think it reflects whether the students really "met the standard." Here's the breakdown...33 As, 77 Bs, 17 Cs, 1 D. That just seems weird to me. And the thing is, to get an A you had to have 5s on all your summative assessments AND only one formative that was not 100%. That seemed like it would make it very difficult to get an A, which I think it should be, but still, 33 students got As. Like I told Leish, I'm not trying to be like the thick-glasses guy, but sheez, seems to me like more kids should be doing worse. Isn't that messed up thinking??? The part that bothers me most, though, is the Bs...there are some kids who got 4.93 or something like that who got a B and others who got 4.0 and still got a B. Now when I look at them as students individually and the kind of work they did, no way do I think they deserve the same grade. Not at all. But I don't know how to justify giving the 4.0 kid a C, which is what I think she deserves, going on my thinking that A/B is meets, C/D is approaches. The fault of it still lies in the averaging part. Cuz to me, if you never meet on all your summatives, you shouldn't meet on your final grade. But I never set um up like that for this quarter, so some of their grades are skewed. I gotta rethink the whole thing for the rest of the year.

K-den, back to the reality of sku in another day.

We traveled to Haleakala this morning. Whoever thought of the idea of getting up at 3:30, driving 40 miles up winding roads, freezing your butt, and looking at the sun rise over clouds was mento. Heehee. Dave and I never do anything interesting when we come home to Maui so I figured I'd indulge him just this once...and tho the sunrise was pretty (kay, I lie, I'm not much of a nature-beauty lover...looked exactly like a sunset to me except not as colorful)...the ride up sucked. It was dark and super wind-y (like winding, not wind filled) and this stupid jeep behind us wouldn't let up. Add to that the urge to pee got pretty urgent and my side pain from sitting down for so long (and driving) was getting ridiculous, and I don't think I'll ever do this again. Dave drove down, which made for a nicer ride, but still, all in all, the 30 minutes of cuddling in a blanket watching the sunrise could have been achieved in a nice comfy bed at home. Heehee. I thought the stop at Komoda's to grab some donuts and cream puffs would make it all better, but the bill ended up being $20, which is ridiculous to me. Anyways, now Dave and my dad are outside, prepping for some weed-whacking. How the heck do you spell that?? I love that I'm pregnant and that there's Dave here instead of just me cuz otherwise it would be my butt out there in the hot a$$ sun doing these ridiculous yardwork chores. And my dad has a way of starting out with one chore that then turns into several other ones that you didn't sign up for. I'll be a good daughter and wife and make them some ice water in a little bit.

Wow...being on Maui makes me even MORE lazy. Sheez. We got here on Saturday and have done absolutely nothing productive since then. The biggest thing we did was wash the car. I've cooked, but beyond that, nothing. We spent the first half with my mom, who though she got a new computer, has no internet due to the fact that she was still living in the ice ages with dial up, but this new computer has no modem to handle ice age dial up so now she finally has to get road runner. But she leaves for Korea tomorrow and the lady she knows that works at Oceanic is on vacation right now so she wants to wait until that lady gets back. Lahaina, I tell you...everything you do has to revolve around the person you know that works at the place you trying to get it from. How she even knew that the lady was on vacation (to Disneyland with her family, no less) is beyond me. Oahu is so different...who even knows anybody there? Lahaina, you know everybody, when they're on vacation, where they went, why they went, and that their mom had to go Oahu to go watch the other sister's kids while they were gone so only the man stay home cuz he gotta watch the dog. Seriously.

Anyways, surprisingly my dad guys actually have digital phone, tv, and road runner (guess who had to suggest this to them??? Waiehu is even more ice age than Lahaina!). So Dave got his fantasy football fix, I got to catch up on blog reading, and now I actually get to post something. Yay.

Our plans for the rest of our vacation...go Haleakala to watch the sunrise tomorrow morning (Dave's idea...better than driving our butts all the way to Hana...), visit my aunty guys, baby shower for my cousin on Saturday. Then we're back to the hullabaloo of Oahu and school. GRRRReat. See you guys later.

Today was unbelievably better than expected. Maybe I should have a thought that each day is going to be super crappy so when it actually occurs, I can feel thankful that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. This was the first dance I've been at where there's been so much teacher presence that the kids couldn't help but be better. Granted, kids got busted and pulled to detention (GO LAUREN!!!), but I seriously thought I'd be walking my butt back and forth to K1 and I actually didn't pull anyone at all!!! I'm thinking other teachers must have done the lecture thing too cuz it wasn't only my kids that were talking about the "new" rules. All in all, I was VERY impressed with the behavior at the dance today.

Here's two things, though, that are still problems...

• I didn't see admin at all during the dance (Dave said he saw admin outside the gym, by B building...hmmm....)
  
• You can't play booty music that has particular booty moves that go along with it and expect the kids NOT to dance that way (ex/ocho ocho or whatever the heck it's called and pop, lock, and drop)
  

Anyways, yay for the dance, yay for being pau with the first quarter, yay for a week of vacation. See ya all laters...Dave and I will be on Maui for the week, and though we do get internet there, I dunno how much we'll actually be able to get connected, seeing as how my mom still has dial up (way too slow for my patience level) and my dad doesn't see the benefit of being online so we probs won't get to go on the computer that much when we're with him. Have a wonderfully relaxing break!!!

I'm looking in my crystal ball and here's what I see....tomorrow's dance is going to be a bunch of the same ol' shirt again. There will be half of the teachers at the dance who are actually supposed to be there, then only about 3 of those teachers will actually be doing something productive. Most will be congregating by the doors, a few will be standing along the edges of the kids dancing. 3 will be walking through the crowd, breaking up kids dancing like sex-crazed maniacs. I will be irritated as crap that my pregnant ass is standing in the hot crowd, busting kids. Kids will hate me because I will actually take their stupid asses to the detention room, where they will have to stay for the WHOLE time. Nothing will get better, same old lazy asses will get away with being their same old lazy asses, and we'll come back to school after a week to start a shiny happy new quarter. Teachers who have the "I don't give a rip" attitude will look down upon those teachers who are actually doing what they're supposed to be doing...like the crabs in the bucket that they are. GRRRR.

Now I know some will call me pessimistic, but I think I'm being REALISTIC. Who busts teachers that don't do what they're supposed to do? What kind of school thinks it's okay for ONE freakin' administrator to be at a freakin' dance? Actually, we're freakin' lucky even one damn admin is going to be there because at the last dance we had ZERO....due to a freakin' video conference occurring in the air conditioned library that all three had to be at. Would've been small kine nice if the directives about teachers having to be where they're supposed to tomorrow and teachers doing what they're supposed to tomorrow actually had come from admin, but of course, that would make too much sense. "Let someone else be the bad guy. That's what I get paid the big bucks for."

So would I feel better if I just took the "I don't give a rip" attitude too? No, because like I told my kids today (they got the FULL ON raised eyebrow, don't get stupid with me, I'm a raging hormonal pregnant lady lecture today), as a gonna-be parent, I would NEVER want to go to a dance and see my kid getting disgusting on the dance floor like some of these kids do. And I would NEVER want a parent to come to me rightfully and say, "How could you stand by and watch my kid dance like that and not do something about it?" I know I can't control all the kids and what they do, but frick, I can't stand by and let them simulate sex on the dance floor and get away thinking that behavior is acceptable.

Yay...it's Baseball Playoffs time. Now I don't only have to have the tv dominated by Dave playing his baseball game, I actually have to sit and watch baseball on tv. He did warn me a few weeks ago that Boston was going to be in the playoffs, that he would be watching it on tv and listening to it on the radio, and that if I try to have conversation with him while he's paying attention to that, I'm not going to be happy cuz he's going to ignore me. He thinks his honesty will make a difference...how many of you out there think that I'm going to be trying to have a conversation with Dave, have him ignore me, then realize that it's because baseball is on and be all good with it??? Yea right. Nah, maybe that will be my challenge to myself...give him some love by showing him I respect his baseball obsession. Yea, that's going to happen just as soon as everybody in our school changes their mentality on standards based teaching and grading and when the GT keepers relent and realize that they aren't GODS and don't have full reign over GT universe. Basically, never.

Yea, how was that meeting today??? If I were a guy, I might have dirtied my pants when Eubanks started talking about the whole late work issue, grading practices, and giving ALL students a rigorous curriculum. I wanted to stand on a table and jump around. I wanted to do the Zoloft loud laugh of pure excitement.

You know what freakin' eats me everytime we talk about rigorous curriculum, though...GT is always equated with RIGOR. I don't know what universe we live in, but I haven't heard very much from any of our GT teachers about how their curriculum is differentiated in a way that creates more rigor for those students. If they are in actuality creating a WONDERFULLY RIGOROUS curriculum for their GT students, then by all means, share that sh** with the rest of us...but only if it's standards-based and actually incorporates REAL RIGOR AND RELEVANCE. Otherwise, peeps needs to realize that GT DOES NOT in any way equal rigor. Frick.

Yeah..so..

That was an exciting meeting.
I was actually glad that Boss said those things regarding GT and Algebra, etc...but then it sucks that one of her main reasons for doing it is because of budget cuts. I mean, if it weren't for the budget cuts, we still would have Algebra and GT? Sheesh.
Anyway, Ms. Eubanks did a great job explaining why it should be that way, and I hope the people who needed to hear it, heard it (and pondered.."Hmm..this sounds familiar. I think I read it in an e-mail sometime last year when we were talking about Algebra....).