marathon week

It's been a whirlwind week. I have the night "off" to catch my breath and shirk off a sickness I feel coming. Please sit back and enjoy the ride of my week as I recount it here in semi-full form.

My week started with Opening Faculty meeting @ school on Monday. It was good to see old friends and meet the newbies of the year, 13 total. We had a good catered breakfast followed by business items. Lunch was also provided followed with more meetings. I came home around 3:00, watched 10 minutes of tv and then left to get new glasses. After choosing new glasses, I met my mom, Hilary, Cassidy, Grandma Ella and others at the Murray Park Amphitheater for "Peter Pan." It was a darling production, even though I left at intermission (which was @ 9:30) because I was sleepy!

They told me on Monday that I'd be moving rooms in December (oh, joy) because they are putting a new computer lab in my room. I'll be moving down the hall, where the new English teacher is currently. When I move into her room, she'll move out to the portables...sucks for her. I can't say that I'm thrilled about the new arrangement, however, but the fact that my new room has 2-year old computers (compared to my 8-year old computers) made the deal a little better. I've already enlisted the help of the English department for a moving day.

Tuesday I got to school at 8. I worked in my room for one hour, mostly rearranging the desks formerly in rows into tables of 3. I'm trying a new thing with tables this year. At 9, I had department meeting. We discussed text book inventory and the English core, amongst other 'side notes.' I was out of that meeting by 10, back in my room for more classroom prep. Last year I couldn't wait to prep my room and put up bulletin boards, but this year it took a bit of time before I was motivated to actually start.

I spent a few hours just setting up my computer, figuring out where I'd put stuff from last year, and writing a to do list. Once I finally buckled down, I approached the daunting task of making bulletin boards. The worst part of this task is the actual measuring of the paper and stapling of the paper to the board. I never get enough paper so I always have to go back, and then I get too much. Then I have to put up the boarders...and apparently over the summer I became a perfectionist, so I had to re-do several boarders because they were a tad crooked. Then, I realized I'd forgotten a bunch of bulletin board stuff at home, so I resolved to simply get the background paper up and finish Wednesday.

We had another meeting at 1 to 2. This year I'm on a new committee in charge of the new Parent Center at school as well as School-Wide Emergency planning, Home Connections, and Teacher/Staff Social Moral. This will hopefully be a better fit than the committee I was on last year, which was essentially in charge of school data. Blah.

I worked in my room until 2:45...when the fire alarm went off...and then came home. I dashed into the shower, dashed to get ready, and by 4:00, we were out the door, on our way to Bountiful for Johnny and Laci's wedding rehearsal/dinner. The rehearsal, which was supposed to last from 5 to 6 actually lasted from about 5:30 to 6:30. After that, we all went to The Outback in Layton for dinner (thanks, dad Hubert for the crab legs!) We had a good dinner and good visits with the family before heading home around 9:00. We got home at 10:00 and I tried hard to get to bed.

Wednesday I got to school at 6, basically meeting the janitors with the keys at the door. I knew I'd have to leave earlier than 2:45 in order to make it to the wedding for pictures at 4:30 (which, by the way didn't really happen, either). So, at 6, I finished working on bulletin boards. I was completely done with those at 9 and moved onto setting up my online gradebook. My largest class has 35 students, my smallest is 23. My yearbook and newspaper classes are mostly full of my former 8th grade students, most of which I can stand to have again.

I met with the English teacher next to me, Ms. VK, and we planned our first two weeks of the 8th grade classes. We're going to try to work collaboratively this year, which I'm thrilled about. We met for about 1-2 hours, after which I responded to a few e-mails, did some copies (probably 20 trees worth of paper), and then left to get some lunch and make a quick stop at Staples.

I ate at 12:30, worked on my computer again, and sent stuff to be laminated. By 1:30, I started cleaning up my room and destroying confidential information from last year. I stopped in to talk with Ms. VK and another teacher for about 20 minutes and finally got out the door at 2:10.

After yet another quick shower and get ready, we drove up to Bountiful for the wedding. The wedding, which was supposed to start at 6, started at 6:15 and lasted maybe 15 minutes. Then we had family pictures....and with the Hubert boys, that's no easy feat (I love them though). The reception started at 7, we danced at 9, and Johnny and Laci left in a limo by 9:30. All of their presents fit in our Subaru, so we drove them to the parents Hubert's house, arriving at 10:30. We stayed to chat about the nights events until 11:30 or so and got home and in bed by 12:15. I was so so tired.

I gt to school this morning at 8 and went straight for the catered breakfast, which wasn't very appetizing, but better than nothing. We had a training session from 8:30 to 10 on lesson plan writing, another training session on peer coaching and teacher habits from 10:30-12. Lunch came catered again at 12 to 1. Our last meeting went from 1 to 3. The last meeting was kind of a joke because they wanted the teachers to create school-wide policies on things like hall passes and ASD's. Everyone is opinionated on these issues, everyone had to put in their two cents, and it just went on and on.

I left as soon as that meeting was over, looking forward to a night 'off' and relaxing at home. When I got home, guess who greeted me at the door (who isn't supposed to ever be at the door)? Zeus. Somehow, he'd escaped from his kennel today and since Ben was at school all day, Zeus had a free-day in our house and basically destroyed a bunch of stuff that if I think about I'll cry again. There was oatmeal all over the floor, chewed up plastic baggies, my bike helmet in pieces, and the wooden handle of my purse busted in smithereens. The worst situation of the bunch is that he chewed the back heel of my favorite shoes...my white platforms that make me tall. When I saw that I cried and screamed and was so upset. I know they can be replaced, but it still irks me. When he's out of his kennel while we're home, we're good to keep all items in a place where he can't get to it. This, unfortunately wasn't the case today. Ben got home shortly after, told me to take a nap, and he spent almost one hour cleaning it up, bless his heart. Needless to say, Zeus man is in his kennel for the night to think about what he's done.

Phew. I'm sure none of you are still reading this novel-length week updated, but, in truth, that's all I had to write about. There's my week in a nutshell...a big nutshell. I have to go to school tomorrow to make up for missing Back to School night last night. I still have plenty to do before Monday comes.

FYI--my next post will probably be on Teacher's Tale, since I'm going back to being a teacher again.