Where do I begin? (warning: LONG POST)
March madness is definitely the key word (or words, I guess) here. No, I am not an NCAA basketball fan in any way, shape, or form. I am more referring to the insanity that has been the last two weeks. Where do I start?
Well, I started off the week of 3/12 with a bang, and a speeding ticket. My first ever ticket. I got caught in a speed trap in Atco. It is 35 most of the way, except through this stretch in the middle of Atco where it goes down to 25. In the three years I have had this job, I don't think I have ever gone slower than 35. Well, I was clocked at 42. On top of that, I had an expired insurance card (I could have sworn I put the new one in my car--I bet I accidentally threw out the new one and kept the old one). So, I got a ticket for that too. Then, the cop pointed out that none of my brake lights came on when I pulled over. He was nice enough not to give me a ticket for that, but this was obviously a serious problem, so I was car-less on Tuesday, since the car had to go to the shop and have the lights fixed. I ended up with two tickets, one for the insurance card, and the other for speeding. He only wrote speed at 34 on the ticket, to get me two, rather than four points on my license. I have to go to traffic court. If I can prove I was insured at the time I was pulled over, they will drop that charge. I also have to talk to the prosecutor about dropping my ticket to zero points (I am told they do this all the time).
During school that week, things were pretty much insane. All of my music lessons were canceled and I had a completely whacked out schedule because of state testing. Tuesday, was a half day, with conferences in the evening. Now normally, as a related arts teacher, I am not involved in conferences. However, my fellow middle school colleagues decided this year that it was unfair that we don't usually have conferences, and scheduled us a booked-solid schedule of 'round robins' (basically group conferences, with all of the student's teachers, the parent, and sometimes the student), without asking us. About half of these students are not a problem for me, and many were not even requested by the parent. I guess my middle school colleagues forget the amount of extra work we do with related arts: the various performances we have to put on during the year, the prep-work that goes into running an instrumental music department, the extra hours we spent finishing the yearbook.
And the yearbook was probably the biggest issue here. Our deadline was 3/19, but I wanted to have everything submitted before Friday, so that we didn't have to worry about it for the weekend. My plan was to get it all done during conference times, but since we were booked solid, this was not a possibility.
On Tuesday, after our early dismissal (12:45), Meggie and Maddie came up to school to keep me company. The art teacher and I worked on the yearbook until about 5 or so, when Meg and I had to go pick up my car from the shop. Then, we had the conferences at night (more on those later). Wednesday, we stayed till 6 or so, and then I had to go home to teach a lesson. Thursday, we were at school till after 8, when we had all by 5 pages submitted. Those remaining five had to wait until we could get approval (they were ads) and we needed one more picture. As of Friday 3/16, the yearbook was finished. Now, we still have about 30 pages of proofs coming our way, but we were very thorough when we made these pages, so hopefully they won't require a lot of corrections. The book looks great, though! I truly learned the ins and outs of Adobe InDesign, and created some really nice spreads. All I can say, is that there is a major weight off of my shoulders now.
Back to the conferences, despite being rather annoyed that I was involuntarily included in these round robins, I decided to make the best of it and prepare. For each parent I would see. I printed out a student summary report, and noted areas of strengths and weaknesses. I had a general idea of what I was going to say, and felt ready to deal with the parents. Tuesday night, of the 6 RRs I had scheduled, TWO parents actually showed up. Good to know how much these parents care about the child's education. Wednesday and Thursday were better, but in several of the conferences, it felt like a major waste to even be there. The 'core' subject teachers pretty much monopolized the whole thing. And the related arts teachers got like a minute to say something, if they were lucky. What a waste.
Friday was back to normal. No testing, a full school day. However, I had some major preparing to do for the following week. Every year, I have to teach on the stage during the 2nd week of testing. First off, I make too much noise (hey, I am the music teacher, what do you want?), and I am right by the elementary classrooms (who are testing this week), so I get moved. Also, they need to use my room for special ed. testing. My first year, I was not happy at all about this, but I have learned to live with it. I kinda think of it like a teaching 'vacation.' I get to pack up all of my stuff, and teach somewhere else for a week, and then come 'home' to my regular classroom. Well, my goal was to move everything I needed to teach the next week (my keyboard, whiteboard, all percussion instruments, TV cart, lesson materials, music stands, etc.) on Friday after school. Well, an ice storm, prevented that from happening. I moved about one cartload worth of stuff, and decided to get home before the roads got any icier. What I contrast to the last weekend, which felt like spring. The ice eventually turned to snow. When it was all said and done, we got about 3 inches.
Friday's ice storm prevented us from getting a head start on shopping for Maddie's christening on Sunday. We cleaned as much as we could, but were both exhausted, and didn't get a whole lot done. Saturday, we went to Wal-Mart and Sam's and did all of the shopping (groceries, and for the party), then spent the rest of the day cleaning, and getting ready for the party. Meg's family arrived in the evening, and bought us take-out from Bella Vita.
Sunday, we got up early to finish getting everything ready. Then, we were off to the church, in two cars, so I could drop Max and his crate off at my parents so we wouldn't have to listen to him bark all day. The baptism at church went very well. Maddie was cute and smiley, and didn't cry at all. The party was also a major success, despite having bought WAY too much food. But, it made for some really good leftovers. Below are a few pictures. Click the link below the picture to jump to the web album to see more.
Well, I started off the week of 3/12 with a bang, and a speeding ticket. My first ever ticket. I got caught in a speed trap in Atco. It is 35 most of the way, except through this stretch in the middle of Atco where it goes down to 25. In the three years I have had this job, I don't think I have ever gone slower than 35. Well, I was clocked at 42. On top of that, I had an expired insurance card (I could have sworn I put the new one in my car--I bet I accidentally threw out the new one and kept the old one). So, I got a ticket for that too. Then, the cop pointed out that none of my brake lights came on when I pulled over. He was nice enough not to give me a ticket for that, but this was obviously a serious problem, so I was car-less on Tuesday, since the car had to go to the shop and have the lights fixed. I ended up with two tickets, one for the insurance card, and the other for speeding. He only wrote speed at 34 on the ticket, to get me two, rather than four points on my license. I have to go to traffic court. If I can prove I was insured at the time I was pulled over, they will drop that charge. I also have to talk to the prosecutor about dropping my ticket to zero points (I am told they do this all the time).
During school that week, things were pretty much insane. All of my music lessons were canceled and I had a completely whacked out schedule because of state testing. Tuesday, was a half day, with conferences in the evening. Now normally, as a related arts teacher, I am not involved in conferences. However, my fellow middle school colleagues decided this year that it was unfair that we don't usually have conferences, and scheduled us a booked-solid schedule of 'round robins' (basically group conferences, with all of the student's teachers, the parent, and sometimes the student), without asking us. About half of these students are not a problem for me, and many were not even requested by the parent. I guess my middle school colleagues forget the amount of extra work we do with related arts: the various performances we have to put on during the year, the prep-work that goes into running an instrumental music department, the extra hours we spent finishing the yearbook.
And the yearbook was probably the biggest issue here. Our deadline was 3/19, but I wanted to have everything submitted before Friday, so that we didn't have to worry about it for the weekend. My plan was to get it all done during conference times, but since we were booked solid, this was not a possibility.
On Tuesday, after our early dismissal (12:45), Meggie and Maddie came up to school to keep me company. The art teacher and I worked on the yearbook until about 5 or so, when Meg and I had to go pick up my car from the shop. Then, we had the conferences at night (more on those later). Wednesday, we stayed till 6 or so, and then I had to go home to teach a lesson. Thursday, we were at school till after 8, when we had all by 5 pages submitted. Those remaining five had to wait until we could get approval (they were ads) and we needed one more picture. As of Friday 3/16, the yearbook was finished. Now, we still have about 30 pages of proofs coming our way, but we were very thorough when we made these pages, so hopefully they won't require a lot of corrections. The book looks great, though! I truly learned the ins and outs of Adobe InDesign, and created some really nice spreads. All I can say, is that there is a major weight off of my shoulders now.
Back to the conferences, despite being rather annoyed that I was involuntarily included in these round robins, I decided to make the best of it and prepare. For each parent I would see. I printed out a student summary report, and noted areas of strengths and weaknesses. I had a general idea of what I was going to say, and felt ready to deal with the parents. Tuesday night, of the 6 RRs I had scheduled, TWO parents actually showed up. Good to know how much these parents care about the child's education. Wednesday and Thursday were better, but in several of the conferences, it felt like a major waste to even be there. The 'core' subject teachers pretty much monopolized the whole thing. And the related arts teachers got like a minute to say something, if they were lucky. What a waste.
Friday was back to normal. No testing, a full school day. However, I had some major preparing to do for the following week. Every year, I have to teach on the stage during the 2nd week of testing. First off, I make too much noise (hey, I am the music teacher, what do you want?), and I am right by the elementary classrooms (who are testing this week), so I get moved. Also, they need to use my room for special ed. testing. My first year, I was not happy at all about this, but I have learned to live with it. I kinda think of it like a teaching 'vacation.' I get to pack up all of my stuff, and teach somewhere else for a week, and then come 'home' to my regular classroom. Well, my goal was to move everything I needed to teach the next week (my keyboard, whiteboard, all percussion instruments, TV cart, lesson materials, music stands, etc.) on Friday after school. Well, an ice storm, prevented that from happening. I moved about one cartload worth of stuff, and decided to get home before the roads got any icier. What I contrast to the last weekend, which felt like spring. The ice eventually turned to snow. When it was all said and done, we got about 3 inches.
Friday's ice storm prevented us from getting a head start on shopping for Maddie's christening on Sunday. We cleaned as much as we could, but were both exhausted, and didn't get a whole lot done. Saturday, we went to Wal-Mart and Sam's and did all of the shopping (groceries, and for the party), then spent the rest of the day cleaning, and getting ready for the party. Meg's family arrived in the evening, and bought us take-out from Bella Vita.
Sunday, we got up early to finish getting everything ready. Then, we were off to the church, in two cars, so I could drop Max and his crate off at my parents so we wouldn't have to listen to him bark all day. The baptism at church went very well. Maddie was cute and smiley, and didn't cry at all. The party was also a major success, despite having bought WAY too much food. But, it made for some really good leftovers. Below are a few pictures. Click the link below the picture to jump to the web album to see more.
Maddie posing in her Christening gown for the camera.
Then, after a no-weekend weekend, it was back to another insane week of school.
This was I was on stage all week. In the last two years, things didn't go so well on stage. I ended up having some major behavior issues (like an entire 7th grade class diving under the curtain and leaping off the stage at the same time--I'm serious). This time around, it was much better. I ended up turning the stage into a pretty good classroom. The week was actually much easier than last, mainly because the yearbook was done, but I also had my regular schedule back.
Today (Friday), was the only day I school that I stayed really late. I had to move all of my equipment back to my room. Next week is just another normal week, but the marking period will be over soon, so I my next major project is to grade a ton of stuff. Then, in 12 days, 14 hours, 39 minutes, and 31 seconds, SPRING BREAK arrives. Our little early preview of summer.
Tonight, Maddie and I went shopping by ourselves, cause Meggie is feeling sick. It was fun with it being just the two of us. I managed to push the stroller and a cart through Wal-Mart.
I am looking forward to a much more relaxing weekend. I would love to get outside and do some more yard work, but the forecast is all rain tomorrow. We are probably going to get area rugs for the living room and the playroom 'quadrant' of the family room. I also need to move the third wall unit from my parents over to our house. Then, I have a bunch of poster projects to grade, and a handbell performance on Sunday morning.
I feel better already haven gotten these last two weeks out of my mind and into this blog. Now I can relax. First, let's start with some sleep.
I leave you with an ADORABLE picture of Maddie.
This was I was on stage all week. In the last two years, things didn't go so well on stage. I ended up having some major behavior issues (like an entire 7th grade class diving under the curtain and leaping off the stage at the same time--I'm serious). This time around, it was much better. I ended up turning the stage into a pretty good classroom. The week was actually much easier than last, mainly because the yearbook was done, but I also had my regular schedule back.
Today (Friday), was the only day I school that I stayed really late. I had to move all of my equipment back to my room. Next week is just another normal week, but the marking period will be over soon, so I my next major project is to grade a ton of stuff. Then, in 12 days, 14 hours, 39 minutes, and 31 seconds, SPRING BREAK arrives. Our little early preview of summer.
Tonight, Maddie and I went shopping by ourselves, cause Meggie is feeling sick. It was fun with it being just the two of us. I managed to push the stroller and a cart through Wal-Mart.
I am looking forward to a much more relaxing weekend. I would love to get outside and do some more yard work, but the forecast is all rain tomorrow. We are probably going to get area rugs for the living room and the playroom 'quadrant' of the family room. I also need to move the third wall unit from my parents over to our house. Then, I have a bunch of poster projects to grade, and a handbell performance on Sunday morning.
I feel better already haven gotten these last two weeks out of my mind and into this blog. Now I can relax. First, let's start with some sleep.
I leave you with an ADORABLE picture of Maddie.
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