Early Release Day

Mindless, wasted day. School ends at 12:10. Must include Art and Lunch. Must give at least an hour for the Math PreTest (which most everyone BOMBED). Bathroom breaks. Oh, yes. It is also PICTURE DAY!!!!! Are you kidding me? Guess how much genuine instruction I got in? That would be none.

After school was dismissed, we had to take the faculty picture on the playscape (0n which I climbed to the top because I wore my khaki walking shorts and tennis shoes - hey, don't judge, it's 86 freaking degrees here!!! and it was jean day) and then we had PROFESSIONAL LEARNING.

I've had about all the professional learning I can take. We had to read and "jigsaw" (fancy term for reading and giving a book report) a chapter about data and data teams; we had to meet as a grade level team about data and then we had to meet in the big group and report on data. We didn't leave until nearly four o'clock. That's three hours I'll never get back.

103 in the Shade

Help me Oprah. Today, something went bonkers with the learning cottage thermostat and after lunch, we got up to 89 degrees. I sent for the principal. Oprah love my little learners, they wanted to know what they had done wrong. "Nothing, darlings. We are just dying from heat exhaustion and I want the principal to get an understanding of our duress." We limped through the end of the day and the compressor finally kicked on, but I swear, I melted. My cute haircut looks like something I cannot describe.

My principal is a saint and she has promised help. Relief. Aid. Another trailer is still having trouble and a first grade classroom inside the building has no air at all. I can't complain if the six year olds are suffering.

Granted, my kids wanted to whine, but they managed to hold it together. I was proud of them. I was ready to throw in the towel, but they just wanted water and some peace and quiet. And I gave it to them.

It's Too Hot to Care... No Wonder Scarlett Had to Rest

This has been some week. I nearly died from heat stroke in my trailer on Monday. It is going to be 101 degrees here tomorrow. Whatever I've done, I'm sorry. This is pretty much purgatory. Can't we all just be sprung for what we've done?

Usually, it rains like cats and dogs on our school's Open House. Tomorrow morning is our open house. Here's hoping that it works this for us again this year.

Yesterday, I spent the entire day in "Professional Learning." I learned that I am a better teacher than some of the presenters. I learned that I work with some really cool people. I learned that I don't have to teach science this year. But I really learned that if you are going to send 5000 teachers to one meeting place, you had better have a parking plan in place and a way to get them all home in a hurry. You see, I sat in a bottle necked parking lot for an hour yesterday in that 100 degree weather. All the inspiration the county had hoped to instill in me just drip, drip, dripped away as I melted in that traffic, watching the clock tick and the gas on TeacherGuy's gauge just evaporate.


One more day of preplanning and then it all starts again. Can you believe it? I can't.