Yesterday I messed up. I ran some errands on my lunch break and they took much longer than I anticipated. Burgerville was very busy, so I had to wait quite awhile to get my fundraiser paperwork taken care of. Then I was off to the post office for the bulk mail ordeal to get our school newsletters out. The bulk mail lady is a lot of fun, but she is always changing the rules about how the paperwork is done. I had four letters that had non-973 zip codes, and I kept them carefully separate. Another postal helper was hanging around back there pretending to be helpful, leaning on the scales and making her wonder why the weight kept changing, etc. By the time we finally got done with the paperwork, we noticed the four separate newsletters were gone. So was the "helper". So we had to look through all 655 newsletters to find the odd ones that he had helpfully stuck in the middle!
So I didn't get back to the office until about 10 minutes after school let out. I sat down at my desk and surveyed the chaos. To my dismay, a note I had written to a 6th grade girl still sat there. "Ride bus to Boys and Girls Club." This could be a problem. I called the mother, reaching her on the third number I called, and confessed my error with deepest apologies. The mother said she had been called to work, and the child would have ridden the bus home where she would be able to get inside. Mom was very nice, but she really didn't want the kid home alone all evening.
This mother has been in several times so we're acquainted. I offered to get the child and drive her to the club if she was comfortable with it. I was a little surprised when she took me up on the offer, but I felt like it was the least I could do since I didn't send the note out.
The child is a sweetheart and we had a nice drive together. I pulled one of my usual tricks, so engrossed in our chat that I turned off too early, so we took some back streets to the Club. She said she had no idea you could get there that way! I told her I wanted to show her the beautiful dogwood trees blooming along that route!
When I got back from lunch today, I was handed a card that a parent had dropped off for me. How unexpected. I opened it and read a very nice appreciative note from yesterday's mom, thanking me for going beyond her expectations. She enclosed a Dutch Brothers card with all 10 stamps, telling me to have a coffee on her and her daughter.
Knowing this is a single mother struggling financially, I was so touched, feeling like I had just received the widow's mite. Every time I looked at the card as it sat on my desk this afternoon, it made me teary eyed.
One appreciative parent and child make it worthwhile to put up with all the difficult ones!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesday update
The runaway kids have been found and returned.
The parking lot project is delayed pending further discussion.
I didn't hear anyone fretting about swine flu today.
My inbox is nearly overflowing again. I only worked 11 hours today.
I spent a good bit of time making arrangements for a fundraiser with Burgerville to raise money to get new workstations in our office. We both sit away from the front counter with old mismatched, tacky looking desks and computer desks. We are constantly hopping up and down to help people at the counter and would love to have a more professional, welcoming and efficient office space. But in the current economic climate, the only way it will happen is if we fundraise for it. I hate fundraising. But hopefully we will do well with Burgerville. We will wait tables there next Thursday May 7 from 5-8 and give away balloons to kids! So put it on your calendar!
My co-worker got chewed out by a parent and finally hung up on her. No one chewed me out today. I'm so lucky.
Will called from the posse camp and claims he is helping with a building project up there. Zeek and Bruce's dog are having a great time. Will was cooking a beef heart in the Dutch oven. Lucky Bruce. (We got a quarter of a beef last week.) Will claims to like beef heart. He sounds very cheerful and happy. So do I. I visited the library on my lunch break and have a fun new book to read. Here I come!
The parking lot project is delayed pending further discussion.
I didn't hear anyone fretting about swine flu today.
My inbox is nearly overflowing again. I only worked 11 hours today.
I spent a good bit of time making arrangements for a fundraiser with Burgerville to raise money to get new workstations in our office. We both sit away from the front counter with old mismatched, tacky looking desks and computer desks. We are constantly hopping up and down to help people at the counter and would love to have a more professional, welcoming and efficient office space. But in the current economic climate, the only way it will happen is if we fundraise for it. I hate fundraising. But hopefully we will do well with Burgerville. We will wait tables there next Thursday May 7 from 5-8 and give away balloons to kids! So put it on your calendar!
My co-worker got chewed out by a parent and finally hung up on her. No one chewed me out today. I'm so lucky.
Will called from the posse camp and claims he is helping with a building project up there. Zeek and Bruce's dog are having a great time. Will was cooking a beef heart in the Dutch oven. Lucky Bruce. (We got a quarter of a beef last week.) Will claims to like beef heart. He sounds very cheerful and happy. So do I. I visited the library on my lunch break and have a fun new book to read. Here I come!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday, Monday
Thank goodness another Monday is over. This morning when I got to work and checked on Aesop, which tells me all the subs scheduled for the day, I discovered that one job had been put in twice and two subs were coming. I quickly called one and was able to catch her before she came. She was not happy. The other sub came in and we discovered the child she was supposed to work with was absent, so we sent her home after an hour. These things do not make me popular. I picked up a phone call from a parent and listened to a lengthy explanation of why her child would be absent next week due the family taking a trip to visit a friend with terminal cancer. It is very difficult for me to diplomatically handle some of these calls when I have deadlines and lots of stuff happening.
Two of our students ran away together over the weekend, so there were phone calls from their parents and students being called down to be interviewed to find information about them. They are still missing.
A student came back from a week long trip to Mexico, and some people were freaking out about the possibility that he might be carrying swine flu.
A girl came down somewhat worried that she had ingested some Orajel. "It felt so good" on her gums she had used a bunch of it and then read on the package that you should call poison control if you ingested it. Turns out that it's a popular thing for a few girls right now, so that ring had to be busted. What are these kids thinking???
The morning flew by, and I tried to go to lunch at 11:00, but could not get out for 15 minutes because of constant calls. The custodian radioed, asking me to put in a work order to get a clogged toilet fixed. A teacher reported a restroom out of paper towels and blood on the floor, which I relayed to the custodian. A teacher called and told me I needed to cancel a purchase order I had done on Friday. The duplicator in the copy room next door had a major master roll jam and it was quite an inky ordeal to get everything unjammed. Fortunately I was wearing dark colors. A parent came in to pick up a child and told me all about a seven foot pet python a friend of hers had.
During my lunch break I went out and bought some weed killer to spray the clover in our yard while Will and Zeek are up at the posse camp. Will called me just as I was about to head back into the office. He is greatly enjoying the relaxing beauty up there with his cute entertaining puppy and his buddy Bruce. Although apparently Zeek got into something that caused some digestive problems on both ends, possibly during his unauthorized romp to the creek with another doggie friend up there. But being the good pup he is, he kept the nasty business outdoors.
On Friday, some trucks pulled up and portable cyclone fencing was put up around the big grassy area in the front half of our school that is not parking lot. We were told it was going to be turned into a parking lot for the high school next door. Instant uproar ensued, and it continued today with many safety and ecological concerns.There was a meeting after school,(which I avoided, having much paperwork to do and not enjoying meetings full of angry people) and a school board meeting tonight will take comments about it.
After school, a parent called, complaining that a hat confiscated from her child hadn't been returned to him. I expressed surprise that I had seen her son still wearing a hat in the hallway under those circumstances. She hung up, called back a few minutes later and said he told her he could wear them in the halls but not in classrooms. Obviously he knows better because it's been an ongoing issue, so she wanted me to know she has now confiscated all his hats for two weeks. Good job Mom.
After school, Nick dropped by to tell me he got an A on his chemistry test. He's doing so good this year. That made me very happy. I'm also very happy that Mr. Gilbert, our assistant principal, will be our principal next year. He is absolutely wonderful to work with.
Since Will was gone and Nick was doing homework, I stayed at work til almost 7 pm, going all the way through my inbox, doing my weekly update of announcements and calendar on our webpage, getting the calendar ready for our calendar meeting tomorrow, catching up on email, preparing some publicity for an upcoming fundraiser, and various other miscellaneous tasks.
So I'm all ready for a fresh start tomorrow.
Two of our students ran away together over the weekend, so there were phone calls from their parents and students being called down to be interviewed to find information about them. They are still missing.
A student came back from a week long trip to Mexico, and some people were freaking out about the possibility that he might be carrying swine flu.
A girl came down somewhat worried that she had ingested some Orajel. "It felt so good" on her gums she had used a bunch of it and then read on the package that you should call poison control if you ingested it. Turns out that it's a popular thing for a few girls right now, so that ring had to be busted. What are these kids thinking???
The morning flew by, and I tried to go to lunch at 11:00, but could not get out for 15 minutes because of constant calls. The custodian radioed, asking me to put in a work order to get a clogged toilet fixed. A teacher reported a restroom out of paper towels and blood on the floor, which I relayed to the custodian. A teacher called and told me I needed to cancel a purchase order I had done on Friday. The duplicator in the copy room next door had a major master roll jam and it was quite an inky ordeal to get everything unjammed. Fortunately I was wearing dark colors. A parent came in to pick up a child and told me all about a seven foot pet python a friend of hers had.
During my lunch break I went out and bought some weed killer to spray the clover in our yard while Will and Zeek are up at the posse camp. Will called me just as I was about to head back into the office. He is greatly enjoying the relaxing beauty up there with his cute entertaining puppy and his buddy Bruce. Although apparently Zeek got into something that caused some digestive problems on both ends, possibly during his unauthorized romp to the creek with another doggie friend up there. But being the good pup he is, he kept the nasty business outdoors.
On Friday, some trucks pulled up and portable cyclone fencing was put up around the big grassy area in the front half of our school that is not parking lot. We were told it was going to be turned into a parking lot for the high school next door. Instant uproar ensued, and it continued today with many safety and ecological concerns.There was a meeting after school,(which I avoided, having much paperwork to do and not enjoying meetings full of angry people) and a school board meeting tonight will take comments about it.
After school, a parent called, complaining that a hat confiscated from her child hadn't been returned to him. I expressed surprise that I had seen her son still wearing a hat in the hallway under those circumstances. She hung up, called back a few minutes later and said he told her he could wear them in the halls but not in classrooms. Obviously he knows better because it's been an ongoing issue, so she wanted me to know she has now confiscated all his hats for two weeks. Good job Mom.
After school, Nick dropped by to tell me he got an A on his chemistry test. He's doing so good this year. That made me very happy. I'm also very happy that Mr. Gilbert, our assistant principal, will be our principal next year. He is absolutely wonderful to work with.
Since Will was gone and Nick was doing homework, I stayed at work til almost 7 pm, going all the way through my inbox, doing my weekly update of announcements and calendar on our webpage, getting the calendar ready for our calendar meeting tomorrow, catching up on email, preparing some publicity for an upcoming fundraiser, and various other miscellaneous tasks.
So I'm all ready for a fresh start tomorrow.
Friday, April 17, 2009
The Week in Review
The week fortunately ended better than it started. Monday morning I got to work and immediately got calls that both administrators were out sick, and two subs for absent teachers called in sick. So I was on the phone finding two subs to replace the subs, which fortunately took only about four phone calls! The phones were going crazy, people had all kinds of demands, but finally the morning rush was over. Then a sweet hispanic woman came in and wanted proof that her two boys had completed 8th grade at our school in 1992 and 1993. I checked, but there are no computerized records from that far back. West Albany High School no longer had their files, and their printed transcript showed no middle school, with 10th grade being the highest. Her sons needed her to send some proof of their education to them in Mexico for something. It was difficult to communicate with her. I got out old yearbooks and saw that the boys had attended our school, but certainly I couldn't sign my principal's name in her absence certifying that they had completed middle school, especially since the high school transcript showed no enrollment for the older one the year the younger one would have been in 8th grade. And that year's yearbook was missing. I really wanted to help her and spent a lot of time trying to, but eventually she decided to try harder to find their promotion certificates. She showed up later that afternoon to show them to us - her daughter had found them. Yay, a happy ending!
There was no school the past two days due to Spring Conferences. Our reader board sign was rather crowded with all the information of dates and times, especially since the 8th grade DC trip people asked us to advertise their silent auction fundraiser which was going on during conferences. 8th grade students put the letters up, and the sign never looks as good as it did back in the day when Nick was doing it. He was trained by Randy Lary himself, the principal when he was in 6th grade, and Nick maintained the sign through all three years of middle school. (And several times since then when we were in a crunch or someone messed it up.) Nick actually texted me yesterday "Your sign looks terrible." There is somewhat of an art form to centering things and arranging the words to actually make sense. The sign said:
Conferences - Silent
Auction April 15 5-730
16 8-11 1-4 5-730
It didn't look great but I thought people could get the message.
Yesterday someone called and said, "What are silent conferences?" I was startled for a moment, then I remembered the sign. I was tempted to give a smart remark, like "It's when teachers sit at their computers and do email conferences." or "You go to the classroom and look at your student's work but no one can talk."
Had some good news and bad news this week. The good news, there will be no Late Start days next year. It has been such a pain this year, having from one to three Wednesdays a month when school starts two hours late, with no rhyme or reason to the schedule. Most people are schedule-challenged anyway, and this is just too heavy a burden for them to bear. They have to call every Wednesday to find out. Others just keep their kids home every other Wednesday. It's a constant surprise to them when they're wrong. So we in the office are very happy, knowing this will hugely cut down on phone calls and Wednesday tardies and absences.
The bad news is that we are looking at losing 5 of our 30 teaching positions next year due to budget cuts and a small decline in enrollment due to a new school opening. I hate to even think of that.
Also we were given surveys this week to share our opinions for desired qualifications in a new principal. A huge majority of us would like our assistant principal, Mr. Gilbert, to be promoted. One teacher showed me his response to the question, "Describe the personal characteristics you want in a leader." "Short, plump and bald." And he said it aloud as Mr. Gilbert walked up. I suggested he change "plump" to "husky". But Mr. G. was not at all offended by the description, being the first to make bald and plump jokes about himself. He would be a wonderful principal. Hopefully we will know within the next week or so.
And now I am looking forward to a weekend of warm sunshine! Watch out, weeds! Will left with a friend on Wednesday to fish the Rogue River, but of course I will be home working tomorrow, because I am a hard worker. Will compliments me for that all the time. He called tonight from Gold Beach and reported that Zeek was in the boat for 12 hours today helping catch fish and did very well. But for some reason Will was a little tired. It's gotta be tough, all that camping and fishing and dog nurturing. Poor guy.
There was no school the past two days due to Spring Conferences. Our reader board sign was rather crowded with all the information of dates and times, especially since the 8th grade DC trip people asked us to advertise their silent auction fundraiser which was going on during conferences. 8th grade students put the letters up, and the sign never looks as good as it did back in the day when Nick was doing it. He was trained by Randy Lary himself, the principal when he was in 6th grade, and Nick maintained the sign through all three years of middle school. (And several times since then when we were in a crunch or someone messed it up.) Nick actually texted me yesterday "Your sign looks terrible." There is somewhat of an art form to centering things and arranging the words to actually make sense. The sign said:
Conferences - Silent
Auction April 15 5-730
16 8-11 1-4 5-730
It didn't look great but I thought people could get the message.
Yesterday someone called and said, "What are silent conferences?" I was startled for a moment, then I remembered the sign. I was tempted to give a smart remark, like "It's when teachers sit at their computers and do email conferences." or "You go to the classroom and look at your student's work but no one can talk."
Had some good news and bad news this week. The good news, there will be no Late Start days next year. It has been such a pain this year, having from one to three Wednesdays a month when school starts two hours late, with no rhyme or reason to the schedule. Most people are schedule-challenged anyway, and this is just too heavy a burden for them to bear. They have to call every Wednesday to find out. Others just keep their kids home every other Wednesday. It's a constant surprise to them when they're wrong. So we in the office are very happy, knowing this will hugely cut down on phone calls and Wednesday tardies and absences.
The bad news is that we are looking at losing 5 of our 30 teaching positions next year due to budget cuts and a small decline in enrollment due to a new school opening. I hate to even think of that.
Also we were given surveys this week to share our opinions for desired qualifications in a new principal. A huge majority of us would like our assistant principal, Mr. Gilbert, to be promoted. One teacher showed me his response to the question, "Describe the personal characteristics you want in a leader." "Short, plump and bald." And he said it aloud as Mr. Gilbert walked up. I suggested he change "plump" to "husky". But Mr. G. was not at all offended by the description, being the first to make bald and plump jokes about himself. He would be a wonderful principal. Hopefully we will know within the next week or so.
And now I am looking forward to a weekend of warm sunshine! Watch out, weeds! Will left with a friend on Wednesday to fish the Rogue River, but of course I will be home working tomorrow, because I am a hard worker. Will compliments me for that all the time. He called tonight from Gold Beach and reported that Zeek was in the boat for 12 hours today helping catch fish and did very well. But for some reason Will was a little tired. It's gotta be tough, all that camping and fishing and dog nurturing. Poor guy.
Monday, April 13, 2009
It's still all about the puppy
I can't believe it's been two weeks since I've updated. We have adapted to having a puppy and are finding him to be great entertainment. Nick and I got to snickering the other night when we noticed that Will had labeled the dog's crate: "Zeek". (Will has a label maker and he likes to label things.) So I've been spelling it wrong. But, as with a child, the person who names the dog gets to decide how to spell it. So Zeek it is.
Isn't he cute.
I took some pictures of the boys outside this evening. Nick and Zeek have a lot of fun playing together. A little rough sometimes but what do you expect of a couple of pups? It was quiet around here last week. Nick was gone to Portland to the State FBLA convention, where he took 2nd place in Spreadsheet Applications. Way to go Nick!
Will has new puppy stories to tell each day when I get home from work. They go out on adventures every day and are very happy!
He grows amazingly fast. We were having a discussion awhile back with some friends and family about the meaning of the word "cavort", and I believe it is exemplified by a puppy's happy, playful, somewhat clumsy bouncing around. Do mature dogs cavort? I will see.
Isn't he cute.
I took some pictures of the boys outside this evening. Nick and Zeek have a lot of fun playing together. A little rough sometimes but what do you expect of a couple of pups? It was quiet around here last week. Nick was gone to Portland to the State FBLA convention, where he took 2nd place in Spreadsheet Applications. Way to go Nick!
Will has new puppy stories to tell each day when I get home from work. They go out on adventures every day and are very happy!
He grows amazingly fast. We were having a discussion awhile back with some friends and family about the meaning of the word "cavort", and I believe it is exemplified by a puppy's happy, playful, somewhat clumsy bouncing around. Do mature dogs cavort? I will see.
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