Back on Track

Hello all!
I'm sure many of you were wondering if I had dropped off the planet. I haven't. I didn't realize that life had taken control for this long. Here's a bulleted update of all that's been going on with me.

* I finished my spring grad course and got an A+. I was so pleased with the outcome of the course and when it was all said and done, it was well worth the work i put into it. I'm hoping to work with my professor on an article and maybe do some consulting work with her in the fall.

* Graduation went well. It about put me under the table while I was trying to manage the end of school, a new grad class, and problems with my summer program. It was a beautiful ceremony. It occurred on Friday, June 13th and, in true Friday the 13th form, the panic alarm went off in the building three different times prior to the ceremony. The IT director finally cut the wire to the alarm system. Apparently, someone had pushed panic buttons on three different floors and the system was confused to the point that the security company couldn't reset it. But, in the end, it was wonderful.

* My summer program was filled with problems from the beginning. In the middle of May at orientation I realized my point of contact had not been doing his job. The majority of the students had not been placed with mentors. I was a wreck, because this is the one part of my summer mentorship program of which I have no control. And, you know how much I hate to be out of control. I had to go over his head and just pray. In the end all of the kids have been placed. I'm midway through the program and all is going well. It's an excellent group of kids and I love having them here.

* I started a new online grad course toward the end of May. It was on special education. I love the online class process, but a summer school class was not what I should have been doing when I was consumed with so many other things. I pushed through it and finished it with an A+. I wasn't as pleased with the content and rigor of this course, but one more course off my checklist toward my supervision and administration endorsement.

That's about the bulk of the update. I'm still at my summer program and will be here till July 19th. Then I head to Charlottesville for a few days. I'll get to see Daughtry in an acoustic concert. I can't wait for that. Chris Daughtry is from Fluvanna county and does a concert in Charlottesville each year. I'm just glad we got tickets. At the end of July, I'll be headed to Camp Hill, PA for a four-day scrapbooking weekend. I can't wait for that. I'll get to see a lot of friends I only get to see once a year.

I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to hearing from you.

I'd just like to give a couple of shout outs to a couple of friends:
* Congrats to Jill for making the callback to the Chatterbox design team.
* Congrats to Kate for her new business in Digg Deeper mini books kit club.
I wish you both the best of luck!!!!

What a weekend!

Well, Saturday was a whirlwind. I attended a bridal shower for one of my former students from the Class of 2003. Here's a picture of the bride-to-be and two of her bridesmaids, also students from her graduating class. It was a lot of fun catching up with the girls and seeing how happy the bride-to-be was with all of her gifts. I'm actually looking forward to attending this wedding (a lot of my friends understand that weddings are not my favorite thing to attend).

After the bridal shower, I went to a benefits gala at our school. It was a wonderful collection of artists from our school and the community.

Then, before I knew it, it was time to head back to school. This week marks the ending of my grad class this semester. I have an in-class exam ... something I haven't had since I was in undergrad, so I'm a bit antsy about this and will be glad when it's over.

Have a great week!

Change is Hard

I am really struggling with a lot of issues right now, a lot of them related to my job. For my close friends, they probably are tired of hearing about the daily trials and tribulations. I have been in my current job since 1999, when our school first opened its doors. In those early days, we wore many hats ... teacher, counselor, administrator ... pretty much whatever was needed. Those days have gotten better, but the list of responsibilities is still quite long. We're a small school with limited funds, so we often have to do a great deal with few resources. I'm okay with that. I'm even good at that. I also love the fact I have grown my program and built it exactly the way I feel it should be run. I am starting to reap the benefits of the hard work.

But, I am soooo tired of dealing with people that don't seem to take their job seriously. I'm so tired of dealing with an assistant administrator that has no interpersonal skills, does not learn from mistakes, and passes the buck. I am tired of cleaning up messes. I am tired of throwing the life preserver. And, I am going to stop.

Now, the question is whether I have the energy to make the change in my own life. The question right now is whether I continue on my path to my administrative endorsement and try to gain an administrative position within my school. The downside of this possibility is taking the chance that are director will leave us in the hands of someone who is totally incompetent. I have general faith that he won't, but there are days when I'm not so sure.

Then, I have the job position opportunity that I posted about previously. It's scary. It's hard for me to make changes. I analyze. I analyze some more. I then over-analyze. Make a decision. Then, change my mind and go back through the process. All the while I am creating a major ball of stress in my stomach.

I know that change is good. Shoot. I'm an engineer and that is the foundation of what I do. It's just easier to apply it in other circumstances rather than something that is too close to home. I'm sure I will update my resumé and put in for the job. The sad part is that there is a part of me that hopes nothing comes of the application. I know that's the part of me that hates the thought of change.

I'll keep you all updated and let you know how things are going.

What I've Been Up To

Well, it's been a crazy few weeks and I haven't been feeling great the last couple of days. Then, I started thinking about everything I've done in the last few weeks. I thought I'd just do a calendar review:

February 11 -- Job Fair
February 12 -- School
February 13 -- Job Fair
February 14 -- Engineering Curriculum Writing at VDOE
February 15 -- Engineering Curriculum Writing at VDOE

February 18 -- Teacher's Workday
February 19 -- Back to school and recovery from being out most of the prior week
February 20 -- School and chauffeur to friend shopping for French exchange program
February 21 -- School during day and class in evening
February 22 -- School and chauffeur to friend whose husband caught the flue and was in charge of the French exchange program
February 23 -- Back to school to help out with the French exchange welcome dinner (set up and dinner)
February 24 -- Back to school to watch "The Wiz"
February 25 -- School
February 26 -- School

Whew! No wonder I feel tired. It's been an emotionally draining time as well. I've tried to take some time for me, but it just doesn't seem to be working out. The positive thing is that the French exchange program is going well and everyone seems happy. So, I'm glad I could help out this past weekend.

I am looking forward to this weekend. I'm going to visit my godson and we're all going to a Cirque du Soleil show. My friends and I have decided to not do "birthday" and "Christmas" for us (the adults). We'll just find other events we want to attend and go. This is our first event of the year. I can't wait. I've been to one Cirque show before, but each one has a different theme. I can't wait to see how this one is.

I haven't had much time to scrap but I'm hoping that will change soon. My eye is on Spring Break at the end of March. I can't wait for some down time. I am making it my goal to complete my scrap room renovation and post a few pictures.

In case I don't get back to post this week, everyone have a good week and I'll chat with you soon!!!

The Wiz

We finished the spring production of "The Wiz". It was wonderful! The technical effects were great. The costumes were beautiful. And, the acting was incredible. I always love our spring musical, because so many students within the school participate. Our theatre productions are all student-run. The students run the lights and sound. They are the stage crew. They make the costumes. Of course they are also the actors. We have a student stage manager and a student house manager. What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The pictures in the slide show were taken after the last performance of the show for this season.

I'll post later to give an update on what I've been doing for the last two weeks.

Scrapping Disaster Part 2 & Other Stuff

Well, I have continued to work on organizing my scrapping room. It's really quite sad to see how much stuff I have that I haven't used. What's even sadder is that I haven't bought anything significant since August. But, I did see a glimmer of light yesterday. While trying to figure out the best way to organize my room, I decided to create my own solid cardstock rack out of the wired crate storage units. I accomplished my task and all (that I have found so far) of my 12x12 solid cardstock is organized in rainbow order. As I locate more of my solid cardstock I can simply add it to the rack.

What's great is that even though this is a small goal achieved, I feel great satisfaction. As I am putting all of one thing in a location, I am seeing progress in other parts of the room. I just have not been able to put a lot of time into this project yet. I know patience is a virtue and I will love the end result, but sometimes I wish I were a genie and could blink and have the project completed.

In addition to working on my scrapping room, I started a graduate class this past week. I am working toward getting my administration and supervision endorsement. I think I'm going to like the professor. She is demanding but she wants us to gain something from the class. I personally don't mind hard work if I'm going to see some positive results in the end. I just need to make sure I stay ahead of the curve with respect to my reading and writing assignments.

In the next couple of weeks I'll also start attending some recruitment fairs for our school. I'm the lead person in recruiting faculty for our school. I think I'll be going to three specific education fairs and then try to hit a few of the Career Services offices in other universities. The next six weeks is going to be absolutely, positively crazy.

I also got a good news email today. My new lens for my digital camera is on the road as we speak. I should be getting it Thursday. I absolutely can't wait. I've been using my 35 mm lens on my Nikon D40 and it works, but I don't have access to the automatic features the camera has. Plus, the Nikkor lens I'm getting has received rave reviews. I'll definitely start posting pictures once I get adjusted to my new lens.

Exams started today at school, so half days for students. I'm hoping to keep up with the exam grading, so I'll have little to do on Monday on our teacher workday. I need to get ahead of the curve with respect to a lot of work right now. So, I'll be checking in but I don't know that I'll get more than this one post done for the week.

Fashion Show 07-08

Friday night our school hosted a Fashion Show. Students within the school competed using their original designs. The theme of this year's show was "Renovation and Innovation." The first act was comprised of designs created and modified out of existing garments. Designers were to use these garments as the material for their new look. The second act was comprised of original designs from start to finish.

Our fashion show was totally comprised of student designers (9th to 12th grade), student models, as well as student technical crew for running the show.

It was a great night and as you can see from the pictures, our students are quite talented. I teach many of the students involved. In fact many of them are technology majors within our school. It's amazing to see how diverse our students are. I am soooo proud of the students!!!

I hope you enjoy the show!

An Incredible Gift

There are days (and even weeks) when being a high school teacher is the last thing in the world that I want to be. I long for the days when I worked with corporations and actively practiced my engineering. I want to go back to the time when the hardest thing I had to do was determine if I was under budget or not. I get tired of fighting with high school students about doing their homework, turning in work, focusing on the lesson, and reaching for higher goals then they have set for themselves. There are days that I feel as if I don't make a difference and I wonder why I'm there.

December 19th started out as a normal day, one that represented the last day of school before the winter break. At the end of the day, each of our specialty areas held small holiday celebrations. I always dread this celebration because I am responsible for monitoring 60+ kids with holiday spirit for about 40 minutes. It's stressful and I'm always glad for it to be over. But, this year was different.

This year, toward the end of the celebration, different students from around the building just started showing up. I am the senior class sponsor, but there were kids from every grade level. Before I knew it there were at least 100 kids in the cafeteria with us. Of course, I'm puzzled and trying to analyze what's going on. Then, one of my kids starts walking toward me with a box. At first, I was confused. Then, I took a look at what that box held. It was a Nikon D40 camera. I immediately started tearing up, because I realized that my kids had chipped in and bought me the one gift that I had wanted to get for myself but was unable to because my car had died recently.

The kids had made a card out of poster board and everyone had signed it. There were 100+ names on this card. I couldn't believe that these kids had done this for me. The funny thing was that it wasn't the camera that brought this much emotion. It was the realization that maybe I do make a difference. Maybe I do have an impact on these kids. Those kids took all of the anger and frustration I was feeling and turned it into something so positive. That card and that camera represent so much more than just a Christmas gift. They represent the encouragement and support I needed to continue this school year. I will never forget this day and I will draw on that energy each time I feel as if I want to throw in the towel. I will never forget the incredible gift that was given to me this year.