Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The sun'll come out tomorrow!

The weather is getting nicer and nicer and I can tell. I took a VERY quick stroll around the neighborhood tonight and it was just nice to be outside again. I need that...

So let's do some positive sandwiches:

Positive: I am the "German Goddess" according to one of our assistant principals (since my numbers have grown enough to have another partial position at Park... how's that for alliteration!)

Negative: I am overwhelmed. I wanted to get a bunch of the tournament stuff done today during my prep, but I was surprised by a student (who failed to show up to my class today just the hour prior) who was obviously just over a crying spell... came in with Kleenex... and we had about an hour discussion about her broken relationship. I reminded myself right away that she is the reason I am at school and in my profession... and that was a great reminder... but it just delayed (and increased) the stress for the tournament.

Positive: Our principal stopped me the other day and said that she had spoken with my cousin about me... saying that I was "top notch" and that my "umbilical cord was planted at Park High School", then she tapped my arm and said, "right?". I said, "Yes." and smiled. She asked if I knew what she was asking. Again, I said, "Yes," and smiled.


Positive: I told my department chair about the conversation with the principal and she said that she had also had a conversation with the principal about me and the principal had said that if my numbers were growing like that and things were so wonderful that perhaps they should train me for IB! My department chair said, "I was like, yeah, that's what I've been saying the whole time!"

Negative: I'm the only one stressing about the number of entries for our tournament... it seems so small. I'm worried. (But to what end? I don't know.) So I entered everything into the computer today and I had like 8-10 judges that were standby for the whole day! I don't know what is going on. I e-mailed "the guru" so that I can have that conversation tomorrow.

Positive: I'm blogging (off and on) again. It's nice to start to get into the swing of things.


(This one might end up a bit more speech focused and... dare I say... cynical?)
Positive: After our tournament, we will have almost two weeks before the next tournament. Breathing room.

Negative: I'm in the doldrums of the season (both meteorologically and speech-wise), and it's affecting everything.

Positive: The coaches we have are amazing. Everyone has really pulled together and is doing such amazing things in getting ready for this. I know that they are probably feeling overworked... I wish that weren't how it was... but I definitely appreciate it. They all rock... especially my rockstar, Liesl!! Thank you so much for everything you do!

So there it is. Me in a nutshell (or in sandwich form... I guess...)

Planning for the multi-level class has been nice enough. I could do better... and i would like to implement another larger project (like the soccer project we did a couple years ago). It's beneficial when it's planned and scheduled... I would like to do and see more.

Formative assessment is going okay. When I do it, it gives me an amazing quick look at who is and isn't getting things and the notes are super beneficial for planning. I find myself thinking about it in all of my classes. It's kind of exciting!

1 comment:

Meanwhile, I keep dancing said...

Whew. I'm so impressed by how much you're getting done. You rule.