EME 5403 comes at a good time for me. I'm behind in the class, but am finding things that will be useful in the coming year. Our district is changing to a network based series of programs for the attendance, grade books and student management portions of the day to day operations of the school. The features are impressive so far, but we haven't had any hands on trials yet. One of the features that will incorporate well will be the ability to import our grade books and students lists into Excel. The form letters and notes home will be even more simplified through this interaction of programs.
The Inspiration software also brought many ideas to me, which I've put on paper so I can remember them as I'm building my plans for the following year. Couple these with the lesson plan ideas and I'm looking at a much more involved team of students next year. I'm prepared for the failures and tweaking that will most likely occur when trying new things, but that's part of it. Change is the only true constant. I intend to keep improving my lessons and trying new things. If I'm not excited about what I do, how can expect the kids to be?
Well, back to the back work to get caught up in class...I'm getting there! :)
Friday, June 09, 2006
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Summer fun
This weekend marks the first of the official car shows for me this summer. It's a moderate sized event, drawing decent numbers and good quality vehicles. Mine really isn't there for the competition, just to see friends and get ideas for the next project. The show is one of two that I REALLY try not to miss and the only one that my car actually gets the full cleaning treatment for. That process will start Friday after work and will end when my car is parked in its space on Sunday. Usually the car just gets a quick cleaning and appears for a show. I drive it nearly every day in the summer. It even sees the rain, so it's just not worth detailing everything for other people to look at it. I enjoy the driving part too much to make it a trailer/show queen.
The first show will take me about 60 miles each way. I've been out making short trips checking everything and all seems OK. A few electrical demons to exorcise this year and just one little mechanical issue have surfaced so far. It should be a fun time reuniting with people that I haven't seen in person since the show last year.
The second show is much easier and closer. It's less than 1/2 a mile from my house. Friends use my driveway as a staging point, meeting in the early AM to do the last minute cleanings and watch the other cars drive in. I'm on the only entry road to the show. We like to see and hear the others as they go in in the AM and exit the show at the end of the day. Simple things make me pretty happy. The gathering of friends is not always simple with jobs, families etc. These few days a year are set aside for this reason. Getting together, telling stories and lighting the hides is just good entertainment and a great distraction from the responsibilities of life. How the vehicles place, if we even have them judged, really has no meaning to us. Fun is the key. We all have too many serious things in everyday life to make a hobby something that also has to competitive and serious.
Enjoy life.
markSummer
Today was the second to last day of the school year. The temperatures have risen and the room temps are in the upper 80's to low 90's. This makes things a little bit tough, but this year we were lucky to have only one week of heat. We aren't equipped with AC here, but would realy only need it for a couple of weeks at the start, and usually a couple at the end. To me, even though I'm uncomfortable, it's not worth the expense to have. I won't put it in my house either. But I'm getting off track.
Tomorrow we will celebrate the moving on of our oldest middle school students and send them to the high school. For the 8th graders, it's good half day of school. It's low stress, awards cermony, Medieval Faire video, followed by yearbook signing in the gym. During this time we generally have some tunes and this year will have my young virtuosos entertaining with their guitar wizardry. It should be a good final day.
My room is nearly bare. It's gnerally full of positive sayings and encouraging words, but due to the cleaning procedures, must come down each year. What a dull drab and uninviting place it turns into. I'll be working in there throughout much of the summer. My first project is to take out everything from my cabinets, storage closet, corners, shelves, desk and filing cabinets to see what I have. SOme of the stuff has been unopened since I moved in. Other things were moved from from my AE building in boxes that have yet to see the light of day. I intend to get things organized first this year( which has been on my to-do list since my first year). I just have too much stuff and need to get all of my units together in one place. Right now I have rocks, maps and space mixed together. I think this will make my life better and make my room look a little less chaotic...which was one of my principal's suggestions at my end of the year interview.
The organization will followed by starting my lesson plans and timings for the following year. This should be simplified by new organization(I hope).
During this time, I'll still be taking classes and also serving on jury duty. Luckily, they were flexible enough to change my dates of service so I can visit with my family, which will be traveling in for a week. This doesn't happen too often, so I'd really have been upset to be sittting on a jury during that time. I'm 30 miles from the court house which doesn't help, but I guess it's something I have to do. Just a week of summer when other things are less important. "The price of democracy", I'm told. With my history of working with the rougher end of the area's population, I just hope that I don't know too many of the accused :).
Tomorrow we will celebrate the moving on of our oldest middle school students and send them to the high school. For the 8th graders, it's good half day of school. It's low stress, awards cermony, Medieval Faire video, followed by yearbook signing in the gym. During this time we generally have some tunes and this year will have my young virtuosos entertaining with their guitar wizardry. It should be a good final day.
My room is nearly bare. It's gnerally full of positive sayings and encouraging words, but due to the cleaning procedures, must come down each year. What a dull drab and uninviting place it turns into. I'll be working in there throughout much of the summer. My first project is to take out everything from my cabinets, storage closet, corners, shelves, desk and filing cabinets to see what I have. SOme of the stuff has been unopened since I moved in. Other things were moved from from my AE building in boxes that have yet to see the light of day. I intend to get things organized first this year( which has been on my to-do list since my first year). I just have too much stuff and need to get all of my units together in one place. Right now I have rocks, maps and space mixed together. I think this will make my life better and make my room look a little less chaotic...which was one of my principal's suggestions at my end of the year interview.
The organization will followed by starting my lesson plans and timings for the following year. This should be simplified by new organization(I hope).
During this time, I'll still be taking classes and also serving on jury duty. Luckily, they were flexible enough to change my dates of service so I can visit with my family, which will be traveling in for a week. This doesn't happen too often, so I'd really have been upset to be sittting on a jury during that time. I'm 30 miles from the court house which doesn't help, but I guess it's something I have to do. Just a week of summer when other things are less important. "The price of democracy", I'm told. With my history of working with the rougher end of the area's population, I just hope that I don't know too many of the accused :).
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