Time to Blog

Ahhh, I have a few moments to myself today. This means I can hibernate at the computer, check emails, write a post, etc.

As promised, I will discuss the latest as outlined in my previous post:

1. Grad School: I have been accepted at Walden University. It is entirely online, which is not necessarily my preference, but it is what is practical since I have to continue working. The university is based out of Baltimore, Maryland, and the program I have selected is Literacy and Learning in the Content Areas. I start January 5. As of now my only concern is figuring out how to pay for this new adventure....

2. We had Friday off work and went to Bandon to "play". The weather was beautiful- clear and sunny, but very cold with a breeze. We actually had a $100 gift certificate at a local wine bar/restaurant to use up. We were given the gift certificate as a wedding present and just haven't been able to get over there to use it up before now. The restaurant closes for the winter (Bandon is not a huge tourist destination in the off-season) so we wanted to get there ASAP. Anyhow, we did some shopping and dined on a fabulous meal. We tried to use the entire dollar amount so we ordered an appetizer, a first course, 2 entrees, and dessert; our total was $92, but the meal was free to us so it didn't matter! Normally we would not allow a dinner bill to become this exorbitant, but hey, we were celebrating our marriage! Those of you who know me best would guess that my favorite part of this meal was the dessert, but you'd be wrong! My favorite was the first course: pumpkin almond ravioli....DELICIOUS!

Here are a few pictures of the local scenery in Bandon from Friday:

3. Parent-Teacher Conferences: Actually, our district has done away with conference entirely at the high school level and have re-vamped how they are done at the middle school level. Conferences begin tomorrow afternoon (from 1-8pm) and continue through Thursday evening (7am-7:30pm). Due to the re-vamping, (decided entirely by people who are no longer teachers and are not in the schools) conferences have a new title: Student Involved Conferences. This means each student has a 30 minute block of time in a classroom where they (the student) talk with their parents about 3 goals they have set for this year. 30 minutes!!!! We are up in arms about this new process altogether, and what idiot thought that a middle school student would talk for an entire half hour?? Teachers are not really involved in this process from the District Office's point of view. We are there, in the room as facilitators, but the students are doing the "conferencing". We are not supposed to discuss grades, test scores, etc. I can't even begin to envision this new style succeeding, but I could be wrong. I won't know until really late Thursday evening how it all flowed.

4. Administration: My building administrators know that I am starting a Master's program and have suggested that I get an administrators license. (A brief pause while I laugh out loud)- not that I wouldn't mind the 85-100k paycheck that accompanies administrators, but at this point in my life I don't have it in me. I'd rather be in the classroom, thank you very much!

5. Mom's visit: Mom is coming to visit next week and is going to paint some furniture for us. Right now we have a lot of mismatched items, but her painting/refinishing skills will help make our home look much more coordinated. We did purchase a new reclining leather sofa. Hopefully we'll get the love seat before Christmas. Anyhow, things are coming along with the house. We still need those baseboards and a tiled back splash in the kitchen, but all in good time I suppose! (Maybe I should rethink the administrators license....) ;)