The Jedi Council

Wednesday.  I’m a little nervous about today as some things could go well and some things could go bad, we’ll have to see how it all works out.  I got up this morning with my kids and we all got ready for school and work.  We left the house and I got to work on time.  I got things set up for my lesson plans today.  My eighth graders and seventh graders have a tendency to love me on the first day of keyboard as I let them goof around a little on the instruments.  I do it as a “get it out of your system” kind of philosophy.  I did it once about two years ago and I have to say it works.  My sixth graders started their work in their workbooks today.  My one sixth grade class is a little chaotic and my seventh grade class just seems out of control.  I have to say that the rest of the quarter may get rather interesting.  I had one student in my sixth grade class that showed up to school for the first time this quarter and spent all of about ten minutes in my class before getting removed.  Not a good start.  I hope I can get that student to understand that they can’t just talk over me and that they need to listen to me and not just ignore me.  I got done with a fairly rough day of classes and I spent my after school time putting my clean recorders back together and finishing organizing my classroom.  I also spent some time working on editing my students’ music videos from last quarter.  It may take me all weekend to get them done.  We’ll have to see.  I then headed over to SMASH rehearsal.
We had a positive rehearsal tonight, but I think we all felt under the gun.  I talked to Jim about this Friday as it just didn’t seem smart to have a concert.  There are talks of a REALLY harsh snow and ice storm coming our way that we are supposed to see all day Friday.  Jim and I talked and agreed that even if there was class, our crowd size would get affected by the weather.  We agreed that for the groups sake and for the sake of the concert, we were better off postponing the concert.  So, Jim said he would call the PTSA and talk it over with them.  I got done with the rehearsal and headed home where Heather had some Chinese waiting for me to eat.  I ate dinner and relaxed with Heather for the night while we watched some T.V. together.

Tuesday.  Second day of the quarter and I have to say that my classes were different today than they were yesterday.  I got up on time today, which was a positive.  I got the kids up and we all got ready for school and work together.  We left the house and I was off to work.  I got to work and set things up for the first period of the day and I set things up to finish my introduction to my class and pass out workbooks.  Once first period was over, I took time during second and third period to change the labels on my drawers inmy classroom and taking the recorders to the dishwashers downstairs in the Family and Consumer Science Classrooom.  I then came back upstairs and continued to edit my podcast for about thirty minutes or so while I worked on fixing my books in my laptop and grade book.  I taugth the rest of my classes and I have to say that the two classes that were boarder line bad yesterday went to an all new level today.  They talked over me, I tried the silent treatment and I tried the guilty treatment, but so far nothing has worked.  Simply put, I’m going to have to take to the tactic of removing people that are distracting to the rest of the class.  I ate lunch with the two art teachers today and I have to say I’m a much happier person with very little stress in my life now.  We’ve been having fun eating lunch together and supporting each other in everything that is happening in our classrooms.  We’ve even been sharing some strategies that we’ve found that works and I have some ideas thanks to them.  I made it through my day and as soon as school was done, I packed up my room and headed home.
When I got home I was tired but knew I needed to take care of some things, so I headed downstairs and continued to work on my podcast.  Recording, editing, etc.  I also called Fat Cat Books tonight and talked to the owner and she said she would like to talk to me Thursday about the podcast commercial to make sure it’s exactly what they wanted.  I understood and was a little dissapointed as I wanted my show to come out on Thursday night, but I understood.  I worked on editing this evening and then it was time for dinner.  I decided after dinner to take a break and relax for a little bit.  I really haven’t had the chance to do that for a while.  I watched some T.V. with Heather before we headed off to bed for the evening.

Monday.  I had a lot to do at school today, yet somehow, I woke up a little late.  I think I was just that tired from the weekend.  So, even though I got up late, the kids helped me and we still managed to get out the door on time.  I scrambled when I got to school because I was missing some copies that I needed, so I headed to the copier first thing this morning and got things taken care of and then tried to get myself set up for first period.  Then, I was dealt my first blow of the day.  I went to check my first period checklist and somehow, my list for fourth quarter printed out even though it said third quarter on the list.  So, somehow, my list was completely messed up.  It took me about ten minutes of class to fix my spreadsheet, gradebook and even the computer from trying to do attendance this morning.  This is what happens when I only have two days to switch over to the new quarter.  But the rest of the day seemed to start going a little better.  I have two prep periods in the morning that are side by side which will help out some mornings, in particular mornings when I’m doing our music videos and music podcasting projects.  My classes were fairlsy subdued except for two of them.   One may not be able to be contained, we’ll have to see how this quarter plays out.  During my prep periods today I started to edit my podcast as well as getting to organizing my classroom for this quarter.  I got a lot done today, but there is so much more that needs to get accomplished in my classroom for this quarter to really get under way.
I got done with school and came home and crashed with Heather for a half an hour and then we got dinner together.  I still had so much to do, I dropped Austin off to Boy Scouts tonight and Heather went and picked him up.  I do that only once in a great while because I think it’s my job as a father to be at that meeting with the leader since I am my son’s Akela.  Austin got home and I finished with some paperwork.  Heather and I watched some T.V. together before deciding to retire for the night.

Sunday.  We got up at our usual tiime this morning for church and got the kids and ourselves ready for church.  We no more than got to church until the choir director started complaining, yet again, that Heather and I were not singing in the choir.  He just doesn’t get it and I just don’t understand why people just won’t let me alone at a church service.  Anyway, we sat through our church service and then there was supposed to be a meeting of the church to talk about the budget, etc.  Heather and I decided to duck out after the church service because to be quite honest, our church is struggling and as much as I try to help, people complain, and as much as others try to help, people complain, and no one can understand why the church can’t make positive gains.  Besides, I hate the polotics of our church and it just urks me to listen to certain individuals talk about the budget.  We left.  We came home and I went downstairs and took an hour nap.  Then I took another two hours to do some podcast recording and then I got right to filling in grades into the online gradebook.  I got done with that and it was dinner time.  I went upstairs to eat dinner with the family and then came back downstairs and started to change over my gradebooks to next quarter.  Man, I feel under the gun with only two days between last quarter and this quarter.  I didn’t even have time to wash recorders yet or do organizing in my room to make sure I’m ready for the next quarter.  I guess I should just be used to others not caring about this though.  I got done with some of that tonight and then I finished recording for my podcast.  Now I was down to editing my segments for my podcast and putting it together.  Heather and I watched some T.V. together and then went to bed.  Tomorrow would be an interesting day as it is the start of the new quarter.

Saturday with much to do and little time in which to get it done.  I woke up around eight o’clock this morning and headed downstairs and did about an hours worth of recording for my podcast.  I figured if I keep it up, I should have my podcast done early this week and will be able to post right on the 31st.  Once I got done recording, I headed upstairs and took a shower and got ready to leave the house.  The kids were going to go with me to SMASH rehearsal this morning and then get taken from there to the pinewood derby.  So, we got ourselves out the door to SMASH rehearsal and headed for Roosevelt school.  I got into rehearsal and found out the student we were having problems with quit the group.  In some ways, I feel that it was a relief.  In other ways, it put pressure on Jim and I to try and change around the show just a little to take care of the fact that we would not have this student around anymore.  We started to get to the end of rehearsal and I told Jim I had to take off early and I did.  I headed straight home and joined Heather and we then headed out to our pinewood derby race.  In amongst this busy weekend, I forgot to mention that I got a new cell phone that Heather managed to sign us up for.  It was kind of nice, considering it has a built in camera and blue tooth possibilities, except I haven’t had time to learn the Blue Tooth part of the phone just yet.  Anyway, I managed to call Heather on my way home and told her to wait for me and we went to the Derby together.  We spent about an hour at the Pinewood Derby and then headed right home.  I got home and went downstairs and got to work on finishing grading my students.  I finished up grading and averaged out the final averages.  Then I got right to recording some more for my podcast.  I recorded all afternoon and all evening after dinner.  Tomorrow, after church, I will finish grading and start to work on my books for next quarter and I will start to plan out the next quarter.  What a weekend!  I feel as though I just don’t have enough time to do everything!

Friday.  Pay day and the final day of the quarter.  There was a lot to get done.  I got the kids up this morning and we got ourselves ready for school and I got ready for work.  I knew I had a lot to do at work and I was going to have a lot to do once I got home this evening.  Once I got to school I set up for final exams.  I had a whole day ahead of me of final exams and I rarely had any breaks during the day as students who needed to finish finals came down on my prep periods.  I went out for lunch with some other teachers in the building and I have to say we had some great conversation and it was nice to get out for lunch for once.  It was a busy and fulfilling day at work and I have to say that I now have a ton of work ahead of me this weekend and not a lot of time to get it done in!  Tonight I came home and started to grade final exams right away.  I had to stop to eat some dinner and got right back to grading.  It took me most of the evening, but I did manage to get the finals graded.  I figured tomorrow I would get final averages done and then Sunday I would enter them into the computer via the Internet.  Once I got done grading my final exams, I finished the night coming up with a commercial for Fat Cat books to put on my podcast for the next episode.  I got done around eleven o’clock or so.  Tomorrow was going to be a busy day, so I figured I better get to bed at a decent hour.

Thursday.  I got up this morning and got myself and the kids ready for work.  I had to leave a little early, so I left Ruth in charge for ten minutes and told her that I needed to get on the road because I would be giving final exams to my students today and I needed to make sure I could get there and get things set up.  I got to school and set things up for my final exams and made final contacts with special education teachers to make sure that I’m giving all my special ed students their requests via their IEP.  I got started with my day and my students started the finals.  One thing that did impress me was the fact that my students were pretty much all here for the day today.  You would be amazed how many students either skip my class or skip school on the days that I’m giving my finals.  Today, I had ninety-nine percent of my students show up for the final which is the highest percentage I’ve ever had.  Overall, I can’t tell how they’re doing, but I can say that some students that I expected to struggle with the final are struggling with the final.  It was a long day with little breaks and I had a distressing time at lunch upstairs again.  I came home right after school and told my wife that I thought I would stop going upstairs for lunch and that I would just hang out with some other people in my workplace during the lunch hour.  I know it will be rough at first, but there is just one person who makes me feel uncomfortable and I just don’t think I will hang around that person, so simply put, I won’t.  Tomorrow I’m going to go out with some other teachers that usually leave the building on Friday’s for lunch.  Tonight I did some last bit of grading and started to work on editing my students’ music videos from this quarter.  I did all of this after dinner and while Heather and I watched our usual Thursday night T.V. shows.  Then it was time to head off to bed.

Wednesday and another busy middle of the week it is for me.  I got up this morning and helped the kids get ready for school.  We all got ourselves together and got out the door on time.  I got to school and got things set up for Review Jeopardy for all my students today.  There are classes that I really enjoy playing this game with and there are other classes that really make me cringe when I play it with them because it really scares me what they really don’t know.  But, I made the best of it with my students and I hope they feel prepared for the finals tomorrow.  Heather joined me for our lunch today and it was an interesting lunch hour to say the least.  I’m really starting to get annoyed with some of the people I hang out with at lunch constantly questioning everything I say.  I think part of it is me too, however.  I’m starting to question certain people and why I hang out with them.  Especially those that make me feel uncomfortable and I think I’m just starting to say to myself that if I feel uncomfortable with anyone, why should I hang out with that person?  Anyway, I got on with my day and at the end of the day, I hung out at school.  I graded papers between the end of school and SMASH rehearsal and then headed off to Roosevelt.  I got to rehearsal and all of us were annoyed with the same member again for not pulling his weight within the group.  Jim had had it and told the student that  he needs to have his stuff together by our practice this Saturday or he was going to pull him from the performance on the 1st of February and may pull him from the group in general.  It makes it hard on the other students in the group that do their work when we ask them to.  The new member of SMASH is working out great and we’ve integrated him into the group fairly well and I think he’ll fit right into our performances from this point on.  I got done with SMASH and went home and had some dinner while Heather was out at Girl Scouts and then joined me when she got home.  She helped me with some of the painting of Austin’s car and we sat down and talked a little about what Saturday was going to be like with SMASH rehearsal, Heather’s work, and the pinewood derby car race.  A lot to fit into one morning and very little time to get it all done in.  We watched a little T.V. and then went to bed.

Tuesday.  Not much to report other than the fact that I’m still entirely exhausted from the weekend.  Even three days after the event, I’m just physically tired.  I know some would say that it has something to do with my weight, but I’ll tell you now, even some of the “lighter” members of our unit seemed to still be physically exhausted by today.  I got pu this morning and got the kids ready for school.  Austin was bummed that we did not have any more time off from school, but I reminded him that we would have a week off from school in about three weeks, so I told him to hang in there.  We got ourselves out the door on time and my kids headed off to school and I headed off to work.  Today was going to be the last day of instruction for my students before we do some serious review for the final exam starting tomorrow.  I got done with my school day and came home and started to record some more segments for my podcast.  After dinner, Heather and I went downstairs and watched our usual T.V. shows before going to bed and retiring for the day.

Monday.  Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  A day to remember Martin Luther King, Jr and all he has done for our country.  Too bad Hillary Clinton and her husband didn’t get the message!  Bill can never seem to keep his mouth shut and last week was a prime example when he said it was ridiculous for Barack O’Bama to even dream about being the first African American Democratic nominee.  Today I got up in time to watch Dr. Phil and then came back upstairs and took a shower.  I had a lot to do today, so I didn’t waste any time.  I went back downstairs and Austin and I finished working on his pinewood derby car and got it set and ready to go for the race on Saturday.  By the time we got finished, it was time for “The Price Is Right” and I have yet to watch that show with Drew Carey as host, so I decided to watch it with the kids.  We then ate some lunch and I went downstairs to record portions of my podcast while the kids played upstairs.  I got a lot of recording done before Heather came home and we both took a mid-day nap around three o’clock or so.  It was nice to have a day that I felt like I was getting a lot done in.  Heather and I got up around four o’clock or so and I finished up painting Austin’s car and then helped Heather with dinner.  We sat down and ate.  After dinner I finished grading some papers downstairs and watched some T.V. and Heather joined me later and we decided to go to bed at our usual time.  Tomorrow it was time to get back to the grind.