AIMS

Yesterday we took the math field test, so no one was removed from my room and no proctor. The purpose of the field test is to test questions that might show up on the AIMS later. Today we took the writing one. Part one is one hour and part two is also, in theory. But if you have a class that thinks a final draft means simply copying the rough draft, then it goes a lot quicker. Still, a lot of boring pacing! And I had some children sent elsewhere for the test, because they need extra support. One needs supervision to make sure he’s taking the test and not randomly filling in bubbles or worse, decorating the answer key. This would be the little angel with (let me go look…) 29 absences … so far.

Test security is tight. We go pick up the tests around 7:15, count them, and sign for them. When we return them at the end of testing (we have to return them while a proctor babysits our class), we again count and sign. My proctor is a Kindergarten aide. The proctor is there to help (so we have TWO people who can only say “Just do your best”) but also to ensure that the test administrator (me) doesn’t cheat. This is because I guess there really are schools and teachers that give the kids hints. We are allowed to have them check if we see their finger is on question seven and they’re bubbling in question eight. Other than that, it’s mostly passing out tissues for the throngs of allergy sufferers and replacing broken or worn out pencils.

The next three days we do both a math test and a reading test. Then the following Tuesday is the science test, and we’re finished. That seems so far away!!

12056

Nope, not a ZIP code! I’m participating in this annual walking thing through the school district. That’s how many steps I took today (approximately 5.3 miles) by the time I got home from the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum!

Dottie’s niece Linda and her husband Myron came from out of town. I had heard about them for years but never met them. I went over there Friday after school and finally got to meet them. They’re both former teachers, and they were both wonderful people. Today we went to the Desert Museum: Buz, Jaeden, Linda, Myron, Dad, Dottie, and I. It was a very long day, but a lot of fun. Naturally, I took a zillion pictures.

The last time I went was shortly before I left, in 1994. I went with the mothers and kids from the Haven’s Mother/Child program, and this lunatic lady drove the van. We almost fell down the side of the mountain through Gate’s Pass on the way there because she was so close to the drop-off on the left. On the way back she again hugged the outer side of the road, scraping the passenger side mirror! Of course I remembered this as we went through Gate’s Pass this time!

We saw a raptor show while we were there, which was pretty cool. The hawks were just beautiful!

If you see people you don’t know in the photos, then that’s Linda and Myron!

Linda and Myron on Friday, in Dad and Dottie’s livingroom

Myron

The left edge of those mountains is Mexico!

dinosaur bones (real or simulated — dino bones were found in the area at one point)


Buz and Jaeden

coyote










Dad

me

Linda and Myron

Ready, AIMS, …

Yes, it is that time again. For the next five days, PLUS the following Tuesday, my little angels will once again experience the joys of being tested to death. I took photos (they’re currently being uploaded, but I’ll post them here when I’m done) of the Before and After of my classroom. Last year I just took everything down. This year the principal suggested we just cover things. That’s nice, because last year things looked pretty bleak. This year the room looks like there are giant chocolate bars on the walls.

Ms. Delbridge and I had a great time this week. Earlier (a month ago maybe) we got together and had our students do a writing project together. Hopefully, I already wrote about that. This past week we did another project. Our students wear uniforms — white on top and dark blue on bottom. So they had to create a uniform. They had to design it and describe it. They had to create a persuasive poster and a persuasive essay. On Friday we hung the posters on the wall and had each student walk up and read them and vote on which uniform they’d want. Then they came up and read their essays and each student again voted on which was the most persuasive. It was great fun!

When we did the previous assignment together, I took the students’ photos and imported them into their story documents. Then I decided to look and see if the state had actual technology standards (which is a joke in light of our level of technology). They did, so I had the students create and describe a holiday. Then I taught two students how to move the documents from the keyboard to the computer, run spell-check, import a clip art, and print it out. They taught everyone else, so those were hung up on the wall next to the partner stories.

We had a pep rally on Thursday for the AIMS (the fifth graders had theirs on Friday). Three of my students were in the skit — so they gave autographs when they got back to the room! Wednesday’s PD (professional development, aka staff meeting) was about the AIMS and the site visit that took place Mon, Tues, and Wed of this week. A team came down from the state’s department of education. They observed in every single classroom, and met with staff individually or with a group. I was in a group. I was selected for the group, and the admins said they picked people who could be articulate about our school. We had to have the goals memorized in case they asked. They did ask, and I did have them memorized! Bravo me!

I get to go to a 2-day workshop in April, along with Ms. Delbridge. Others have already gone. I can’t remember what it is — I’ll look it up later (maybe there’s an e-mail about it). I’m looking forward to it, except the part about leaving my class with a sub. I left them with a sub for half an hour for the interview, and all hell broke loose.

The uniform posters:

The classroom BEFORE:

math and science standards, and student writing about what we did in math and science

math stuff and the poster they made the day after the presidential innauguration

they colored in their clip art after they printed the work out

partner writing with third grade

I Have A Dream project for Library

drawings by the Narnia book club

Writing bulletin board with of course the standards and Essential Question

more writing stuff on the walls that had to go

SFA (reading)

my antique computer and one of the keyboards the students use

AFTER:

25 — 24 hours at a time

Yes, the unthinkable has happened — I’ve been sober 25 years. I’m not kidding when I say that a number of people didn’t think I’d last a year. Yet since I was 26 when I started, I’m nearing the point at which my years sober will outnumber my years before sobriety. My friend Margie sent me a wonderful card, Mass card, and a bracelet that says Courage Hope Serenity.

Monday this team comes to our school. It is a bit like when I was on the team that went up to St. Jerome’s (a wonderful experience!). The team will spend approximately six minutes in every single classroom (we have a LOT of classrooms!) and interview various people. Some will be interviewed individually, and some as part of a focus group. I’ve been assigned to the Tuesday focus group.

I found out today that I can’t retain my child who’s failing and who never comes to school BECAUSE he never comes to school!!!!!!! The school board’s (or whichever idiot makes these decisions) reasoning is that he doesn’t come to school enough to determine how much progress he should be making!!!!!! So this child who has missed over a month of school, reads at an early second grade level and is below that in math, must be sent to fifth grade next year. Next time you hear someone whine about education, add that to the conversation.

cruciverbalists

I can never get around to posting, and when I do I’m not on the computer with access to recent photos. So I’ll post now and upload the photos later.

Donna (my sister) and I had an awesome time at the first annual Festival of Books at the U of A campus. I went Saturday for a little while before she came, and saw someone I expected to see. I also heard that a number of other people from work had been there. On Sunday we ran into a couple of people I knew from NaNoWriMo! I got some free books for my students, did some networking, and met some fascinating people. I also picked up a couple of autographed books, including one about a young woman who was a child in Vietnam during the Vietnam War and later was adopted and came here. She was very nice and gave me a hug. It helped that we have the same first name!

They had a number of events, and one we found was a large crossword puzzle. The people suggested words and if the word was right, she filled it in. One down was a long one, and there were a couple of letters at the beginning as well as a few others. I stared and finally asked if “cruciverbalists” was a word. It was, and it was the right one! Bravo me!! We got a lot of exercise this weekend, because we also walked around a mall or two!

I started class #6 for my U of Phoenix degree. If I remember correctly, this one (it just started yesterday) is Project Management. We’re using Microsoft Project, and so far no one has any experience with it (but not everyone has responded to that question yet). He (the teacher) said we could practice with it by creating a thing with our course assignments on it, so I did that and submitted it yesterday. I’m a linear thinker, so that computer program works well with the way I think.

Report cards went home yesterday. We’re in the last quarter of the school year!!!!!!!!!!!!

24

Did I mention that I have a new student? She isn’t “new” though. She was in another room, but now she’s in mine. At the beginning of the year, a number of parents wanted their kids moved to different rooms and the principal refused. (Well, except for one, because I know she was originally on Mr. Ramirez’s list and I knew that her mother wanted me, and she appeared on my list between one day and the next.) Nevertheless, I now have A. in my room. I had her for reading the first quarter, so she knows me (and likes me anyway!).

We have our new science kit. The district decides what order each school gets the kits. Last year, this was the very first kit that we got, when I was new and clueless. I’m hoping I have more of an idea this time! The theme is the changing earth. After reading about erosion and solving a mystery of which tombstone (in various stages of erosion) was which, they used spray water bottles on sugar cubes last week to learn about erosion caused by rain. The kits come with nearly everything you need, which is nice. They didn’t come with shoeboxes, but enough kids brought them in that today we did the second lesson, which is sand blasters. They put the sand in the shoe box and blue on it with a straw, with varying degrees of force, etc. So today they learned about wind erosion.

In the middle of this, I get a telephone call, and promptly trot my class to the nurse’s office. I told them that this was my morning group so some of my class was at ELD, which also meant that three of my class really belonged to Mr. Ramirez. No matter — two of Mr. Ramirez’s students failed the inspection, as did one of mine. So when I did afternoon attendance (we have to do it twice a day), one of the absent girls this morning had the L code for her absence. That would explain why we were trotted down there!

One of the other fourth grade teachers got us compost and seed. Tomorrow we will compost our garden plots and then maybe Thursday my class will plant the cilantro (that’s looking mighty sad) seedlings, a tomato plat (ready for transplant), a type of pepper that’s ready for transplant, pumpkin seeds, and radish seeds. The pumpkin seeds were my idea, because I think it’d be neat to have them harvest next year in fifth grade something they planted this year in fourth.

I turned in my SFA (reading) report cards today — that were due last Friday — and only one other 4th grade teacher has done so. That made me feel better!!

Old Friends

So yesterday when I was at WalMart, I was in the catfood aisle and a lady came by with HUGE bags of gardening soil stuff, plus other gardening stuff. I don’t know what she was looking for; I was busy doing the math to figure out the cheapest litter, which she was mostly in front of. Then she went past, and I continued my thinking (honestly, how hard is it to grab a jug of litter????) and she came back. This time I actually looked at her and not her cart, and I said “I know you!!” It was my friend Maureen. We were in PCIC
together — Pima County Interfaith Coalition. That’s the group that we worked with the city to get more schools to open afterschool programs (my theory being that since gangs had an afterschool program of sorts, shouldn’t the good guys have one too?). We got a graffiti abatement program going, and some other stuff done. This was the group I was a part of before I left Tucson. There were a few people from each church/synagogue in PCIC, and Maureen was from Sacred Heart with me. She had a daughter — who’s now married and in law school!!! So we stood in the aisle and talked for quite a while, and now she has my phone number so we can get together. I didn’t get hers because let’s face it: do I really call people and talk on the phone?

Sophie’s Choice

Last summer there was a cat howling at all the windows. I learned that this (expletive deleted) neighbor (the apartment where there’s always screaming and yelling and crying) threw the cat out and told his kids that it was a “hunter cat.” That was his excuse for no longer feeding the poor cat, at all. Well, Donna fed it once (she started it!!!) and then I started feeding it. Really, it’s not the cat’s fault that the guy was a worthless excuse for a human being. This was in July (112 degree temps outside, monsoons), before I went to Wisconsin (because I remember asking the friend who watched the cats to put out food for that cat as well). And lo and behold, one day the cat brings her KITTENS to my patio! I saw one once and not again, but heard that a neighbor took that one in. Then a short time later, the mother cat disappeared. Rumor Control said that either she was captured and taken to the pound or hit by a car. I ended up bringing the kittens in at night when it turned cold, and somehow they ended up being a part of the household along with Ginny and Harry. The manager couldn’t care less — they were fed and not bothering anyone.

I never intended to keep the two kittens, actually, although I did name them. (They were Fred and George until it occurred to me that George was a girl, so I changed her name to Jasmine). I was on Freecycle http://www.freecycle.org/about/background and more than once tried to find the kittens a home. The problem was that once I decided that this was something I could do (the neighbors got a dog once they figured out the cats weren’t going to bother them any more), the kittens were both too old and not old enough. They were not old enough to be fixed but too old to be tiny adorable things. I also talked to everyone I know to find them a home. In the meantime, of course, Harry thought it was great having around cats who purred and rubbed against him and he adopted them and washed them all the time, etc. He was especially close with Jasmine. Ginny refused to be bonded with, but the kittens missed their mother.

We have had new apartment owners, and they have been in my apartment a lot in the past couple of weeks, at which point it was noted that I had four cats instead of the allotted two, and they’re coming back on Tuesday for another inspection. I can’t remember what they’re inspecting this time — maybe the counters again. But I need to be down to two cats when they come this time because it’s not just workers but the owner with them.

My other problem every time the workers come, or the landlord, or basically anyone on the planet, is the smell. I had six litter pans (and a few more for a while), and cleaned them regularly. That’s actually not where the smell came from.

It was Ginny. She peed everywhere. She peed on my bed, even if I was in it (I started sleeping on the couch, instead), the tablecloth, anything on any floor, etc. It’s not like I could lock her out of one room and that would solve the problem. Letting her outside made no impact. Nothing did. I would spaz out for every inspection, and whenever company was coming — not to mention just coming home from work. This wasn’t a new thing, but the house in Wisconsin was pretty big so she just did it upstairs and it was more manageable.

Now I had to find a place for two of the cats. There are two no-cage shelters in town but I called both and they were full. So today at noon (which is when they opened) I took two cats to the Humane Society. One horrible witch was walking dogs with another and made a rude comment about people giving back their pets, as if she had even the slightest clue what was going on with me! So I was in tears by the time I got to the desk, but the lady I dealt with there was extremely nice. She said that they had a lot of empty cages at the moment, so there was less of a time issue and thus more time available to get the cats adopted into new homes. Their web site said that they wanted as much information as possible to help the cats adjust to their new homes, so I wrote up a sheet on each of them with their background.

Then when I got home I spent the next few hours cleaning — putting clean sheets on the bed, a new tablecloth on the scrubbed table, etc. I sent my sister a text message letting her know that I kept Harry and Jasmine, and she totally understood. I could have gotten rid of Fred and Jasmine and then had the two cats who were actually mine (Harry and Ginny). I know that. I know that some or most or all of you will think I should have done that. But I don’t want to get evicted for having a house that smells like piss, or being told that I have to get rid of ALL the cats because of the smell. And so I made the choice I did. Ginny will have a new home soon, and it’ll be one that’s prepared because they’ll know ahead of time that she has this problem and they’ll be taught different ways to fix it. She’ll be easier to be retrain because she’ll be in a totally different environment. And Fred was adorable but never really mine. I always knew that he’d be going to a new home at some point. I just wish that it didn’t include time at the Humane Society. But they let Ginny keep the little bed that I put in the carrier, and I sent a toy with each of them as well (each’s favorite toy).

Harry and Fred

Jasmine and Fred

Ginny

Harry in the bed that went with Ginny.

school

Yesterday the fourth graders were out in a courtyard area digging up weeds to get to the dirt. Basically, we’re going to plant salsa. Now if we could just plant chips! My cilantro is looking nice. I have a bunch of seedlings started already.

Yesterday and today were quarterly testing. Next Friday is grading day; next Thursday ends the third quarter!

So today my class is in the room. We went on our potty break and were back continuing a science experiment. I was doing something, and thought it smelled like an iron (as if that’s a scent I’d recognize!). Finally one of the kids pointed to the overhead lights. Inside one of the fluorescent tubes at one end was a sort of swirling. There should not be light swirling. The end was also melted! So I called the office and told them to send Virgil (the maintenance man) immediately, but they didn’t put out that call! In the meantime, it seemed a good idea to evacuate the trailer (excuse me, Portable). I took the kids outside, and the principal and one of the assistants happened to be going by, so I invited them in to see. They said that the call didn’t go out on the walkie talkies to Virgil, and it obviously didn’t go out over the PA system either, so I don’t know what was up with that. But they did manage to get him to come and remove those lights. They had duct tape on the ends, which probably heated. In fact, a number of those lights have duct tape on them! So it’s nice that the kids noticed and we didn’t burn down or anything!

Haven

Seems like we’re doing the week in review now!

Last night I went over to the Haven to help with Game Night. That’s this month’s activity. First there was a speaker meeting, or really just the speaker and the serenity prayer. Then we went to the dining room (which was an empty dirt area when I was there) and really had a good time. The point of game night is to show that you can have fun sober. One game involved passing a wrapped box around and desperately trying not to be the one holding it when the music stopped, because then you were out. Another game was “Who Am I?” The person could only ask yes or no questions to determine who they were. We played that three times. The first person had to guess that they were Omar, Cathy’s dog. That actually went quickly! The next two were Popeye and Princess/Lady Diana (the late). There was another game where they went around the circle, each getting the next letter of the alphabet, and saying something about that letter that had to do with sobriety (such as not being as Angry, feeling Beautiful, etc.). My favorite was the last thing. We had a ton of rolls of toilet paper, and they had to work in teams of three and dress one of the team members as a bride, using the toilet paper. What a hoot! They created rings, bouquets, trains, lovely dresses, veils — it was great fun! My job was to be in charge of prizes. Everyone signed a slip for a door prize, and if someone “won” a game or some other imaginary criteria that I made up, they pulled the name for the next door prize.

Earlier yesterday I went swimming at Dad’s. The weather was nice and the water was warm, but it was also the last day of February and it’s nice to be able to swim in February, even if just for an hour. They have a little hot tub thing there (a spa?), which was nice and toasty, but then when I went back in the pool it was freezing! What’s surprising isn’t that there were so many people there (much more than in the summer), but that there were some who were actually tan or very tan! They must be retired and just sit by the pool all day. That’s the other thing — lots of people, but not many in the water! One guy was there for leg therapy. You see that a lot. He reads a while, and then sits on the side of the spa with his leg in the hot swirling water while he keeps reading. Then out, then back in. Never in the pool. There was a guy last year like that too.

We were off Thursday and Friday for Rodeo Days. Every year I consider going to the parade, but I was so tired that I fed the cats and went back to bed, sleeping until NINE! I haven’t slept that late in ages, and I remember when that was getting up early! Thursday I didn’t even bother getting dressed.

Friday they were coming to put new counters in the kitchen. The new owners do a lot to fix the place and pretty it up. The old counter was the fake butcher block kind. I was going to go to Tohono Chul Park with someone from work, but she cancelled Thursday night. So I kidnapped Dottie and we ran errands (like going to pay my rent IN PERSON from now on and getting a receipt in my hot little hand!).

Other than that, I spent the week working and doing my U of Px class!