If you want schools to be run like businesses, then make sure you get things taken care of at school like a business would

It's official. We have rats in the F-wing. I will spare you the photos of rat crap. Instead, enjoy this photo of my hamster Yuki, RIP 2003-2004

In on the ground floor

Building, creating, linking, making - with my own hands.

For the past few days, I've been doing some exciting - and apparently VERY cutting edge - stuff with a group of secondary math teachers. Basically, we are writing highly targeted, standards based, leveled assessments to give to students in order for them to understand where they are at, where they need to go, and how they (and us) can get there.

There's way more detail involved of course, but I'm talking here about the chance to even do something like this. To be in on the ground floor of something awesome. To make decisions with other like-minded professionals. To be challenged and to ask ourselves questions that probably don't have answers.

And I'm stoked. Because this is exactly the type of thing I wanted in a teaching position when I was job hunting a little more than a year ago. Getting a wish granted so directly has only ever happened to me once before: when I was in the second grade and I wished for a dog, and my dad brought a Chow Chow puppy home the next week.

On a similar note, last week I sat on an interviewer panel for a math position at my school. Please note: I AM ONLY A SECOND YEAR TEACHER. Yet, my principal, the AP in charge of taking care of the details of hiring, and my department chair all valued my opinion enough to let me have a say like this. I keep getting told how awesome I am for my school. And here I am, thinking I'm the one who got lucky.

Maybe we are both lucky. Maybe that's what it takes to have an ideal employer/employee relationship.

11 more days!

Summer 2011 has been one of the most delightful summers ever. I pretty much spent every day without caring or following a clock or calendar - and it was perfect. Just what I needed. I probably talked about it before, but just so I can relive this summer later - specifically when this coming school year has gotten tiresome - here's a comprehensive list of what I enjoyed these past couple months:

~ Downton Abbey, Wives and Daughters, other BBC drama marathons ~ cook and bake new, exciting dishes like Russian potato & dill salad, Mexican wedding cakes, chicken in tarragon cream sauce, turkey feta tomato burgers, Greek chicken salad, and lemon butter tilapia ~

~ read read read ~ hang out with friends, old and new ~ met more new people than I've ever done since undergrad days ~ steam clean the carpet ~ frame completed puzzles for wall art ~ attend roomie's wedding ~ bike bike bike ~ go to the Asian Art Museum ~

~ organize personal papers ~ hike Lake Chabot perimeter ~ clean out kitchen drawers ~ attend my old youth choir's annual concert ~ reorganize personal finances ~ swim swim swim ~ go to the Oakland Museum of Cali ~ saw the dentist ~ rearrange Algebra Readiness curriculum with Super Colleague ~ go to the beach ~ go to ACCLAIM Institute ~

~ shopping shopping shopping ~ get sick and then got better ~ garden garden garden ~ blog blog blog, both reading and writing ~ digitize all my Algebra 1 stuff (still need to tweak, but everything is on a flash drive now so all other adjustments will be easy peasy chicken greasy from now on) ~ update my resume ~

~ complete change my way of eating (more protein and veggies, less carbs and high sugar stuff, even fruit) and enjoyed seeing/feeling the benefits of such diet ~ snail mail far-flung friends ~ went to the SF flower market ~ write write write ~ window shop at Ikea (will actually shop in the fall, probably after first pay check of the school year) ~ picnicked ~ ground floor planning of cutting edge education stuff which I will blog about later because it deserves it's own whole entry!

And most of all:

~ slept ~ ate ~ played ~ relaxed ~ lazed about as much as humanely possible ~

It's a summer well and worthily spent when I'm refreshed and ready for the new school year. Bring it on, 2011-2012!

Yobibyte

I think I just found my inspiration for next year's wall display.