The Podcast

I had two goals today: Laundry and Learning to Podcast. I did the latter, to the best of my ability. Please GO HERE and listen to the podcast. I even have a guest interview!

The Laziness

Not sure if I'll get out of bed or not today. I have 2 goals: Laundry and Learning to Podcast. I think the daunting nature of both of these goals is inhibiting my desire to get out of bed. We skyped with Teendaughter. She's already up and about, living the dream. #1 son's heading out to play the fast paced sport of lacrosse. I only have about 10 hours to meet my goals. Why even try? That's not enough time.

The Levels

Every day someone tells me they can't teach a peep reading because they don't know the peep's reading level. "I have no idea how to pick books for that kid because I don't know the reading level." "Is there any way we can be told about their reading levels so we can plan for our groups?" I must have squeezed in to education before reading levels became a big deal. I used to listen to a kid read for a few minutes, talk with them about the book, talk with them about other books they've read and then make recommendations from there. When I suggest this might be a way to proceed, a few colleagues have looked at me like I've got a screw loose. It would be great if we could tattoo the reading levels on to the peeps' bodies every few weeks. That would save me a lot of hassle.

The Birds

I've been working with the third graders this week. In one classroom we are writing books about birds. In another room, we're writing podcast scripts about literacy. The scripts are turning out well, but the only problem is that I don't know how to make a podcast. Pal JW helped out with the podcast last time by basically creating the podcast. I need to figure this out pdq.

The compound has calmed down a bit. I decided I wasn't going to utter even one complaint today. I very nearly accomplished this goal, so I'm feeling pretty good right now.

The Weekend

The weekend with Teendaughter was great. On the last night we tried to compile our top 3 lists of most favorite events. We didn't succeed because we both liked all of it. I'll run down some of the stuff for you tho: Eating chow fun, Marina walk in search of owls, walk thru campus hot spots, Herbivore with college chums and progeny, shopping for dorm supplies, meeting sweetheart dorm pals, sleepovers and best breakfasts at CB's, burritos in the mission with SuperNiece, Dave Eggers' 826 Valencia, back to Berkeley to see Crazy Heart, milkshakes and grilled veggies for dinner, driving around for hours in our little rental car, talking talking talking. We packed a lot in.

The Mission

I swiped this photo from FB. It's Alice with her mission project. San Juan Batista. WELL DONE ALICE!!!!! It looks fantastic.

My own mission right now is to wake up early, get packed, head to the airport, get on a few planes, land in SF, get a car, drive across the bay bridge, drive to a dorm where Teendaughter lives and freak out with happiness.

The Work

I finished reading and reviewing the 26 grants last night. Went to a 3 hour meeting this afternoon to discuss them. Now I just finished a power point presentation for the literacy partner meeting in the morning. I have a weird nervous energy right now.

The Grants

Sad news. I'm on a committee that reads grant proposals and votes to give teachers money or not. I've had 26 grant proposals in my bag for a week, but I didn't realize that I had to have them all read for a meeting tomorrow afternoon. I've read 23 tonight and I have 3 more to go.

(I have a presentation I have to give at a meeting on Thursday too. A presentation I haven't started planning yet).

I feel a little sad that I forgot the date of the grants meeting. Because I forgot about this onerous task, I'm not with my good friend jw who is speaking to the school board about the budget cuts that are going to take a lot of jobs away from people and services away from kids. . There's a big meeting tonight about all the cuts.

I read about an anonymous donor who paid 104 million dollars last week for a Giacometti sculpture. I wish that donor could give our school 5 million dollars so our kiddos could have librarians and trips to Bradford Woods and Honey Creek School and smaller classes with teachers they know and love. If that donor could do that, he/she could do so much good and still have almost 100 million dollars. That would be a win/win, imho.

The Anniversary

Last week was the 5 year anniversary of A Little Leeway. I think that's a great accomplishment.

The List

Yesterday, we had a meeting after school. As we entered the room, we were handed a sheet of paper with over 40 proposed cuts to our schools. #1 on the list: Eliminate elementary Librarians. Further down on the list: Drain the pools at the high schools.

I felt so disgusted and angry that these two proposals could be on the same list.

I'm upset about the crisis we are in, but right now I'm in shock that this information was presented to us in such a disrespectful way.

The publication of this list is disrespectful to our librarians and to all of us who have devoted our lives to public education. Our professional librarians and the water in the pools. Come on. Think it through.

The Mercy

Popped into second grade today and ended up helping some peeps with their lit. logs. They're reading a book about a pig called Mercy Watson. I worked with 2 peeps who have a hard time focusing. While I tried to steer them toward an inference, they uttered random comments one after the other about America's funniest home videos, borrowing stuff from their neighbors and protective rings of fire that can shield all of us. They also tried their hand at writing in cursive, which they're just now learning. Sadly the cursive was illegible, but they ignored my suggestions to use print. In the end we got the page done. Nothing short of a miracle. Please call me Annie Sullivan.

The Program

Last night while we watched Lost, I told Husbandman about all the things I want for Valentine's Day. Most of the things on my list involved spa treatments.

"What about our austerity program?" asked Husbandman.

"We're on an austerity program because of your bad choices," I retorted. "And besides, the austerity program doesn't apply to National Holidays."

"Are there any spa services for less than twenty dollars?" Husbandman asked.

Husbandman needs to focus. He's not listening to reason right now.

The Mo

I've been pretty low mo these days (low motivation). I'm going to try to perk it up a little. By perking it up I mean that rather than sitting around looking at web sites and eating chex mix, I'm going to sit on my couch and read a book and drink a bevvie.

Today was a snow day, but I had a work meeting scheduled and I actually went to it. After that I was pretty low mo, as I've already stated. I spent the afternoon just reading cheap news and, again, eating chex mix. Tonight I may spend some energy cutting out paper dolls. I recently invested in a large collection of paper doll books because I have a plan to sit in the kinder room with a basket of paper dolls and some writing instruments. Maybe some good stories will magically appear. It will probably be fun either way.

The Who

It's 10 to 6 right now, so I'm a little nervous about this Super Bowl game. I would prefer a much larger lead.

The Who did a nice job tho.

The Game

We had fun visitors here this weekend. Janet and Alice came and we spent yesterday sledding, lunching at the Hob Nob, and taking photos in Brown County State Park. We ended the evening with some Guitar Hero. I pulled my score up from 22% to 34%, so that's good. Still on easy level, but I know what to work on.

Now I'm watching the Colts. And feeling quite a lot of Colts PRIDE!

The Snow

Man o maneschewitz. Yesterday was a bad ass day. A few people were okay, but there were several horrid incidents of other people being rude. Then more people being rude. And then a bit later, even more rudeness, coupled with a tinge of aggression.

That old adage about how no one likes change? Never doubt its veracity.

I told Husbandman last night, "I'm going to move away and no one will know where I am. And when the compound calls and asks where I am, you won't know. You'll just tell them all that I moved away." Husbandman said, "You're not going anywhere. Give me 30 minutes in there with a baseball bat and we'll get this situation under control."

Today's a snow day, (Thank you GOD!) so maybe I can put this all behind me and go on to the next right thought, the next right action.

The Meeting

Day long special meeting today. I helped a group of teachers get ready for a presentation. The teachers did such a great job. I felt so proud and happy. This job has a lot of ups and downs to it. Today was an up. Way to shine, peeps!

Our compound is # 1!!!!

The Mails

I send a lot of emails and I get a lot of complaints about that. I wish people could understand that when 30 people need to know about a new schedule or a school wide plan, it would be super difficult to walk up to each person and talk to them directly. Email is a way to communicate efficiently and effectively. And it saves quite a bit of paper and precious time. This will seem shocking but one person today actually said to me, "I deleted all your emails this weekend so I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing today."

"Good luck," I replied, unsympathetically.

Don't delete my vital emails people. I have no patience for that.