Saturday, July 28, 2012

Happy Saturday! Slept 'til 10:34! and that's after having gone to bed yesterday at 6:45 or so, getting up about 9:45 or so, and going back to bed at midnight! I was exhausted.

Yesterday I had to be up at 6 to get to the FWISD orientation sessions by 8 a.m. Oh my goodness, that was the coldest place I've been in years! And I didn't take a jacket or sweater or lap quilt...needed all three. It was so cold by the time we broke by noon that my brain had just shut off and my nose was like an icicle. When we broke for lunch I went out to the car and just sat in the hot car - with the A/C turned off. I noticed others doing likewise. Since we had a little over an hour for lunch, I went to a nearby thrift store and purchased a used man's wind breaker so I would have something for the afternoon. Thankfully others in the session had approached management and said, "we can't do this for the remainder of the day." Somehow what couldn't be fixed that morning was fixed for the afternoon session. I could hug their necks.

Anyway, the morning session was all about using the ISD system, finding out how jobs are posted and called out, what to do, la la la. Lots of information in the manual. And LOTS of warnings about what NOT to do with and around students, and stories about things that have happened in the past when teachers have innocently done things. And warnings about not taking personal items into the schools with us -- if you expect to be able to take them back home with you!!! Try not to take a purse! Try to carry everything on your person -- in a pocket or something.

In the afternoon session we received information about controlling a classroom, that we cannot focus on the negative behavior of a student but must focus on the positive behaviors of the other students. There is no corporal punishment, and very little punishment of any other kind! Students have rights - teachers don't. Also received information on expected dress, too. Dress code for teachers has tightened up. They want the teachers dressed a couple of levels above the students.

Sessions were from 8-4:30, except we didn't get out until almost 5. I was exhausted - that's my first full day of anything since retirement. Once home I rested for a few minutes, and then we went to Dixie House for dinner. There was no way I had the energy to fix anything. I went to bed as soon as we got back home. Woke up at 9:45, went back to bed at about midnight, and then slept 'til 10:34 this morning.

I've been retaining so much fluid that my legs were still huge when I woke up. So, I took a water pill this morning and have on my good support hose. Gotta get this fluid off of me.

Tackled the utility room this morning. Our utility room is fairly large. It is one of those rooms between the kitchen and garage, with machines and upper cabinets on one side of it (about 1/3 of the room), and then and open room with shelves around. The floor in that room is always a nightmare. Thanks to friend Gwen's suggestion, I bought one of those cordless vacuum cleaners and a shark floor steamer. Ken had cleaned the machines earlier this week and done a first sweep so all I had to do was a quick resweep, run the cordless vac a bit, then run the shark. Didn't take a lot of time at all. There were a couple of spots that did not want to come up so I had to make up some mop water and scrub them and clean the baseboards. I've now got to go back and wash down the two doors, but it looks a lot better in there!

Late yesterday I checked my phone and there was a message from Sharon, The Ladder Alliance, that the classes that were scheduled to start on Monday are not going to start after all. Supposedly they are now scheduled to start on August 6. I'm about ready to tell them to forget it. I've already discovered I can teach at FWISD every day if I choose to - at least that's what the head guy told us! And the pay is about the same for both.

So, gotta go finish the utility room, run the sweeper in the kitchen, finish up some laundry, and stay close to home due to the fluid pill! 'Bye y'all!