I make a lousy tour guide

Back in April, when we had the green light to open, more children signed up to be a part of Cherokee Charter Academy than we had spots for.  We initially were going to accept 700.  After seeing how many students wanted to be a part of this, we upped enrollment to 975.  We still had more students than space available so we did a lottery system. 

When the local school boards took the charter schools to the Supreme Court and won, we got the red light to open. 

On July 15, 2011, we got the green light to open as one of 7 "special charter schools" chartered by the state of GA, but were given only half the funding needed.  Gov. Deal reallocated 2.9 million dollars of funds in order to help us open.

Cherokee County schools opened two weeks before us, and many parents sent their children there with the uncertainty of whether we would open or not.  As a results, we now do not have a full capacity of enrollment, and various staff members have been calling parents on the waiting list to invite them to join us.  As a result, numerous parents are coming into the building, at all hours, wanting questions answered, and wanting tours. 

A few people from corporate, Charter Schools USA, were here earlier in the week helping give these tours, and in addition, they pulled Lorelei and I to do them too.  The past two days they have been gone, and Lorelei and I have been giving them.  From the time the day starts until well after the day ends we have been doing this.  This is not in my job description.

I do not know how our curriculum compares to Cherokee County's curriculum (I'm from IN).
I do not know how often Kindergartners have art.
I do not know how much uniforms cost (I don't have children).
I do not know what company we outsource our food service through, or what the nutritional content of our meals consist of (I bring my own lunch).
I do not know where we will get funding for next year.
I do not know why the walls in the building are "un-cheery", and need new paint.
I do not know if we will eventually get a middle school library separate form the younger grades.
I do not know if we are going to have a "gifted" program.
I do not know what sports or clubs we will offer.
I do not know how long our lease is for the building we're in.
I do not know if we will eventually add high school.

And don't get me wrong, these are GREAT questions.  And as an educator, I am impressed that we have parents who want to know the answers to these questions.  But after saying "I don't know" in every single way I know possible, I don't know how much of a service I'm being to these parents.  So I have stopped giving the tours, which means Lorelei has to do them all since she actually does know the answers, and has been with Charter Schools USA for 3 years.

Here's what I do know

(AKA top 5 reasons to send your child to CCA):

1.  The child's grade is strictly based on academic content knowledge.  Not on participation, attendance, behavior, whether he come with supplies or not, nor whether he turns in his homework or not.
2.  EVERY person in the building is an at-will employee, meaning they can be fired at any time.  There is no tenure, there is no veteran teacher who hasn't changed their lesson plans in 25 years with his feet up on the desk, and there are not even teacher contracts.  If we don't perform, we are gone.  Our livelihoods are 100% dependent on whether your child is learning or not.  What a novel concept! [PS - we hired and fired the middle school Spanish teacher in the same week]
3.  We teach character education in every class, every day, every year.
4.  We start all kids in Spanish in Kindergarten.
5.  We differentiate education.  We are not teaching to the average child - we are meeting the needs of advanced learners, struggling learners, and the average learner, all day, every day in every subject.  It is mandatory! (This is why I have a job - it's my job to help teachers do this!)

Cherokee Charter dismissal procedure -1; staff - 0

Things went smooth all day.  Really, they did!  The drop off procedure in the morning went flawlessly,  Everyone was where they were supposed to be, directing students and parents.  It was so fun to be in an elementary school.  Parents walk their kids in, take pictures, some kids are nervous and terrified and others are confident and friendly.  One first grade student brought his teacher flowers!  Watching the Kindergarten parents was the best...some had tears in their eyes. 

This one little kid was pretty frustrated though because he couldn't find his teacher's classroom.  He looked like Will Smith's kid with the most gorgeous curly hair ever.  All he knew was he is in the 2nd grade, and his teacher's name starts with a P.  Considering I don't even know all the staff members names yet, this information was not helpful.  Then, he remembered, "she has white hair, like you!"

Later in the day I was assigned to do "walk-throughs" of the 1st and 7th grade classes.  Basically we were told to go observe what was happening, and leave a positive sticky note to the teacher upon leaving.  My most exciting observation was in the 7th grade science lab.  No joke, I heard a duck quacking.  Me and this little guy both looked at each other with our mouths open.  I asked the teacher if she had a duck in there and she looked at me like I was crazy.  So we all sat in silence, and listened to this duck quack.  We determined it was in the vent, and of course by the time I had someone go take care of it, the quacking had stopped.  They never found anything.  I emailed the principal about it, her response was "lol that has to be the funniest thing yet".

And everything was all fun and games until the dismissal time came.  We don't have buses, and since we have little kids, they have to be escorted to the correct car.  We had a plan in place and had practiced it well.  About an hour before dismissal though, the Dean of Students changed the plan, and all ____ broke loose.  Each child and each car has a number.  People at the beginning of the parking lot have walkie talkies and call out the number of the cars coming up the drive.  We, on the other end, are supposed to call those numbers to dismiss.  The Dean thought we should all be in the gym for this procedure, but she didn't realize getting 600 kids from K-7 to be quiet all at once is impossible.  No one could hear the numbers being called; not the walkie talkie people, and certainly not the kids.  It was a stand still disaster.  Traffic was backed up out on the main road that leads into the school.  One woman yelled at me, "What the hell is going on?  I've been waiting an hour and 45 minutes!" and I can assure you, she had. 

Open House is Tomorrow

Open House is tomorrow morning.  School starts Monday.  Here's what the school looks like today:

This is a 3rd grade teacher's room, aka textbook storage.  Meaning = teachers don't even have their textbooks yet.  Math, across all grade levels, hasn't even shown up yet.  No textbooks what so ever have shown up yet for 2nd grade.

Here is the front hallway:

These workers seem to be doing something, yet we still don't have internet or working phones.

BUT the parents threw us a wonderful lunch today, complete with cake!  That is our logo that will be on all of our shirts.

MASS CHAOS!!!!!!

First Day on the New Job

Today was my first day on the new job.  The building we are in was a former Christian school.  It went bankrupt, and they left everything inside it.  Apparently last week teachers were told to put "Room 136" on anything they didn't want in their room.  Parent volunteers came in over the weekend and moved everything into room 136.  Room 136 is our office!

Lorelei reassured me that teachers would be coming by throughout the day to "shop" these supplies, but there were so many jammed into such a tiny space you couldn't even see what was available.  So we spent the whole morning taking things out one by one, and sorted it in the hallway by subjects:  games, math, language arts, arts and crafts, science, etc.  Here is a picture of the hallway:

Do you love the lime green  walls?  I do!  That's a new addition since I was in the building last week.  This photo may not appear  to have a lot of stuff in it, but here is a picture of the space where all this stuff was before we moved it:

Things were waist high in that entire area.

I had a little time to start to decorate my office.  My desk was originally up against the window with the seat facing the window.  But I wanted to face out of my office, and not have my back to someone who comes in.  The desk is so big it is about the only thing that can fit in the office.

View of the window:

 View from the window:

My friend Iris, who also got a position at the Charter School, called me when she got home from work at 5:45pm.  I left at the appointed time - 4:00pm.  Apparently around 4:00 the principal sent out an all-call for staff to come to the office.  When they arrived she gave them each a portion of 600 parents to call.  We are planning on having 995 students on Monday.  Only 300 have all necessary paperwork turned in.  The principal, Vanessa, said everyone's job is on the line if only 300 kids enroll!  Should be interesting...

I was enjoying my Saturday morning when...

I kind of have this ritual... on the weekends I get up and go outside on the front porch to check my phone, scan the internet, and drink my coffee to start the day.  Whatever I slept in is what I'm wearing.  We live on top of a hill with a long driveway so cars can't really see me (or so I like to think).  This morning was no exception.

Then I noticed a truck pulled very slowly into the driveway.  "Surely it's just turning around" I thought.  But it continued very slowly up the driveway, and a little boy in the front seat waved at me.  I JUMPED up, ran inside and threw some pants on (as I was pant-less), however did not have time to throw a bra on.  When I returned to the porch the little guy was standing right there.

He was a boyscout selling popcorn.  Really?  Of course I bought some, but now I may need to re-think my weekend morning rituals...

My new job!

So on Monday I will start my new job.  It will be at Cherokee Charter Academy, and I will be a Curriculum Resource Teacher.  This charter school just got the green light to start, so they hired an entire staff last week.  I interviewed on Thursday, got hired Friday night, and they told me to start on Monday.

I told them there was no way I could.  They agreed that I could have a week left at Papa's, and then begin the following week.  Kids come starting August 15th.  I am going to be one of two CRT's.  The other lady's name is Lorelei and she has been teaching at one of these charter schools down in Florida for the past three years. We have offices!  She has the bigger one, I have the smaller one, which is fine.  We both have windows!  She said, "We drew straws yesterday and you got the short one."  Very funny. 

Saturday, I did the unthinkable.  I spent the ENTIRE afternoon at the mall.  I knew I needed an updated wardrobe for this new position, and even though I hate shopping, I tredged through it.  I actually found some really great stuff and was really excited about it.  Until I got the following email titled "Employee Dress Code": 

Logo shirts are to be worn at all times. Shirts must be a solid color, collared polo type shirt or button down dress shirt. A cardigan type of sweater with a logo may also be worn over a solid color shirt. Bottoms can be pants, skirts or Capri’s but must come down below the knee. Pants should be black, brown, gray, navy or khaki. No jean materials are allowed. Shoes must be closed toe and closed back, and you may wear tennis shoes. All clothing and shoes should be clean and neat in appearance with no tears or holes. You will receive one shirt from CCA but any others will need to be purchased.  The shirt that is purchased for you should be worn for the open house and the 1^st day of school. Logoed shirts can be purchased from All Uniform Wear. You will also have the option of buying a shirt from any store and then bringing it in to the school store .  The cost to add our logo is $5 until August 12.     You may also purchase the student shirts at the school store.  

So  I spent HOURS at the mall, totally out of my element, and I get to go return everything I just bought.  AWESOME!  Not.

My last day at Papa's is tomorrow.  To make matters worse, there still is no replacement for me.  I haven't even gotten to train anyone this week.  Not for a lacking of trying; Lynne offered the job to THREE different people this week, and they each turned it down.  Who applies, interviews, gets the position, and then turns it down?  Three people in one week!

I will be sad to leave Papa's, but this way I will be able to still volunteer there during the summer.  [insert shameless plug] Papa's Pantry is turning 13 on August 13th!  If you would like to make a MUCH NEEDED donation to Papa's in honor of this, please go to www.papaspantry.org and pay by PayPal or get the physical address to send in a check.  Thanks!!!!  While you're on the website, check out the section titled "Food Donations"  and "Community Thank Yous" - I was in charge of always updating those!