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...

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!

I got a job!!!!

I am so excited to be the new administrative assistant at Papa's Pantry!

I knew that my schedule being so unstructured was not a good thing for me, so I re-contacted Papa's to see if they needed any volunteer help.  I was hoping to get my pantry shift back, but unfortunately, someone was already doing my shift.  I asked Tina, the administrative assistant there, if she could just keep me in mind if any slots needed filled in.  She called me back two hours later and invited me to do the Wednesday shift this week, since the regular person couldn't make it.

I arrived early for my shift so I could catch up with Tina about everything that had been going on for the past 3 months or so.  She asked how my subbing went, and, since we all know how I feel about that, I told her I'm really struggling with what to do with my life and that I do not want to go back to being a teacher!  She told me she was leaving Papa's, for a job that provided benefits, and her last day would be next Friday.  We agreed to keep in touch.

At the end of my shift she asked me if I was interested in having her job.  I said "yes!" and she told me to send Lynne, the founder, my resume.  I went home and immediately sent Lynne my resume and Lynne wrote back saying she wanted to interview asap.  Since I am leaving for Indiana tomorrow for a week, she asked if I could comeback in right then.  So I did.  Low and behold she offered me the job on the spot!

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to be moving into the non-profit sector of America!  Papa's Pantry is also a very Christain based organization and I think it's a good thing to be surrounded by people who believe that deeply.

Here is a link to their facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Papas-Pantry/155026458571

If you scroll about half way down the page, they have an 11 minute video posted about what we do there.  Feel free to check it out!  I think it gives a real accurate picture of the all around services we offer =)

Teaching

I have enjoyed having this week off of school.  In Cobb County, they have one week off after every 6 weeks in.  The school year goes from August 1- May 31 and they get an entire week off in September, in November for Thanksgiving, Christmas, February, and then Spring Break in April.  This is the first year they have used this schedule, and it has already been overturned for next year by the School Board (although I'm not sure why because the teachers and kids LOVE it!)  At the beginning of the week I had thoughts of "uh-oh...I need to be working.  Being on that consistent schedule has really been good for me."  By Friday now, though, I'm back to thinking not working isn't all that bad!  I mean I was able to hit FIVE gym classes this week!

It's also been a good week because Ryan is transitioning into a new job.  He has known for a while that the LandCare side of TruGreen is being sold.  Instead of waiting around to see what his fate would be when that happened, he has been job searching since early December.  Although he got many job interviews and they all went well and left him feeling very confident, none of them panned out.  We were facing the realistic situation of both of us being possibly unemployed. I mean there was even discussion of having to move back to Indiana since I actually still do have a job there.  I told him I can eat ramen noodles, but under no circumstances will I eat pork and beans!!!!  So we are very grateful for Ryan's new career that starts March 1st with HighGrove, another landscaping business.  Ryan didn't go into the office much this week since he knows he's leaving TruGreen, although he hasn't officially resigned yet.  So we got to spend some more time together than usual.

Getting back to the teaching gig... I have a lot to say about it.  I have both positive things to say, negative things to say, and indifferent things that I have observed that are neither positive nor negative, but rather just different than how things are done within the system I come from.

Let's talk about the neutral differences first:  kids can wear flip flops, kids can wear coats (which makes me nervous because weapons could be concealed in there), kids can bring bags to class (which also makes me nervous because weapons could be concealed in there), kids can chew gum, and kids can bring water bottles/juice bottles/Gatorade bottles to class and drink them at will.  These are things I have to catch myself about not reprimanding, because none of that was allowed at John Young.  Quite frankly, because these things are the norm, there really aren't any issues surrounding them.  All of the students walk on the right hand side of the hallway.  There are actually tiles down the middle of the hallways that are a different color than the rest of the tiles, and for the most part, all the kids stay on the right hand side of those tiles!  I almost feel like I'm breaking the rules if I'm walking on the left hand side of the hallway during my prep periods. 

That's all I'll say for now.  More to come!

Saturday, July 31

Can anything else go wrong with my car?  For those of you who don't know, I spent a TON on money on my car a couple days before I left.  Then, two days later it wouldn't start and I had to buy a new battery.  Then a car accident on the road in Toledo, and yesterday I wake up to a completely flat tire!  Luckily, it was Jason's day off and he got the pleasure of coming of my rescue. 

However, when he jacked up my car, it started to roll down the hill!  His driveway is not flat.  Even with the emergency break on it still happened.

 So we moved it into the garage, where there is a flat surface.  Off came his t-shirt.  Have I mentioned it's REALLY HOT in GA?

It looked like he wet himself, but really it was just sweat.  $78 later my car is in working condition once again.

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I've signed up to volunteer with a couple of organizations I'm super excited about!  The first one is through the American Youth Council.  The project is called Holiday for Hope and we will be bringing Christmas to 1,000 homeless children.  The planning starts right away for the event in early December.  I can't wait to wrap presents (I'm really good at it you know), and maybe even be an ELF on the big day!

The other organization I'm getting involved with is Global Soap Project, Inc.  As a member of the Global Soap Project Warehouse Team I will help take donated soap from hotels and prepare it to be sent to refugee camps and communities affected by poverty around the world.

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I'm still applying for jobs.  Recently I've applied to be an assistant administrator with the Cobb County School District.  Most recently, though, I am applying to be a substitute teacher with the Cherokee County School System.  They damn near require a DNA sample for the application process!  It's very different from what's required to sub in Michigan City or even Mishawaka for that matter.  For one you have to be a certified teacher, and for two you have to have four professional references supplied to them!  I've also signed up with several nannying/babysitting websites and have gotten a bite or two on that.  I joined Gold's Gym on Friday and am excited that they offer Body Pump classes like they did with  my membership at ICE in Mishawaka.  So very shortly here I foresee my empty schedule becoming less and less empty with working, volunteering, and working out!!!

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Furthermore, I have been replaced as the all time cake-maker for my family.  I have made almost every single birthday cake of Quinns, Jacks, Cruizs, and Landons.  Ok, I never made one for Landon because it is only his first birthday.  But, *sniff, sniff* I would have had I been around!  I think his mom did a great job of replacing me though =) 

Happy 1st Birthday Landon Frever!



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To end our day we took a little night time dip in the pool. 

Scrilla

I've been applying for jobs while down here.  Not too vigorously, but slow and steady.  So far I've applied to be:

1.  Online Instructor with Educate Online
2.  Cake Decorator at Whole Foods
3.  Student Central Manager at DeVry University
4.  Faculty at Westwood College
5.  Regional Education Quality Manager at Catapult Learning
6.  Part-Time Advocate at the YWCA
7.  Hooters Girl at Hooters

I just applied today in person at Hooters.  My interview lasted a total of 30 seconds.  She asked me a total of two questions:
1.  Do you have reliable transportation?
2.  Are you available nights, weekends, and holidays?

I expected questions such as "What size bra do you wear?"  "How do you feel about hula-hooping on top of tables?"  "Why are you leaving teaching to become a whore?"  "Do you have any waitressing experience?"  Nope, none of that.  I bet I didn't dress up slutty enough!!!  I knew I should've worn my booty shorts!!!  ;)