TDay 2011

Ryan and I drove to Charlotte, NC on Wednesday night to stay with his cousin Justin.  It was just the three of us for Thanksgiving and it was really nice.  We had a pre-cooked turkey, mac and cheese, corn souffle, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, apple pie, pecan pie, and whipped cream.

On Thanksgiving Day, Charlotte hosts the 4th largest parade in the nation.  Of course I made the boys go!

Zits and Data

My biggest complaint so far about being pregnant is my acne.  It is out of control!!!  Not to gross you out, but I feel like I'm a teenager again.  My face HURTS it's so bad.  I am getting zits in places I have never gotten them before - in my eye brows, in between my eyelids and eye brows, and all around my hairline.  I have figured out how to get rid of my headaches though....take an allergy pill!

On a different note, some of you may wonder what I actually do at my job.  Here is one project I took up:

This is our school data wall.  It has every single students' name on it, twice.  The left column contains students who fall below standards in both reading (on the left) and math (on the right) by grade level.  The middle column is all students who meet standards in both subjects, by grade level, and the right hand column consists of all the students who exceed standards in both subjects, by grade level.

Clearly, teachers want to focus on helping the students in the left hand column catch up to their peers.  Teachers - do you know which of your students fall below standards?  Amazingly, the left hand column contains the fewest amount of students, which makes it really manageable for our teachers to really target those students.

There are several things we do to help these students that I haven't seen in any school I've ever worked at before.  First of all, we offer them free after school tutoring in reading and math twice a week.  Secondly, we require teachers to look at their classes' data and determine the skills they are the weakest in.  Teachers have to create an intervention calendar and focus on one of the skills per week.  They have to carve out 10 minutes a day to do mini lessons on the subject Mon-Thurs, and then give a short assessment on Friday.  They then have to input that data into their intervention calendar weekly, proving:

1. They are aware of the standards their students are the weakest in
2. They are actually targeting those skills daily in addition to continuing on with the regular curriculum
3. They are proving with data from their weekly assessments, whether their students are experiencing learning gains in that area

The things we require of our teachers are amazingly overwhelming, but no one could argue that it's not what a phenomenal teacher would do.   It is awe inspiring to see true education reform in action!  And I thank the lucky stars that I don't have to do it!  =)

I found this on the PostSecret App today and liked it so much I thought I'd share:

Baby Bump?

4 weeks pregnant

8 weeks pregnant

12 weeks pregnant

So am I showing yet?  I don't know...I don't really see any difference in the pictures.  In fact, I think they look somewhat out of order, but I know they are not.  I started this pregnancy about 10 lbs heavier than I normally am, and I think I look pretty consistent in all three pictures.  

First trimester was really easy... second trimester is not starting off well.  I am having headaches and lower back pain on a regular basis.  Stretching doesn't seem to help my back.  At times, I am also having burning muscle pain below my left shoulder blade.  That is very painful!!!

I have one more week of school and then I have the entire week of Thanksgiving off!

CRT, tennis, week off school

So, I love my job.  We've been in school for an entire month now, and we still don't have any textbooks for 2nd grade, nor a single math textbook for K-5.  Since I last blogged we have fired our financial bookkeeper, a secretary, and just yesterday we fired a special ed teacher.  Apparently, we're not playing around!  If we don't get more 7th graders enrolled, we might have to start letting middle school teachers go.  The thought has crossed my mind that they might need to let the middle school CRT (me!) go as well.

Our principal, Vanessa, kind of rules with fear.  I don't know if that's her intention, but I can tell you that all staff members are intimated by her.  Which, on the one hand is AWESOME because people actually respect her, and it is clearly established that what she says goes.  Compared to my former principal who had no spine, no one respected him, and no one felt supported by him, this woman is a welcomed change.  She is Hispanic and at times the ghetto in her comes out, which makes me smile, and feel like I'm home =)

I am being sent to Florida Wednesday night for Curriculum Cadre.  Just me - I'm going alone.  All the schools who are a part of Charter Schools USA are sending 1-3 people but since I have to fly there, we only get to send one.  I'm excited about the opportunity though!

Then, a week from today we get an entire week off of school.  Cherokee County has this amazing calendar that gives everyone a week off in September, November, February, and April, in addition to the two weeks off for Christmas.  I will be volunteering at Papa's that week Monday-Wednesday (they still haven't found anyone to replace me!), and then Ryan will be getting his wisdom teeth removed on Thursday so I will play nurse Traeger for the rest of the week.

I joined a tennis team!  It's basically all the wives/girlfriends of the Ryan's crew.  Today is our first match?  game?  meet?  Whatever... QUESTIONS:
"Ryan, who was your last girlfriend prior to Courtney?"  "Heather Froy"
"Courtney, who is your tennis partner for the match this weekend?"   "Heather Froy"
So that's a little strange and uncomfortable but oh well.  Tis better to make friends than enemies =)

That's all for now...

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!!!!!!