Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Worse . . .

In the sixteen months I've been working for Lakeville Schools, my supervisor has never come into my space and sat down.  Key words:  sat down.  I knew something was up!

Sure enough, Karen, our fourth grade tutor and my lunchroom/recess partner, who also holds a current teaching license, was being pulled.  For the next thirty days, she is going to cover Cristina's maternity leave.

McKenna had been hired to cover Cristina's leave, but she just graduated this fall and her license hasn't come through yet, so she can't be alone in the classroom, even as a sub.

That means that in addition to doing FastBridge with all of the Title 1 fifth graders, I was now going to be doing FastBridge with all of the Title 1 fourth graders, too.  And, I am now doing MAP testing with second, fourth and fifth grades.  

Plus without Karen there to help with recess and lunch, whenever someone is absent from the first hour, I get to do that, too.  I'm not sure there's enough chocolate in the world . . .      

The Cookie Fairy

This has been a hard week in fifth grade - and it's only Tuesday.  We have no idea how Rich is doing after his traumatic brain injury last month and if/or when he'll be back.  To add to it, his long term sub was supposed to begin yesterday, but she got exposed to Covid and is definitely out for this week.  There are no subs currently available so Rich's class got divided up - Aimee got half and Julie got the other half, bringing their class sizes up over thirty-five students each.  Susie, the fifth grade Ignite teacher, has been helping where she can, but she has her own specialized classroom and isn't always available.  They were fried after one day . . . and they had four more to go this week.

Enter the "Cookie Fairy".  Micah agreed last night to bake her "Better Than Sweet Martha's" chocolate chip cookies last night.  She wrapped them individually and put them in a box for me.  I got to work early today.  

The look on Julie's face was priceless when I walked in to her classroom with cookies.  Aimee was equally overjoyed.  Susie began to cry.  Every tutor who busted her bum yesterday was so happy.  It was great!  Thank you, Micah!  

My Newest Speaking Gig

We weren't just short tutors yesterday - we were short staff in every department and multiple classrooms.  It was also the day of our "PBIS Tours".  We had third, fourth and fifth graders touring all the different areas in the building, with different staff going over what our expectations were for them in each area.

Mo, our supervisor, met with the tutors first thing in the morning.  "Are any of you willing to take an area for the tours?  I'll let two of you go together."  

Angela and I said we'd do it and we were given the lunchroom. As we walked over there, Angela said, "I'm really not much for public speaking, but I'm a great support.  Do you mind taking the lead?"  

Sure.  No problem.  At the end of five speeches, we were doing pretty good and Angela swore I was a natural!  

Fast forward.  I had just walked into the building this morning and Angela met me.  "I talked to Mo and we can do the lunchroom again!"   Awesome.  Kinders.  First Graders. Second Graders.  Nine speeches.  No worries.  

I've now met every student who was in attendance so far this week.  And, I no longer have a voice!   But the best part was - we really truly did have fun!    

Long Noon Sup Hours . . .

We knew going in that yesterday was going to be a long day for the noon sups!  We had Randi and Jen out with Covid and then Kari joined them!  We had gone from seven to four in a flash which meant we were all going to pull double duty and miss our regularly scheduled classes.  I became Kari from 11:05-12:05 and Margo from 12:05-1:10.  

Today, Karen was also out as her college-age son was having surgery.  My boss did lunchroom duty with me and her boss (a.k.a. the principal) came outside with me!

Tomorrow we should only be down by one - that being Kari - so I will still be pulling double duty.  Bummer.     

The Dean's List!

Micah shared with us today that she made the Dean's List last semester and now knows she didn't do anything wrong!

The first time she made the Dean's List at North Central was her first semester.  In high school, when you made the Dean's List, it wasn't a good thing.  It generally meant you were in trouble, so she was afraid to tell us!  When we finally finished laughing, we explained to her the difference between a high school Dean's List and a college Dean's List and that we were very proud of her! 

Imitating an AED

 Wouldn't you know?  During CPR/AED class this morning at the Y, not a single one of our AED's worked!  We have ten AED's, from four different companies, none working.  

After the second one told us to "replace batteries", I said, "I've taught enough classes, I can be the AED" and we went for it!

Eve

After almost thirty-three years, we needed to replace our most used wedding gift!  Two children, coupled with life, had us down to three tablespoons and six teaspoons from an original set of twelve each.  Now that we have a working dishwasher and don't get to wash our dishes three times a day, we decided it was time to replace the silverware!  Here's a bad screen shot of "Eve":

While we're going to enjoy having more silverware available to us, we will miss our wedding gift from our dear friends Bob and Cookie!  We've been blessed by you!