Back to School

January 2nd marked my first day back to school. I just have to tell everyone about it!

In their infinite wisdom, our administrators decided that on the first day of a new semester, instead of starting with new classes, we would revert to the schedule of first semester. According to them, some students were unable to turn in their textbooks on the last day of school prior to Christmas Break, and so we needed to have a day of the old schedule so they could do this.

Somehow, all of my students were able to turn in their books the last day. My excellent maternity leave sub was able to do this.

Also, how much time does it take for someone to turn in a book? I'd say about 5 minutes, tops, for the entire class.

But we ran a full day on last semester's schedule on the first day of the new semester... so yeah. It was a waste of a day. I had several kids call their parents to come get them, or to get permission to go home, since we did absolutely nothing. ARGH. 


January 3 we actually had new classes and were able to begin our fresh semester. I have some great kids and it feels like we are going to have a great semester. I'm excited to do some fun activities with them.

But really, all we do in this school system is waste time. On our first day back, we had a "Collaborative Time Meeting" for an hour before school began (Collaborative time is a major buzzword in education this year) where we did absolutely nothing. Wait, I take that back. We sat in a room and were told to look through our schoolwide Improvement Plan (already submitted to the state) for errors or items that needed to be changed. My table was assigned the segment titled "Parent Involvement and Communication." This chunk of the plan included communication avenues the school uses to let parents and community know what's going on.

It was great because there was a paragraph about how the students produce a monthly newspaper and yearbook for communication purposes. I brought that up in front of the whole group and asked how that was going. My principal's face turned red and she changed the subject. From what I understand, the pub class has put out 1 paper all year. Sad.  But I digress.

But enough about me... Vivian and Henry have had a great transition back to Shelly's house. Vivian was so happy to see her best friends Gracie and Raegan, and Henry has been fitting in just fine. He loves to watch the other kids, and they all love to 'check' on him and make sure he's ok.

Vivian and the other 'big' kids get started back with preschool activities on Monday. She is looking forward to that, because they will do circle time (stories) and crafts. She loves to do that stuff.

Henry slept through the night two nights this week. SO AWESOME!  :)  Keep on praying that he does well and keeps it up!

Nick is about to jump out of his skin because of the upcoming BCS championship game. All the sportscasters and forecasters are predicting a major loss for Notre Dame. We are so excited to watch them prove everyone wrong. (Please pray this happens, because otherwise, I will have a depressed and dejected husband for a good 6 months.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the first week of January!!!  :)