Work week one down.

This week I went back to work after being off work since June 2008. My work for most of my life has been a physical type of work. I worked as an electrician in the construction field. Before my recent stint with unemployment I was working in the electrical field, but in the teaching end of it. That was not nearly as physical as the field work I had done for most of my life. I began teaching in December, 2004. So, it would be safe to say that this week’s physical work activity is the most I have done in work in six years.

Five months ago, I could not have done this.

Five months ago, I was an out of shape fat man. My wife said I had the activity level of a garden slug (hurtful, but true.)

Some of you have been reading me for a while, but for those that are newly joining my journey, let me catch you up.

August 9: I changed my life. Eating ruled my life and when I changed my eating, I changed my life.

August 16: I changed my physical activity level. I walked with a cane, when and only when, I deemed walking absolutely necessary. Arthritis in my back and weight related pain in my knees and ankles kept me chair bound for the most part. It was not just the pain, but my unwillingness to endure it to work through it. I started walking for exercise.

January 3: This was my first day at a new job. I am working on the construction team for a local university medical center. On that first day, I walked nearly five miles. Some of this was trips I wouldn't have to make daily, but it also included some walking that will be a daily requirement. By the end of the week, that total would be over fifteen miles.

I experienced a new thing this week as well.

While being off, my main exercise was my walking. I did other things, but not in the form of exercise. My work around the house was limited. My calorie intake was usually between 1000 and 1100 calories per day. This gave me no problems. It was enough to fuel me daily.

Tuesday, around ten-thirty in the AM, I was working with one of the other electricians on a project, when I began to notice some odd sensations. I had stomach pains and got nauseated. I know this is not odd in as much as there has been a cold or virus thing running around between Tammy and the kids. I figured it was just part of that.

Then, shortly thereafter, I began to get a euphoric feeling. It was a feeling of being slightly disconnected to my surroundings. I felt light-headed and, what I can only imagine is, high (I have never been high before.) I excused myself to go to the restroom. There, I called my medical expert, Tammy. She correctly told me it was my sugar level. It was too low.

I went to the vending machines and got a three musketeers bar. After eating it, most of the symptoms subsided. I ate lunch within the hour (Oven Roasted Chicken breast sub from Subway®.) After lunch, all the symptoms were gone.

The energy burned while working was far more than the energy burned while walking and being at home. My walk was an hour of energy consumption. This was eight hours a day of energy consumption.

To fix this, I add 8 ounces of orange juice to my morning drinking. I usually have a 24 ounce diet Dew® in the mornings. When it is about half gone, I add the orange juice to the remainder. (Orange juice is one of the main ingredients in Diet Mountain Dew.) I sip this as the morning progresses. Since Tuesday, there have been no more issues with low sugar.

One of the things I have maintained all along with this is that this is what works for me. It may not work for you. It stopped working somewhat, when my activity level changed drastically. This required a change in what I do as far as eating is concerned. You have to do what works for you and what you like doing. If it doesn't work or you don’t like it, you won’t continue it.

I still love food as much as I ever did. I just love it in smaller portions. I love it in healthier choices.

And, when it is necessary, I adjust. My calorie intake has risen to 1200 to 1300 a day in light of the new needed energy level. It will take a while for my brain to see this as OK, but it will come.

Sorry for the novel-ette, but it has been a while since I blogged.

Back to work

Monday was my first day back at work in over two years.

It was an interesting day. I wore my pedometer because I was going to miss my morning walk. I had to go to the parking office to get a pass for parking in the employee lots. It was a good little drive, but I decided to walk. Then there was the walk to the security office to get a badge. Then I had to walk back to the truck to get the second paper and back to the security office. Add a walk to the clinic for a TB test, and then back to the office, and then to the hospital to actually work, and by the days end, I had walked over 4 miles and 9200 steps.

Apparently it was a slow day.

And .. I did manage to maintain my new eating plan ..

hindsight .. so perfect

Looking back, I would have made different decisions. I guess we could all say that.

Our Sunday morning rush .. er .. routine is that we leave home to go to church and pick Cloe up on the way. Non-regular readers, Cloe is our 21 month old granddaughter. She is one of six grandkids. She lives closest to us. She is Sierra's daughter. Again, regular readers will know that Sierra and Cloe lived with us for about 8 months until recently. (TJ says, as she passed by reading over my shoulder .. "None of our readers are regular. Just reading us makes them irregular.) Cloe always goes to church with us on Sunday. It is a good routine for a child to learn. We generally call Sierra when we get up and tell her to have Cloe ready. This rarely happens. Picking her up puts us behind schedule. We mostly make it to church on time, but without pre-service fellowship time.

We had this great idea. Here is where the hindsight comes in. We would keep Cloe on Saturday night. That way she would be up with us already, and we could get her dressed and out the door on time. Great plan or so we thought. We now know that neither of us are ready to slip back into parenting on any kind of full time basis, especially for a bright toddler like Cloe. She had us up until late, playing in our bed. Then, when She was settled and sleeping, I was going to get up and go to the restroom. We have a king size waterbed. So, I, in an effort to reduce any movement, used the sideboard to get up, rather than push on the mattress as I usually do. The sideboard broke loose from the foot and head boards. The mattress survived.

Now, it is after midnight, Cloe is awake again, and I am trying to screw the bed back together. It was useless at that point. There was much more work involved in fixing the bed than just a few screws and good night. TJ and Cloe stayed in the bed. I went to daughters room (she was spending night with a friend) and slept in her bed. I didn't sleep well. TJ didn't sleep well. She froze all night because I wasn't there to keep her warm. Cloe kicked her all night.

Hindsight says:

Do not offer to watch toddler granddaughter overnight until she is around 12 years old.

I know the bed incident wasnt Cloe's fault. It was just a crowning moment to an already otherwise busy night.

Today, after church, we broke down the bed, removed the water, and decided how we needed to proceed. It involves replacing some wood on the foundation and sturdying up some places. Perhaps it will involve scrapping a waterbed and buying a conventional bed. The Doctor already told TJ we need a FIRM bed for her back. He said a waveless mattress was fine if we wanted to keep the waterbed. We are exploring both options.

Daughter is spending night with a friend again, so her bed is available for us tonight. She told us we were not allowed to do the sex thing in her bed. If she isn't allowed, we aren't allowed. I don't know about all that, now.

Ok .. the challenge ..

I had to add 30 names to my roster list (students who expressed an interest in taking electricity in the 08-09 school year.) Once again, I had ten days to do this. I, also, had to bring in at least one guest speaker to talk to my classes about careers in electricity.

The latter part was easy. It took one phone call.

The 30 new names tried to be tricky. I emailed and called the freshman principal at GRC to schedule a time when I could speak to the entire freshman class at once. There was going to be an assembly of the freshman class two days prior to the deadline. I was trying to get in to talk to them for 30 minutes to do my recruiting. That fell through. I scheduled another time to talk to more classes, but not the entire class at once. It was not the best scenario, but it was still something.

My principal had asked to be kept in the loop. What kinda irritated me was this ‘leave it all up to me’ stance that the state had. They hired me as a teacher. I was not a recruiter. I was not an administrator. My job was to entail teaching. I was to create lesson plans and teach them. That was the least of my jobs since I had been hired. If teaching was all I had to do, it would have been a cake job. Electricity, I know. Teaching, I know. Both, I have been doing for over 30 years.

Anyway, when I told her of my plans, she informed me that the ten days was ten actual days, not 10 business days. This meant that 2 weekends were included. Four days of the ten were days I had no access to students at all. She said she would try to get me more time. I had finally gotten a time when I would have access to most of the freshmen. Monday (day 11) was a freshman picnic.

I sat up a table. I had signs. Freshmen could sign up for a drawing for a cell phone, a Wal-Mart gift card, and McDonald’s gift cards. While they were signing up, I would talk to them about electricity class. I stressed to all of them that they were under no obligation to sign as interested to win any of the prizes. Over eighty signed up for the drawing. When the day was done, I drove back to the school and counted my ‘interested’ signers. It was thirty students.

I have to tell you, I prayed about this. We (family) prayed more than once. This was like a sign. I didn’t know if the state was going to close me down or not, but I knew it was going to be all right either way.

Needless to say, the state decided to close my program. One of the teachers at the school asked me why I jumped through their hoops when we all figured it was a forgone conclusion. My reason: when they did close my program, it would be not because of lack of effort on my part. No one was ever going to point a finger at me and say that I didn’t do everything in my power to keep that program alive.

Next installment: Student reaction and State insanity

Hallowhen ?

We found out today that Mt Sterling is doing the whole Halloween Trick-or-treat tonight !!



They have moved Halloween. Kyle was aghast that they would move such a favored holiday. I told him they would have a hard time moving my favorite holiday (July 4th.)

They threw together some impromptu costumes (as if they wouldn't have done the exact same thing tomorrow night.)

The kids are going trick-or-treating. Tammy (who found out today that she has a torn muscle and a pulled hamstring) is going to pick up the brake pads for her Caddy. She is twitterpated because she got the Camaro started yesterday and it reminded her how much fun it was to drive. She is now back to vacillating between selling it or keeping it.

I am taking a blog break after finishing my college class and in the middle of doing a KTIP lesson plan for my Principal's observation tomorrow morning.

I was looking around and checked Tammy's blog. Two months ago she blogged about how it had been two months since she blogged and promised not to make y'all wait that long again. Ooops.



Anyway ... the book progresses on toward it publication date. Some of the teachers at the High School want copies. One of the counsellors said he wanted a 'signed' copy. It still freaks me out about signing a book. I don't know why.



Time to get back to work ... y'all have a good evening (or morning .. or whenever you read this .. have something good afterwards.)

Where to start ?

It has been a roller coaster ride.

So much is going on right now. Students are back. I have a bunch.

We hired a new Automotive teacher and new Information Technology teacher over the summer. The second day of school with actual students, the new auto teacher comes to work and quits. He said he didn't feel like he was cut out for teaching. He told my boss that he watched us during the two days of in-service we had before students arrived and he did not have what we had. I am not sure what we have, but I am sure there is a salve for it.

Karen (my Boss) closed the auto program for the time being and gave all the students the opportunity to transfer into other programs in our school. Many opted to leave and return to the High School for classes. Quite a few, however, chose to join the electricity program. Karen brought about 10 students into my 6th period class to give them an opportunity to check out the class and me. We were going over the driest part of our year (the handbook and paper work.)

To my surprise, when they returned the the principal, every one of them wanted to take my class. My enrollment went up about 15 students. I now have about 60 students in the course of the day. My largest class is the last of the day, with 17 students.

Tammy is off work. She has pinched a nerve in her neck (or so we are led to believe) and her hands are numb and in pain. She has another appt in the morning. The same DR that told her there was nothing wrong three yrs ago when it was a workers comp case, now believes there are bone spurs in one of her wrists from a break about 3 yrs ago. Imagine that. Private insurance is footing the bill now. So, there is now something that needs to be fixed.

Cloe is doing great. She is growing (Tammy thinks it is by the minute.)

Days are too long. Nights are too short.

I start teaching night classes in October. My college class starts on Monday.

Did I mention "BUSY" ?

Finally .. a moment to catch my breath

Well .. it has been a whirlwind since coming home from Nawlin's.

Our flight out of Nawlin's was delayed for about 40 minutes because the flight coming in was delayed. It had to divert about 100 miles out of the way to miss a storm. We got boarded and away we went. We arrived in Atlanta with just enough time to rush to catch the second leg of our flight home. We arrived in Lexington early. We must have caught a good tailwind. That part of the flight was just over an hour going down and under 45 minutes coming back. It was wonderful to be back in KY. Our luggage was not so happy. It was not back in Lexington yet. The 'luggage guy' (for lack of an official name for him) told Tammy and I that he had a note that our luggage was on a flight arriving at 11:30 PM if we wanted to hang around for an hour. Let's think about this ... in one hour we could be getting our luggage or be getting into our water bed. Hmmmmmm. Bed won. They delivered the luggage the following morning.

Sunday was a sleep day, for the most part. We were tired.

Monday was back to work for both Tammy and myself. I was doing staff exchange with Thoroughbred Electric all week. It was a blast to be back in the field. There was a slight catch. I had to keep a daily log, write a 3-page minimum report, and compose 2 lesson plans based on something worked on during that week and a week worked in June. So, it was busy. The work, reports, log, and lesson plans constitute 3 college credits.

While that was going on, I was catching up the other class I am taking. I am taking a Technology in Education class. I had about 10 excel assignments, a dozen access assignments, and a dozen powerpoint assignments to complete. Lots of computer time, Little fun time. I am nearly done. I will finish up tomorrow (they are all do tomorrow) and then take the final in the Technology class on Thursday night on campus.

This will give me 9 credits for the year. I am required to get 6 per year. This will give me 3 to carry over to next year if I decide to only take a fall class. I am sure i will take a fall and spring class, but it is good to have an option.

This week, so far, I have been in a suite at the Galt House in Louisville. It was the OCTE summer conference (attendance mandatory.) Tammy was not able to go with me, which sucked right out loud. The room was great. The bed was great. The conference was great. However, sitting here at my desk, looking into the bedroom and seeing our bed, knowing we will be in it together tonight, tops all of that. I was way bored without Tammy.

I work the rest of the week, then am off until Wednesday. Then it is back to the grindstone. Next day off ... Labor day!

here are some pics of the suite at the Galt. It was 3 rooms and a hallway. Wowser!

Free at last

Just kidding.

Although ... I am without student for two and a half months. This can only be construed as a good thing. We are doing the end of the year process. I have a checklist of all the inane things I need to do to be away for the summer. It has to be done by the 15th of June, which is the last day I am supposed to be working until August 1st. Yeah, RIGHT !

I do have 10 days extended employment for which I will be paid. Then, there is the staff exchange, for which I will be paid. Then, there is the trip to New Orleans, for which the state is paying, and I will be paid. as of right now, it looks like I will be off for two weeks during the entire summer. I planned as best I could and got them to fall at the end of one week pay period and at the start of the next week pay period and still be two consecutive weeks. Looks like I will be off the last week of June and the first week of July. the kids will be in Florida (after June 12 until July 17, I think.) Tammy will be working, but we will still have free nights and weekends (Sounds like a calling plan rather than a 2 week vacation.) Of course, Tammy is going with me on the week trip to N.O. That will be cool. I have a conference with classes and such during the day, but nights will be ours in the Big Easy.

Other than that, things around here are comparatively quiet. There isn't much going on in the way of drama. Sierra is in labor. She is 32 weeks. The DR wants to hold her off as long as he can. He is striving for at least two more weeks. By then, Alivia will be developed enough to have the best chance to not be in an incubator. She is just over 3 pounds now, and her lungs have not fully developed.

Other than that, it is quiet. The kids school ends this week. Chella assures us her grades are now up to par. She is jazzed about getting off punishment, or "lockdown" as she calls it. There has been a restriction in her freedoms, but she is nowhere close to locked down. Maybe I can arrange a visit to a real 'lockdown' to show her the difference. I have a friend/fellow teacher that teaches at a womans facility. I am sure we can work something out sometime.

Kyle is Kyle. he is being all of eleven that he can be. I was talking on the phone to a good friend (Hi, Russ) Tuesday night and told him that during the upcoming baby shower, Kyle and I would be out and about looking to pick up some chicks. Kyle, from the back seat, with all the manliness an eleven year can muster, said, "Hey, I'm committed now." (Yes, Kyle has a girlfriend.) Tammy and I both said, "You need to be committed." It was funny to hear him say that. Like he has any idea what a relationship is. Too funny.

Ah, the summer looms before us.

Setting the bar too high and infection

Seems odd, but then again, it was an odd day.

Yesterday, Tuesday was primary election day in KY, so I got half a day off with pay to go vote. I actually voted before going to work, so my afternoon was clear. The night before, being aware of this, Tammy suggested that I could come to her work, pick her up, and take her to lunch. That seemed like a great idea.

I left my job at 11am. She got lunch around 1pm. Before I met her, I made a few stops. I stopped at K-Mart to get a cheap toss-able tablecloth (I had a plan.) I looked all over and was about to give it up, when I got to the front and saw the clearance shelves. There they were, Table clothes for $2. I grabbed one and noticed there was some perfume there as well. One of them was Raspberry Ice. (Tammy loves raspberry.) I got the cloth and the perfume and was on my way to my next stop. $9.44

DollarTree. Everything for a dollar or less. There, I got a small bud vase, a crystal candle holder, a pale lavender/pink taper candle, and a pack of lighters. $3.71

China Wall. There I got two combinations of sesame chicken, one extra hot for me. I picked up plastic-ware, duck sauce, soy sauce, and was on my way to Lexington. $14.95

In Lexington, I went to Ashland Florist. I wanted pink daisies. They are Tammy's favorite flowers. They didn't have any pink, but did have a very pale lavender. That would work just fine, considering the candle was a pink/lavender. $1.59

Next stop: Thornton's. I got two cold Diet Dew's. $2.95

$32.66 since I left work, and I was finally on my way to see my hunny.

I called her as I turned on the street where she works and told her I was on my way. She asked where we were going. I told her I would keep that one a secret for now. I pulled up behind the building as she was coming down the stairs. She greeted me at the truck and asked where we were going (persistent, ain't she?) I told her what I had. She loved it. We set up the table and sat down to eat, much to the delight of her co-workers. Several asked what the occasion was. I told them it was Tuesday, and that only happens once this week. It was a great lunch. Priceless.

Her boss (Frank) told her later that I was setting the bar too high for other men. Aaron, a gay guy that Tammy works with said he was developing a crush on me. He wondered if that would bother Tammy or I. she assured him that it wasn't going to bother either of us. We are both very secure in our relationship and realize that other people can like us, have crushes on us, or even lust after us, without affecting how we feel about each other. It only becomes an issue if that person acts on those feelings. Then, it isn't a jealousy issue as much as it is a respect issue. Respect us, respect our relationship, and don't try to interfere with it.

Now, on to the infection. When I got home my tooth was hurting. It had been coming and going for a couple days, but a lot more mildly. Today, it was talking loudly. I decided to lay down for a bit. When I got back up, when Tammy got home, it was swollen until my eye was almost closed. I called my DR because I have Mitral Valve Regurgitation and infection is very dangerous to me. To put it in the simplest terms, one of my valves leaks a little and blood pools behind the valve inside my heart. If I get an infection in my bloodstream, it will pool in my heart and it can kill me. It isn't likely, but it is possible. With that in mind, I called my DR. They suggested that I go to the ER and get a shot of antibiotics.

We went to the local hospital and went to the ER. The nurse was great. We chatted about politics (it was election day) while she got my vitals. Then back to the admitting clerk. She was nice. Then back to a room to wait. The DR was cool, checked me over, and concurred with my DR. Another nurse came in with a hypodermic and the meds. I pulled up my sleeve. She smiled and shook her head, no. She then pointed to her bottom. OH ! One of those shots. I exposed my cheek and she plunged it right in. It eventually got a little sore, but that passed. They gave me a prescription and we were on our way.

This morning it was swollen a little more than last night, but went down during the day. Tammy tried her best to get me to stay home, but today and tomorrow are our last days with students. I have finals to give (school rules) and the park job to finish. Someone asked what happened to my face. I told them that Tammy said, 'shut up' and I thought she said 'get up' and the rest was history. It was still a fun day. We will finish up finals and the park tomorrow and then I will have no students until August.

I was slightly worried that I wouldn't be able to sing on Sunday. I was talking with a little lisp. I can hear it now, O thay can you thee, .... However, I sang it this morning in the truck on the way to work and it sounded fine, no lithp.

And there ya have it.

splotches and other fun things

It has been an interesting week.

There has been a cold, an allergic reaction, a day of sleep, a cancelled cookout, and a Bible Study.

I got up on Monday with a cold (sniffle sniffle), but just a slight one. I still went to work. On Monday night, as the cold threatened to get worse, I decided to take a cold remedy. The cough was trying to keep me up all night, and that wasn't a good thing. So, I took some pills my wife gave me for cough and congestion. In the night, I was not coughing but not sleeping right either. Tuesday, I get up and leave for work after taking one more pill. My hands are itching. My palms are itching. My lips are tingly.

I stop for gas a couple miles from work and see in the mirror that my lips are swollen slightly. I call work, get gas, and head home. On the way, Tammy calls. I tell her what is going on (sorta.) She tells me that she has benadryl in her purse. We meet in the middle and she gives them to me. By this time, my arms have started to splotch. I am breaking out in hives.

I get home, take the benadryl and sleep away the most of the day. By Wednesday I am good to go. I am still slightly itchy, but manageable.

Thursday, I go to a State Committee meeting. We are developing a Career Pathways document for HS Counselors.

Tuesday night, I did the Bible Study thing. It was OK. I was still nervous, but I think I handled it well.

We were to have a cookout on Friday for the Students. One of the other employees picked up the meat for which my club paid. He was supposed to bring it on Friday. I get there and he isn't there yet. He is supposed to be at work an hour before me. I call his house (40 miles away) and he is still in bed. He is sick. His wife will bring the meat, but cant leave home until she takes daughter to school. The meat will not get to our school until second period. So, I postponed the cookout till Monday.

That was the short version of my week. How was yours ?

life goes on

It is just one day past 2 months since Dad passed away. I read an article once about all the euphemisms we use to prevent ourselves from having to use the "D" word. Rest assured, I know Dad died. Saying 'passed away' does nothing to ease the pain of that.

I am amazed at how quickly we fall into the new routine of living without him. For me, it is because I am aware every day that he is gone. I don't find myself seeing something funny and thinking how much I want to share that with him. I know that I can't do that. Perhaps some day, I will forget that he is gone and think, "I can't wait to tell him." It wont happen this week.

In one week (subtle gear shift) I will be doing something I haven't done (formally) in about 10 years. I will be teaching Bible Study at the church. Our Pastor likes to involve the laity in the bible studies by letting everyone have a chance at doing it. Next week is my week. I must admit, I am a bit nervous.

Now, teaching is what I do every day. I teach electricity to my students day in and day out. A friend of 30 years, now the assistant Business Manager of the Union to which I belong, stopped by yesterday while I was talking to a small class of 5th graders. He brought me an absentee ballot for our union elections. He watch me interact with the kids and explain our program to them. He commented that I had found my calling. Teaching is one of my passions.

Still, I am a bit nervous. we will see how it goes.

We have 10 more instructional days left in this school year. Then it is a month of work at the school, a month of work away from the school, and 2 weeks vacation. then the next year starts and we do it all over again.

You are all invited to come to Applebee's Stadium on May 27th, at 2:05 PM, to hear me sing the National Anthem at a Lexington Legends ballgame. It was a blast last year.

More to come .....

Wowser

It has actually been a week since I blogged ???

What has happened in that week that robbed me of my time for blogging ?

Well ......

This week has been CATS testing week window number two. It is the make-up week for those that missed a day the previous week. The students are all still out of whack. Whenever you do something to mess up their routine, it throws them all off. Weekends seem to do that too. One of my students told me once, on a Monday, that they shouldn't have to work because it is Monday. My response? In the real world, work happens on Monday. It happens on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays too. Some folks even work on Saturdays and Sundays. Let's start learning that here.

The dreaded BOX had to be completed on the 1st of May for my self assessment. I turned it into my principal last week for her to check it. She did, and gave me a list of the things I needed to add to it. This week, I did that. Based on the documentation they require, I got 81 points out of a possible 84. That is 4 points possible in 21 categories. My box score, the average of all those, with 4 being perfect, was 3.86. Pretty good I think. One of the other teachers offered me $50 to help him with his.

We are finally released to go to the park to finish our project.

One of my students came to me to ask what he needed to do to pass my class, with 13 days of school left. He has a 34 in my class because he skips and doesn't work. I don't understand those that do that. I understand the goofing off part. I did that, but I did it after I had the first half in with an A and could afford to get lax. I actually graduated 3 months early because I was counting my credits to see what I could flunk and still graduate. To my surprise, I had enough credits to graduate already. Bye-bye High School.

At 17, while most of my same aged friends were juniors in HS, I was a freshman at UK. Here it is 32 years later, I am nearing 50, and I am back in college at Eastern Kentucky University. I am 31 hours toward my Associates degree (64 hours) in Technical Education. I am taking 6 hours over the summer. Oh yeah, that is also what I have been working on this week. I had a 5 page term paper due, a portfolio due, and a final test to take. I don't know about my scores on the term paper or portfolio, but I do know I made an 88 on the final (took it online today.) That is a B and I had a B on the midterm, so I think I am ok.

Tuesday evening was the final night of the night class I was teaching to adults. Wednesday evening was a ribbon cutting ceremony at Bluegrass Community Technical College (Leestown Campus.) Thursday was the final meeting of my CTE261 Foundations of Technical Education class. Yes, it was a busy week.

Whats been going on around here

Life is decidedly busy these days.

School is, or was, in CATS testing this past week. I had students only in the afternoons. These students were wired after sitting and taking a 3.5 hour test. By the time they got to me, they were useless as education goes. Add to that, that two of our teachers were out at the New Teachers Institute Follow up and you have students that are not in the class they are registered for either. I had automotive and welding students mixed in with mine.

Then there is "THE BOX" ... The box is our program assessment box. It is the way the state proves we are doing our jobs. It has 21 files with 3 to 7 folders in each one. Every folder must contain some specific documentation to show a committee that we are actually teaching the kids, communicating with parents, utilizing community resources, working with an advisory committee, adhering to their recommendations, working with student organizations, using guest speakers, integrating with the academic teachers, writing lesson plans, both daily, weekly, and monthly, designing syllabi's, using technology in teaching, holding open houses, working with the community, teaching safety, technology, employability skills, and problem solving skills, along with dozens of other things that we, as instructors, are required to do.

The problem is, we are doing those things, but the documenting of all of that requires as much time as teaching. We are losing teaching time (we do not get a free planning period like the HS does) because we are constantly printing off proof that we are teaching the rest of the time. I understand accountability. I understand that the state wants proof we are doing our job (well, besides kids passing our classes and passing state tests about the things we are teaching.) Somewhere, however, there has to be a middle ground where teaching doesn't suffer for the sake of paperwork.

We have spent this week working on getting those boxes in shape for our 'self assessment' that has to be completed by May 1. The committee doesn't visit us until the start of next school year. The kicker: only documentation less that a year old is usable. So, half of the stuff we are doing now, will not be allowed to count by then.

The good news: We only had one funeral this week. Our next door neighbor that died on Thursday was buried on Tuesday.

Looks like my summer vacation (June 15 to August 1) is filling up with work. That work includes one week with a contractor (that the state pays me for,) one week in New Orleans (High Schools That Work Conference .. also state pays for,) almost a week in Louisville (State Education Conference .. mandatory attendance .. so they have to pay me,) and a few other small things that will whittle my 6 weeks off down to 2 weeks off. That will be nice.

That's some of what has been happening in my world.

Oh yeah, we traded the Bravada in for a Cadillac, so Tammy has a new ride. (Pics will be forthcoming.)

Mind wars with the unarmed

OK .. we have a guy at work that likes to be involved in some way in everything that goes on, even if it is only to complain about it. In most things, he does not contribute anything useful. He just likes to feel that he is somewhat in charge. Mind you, he won't take a principals job because then being in charge requires responsibility. He like to work in the background, fouling things up, so he can deny everything when the caca hits the fan.

Anyway, this week I have been messing with his mind. He hates to think that something might be going on that he doesn't know about. Monday, I came to work in a pair of olive khaki's instead of my usual jeans. I also had on a nice collared button up pullover shirt. He went crazy. He wanted to know why I was so 'dressed up'. I didn't give him any reason. That was just fuel for the fire.

Tuesday comes and I show up for work, again in dress khaki's and a real nice dress shirt. He is all over himself trying to figure out what is happening. Again, I am a clam about the reasons behind my new style of dress. One of the other teachers tells him it is most likely because I am teaching an adult class that evening. The suffices him a bit. He has already mentioned it to several of the staffers in his fishing expedition. The others that he has queried have come to me as well to tell me about it.

Wednesday (today) and I show up for work in black dress slacks, a burgundy dress shirt, a fancy necktie, and dress shoes. He is amazed. He takes my picture. He is beside himself trying to figure it out. It was hilarious to watch him work his mind trying to figure it out. Finally, this afternoon late it becomes too much for him. He has quizzed everyone he can think of asking. He even asked my students while I was out of the school having an electrical project the students have been working on inspected. My students were tight lipped, even though they knew what was going on. So, in desperation, he finally has to ask me.

I tell him it is just because I felt like dressing nice. that is actually the true reason. the whole 'messing with his head' was just a nice bonus. I told him tomorrow I would probably be in jeans, t-shirt, and a skull and crossbones dew-rag. Who knows, I might be.

How has your week gone ?