Open Bid Continued

Open bid day 2 was to start at 8:30am; however, it didn't start until about 10am.  It was run the same as the day before (by seniority dates).  I made my debut in front of HR at about noon, presented my preferred position (although I did qualify for quite a few that were posted), which was my "current" position, and was accepted.  What incredible news!  I HAVE MY JOB BACK!!!  I have stability.  I have a pay check.  I have insurance.  I HAVE STABILITY!  I have fantastic staff!  I have amazing students.  I'm beyond lucky and blessed to have such caring and wonderful co-workers and friends.  I'm part of another miracle.  Again, I have one serious guardian angel that no one can mess around with!  I am so blessed.

Today's Funny:

At open bid on teacher asked HR, "Is there WiFi?" HR said,"Yeah.... it's LoudWhale." Teacher asked, "Is there a password?"  HR says, "The password is peach92."  HA! I think I was too amused by this verbal exchange.

Open Bid

Today I spent 4 hours sitting in a room with about 100 other GRPS employees in a similar position as me. We signed in, writing our name and seniority date, then waited. The open jobs were posted on the wall, each job on a different piece of paper. When our name was called, we were to go to a room and present our preferred job to HR. So, seniority dates from 1998 to present started bids at 12:30, one-by-one, people were called to present the job they wanted (or were highly qualified for) to HR.  If you didn't qualify for any of the posted jobs, then you were left "unassigned".  We thought that people were being called by seniority dates, as the invitation we got in the e-mail stated; however, about 2 hours into bids, they said that they were calling people based on how early they came and signed in.  It was all based on the sign in sheet... not seniority.  We couldn't believe it.  After a long conversation, we, as a whole (well, majority rules), decided to base everything on seniority starting at 1998 seniority dates.  The bids were supposed to end at 4pm, but by 5pm they had just gotten to 2010 seniority.  2011 (my seniority date) and 2012 were to come back the following day.  

What a restless night sleep...

End of the Year Update

I haven't written in a while and a lot has happened.  I had a fantastic spring break, and everything has been a blur since.  Time has flown by!  More recently, the students and staff (mostly staff) at the school I teach at threw me a surprise wedding shower on Friday!!! My heart is so full of gratitude and happiness for such a thoughtful surprise that they planned for me!  I literally didn't have words for such a fantastic surprise in my honor! The students weren't aware of the surprise either;  in fact, 5 students wished me happy birthday and 1 asked if I was retiring.  And speaking of retiring, I got an e-mail today notifying me that I will not have my current position in the fall.  While I felt so full of happiness and gratefulness on Friday, I'm feeling quite the opposite today.  I'm confused and hurt.  I can't imagine what I'm going to do or where I'm going to go from here. Retiring really does seem like a good idea!  I could just stay at home and sew all day.  Maybe make it big on etsy...

Needless to say, I must learn to take the good with the bad.  Hopefully positive news will find me in the future, but for now I'll continue my search.

My 25th Birthday

Yesterday was my 25th birthday.  I turned a quarter-century old.  I've officially reached an age where it was hard to handle hearing the number of years I've been on this earth.  It's not an old age, but it still doesn't seem like long enough to accomplish as much as I want to accomplish in my life!

At any rate, my students were eager to celebrate my birthday.  They secretly made me birthday cards (which I LOVE!!! And my day was complete after I received them), they all wished me a happy birthday (one congratulated me... multiple times.  Still not sure what the congrats were for - I guess just making it this far!), and one of my students even realized that I was still younger than some of the students in the class! That was exactly why I didn't want anyone to know my age - so that they saw me as a teacher instead of as their same-age peer.  Regardless, they were happy to celebrate my day with me.  We went to Laughfest and enjoyed our morning (although I think I was the only person out of the 5 students and 1 other staff in my classroom that went to Laughfest, that was actually amused), then dance and choir in the afternoon and back to the classroom to finish the day.  My staff made me a birthday cake (and birthday dinner - I'm spoiled!), lit a candle, and one of my students MADE ME leave the classroom, turn off the lights, and then walk back in so they could put their hands in the air and yell, "SURPRISE!"  So I blew out the blue candle (requested by this student) and made a wish.  Unfortunately my wish didn't come true, because the day had to come to an end...

But before going home, we had 4 hours of conferences (including 3 IEPs) - back-to-back.  One of my student's parents brought me birthday cake.  How wonderful and thoughtful!  I am so blessed to have such loving and caring people in my life.  When conferences were over, we ate meatball sandwiches and salad, that my staff made and brought in for my special birthday dinner.  They are so awesome!

When I got home, Nick had bought birthday cheesecake and we also had birthday Thai food (Drunken Noodles Medium Spicy.... YUMMM!!!).  What a wonderful day!  I didn't want the day to end so I just couldn't go to bed that night!  Thank you to everyone who made my day extra special.  I am so blessed.

3/4 into My First Year of Teaching

This weekend was Spring Forward and Tuesday is my 25th birthday... not to mention conference night.  I think that with everything that is on my plate right now (work, school, wedding, LIFE...) I'm going to have an early mid-life crisis.  More like a quarter-life crisis.  I'm about to be a quarter-century old.  I'm taking every opportunity to complete those online surveys just so that I can check the "18-24 years old" age range option a couple more times.  I've devoted the last 4 days and nights to working on IEPs and other conference materials.  I feel like my brain is mush and I've been living the last few days in IEP format:

Goal: Christina will increase her stamina while completing IEPs. 

Objectives:
1) When working on IEPs, Christina will keep students' individual needs in mind without prompting from administration 90% of the time.
2) When working on IEPs, Christina will refrain from persevering on perfecting each and every word used to create goals, objectives, PLAAFPs and anything else that has to do with creating a compliant IEP without prompting from administration, 100% of the time.

I think that according to my personal observation and data obtained by completed IEPs, I've maintained the first objective, but could use continued practice on the second objective.  Perhaps no prompting from administration is too difficult to obtain as a first year teacher.  I have 1/4 of a year left to use the excuse that I'm a first year teacher and that I need help.  I better ask for as much help as I can get away with!

Anyway, I'll be happy when the stress of conference time is gone.  I have a massage scheduled for March 20 and an appointment scheduled with a personal trainer on March 22nd.  Let's just get through this week!  I better schedule that facial that I've been thinking about...perhaps during spring break.  There's another thing to add to my ever-growing to-do list!!!

Quotable Quotes of the Day

Most of my students have some snarky catchphrases that only they use...and if I ever hear the same phrase outside of school, it reminds me of each particular student. Here are a few:

"What? You neva heard a that???"

"SOMEBODY STOP ME!" (movie: The Mask)

"Give me the fish!" (McDonalds commercial)

"Trains are for people...and bears,too."

"Oh Christy, I have to go to the train station."

"I'm trapped in the 80's!"

"You know me..."

(someone else sitting in my chair) "Christina's the big cheese. Not you"

"You know me, I have colon problems."

"That's it!!! I'm calling MDOT!!! They need to replace these traffic lights and get LEDs!"

(singing) "I like BK. Tastes great!"

"Christina, when you going to retire?" "2050."

(during afternoon wrap-up question time: "how was your day today?" after swimming day) " Anyone who wants to use my shampoo, raise your hand."

"Hey, I've been in a severe thunderstorm back in the 80's."


"How was it like in the black and white days for you?"

"Sheena Easton. Wait a minute, you neva...WAIT A MINUTE! You neva heard a Sheena Easton?!"

Lunch Money

This past Friday, our class was planning on going to Papa Johns to tour the facilities for our weekly CBI (Community Based Instruction) outing.  The fee was $3.00 to make your own pizza for lunch.  This is what one of my students turned into me on Friday morning.