vacation check-in #1

Week 3 of my off-track time comes to an end today. Of fifteen "vacation" weekdays, I have spent ten at work or work-related activities (i.e. conferences), plus one Saturday and one Sunday. For once this is very little subbing (only one day of that, though at least five more are scheduled) and a whole lot of other stuff: planning my speech curriculum, attending to ESL duties, and co-authoring a grant. I'm not actually qualified to write a grant, but it paid better than my actual job and it's not like I'd had time to start any kind of projects at home. Besides, the amount of money going to the school, should we receive this thing, is staggering. Read all about it here, and laugh heartily at the line about "district support" for alternative applicants like ourselves, as you picture the grant-writing team subsisting on Gummy Bears and Orange Shasta for an entire week and shouting deleriously at each other about the trolls living under the 100 bungalows.

I learned a whole bunch of things while writing this grant, very few of them about grant writing (though ironically, there was a grant-writing workshop on campus every afternoon last week, and people kept interrupting us to ask where it was. Go away! We are faking our way through writing a grant!) You can learn a lot, it turns out, by interviewing people about their jobs and by digging through data sheets, but even more by simply sitting in the Assistant Principal's office for six days and looking busy. It's as though you're not even there. For example, I know everything there is to know about new schedule proposals for next year, including the much-discussed but never-defined Shadow and Twilight Classes. (Google these terms and see what you find. I was - and still am - convinced that we are making them up.) The idea is that instead of tutoring your struggling students after class, you pre-teach to them by creating a "shadow" period before their actual class, reviewing key concepts and letting them practice ahead of time. Then, when the bell rings for class to start, the other kids come in and join them. Frankly, I liked the idea of Shadow Classes better when we thought it meant a set of super-secret classes run deep under the earth by government ninjas. This is where the real learning happens.

As far as my original list is concerned, little progress has been made.

• Finish knitting baby blanket for increasingly pregnant colleague: 1/5 complete and incredibly adorable. I also made a hat for my sister.
• Plan curriculum for speech class: Generic plan done; one more all-SLC planning session scheduled for next month.
• Plan wedding: Invitations worded and laid out but neither printed nor assembled. Dress bought. All other plans stalled.
• Doctor, dentist, optometrist: No, no, no.
• Attend friends’ wedding in Bay Area: Have yet to make hotel reservations.
• Attend about 8 credentialing obligations: One attended, one ditched and accountability form falsified.
• Clean apartment: Ongoing but trending positive
• Break addictions: Successful when at home, unsuccessful when at work (ie 2/3 of the time.) Although a misplaced hoodie did force me to rush to work on Wednesday without stopping for a latte, and I did not die. It should be mentioned, however, that colleagues brought Starbucks brewed coffee and Krispy Kremes that day, which took the edge off somewhat.
• Read non-Young Adult books: Well, you see... The problem is that this takes time. And mental energy. I have both of these things, but as you see, I am dividing them up in a whole lot of different directions right now. It helps that Heroes is off the air right now and that I've caught up to Aaron with regard to The Wire, but still, reading grown-up books takes a lot longer than kid books, even when they are delightful fluff. The other problem is that I (of course) bought a new stack of YA for the library that I have to read before going back to work. As it stands, I've only read about half of The Terror and the first third of American Gods. I'm so ashamed!