Wednesday, April 15, 2009

It's been a while . . . (update)

  • Spring break was nice, but it was hard to come back to school yesterday.
  • Let the countdown begin--31 days until summer!
  • School budget issues are getting me down.
  • I'm impressed by the creative solutions our superintendent has conjured up.
  • By "creative solutions" I really mean "multiple and non-negotiable teacher salary and benefit cuts", and by "impressed" I mean "pissed off."
  • Good news! I passed my Praxis! That means I qualify for a change of level accompanied by a salary cut!
  • I'm also nearly done with my ESL endorsement. Which means I qualify for a lane change.
  • One of the impressive ideas is to suspend all lane changes.
  • Back to spring break--we made some good progress on the yard. Brock is putting in a sprinkler system. It involves a lot of digging. The girls and I cleaned up a side bed and put in a patch of strawberries. We've tilled the garden and planted peas, spinach, radishes, lettuce and onions. We have 70 tomato starts and 50 pepper starts growing in our mud room. We're going to have a killer garden this year! Which is good since we won't be able to buy groceries next year.
  • We saw Monster vs. Aliens. It was very, very funny.
  • We went on a great little hike in the mountains across the street from our house. These mountains are craggy and steep. We discovered a beautiful spring waterfall.
  • We went swimming after the hike at the BEHS Natatorium.
  • Easter was nice. Brock and I went to the Episcopal Church for their Easter services as well as our own church. The music at the Episcopal Church was very good. We went to Brock's parents for dinner. It was very nice.
  • We had a Seder feast on Thursday evening for Passover. We used a script I got when one of my college professor's had a Seder at his house for his students. Brock and I do this every year, but it was our first time to involved my girls. They liked it. We just finished up a Holocaust unit at school, so it was great for Emma to make some connections with what she learned at school and the Seder.
  • Jane had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. I can't believe she's nine years old! She is such a sweet child. She is always trying to be helpful to others. I'm so glad she's my girl!
  • I'm teaching poetry this month! I'm the luckiest salary-slashed teacher alive!

2 comments:

Kim said...

You are so funny. Who needs a pay raise when you can have a pat on the back? Who needs to eat...eating is over-rated?

Tawna said...

Shannon, I wish you were my poetry teacher. We could just sit and read all our favorite poems to each other. Did you read the one on W.A. last week about Henry David Thoreau standing barefoot in a swamp listening to toads as they mate? It was priceless. The one today about blueberries was pretty nice, too, although, I do enjoy actual poetry which to me includes rhyme and minimally, meter.