Sunday, June 21, 2009

Family...

The past few weeks have been busy and full of adventures. Here are a few of the highlights...
  • House sitting for a fellow teacher
  • Del Sol graduation, followed by food and drinks at an Irish pub
  • Rick and Holly visiting Vegas for a week
  • Eating at favorite restaurants, including Roberto's taco shop, Bahama Breeze and a Japanese place in China town
  • Spending all day with a Realtor, looking at and putting in offers on houses
  • Kathy coming to Vegas
  • Wandering around the strip a few times
  • Visiting the Ethel M's chocolate factory and the Cupcakery (Yummy!)
  • Picking cactus brambles out of my thigh
  • Driving to Oceanside using Bill's non-directions
  • Staying with Tina's parents in their amazing gorgeous home
  • Relaxing in the hot tub each night
  • Riding a boat out into the ocean and having the dolphins swim with us
  • Bill catching a fish, a small fish
  • Learning to drive a 4-wheeler through the avocado orchard
  • Driving back to Vegas and stopping near the World's Largest Thermometer to get some NoDoz
  • A very long nap to recover...
Now for a few weeks of nothing and then off to more adventures!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Worth it...

Over the past few weeks, there have been a few things that have made this school year entirely worth all the hard work I have put in.
  • My efforts at pushing the school towards full inclusion have paid off in that more than 4 times the number of Special education students passed the proficiency exams than last year.
  • Twice as many sped students graduated this year compared to last year.
  • One of my student brought me flowers and a candy lei (filled with life savers) and said thank you for saving my life. I had never been to a sadder meeting, parents/teachers/counselor/student in tears because he wasn't going to graduate - we worked out a deal, and he did an incredible amount of work and is now graduating. He's such a great kid, and I am so glad I was able to help.
I am looking forward to the break, although I will probably still go in and work over the summer. I am mostly looking forward to the break from all the staffing and drama issues! I am now pretty sure I will never go into administration, because I never want to deal with personnel issues again!