Decisions, Decisions...

I'm not happy with The Boy's experiences at his elementary school. I switched him into the school where he is because it is right across the street from where I work, therefore it was convenient for dropoffs, pickups, and any odd emergencies. It's supposed to be top-notch, at least in terms of test scores and such, and the "clientele" kids basically all live in million-plus homes, so you would expect that they would come ready to learn etc. Not the case. One parent at the kindergarten orientation wanted to know if kids would be okay if they didn't know the alphabet and their numbers.
The Boy has been bored this year as they have done little more than what he already learned in preschool. I have not been impressed with his teacher at all. She does not use email (how in the hell that goes on I have no idea), and demands handwritten notes be delivered to her room. That's inconvenient for me to say the least, but I'd put up with that if I got even remotely timely responses (or responses at all). For their "100th Day of Kindergarten" celebration, they spent the entire day counting to 100. He's been able to do that for a year and a half. His "report card" at parent conference time was stellar other than low marks for being unable to reliably pick out rhyming words (big deal in my opinion given the other benchmarks). He has also been very upset that he doesn't get invited on playdates after school. The mothers know that I work (there are only two of us in the class who do). I can't invite kids for afterschool playdates because I work till 4:30... so that's pretty much impossible, and it's hard for Jake to understand that sometimes. He's also been coming home and asking questions about how much our house cost, and how much our car cost, and when are we getting a new car and a new house. Those seem like strange questions to me, but he says that the kids in his class talk about stuff like that. That makes me a little uncomfortable, like they are looking for a way to rank him lower in the social strata.
Anyway, due to all of this, I am looking to move him to a different school next year. There are two magnet schools I have applications for. The First One is at least in the same side of town and feeds into my middle school, and The Other One is going to have a brand new building and expanded sports and music programs (not to mention significantly smaller class sizes so he would get more attention). Hubby is opposed to The Other because it eventually feeds into our designated middle school, which is not as good a school as the one where I work, in his opinion. I think it would be better because he would at least have some contact with kids from our neighborhood, and maybe make some friends closer to home. I know it will be much easier to get him in there (I have no idea if they will give me any extra consideration at The First One). I just know I really don't want him where he is any more. I want him to be happy, and I just don't see that there.
I hope I'm doing the right thing, and I hope we find a place where he'll be happier and be challenged more.

Michelangelo I Am Not

After two days (about eight hours total I think), one gallon of primer and almost two gallons of flat paint, the media center walls are now all some variety of white (the oldest paint actually looks grey, but that's beside the point). We now no longer have the weird purple stripe running the length of the room, and the giant overbearing dark blue oval is now all white. I was up on a ladder painting the high areas of the oval (mostly over my head) and I have a much greater respect for anyone who can paint like that on a regular basis. As the title says, Michelangelo I am not, but I got the job done and it looks pretty nice. It's amazing how much just those two places brightened up the space. Kanga and I also painted the column behind the media desk... just one coat, but the difference was phenomenal. She is such a trooper. I bought her lunch and a cerveza today when we went out with OFL, The Boss, and Owl. We did have a few minor mishaps with the paint, mostly caught by the dropcloths and the tarp, but there were several instances where K's paint roller spongy-thing went flying off the metal roller and landed on the rug. We both laughed, mostly because the rug is in such disastrously dismal shape that the paint splats don't even really matter. If Eeyore complains, I'll just put duct tape over them -- not like THAT'S an unusual occurrence. I'm hoping that this project will make our media center seem nicer for the students and staff, and show them that we do care about the quality of the appearance of the place. Hopefully the new chairs will come soon, and if I get really lucky the tables will still be at Lillian August when I go next week. If not I'll get the one big table and the two smaller ones if those are still there. That'll be an interesting trip. Haven't told OFL about the rug estimate yet ... that's a summer project anyway, so I haven't worried about getting those numbers to him yet.
And now the cranky griping:
Every major thing that has happened with the facilities has been directly my decision so far (weeding, all the new furniture, the painting, discussing blinds/rugs/tile/etc with OFL and Frankenstein). I have tried I don't know how many ways to involve Eeyore, but all she seems to do is drag and delay, and then find something to bitch about once it's done. I'm annoyed, but at the same time I see a pattern, and I really don't feel too uncomfortable making these decisions pretty much without her input (since it's usually negative anyway). The book orders are also left entirely to me since she didn't do anything with them the Friday before vacation, when I specifically asked her to prioritize and send.
Back to a nicer midset:
On the up side, I've read a couple new books over vacation that I've enjoyed, and I posted reviews ("Mrs. B's Favorites" on the EMS site in the Media Center Recommended Reads section). If the weather is reasonably decent tomorrow, I am taking The Boy into NY to the Museum of Natural History tomorrow. I hope it's good, because he's really looking forward to this. Should have asked the Dormouse for the camera!
The Boy had another marvelous day with his beloved blonde bombshell. They went for a wander down to OG and went into the toy store and the bookstore, and then back to her house for lunch and building with legos. She is such a wonderful doll, and he adores her. :)

The First Dry Day

Hurray, hurray (and for those of you who don't give a shit about toilet training, leave the blog now) for The Drama Queen, who had her very first full day of underwear and no accidents! Our little monster is getting to be quite the big girl. She's also the official subject of her teacher's semester-long observation project for her college course ... I laughed at that one and told Natacha I hoped her professor had a good sense of humor. We had to sign off on a two-page permission form for this! Anyway, it's good that DQ's finally got the underwear on and she appears to have gotten the hang of this pretty well. She did well over the weekend -- only a couple accidents. I've been dressing her in easy-up-and-down outfits: dress and tights or loose pants, so that helps as she can manage those on her own.
The Boy had a great time with his favorite blonde today, and is very much looking forward to spending the day with her tomorrow also. K and I got all the spaces primed today, and tomorrow we do a finish coat (hopefully one will do). We've tentatively planned to go out to lunch with Owl, OFL and The Boss, which should be fun as there will be liquids involved. ;) Guess that means I have to wear some makeup tomorrow, or at least bring enough to make me look decent for lunch. Promised K I would buy her lunch (and probably at least one drink also).
I think the MC is going to look much, much better when we're done. It's already a lot lighter and brighter, so I'm glad I did the bullheaded act to get this done.

Vacation's FINALLY here

Vacation ... should bring palm fronds, steel drum music and those cute little umbrella drinks that get you slobberknockered in a hurry. Alas, it's not to be. I think the closest I will get to that is the 4-D SpongeBob experience at the Maritime Center's IMAX theater.

I have The Boy's favorite blonde bombshell coming for two days, and I'll be putting a coat on the more ridiculous parts of the MC those days. Other than that, I think I might take him into the city on Friday, maybe go to a museum or do something else fun for him. Took him to see Bridge to Terabithia Saturday, and we both liked it. We're now reading the book.

We finally have both kids healthy again, after the hat trick of colds/viruses that stampeded through our house over the course of the last 10 days or so. Not fun -- The Drama Queen still wasn't feeling well this morning, but was doing much better after naptime today... much more her usual self.

Got my book reviews up to date, and have gotten the pile knocked down a bit. I've also been mulling over the summer reading nonsense, and still haven't quite decided what to do.

FIL is in St Maarten with GF, UJ, the Don and AD. We will apparently be going to a wedding over Memorial Day weekend for the Don's son and his longtime girlfriend/fiancee who is expecting unexpectedly. Glad we're not in St. Maarten to hear about all that. It really doesn't bother me much -- they have been together so long that I figured we would have a wedding and babies from those two anyway. Seems to me they just are a tad out of order for the moment. It's a bit hard to take for the Don, I think, as he is pretty traditional (thus the nickname).

random annoyances, or same shit different day

I have been researching summer reading websites in hopes that I could find something inspiring, new and cool to get me up and rolling since I now have to completely redesign the district SR webpages. I have been sorely disappointed so far. Every site I have come upon is deadly dull, and some are so poorly designed I didn't want to look any further than the front page. Many of them that were mashed into district sites used pdfs heavily, and there was no real way to search easily for the info you needed. Lots of unecessary scrolling on some also. The district-mashed sites were as a whole far deadlier than the whole-page sites ... and that's saying something IMHO. I did find an experimental summer reading book blog in Washington state that looked like a cool possibility. Have to bring up with CR.
Questions to resolve: how to make it more interactive, what do kids expect to get out of it, what do parents need to get out of it, how to design for the needs given the page limitations I have to deal with (since I now have to cram all this into a much narrower space and design it around the district frame, colors and backdrop).
I am pretty pissed that I have to do this all over again since I think the original site worked quite well for everyone, and was at least interesting to look at while you found what you needed. An once again I don't get credit for doing this, either through getting paid for my time or getting credit towards my ceu requirements. I should have another conversation with CR about that.

Eeyore blew off one of our teachers, and when reminded of what she had agreed to do, replied "Oh well." Twice. Aside from being beyond unprofessional, this is the kind of nonsense that will make staff see us as unreliable, unfriendly and unnecessary -- exactly what we are supposed to be working to remedy in terms of climate. Have no idea whether I am supposed to address that directly or not. There has also been some creative avoidance of the division directive from CR, and that's irritating.

On the good side, I ordered the chairs for the MC after doing the dumb blonde act over the phone for Calca downtown and getting the play-by-play of exactly what to have as documentation of the purchase for reimbursement. Those should come in a few weeks. Got an estimate from Home Depot for rug options (about $4500). Went table hunting with my drama queen, and she behaved quite well. Found some excellent possibilities for tables for the MC, some quite inexpensive at the Lillian August warehouse. Got the manager's name and will call her to discuss tax-exempt option and how to work check from school. Getting Eeyore to go see any of this will be difficult at best I think, which will lead to another I do it and she bitches situation. In her own words, "Oh well."

Fixed what was a major issue in one of our departments, which Owl had ignored according to the other staff involved. Very odd. Finishing the fix will take some parts and pieces ordering, but that shouldn't be an issue.

Kanga's been a little bent lately, mostly over Tigger issues (all valid, will eventually go away but are quite annoying and sometimes patently unfair). Have to bring up with AOFL to see if resolution is a possibility for any of them. This should be interesting this week as K will be out sick for most if not all of this week, so we'll see if T can get her act together enough to be reasonably reliable.

Didja see the Mushroom Cloud??

Hell week #2 is officially over. I met with Christopher Robin Tuesday to discuss the issues we've been having at work, to see if she had any constructive suggestions or ways to restructure the place so I don't lose my mind. I explained a lot of things (some in as few details as possible). She had a few suggestions-- mostly along the lines of clear division of jobs and responsibilities so it would be clear not just to us in the midst of the bullshit but also to everyone else who was supposed to be doing what, and what was and was not getting done. She also said that one of us has to be the official department head, and that it makes more sense for me to have that job since I have more experience and can actually make a decision. I told her that announcement has to come from her or OFL -- there is no way I 'm dropping that bomb too. I also have the job of redoing the summer reading website (and thus I am not volunteering for one more damn thing at the district level). That needs to get done in about the next two months. No jury duty for Wed. (don't know how I missed that bullet, but I'm happy my name was on the "don't come in" message on their answering machine) so I went in to work.
Wednesday was Mushroom Cloud Day. Sat down with Eeyore to discuss several things (furniture, the 8th grade website business, and then the safe and the money). It did not go well. The first part was fine (read: the non-controversial stuff). When we got to the safe and I told her very calmly and quietly that I didn't care who had the combination or control over the money, but if she had it, I didn't want it because I didn't want to be held responsible unless I was actually completely responsible. I said flat out -- "If you don't want that responsibility, I'll take it, but I'm not sharing it. You decide what you'd like, and it'll be fine with me either way." She blew a gasket and told me she didn't see why we couldn't both have it, so I explained that her reactions to the bookfair nightmare were the solid reason behind my decision -- I was not willing to be responsible for something over which I had less than complete control anymore. I kept reiterating that I did not care if she wanted to have the responsibility; she could have it, but at that point I would refuse to take responsibility for any of it. She started yelling at that point, starting with "So you don't trust me?" to which I responded, "It's no longer a matter of trust. You refused to take responsibility for the bookfair mess with me, and you hung me out to dry. I'm no longer willing to risk my job in the least over this." She kept announcing she had no idea what I was talking about over and over again, and I finally quit repeating her exact words from the previous two conversations back to her -- just said "I explained what you said three times. I think that's enough." When she asked why I was doing this now, I told her I was tired and I felt overwhelmed and overworked sometimes, and that I needed help. She immediately twisted that into "You don't think I work? You don't think I do enough? I don't do my job?" It didn't matter how many times I said "I didn't say that. You said that." She was yelling loud enough for Kanga and Owl to hear her all the way across the media center at that point (and also all the staff and students who were in there also). It was more than embarrassing. She started yelling that she'd "take the web" -- as if that wasn't supposed to be something she should be doing already anyway. Her last attempt at a cut toward me was "I thought this was supposed to be a partnership." My immediate response to her was a calm, eye-to-eye "I thought so too." That seemed to shut her up for a few seconds, and then she darted off announcing she had lunch duty. After she grabbed her coat, she stopped and yelled at me one last time, "You just take the safe and the money. You want it you can just have it since the safe was your idea anyway."
I sat through the fallout for about 20 minutes, ate Tums for lunch, and told Kanga I was all right when she came over to ask quietly how I was. I sent OFL a very short email that said we had had the conversation, it did not go well, and that she had blown a gasket. He came up about an hour later into my class, and sat down to ask me "What is her fucking problem?" I gave a very brief explanation of what had happened and we left it at that. I stopped in later to tell him that CR was coming and we were supposed to divide responsibilities together. His response was "You have to have her to do THAT?" I said yes -- at least right now. I keep telling him I am trying to make this work. How long? I don't know.
Thursday CR came to do a formal eval on Eeyore, who was apparently nervous enough about this to not only ask me repeatedly if she should do a particular lesson, but also to have the aide NOT bring the seriously retarded girl to class that day. That pissed me off. Anyway, afterward, CR weenied out on helping us divide our responsibilities, and left it as we should do it ourselves and let her know. I talked with Eeyore later and suggested we look at several ways to divide and conquer -- possibly by grade level and or subject for the curricular areas. The reality is that she's going to have to pick up more of the day to day if I have to be responsible for the budget and all that other nonsense. That ought to be another fun nuclear discussion.
Friday was staff development, otherwise known as "been there done that" day. Other than a few tricks, the day was pretty much spent looking at things we'd seen before and talked over ad nauseum. We did decide that the research process needs to be standardized k-12, so that the same ideas and vocabulary get used throughout. The elementary schools are our weak link, as they do a hodgepodge of whatever they like. Eeyore volunteered immediately for the committee, along with the Hobbit and the Mole. I refused to say anything -- I have enough on my plate.
The other piece that came out of yesterday was that CR said I now have to talk to Calca downtown about using the bookfair money to buy furniture for the new reading area for the media center, since the district can now see our account online(thanks to Eeyore for being so stubbornly recalcitrant on spending the money before now). Hopefully the conversation can end with a yes from him and I won't have to take this to the White Witch. Don't know if I should add in the digital slr camera to that conversation also.
Sigh. I am so damn glad this week is over. Unfortunately, the difficult pieces aren't finished yet, so this soap opera bullshit is going to continue for a while.