Week 1 and another birthday

The first week back to school is always intense.  This was no exception.  I sent equipment flying out the door willy nilly, learned how to use a different laminator, poster maker and letter cutter.  I'm now the goddess of the school's internal email as well as the website.  I've made some new allies in the faculty, I made one pretty angry and I found one that I'd just as soon never see again, but I undoubtedly will.

We had open house across two nights.  I took a bunch of photos and will be putting them on the website, hopefully tomorrow morning.  I met a few kids looking just about as scared as I felt.  I still remember meeting and talking to my first kid at the last middle school, who also looked as scared as I felt.  So William, you're my new first kid, and we're both gonna get through this.

I have an extra day of pre-planning, so I'll be firing up the news room on Monday.  I'm out of laminate and poster maker paper now, so won't be doing so much of that.  We have a new bookkeeper now, so I can order some stuff.  When I got to school on Friday the power was off, which meant the a/c was down until it could be re-set.  Not fun in August.  It got pretty hot in there, but by the time open house started, it was liveable.

We watched two videos this week, one a TED talk that I had seen somewhere before.  Another a You Tube video about a kid from Mississippi.  Both very inspirational.  And I kept watching the kids and parents at the open house.  Our kids may come from some dire circumstances, but they're not reluctant to be at school.  They just have their own agenda and their own lives and we need to find a way to merge their agenda with ours and help them to follow their dreams, not our pre-conceived notions of what their dreams are.

It was T's birthday yesterday. He turned six.  We had a cookout and swim party for him today that took up most of the day.  But it was fun.  I did spend one afternoon this week sewing for about an hour.  I just needed to feel I accomplished something concrete.  Almost finished quilting my Florida quilt.  Hopefully tomorrow I can get some website updating done tomorrow and then finish up the Florida quilt.

Let the games begin.

p.s. A friend of mine told me today that she was cleaning out her 16 year old's closet last week and they found a little quilt I had made for him ten years ago or so. It was a simple little thing made of whole cloth, a piece that had roads on it so he could drive his matchbox cars on it. She suggested they return it to me so the grandkids could play with it. He told her he loved it and wanted to keep it. I'm touched. Sixteen year olds are not known for their sentimentality. e