Atypical Week

 We have staff prayer every Friday morning before school. Each teacher and staff member signs up for one week where they host the prayer in their classroom, lead the prayer, and provide a breakfast treat. This morning one of the kindergarten teachers hosted. She started with an activity where she asked everyone to write down the reason(s) they became a teacher or decided to work in a school. When we were done she shared that many years ago someone had her write down her reasons for becoming a teacher. She has kept that paper and it has brought her joy throughout the years - a reminder of why she got into this profession and a source of inspiration to get through the tough times.

It was timely for me. Spending a few moments focusing on the WHY of what I do was the perfect way to start my day. Whenever anyone has asked me why I became a teacher, I have always cited Jason, my foster brother that attended kindergarten with me. Jason lived with my family for five months, at most. But somehow his presence in my childhood had a huge hand in shaping who I became as an adult. Jason is why I became a teacher. Jason is why I was a foster parent and am heartbroken that I was not able to adopt.

Last week was nutso. That's already been established. This week was... atypical. Monday was Valentine's Day. My husband put a vase of roses on the kitchen table while I was in the shower. That evening we ate leftovers for dinner, while our new cleaning lady was *still* cleaning our upstairs. We felt bad for her, having to work so late on our dust and clutter on Valentine's Day... but eventually had to eat while she was still working.

On Tuesday, as the end of the school day and the first of my three overlapping meetings was approaching, I felt a migraine coming on. Generally, my migraines result from dehydration or poor nutrition. But I knew Tuesday was going to be crazy, so I had paid careful attention to my food and water intake throughout the day. I mentioned to my co-workers as we were coming in from carpool that I would need ibuprofen before our meeting because I felt a migraine coming on. One offered to bring Excedrin to me at the meeting. When I arrived, stopping after carpool only to remove my coat and use the restroom, I was distressed to see there was nowhere near the door for me to sit. Knowing I'd have to duck out early, I was not happy about having to slink to the back of the room. My friend brought me the Excedrin, which I took before going to a different co-worker to ask if she could take over the Zoom breakout room in my second meeting in case I had to leave for my third meeting before the breakout session ended. She told me our principal had told her to skip the second meeting. I walked to the space in the back of the room where I had set my stuff and started crying. Fortunately, she noticed and basically escorted me out of the meeting.

After settling me into my chair and listening to me vent for a bit, my friend returned to the staff meeting. I was not functional enough for that. I drank a liter of water and attempted to sort student papers. Half an hour later, I was still not very functional, so I chased the Excedrin with ibuprofen and drank another liter of water. This was enough to kick the migraine down low enough for me to attend the Zoom meeting. I ran my breakout room and pitched my friend's book. As soon as I was done pitching my friend's book, I gathered up and walked down the hall to the interview.

Also throughout the week the fourth graders were planning ways to show my partner teacher their love. They created a memory book that included pictures they asked the principal to take during recess time. They brought clipboards, handmade cards, and coloring supplies to the playground and made sure every fourth grader signed a card. Today, my homeroom students made her cards, and after lunch recess we trooped across the hall to deliver them, and share Krispy Kremes brought in to celebrate a student's birthday.

Just in case this wasn't quite enough, sometime this week we had a COVID positive case in our grade level. The email came mid-week, and students in both homerooms believe it to be a student in the other room. Since many schools have mid-winter breaks that stretch beyond the one day my school has off for President's Day, lots of families are traveling, leaving attendance spotty in both classrooms.

This afternoon the interviewee from Tuesday came to teach a lesson in my classroom, and we interviewed another candidate after school. This schedule had me unavailable to say goodbye to my partner teacher. I have mixed feelings about that. She walked out of the building for the last time while I was interviewing her potential replacement.

I finally found time to open my Valentine cards from my students tonight. I may have come into teaching because of Jason, my foster brother, but my students keep me coming back for more year after year.

I don't know what next week will bring, but I do know my husband is doing what he can to help me relax during these high stress times. He's taking me away for a couple of nights on this long weekend. We booked the trip on Monday night, as we ate our leftovers and tried not to feel guilty as someone else vacuumed and scrubbed our home. We'll be a few hours away from home, spending time together that we just haven't had in the past couple of weeks. 

No matter what next week brings, I know I have amazing support. My husband, my co-workers, and my principal are all willing to jump in and do what it takes to keep me sane! I am grateful for all of them.

Weird Week

This week was nutso. 

On Sunday I hopped in the car of someone I'd never met before, but whose name I knew, and let her drive me 3.5 hours to a little tourist town on the peninsula. We spent three days at the only Catholic school in that area as part of a four member (three members from our Archdiocese + an out of state chair) visiting team. We were tasked with writing a report of findings to affirm the self-study the school had conducted on its own and recommend a term of accreditation to the multi-state accrediting body that all of our schools belong to.

I love the accrediting process. I volunteer for visiting committees any time I am offered the opportunity. This time around I was "required" to be a part of a team. Most people think I'm crazy for loving the process. But I get to travel for work and am treated like a professional. Many teachers don't have the experience of a work trip complete with a paid hotel room, SWAG, and lots of free food. I also get to write a report (I do love to write) while discovering new ideas for my own classroom. What's not to like?

Okay, it is a crazy ton of work. As I was climbing into the car of a principal who lives fairly close to me and teaches at the Archdiocesan school closest to my own (which is not close to where we live) my husband called out, "Have fun on your vacation from work where you have to work!" On my first two accreditation teams, I ended up with a migraine. I didn't pay attention to my food and water intake as I observed classrooms and stared at a screen attempting to put words to my observations... and yet I still learned to love the process. Okay, it is a little crazy that I love the process.

This time around I was worried about the small size of the team. I was concerned that one of us would end up with COVID and couldn't figure out how the team would finish the job with only three members. My previous teams have always had at least six members. But our little team functioned incredibly well. The chair was super organized and kept us on task. And we were all healthy, active participants in the process.

The biggest snag was waking up on Tuesday morning to a text from my partner teacher telling me she had given two weeks' notice on Monday night to our principal. It wasn't exactly a surprise, but it still felt like a punch in the gut. I spent less time focused on the accreditation process on Tuesday morning than I would have liked. But my ability to focus had been severely compromised. During one of our breaks, one of the other team members found the posting for my new partner teacher already on the Archdiocesan website. Know any great fourth grade teachers? IB training a plus!

I got home on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday morning I went in to find a glowing report from my sub and a taped-up piece of paper wrapped around a $10 bill with a lengthy explanation of how a picture frame got broken. Coming back from a three-day absence is never easy. I had a very large stack of papers to grade, even though I have two specialist periods back-to-back on both Mondays and Wednesdays.

I also had a ridiculous Thursday schedule. It started with a morning meeting that required another staff member to bring my students up from carpool and start their day. At lunch I had a make-up meeting with a group of fifth grade students preparing an end of PYP exhibition project. Our meetings are regularly scheduled for one of my days with back-to-back specialists, but I was out of town this week. My principal was supposed to watch my students eat their lunch, but he was in an unexpected meeting. Two other teachers graciously took turns watching my students eat their lunch, and watch Bill Nye talk about earthquakes while I tried to check in with my fifth graders. The day ended with a regional teacher leader meeting for the group that "required" me to go on the accreditation visit this year. Meanwhile, our primary recess supervisor had a family emergency and could not be at school. So, I got pulled from my lunch time meeting to have a discussion about how my grade-band would cover lunch recess. Since I was in a meeting that was supposed to last well into the recess period, and had all the aforementioned commitments in my day, I was relieved when the principal was done with his meeting on time to cover our recess.

I believe my workdays will follow a similar pattern until I have a new partner teacher. The principal told me on Thursday that he will take the other fourth grade class until we find the "right fit" for the position. He promises to do all of the grading, but I'm pretty sure I'll be on the hook for all of the planning... even though my outgoing partner teacher is teaching an entirely different set of math lessons and novel to her small groups than I am teaching to mine.

Today was the annual Archdiocesan professional development and curriculum day. It was virtual, so I didn't have to wake up early and drive to school. I did have to open my Zoom room for one of the presenters who was running his morning and afternoon sessions out of my Zoom room. Things went fine during his morning session while I ran two computers so I could attend a different session. I was distracted enough by the second, muted presentation running on a the second computer in the morning, that I decided to scrap my plans for the afternoon session and attend the one I was hosting in my Zoom. Toward the end of the second session, while the participants, including me, were in a breakout room, the presenter randomly had his host privileges revoked. I was enjoying my conversation and didn't realize how much time had passed. My phone rang with an unknown number, so I ignored it. But then my phone rang with a call from the marketing director at my school. After I answered, she passed her phone to my principal who was on his cell phone talking to someone from the Archdiocesan office, who was on another line with the presenter whose session I was hosting. Through the grapevine I was given the presenter's cell phone number to troubleshoot the issue. Once I understood what had happened, it was easy to reinstate his host privileges, but the breakout sessions ran so long he had to cut material he had planned for the end of his session. 

Going into the weekend, I still feel like I'm drowning in papers to grade, but my principal told me we do have a candidate to interview as a replacement for my partner teacher. The scheduled interview means Tuesday will shake out a lot like Thursday did. I have a Zoom scheduled for before school with the parent of a student who started at my school three weeks ago. She wants to get a better sense of routines and expectations. After school I have three meetings that all overlap with one another. Every four weeks our weekly staff meeting collides with the monthly teacher leader meeting. The staff meetings usually run until 4:00, but the teacher leader meetings begin at 3:30 and are scheduled to run until 5:30. The interview is scheduled for 4:00. Since I do need to run a breakout room at the teacher leader meeting and have been asked to pitch my college roommate's first book (Literally Unbelievable: Stories from an East Oakland Classroom) at the end, I foresee an overloaded brain coming my way by the time I will finally get to climb into my car and drive home. I guess I'd better rest up this weekend!

Sub Prep

Last week was Catholic Schools Week. Each day during CSW we honor a different group in our community. On Monday we celebrated parents. Tuesday was set aside to honor teachers and school staff. Wednesday was for our faith filled community and Thursday was for other supporters (alumni and donors), and Friday was student appreciation day. We also have a spirit week of sorts, with crazy hats, crazy hair, Catholic spirit wear, and a non-uniform day during the week, along with a best uniform day on the day we celebrate mass as a school community. Crazy hair used to be overwhelming for me. I have lots of hair. I should be able to do something crazy, but I already have purple and blue hair dye streaked throughout my locks.

I think I did okay. Crazy Mrs. Conrow.

My students were clearly excited for teacher and staff appreciation day this year. As soon as they learned Tuesday was the day to show their gratitude for me, I was inundated with questions. "Mrs. Conrow, what's your favorite color?" "Do you have a favorite flower?" "What kind of things do you like?" Um.... isn't it obvious? Yes. Other students answered for me. One look around my classroom informs enough about my likes for fourth graders and their families to do an amazing job of showing their thanks.

I got a "Coolest Teacher Award"

A heartfelt card that made me laugh out loud.

Genuine Parent Gratitude

Handdrawn Wonder Woman Card

This year Catholic Schools Week ended with me staying late to prep for a sub to be in for me for three days. I will be a member of an accreditation visiting team for another Catholic School in my Archdiocese on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I will be boarding a ferry tomorrow afternoon to travel to the edge of a national park to observe another school and help write a report of findings. I stayed in my classroom until nearly 6:00pm on a Friday night, writing sub plans and making copies. I spent Saturday afternoon creating a Google Slide deck to help guide my sub through three days of instruction. Admittedly the slide show is bare bones compared to what I usually put together, but I also usually only put one day together at a time. I also made many more copies for my sub than I would have made for myself.

Putting together sub plans this year was more overwhelming than I remember in past years. I know I have missed days before, to be a part of an accreditation team even. I don't remember the prep being this time consuming or mentally taxing. Is it COVID? Is it being in a relatively new grade level?  Did I used to even make slide shows for my subs? No matter the cause, prepping for a sub took on a new dimension for me this time around.