August Already!?

I'm not sure how I feel about reaching the last month of summer. My first meeting, as part of the admin team, will be on August 25, with full staff in-service beginning August 31. Of course, I spent the end of June and beginning of July reading professional development books: Learning by Doing and Grading for Equity. At the end of July, I attended an International Baccalaureate conference in Austin, Texas with four of my co-workers. When I came home, I met with other co-workers to create agendas for our staff's book study of Grading for Equity since I've been tasked with submitting a proposal for clock hours to the state so we can earn continuing education credits for our discussion and study of researched-based grading practices. Through it all I've been participating in a book study with my friend and author, Bronwyn Harris, on her first book, Literally Unbelievable. All of this is to say that I have been working off and on all summer, as most teachers do.

Learning by Doing was gifted to me, and all the GRACE teacher leaders last fall, but I had only looked at the sections that were relevant to our discussions during the school year. I'm glad I decided to sit down and read it all the way through. I learned a lot about authors' definition of what makes a Professional Learning Community (PLC). I have worked at schools that have said things like, "Today you will meet with your PLC to discuss..." but they always meant we were meeting with our grade band teams. Just before the pandemic shut schools down in March of 2019, I was working in a building where the administration was actively trying to work within our grade band teams to turn the school into a bonafide PLC, but the plans hit a brick wall when we had to learn how to teach remotely. Learning by Doing presents specific steps schools can take to turn teacher focus toward what students learn rather than what teachers teach. The primary focus of the PLC model presented is to share assessment data with fellow teachers in order to reflect and learn from one another how to become better teachers. Unfortunately, I have never worked in a school that functioned as a PLC as described in this book.

My current staff was given Grading for Equity in June and it was recommended that we read it over the summer in preparation for a book study in the fall. I mentioned to my principal that I had submitted a proposal for clock hours to offer continuing education credit for GRACE teacher leaders in my region when I ran a meeting while the assistant superintendent was out of town. I offered to submit a proposal for the staff book study without realizing the amount of paperwork needed was significantly more than my previous experience. It makes sense, since I offered two clock hours for the one two-hour meeting, but will be offering 20 clock hours for ten two-hour meetings this time around. Grading for Equity challenges educators to stop grading EVERYTHING students do (including participation, writing their names on papers, and timeliness) in order to focus on grading students on what they actually learn. It aligns well with the first professional book I read this summer and with the International Baccalaureate philosophy.

The IB conference in Austin was fun, educational, and exhausting. I went with a fun group of coworkers who had no trouble ordering an Uber or Lyft to take us out in the evenings. The workshops during the day were akin to "drinking from a fire hose" with the amount of information presented. This was my third IB workshop, and though the most recent one was six years ago, I was less overwhelmed this time around. All but one of my coworkers in attendance had already spent half a year to a year teaching in an IB school, and the one who hasn't yet taught in an IB school did a little pre-reading regarding IB philosophy. Perhaps that's why we were all able to spend some time in the evenings enjoying Austin. While walking to a bar where we played cornhole and ping pong, I was telling one of my coworkers a bit about my teaching history. When she heard the name of one school where I had taught in the past, she asked if I knew a family name. I did, and rattled off the girls' names I had taught. It turned out she had gone to high school with the family, and was friends with the sister who had relocated to Austin. We sent her a message on Facebook and met up with her for happy hour. Worlds collided in a very fun way!

Re-reading Literally Unbelievable was more challenging than I expected. It's a challenging topic: the stark realities of underfunded schools within underserved communities. I've read the book multiple times, even helping to edit drafts prior to publication. But I couldn't read more than a small section at a time this time around before I had to stop in order to process. Even so, I consider it a must read for any concerned citizen wanting to understand race relations and take meaningful action toward a better future.

Today my husband and I went into my classroom for the second visit this summer. The first time we went was during the first week of July. That time I asked my husband to put together some new furniture I ordered to augment the flexible seating in the classroom while I ferried stuff from my old room down the hall to my new one. Brand new student desks arrived the day after we were there last, so today he helped me decide on a room arrangement, move out furniture I did not want, move furniture up from the discarded stash of stuff in the auditorium, and put butcher paper on the bulletin boards across the back of the room. The moving of unwanted furniture out and selecting/moving replacement tables was an unexpected bonus project today. But it was great to get all of the things I needed help with checked off my to-do list early in the month.

Now my head is spinning with lists of things I need to accomplish before September rolls around. I've started working on bulletin board decor and am thinking about ways to incorporate the school's theme, Growing Together in Faith, into the designs. I know I have a month, but somehow when the calendar flips to August, it feels like the clock is ticking!

On the Eve of Something New

The end of the school year felt more than a little surreal this year. The gloomy, wet weather had a hand in making it feel like it was still March, even in mid-June. Before the end of the first week of the month, we had surpassed the average rainfall for the entire month. But there were other factors too. I am once again moving to a new grade level, but for once I'm staying in the same building. I am moving down the hall to take over for the middle school social studies (Individuals and Society in IB lingo) teacher who is retiring after decades. Also, I usually I like to plan some kind of break in my routine for the first week after school's out. But this year that was taken off the table by my husband leaving his job. We are both working toward the next steps in our careers.

My new role is one I've had before. Well, actually before it was eighth grade history and eighth grade language. Now it will be seventh and eighth grade history. I have incredibly mixed feelings about this move. On the one hand, I'm very excited to be working with middle schoolers again. This age group is ready for life lessons as well as academic ones. They want to know what the world outside their pre-K through eighth grade experience will be like and are hungry for tips on how to navigate it. I am looking forward to sharing the Mrs. Conrowisms I developed in my previous middle school gig with a new group of kids. I will also be teaching content that I love while staying focused on one subject area. I won't be the primary person responsible for teaching them how to be better writers, which means less hours spent grading than the previous time I taught middle school. Finally, I will be on a team with people who appear to be genuinely delighted that I am joining them. We are already collaborating on ideas for next year's musical and how to navigate the end of the school year crazy. I am looking forward to pretty much every aspect of my new position. 

However, two things give me pause. First, I will miss fourth grade. The intermediate years are where I started and spent the bulk of my teaching career thus far. The kids are old enough and know enough to do a lot. But there's also still a lot of innocence and most of the students have not yet decided they need to appear to be "too cool for school." Thankfully I know from experience that I will feel fulfilled by teaching middle schoolers, making this a minor issue. The other concern I have is that I'm following someone who is a recognized expert at this grade level and content area. I believe I'm moving into the room she has occupied for 35 years. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience that I can't possibly match. I am intimidated by the idea of trying to live up to her in the kids' eyes. Thankfully I am aware that this issue is primarily in my own head. I know no one expects me to be like her - they expect me to be like me. I'm hoping that a week or so into the new role, once I've started to develop relationships with the kids, the sense of intimidation will dissipate.

I have jumped up and down (and now back up) the grade levels from 3-8 during my career, and worked at four different schools. This change keeps me in the same building and puts me in a role I have had before. Therefore, it is the least drastic change I have ever made. But as I enter the summer months, there's a certain level of background anxiety that won't go away. My husband just left his job of over a decade, without another one lined up. He's working to set up his own consultancy while continuing to look for interesting opportunities on multiple job posting sites. This is an incredibly drastic change for us. His income has traditionally paid the bills and allowed us to save money for our kids to go to college, family trips, and retirement. My income has allowed us to have "fun money" to spend on things like our plum crazy Challenger and pinball machines. Financially we are clearly fine - even though we do now have one kid in college and another who will be a senior in high school next year. But this leap of faith could very well represent the beginning of a major shift in how we live our lives.

The end of the 2021-2022 school year has been very different from others, full of new quirks. I have no idea what to expect with my husband's career by the time fall rolls around. At least I have a sense of what it will bring for mine!

Spring!

 Spring weather has finally made an appearance in my corner of the country. It's been wetter and colder than typical with an April snowstorm and a very wet May. On the first dryish day of the month one of my students came bouncing in and handed me two teeny yellow flowers she had picked for me.

They wilted by lunchtime, but the energy and enthusiasm with which they were gifted stayed with me. I am more productive when there is more sunlight in my life. This week I was caught up on my grading, including work turned in late, EVERY day. That is incredibly rare. Maybe I should move somewhere more equatorial...

We even made a trip to the learning garden this week, where students worked to rake out old bark, spread new bark, and plant spring vegetable starts. We got more done than the garden coordinator anticipated, and several students were excited to take buckets of compost down the long flight of stairs to the compost dumpster. It was a glorious class period, made all the sweeter because the morning had started out with a heavy downpour, but the sky was bright blue by the time our garden period rolled around.

The week was capped with an Archdiocesan celebratory event, where all school staff in all 72 Archdiocesan schools were honored with an event at our local baseball stadium. I volunteered to help sign people in, and therefore missed the cocktail hour where the honored school staff mingled with the paying attendees. But I was greeted and thanked by event coordinators and the soon to be superintendent of Catholic schools. I served with him on an accreditation team about three years ago. Since he's the incoming superintendent, I've seen his picture and name a few times, and remembered serving on the visiting committee with him. Last night he approached me as he was thanking all the registration volunteers saying, "I don't know if you remember me..." I was floored that he remembered me! 

I got to socialize with teachers in my building whom I rarely see because they work downstairs or "outside" - in the portables or across the parking lot. I ran into former co-workers and friends from two of my previous buildings. I had great conversations with people I enjoy but rarely get to see anymore.

At the end of the event, I ran into the incoming superintendent again. After I congratulated him he told me I looked beautiful in the thank-you video. That's right, I was on the jumbotron at an MLB stadium, AND the new superintendent is aware of me.

Teacher Appreciation

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. Lots of Facebook posts last week asked teachers about favorite presents we have ever received. I've gotten some great gifts over the years. My standard response to that question is a handwritten card from the students and/or their parents with genuine, specific thanks is always the best gift. However, anything that shows my students and their families have paid enough attention to know a little bit about me personally makes me smile. For example, the times I received a baggie full of butterscotch candies and a brown sack full of Twix made me smile and stuck with me.

But this year I received the best gift ever. It came wrapped in butterfly wrapping paper that matched the skirt I was wearing the day it came into the classroom. And it included a handwritten card from the parents and a drawing from the student. The parental note thanked me for being their child's teacher this year and told me their fourth grader selected "every last detail."

She nailed it! Zoom in - there's even purple in the hair.

I knew this parent created personalized cross stiches. I've seen them in the principal's office and in classrooms of teachers of younger grades. But getting my very own, and to have it exactly match an outfit I've worn often in damp weather, still has me smiling several days later.

Of course, today is also Mother's Day. My oldest decided I need "more Wonder Woman stuff." So it's been a pretty amazing week of gift receiving. I definitely feel appreciated.

The Best Kind of Chaos

 Marketplace Day

Tuesday started out poorly. Backing my fun car out of the garage, I hit the rearview mirror on the side of the garage door hard enough that it broke... not off, but enough that it wouldn't just snap back into place as with previous similar occurrences. I would love to blame the mishap on my new progressive lenses, but the truth is I suffer from a lack of depth perception every day. I pulled the purple car back into the garage and moved my bags and mugs over to the minivan, feeling more comfortable driving in commute traffic on the freeway in a car with a complete set of functional mirrors.

Thankfully, this was not a sign of things to come. It was Marketplace Day in the fourth grade. The idea for a marketplace came from students in my partner teacher's classroom. As we began reading Lunch Money by Andrew Clements in conjunction with our unit on economy, a student question turned into an idea for a new summative assessment. We created a rubric as students were deciding on products and creating their businesses. 

I was a step behind my partner teacher in getting my students prepped for the big day because he ran with the student's idea the day the question was asked. But we brainstormed, students self-selected their business partners, and created business plans complete with a task list and person responsible for the action item before Marketplace Day.

Then I got sick. The week my students were using class time to prep for Marketplace Day, I was in and out of urgent care, asleep on the couch, and so sick with infected diverticulitis that ripping carnival tickets (for Marketplace Day) necessitated a three-hour nap. I wrote sub plans as best as I could while I was really not functional and linked the rubric into the slideshow. I hoped and prayed for the best as I took yet another nap.

Students who did not travel for spring break had that time to continue to create units of their product to sell. Monday was the first day back after spring break. I was not well on Monday - moving slowly and probably suffering from the decimation of the microbiome in my gut from the two ridiculously strong antibiotics that kicked the infection out. 

I had the students focus on brainstorming activities for the written reflection that was the last item on the rubric, and the activity that the teachers covering for me (primarily from my school's staff) had not gotten to during my absence. My students told me, when asked, that they had not looked at the rubric since before I got sick. The staff members who covered for me assured me that was not the case, but given that was the student perception, it was worrisome on the eve of the big day. 

There was also time to meet with groups to finalize plans and do a preliminary set up of booths. I checked in with each group and asked them if they felt ready for the 200+ students whose teachers had signed up to attend. Most seemed overwhelmed at the idea of so many potential customers.

I decided there wasn't much I could do at this point to change the trajectory of the first ever Fourth Grade Marketplace. I gave each group as much encouragement as possible but also asked them to plan for how they could ensure they would have enough units in stock to have something to offer the final class of the day. We brainstormed holding back some units of product and raising prices.

After my car mishap on Tuesday morning, I arrived at school without further incident. I ripped more carnival tickets for a class of preschoolers who signed up on Monday evening and would be our last class of the day, and handed out 20 tickets per student to each teacher who had signed up. Every shopper would have $5.00 worth of tickets to spend. My students arrived with supplies and energy.

The day was an amazing success. Students had products ranging from jewelry and vinyl decals to lemonade and brownies. At least two groups had created Google Site websites and taken preorders from students. Some were offering discounts for students who came with coupons that had been posted around the building in my absence. None of my students' businesses ran out of product until the very last class, the late sign-up preschool class, came through. Although, during the break when fourth graders could shop, I did have one student creating more product for his booth, and one booth resorted to selling whipped cream on a napkin when they ran out of brownies and plates.

During the day, I felt like I sat on a student desk, pushed out of the way in the front of the room, during most of the action. But my smartwatch told a different story. Even though I was still recovering from a fairly severe illness, I took over 9,000 steps. Whoops. But in reality, my students created the first ever fourth grade marketplace on their own. Really. I was not in the building during their prep and my lesson on Monday seemed to freak them out more than help them prepare for the big day.

Feedback from the teachers who came through was nothing but positive. They told me how excited their kids were to attend Marketplace Day, how impressed they were with the products for sale, and how happy the students were with their purchases. The products sold had real value for their customer base, which included many teachers. The middle school schedule did not allow the seventh and eighth graders in the building to attend. Their teachers informed me they were sad they could not attend. Middle school students were sad that they could not come to a fourth-grade event. WOW.

One teacher in the building purchased a fold out drawing from two of my students and took it home to her toddler. She sent me a video of her daughter playing with the picture: unfolding the shark and roaring when the teeth inside a gaping mouth come into view. The boys who created the drawing turned red, grinned, and gave each other thumbs up when I showed them the video,

I had one parent helper who was in the room for the entire Marketplace Day. He cleaned up spills, picked up dropped products for buyers over encumbered by their purchases, collected random debris and threw it away, and took over booths for students who needed to use the restroom or wanted to shop for themselves. As our final class of preschoolers left for the other fourth grade classroom, he told me, "That was the best kind of chaos." Indeed, it was.

My students had so much fun and learned so much about economics. They were not upset in the slightest that they had to man their booths during their morning recess and commented on how quickly the day went by. The first ever Fourth Grade Marketplace Day was a roaring success that I really can't take much credit for.

Well Enough to Work

 After missing a week of school due to slow to respond, infected diverticulitis, I spent the first weekend of my spring break catching up on the grading I had at home from before my absence but had been too ill to worry about. On Monday I drove myself to school (the first time I had driven in over a week) to trade out scored papers for those that were turned in during my week-long absence.

My desk was a sea of papers, mostly the sub notes I had sent and extra copies. So many extra copies... because a quarter of my class missed part of the week I missed for their extended spring break trips. There's going to be a heck of a lot of work to chase on the other side of spring break.

I got to see the Easter mosaic pictures students started the week before I got sick. Most are still works in progress, but three students finished. And now I know I have to plan time for the rest of the class to complete theirs.

I figured it wasn't fair to measure where staples and paperclips are increasing the width, but it's still a pretty hefty stack of work for my spring break. It was important to me to get in early in the week so I could begin sorting through the work students submitted in my absence. Ideally, they would have started their spring break knowing what they owed me and I would have started mine without much (if any) grading to do. But that wasn't in the cards this year. Fortunately, I found several sets of already scored papers, the grammar and spelling assignments, within the stack. I also didn't write anything too demanding into my sub plans. Other than needing to reread the chapters they read in our novel, Lunch Money by Andrew Clements, to ensure I remember what happened before looking at their worksheets, it's all pretty quick to score.

My friend and co-worker left an answer key for the math review sheet she created (yes, created!) and test she administered that had all the work shown. Since I'm still not 100% well, that was incredibly helpful for my sanity. But the best part about the math test was that she told early finishers to "draw pretty pictures for Mrs. Conrow on the back."

I am still recovering. It's disappointing to give my spring break over to recovery and catch-up work, but it's a lot better than needing to take two weeks off in a row, and huge orders of magnitude better than needing emergency surgery... which was an eventuality the urgent care doctor was preemptively planning for during my first visit.

Diverticulitis

 

While the weather has been going crazy, oscillating from 75 degrees to snow and hail within days, I have spent the early part of this spring mostly asleep. I recovered nicely from the five sick days I took mid-March and was well enough to enjoy Zoom conferences. 

However, I felt myself slowing down the first week of April. I knew I didn't feel right but couldn't put my finger on what was wrong. I didn't want to move. I couldn't make myself walk fast. Nothing hurt, but there was definite discomfort in my abdomen. I didn't want to bend or reach for anything if I didn't have to. It wasn't that I couldn't... again, I wasn't in any pain, but I just didn't want to.

Last Saturday night I finally realized I might have a UTI. I was supposed to meet friends for a pedicure and a boozy brunch on Sunday morning so I bent and reached to shave my legs and dressed in pants that could be pushed up above my knee. We weren't meeting until 10:00am, so after I was ready to go, I logged onto my medical app and looked at my care options for a Sunday. After a bit of clicking around, I called the 24/7 advice line and spoke with a nurse. She, in turn, spoke with a doctor, and they hatched a plan that was only slightly illogical. I was to go to the only urgent care center open in the area on Sunday, in Bellevue, where she had already put in an order for a urine analysis. Then I would return home and call the advice line in the afternoon to receive my results and most likely get a prescription for antibiotics, that I would have to drive back to Bellevue to pick up.

Grumbling about having to drive to Bellevue, probably twice in one day, I cancelled on my friends and asked my husband if he would come with me. It didn't seem necessary at the time, but I didn't want to have to go alone. 

Upon arriving at the urgent care facility, I told the person at the front desk I already had a lab order put in by the advice nurse. She said, "I think we have to check you in for urgent care anyway." I was checked in but had to wait for triage before being allowed to use the restroom. It was an uncomfortable wait. I knew I was very grumpy, so I apologized to my husband for dragging him on this longer than expected excursion.

Something in my description of symptoms alarmed the doctor enough that I had blood drawn and was scheduled for a CT scan. But during my uncomfortable wait sitting in the waiting room, I had overheard the front desk being informed that there was no CT tech until 1:30, and if anyone came in with an order for a CT scan, they'd have to come back the next day. Luckily for me, they were able to refer me to the hospital across the street, and a nurse took me through the underground hallways in a wheelchair for my CT scan.

Having the scan done across the street was great because I didn't have to wait several hours. But having the scan done across the street meant my doctors had to wait for the other medical facility to read the scan and send them the results. In total I spent four hours in urgent care, climbing in and out of the hospital bed to use the restroom probably at half hour intervals, even though I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything.

Finally, the CT scan results came back, and I was diagnosed with infected diverticulitis - basically my intestine is infected. I asked the doctor if I should be looking at taking time off from work. He said I needed two days of complete rest and put me on two different antibiotics. As we waited for the release papers, I emailed my school and told my principal I wouldn't be in until Wednesday and that I'd write sub plans when I got home.

Leaving urgent care, I had a difficult time figuring out how to get into the car without extreme discomfort. I hadn't eaten all day but discovered I really didn't want to eat. I let out a squeak of discomfort when the car went over the curb to get into our driveway. My husband noted that he noticed a significant difference in how I climbed in and out of the hospital bed at the beginning of my stay in urgent care vs. the end. It turns out, I was in much worse shape than I even realized. It was a good thing I cancelled brunch with my friends in favor of seeking medical attention.

On Monday, coming down the stairs, on my butt because I didn't want to walk, had me in tears. Interestingly, I still wouldn't have called the sensations I was feeling pain. I was uncomfortable and didn't want to move, but it never was the sensation I think of as pain. There was no sharp twinge, no dull ache... just I sense of "I don't wanna!" But it was so prevalent that I was in tears. 

Monday was the worst. My husband told me on Monday night, "There's no way you're going to work this week." Stubbornly, I still held out hope that I just needed to give the antibiotics one more day to work their magic and I'd be able to see my students on Wednesday. But on Tuesday morning, I sat on the couch and didn't eat for a long time because after getting downstairs, making tea and toast seemed too hard. 

My husband was right, I needed the week off. On Wednesday I tackled what felt like the smallest task on my work to do list: ripping carnival tickets into sets of 20 for an event my students are hosting after their spring break, which is next week. I needed a two-hour nap after the work of ripping and folding tickets before reaching to set them on the table next to me. And I only got halfway through what I need for the event. So, I checked in with my medical team again. As can be expected from medical professionals who can't examine you in person, they recommended I head back to urgent care.

Thursday's trip to urgent care was only about three hours long. I had the same urine and blood tests done and waited around in a hospital bed. As I told the doctor how bad I had been on Monday, I said, "But I didn't come back because I figured I needed to give the antibiotics time to work." He said, "That's right." Small validation for how unwell I continued to feel. In any case, I was sent home without additional treatment, which could have ranged from antibiotics administered via IV, a procedure to drain something or other, or out and out surgery. Yesterday was a false alarm visit to urgent care - I was diagnosed with slow to respond, partially treated, infected diverticulitis. 

Meanwhile, in my classroom, one of the friends I was supposed to have a pedicure and brunch with offered to teach my math class while I was out and the other one offered to make whatever copies were needed. They've both been texting me throughout the week to check on my well-being. When my absence stretched from two days to five, they sprang into action to find internal coverage for my class because two other teachers had already tried and failed to find a sub for Thursday. We were already covering them in-house, and in fact I was slotted to cover eighth grade homeroom on Thursday morning while my kids were in a specialist's class. I'm really not sure how the school managed with three absent teachers on Thursday and no subs. But they did. As far as I know, no one complained, everyone just jumped in to help where they could. Since I spent the bulk of Thursday in urgent care again, I was incredibly grateful that my classroom was not something I had to worry about. My school community is pretty amazing. I'm also grateful for the timing of my spring break, next week, so I have another week to relax where I don't have to worry about finding a sub or writing sub plans. I just hope my students aren't too traumatized by my two five-day absences almost within a month of each other.