2 Months Down

Anna Rae has been gone 2 months now. For the most part, time has passed quickly for her dad and I. The business of ordinary life, the work-a-day world, keeps our minds occupied. Twice last week I was at school organizing and cleaning up until 7:00 at night. How is it that the principal can go home at 4:30 or 5:00 and at least 1 or 2 of us peon teachers are there till 6:00 and beyond? I wouldn't mind so much but this year he wants to practically 'sit in our laps' as we teach. I really don't get it. Granted, he is going to be starting to teach one of our reading groups as of next week. What I resent is his attitude towards planning. He sits down and basically says "Ok, What will you be teaching in literacy next week? And then he tries to 'DIFFERENTIATE' (teacher lingo for 'jack it up' or 'rachet it down' depending on the ability of the students). Manolive! He's got the highest ability group, nothing but joy, the easiest of easy to teach and feel rewarded. I sure hope he plans on bringing more to the 'planning table' as weeks go on or I may blow a gasket and tell him just what he can do with all this 'extra' planning time he is giving us. It is NOT saving me any time! Instead of having to explain lessons to just my teaching partner, I have 2 tutors, 1 Instructional Assistant and now a Principal to tell what to do. Give me back a half hour of prep time and a closed door...I am ready to take it! OK. I have vented. Now in spite of all this I must say that I like Mr. N. as a person and there is no denying that he has been a boon to the publicity for our school. He is energetic, constantly looking for 'cutting edge' curriculum training, relates well to children and parents, listens, and is improving at hearing the viewpoints of teachers, and of course being a fellow 'cheesehead' he has a cultural background I can sort of understand. I do normally, love my job. I think that having an unusually tough class as well as several schedule changes are taking their toll on me. On Monday my 28th student joins our class and that will 'cap it off'. On a lighter note: 5 year old 'L' clutched his stomach on Thurs. and told me in his broken English that "A crab is in my belly doing this" (he made pinching movements with his hand) It only got worse and when he went to the nurse's office he told the health care assistant that "Two crabs are fighting in my belly." The two crabs complaint was enough to warrant a phone call home suggesting a day of bed rest!
On the home front...This morning I went to Spinning Class; my third one this week! In the afternoon I raked moss out the lawn, pulled lots of dandelions, pruned a few bushes, and hunted around till I found 'premium' grass seed as suggested by the natural lawn care program put on by King County. It is a blend of fescue grass seed and I found it at Herr Garden Care Center in Normandy Park. As I went on the search for the seed I stopped at Kirk's Feed Store in Burien. Old Burien is definitely going upscale although when you step into Kirk's you still feel like the guy behind the counter has got to be a 'hayseed' who knows everything there is to know about livestock, poultry, feed and fertilizer. Just across the way is a new shop that sells European ceramics and gift items. They have lots of beautiful dinnerware from
Tuscany and jewelry from outside Florence. They also have a variety of Italian olive oils and wines. Seeing these things made me all the more resolute in my endeavors to save money for a possible trip to Europe this summer!