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24152. thoughtful - 6/11/2008 8:41:51 PM Wow...so glad to hear the great news about Les! A fast recovery like that is the best sign that the surgeon did an excellent job. That is wonderful news.
Keep the ice on your gums before the drugs wear off...that way, when they do wear off it'll be less swollen and painful. Ouch! 24153. alistairConnor - 6/11/2008 8:41:54 PM Great news! Best wishes to Les for a quick recovery. 24154. Ms. No - 6/12/2008 7:50:32 AM So glad to hear about Leslie's progress! 24155. vonKreedon - 6/12/2008 3:01:05 PM Judith - So sad and so glad to hear about Les' medical struggles. And yours for that matter. Visualizing good things for you both. 24156. wonkers2 - 6/12/2008 3:13:13 PM Judith, glad for the good news. We're keeping our fingers crossed. 24157. judithathome - 6/13/2008 3:45:41 AM Today Leslie was moved over to his rehab facility here in town and he's in excellent spirits. I'm going over there in the morning after my third trip to the dentist this week...everything is going great, mouth-wise, but the dentist wants to make sure the plate is comfortable over the weekend. My gums feel fine but the kidney stone, not so much. 24158. arkymalarky - 6/13/2008 5:21:05 PM That's great about Leslie! Hang in there, drink lots of cranberry juice, and set your sights on the end of July! 24159. Ms. No - 6/13/2008 5:46:32 PM It's official! My application has been accepted so now I get to job hunt from the Project Pipeline pool of schools. A week from tomorrow is the job fair and I'll have some interviews there, but with the state of the budget in California right now many of our schools aren't looking to finalize their hiring until mid-August so I may actually begin the training without having a contract with a school.
In the meantime I'm studying up on the available schools like crazy trying to put together a top ten list and a bunch of questions to ask during interviews. 24160. arkymalarky - 6/13/2008 5:55:54 PM How exciting!! You ought to call Mose. She could tell you a lot about the first year and y'all could swap ideas and stuff. She quit my school--the schedule was just too much and the drive too far to be in grad school. She will be working at Bob's school next year! But in a different building. She'll have seventh graders all day, where at my school she taught six different classes. She talks about how easy things will be in comparison, and I keep trying to explain how "seventh grader" offsets that schedule. ;-)
Do you know what, generally, you'll be teaching, grade and subject-wise? 24161. robertjayb - 6/13/2008 7:05:52 PM Find the cheapest gasoline in your ZIP code...
Go here... 24162. alistairconnor - 6/13/2008 7:09:00 PM How about this : Drive less!
Yeah I'm a f**king hypocrite... I've been driving to work every day this week, I've got my girls to look after, so I can't squat at my girlfriend's in town like I usually do. 24163. arkymalarky - 6/13/2008 7:10:58 PM I bought a high gas mileage car, but I don't carpool. I just can't stand it. But if I get too desperate I'll fix the problem by retiring. 24164. Ms. No - 6/13/2008 7:41:29 PM I'd love to talk to Mose about what she's learned this first year. Could you email me her number?
I won't know what I'm teaching or anything until I get a contract. The only parameter set by Pipeline is that I spend 70% of my time teaching in the subject I'm getting my credential in. Shouldn't be hard for me since both theater and English fall under the English credential so even if I end up teaching both subjects I'm still within my credential choice.
I'd love not to have more than one prep, but I'm prepared for the news that I'll have to take two. A friend who's going through the University credentialing program informed me that I should ask whether or not I'll have my own room ---- it never even ocurred to me that I might get bounced around. Yikes!
I can find out a lot of stuff from the online report cards --- performance level, class size, student body demographics, rates of suspension and graduation, etc.
The problem right now is that there are so many schools to look at. I'm making a huge spreadsheet so I'll hopefully have info on whatever shools I end up interviewing with at the job fair. 24165. arkymalarky - 6/13/2008 8:42:25 PM Oooh, yeah. Your own room is a big deal. I didn't even like having to move to a yearbook room when I was sponsoring yearbook, so I got them to set up a place in the back of a large classroom with an open-top wall that had huge windows in it. The annual staff could come work whenever they had time and I could teach and monitor them, and then annual period we'd all work back there.
I'm anxious to know what you think of the job fair. I've never been to one, but I've always been curious. 24166. arkymalarky - 6/13/2008 8:42:45 PM And I just sent Mose's number. 24167. arkymalarky - 6/13/2008 8:44:21 PM And when I say "big deal" I don't think it's a deal-breaker, but a lot of people do. The work environment is by far the most important to me--much more than the work load. But "environment" includes small classes, for me. 24168. robertjayb - 6/13/2008 11:01:06 PM Small Schools Rising...
Thought about you, arky, when I came across this today in a doc's office. Haven't read it...but it may be of interest. 24169. arkymalarky - 6/13/2008 11:53:37 PM Thanks, Robert!
I'm glad to see that, especially since the Gates small high school model has taken some real hits in the last few years and the nuances that separate small public schools from private and charter schools are being overlooked. In truth, the Newsweek metric has flaws in it, but it's good to look at successful high schools and I think it's great that they featured the success of small schools in their top 100 in an article. 24170. arkymalarky - 6/13/2008 11:54:25 PM In fact, I'll take a copy of this to our state organization conference in July. 24171. Ms. No - 6/14/2008 6:57:00 AM Thanks Arky! I'll give her a call this weekend either tomorrow evening or sometime on Sunday.
We've got a Gates school on our list--- it's listed as an ECHS (early college high school) and they work in tandem with a nearby community college. It's farther away than I'd really want to travel, but they're the highest performing school in their district and class sizes are generally between 20 and 25.
There's a Charter school for the Arts that's not too far away and it looks interesting. I haven't done the full research on it yet, but I've got a friend who teaches there and seems to like it although I haven't spoken to him recently.
Because of where I live most of the schools closest to me are fairly low performing, inner-city schools. There's a Charter school called St. Hope that was started by a pro basketballer a few years ago and I've heard nothing but horror stories about the additional hours teachers are expected to be available. They strongly encourage teachers being available at all hours by home phone for their students. I can understand the impulse since we're talking about a high risk community, but nobody gets paid enough to be a surrogate parent to 150 high school students.
The closest high school to me is visually appealing to me --- historic building, looks like a movie set for a high school --- but I haven't reached it on my research list yet either.
I'm trying to be methodical and get info on all the schools since I really don't know much about even the ones closest to me and I don't want to skip some school because I've never heard of it and maybe miss a gem simply because I'm sticking to schools I've heard of.
Ai-yi-yi. My spreadsheet is getting huge!
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