If this blog entry is longer than 5 minutes in the making, then this weekend will be a bust. I just got out of bed. I shouldn't even be online now, but I told the other third grade teacher that I would e-mail her a copy of her class' reading test results. The printer in my classroom wasn't working. And she doesn't really know how to do a lot with the computer. While online, I checked my BOE (Board of Education) e-mail. Every BOE employee can have a BOE e-mail address. It really should only be used for school related stuff. The principal has already said that she will know when and if we open any e-mail she sends. She told us that she would be more comfortable with sending e-mails then paper memos because she does a lot of her work at home at night. Considering she was lecturing/scolding me while using her PDA, not to mention the several (paper) copies of memos of her e-mail exchanges with BOE officials on a new policy change, I am beginning to suspect that she might be a Crackberry addict.

Oh, I was surprised by this. Can you believe that my BOE e-mail Inbox already has two pieces of junk mail (one from a flower company and the other from a company I don't remember).

I forgot to mention. I surrendered my new(refurbished) laptop to the tech/computer teacher at my school. Instead of just adding the necessary drivers that were needed for me to use the BOE wireless network (or is it connection?), he added a full copy of Microsoft Office, and a company edition of Norton's security (no expiration -- as long as I am working with BOE), and "some other stuff" that I didn't understand. To be honest, I was annoyed that my computer was "set up" without my permission, but after thinking about it for a while, I realized how stupid I was being. Especially considering that my originally purpose was to have a classroom computer that I would keep in the classroom (except over long vacations). The guy even offered to fix the laptop if I have any problems. That was very nice. The guy did a very nice thing. I will have to send him a thank you note.

Well, I better go. I did not stick to my 10 minute limit. Oh, I think I wrote 5 minute. I'll try to post an entry later this evening on my productivity. My goal for today is lesson planning and test grading. Seeing the other third grade teacher doing her lesson planning yesterday, made me see how extreme I was being. I usually try putting an entire lesson plan into an approx. 2x2 box for each lesson that I teach. The other teacher only put in an aim in the boxes. She was finished planning in about an hour. I don't think I could do only an aim in a box, I need to know what materials, copies, approx. procedure I will follow. I also want the method of assessment for the lesson -- at least for most lessons :) I'm mostly visual, if I don't write it down, I'll usually forget something.

Well, a 30 minute posting. Not good. Hopefully, I will be productive today. I really need to be productive this weekend. I told myself that I would start attending the local Y on Monday. I really want October to be the start of a new me. I really need a new me. The old me is getting...well, is getting old :)

Post Date - September 29, 2007 10:54am