Friday is finally here

This winter weather is really affecting my mood. We had one day this week that would really be considered okay weather. Next week is supposed to be better, but we have to make it through a cold, wintry Friday and Saturday before the warm-up. I can make it through this. I can make it through this. It snowed all morning, but didn't have much as far as accumulation. In fact the streets never did get any coverage. Next Tuesday they are forecasting 62 degrees. Since it only got up to 22 degrees today with 10 degree wind chill, I really will have to feel it to believe it.

More Progress

Yesterday, we got the smaller gravel down on the inside of the fence. Joe could haul it with the smaller pickup bed trailer. Now we are hoping that the rain and snow slows down enough to dry out so the gravel can set and not sink.

You can see the mud we are dealing with to the far right of the second picture. Now if they will just put new rock down our street. They have done a couple of blocks from our house, but we are really getting some serious ruts as all of the gravel has sunk below the mud. As you can see in the pictures, the sun did not shine and it was too wet to play.

In memory

Today Tonya would have been twenty seven years old. It is so hard to believe that she has been gone for nearly 12 years. She was a beautiful girl I watched growing up and then experienced grief as I watched close friends lose their only daughter. Tonya lost control of her car on a gravel road on her way to school. It was a one car accident, but made me fearful as each of my sons, nieces, nephews and their close friends have taken up the responsibility of driving.

Later today, I also got the news that a third grade teacher at my school died. She was young. She got the flu bug, ended up with pneumonia and died in a very short period of time. How scary?

Shaking Things Up

I have big decisions to make over the next month or so. In my teaching job I work with a team of teachers. The main part of our team includes three core teachers. I teach Math and Science and the other teachers teach Literature, Language Arts, Social Studies and one class of Science. I love my team, but one of the teachers on my team will need to move up to 7th grade Social Studies next year as the teacher now teaching 7th grade is retiring this year. The nice part is that my co-teacher will have job security as she will be highly qualified in her new position. She has been teaching 6th grade Social Studies for 15 years, but is not considered highly qualified. The other teacher on my team is a long term sub that has been at the job since the end of the first quarter. She did some long term subbing on my team last year as well. At this point I am not sure whether she will be back next year, but she is applying for the position full time.

So here is my dilemma. Do I continue teaching Math and Science? I love them both but they are not easy to teach as in Math there are tons of assignments to grade each week. Science is something kids enjoy, but the state of Kansas keeps changing the curriculum. I have had to change what I teach each year in science. A couple of times changes were made in the course of a year. Very aggravating. This year I am required to focus on Physical Science for most of the year. I miss teaching life science and Earth and space science, as I did when I taught general science. So do I keep teaching what I am teaching now, or do I take the opportunity to move over and teach Social Studies and Language Arts? Or Literature? All subjects I really love and kids usually enjoy learning about. I am highly qualified to teach them all.

Well, I need to decide soon as my principal will want to advertise for a teacher for next year soon. I want to stay in my school, but there are also open positions at the elementary level teaching. The elementary classes will be moving into a brand new school sometime next year (probably in January).

Whatever I do, or don't do, things are going to be different next year. Next year at the Middle School I will be the senior member of my team and will miss my friend and team leader whom next year I will only see in passing since she will be on another floor in my building with different plan times, etc. What to do? I wish I knew.

March Forth! Or is it March fourth?

Okay, it’s spring. It’s spring! If I keep saying it, it will be true, right? I am so ready for warmer weather. We don't need the showers either since our ground is so saturated with all of the rain and melted snow. Today we ordered 16 tons of gravel and covered our mud mess in the driveway. It is mostly spread, but we need to finish up with a small lawn tractor, as a Bobcat doesn’t quite do the trick. Later in the week we hope to get pea gravel spread in the area between the fence and the new patio. The swing will go in this area. Hopefully by the weekend we can work on getting grass seed down. We will just keep spreading the seeds until we get a great lawn established.

No Excuses

Wow. It has been some time since I have blogged. I know I wanted to do more with this, but had problems with my modem, and then had trouble getting into Blogspot in the mornings. I have been through a bit over the past few weeks. Daniel has turned 4, Joe and Raymond (and now Joe Joe) have been sick and a couple of weeks have passed. I have about ten half to nearly written blogs I plan to update over the next week, and then keeping up with updating. So, no excuses. Just onward...forward ho!