First Week of June

Monday
Mmm… for Memorial Day, my indulgent husband took me to Barnes and Noble for an hour or so. What a lovely way to spend a holiday. I’ve wanted a B&N bag for a while now, and today I found the perfect one. Plus, we bought a new Newberry Medal book to start off our summer reading.


Tuesday
Mr. Chandler’s car was under construction this weekend, so he took my car to work today. After school, I walked to the Troutdale Starbucks to meet my best friend (Soldier Girl). It was nice to sit and talk, especially after a long, rainy day with restless pre-teens.

Tonight, as we were watching something funny and brainless on TV, I caught a phrase that I need to start using in the classroom. The twirly chair at the back of my classroom is still causing issues with my boys, but I think I found the solution. I can’t remember what show it was on, but the character in the show was having a similar problem with a chair. To fix the problem, he placed his chair in a state of eternal dibs. (What genius!) When his friends complained, he said, “Cathedra mea, regulae meae.” (That’s Latin for “my chair, my rules.”) I love it. I’m going to use that.


Wednesday
Wow. It’s only Saturday, and I’ve already forgotten what happened on Wednesday. That’s sad… I need a vacation. Perhaps a summer vacation...


Thursday
I had some students stay after school today. Some of them were making up a quiz, some of them were working on their projects, and one of them was there to serve a detention. I was supposed to be writing sub plans for tomorrow, but instead I spent my time trying to keep the students from distracting each other. (Okay, let’s be honest. I was trying to keep the one detention student from distracting all of the others.) I ended up staying at school until after 6 p.m. to get my sub plans done and my classroom set up for a sub. I’m really looking forward to this summer. At summer camp, if I get pulled into a meeting, there are four other adult staff members to keep things going, and they know exactly what to do.


Friday
My union president and I spent today in meetings together. This morning, we had a difficult meeting with a very troubled teacher who has some health concerns. I don’t know what she should do, but we wanted her to know what her options were. It was an incredibly awkward session, but then the teacher thanked us for coming to talk to her. Specifically, she thanked us for talking openly with her about things that no one else would talk about.

Usually I feel like my direct honesty is a curse; it weeds out would-be friends who aren’t willing to be genuine and causes the people I work with to pawn awkward conversations or confrontations off onto me. (Seriously, they give me all the tough ones.) To get through these, I think to myself, “I’ve been through worse. I’ve had to talk about far more difficult stuff with far more unpleasant people, and I’ve survived. I can do this.” It also helps me to tell myself, “No one else will tell this person the truth, and they’re obviously frustrated by that. I’m not going to be just one more person who gives them the ‘run-around.’ “ This approach has served me well over the last five years (which is about how long I’ve been paying attention to this stuff), and the people I’ve spoken with seem to appreciate getting the truth. About a month ago, I had an awkward talk with a teacher who was sending really angry, nasty emails to the union president. I basically told her she needed to change her tone, while still validating her concerns. Now she emails me to ask for my perspective on district decisions, school board decisions and statements, and union gossip. I’m taking that as recognition on her part that I tell the truth, and I like that.

This afternoon, our negotiations team met to talk about our contract negotiations with the school district. I’m not really a negotiator… I prefer to get to the bottom line and problem-solve. I’m too honest to start higher or lower than where I want to end up. I wouldn’t make it in a Middle Eastern market; I’m just not a haggler!


Saturday
I needed to finish a couple assignments for my graduate school class today, and my den is just not a good study location. There are friendly, cuddly dogs demanding ear-scratches, a variety of books that are way more interesting than my textbook, and Mr. Chandler’s huge flat screen TV (and my DVR). So we hit the open road in search of a more appropriate location. We settled in the lobby of one of our favorite hotels and ordered dinner from the lounge. It was nice, but I’m having a hard time with all of these spur-of-the-moment decisions. I need a plan. I need to have something planned, preferably ahead of time so I can look forward to it all week. I’m going to try to make a plan for tomorrow… I’ll let you know how it goes.


Sunday
So we came up with a plan. We bought a book of scenic drives in Oregon when we were at the bookstore on Monday, and one of the drives involves a route through the winery-packed area outside Forest Grove. It rained for most of our 3-hour journey, but it was still beautiful. The scenic winery drive wound through fields and forests west of Forest Grove and then led us through the lovely Pacific University campus. Then we headed south through more winery properties and eventually circled around an intriguing lake and recreation area (which I didn’t even realize was there). Then we headed back over hill and dale, as they say, driving across the highest point in Washington County and experiencing some pretty spectacular views in the process. We ended up in Tigard and made our leisurely way back home. It was so nice to forget about grading papers and reading textbooks and to just experience the scenery and talk. It makes me long for summer.