The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

It’s been an incredibly busy week since coming home from the Rendezvous. Unexpected things have been happening in the personal life and I’m wrapping up things at school so online time has been limited. As of right now, there are 9 more mornings that I need to get up for work this school year! There’s been little time to blog but I’m hoping to carve out at least a few minutes each day from here on out.

I’ve finished my last two IEPs for this year and met with parents on my free periods today and yesterday. These will be the last two done in this manner as RI has changed their procedures and forms. (I attended a training the other day and it’s going to take some time to “unlearn” what I’ve been doing all these years and change my mindset.) One of my favorite students has moved back into my district so he started again on Monday. We’ve been kept busy meeting his unique needs so my assistant and I are really on our toes.

Tomorrow, the adults in the room are holding a Cultural Feast for the students. I’m making traditional French Canadian Meat Pies (Tourtiere). Each family has their own recipe but the basic ingredients are beef, pork, potatoes, and spices. Right now, my house is starting to smell like the holidays! In my family, this is also the meat stuffing for the Thanksgiving turkey. It’s quite a bit of work but so very yummy!!

Due to the inconsistencies on Twitter of late, many of us have taken the opportunity to check out Plurk. It’s yet another microblogging site and is good for a back-up or as a page to visit in it’s own right but is not the same type of service as Twitter and will serve different purposes. I’m mrsb there as well. Add me if you wish. To me, Plurk is much more like Seesmic; a place to visit and spend time involved in the conversations. I’m playing around with a new toy a bit but Twitter is my mainstay. (Mostly because I don’t “go to” Twitter. I never spend time on their website, I just have Twhirl open and it scrolls on by. Sometimes I get in on the conversation and sometimes I don’t. It’s invaluable if you need an answer for something fast and it hasn’t let me down yet. My son needed some information about the price of refinishing a wood floor for a math project and businesses were closed. A quick tweet and I had a number of answers within minutes!)

That’s all for tonight.. going to fill the pies, tuck the girls in and hit the bed with a book. More tomorrow for Day 8.

Edit : Don’t forget the ketchup!

Nothing but smiles from me!

AHHHHH!!! 

It’s really Thursday night around 9:00 and I’m already in bed with my book bag. This has been an incredible week chock-full with meetings and commitments. I’m thankful that tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is almost here. I didn’t get a chance to do any assessment work because of the schedule this week at school so I’ll have to get some done over the weekend. I had meetings every day after school so my new routine of taking the girls out for a walk in the afternoon hasn’t happened all week. (Kinda tough when you don’t get home until after 6:00 each night!)

Tomorrow, we have our last bowling practice in the afternoon and Special Olympics Bowling on Saturday. We’re heading to a dinner at the church on Saturday and although I haven’t checked the weather, I’m hoping that it’s springy on Sunday so I can get out and enjoy nature and take the girls out to break up my assessment work.

As of now, I’m opening a book and reading until my eyes close… which will likely be after a paragraph or two after this week!

For the very first time since I started teaching my population of students (those with significant cognitive disabilities) I’m seriously considering leaving my position and looking into something else at the job fair this June. I love my kids and I love what I do every day. I love my teaching assistant and the teacher that I share a room with. I love to be greeted with hugs when I arrive at school on Monday mornings and I love celebrating with them when they achieve something that they’ve worked hard to learn.

I’m very sad about this but I feel like I’m being torn because my love for those kids is being overshadowed by my disdain from the Alternate Assessment Datafolios that I’m required to submit to the state every year. I know that every job has pros and cons but that’s just it… the scales have tipped so far this year that my hatred of the project that I’m mandated to do far outweighs my love of the job. I fear that the stress of it all is permeating every aspect of my life and the stress surely can’t be good for my health and well being. (Only 2 teachers in my district are required to do them and the number of hours that I spend working on it is completely unrealistic for anyone. Not only am I required to dream up 36-48 distinct activities to match goals, but collect data on over 100 others, enter data on a website that continually crashes for me, and have the students actually perform those activities … All in addition to the typical things that we just do each and every day as part of our curriculum.)

Of course, there may not even be anything available of interest to me at the job fair but to think that I’m seriously considering it is just unbelievable. It’s so sad that I feel that I’m almost being forced out of my career of choice because of something beyond my control. (The completed datafolios are due May 8th and as of now, I’m not even close to being done… and I mean not even close…. so, I’ve got every free period, school night, weekend and April vacation earmarked to work on them. Forget about reading, getting enough exercise or sleep, enjoying nature and putting out any web content. My life will begin again on 05/09/08.)

I’m really starting to get anxious about the Superbowl; I’ve got that butterfly feeling in my stomach.. and can’t wait! Tomorrow is Pats/Giants Day ( what I call Pats vs. everybody who hates the Pats Day) at school. I’ll be bringing in Pats garb for our classes to wear. (We ARE The Patriots Team afterall!)

I’m still amazed at the media coverage that this Superbowl has afforded me. We didn’t have The NFL Network, bloggers, podcasters, or videopodcasters the last time the Pats won the Big One. Yesterday, I went online to check my work email and jumped over to Patriots.com for a minute and there were 6 live streaming video press conferences on their front page!

It seems somewhat strange not being down there for the Superbowl but it definitely wasn’t in the cards. With the families staying at the same hotel as the players, a credential would be required to get on the grounds, so we wouldn’t be able to hang out with our friends The Paxtons anyway. Instead, we’ll have a small party here at home.

I’ll be putting out one more podcast before the Big Game and continuing to update the website daily. (I updated this morning but can’t do so from the laptop so the evening update will wait until the morning if I can squeeze it in while waiting for my turn in the shower.)

Meanwhile, it’s been a VERY busy week at work and I’ve had lots of appointments and meetings. I’m right in the throws of the dreaded Assessment Project that drove me absolutely nuts last school year. (God… why can’t I just TEACH?!) Once the Superbowl is done I’ll be dedicating all of my energy to that once again this year.

But for now… I’m hoping that the girls sleep through the night for a change and I can get some much needed rest.

Go Pats!!

I’m sitting here at work bright and early with a turkey in the oven for our Thanksgiving feast at school today. When the kids come in they will be preparing all of the food, making decorations, setting the table and serving the meal. It’s just part of what we do here and teaches functional cooking skills but it’s also an opportunity to practice appropriate social skills AND insures that each of my students will be enjoying a Thanksgiving meal this year.

I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new XO Laptop, which I’ll use to bring back and forth to school, for travel, and at training camp. It’s reasonably priced, is Linux based, is ultra durable, and uses cutting edge technology. I’m anxious to play around with it and see what it can do. I purchased it as part of the One Laptop Per Child campaign and I’m glad to be sending one to a child to infuse technology into their lives and education. There’s 7 days left to Give One, Get One and includes a year’s free T-Mobile hotspot wifi and qualifies for a $200 tax deduction. I can’t think of a better way to get connected and allow children access to all of the wonders of the world.

Technorati: onelaptopperchild giveonegetone xolaptop thanksgiving education laptop computer

It’s been a long week.. and at the same time it’s been a very short week. Short because there was absolutely NO way to fit in all I had to do. I’m coming to the realization that I really don’t have time in my life for everything that I want to do right now. Here it is Friday night and I’ve yet to do a post-game podcast… I was up until 3:00am this morning just to get the tailgate done. That is not something that I’ll be able to continue doing in order to function.

The reality is… I have a puppy. The reality is… my job is taking much more time and energy this year than in the past. The reality is… I’m still having some problems with my back and am unable to sit for really long periods of time at the computer. The reality is… I Need exercise in my life to keep me sane, fit, and to help with said back but I don’t have much time to fit it in. The reality is… I’m 43 and I’m starting to feel it if I don’t get enough sleep…. Sigh…

So, apologies in advance, but I need to be spend some time soul searching and setting priorities right now. It’s obvious that there literally aren’t enough hours in my days (at least not this week) to do everything that I plan to do. Without saying, my family and Bella come first as does my need to stay healthy and keep fit and be the best teacher I can be. Following the Patriots and providing scoops for all of Patriots’ Nation is something that I take great pleasure from and totally enjoy but in the scheme of things, It is my Hobby. My family, health, and job are my reality.

Hopefully, there will be a last minute podcast tomorrow and continued tailgate updates and website updates but if not, Go Pats anyway!

This has been quite the week for emotional ups and downs. Last Sunday, the Pats crushed the Jets 38-14 and played nearly flawlessly so I was riding high along with the rest of Patriot Nation. Fast forward 24 hours and it all came crashing down with the news that the Patriots broke a league rule by videotaping defensive signals from the sidelines during a game. Now, “stealing” signals in itself is not disallowed, however, the use of a video camera blatantly violates the rules (especially since there was a reminder on Thursday that it was NOT allowed.) I sounded off on this week’s podcast so I’m not going to rehash it here again. Let’s just say, that I can’t believe that for someone who is such a smart man, how could Belichick be so dumb. (It’s not like they could help much anyway, but now every accomplishment that the Patriots have made under his reign are suspect.) I’m deeply saddened by this and feel that I’ve been punched in the gut.

Tomorrow we’re heading out to Gillette for the first home game of the season and the inaugural tailgate. I’ve got my food purchased and will start cooking in the morning. It’ll be nice to hook up with the Razor’s Edge Crew once again as well as a lot of out of town friends.

As for school, things are busy but going well. In true Roller Coaster fashion, my co-teacher and I went from being nervous about not having many students between us to maxing out and wondering where on earth to seat them. It’s been really intense and busy but I love what I do.

Fall is in the air, I’m home alone with Bella on a Saturday night, and the sandman is calling so it’ll be an early one tonight. I wonder if I can bank a bit of sleep as I expect to get 3 hours at the most tomorrow night since it’s an 8:15 start and I’m working on Monday.