it's go-go-go time...not unlike the go-gos, and pretty sure we got the beat!

oh my. i got to ease into the season of 'GO' the second to last week of july. it's normal when it becomes GO, GO, GO....not unlike the go-gos, and for the most part we got the beat, and our lips are sealed (for our own good). it's mostly been professional development in florida: kissimmee, jacksonville, kissimmee, Riverview-TPA, Jacksonville, Palm Beach, Tampa South, North Carolina, South Carolina ...and now home for a few days before heading off again. 

some PD sessions easier than others! i've loved the dual language sessions! one of the interesting sessions was in a brand new school, not yet set up. i entered a room with about 7 chairs, a table with a t.v. on it, and a whiteboard full of writing and my brain went into hyperdrive trying to determine what to do first to prepare for the 30-ish participants who had never touched istation before! usually we sit at tables, but this was a first...we pulled in a bunch of chairs and set them up in rows, then i was introduced to a projector the size of the palm of my hand. i'd been wanting to see how these small projectors fare, so it was a learning experience! pulled it off in a way that you'd never guess that this wasn't the norm!

while at duval county, it was great to hear one of the teachers say, "last year, we HAD to use istation, this year i WANT to use it!!" the difference between having professional development and not!

one of the only trainings that i've been with another trainer so far was in nc, and sc. i met angelica at the airport, after battling the traffic from the cell phone lot and going to the arrival drive after telling her to wait in departures. uf. so i had to circle around again-my fault! 

north carolina was another fun experience- i knew we were working with kindergarten only, dual language program. what a fun bunch! when we arrived, some of the early-comers were from SPS, HONDURAS! but not only that, one of them was from EIS, the school i graduated from! #bulldogsforever that was an unexpected surprise! we had a great session going over the basics and then getting deeper into resources. there was a lot of interaction, and it's great when you know ahead of time that there is going to be accountability!

both went to EIS, both love istation!

carry blue painters tape-learned that from jane! helpful for many-a-situation! #fixingthetrash

when your friends can't be with you...

then we took off for south carolina, and angelica was great about working with my dietary whims! once we arrived, we had a relaxing dinner, and all was good until i finally got around to emails... i'd received an email from the new assistant principal of the school we were to be at the following day. i guess the original contact i'd been working with had been promoted to a principal position at another school. and everyone knows how it goes with a middle man...kinda like playing the age-old game of telephone! but we worked out all of the kinks and the professional development went forward as planned! no whammies! we play a game called BE FLEXIBLE and go with the flow when necessary!

south carolina, we got you covered!

just thinking of those colleagues! 

the drive back to CLT was uneventful, and we made it to the airport in time for those flights!

and then they found the treats and had a little stand-off...chaco stole the bag from bruno

it was good to get home to the boys and know we had the weekend to just hang out at home!

julie

post-irma recap donuts, pizza, and keurigs

i'm blaming irma for some of this weight gain...i bought some foods i never would've purchased otherwise! also, since we blamed irma for so many other things, it just seems appropriate.

irma came and went. the night of, while we were at img, the wind was loud, and there were a couple times i was acutely aware of where the boys were in case the roof were torn away with the wind. that said, i can only imagine how loud it would have been at the house!

the next morning, we all piled out of the dorms, and it felt a little like the last day of kamp during summer, cleaning up, loading up and putting mattresses back in their places.

we went back to check on our homes, and realized that i had locked the front screen door, to which i do not have a key (it's glass, so not really a screen...), and the electricity was still out, so i couldn't open the garage door. oops. the only damage outside seemed to be one screen on the lanai. and so we went to shea's and checked it over. the main damage there was the bushes around the house, because the winds formed a wind-tunnel of sorts around the sides. the electricity was out there as well, but it wasn't too hot yet, so i took a nap, and then we saw that the farmhouse was open for business, with wifi, so donuts were on the menu! we went and got donuts to make a couple stops over on the island to give a little sugar-encouragement to a couple families whom shea thought would appreciate it. it was fun hanging out with them- very congenial!

checking out the neighborhood damage-so many trees with shallow roots blown over-fortunately this one missed both houses.

i posted this little guy on my facebook page (please note the banana down here  that looks nonplussed!)

mini donuts!! #sugarsupport

the branches have mostly been blown off of my tree in the backyard, but at least none of the trees were blown over

on the return, we stopped at one of the beaches on longboat key, and got a little video and pics.

this is on the other side of the dunes before walking out to the beach-you can get an idea of water/sand

dear irma, buh-bye. roll closing credits:

then we noticed that there was a pizza place open on the island coming home, so we stopped in and placed our to-go order. we overheard them saying they weren't planning on opening, they had just come to see if the stoves were working and things were in order, and before they knew what was happening, someone came in and ordered a pizza, they said yes (around 4 p.m. and people hadn't stopped walking through the door since, it was now 8 p.m.). this was exciting, as most restaurants were still not open for business, so i'm guessing they made more cash that day than they've made in a long time! we got our order and took it home-it was smelling pretty amazing (especially after all the pretzels, crackers and beef jerky stuffs)! when we got back to the house, the electricity was still off, so we opened the cross doors to get a little wind-flow and set up citronella candles, and just hoping no one would walk in. we live in a pretty safe neighborhood, and to get to shea's you almost have to get lost, so we felt pretty secure. plus there's bruno and chaco, who, while small, make it sound like there are 15 of them when they feel the need.

now i'm trying to remember...i think i had electricity on tuesday...but not until later in the evening. in the morning, we were hoping for coffee, and thought we'd try to power shea's keurig with the adapter in the car (brilliant, right?) yes, well, unfortunately the keurig requires a little extra juice, so we tried to find a plan b. starbucks was still not open.  plan c. i found my 'survival bag' and got the sterno burners out and started heating up some water. it took way longer than is acceptable for any coffee drinker-how did the pioneers do it?! ugh. finally it was hot enough for me to make some oatmeal that 'passed for edible'...and then we let it go just a bit longer to try steeping the k-cups--i would give it a D+. i mean...it was something, and it was caffeinated. and then we may have gone driving around for a bit just to recharge devices and enjoy the a/c...maybe.

we were SO ready to have this coffee experiment work!!

eventually, one of our neighbors was texting with shea and mentioned that there was electricity at her house, which is on my street, so we checked and mine was on too, meaning we were able to get in and get the a/c going...unfortunately internet was still not up. i'm pretty sure it took days to get recuperated on a good sleep. and in the midst, i was trying to plan for a pd in miami. the issue was that we weren't sure about what was happening at our miami site, because our contact had evacuated. so we were planning as if everything was good-to-go, ready to cancel if needed. we canceled our hotel rooms because of the 72 hour policy, and would book later if it were a 'go'.

while we waited to find out about miami, one of the schools nearby confirmed that despite the damage, and chaos, they were still following through with the pd. and this area pretty much took a direct hit, fortunately all buildings were still intact. so i made sure my colleagues knew about it and tried to keep the others informed as soon as i had information for miami!

next up local training- good times!

thankful that with as big as irma was, the damage could have been worse.

julie

the boys went to the casino, i drove. reminded that without God, i suck. thank you.

before school started, sunday night, i was restless and bored. the boys knew it, so they asked if i'd take them for a drive. and so i did! i'll often just take off up the toll road, but this time, i decided that there was really no reason to limit myself and pay for it! so we headed up 35. i wasn't really keeping track of where exactly we were at what time-and i don't think i realized that the oklahoma border was really as close as it was. when the music is good, these things don't even matter. before we knew it, we were at the casino...at that point, i really should've called bmayes and had her meet us in ardmore for a late ihop date--who says you can't act like a college student, years removed? i mean, she is still actively participating in all things college, while playing sorority games, so she could handle it and is probably used to it!

we weren't too far from italy and new york...? the boys didn't understand why they couldn't go in, as they really felt they were prepared for a little black jack after watching my dad play solitaire...i guess to dogs, cards are cards...

school started back up on monday, and i was certainly ready. not so much ready to work, but ready to be around people so that i could appreciate coming home to be alone. does that make sense? tonight i was reminded that i really do like being around people, but really i don't like just being around any-ol'-people, i mostly like to be around certain types of people-people who share the same values...not that i don't like people who don't share the same values and that i won't hang out with them, but the people who actually do energize me, my inner circle (which is small) are those who have a very similar set of beliefs. don't judge.

something else that was brought to my attention tonight was something that i really don't think of very often as often as i should. i think a lot of it is in the messaging, and it was good to humble myself within the message. i am going to agree with one of my friends- there is nothing about me that would be nice, were it not for God. my words, my actions, if it weren't for God, i don't think i'd be a happy person. life is full of too many disappointments to be truly peaceful and joyful without God. i'm so thankful i got to hear that tonight, because sometimes i put more stock in myself and forget that really, me without God = hot mess. thank you.

yesterday was day two of pd with no students, and i was supposed to present for writing, but we ended up with one group. nafia, a teacher and dear friend from my school had also been asked to present. now, i LOVE presenting and doing these trainings, in part, because i am a performer-i remember after a piano recital in 9th grade, my piano teacher approached me and didn't comment on my tantalizing agility and the dexterity of my phalanges...nope, she approached me and said, "julie, a parent came up and said you'd be a great actress with that type of presence." umm..thank you? i wasn't even sure what to say, so i just pretended it was a good thing...but i digress. i do so enjoy being in front of people, but this was an opportunity to let one of my teachers shine and take the lead in a subject area that she truly loves. i was proud to see her flow through it, and there were moments that i was able to help out with certain areas that she was not as familiar with-it was fun, and hopefully we will get more opportunities to present together in the future.

then i ran last night a little over a mile (gotta' keep working on this so that i can be ready for the firefly fun race in march!) but then i continued to walk the three more miles home, and i tried to run again, but my knee said no, so i walked until i was about 3/4 mile from home and i said, "knee, you don't have a choice, let's go!" and so we went, and today i am feeling every single year of my age! yikes. so today is an off day, and i am hoping that tomorrow brings rain so i can blame the rain for an off day..just sayin'.

seriously though, if i hadn't stopped, i could've kept going; my body was able, my mind is weak. but once i stopped, i was going to switch to interval running the rest of the way, but for real, the knee...i must take aleve before my next outing-i'm sure that will help. also i now know that i need to just keep going until i really cannot, otherwise i won't be able to just pick up again so quickly (hopefully it was just a weird night).

the kids came back today, so there was noise. the down side- i cannot jog down the hallway to my room to get what i need, as i have to be a model of all things elementary-school-appropriate. sigh. so fast walk it is.

and...i may or may not have made a purchase that i am super excited about! thank you bmayes! my keurig is great, although recently, i'll have to agree with b, it seems that my coffee has been a bit watered down. so i am really excited about my soon to be new aeropress because in the words of b: ALL THE HIPSTER COFFEE SNOBS SAY AMAZING THINGS ABOUT IT SO IT SEEMS LEGIT. that sold me. see video here. i am like a kid waiting for Christmas...only not really at all. i'm like an adult waiting for a better coffee. much better!

goodnight!
julie

here we go-countdown!

yep...it's over. summer is officially over. i've been back on campus since august 3rd. so when i say countdown, you may be thinking...countdown to students coming. and while this may be true, i'll bet most teachers have looked at their calendars and already marked out each break...countdown to thanksgiving! countdown to Christmas! countdown to spring break! countdown to summer!!!!! it's natural. it's not on purpose-this is natural, it happens to us all, and teachers, you shouldn't feel guilty about this! as long as you're living in the moment and making things happen in your classroom, it's ok to have your countdown!

i've had meetings, new teacher academy meetings, technology training, MAP assessment training, presented our professional development pd, went to social emotional learning training yesterday and today regurgitated the technology training that we went to. we tried to make it fun, but it was probably about as fun as eating cardboard with no water to wash it down. and tomorrow we continue...yay. 

i wish i had some awe-inspiring words, but i do not. what i will say is that this is going to be a long year-an uphill climb, perhaps....and by up hill, i mean looking straight up a rock face with crags and small handholds and footholds for the climbing. thing is, most climbers will tell you, the excitement is in the challenge. you don't feel the sense of exhilaration unless you've experienced a good challenge.

as you know, our principal was promoted to an executive director position. our AP took a position closer to home. our counselor transitioned to the new personalized learning high school. our nurse...not sure what happened, but we found a new one for this year. our speech teacher-was moved to another school. we have several new teachers (which is totally great-they will fit right in and be an asset to our team; very competent and hand-selected). what we didn't expect was that we are now losing our personalized learning coordinator as well. this is a blow, because he literally pulled everything together and molded so many of the ideas for this program, and now we won't have him helping to ensure that the vision stays its course. we worked so hard last year and put in so many hours trying to piece together a vision that made sense. my only hope is that somehow it maintains some of its integrity as we move forward.

one of the nice things-i'm not sure who repainted the teacher lounge, but it got a face-lift last week. it's fresh, and it reminded me a little of my summer vacation, so i'll have that to help get me through the year!

great beach-y colors, shells, beach pics....

somewhat random native american framed art on the wall...maybe because it speaks of the sea?

***fast forward to friday***
so, the technology training that we  had to got to present, was on wednesday, and fortunately andrea-my co-coach (sounds like i'm stuttering, right? but don't be fooled-i'm not). we weren't certain who all would be in our group, but fortunately all our our new teachers plus a few others were in our group. this was good, because we were able to then say to our teachers-these tools are available to you, but we use some different tools as well.  it was brutal, a total relief when it came to the final slide!

from there, i went to my chiropractor, and signed in, got adjusted and then as she was checking my spine, she found a spot that made me jerk (an area on my lower back had been bothering me); she used her magical little tool and i kid you not, that area wasn't bothering me as i walked up the stairs to my apartment when i got home! #imabeliever ...before i actually left, dr. bree said, "so, i'll see you...tomorrow? monday?" tomorrow? OH NO!! my days are still off-i'm on summer schedule (where i don't have to keep track of what day it is); it was wednesday, and my appointments are mondays and thursdays. dr. bree laughed and said she just figured i was making up my own schedule! fortunately they didn't have any other patients, and she didn't even blink about changing it up. that's part of what i love about this office-they are all about accommodating clients. and she said, "besides, it seems like you needed it!" 

actually, before i walked up the stairs to my apartment, i made a stop at the new walmart superstore on midway, and i was impressed by the floor. yes, the floor. it was a really sharp looking poured cement...loved it. i went to purchase a kettleball for some home exercising(mostly because i saw a great post on my friend, lo's wall)-i was also interested in getting some swimming goggles for onion-cutting(because i saw brandy's onion goggles, and shea said she just used her swimming goggles...novel idea), but unfortunately, their end-of-summer inventory was out. boo. i guess i'll just be looking like gene simmons when i cut my onions until i can find some-or remember to look. anyhoo, when i approached the cashier, she looked at the kettleball and got a confused look on her face, "what's that?" i proceeded to tell her, and as she lifted it, "woah! what are you going to do with that?" "are you going to need help getting that to your car?"  "do you want me to bag that?"(no, you'd have to triple bag it...it already has a handle). "good luck with that thing!" 

yesterday we were back on campus, and i had the opportunity to observe some great presentations by our teachers at cabell. they were prepared, and had useful information to share. we had the pd sessions set up in a 'choose your own session' rotation. then in the afternoon, we had some mission and vision work.

after our sessions, we had an interview for a position at our school, then i got a phone call from ashley, our fearless p.l. leader at the district level. she called to see if i could come down to the admin building the next morning to be a part of a podcast series, and give voice to what is happening with personalized learning on the ground. so i agreed to do it, as it was last minute, and i was pretty sure she probably asked me because kristen and vanessa may have pulled the ol' "ask julie, she'll do it" card.

yep, i'm a glutton for punishment-i agreed to do it, which meant getting up earlier and leaving to battle traffic-which fortunately wasn't nearly as bad as i thought it might be. when i got back to campus, i was immediately snagged at the door to help someone look at their room and figure out how to organize it, and then i had another coach meeting me, as we were planning to collaborate for a thinking maps pd that we have to present for our feeder pattern next week. i was called to the office, before an interview, to have a discussion with our executive director on where we are with our personalized plc and pd plans. it sounds like we are pretty much on the same page in the direction that we're going. (WHEW!) 

after our interview, andrea and i had a meeting with my academic facilitator, with whom we discussed protocols for the coming year. toward the end of our meeting she said the one thing she was a little worried about was the check-in process, because there were a lot of teachers involved. we suggested creating a form for teachers to check in by QR code, like we've been using for our school pd meetings. i hope this is the solution that she was looking for! i love sharing the wealth of knowledge that we've accumulated over the past year! (thanks sean!)

it was great to get home today and be able to walk the boys because the temp was under 100! so we took a long walk and i was so proud of bruno, because this is the longest walk that we've gone on since his surgery, and i let him off his leash to go at his own pace. he did a great job! we stopped by the mailbox, and i had to stop by the office for a package-mail is wonderful, but a package? now THAT's a treat!!

i think i mentioned that hellen gave me a gift package while i was in miami to bring back to the boys-if you aren't up to date, chaco is the toy-loving dog. anything with a squeaker...so i gave him the reindeer first and he almost got whiplash swinging that thing around...he was able to get to the main squeaker in the belly and start ripping out the stuffing, so i went ahead and pulled all of the stuffing so that he could continue playing with it...he went to town-so i put him up for a minute, and he proceeded to find the stuffed bone toy-and got to the squeaker and stuffing...he's ridiculous.

shakin' it out. #happypup

and that my friends is how the new school year begins!

julie

pickled daikons, saving animals and eating the foodchain!

rain, rain, keep on falling! and temperatures, please drop and freeze everything up so that we can enjoy an ice day tomorrow! (pretty obvious that i live in the south and we haven't had snow days this year).

as i was walking through the hallway after school the other day, i saw a box with a string attached and i thought of those candid camera shows, wondering what might be inside or under the box. then as i got closer, it turned out to merely be cable for enhancing our internet connection. while the first would've made for a great story, the latter will really be great for our students and teachers!

you can see how it might look like a trap, right?

 and before i left for work the other day, i had thrown a load into the dryer, but when i opened the door, there was a dank smell. when i looked behind the dryer, i noticed that the hose had become detached from the pipe, so i had to just shut 'er down until returning in the afternoon when i had more time. so when i got home, i moved the dryer out and gathered the necessary tools. i was able to get the hose connected; i now have one more 'first' marked off my list.

although, the plate surrounding the hose is not flush to the wall, so there is still some 'exhaust' escaping...hmmm..duct tape?

 and then there was the day that we had to go over to another school for a coaches meeting, and there i saw abraham lincoln with a mouth that somewhat exemplified a small bunny rabbit. (squint your eyes)

this is abe "rudolf bunny lips" lincoln

if you recall, i was SO looking forward to eating at the nammi foodtruck place at the valley view mall, but they weren't open on saturday, so i had to improvise and found a philly cheesesteak joint-yum! and then i may have visited it again for the gyro! (no worries, health-team, i only ate the meat! and veggies). 

 while i did enjoy the cheesesteak and gyros, i was still craving the vietnamese fusion cuisine, so i looked up the important stuff. yesterday i purchased some daikon radishes and carrots to make some do chua:

purple cabbage slaw and do chua. the dish normally comes with rice as well, but that isn't on my current menu, so i'll be cooking up some chicken and having a long-awaited (week) meal tomorrow...

we had a professional development day on friday, and once again, the church was so gracious to provide such a fun snack spread! it was hard to not go straight to the cheese nips and all of the miniature candy bars, but i did it! pretty sure my team did a good job too!

 the pd was actually great! we had MOMENTOUS institute come out to give us a great training on social/emotional learning health. it was phenomenal! they spoke on the brain and breathing and working with students to lessen the stress so that they can actually function. in the afternoon, we had the writing training, which was good, but not exactly what i was expecting. it will be a good catalyst and jumping off point to be able to go into classrooms to model.

then on saturday i got a text around 4 asking if i was interested in going to a benefit for operation kindness, a no-kill shelter. olivia bought a ticket, but was sick and didn't want it to go to waste. i was debating to go, not to go...i decided it would be for a good cause. once i got there, i was happy to have gone. i was very impressed by the artwork donated by one of the art classes at booker t washington. i was most persuaded by the word: symphony! love me some mozart and vivaldi! good for the soul-the slide sets were awesome as well! unfortunately, by the time i got back out to the gallery, the painting i was going to purchase had been sold, so i settled for notecards (surprise!).

and today i decided that it was probably wise to go ahead and use my baby portabellas in the recipe i've been meaning to create. it looked delicious and it taste just as good as it looked. (and healthy to boot!) i've never been huge on eating fungus, decomposers...but turn 'em upside-down, throw a little pepper/onion mix(producers), and some pork(consumers) and the only thing i'm missing from the food-chain is sunshine...but we're happy about that, because remember what i said first: hoping for an ice-day!

i'll do these again. if for nothing else, they're so cute-they look like little ninja turtle road-kill kinda...but looks can be deceiving-yum!

alright, everyone just stop what you're doing for a moment and say a prayer for one day of ice for dallas!

julie