Project Round-Up

This summer is totally flying by.  I have worked more this summer than I have since I had an actual summer job (the cause of my slowed blogging of late).  And we've been constantly busy with house projects, big and small.  And my social life is kicking into high gear for the next month or so- line dancing, outings on a friend's boat, concerts, trivia at the local Irish pub, camping trips.  I've got too many irons in the fire.  Lists always help me calm down and sort through the noise when I get into these situations.  I know it's dorky, but I am a total left-brain kind of gal and it works for me.

Here's what's cooking between now and September.

House Projects:

• Finish the vanity in the guest bathroom.  The vanity itself is done except for some touch-ups.  The door faces probably need one more coat of paint before they'll look done enough.  And then I'll need to add hardware (still haven't picked the perfect drawer pulls yet) and reattach the doors.  Hopefully I can finish this project within a week.
• Make curtains for the dining room.  I already have the fabric (which I am soooo in love with).  Hopefully next week we can raise the curtain rods to match the 96" high ones in the living room.  I would also love to make a trip to Ikea- I think some Lill sheers would be just the ticket for preserving our privacy without sacrificing light.  And then I have to wait for my mom to get back from her camping trip to help me actually sew the dang curtains.  Although this is something that I *might* be able to accomplish on my own, I am admittedly wary of sewing machines and I'd feel so much better if my mom was around to help me.
• Figure out a rug for the kitchen.  I have been kind of stumped since my Crate & Barrel rug failure.  Steve finally suggested that I just make my own rug, so I can customize its size and style.  Hmm.  That hadn't occurred to me before.  And I do have a couple of rag rug tutorials pinned on Pinterest.  Something to chew on.
• Piano switcheroo.  I haven't posted about this yet, but here's the spoiler:  I found an amazing antique piano on craigslist and it is coming to live in our house next week.  I think it's large enough that we won't need a "mantle" above it like my current piano begs for.  It's going to be a kick in the pants playing it, not to mention decorating the top of the piano and the wall above it.
• Wash all of the exterior windows.  When I washed the house to prep for painting, so much of the icky mildewy runoff got all over the windows and they're still super streaky.  This will be a quick project but will pay dividends in improving how clean our house looks (inside and out).
• Clean my car really well.  My dear 13 year old car has suffered a lot of abuse since I started my math coaching gig.  I have to schlep 2-4 boxes and bags of stuff between the four buildings I work at, so my car is constantly full of stuff.  I don't think it's been properly vacuumed out since last fall.  And the exterior is still sporting some spray paint over-spray from last August.  How embarrassing.

Work Projects:

• Create Pocket Guides for grades 1, 2, 4, and 5.  This project was the brain child of a first grade teacher and recommended by a consultant from the National Education Association who's been working with our school district.  A group of intrepid teachers came together with the coaches in June to do the background research in matching our current curriculum, Everyday Math's 3rd Edition, to the Common Core Standards for Mathematics.  The work that we did in June has helped us build documents we are calling "Pocket Guides" which will serve as abbreviated reference points for teachers to better target their instruction to meet standards.  We've got partially-finished drafts of the Kindergarten and third grade Pocket Guides, but still need to work on the rest of the grades.
• Finalize plans for the Summer Math Institute for second and third grade teachers.  We've been planning this four day professional development series since April and had a full working draft since early June.  We need to come together to take care of all of the nuts and bolts and transform our draft into consumable pieces- agendas, charts, black-line masters, planning templates.
• Math Benchmark Assessment Item Review.  Because of the switch from state standards to Common Core Standards (I believe 47 states have now adopted these standards to be fully implemented by 2014-15), the state committee responsible for writing Math Benchmark Assessment items had to create a significant amount of new items last year.  I'm on the committee to review the artwork and diagrams that go along with these items to ensure that the graphic artists' representations match the problems.
• Finalize plans for support in 2012-13.  Three schools in our district are trying on RTI (Response to Intervention) next year.  I coach in one of them.  It has still not been decided for sure how my time will be allocated across my 4 buildings.

Phew, that's a lot!  To save myself from feeling overwhelmed, here's what I've already accomplished this summer.  Click the links to read about them if you missed 'em the first time around.

We wrangled the clutter on our coffee table courtesy of an awesome rustic tray from Joss & Main.

Scored an awesome high-arc faucet from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store.

Added some extra whimsy to the entryway courtesy of some amazing off-the-cuff art from my lovely sister-in-law, Tabi.

House crashed my in-laws' new abode.  So far Steve has helped them install their new washer and dryer.  Looking forward to helping them with more transformations!

Got started with painting the guest bath vanity- a project that's been on my to-do list since we bought the house.  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3

Purchased fabric for Crate & Barrel knock-off window treatments to modernize the dining room.

Painted the exterior of the house and switched out the light fixtures.  Phew, that was a big project!

Started the prep work for bulking up the faux mantel to lend more balance to the wall behind the piano.

Brought some fun and whimsy to the entry by switching out a plain jane rug for a bright one in a modern pattern.

Upped the kitsch factor by adding a squirrel pillow to the bench in the entryway.

Removed the haze from my car's headlights with a damp rag and toothpaste.



....All that in a little over a month.  Makes me tired just reading about it, haha!  Maybe I *can* accomplish most of those between-now-and-September projects....!

School's Out For Summer!

For the kids, maybe.

My colleagues and I decided on two weeks when we would completely unplug from work this summer.  No talking about work, no reading emails, no coming in for any reason, no professional reading, nada.  So from June 30 to July 15, there will be no school-type work done by me.  I know it's not a ton of time, but at least with the kids gone, the pace will be slower for the two weeks prior to our break and probably the two weeks after it.  And let's face it, it's more time off than most people get.  So I'm hoping I will still have time to do some of the fun things that occur to me during the school year that I never get to do.  Here's the abbreviated list.

1.  Continue reading the Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin.  I know everyone has heard of it.  I still haven't seen the show, but I'm friends with enough nerdy bibliophiles that I got talked in to reading the books.  I started the first book in the series last summer.  I'm currently on page five hundred something- about 200 pages from the end.  The plot is finally getting exciting and I don't have to scratch my head to try to remember "who is that again?" every time I read a character's name anymore.  (Apparently Mr. Martin has a thing for ensemble casts with nonsensical fantasy names.)  I want to pick up my pace this summer.  For sure finish the first book.  I'd love to finish the second one, just because I know that come mid-August my reading time will again dwindle to 15 minutes two nights a week- also known as the amount of time between when I get in bed and begin reading and when I fall asleep and hit myself in the face with the book.

Danerys and her Silver.

2.  Play more piano.  I took piano lessons for 12 years.  I'm not a great pianist, but I've got more training than most people and I do enjoy playing certain songs in particular.  Not long before I stopped taking lessons and left for college, my friend and fellow pianist Joe had been working on one of my favorite piano songs of all time, Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C Sharp Minor.  He was so good at it!  I have always been shy about playing when people can hear.  Joe has never been shy about anything and he really made the highs and lows of this piece come to life.  Inspired by him, I began slowly picking away at it myself, but never got very far.  With that many sharps in the key signature and accidentals all over the place, every other note was a sour one, my tempo agonizingly slow to nonexistent.  I'd like to practice that song well enough for it to be recognizable as a *song* when I play and not just terrible chords mashed together.  For fun, here's the song, played by the man himself.  You can read along with the music if you're not prone to motion sickness!

3.  Paint the exterior of the house.  We've got some colors narrowed down, now we just need to wait for a string of dry days.  It's Washington, so we'll likely end up painting in mid-September.

Inspiration pic!

4.  Learn how to use Microsoft Excel properly.  Yeah, I have used Excel for years.  But when I have to type data into a spreadsheet that uses formulas, I end up making all of the cells display cuss words at me.  You know, like "##!" and "AB#(!%)".  I am sick and tired of not being able to use Excel the way I want to, and I'm pretty sure my coworkers are sick and tired of having to fix spreadsheets every time I touch them (although they graciously accommodate my ignorance).  To that end, Steve and I bought a Groupon for a 35 hour online training course, which we'll both be using soon.

5.  Blog more, of course!  I am having so much fun writing this silly little blog.  I am amazed that anyone reads it.  And like anything in my life, once I start doing it, I want to do it better.  I am making plans for new themes, layouts, a camera upgrade....  All in good time.  *Update: Obviously I already started on this one!  Or maybe I should say that Steve started on this one?*

Careers, Callings, and Coincidences

I don't generally like to talk about my job because inevitably one of two things happen:  a) people don't understand it and I can't explain it in a consice way that really covers all the bases, and b) I end up doing more defending of my job title, my school district, or the public education system in general than actually explaining anything.  But since I am trying to write this blog for me and not for concerned parents or new teachers or union reps, this is going to be real (according to my view of things, at least).

Public education as a system is really messed up.  We are controlled by the government.  When budgets get tight, we lose money.  When new bills are proposed on education, they are often passed or failed with very little input from people who actually work within the public school system or study it for a living.  Unions protect teachers' rights, but sometimes not enough (I'm looking at you, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker), and sometimes too much.  Teachers are so busy trying just to keep their heads above water that it is extremely difficult for them to be knowledgeable about current research on best practices in their field.  Kids are coming from a wider variety of challenging backgrounds now than ever before.  All that to say, working in public education is really freaking hard.

Yet here I am, a teacher.  I loved my second grade teacher.  She was brand new the year I had her, and gorgeous and nice and she smelled good and I liked it when she read books to us.  In sixth grade I helped a student in my math class with her assignments and at the end of the year she wrote in my yearbook that I was the best math teacher she ever had.  I read with first graders when I was in middle school and loved getting covered with unassuming hugs as soon as I walked into their classroom and seeing their eyes light up when they discovered they could figure out a tricky work by themselves.   I found that I was good at helping other people understand things, and I loved the moment when some new bit of knowledge finally had an impact for them.  It's like a drug, helping people do things they didn't know they could do before.  The combination of my ability to help people do and learn and become, and my addiction to the high of watching them do and learn and become makes me believe that I am called to be a teacher.  It sounds hokey, but it's the truth.

My mom tried to talk me out of becoming a teacher because she knew I'd never make a really good living.  I had to pay for part of my BA because the private school I attended was too pricey for my family but offered a first-rate teacher prep program and I wasn't to be dissuaded.  I did my student teaching in a district an hour away from my crummy apartment while my husband was deployed in Iraq.  It's not been an easy row to hoe, and I've considered giving up on it a few times.  The needs are far greater than the resources available to meet them.  It's terrifying and disheartening and hilarious and draining and empowering work.

Five years ago, I became a specialist teacher, a math coach.  The most simple way I can explain my job is that I help teachers develop their own skill as practitioners.  I expected to meet resistance from my colleagues when I started the job- me, a 25 year old helping veteran teachers?  I knew it seemed laughable, and I wasn't even sure if I was qualified to do the job.  But I was drawn to it because I had wanted to quit teaching before- weighed down by the lack of support I had to do my job as well as I wanted to do it.  I wanted to be the stop-gap for my colleagues and for students who struggled in math like I did as a child.

What I didn't expect is that it would still be so hard 5 years later.  Not the actual coaching part, working with teachers and students.  I find that to be rewarding and fulfilling, and I feel like I'm good at it (having practiced for five years).  It's the politics that wears me down.  I could easily brush it off  if all of the nay-saying and tearing down came from outside of my school district, or even if the criticism was constructive (just because I'm in the position of teaching others doesn't mean I don't have more to learn).  I have gotten better at hearing rumors about myself- I am power-hungry (although the last thing I'd ever want to do is be an administrator, yuck), I have never taught in a classroom before and have no basis to understand what teaching is like (truthfully I've only  taught three grades- 2nd, 3rd, and a 2/3 split), I am a waste of district money (even though a quick glance at our math scores or even a conversation with a random teacher would reveal that we are in desperate need of math support), I do nothing but eat bon-bons all day (although I typically work 50-60 hour weeks just like most of the teachers I know), that I don't have anything to offer them that they don't already know (the simple fact that I have spent the last 5 years thinking/reading/practicing math instruction as a full-time job says otherwise), etc., etc.  I still have a hard time not taking it personally.  Even though I know that it is typically defense mechanisms, or poor communication, or politics, or leadership issues that feed these rumors.  I would desperately like to defend myself from these rumors, but often defending yourself simply propagates the rumors you try to dispel the most (call it the Methinks-She-Doth-Protest-Too-Much Syndrome).   So I try to address rumors when I am asked, but mostly I just try do my job as well as I am capable of and let my work speak for itself.

But this past week it had become enough.  I am tired of being abused by my peers and the general public.  I am tired of having maxed out my earning potential.  I am tired of working (unpaid) through Spring Break and all but two weeks of summer vacation and hearing people in line in front of me at the supermarket or in the classroom across the hall complain about how lazy teachers (meaning me) are.  I am tired of the legislature forcing my district to make heartbreaking budget cuts although the state supreme court ruled that our state is not adequately funding public schools (its paramount responsibility, according to its own constitution).  I am tired of working on projects only to have to abandon them the following year because OSPI adopted a different idea and our district is expected to comply (often without funding or support).

I wanted to quit.  Not just go back to the classroom (although I miss having my own batch of kids); I wanted to quit the entire swamp of crazy that is public education.  I could use my skill set to be a personnel developer for HR departments of private sector corporations, and I could make more money at it than teaching.  So I asked Steve: Have I lost my perspective?  Or am I making sense?   He had seen me slowly become more downtrodden and cynical as the years passed and little changed.  He urged me to consider leaving my career in education, my calling, to save my sanity. 

Usually when I ask Steve if I've lost my perspective, he recommends a nap.  I felt like I had been thrown off a skyscraper- more terrified than I had ever been, oddly free... hurtling through space madly grasping for a parachute pull that isn't there.

I was still a jumble of questions and emotions when we met my in-laws for dinner the next day.  I had just started telling them about my consideration when our server came to the table.  He looked oddly familiar.  And I did something I rarely do- I started talking before my brain kicked in.  "You look familiar to me.  Are you in a band?"  Yeah, he said, looking a little embarrassed.  "You're in The Classic Crime, right?"  Yeah, he said again, small smile, still embarrassed.  "You guys are my favorite band!!"  I practically screeched with excitement (just goes to show you that there is no correlation between age and maturity).

I have loved The Classic Crime since I heard their song "The Coldest Heart" off their first album.  It came on the radio, I loved it, and looked them up on the internet.  It was love at first listen.  I have since bought every album of theirs and dragged Steve to one of their shows.  They're a local band.  They play poppy alt-rock that always features a sophisticated sound and honest, thoughtful lyrics.  You can hear their whole collection on iTunes and Amazon.  Yes, you should go check them out.

Here's where things get interesting.  The Classic Crime and their label parted ways after their last album.  In order to make a fourth album that would be similar in quality to the last one, the band needed funds.  So they started a Kickstarter.  If you're unfamiliar with this concept, I'd encourage you to visit the website www.kickstarter.com.  It's a pretty powerful model- the general public decides if your project is worth funding.  If enough money is donated, the project is funded.  If not enough money is donated, everyone's money gets returned and the project doesn't happen.  The band was nervous about doing a kickstarter, but their fans chipped in and raised the money for the band to make an album IN ONE DAY.  By the time the funding window closed, the band had raised enough to make a music video, do some PR, do a US tour, and (hopefully) put a little change in their own pockets on top of it.  Here's an excerpt from the band's posting the day the project closed:

This is more than an album project, this is something that completely validates the journey we've been on since we formed in February of 2003. These past 9 years have been... tumultuous. Time and time again our hopes lifted and fell and lifted and fell and then eventually settled in some murky, low, cynical, jaded place where old band dudes with ponytails reside. "Is this even worth it?" We'd ask ourselves. "Do people even care anymore?" Record labels definitely weren't kicking down our door. Maybe we can't do this anymore, we thought.
And then we launched a Kickstarter project. 
And you responded.

And here was one of their band members, waiting tables to pay the bills so that he could continue pursuing his calling despite the ridiculous highs and lows that come with full commitment to what you know you're supposed to be doing with your life.

I think the big coincidence of meeting one of the members of my favorite band was a little more than just coincidence.  I wanted to quit, but I cannot abandon my calling.  Not yet.  I can feel the discordance between what I want for myself and my district and my teachers and students... and how things really are... it's growing louder every day.  I want to be lifted out of my cynical, low, jaded place.  I want to know that what I'm doing is helping mitigate or lessen the discordance for others.  Even if it's a few people.  And if my work supports those few people, makes their lives better or more meaningful, then it will be enough. 




Seriously, go check out The Classic Crime.  Do it now.  In itunes or Amazon.