Tuesday, October 20, 2009

More Daily Occurances

Well yesterday was memorable. We didn't have power due to a fire at the power station near my village and school. It shut off around 3am. No one was following the "four-way stop" rule at intersections with traffic lights out. It was sketchy driving home from my morning workout.
Parent Conferences went on as usual. It was good we didn't have a normal school day. Some of the water pumps on campus weren't working due to the lack of electricity. The power came on again around 5 or 6pm. I heard that the students were not happy being home trying to complete their homework without air-conditioning or computers. I think the real disappointment for them was that they couldn't watch TV or chat with friends online.
It is back to normal today.

Monday, October 5, 2009

So much for the plan...

Remember last blog? I said I would do two days in the life of? Well I never got to the second day because the day after, the day I teach 4 classes, I forgot.
This will be considered the second day. An eve of four class day.
I have no profound comments about my life so I will ramble. I am sure since you are my friend you will find it somewhat interesting. And you can always look at the pretty pictures.
Today was a very productive day. The key for a productive day is following a list. I have about three going at the moment. Two live ones and the one in my head. I found out yesterday that it would be better to only have three tasks and balance out between the work hours. I found that focusing on three major tasks felt less stressful. This led to a more satisfying day because I accomplished what I set out to do. Go me! Yes!
After school I met with a handful of dedicated students. Well they are dedicated now because I sent out progress reports on Saturday (first day of the week, remember?). The end of the quarter is next week. We will have parent conferences the week after next.
Speaking of parent conferences...My collegue informed me that it was normal for high schools to schedule a day for parents to drop in and meet with teachers. Is this true? I don't know, I have only been to and taught at one other high school. I found this fascinating. Although he did chuckled with a sarcastic, "Really? You haven't done parent conferences?" YEAH, okay I only did a few before. Parents seemed to want their students to become more independent, so often they cut the ties on academics. I thought this was common high school phenomena. According to my colleague it is not.
Well it is a mute point, because in two weeks time, I will don my professional teacher attire and meet with at least 1/3 of the parents of my students. That is approximately 20 meetings in one day. It is a long day but I like to meet the parents face to face. It is actually a fun day!
Now let's moved across the street from school to the church. Yes it is across the street. I live in a triangle. Home, work, church all walking distance in the same neighborhood. It is fabulous. Last Friday I created and operated the slides for worship. This Friday I will be singing in the worship band. In a few weeks I will perform with the dance group for a second time.
The dance group has grown from five to almost 12! My friend is the organizer and convinced a new church member from the Philippines to share his expertise in praise dance. We are going to be doing many styles of dance throughout the year: tambourine, lyrical, hip-hop, ribbon and flags. We already have a song for the Christmas dance. I am thrilled to be dancing again.
Well it is after 10pm. I must turn in. Plus I have to upload the photos which take some time.
This is Lydia Elmore, signing off.