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The dreaded unpaid workshops! We spent all day revisiting (as my supervisor loves to say) Reading First guidelines and GLE (new name for Benchmarks and if no one knows what the old name means–What the child is suppose to learn in every area of subject matter in their grade level….ie Grade Level Expectations…) If nothing else, Education can come up with more different names for the same thing than any other occupation. I guess we have to keep people from realizing that we are still teaching what was the called …”the basics” plus the big people may think it will give us a better reputation…As a lowly teacher, I think it is just a farce and frankly I am tired of it. Just because you give it a new name, does not make it work better. Sometimes it was working very well to start out with.
I hope my new year and new occupation fulfills my dream. I want a year that I can teach and enjoy teaching again. It does not matter to me that I am working with the weaker children. It just matters that I do not have to give up my free time to prepare to work with the children. I am anxious to have a fun year. It sounds like it could be and it started out like it would be.
The only hitch I have is getting my room ready. I had problems getting my room ready to fix. The lady who had the room before would not come and get her things moved. Therefore, I packed all her things except one cabinet and stuck them in the hall. }:-@ I do not want to give my weekend up to get it ready. So I will have to work very hard on Monday and Tuesday to do that. We are suppose to start working with the kids on Wednesday.
The job I will be doing will not be hard at all. I will have my lesson plans done at school, and will have no problem with implementing them. It is just getting everything ready and nice looking for the kids.

Thursday night, Elaine, Christine and I elected to stay home and relax. We got our clothes packed, cleaned up and went to eat. It was nice just to sit and visit. I finally had my first drink during the entire trip.
The ladies that went out had decided to go back to the French Market and River Walk, because they had not bought enough. Go figure. We begin to worry about them later, because the weather began to turn bad outside. Christine called Sandy to see if they were okay, and they said they were still waiting for the shuttle. About 9:00 they came in just before the rain hit. When we talked to them, they said they had to catch a ride with the Holiday Inn bus, because the shuttle was still not there. We began loading the vehicles up so that we would not have to do it the next day.
Our last day was the best! Short and sweet. Our presenter had to leave for the plane at 3:15pm, so she relaxed and showed films after lunch that we had not viewed before. We presented her with a special gift before lunch, so she could enjoy it. We had some headaches again about checking out. Once again there was miscommunication between our title one treasurer and the hotel. We were afraid that we were going to have to pay the tax for the bill if we did not check out again. Thank heavens, they were able to correct it. We were able to leave on time and headed toward interstate 10 and 310. Now I understand why Sandy wanted to go the West Bank way. Bumper to Bumper traffic headed our way. We did make it out with out any problems and home by 8:00pm. It was great to be back, but we did have a good time. One teacher said–Hey we should do this again next year. I told them I was game, if they gave me time to save money. 😀

On Wednesday, I was able to meet with Vera and Ray. They picked me up at 4:30 to go to eat. We went looking down St. Charles for a restaurant a lady had recommended. Couldn’t find the special one, but we stopped at another. It was fairly good. Lots of food. I ordered a Vegetable plate and it was really great. What I like the most was that it did not make me feel bad the next day. Vera and I barely stopped talking through out the meal. Ray was a little left out at times. He did stop us to say things, but the majority of the time he was quiet. After eating they took me down to the levee. This is one area of New Orleans that had completely been redone. It is amazing how beautiful it is now that they have made a path and added things. It was a great place to get pictures of the river.
It has been over seventeen years since I had been to New Orleans. The only thing that is there that was besides Bourbon Street and the Square is the top of the Mart. The french market is much better and bigger. The Jax Brewery is completely redone and turned into a shopping mall inside. They built the aquarium and the RiverWalk adjacent to the levee, so it is like a completely different place. We did not have time for the Aquarium and I do not like shopping, so I did not go to the RiverWalk. Ray and Vera took me back around seven and I was really glad. I was way too tired to go for a long night. When Elaine returned, I was glad that I had not gone with them. Too much shopping and not enough looking. 😀

Sounds exciting”’ Well, we are not the exciting types. We were a large group of 11 ladies and had a real good time trotting down to the French Quarter to look around. We hitched a ride on the shuttle from the Hyatt and went first to the French Market. The ladies were in search of something special. Especially jewelry!!! Of course, shopping has never been my cup of tea, so I was busy trying to take pictures. I took some then caught up with them. We had left two ladies behind, so we had to take a side trip to wait for them. So we sat at the French Market Cafe to wait for them and have a drink. It was so hot, the thought of a mixed drinks or beer made me sick. I ordered water. We waited for the two to get there, then we started off. I designated one friend that was walking in the back to kind of help me not get run over, hurt or left behind. Because I was determined to take some pictures. I had a couple of scares, but I managed to keep up. I had my tennis shoes on, so I could keep up well. I did almost get hit by a door and run over by a car, but that was to be expected. We ate at Michael Anderson’s on Bourbon. The food was excellent. I was able to try tilapia and really enjoyed it. After eating we walked down Canal toward Harrah’s. Some wanted to go in, but it was getting late so we decided to wait instead for the shuttle. He came by once and there were only four seats, then had to wait for the next one.
While walking down Canal, I saw a “celebrity” ( I say this in snide way). He is on the early show on Sunday morning which I can tell now that I am the only one that watches except for Mitzi. No one else knew who I was talking about. She saw him though and he was very rude at the restaurant they were at. Sounds right to me. If ever you wake up early and watch it, look for the curly redheaded smart alec guy. That’s him.
We had a great night, even though we were worried about getting back. 😀

Everyday we had to be in our meetings from 8:30 to 4:00. We had two breaks morning and afternoon that were ten minutes and no longer. We had an hour for lunch. They had a continental breakfast at 7:30, meal at 12:00 and left over breakfast at 2:00. The ten minute break in the morning was for restroom only. The period from 8:30 to 10:00 were the longest 45 minutes I have ever had.
The group leader I had was wonderful. She kept us busy and on task. She also was not boring.But the work was overwhelming. Wednesday, I woke up wiped. Of course, I had been playing the night before, but the intensity of the work was rather draining. :’

Okay, picture 12 women from one school and approx 15 to 20 from another school piled into cars with at least 4 or less in them traveling down highway 90 to New Orleans. Sandy, one of our kindergarten teachers, was the leader. She is not your normal everyday person, so with her being the leader was quite an experience. ( Let me clarify, I would not have traded to have her job for anything.) Well, we had instructions from her husband, but they were not exactly clear. So when we came to a very confusing turn, we did the wrong thing. Can you picture 9 to 10 cars going the wrong way’ This is not cute. To make a story short, we made it to the hotel, Hyatt, but the short route was a little longer than we anticipated.
None of us were lost completely. Everyone eventually ended up there within 30 minutes.
The fun had just started. Upon disembarking the hotel informed us they did not have us scheduled for Sunday, but for Monday. We all looked at each other and were aghasted. All we could think was having to find another place for the night, then coming back the next day. They did have rooms though so our reading coach secured the rooms with her credit card. It was quite a sight seeing approx. 40 women unloading and moving to their rooms. Thank heavens, Elaine and I were together. It made it so much nicer being with someone close to my age. We decided not to go out that night since we were tired, and ate at the hotel. The weather was turning ugly also, so I do not believe anyone left.

This year will be quite different, I am hopefully semi-retired. I could not think of a word that could adequately state my change, but this seems to be the best. :’ I will not be in the classroom, but will be what is labeled an “interventionist”. I would love to open a business where I could sell and create names for education. What does interventionist mean…for older teachers…”Reading Teacher” would fit very well.
I am going to be working with the weakest children at the kindergarten and first grade level trying to help them progress higher than they are now. There are three levels the children are graded on, but for those not in the field of education today… low, average and above average will suffice. I will not see the one in the above average level.
We have been workshopped to death this summer, so I should know exactly what I am suppose to do. But no one has sat down and said this is what you do. I have three more workshops to go that will tell me what to do with all the other information I have received. I hope :’
Last week, all of the K thru 3 teachers plus special ed, 3 interventionist, and reading coach went to New Orleans. 😀

This week has been so great. I have actually been able to do just what I wanted and when. Oh, I did the mundane things like pay bills, wash clothes, and dishes. But no workshops and Trey and Amanda are settled into Bancker.
Monday, Trey and Amanda came over and ate with us and visited. Wednesday, Halie and I went to the movies.
Thursday, I went to Sedina’s.
Tomorrow, Halie will come and spend the night. I even got to fight with “city hall” a few times this week. Did I win’ Of course not!
It is so great that Trey and Amanda are comfortable with the house. I was worried especially about Amanda. But I think the quietness is giving them a little peace for right now. Just hope they don’t get bored. Now if it will just back off on the raining.
Last Thursday, I did get to take a special day also. I took a young girl (Junior in High School) to the movies. Her name is Challi. She was in the first class that I taught here at Henry. She is one of those students that you never let go of and that you want to keep in touch with forever. We went to see “Harry Potter”. Since David has Mary, I lost my companion for the “Harry Potter” movies. I hope Challi will fill that void.

Halie and I had a wonderful day together on Wednesday. I picked her up at 11:00. Then we ate at Burger King. While we were eating she asked if she could call Aunt Olga and visit her. I called and she was happy to see us. So we left to go to the movie first. It was “Garfield”. We enjoyed it. (David could not believe that we went.) But it was good for children. At 3:30 we went to Aunt Olga and visited. We had a great visit and I know she loved it.

Today, I went to Sedina to work on David’s books. I am putting the finishing touches on the books. I plan to begin Trey’s week from Saturday at the special creative memory workshop.

Tomorrow at around 1:00, I will pick up Halie then we will come back here. I have several things planned. Steve will not be here, because of a special golf tournament. So I hope that we can do all kind of fun things. I got some ideas from Sedina. My boys do not have to worry about giving me grandchildren. I have one already in Halie.

Last night, we watched the movie “Fahrenheit 9/11” It is a movie that everyone should watch. But it was a hard movie to watch. It brought back too many bad memories of my young adult years. I do not understand how anyone could have gone through the Vietnam Era and still believe war is the answer for our problems. The big controversy over Michael Moore is stupid when you watch the movie. Even his making fun of the president was not where you should focus. Watch the soldiers, the Iraqi people, the parents and think. This is what is wrong with war. There may be a time and place where there is no other choice. But you must try every available avenue first before you travel down the road to war. Of course, this will not be an quickly won war. It should never have started without more time devoted to thinking about it along with diplomacy. The war in Afghanistan should have been completed first!

Today I will begin my journal of my thoughts. I am ending a part of my life and beginning another. I feel that is could be great, but I am not sure of the outcome. My son has hoped that I would write this. I don’t know if it is what I want to do or not. I will be trying to do it and hope that is will help in some way.
School has become very negative, and I do not know if I want to be there. I have discuss the problem with my friends in school. They have boosted my mood, but it will be me that must work through it. I hope that things will work out and I that I will be able to hang in and do the job that I am hired for despite all that is happening around me. I do realize that I should stay focused on what is important and avoid the petty people that are there. I do know that it will take a lot of strength for me not to speak when I feel things are wrong. I have to work with all these ladies whether I like them or not. I will have to make my Ramke side stay down and maybe this outlet will help get it out and keep me level. As Enya says “Only Time”. That should be in my mind always as I go along 🙁

I write this with a great big sigh of relief. Yesterday was the last and very stressful day. I woke up and hated the thought of even getting up. But it wa inevitable. Getting up was not the worse thing. It was as if every way I turned I was being challenged to get out of the house. I couldn’t decide what to wear. I wanted to dress down, but they were all going to eat. I knew I had to work cleaning, so what to choose. I chose something different, but was not really happy I chose it later. Before I left, I could not find my stupid keys. After searching forever, I grab my second sets of keys and walked out. Knowing that somewhere they were hiding. I even left Fred’s door open so that I could have a way to get in.
I had wanted to be there early so that I could get the paper work over before the meeting, but this appeared not to be the case. It seemed like my entire morning was cursed. True of it all, I was too damn tired and kept making mistakes. Thus causing me to do things over and over again.
We had our end of the year meeting and Mrs. Moss had a great deal of difficulty saying goodbye to the teachers that are leaving. I began going through my purse to keep from concentrating on what she was saying, because I was of course, crying myself. Later a teacher commented on how she wished she had had her purse to dig in! I was surprised that anyone noticed. After the meeting we then had our retirement party: Mr. Elwood, the janitor, Mr. Don, our favorite bus driver, Mrs. Judy Hasemann ( one of my best friends) , and Mrs. Beverly Suire, the lady I am replacing. Again with the tears….It was most distressing. However we all made it through the situation. I finally was allowed to return to my room to continue cleaning my mess. Everyone was becoming anxious, because they wanted to go eat out. (at the Riverfront) Time was passing and teachers were having trouble getting finished. Thank god, my paperwork was finished so I was not holding every one up. Finally, at 12:30 everyone was through and Ms. Moss told us we could all leave. I looked at my room and thought hmmmh. Do I want to continue or leave. I decided that I was too tired to continue so I started out the door. After I got in my car, I then began to think about going to eat. With my gas tank on almost empty, not feeling well, I decided nope not this time either. So I guess they say, Claudia is becoming an old fogey. She never comes to the parties anymore. My problem is that I really do not like all the people and with the tension in the school. Sitting in a restaurant with them was not very interesting. Then I preceded to go home and put myself to bed. This is the second time this month that I have done that. I fell asleep and slept on and off the entire night. I guess you know you are getting old when the late night studying makes you into a person that has to have extra sleep. So am I glad this year is over…I say this with great gusto YES! I still have to go clean, but at least I do not have anyone looking over my shoulder or rushing me. I will work at my own pace and do it right. 😀