Well, the end is coming, and I am thrilled. But I am apprehensive. I have not ever been in the position that I worry about the idea that if I needed to work ….I couldn’t. Well, this is that time. I am taking a big step into the abyss. Will I find a bottom or will i just keep falling. I have quit temporarily three times in my life time without any idea of whether I would work or not. All three times, I had to go back to work. This is scary. I don’t think anyone would hire this old lady…and truly I do not want to be hired. I want to spend the rest of my life doing what I want to do within reason. No, I do not expect to loll around and not have to watch my budget or be lazy. I know that I must keep going and keep myself sharp. I lots of things I can do to do that. My problem is that I do not want to HAVE to go back to work full time. So I will keep my fingers crossed and yep, pray that I will not have to.
I want to enjoy my leisure time and not have to worry about MONDAY. (A friend told me the greatest thing about retiring is not have to worry about MONDAY.) Until later

I have been vey lax in writing, but several times I could not even get on. I am hoping that this will be fixed now. Let me check it out.

May 24, 2007

I have been told that I am not keeping up with my blog. So true!
I read over 2006 and realized during that entire year I wrote again in such a depressing mind set. I guess that is why my kids keep asking me –“Are you alright?”

Basically, yes, I am alright. I am tired, depressed from time to time, angry from time to time, and happy for the most part. My home life is good! In fact, I am blest by my situation. My husband loves me, my kids love me, and things are better for us than most people. So I guess you could say that I am normal and my life is normal. The only thing is I feel helpless sometimes about situations that occur which bother me. But that seems to have become my personality since the hurricane. It is also the personality of my friends that have been affected by the hurricane. Hopefully, all of us will become more relaxed and get a sense of peace again.

The end of the school year is here again. So I shall try to write an informative anaylsis and not a depressing story.

We made it again. Elaine and I consider that quite an accomplishment. We have found some people we like and some people we DO NOT like.

Teachers:

The other interventionists are nice to us, but I can imagine they think we are “old fogies”. This doesn’t bother me because I am! We like them and get a kick out of their ideas sometimes. They are soooo young.

Principal:

At the top of our DO NOT like list is the principal. He does not only suffer from “foot in mouth” disease, he is also suffering from “panic attacks”. He is scared not only of the kids he is suppose to be a ‘leader of’, but he is scared of his parents and teachers also. Teachers being the least. Mostly the parents. He goes through a major “investigation” of every event (discipline problem). I don’t know how many, but I am aware of four of them that disturb me to the hilt!!! When he gets involved, he talks to other teachers that may know something, the kids involved, any kids that were in the vicinity of the event and then last– to the original teacher about what he found out. In over 35 years, I have never worked for a principal that did that. Even Mr. Joey Hebert didn’t. that. And he was someone I did not like that much. But I have never been put in the position to feel that a parent or kid could cause me to lose my job. Then he takes the result which will give him the easiest or least drastic result. It doesn’t matter what the teacher writes down, because they are the least involved–he thinks. Their opinions are the least important. Both Ms. Elaine and Ms. Butcher (twice) were involved. Then the lady who handles special ed was involved. She politely told him, I am 54 years old and I disagree with your decision. She also told him never to ‘investigate’ her again. When a situation occurs regarding discipline problems, we have to write them up. This is standard procedure. The further investigation normally does not occur unless it is a possibility that another teacher was on duty at the time. Talking to other kids is only done if they do not believe what the child in trouble said. The questioning also gives the children the feeling that they are talking only about the child. Why?? Because you get several different results. They lie, they tell you what they think you want to know and sometimes they do tell the truth. In one of the situations, he had three different stories from three different children none of which were what the teacher said. All I know is, I do not like the feeling of insecurity from the top. We are losing our assistant principal, she got a promotion. That really makes me nervous. I know that next year, if I have any type of discipline problems in my group, I will keep behavior documentation.

The Job:

This was the best part of the year. I enjoyed the groups I had. They were good. I hope that it continues through next year.

So when I am asked will you come back. (I say —Yes, one year at a time) Do I really want to be where I am. Only because of the children. I am attached to some of them.

I decided that I would practice and insert our little visitors for everyone to see. Let the creepy music play.

As you should have guessed by the name, this is a private blog. If you want to read the contents of the blog you have to be logged in and a subscriber.

Have a goodday,

WDuluoz

(Sounds like a sitcom)
2005 and 2006 have been very stressful years for me. I do hope that 2007 will be better. But if New Year’s Day is be a “sign” of the year. Good Heavens, I have no hope. This Christmas Season was different to say the least.
Christmas Eve: We met with Trey and Amanda for supper. We ate steaks and potatoes. It was very tasty and we had a good visit. Steve and I knew that we would be by ourselves on Christmas Day, so we planned to just stay home and not worry about anything. That was after I reminded him that he should not care if he did not open any present for Christmas Day.
December 26th: Trey and I took out to the stores. Trey was not happy for shopping on the day after Christmas. We had shopped earlier, but some gifts had been gotten yet. I kept reminding him that it was just as bad as the days before. So we did what we could.
December 27th: Halie and I went to Lafayette to spend a day playing. Dixey had called the day before so I planned to meet them while we were there. We had a great visit and I think Esther put up with Halie very well. She is only a year older than Halie, but she is so much more mature. Halie and I had a wonderful time as always.
December 28th: We decided to meet Mary and David in Lafayette at Trey’s. They were going shopping and needed the extra time. As to when they actually got in-my times have long left my mind, but we met with them around 7:00pm and went to Zea’s for supper. We enjoyed the visit and meal. Made plans to meet to see Michelle the next night.
December 29th: The weather was setting up to be a bad one. It had been raining and was looking like it would be bad. Michelle had made it in just in time to miss the bad weather
December 30th: “The Bennett’s Christmas Day”. The rain had followed her here, so we knew that we would have to have Christmas at Trey’s. We brought all the Christmas gifts over to Trey’s. We had Christmas and then began to enjoy messing around with the kids. Steve took Trey, Mary, and David to Mike’s for supper. We (Amanda, Michelle, and I) decided to stay because we were not really hungry. David talked us into spending the night, because he wanted to visit with us more. We stayed up late, but when the kids were ready to go to sleep we did. Steve began coughing that night so he left and went home despite the water.
December 31st: The next morning, Steve came back. We had had donuts and were enjoying our visiting. Steve decided he wanted to go back and we could come back on New Year’s Day. Since I knew the kids would want to do something fun that night. I decided to leave and go back with Steve.
January 1st: I got up early to start making cornbread and getting ready for the New Year’s Day dinner. When Steve came home on New Year’s Eve, he was running fever. He felt very bad the next day and had planned to stay home. We received a phone call from David and he told us that Trey was very sick. Throwing up and running a fever. So fixing dinner was out. I told them to make a decision and let me know. Steve was sick and would not be coming no matter what. We went to Lafayette’s Restaurant and ate. Then I visited with them for a while and finally decided it was time for me to leave. I hated to leave because I knew that I would not be seeing David or Mary for quite some time.
After all of this, we wonder just what our year would be like. (We had another deluge come through on 3rd of January. Water went over the road and I was not feeling great myself. So Thursday and Friday, I took off and stayed home. Hoping this would keep me from really being sick! So far so good!

Once again I am pondering the end of the year. I have not sat down at the computer as I did before, because rereading my blogs reminded me that I seem to write only when I am depressed these days. How do I feel today’ I hear this quite often, but I can truly say. Okay. In fact, that has been my reply every time I am asked. Why don’t I say -‘fine’ Well, there are specific reasons.
I am comfortable here in the woods. I enjoy my ride home at night. But the ride is a rather strange one. From 8:00 to 10:00 it is empty. The people that use to travel it so much are not here. Bancker road is absolutely empty. I wonder at time why am I out driving while everyone else is in their homes. The sad part is I have not seen one deer. Only armadillos, skunks, and possums.
I went to the Road Home meeting on October 24th. (This is a program set up to give it citizenry the ability to rebuild their homes and possibly return to their home.) Two weeks after the meeting, a man came to inspect our home. He inspected it and wrote the report up. We had a nice visit with him and he left. But he did inform us that we would not hear anything for at least 2 to 3 months. That was what my advisor said at the time I interviewed. So we sit waiting.
We went on a trip to Odessa for Thanksgiving. We decided to make it a circle returning through Dallas so I could visit Aunt Olga. This was important since Uncle Bud had died on November 3rd. I felt I needed to see how she was doing. When we got to Vernon’s, we had to stay with them. Well, I made the best of it by copying all those pictures I had asked Vernon and Sherry to copy and send me. Now I have pictures of their kids to go in the Bennett book. Steve became sick there and we had to stay an extra day. He had quit smoking before we left, so -….. When we got to Odessa, I was faced with a shock! I guess, Mitzi was right the other shoe dropped. Claudine is not well. It really disturbed me. I knew she sounded unusual on the phone, and I was very worried about her health the entire time I was there. We left there and went to Aunt Olga. This was the bright spot in my travels. Aunt Olga was fine and seemed to adjust well with Pat. I know that Pat will be happier and more relaxed now. If we can say anything good comes out of a death, it is that Aunt Olga can now relax and spend the rest of her life comfortable though lonely. She had worried herself sick about Uncle Bud. She could not relax for fear that something would happen to him and he was so unhappy. Now she knows though she misses him terribly, that he is at rest. We returned and realized that we had worn ourselves out.
School this year is a myriad of complex feelings. When we started, we were disappointed. The atmosphere at this school began on the wrong foot. At our very first meeting the principal put his foot in his mouth for us. He told his teachers that there were way too many referrals for discipline. He said,”He knew we would have problems, but I am surprised with how many in such a short time. But we have to realize that we are working with kids that came from schools that have treated their students with laissez faire!” I saw RED! The nerve to say that because these kids came from a different school, that they had not done their job to reach these children. Well, there were some pissed off Henry teachers to say the least. Then he repeated that there are still too many when he talked in October. But when I heard a teacher telling a child “We don’t care how you behaved at Henry, you won’t behave that way here.” I became very upset. Ms. Mitzi told the Behavior Interventionist leader that I was very upset. She visited me and I preceded to tell her my problem. I explained to her that Mr. Hebert (the principal here is named the same as my old principal) had made the teachers think that they were going to have to treat the children from Henry differently and more strictly than the others because they had not learned how to behave at Henry. Well, I was very disappointed. Do I feel that I got my point across’ Well, I am not sure. But she does ask me how I am every time she sees me. I want to tell her it is not me I am worried about. Because of this atmosphere, most of the teachers from Henry will be leaving. We had it too good at Henry. One teacher told me she does not feel welcome here. She definitely does not have her referrals taken care of. I think he is afraid that he will look bad if he has to send a child home. I don’t know what he thought he was getting. Our children are definitely not angels, but for the most part are not devils either. He should move to New Iberia. Then he would know what is bad. What really surprises me is that there are too many young teachers and some clueless older teachers who have never worked with truly at risk kids. On Wednesday, a down syndrome child in first grade said, “Bitch, do my work.” What was their reaction’ Send for the ‘boogey’ man. (For those out there that don’t know. The ‘boogey man’ is not the principal. He is a man hired because his mother is a teacher and he is hired as a paraprofessional. He used to be a wrestler. He is now part of the Behavior Intervention Team. By the way, no one is scared of the principal.) Well, he stood there towering over the little child and fussed at her. She looked up at him like “What are you talking about’ And who are you'” More than likely she did not truly understand what she had said and done. I am sure she realized it was something that would draw attention to her, but really could not decide that it was bad. I will be surprised if the parent does not come back and talk to the principal. For one time, I would say he has every right to. They handled it completely wrong. I need to see what I can do about not working. I know that it will be hard, but I don’t know if I want to teach here next year. All of the classroom teachers said that they would not return next year. A miracle would have to occur. One lady said, the minute she walked into Henry she had felt wanted and appreciated. She does not feel that here.
My reading groups are fun though. I have enjoyed each and every one of them. Oh, I have to fuss at some, but I was lucky to get good kids. Or at least kids that mind me. I will miss them and worry that next semester I may not be as lucky.
So as the year ends, we ponder what will tomorrow bring. I haven’t the slightest idea and I will not predict nor expect anything good or bad. Why’ Because I am scared to wish. I am alright right now and hope that I will be alright at the end of 2007,

Extra, extra, read all about it! The school board has finally decided,

“Erath Schools will be built again in the same place. But they will be raised. FEMA will pay 90% of the cost. ”

Are we surprised’ Of course, not. But did you know that Henry Elementary sits the same as it was in November. Only they are using it as a storage building. Things never change.

We have a new man running for school board member for our area. We just hope that we can prove to the old member that he needs our votes to be reelected. Everyone I know will vote for the new man!!!

We entered Eaton Park Elementary on August 16th for the first day. Here we are faced with the school board’s 🙁 decision to solve the problems for our parish. Of course, after almost a month, I can relate the school board 🙁 has once again made their choice and not the people’s.
Let me give you a snapshot of the school. Three different groups of children moved from two schools and mixed with another. All of these schools were small and servicing children with fairly good results. Throw the children into one school that numbers over 700. Keep the administration the same– one principal, one assistant principal and one school counselor. There are some people that are hired as contract personnel to assist in the discipline. This was available at the other schools also. Hire some extra teachers, move in some butler buildings and say “Wow, this will work wonderfully.” WRONG!
The assumption that this will work wonderfully was a poor assumption at best. People can not believe that moving children helter skelter across the parish was a wonderful event. They should take that into account when they made the -‘fantastic’ decision. Truly, we want it to work out. But to assume it will just because you decide that -‘it will’ is asinine. But what should we expect from a group who has made themselves into -‘asses’ for the last five years.
Yes, we have received the government’s wonderful money again. We are to work our magic and continue the growth that we have had in the last two years. I, for one, hope that this is the case. But my doubts are high. I do hope my doubts can be unfounded in the future.
My cohorts (the two ladies I work with before) have set ourselves up nicely. We have started the year and by the Labor day we wondered –“What the hell did we get ourselves into.” 😯 Within two weeks, we had to learn how to use an internet site to write our lesson plans. (I ended up having to assist my two friends. They were a little weak on computer skills.) But I am proud to say we have succeeded in achieving this goal. At the same time, we are working with three very sweet hyperactive girls. The reason they are is because their reading coach puts everything on them and they believe they are the bosses. Since they are nice, I think they finally realized that we are little old ladies. We have finally found a safe haven for 30 minutes every day. This is while we eat our meal for the day. Another problem is that the two reading coaches are having difficulty working together. One believes that everything should run exactly as she has let it run, and ours believes some changes should be made. Needless to say, our reading coach is taking the back burner and letting the other do her thing. We are worried that she will quit and leave us to fight the fight.
Then during our very second faculty of the year, we were insulted. No, we do not believe the principal realized what he had done, but he made disparaging remarks about where the children went to school last year.
He told the teachers, “Remember our children knew the program and were handling it successfully, but we have had 200 children moved in that obviously did not have the same discipline at their other school. In fact, it must have been handled with laissez -–faire.” This statement was completely unprofessional. I have hoped that he is under such a strain that he was not aware of what he was saying. I took offense at this statement and the more I thought of it the angrier I became. }:-@ Our children have been through a great deal and no, they are not angels, but we are teaching at-risk children. The ones I see getting into trouble are the ones that were in trouble at every school. The bad thing is they have become more of a problem, because of their lack of security. This was their main problem at home, but now it has developed in the school system. So once again, I see the kids that I am attached to, becoming a bigger problem than before.
My good friends and I have decided. IF we make it through this year, we will make it. It seems strange, but each year we have been faced with challenges that we find difficult to overcome. We did well last year, we hope the same will happen this year. We also hope that our children come through it with us.