Another Teenager

From April 26 until August 17 I will be the mom of three teenagers. What do you get a 13 year old boy? I got him a box of snack food from Costco.

Weekend

We didn't get away in this Bug this weekend. But wouldn't that be fun?! Hubby and I went to Bug-a-Palüza to look at all the old and not-so-old VWs. I also learned how to make the "ü" with my keyboard, so that is pretty cool too! Check out Chattanooga DP for some cool VW pics throughout the week. I'm thinking of printing the one from Monday as a poster and hanging it in the garage.

Mr. C didn't want to go look at cars. He did want to go shopping for new jeans and shirts. I can't believe how much he is growing! And eating everything in sight!

M went to Alabama this weekend. She came home sunburned from not wearing sunscreen at a soccer game. Her big news is that she got a job at Rembrandt's Coffee Shop. It is downtown in the Bluff View art district, right on the river. Super awesome!

We are busy, busy, busy for the next month. This week is TCAP testing for the big kids (including Mr. C), M's Senior Night, Mr. C's 13th birthday on Friday!, SAT10 testing next week for my kiddos, M's rowing regionals the first weekend in May, Mother's Day (ahhh, time to relax!), M's graduation the 17th (announcements are in the mail, whew), and school is out the 22nd for the kids and the 24th for me!!! If M advances to Nationals, that will be the first weekend in June. I have two conferences scheduled in June, so it really never ends. I'm going to try to keep up with both blogs in the meantime.

My Latest Project

My most recent accomplishment is my Project COACH artifact collection. Some of the schools are not even having to do all this paperwork, or so I've heard. And most of the teachers at my school did not do such an in-depth one. Heck, one of the teachers I work with is retiring and so she didn't do anything at all. I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to work so I'll peel back the layers of what mine consists of.

First I had to gather and sort tons of paper. I work best spread out all over the floor.

This is the final product. There are six domains. I put each one in its own binder.

Each domain has several indicators. This is Domain IV: Monitoring, Assessment, & Follow-up. There are 7 indicators in this domain. I had a section for each indicator. This indicator is Analysis.

For each indicator I put in several artifacts to document that I meet the performance standard. This is my math topic assessment recording sheet.
So there are 33 indicators with roughly 3-6 artifacts for each one. This is what has been driving me crazy lately.
The good news is I had my year-end summative review and I passed. Yay!!! And today was a great day with my students.

Greening

Everything is finally greening up. And there are areas of soft color where the dogwoods, redbuds, and forsythia are blooming. My azaleas have buds and are just today starting to open. Soon we will have a bright patch of pink along the front walk.

I feel like I've hit a brick wall. I should take a "mental health" day, but I just keep plowing on. I get done with one thing and along comes something else. Sometimes I get a strong urge to just leave. I wonder if everyone else feels that way or if I'm odd. On the way to work, I sometimes think I would just like to keep driving west as far as possible, as long as possible. No more deadlines. No more responsibilities. Why west? I'm rambling....

Sunday Lunch

We met S in Atlanta for lunch. I thought the restaurants would be packed with the after-church crowd and the Final Four folks. However, it was pretty empty so we didn't have to wait and didn't feel rushed to get out. You know S can't resist getting in front  of a camera, so here are some shots from our much too quick visit.

So grown up

With Mom and Dad

We met the boyfriend. Nice, polite. Seems like a good kid.

Smiles

M's braces came off today. She doesn't seem thrilled. Just another day. I remember when S got her braces off (after 3 years, a lost permanent tooth, and a 2 1/2 hour oral surgery under anesthesia) she wouldn't even smile. She thought her teeth looked too big.

Mr. C asked if he could get braces now. He said it could be his birthday present. I told him: No, it's not a birthday present, it's parenting. Geesh! But he definitely needs to get something done soon.

Speaking of birthdays....