the good, the bad, the professional

So much to blog about, so little brain power. So let's bullet point the overall picture and we'll see where I end up.

* I had an official administrative observation on Tuesday
* I had my wrap-up/evaluation today
* I am going to at least one, if not two, conventions in April
* How does one choose between cool things at work and roller derby?
* Classes at UNO have begun again
* Oh crap.
* Barack Obama sound bite on education
* Wow, my job is cool.

Now for the long version: I had one of my official observation/evaluations on Tuesday. There were about a million people in and out of my room and I felt totally off my game. The principal and the master teacher and all sorts of folks are always coming into my class, but usually just as a walk-through. I felt unprepared and disorganized and was slightly worried when Mr. G and the master teacher and whoever else was watching left about half-way through class.

But...after observations we are supposed to do a wrap-up and self-evaluation with the master teacher. And I'm not too proud to say that for the most part I got glowing reviews. (On our scoring rubric, we are aiming for 3s and the MT kept saying 4!) This mostly makes me happy because I know that it means I have a job next year at the school I want to be at working for the people I want to work for. It also helps to know that starting next year we will be working on a performance-based pay scale and glowing reviews means a sweet paycheck. I like sweet paychecks. But beside that, I like feeling appreciated. It is comforting to know that even if I can't see when I'm doing things right, someone sees it. I want to be the best. I want to take pride in what I do. This helps.

I also have to admit that it was pretty cool to hear about Mr. G's enthusiasm for my lesson. He's just the type of guy that you can't bear to disappoint. He inspires people to want to be better and that's an awesome quality to have in a principal, especially for a low-performing school such as ours.

Now I know I've made it into the "professional" world: I'm going to conferences! The charter association is paying for professional development in the form of sending teachers to conventions for various teacher-type subjects come spring time. For me that means paid room and board for two separate conferences in April, back-to-back. I'll spend four days in Boston for the 2008 CEC convention dealing with special education topics. This is the one I am most looking forward to development-wise. Dealing with my special needs kids is my biggest challenge and currently my biggest failing. The week after that I am going to Salt Lake City for an NCTM conference, Becoming Certain about Uncertainty, whatever the hell that means. It should be a good time, however, a lot of my favorite teachers are going.

Plus, two weeks away from the kids! In other cities! I like traveling for free.

On the downside, going to both conferences means that I will not make practice requirements in April in order to skate in the championship bout. This makes me very sad. But I have got to take care of work before derby. At least until the day derby starts paying.

Classes at UNO have started again. Yeah. I don't want to talk about that. It makes me want to hyperventilate and die. Which brings us to...

Oh crap.

I had something to say about Barack Obama. But I have to go grade 50 papers and update my gradebook and for that I need the last of today's allotment of brain cells. So it will have to wait.

That said: Wow. My job is cool.