Sunday, January 29, 2012
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Faking My Way (Day 2): I'm a Minority
In the world of superintendents, I'm a minority: female and under 40. If I had a less Caucasian heritage, I could be even more minor. But the thing I learned tonight, that made me one of the greatest minorities in the room, is my tattoo. Or more correctly, tattoos.
I have two large tattoos. One down my left thigh and one across my lower back, side to side, hip to hip. I'll skip the commonly known name for it, but I'm sure you have it figured out. I love my tats. They weren't drunken mistakes. They are well thought out expressions of myself, things a like, how I want my world to look. I do plan on getting more, but I try to pace myself. I don't want to be covered.
I did receive a great compliment tonight during the conversation about tattoos. A fellow superintendent, who I had just met this evening, said she wasn't surprised at all I had tattoos. She said she could tell just by meeting me that I am an independent woman who does things my way. I know how to fit inside the box of expectations and accepted norms, but I push the boundaries and live as I see fit... I like that. That is a very high compliment.
I have two large tattoos. One down my left thigh and one across my lower back, side to side, hip to hip. I'll skip the commonly known name for it, but I'm sure you have it figured out. I love my tats. They weren't drunken mistakes. They are well thought out expressions of myself, things a like, how I want my world to look. I do plan on getting more, but I try to pace myself. I don't want to be covered.
I did receive a great compliment tonight during the conversation about tattoos. A fellow superintendent, who I had just met this evening, said she wasn't surprised at all I had tattoos. She said she could tell just by meeting me that I am an independent woman who does things my way. I know how to fit inside the box of expectations and accepted norms, but I push the boundaries and live as I see fit... I like that. That is a very high compliment.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Faking My Way (Day 1): A Sea of Black and Gray
My role in my career has many new experiences for me. As a teacher, I'm in my classroom. I'm planning my lessons. I'm interacting with my kids. And when I got to a professional development conference, I sit; I listen; I go home and try out a couple of new ideas I learned.
As an administrator, professional conferences involve networking. Lots of networking. It seems to be a requirement of the job that no one told me about until I got hired. So here I am at a superintendents' conference. Completely lost and trying hard to look professional and competent.
First quandary, how do I pack for a superintendents' event? California teachers are notoriously casual. Heck all of California is casual. Go to a fancy restaurant and I bet at least half the people will be in jeans and t-shirts. But superintendents are CEOs of school districts. How dressy is that? So I packed business attire and jeans... and a dress for tonight reception. I asked the registrar how formal tonight's dinner reception is. His response, "Oh you'll see all kinds. Some people will be in business dress, but some are in jeans too. This is California." Helpful.
First observation, I'm the only khaki in a sea of black and gray. I didn't take into account the business color code. So yes, I'm dress appropriately. But I am in the 1% who are wearing a color. The grand ballroom luncheon is black, black, black, black, gray, gray, black, pop-of-orange, gray, black, gray, gray, olive green, black, black, black, gray, cotton candy pink.... and so on.
(Much later that night)
Now I know what I should pack and wear to the conference as well as the dinner reception. The conference is easy: black. I could probably get away with jeans and cardigan as long as they were black.
As for the dinner, note for next year, not formal. I decided to wear the dress I packed for two reasons 1) I was obviously a little underdressed for the conference and 2) it's my favorite dress; I never get to wear it, so why not. At the dinner event, I was certainly in the 1% of the dressiest dressed people there. In any city not in California, I would have been on the shabby end of the scale. Here, very dressy. I didn't factor in the spouses of the other superintendents who had been out shopping, golfing, and sight seeing all day. I think most of them came to dinner in California vacation mode. Ah well. Next year I'll know.
The dinner reception itself will turn out to be the highlight of the conference for me, I'm sure. It was a private event held at the aquarium. I've been going to the aquarium for 30 years, but never like this. Beautiful. After a reasonably tasty dinner, I wandered the exhibits freely enjoying all the creatures I usually have to squeeze, crane, and dodge pint-sized visitors to catch a glimpse.
I'm posting pictures of some of my favorites.
As an administrator, professional conferences involve networking. Lots of networking. It seems to be a requirement of the job that no one told me about until I got hired. So here I am at a superintendents' conference. Completely lost and trying hard to look professional and competent.
First quandary, how do I pack for a superintendents' event? California teachers are notoriously casual. Heck all of California is casual. Go to a fancy restaurant and I bet at least half the people will be in jeans and t-shirts. But superintendents are CEOs of school districts. How dressy is that? So I packed business attire and jeans... and a dress for tonight reception. I asked the registrar how formal tonight's dinner reception is. His response, "Oh you'll see all kinds. Some people will be in business dress, but some are in jeans too. This is California." Helpful.
First observation, I'm the only khaki in a sea of black and gray. I didn't take into account the business color code. So yes, I'm dress appropriately. But I am in the 1% who are wearing a color. The grand ballroom luncheon is black, black, black, black, gray, gray, black, pop-of-orange, gray, black, gray, gray, olive green, black, black, black, gray, cotton candy pink.... and so on.
(Much later that night)
Now I know what I should pack and wear to the conference as well as the dinner reception. The conference is easy: black. I could probably get away with jeans and cardigan as long as they were black.
As for the dinner, note for next year, not formal. I decided to wear the dress I packed for two reasons 1) I was obviously a little underdressed for the conference and 2) it's my favorite dress; I never get to wear it, so why not. At the dinner event, I was certainly in the 1% of the dressiest dressed people there. In any city not in California, I would have been on the shabby end of the scale. Here, very dressy. I didn't factor in the spouses of the other superintendents who had been out shopping, golfing, and sight seeing all day. I think most of them came to dinner in California vacation mode. Ah well. Next year I'll know.
The dinner reception itself will turn out to be the highlight of the conference for me, I'm sure. It was a private event held at the aquarium. I've been going to the aquarium for 30 years, but never like this. Beautiful. After a reasonably tasty dinner, I wandered the exhibits freely enjoying all the creatures I usually have to squeeze, crane, and dodge pint-sized visitors to catch a glimpse.
I'm posting pictures of some of my favorites.
A moon jellyfish... Absolutely spellbinding to watch them drift around and around.
A tiny yellow seahorse.
Not sure of his official name, but I called him a horned eel.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
What a week!
So let me give the break down of this week...
Sunday: Came home from three day conference.
Monday: Had the day off of work in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. By 8:00 p.m. my son was volatile-ly sick. The bathroom was disgusting. But since he was sick until some time past midnight it didn't seem necessary to clean up until it was all past.
Tuesday: Went to work with the plan to come home early since my son (The Boy) was still pretty sick. Just as I was leaving work, I got a call from The Boy that a pipe had busted outside and water was flooding the front yard. The details of that adventure are in a previous post.
Wednesday: The plumber called in sick, so still no water. Still no clean up of The Boy's bathroom, and dishes piling high around the kitchen sink.
Thursday: The plumber finally made it to the house. The problem had been a cracked coupling on the outside faucet. It took the plumber only about fifteen minutes to fix it. Yay! Water again. I did some quick clean up of the bathroom, did the dishes, took a shower... Hard to say how wonderful running water is until it's off for a while. I really do love brushing my teeth, washing my hands, flushing toilets with ease and without a thought as to the logistics of it all.
I headed off to a long evening at work. I had a Board meeting scheduled with several important topics for discussion. By 3:30 I wasn't feeling so well. I was queasy, hadn't eaten since breakfast and food sounded awful. My secretary asked what I wanted to do. I insisted I wanted to stick it out. I didn't want to postpone the Board meeting. In an hour, I knew it wasn't going to happen. I couldn't possibly survive until 9:00 or later what the meeting wrapped up and drive home. I caved. Called the meeting off. Drove home and curled up in bed for the next 36 hours.
Friday: No work. Too sick. No eating. Too sick. Mostly slept. But thank heavens I had running water.
Saturday: So far so good. I'm up out of bed. Sitting in my livingroom catching up on my plan to blog. I've had an egg and toast and it's sitting pretty good in my stomach. I've had water... fresh running water.
Sunday: Came home from three day conference.
Monday: Had the day off of work in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. By 8:00 p.m. my son was volatile-ly sick. The bathroom was disgusting. But since he was sick until some time past midnight it didn't seem necessary to clean up until it was all past.
Tuesday: Went to work with the plan to come home early since my son (The Boy) was still pretty sick. Just as I was leaving work, I got a call from The Boy that a pipe had busted outside and water was flooding the front yard. The details of that adventure are in a previous post.
Wednesday: The plumber called in sick, so still no water. Still no clean up of The Boy's bathroom, and dishes piling high around the kitchen sink.
Thursday: The plumber finally made it to the house. The problem had been a cracked coupling on the outside faucet. It took the plumber only about fifteen minutes to fix it. Yay! Water again. I did some quick clean up of the bathroom, did the dishes, took a shower... Hard to say how wonderful running water is until it's off for a while. I really do love brushing my teeth, washing my hands, flushing toilets with ease and without a thought as to the logistics of it all.
I headed off to a long evening at work. I had a Board meeting scheduled with several important topics for discussion. By 3:30 I wasn't feeling so well. I was queasy, hadn't eaten since breakfast and food sounded awful. My secretary asked what I wanted to do. I insisted I wanted to stick it out. I didn't want to postpone the Board meeting. In an hour, I knew it wasn't going to happen. I couldn't possibly survive until 9:00 or later what the meeting wrapped up and drive home. I caved. Called the meeting off. Drove home and curled up in bed for the next 36 hours.
Friday: No work. Too sick. No eating. Too sick. Mostly slept. But thank heavens I had running water.
Saturday: So far so good. I'm up out of bed. Sitting in my livingroom catching up on my plan to blog. I've had an egg and toast and it's sitting pretty good in my stomach. I've had water... fresh running water.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Frozen Adventures Continue
This vicious flu has spread. Now the plumber has it. The business office called this morning to postponed my emergency repair order. Not terrible. I know accidents like pipes breaking happen. I don't get my feathers ruffled over little thing like that. But we are still living off of 5-gallon water jugs for hand washing and teeth brushing, and buckets of water from the neighbors' to flush the toilet. I'm really starting to miss indoor plumbing.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Frozen Adventures
My son stayed home sick from school today. Last night he was violently ill with a fast on-set stomach flu. He vomited for hours. Nothing stayed in, not even water. As fortune would have it, this was actually a good thing.
When I left for work this morning (and yes, I had to go to work, today was payroll day, I didn't want angry employees when they didn't get paychecks on the next pay day), it was 20 degrees. The overnight low was 18. I'm sure there are places in the US where 18 doesn't sound like a big deal. Here in "sunny" California 18 is darn cold. We see maybe one night a year that reaches the teens.
A few hours later, my son called. A water pipe had broken. He was standing in the kitchen and heard gushing water. The front walk was flooded. The neighbor's adjoining yard was flooded. The flowerbeds were flooded. As far as broken water pipes go, this one was pretty lucky. It was an outside pipe, so I'm pretty sure nothing in the house was damaged. Even if there is some damage, the pipe is attached to the garage so nothing to the main living structure. Plus, the Cool Whip on top of what could have been a very bad situation, my son was home sick to catch the problem and alert me.
I am not a do-it-yourself whiz. We managed through a series of phone calls to get someone to talk my son through shutting off the main line to the house. The plumber is called. The water has subsided in the yard. Hopefully my water bill won't be too terrible. It was only a couple of hours from break to shut-off. As a whole, not too bad for a minor home-ownership emergency.
When I left for work this morning (and yes, I had to go to work, today was payroll day, I didn't want angry employees when they didn't get paychecks on the next pay day), it was 20 degrees. The overnight low was 18. I'm sure there are places in the US where 18 doesn't sound like a big deal. Here in "sunny" California 18 is darn cold. We see maybe one night a year that reaches the teens.
A few hours later, my son called. A water pipe had broken. He was standing in the kitchen and heard gushing water. The front walk was flooded. The neighbor's adjoining yard was flooded. The flowerbeds were flooded. As far as broken water pipes go, this one was pretty lucky. It was an outside pipe, so I'm pretty sure nothing in the house was damaged. Even if there is some damage, the pipe is attached to the garage so nothing to the main living structure. Plus, the Cool Whip on top of what could have been a very bad situation, my son was home sick to catch the problem and alert me.
I am not a do-it-yourself whiz. We managed through a series of phone calls to get someone to talk my son through shutting off the main line to the house. The plumber is called. The water has subsided in the yard. Hopefully my water bill won't be too terrible. It was only a couple of hours from break to shut-off. As a whole, not too bad for a minor home-ownership emergency.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Career Trajectory
Thirteen years ago, I was a newly credentialed elementary school teacher. I was hired at a tiny, rural school about 60 miles from home. I thought it would be a starting point, a place to get some experience. My original plan was to spend about three or four years there, then get hired at a school in a town closer to home.
In those four years, the local job market for teachers turned. Schools were laying off dozens of teachers a year. New employees were spending years on temporary status. But where I was I was already permanent. I was the second most senior teacher. I knew the children. I knew the families. I was happy where I was. So there I stayed. Over the years I taught most all of the grade levels. I was a new teacher mentor. I conducted program reviews, advised student group, directed student and community events, sat on hiring committees, and many more responsibilities which made me feel involved in the entire functioning of the school. I felt I had a voice, made a difference, and that my students needed me.
Three years ago an opportunity to take on more of a leadership role became available to me. I was selected for the position of teacher-in-charge. My district only had a part time administrator. So for me, teacher-in-charge meant running staff meetings, planning and directing school functions, dealing with most of the student discipline, overseeing staff and reporting to the administrator, and most of the responsibilities of a principal.
Surprising to me, I actually enjoyed my new duties. Like many teachers, I used to say I didn't ever want the responsibilities of an administrator. I loved being in the classroom. But after ten years, the classroom was less of a challenge for me. Now, I was being challenged, learning new tasks, viewing education from a different perspective. It was all fascinating to me. This seemed like a fortuitous event. When a couple of months later a friend said we should get our Master's degrees together, it seemed to be the direction the sign was pointing.
Everything fell into place. I was accepted to the university. My financial aid came through. My appointment to teacher-in-charge was continued for another year. For the next twelve months I juggled my teaching, my quasi-administrative role, my Master's degree classes, my family, and a few other personal life changes that I didn't even have time to deal with properly. In retrospect, I don't remember much from that year. I remember my university classes. That's about all.
My career trajectory soared over the past few years. Here I am, a year and a half later, Superintendent of my district.
In those four years, the local job market for teachers turned. Schools were laying off dozens of teachers a year. New employees were spending years on temporary status. But where I was I was already permanent. I was the second most senior teacher. I knew the children. I knew the families. I was happy where I was. So there I stayed. Over the years I taught most all of the grade levels. I was a new teacher mentor. I conducted program reviews, advised student group, directed student and community events, sat on hiring committees, and many more responsibilities which made me feel involved in the entire functioning of the school. I felt I had a voice, made a difference, and that my students needed me.
Three years ago an opportunity to take on more of a leadership role became available to me. I was selected for the position of teacher-in-charge. My district only had a part time administrator. So for me, teacher-in-charge meant running staff meetings, planning and directing school functions, dealing with most of the student discipline, overseeing staff and reporting to the administrator, and most of the responsibilities of a principal.
Surprising to me, I actually enjoyed my new duties. Like many teachers, I used to say I didn't ever want the responsibilities of an administrator. I loved being in the classroom. But after ten years, the classroom was less of a challenge for me. Now, I was being challenged, learning new tasks, viewing education from a different perspective. It was all fascinating to me. This seemed like a fortuitous event. When a couple of months later a friend said we should get our Master's degrees together, it seemed to be the direction the sign was pointing.
Everything fell into place. I was accepted to the university. My financial aid came through. My appointment to teacher-in-charge was continued for another year. For the next twelve months I juggled my teaching, my quasi-administrative role, my Master's degree classes, my family, and a few other personal life changes that I didn't even have time to deal with properly. In retrospect, I don't remember much from that year. I remember my university classes. That's about all.
My career trajectory soared over the past few years. Here I am, a year and a half later, Superintendent of my district.
Searching for a focus
One of my struggles with starting this blog is finding a focus about which to write. Beginning this process, I know I am using it more as a journal. I doubt many will want to read my daily diary of every day life. I have too many ideas. This is a common problem of many fledgling writers. Do I want it to be completely personal? Do I want to write about my struggle to lose weight? Do I want to journal about my career and the challenges faced every day in California schools? I kind of want to talk about all of it. Meld it all together. Make this is exercise in writing more than a statement to the world. At least for now...
As I mentioned, my weight has been an issue my whole life. I was a slightly chubby child and teenager. Then as I have aged, pounds seem to creep on. Creep is a good word, because it really is insidious. Last year, I decided to lose weight. I set my goal at losing 35 pounds. I didn't give myself a deadline to accomplish this by, just as long as it took until the 35 pounds was gone. Well, now it is 13 months later, and I am essentially at the same place I was when I started. I was down 14 pounds last spring. Then vacations, new job, holidays.... I just dropped my vigilance. *heavy sigh*
Well, now it's a new day, a new year, and a new determination to work on those 35 pounds again. This is where the blog comes in for me. I have willpower most of the day. Especially on work days, it's not too hard to stick with my meal plan. But on weekends and evenings, when I am home and comfy and less busy, I have a much harder time fighting my cravings. So, I need a hobby. Something to take my time instead of baking brownies. Maybe now, I will sit home in the evenings, sip tea and write. It's a thought.
As I mentioned, my weight has been an issue my whole life. I was a slightly chubby child and teenager. Then as I have aged, pounds seem to creep on. Creep is a good word, because it really is insidious. Last year, I decided to lose weight. I set my goal at losing 35 pounds. I didn't give myself a deadline to accomplish this by, just as long as it took until the 35 pounds was gone. Well, now it is 13 months later, and I am essentially at the same place I was when I started. I was down 14 pounds last spring. Then vacations, new job, holidays.... I just dropped my vigilance. *heavy sigh*
Well, now it's a new day, a new year, and a new determination to work on those 35 pounds again. This is where the blog comes in for me. I have willpower most of the day. Especially on work days, it's not too hard to stick with my meal plan. But on weekends and evenings, when I am home and comfy and less busy, I have a much harder time fighting my cravings. So, I need a hobby. Something to take my time instead of baking brownies. Maybe now, I will sit home in the evenings, sip tea and write. It's a thought.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Finding me on the web
In the spirit of trying something new, I decided to try my skills at blogging. 2012 promises to hold some big changes in my life; changes I will explore more in the future. But as this mist of the unknown looms down the road a bit, I've had the desire to stretch my interests into new explorations, new hobbies, new mini-adventures. I think I need to challenge myself in my personal life. I have spent several years now challenging my professional life, but have stagnated in the other 128 hours of the week.
I returned home this evening from a professional conference. One of the presenters made a comment long the lines of, "If I can't find you on the web, you are behind the times." Considering I am supposed to be leading the future, being behind the times is distinctly an insult... or problem. And it's my job to solve problems. Until this conference this weekend, I had never really considered blogging. Do I have anything to say? Does anyone want to hear what I do say? What if it is unfocused and all over the place? Is that a bad blog?
Questions, fears, and insecurities aside, here we go. Blog number one. Now you can find me on the web.
I returned home this evening from a professional conference. One of the presenters made a comment long the lines of, "If I can't find you on the web, you are behind the times." Considering I am supposed to be leading the future, being behind the times is distinctly an insult... or problem. And it's my job to solve problems. Until this conference this weekend, I had never really considered blogging. Do I have anything to say? Does anyone want to hear what I do say? What if it is unfocused and all over the place? Is that a bad blog?
Questions, fears, and insecurities aside, here we go. Blog number one. Now you can find me on the web.
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