End of the Year

I have been absent from blogging for quite a while; got caught up in the end of the year work for Math and then Social Studies. Even though I am out for the summer, I have continued with my “second” job, helping out the S.S. coordinator. Now I don’t mind helping the man out; in fact he is one of a few people I cannot say no to when he asks for the help; but I never know what I am getting myself into when I do say yes. And yes, the extra money does help. Friends say stop bitching because I do get paid for it, but …. need to vent over the time it took, so I am bitching away!

At the beginning of the year he came to me and asked if I would give him a hand with Social Studies as he didn’t have any school specialist personnel like the Math and Reading Departments. He said he would pay me an extra $500 a month, total $5000 for the year. I, of course, said yes, and as they say, the rest is history; except one of the powers that be decided to change the way we would get paid, so I have not yet seen what was agreed upon. Hmm, maybe this month.

Back to venting. I have spent more time on the computer than ever before. I can’t type. I hen pick! A friend did give me a typing program to learn to type, and I told myself I would do it this summer. So far, it is still in the box. I have spent the whole year writing tests, going to meetings, S.S. fairs, and now rewriting the curriculum guide. Another person working on the guides asked me not too long ago if I was aware we were going to rewrite the whole thing. No! At the time he had only mentioned Unit 1 because he was not happy with it. Not a problem. I can do that! Then we hear he wants them all done, and by the end of the month as he is going on vacation. Me, too; so for the past 2 weeks I have been rewriting the 4th Grade Social Studies framework and curriculum guide for the county.

Now as I said before, I don’t type. I can cut and paste, but I am not necessarily good with formatting; give me the format, and I can almost work with it without too many problems, but when you tell me what you want without a template, I break out in a cold sweat!

I took the old 4th Grade curriculum guide and rewrote it the way he wanted it. It was a lot of work. Now keep in mind, I was on the committee to write these last year. I was on the 5th Grade committee, and I know we did a lot of work on it. He wasn’t happy with some grades, so everything is getting redone.

Since I am out of the classroom and working in Math, I do not know the 4th Grade S.S. curriculum. I had to go through the TEs with a fine tooth comb to make sure everything he wanted was in the guide; not only the core materials, but any additional materials, too; novels, teaching guides, websites; anything extra the teachers could use. The teacher working on the 1st Grade guide emailed me recently and asked if her hours were reasonable; 40 hours for only half the units; I emailed her back, “Yes”, I put in over 70 hours for the 8 units I did.

Ok, back to my typing. I know it slows me down, but so did the formatting; bullets for this, bullets for that, margins so wide, outside boarder (how?), take out text box (how? ). I did finally get brave at one meeting and admit I was not technologically savvy. He laughed because he knows I know more about it than he does! He laughed because he is getting a Blackberry; which does everything; and he won’t have a clue as to how to use it.

I did finish the 4th Grade Social Studies guides Thursday, sent them to him Friday, am meeting with him Monday, and going on vacation Tuesday. Let’s hope nothing more needs to be done!!!!!