I Am Job...

Literally the day after we got back from our Northwestern road trip, where we visited friends and family, I was placed at a school site in East Palo Alto or Ravenswood City School District. Oh, and in this school district we are not Special Education Teachers, but Teachers of Integrated Services. Their entire school district has all their students with IEP's (Individualized Education Plans) placed in general education classrooms. So most of their teachers, who would be Special Education teachers are Resource Specialist in a big way. I like to call myself an Inclusion Specialist. All these fancy long names still haven't solved the chaos that is Ravenswood and its Special education department. But, literally, the only way is up and I know my hard work and perseverance will make a difference.
At times I feel completely paralyzed in the paperwork and ritualized process that is supposed to be helping our students with special needs. What I call the "real" part of the job, or actually teaching them, planning out what they need according to their IEP's, is basically put on the back burner. We are scrambling to catch up with "past due's," pending IEP's and angry parents.
What I would love is someone to deal with the paper trail, basically a secretary, so I can really start implementing the crap out of all those IEP's. I have about 18 students and each one has a different IEP. Each one needs something different and we have been in school 4 weeks and I still don't feel like I'm where I need to be.
The cool part of my job is the school I am a part of and that I get to work with Kindergartners to 6th graders. And my supervisor is a ball-buster, so I'm hoping we can clean things up, so everything runs well year after year.

Batman

Don't have a good healthcare plan?
Better not mess with Batman

Did you pay for that flan?
Better not lie to Batman

Beaten up, thrown in the can?
Prolly cause of Batman

Too much sun, bad tan?
Nothing to do with Batman

Oregon and Washington Road Trip

A gorge somewhere in Oregon.


The Seattle Amphibious tour. Drive through the streets and then into the bay! Cool!!! Children equipped with quakers for the duration = not cool!!!


Portland beer Festival - good beer, good people.


Mount St Helens - Mr Chris wet himself in excitment. He is still sitting in his pee pee pants.


A tourist trap disguised as a tree!


Crater lake!


We have arrived.

Childrens Art - Levitating Helmet Christy

The Sweet with the Sour

Now that I'm teaching for profit, it is officially my first "real" teaching job and it is in East Palo Alto. Putting out fires is part of the job and let me tell you there are a lot of fires. But the pictures included here are from the breath of fresh air I earned this summer vacation.
The first picture is blackmail. Just kidding - it's my cousins and one cousin-in-law. From left to right there is Keri, Bri-guy, me and Mel. I made sure to visit Chico to see my family there plus my friend, Beth with her new baby, Maia.

There they are! Maia, being the incredibly cute baby that she is, had the most beautiful smile, but when I tried to capture it on film she would get the surprised look pictured here.

We enjoyed our time in Tahoe and had a visit from my school friends, Megan and the love of her life, York and Amy. We also got some more visits from Trebeca with her little girls, Talia and Taylor. We also had dinner at their new HOME in Dayton, Nevada! So cool - go Trebeca and Jesse!

And this is Chris in his sun hat on the deck at the Cabin doing one of his two favorite things in Tahoe: Reading on the deck or going hiking.

At the moment we are a two-income family and proud of it. But it doesn't come without the occasional headache, like how SFSU's computer registration system doesn't think I am a student any more because I got a Master's in May. Yeah, that's great (please note the sarcasm). For those of you who haven't been "in the loop" I have to remain a teacher credentialing student in order to complete my special education credential and earn my Level 2's. Joy to the world, is all I have to say. It's not like my new job is without stress. Well, it definitely is without resources, but I'm sure I'll have more to say about that later. Cheers!