Work and Wednesdays

        I don’t generally work on Wednesdays as it has been set aside for meeting with the RS presidency.  They used to meet on Mondays but I had asked if we could change the day as Mondays are generally the most requested days off and I can pick up sub assignments more easily than any other day.

          Wednesdays are short days.  I don’t particularly care for short days.  Normally I leave the school a half an hour to an hour before the students let out, but on Wednesdays the kids get out of school at the same time as the aides – which makes for craziness in the parking lot and then driving home.  At least for two of the schools.  I have never worked the others on a Wednesday and guess I never will – at least for the time being.

          Our meetings are usually at 10:00 – sometimes 1:00.  Two weeks ago it was announced that we’d be bumping the meeting up to 3:00 yesterday.  Thus I removed myself from having a personal day as I believe I would be able to work.  Canyonville had a position from 8:30 to 2:00 – which means I would arrive home before the children were let out.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the RS pres told me the time I had changed back to 10:00 and I hadn’t yet even seen the listing for Canyonville.  Thus I did not accept.

          On Tuesday night I noticed an available position at Coffenberry and inquired about accepting the position.  They’ve had me come in at 8:00 to 10:00 before and then I just drive up to the church from there as it is close enough to be within walking distance (in fact Jenna would walk to the church after school let out every second Wednesday of the month).  I met with the presidency and returned to Coffenberry after the meeting.  How many other schools would allow me to take time off for a meeting. 

          I missed the student lunch – which – in my opinion is the most necessary reason for the aide’s purpose.  But I suppose that some covered hours are better than no covered hours.  It somehow feels the permanent aide positions have been harder to fill this year than the subs. I often feel like I am the only aide to sub for the middle schoolers.  I had seen others in 2019 but have not seen many 2020 and know that there have been many days when the schools have gone without.

          Back to Canyonville today.  At least I don’t feel like I’m in a trance this morning.  At least not yet.  I definitely need to change my eating habits so that I can feel more alert and not like a zombie – though I did feel more productive yesterday than on Tuesday.  My trance had not started until Roland and I went up to Roseburg.  On the return, it was all I could do to stay awake.  It was only 6:00.  Time for some wake-up juice and more vegetables. 

Holidays and Brain Out

          Valentines Day is a non-Federal holiday full of traditions and legends which may or may not be true.  There were at least two, perhaps three, patron saints who bore the name St. Valentine.  Their lives ended in tragic massacres; perhaps it was the way they lived that got the Valentine’s celebration started.  There are many websites to choose from when “Valentines” is the subject entered into a search engine such as Google.  I have never been much into the Valentine spirit.  The concept behind Valentine’s Day seems noble enough, but the commercialism is what keeps the holiday alive and I could do without that.  No one gets off of work or school in honor of Valentines.

https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day

           President’s Day was created in honor of George Washington, first president of the United States.  President’s Day was initially established on February 22, 1885 in honor of his birthday.  President's Day is a Federal holiday - which means most governement businesses, banks, and schools are closed on Presidents day.  In 1971 the date was changed to the third Monday in February.  This was done as part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act (see here) 

https://www.thebaynet.com/articles/0219/calvert-county-presidents-day-schedule-.html 

I had accepted an assignment that put me with kindergartners and first graders on Valentine’s Day.  The first graders surprised the aides when we were invited to play a trivia game to test our knowledge of George Washington.  Each time we answered correctly, we would get a point.  If we answered wrong, the children would get the points.  I thought it fairly easy as all of the questions had multiple choice – though I either hadn’t been aware or agreed with the answers as being correct – like the cherry tree incident I learned to be a myth.  Or that his teeth were not made out of wood but ivory – however ivory was not one of the listed choices.

I don’t remember how many questions there were.  Two of us answered all of our questions correctly.  One answered a couple incorrectly and one I think got only one right.  The aides won.  Later on that day I helped set up for the Valentine party.  I passed out the punch.

We had a three day weekend and did not return to school until today.  I had picked up an assignment to work today as well as Thursday and Friday.  I had accepted the assignment yesterday.  Oh my word, I was soooooooo sleepy.  The fact that I was sitting in a middle school math class was not helping in the least.

A snail travels 0.029 miles in an hour.  How much will he travel in 10 minutes?

saved from Emma Portel Pinterest file

Way too early for my brain to convert anything.  So glad NOT to be a student today.  The second class was more of the X Y chart but now introducing Z.  My brain hurt.  The instructor played this YouTube video.

Next was a prep class.  The instructor wrote a paragraph about a blizzard in the “maintain” and some other misspelled word – no punctuation.  I didn’t know if it was intentional so that the class would correct whatever they happened to write.  But they had to have three paragraphs.  It was definitely interesting. 

Only one recess was required with the schedule I had done on Friday, but the schedule I am doing this week has me outside three different parts of the day.  Though recess is not my favorite, I do enjoy this schedule overall.  But today was fricken cold and I never did get warm or felt awake.  I think I’ll be going to bed early.

Trying to Erase or Fix the Confusion

I seem to have such a hard time waking up and staying focused – which I’m certain my readers recognized with my last post.  Perhaps I should just delete it and start over.

            In August of 2018, I had applied for a teacher’s aide position within the school district.  I had been interviewed at three of the five schools but was not hired through any of them.  Instead, I stayed on as a substitute which gave me the option of filling in for aides at all five schools.  Turned out to be a good fit as it gives me more options and flexibility.  At least it did.

            My first assignment was at the end of September.  I had accepted a position at the middle school.  It was a very positive experience and I had been grateful for the opportunity.  The next day I was filling in for somebody at one of the elementary schools.  I referred to it as my day from hell.  I was not a happy camper.

            One of the aides asked if I would ever come back.  I said I would – though it would not be my first choice.  I had filled in for another aide at that same elementary school and hated it even more.  I no longer accept positions at that elementary school.

            I was not given an opportunity to work at the other elementary until the end of October.  Out of the three schools I have been accepting positions from, this is my favorite.  I can now honestly say that I have put more hours in at this elementary school than the other two schools combined.  The two-week assignment that I had accepted in January has turned into the duration.

            I still have three more classes before I complete my online schooling.  Right now I am taking a class in public communications.  My first-week assignment was to write about a confrontation in the work situation and how I would go about handling it.  Initially, my mind had taken me in one direction than what I ended up writing about.  I briefly mentioned the fire drill and “for-real” evacuation in this post.  From that, I took the importance of having a walkie-talkie on me at all times.  As I am quite low on the totem pole, I imagined the coordinator giving the speech to me.           

            My week-two assignment was to start a speech that I will give for this week.  At first I recorded all the details that happened with the fire drill versus the real evacuation.  I only needed 400 words.  I think I had over 2,000 and so had to cut it down quite a bit and leave out all the details. I should be practicing my speech right now, but my throat has been sore.  Currently, it is raining very hard.  I think the rain is/will be louder than I am.

            It’s been raining a lot.  So often when it is raining outside, I am feeling hot inside.  That doesn’t even make sense to me and yet it really does happen.  I’ve been sleeping well.  Perhaps too well.  I find it hard to get myself up.  I think the weather must be draining me somehow.  Or maybe it’s my daily routine at the elementary school.  The time doesn’t always move as quickly as it used to.

            The internet on my computer seems to reflect my tiredness.  It comes and goes.  Mostly goes.  Spaces out while I am trying to do something – or listen to something.  The internet will “doze” or just cut out and go to sleep.  Maybe that’s what’s making me tired.  For example, I was listening to some songs on YouTube while I started this post.  The internet cut out and I am too sleepy to express anger or frustration.  I’m tired.  And my day hasn’t even started.  I may be taking a nap pretty soon.