My last few days

So yesterday and today have been pretty intense for me. It all relates to work.

Yesterday we had a district meeting with all 7th and 8th grade english teachers. We had to sit down by grade level and decide which of our state standards were the most important to us and we thought we needed to hit more heavily than others. Now there are only 4 people per grade level in our district that teach these classes. So you'd think it would be easy for us to come to a consensus. Ummm, no. The way my building attacked them was completely different that then way the other middle school attacked them. And then it made people attack each other. No one wanted to compromise. No one wanted to see the other person's point of view. I spent 3 hours trying to play mediator between 3 women. It was awful. I had a horrible headache when I left. And I felt like we got very little accomplished. We're meeting again on the 22nd to rehash the details. UGH. As I desribed it to one co-worker when I got back to school, "It was like a hostage negotiation. Except I was the hostage, negotiating for my own freedom!"

I spent today in our first district negotiation meeting. While I can't talk about what we actually discussed (we all agree to keep what happens behind closed doors confidential) it was another intense day. I was fortunately able to get up from the table and leave for an hour and a half to go to the doctor. When I came back, things were still heated and points of view were clashing. We decided to break and have lunch and were able to come back to the table with a reasonable solution and actually came to a conclusion within an hour of returning. I should point out that it took almost an entire day to hash out one thing that we both wanted. CRAZY! We were able to get through several other small issues in the afternoon and ended the day at 3:30. We pick up where we left off on Monday. I learned A LOT today and I am really glad that I decided to participate in this process. As the day progressed I felt less intimidated and started talking in the group. It was nice. I felt respected and valued.

I don't really want to talk too much about the doctor, but things went well today and while I'm physically uncomfortable, I'm hoping that it's a good sign that there are multiple eggs floating around in there. Now it's time for the fun part....te-he! Kendall has been sick all week with an upper respiratory thing. He's getting antibiotics today and I'm really hoping that I don't get it. But 's going around.......

I'm really glad tomorrow is Friday. Even though I have to write up another set of lesson plans for Monday....and then Thursday! It's so crazy! I think February is going to fly by at the rate! Which is good. Only 79 more school days til summer vacation!!!!!!!!!