kittens and jobs and things
I think I mentioned previously that there are a ton of feral cats that live around the neighborhood, mostly in or behind people's backyards. Well tonight, as Brad was making dinner, we hear some mewing that definitely sounded like it was coming from a kitten. We couldn't really see out the kitchen windows to the ground, so I opened the front door to look outside, and there was a mama cat and her kitten heading towards the end of the driveway. Mama cat clearly wanted to cross the street, but kitten was scared and would take a couple steps after mama and then turn around and head back towards the house again. This went on for several minutes, with me nearly having a heart attack every time a car would come down the street. Between the cars and people walking on the sidewalk and lots of noise in general, mama cat at one point ran across the street, leaving kitten behind. The first time she did this, she just stayed on a neighbor's driveway for a bit before coming back for the kitten, but then she ran off again, this time going behind one of the neighbor's houses to where we could no longer see here.
Kitten, by this point, was hiding under my car, mewing pitifully. We waited a few minutes for mama cat to come back, but when she didn't, Brad suggested I put a saucer of milk out for the kitten, where the mama could still see it, and see if she came back. I put the milk on the bottom front step and waited up by the door to see what would happen. The kitten very timidly made its way out from under my car, only to hide under the downstairs neighbors' car. It then made its way over to the little low wall that separates the driveway from the walkway to the backyard. Cutest thing ever, watching it try to jump onto the wall, which is mayyyyybe 10 inches high, if that. But the kitten did make it and then scurried down the path toward the backyard, stopping to dart behind the garbage and recycling bins and hide there and mew some more. I moved the saucer of milk to the pathway and went back to the patio so I wouldn't scare the kitten more. Fortunately at that point, I saw mama cat behind my car on the driveway. I told her that her baby was over on the side of the house (because she could totally understand me, duh), but stayed where I was. She headed in that direction in a path that kept her well away from me, and knowing that mama and kitten were at least on the same side of the street again, I went back inside. I went out to retrieve the saucer a little bit later, and didn't hear any mewing, so hopefully they are reunited and safe somewhere away from the street. I am a total softie, and definitely would not have been able to go back in if I didn't know mama had come back for her baby. :p
So, neighborhood wildlife aside, today was our allocations meeting for work. I've never gotten to participate in one of these before because only permanent staff are allowed to, but they're basically the meetings in which everyone determines what schools they will have for the following year. This is done by seniority now (apparently it wasn't always but some people complained), which meant that I was the second to last person to have a say. We went around the room once and everyone said which schools they were dropping, and then after our boss reviewed which schools were available, we went around again and everyone got to pick up schools. A few people just kept their schools exactly the same, but there was a lot of dealing and wheedling and crunching of numbers going on from the people who were dropping and picking up schools. Whereas, since I knew I'd basically end up with whatever was left, I just sat there not worrying about it, because what was I going to do? I'd dropped the two schools I was willing to drop, so whatever ones I picked up would be whatever they were and that was that. The whole thing took forever and was pretty ridiculous, but I am pretty happy with what I got. I'll have a high school next year, which will be a new experience for me; I've only had elementary schools up till now. (I did briefly have a middle school, but that was for all of 3 months, so it doesn't really count.) Plus, the high school is literally right next door to one of my elementary schools, so that's super convenient. The psych who had that school this year told me that I have to dress up to distinguish myself from the students, lol. She's probably right, especially with as short as I am, because I can pretty much guarantee that I'd get mistaken for a student.
I'm looking forward to the challenges of learning my role with a high school. I've also set a few goals for myself for next year. The most important one is that I want to be better about sharing feedback about assessments with the students themselves. Of course, some of the kids I work with, like the ones with intellectual disabilities, wouldn't be able to understand or appreciate the information, but the kids who are stronger cognitively would. Currently, I often get caught up in writing the reports and getting ready to test the next student, etc., and then I forget to go back and talk to the kid about what the testing meant and what I found out. But I know that information is important for them to hear, especially so they can begin to advocate for themselves as learners and be able to recognize their own strengths and needs in school. So that's my big goal; the other is much less profound, but I want to try to use less paper in the job next year. I know at least one way that I could cut down and make things digital, and I'll see what else I can figure out. Seriously, the amount of paper that gets wasted in education is a little obscene.
Tomorrow I've got a meeting of the new book club I joined. The book we read this month was okay, but not amazing. I also finally finished Phantoms in the Brain, a book by a neurologist about various often-unexamined phenomena like phantom limbs. It was fascinating in a totally nerdy way, but it took me awhile to get through it. Now I'm reading The Painter from Shanghai, which Becca lent me awhile ago, and it's pretty good so far. Still have another one she lent me, as well as a pile of 10 other books on my shelf waiting to be read. I'm hoping to get through a bunch of them this summer.
Oof, and now it's almost 10. Time to go make my lunch for tomorrow and get ready for bed. Night, all!
Kitten, by this point, was hiding under my car, mewing pitifully. We waited a few minutes for mama cat to come back, but when she didn't, Brad suggested I put a saucer of milk out for the kitten, where the mama could still see it, and see if she came back. I put the milk on the bottom front step and waited up by the door to see what would happen. The kitten very timidly made its way out from under my car, only to hide under the downstairs neighbors' car. It then made its way over to the little low wall that separates the driveway from the walkway to the backyard. Cutest thing ever, watching it try to jump onto the wall, which is mayyyyybe 10 inches high, if that. But the kitten did make it and then scurried down the path toward the backyard, stopping to dart behind the garbage and recycling bins and hide there and mew some more. I moved the saucer of milk to the pathway and went back to the patio so I wouldn't scare the kitten more. Fortunately at that point, I saw mama cat behind my car on the driveway. I told her that her baby was over on the side of the house (because she could totally understand me, duh), but stayed where I was. She headed in that direction in a path that kept her well away from me, and knowing that mama and kitten were at least on the same side of the street again, I went back inside. I went out to retrieve the saucer a little bit later, and didn't hear any mewing, so hopefully they are reunited and safe somewhere away from the street. I am a total softie, and definitely would not have been able to go back in if I didn't know mama had come back for her baby. :p
So, neighborhood wildlife aside, today was our allocations meeting for work. I've never gotten to participate in one of these before because only permanent staff are allowed to, but they're basically the meetings in which everyone determines what schools they will have for the following year. This is done by seniority now (apparently it wasn't always but some people complained), which meant that I was the second to last person to have a say. We went around the room once and everyone said which schools they were dropping, and then after our boss reviewed which schools were available, we went around again and everyone got to pick up schools. A few people just kept their schools exactly the same, but there was a lot of dealing and wheedling and crunching of numbers going on from the people who were dropping and picking up schools. Whereas, since I knew I'd basically end up with whatever was left, I just sat there not worrying about it, because what was I going to do? I'd dropped the two schools I was willing to drop, so whatever ones I picked up would be whatever they were and that was that. The whole thing took forever and was pretty ridiculous, but I am pretty happy with what I got. I'll have a high school next year, which will be a new experience for me; I've only had elementary schools up till now. (I did briefly have a middle school, but that was for all of 3 months, so it doesn't really count.) Plus, the high school is literally right next door to one of my elementary schools, so that's super convenient. The psych who had that school this year told me that I have to dress up to distinguish myself from the students, lol. She's probably right, especially with as short as I am, because I can pretty much guarantee that I'd get mistaken for a student.
I'm looking forward to the challenges of learning my role with a high school. I've also set a few goals for myself for next year. The most important one is that I want to be better about sharing feedback about assessments with the students themselves. Of course, some of the kids I work with, like the ones with intellectual disabilities, wouldn't be able to understand or appreciate the information, but the kids who are stronger cognitively would. Currently, I often get caught up in writing the reports and getting ready to test the next student, etc., and then I forget to go back and talk to the kid about what the testing meant and what I found out. But I know that information is important for them to hear, especially so they can begin to advocate for themselves as learners and be able to recognize their own strengths and needs in school. So that's my big goal; the other is much less profound, but I want to try to use less paper in the job next year. I know at least one way that I could cut down and make things digital, and I'll see what else I can figure out. Seriously, the amount of paper that gets wasted in education is a little obscene.
Tomorrow I've got a meeting of the new book club I joined. The book we read this month was okay, but not amazing. I also finally finished Phantoms in the Brain, a book by a neurologist about various often-unexamined phenomena like phantom limbs. It was fascinating in a totally nerdy way, but it took me awhile to get through it. Now I'm reading The Painter from Shanghai, which Becca lent me awhile ago, and it's pretty good so far. Still have another one she lent me, as well as a pile of 10 other books on my shelf waiting to be read. I'm hoping to get through a bunch of them this summer.
Oof, and now it's almost 10. Time to go make my lunch for tomorrow and get ready for bed. Night, all!