in the words of Willy Wonka...

We have to move on we have so much time and so little to see....(strike that, reverse it)...OK, on we go!

So the first week at a new school has come and gone. WHEW! I have to tell you that I LOVE MY KIDS, the STAFF and PARENTS! Although I left a great school with great people...this school is no comparison - it has been great. There are only 9th and 10th graders - 70% are Hispanic and I am being called "Mr." every class period, but they are so appreciative that I am there it isn't even funny; yes it is....and kinda endearing.

We have had out "new school" problems but nothing like in the past...Oh Darn, the new I-Macs that are in our rooms wont get the software to be dual platform until next week....the LCD projectors that are being installed IN THE CEILING just came in this week and wont get put up until Monday....oh well...its rough.

The week went smooth...

I spent it getting to know the kids and letting them know who I am and what i expect...that is always fun. I am already hearing my name called out when I walk through the Quad area.

Since we are an Academy (I am in the medical and education house) I thought it would be funny to get into it - so I wore my Lab Coat (given to me by a previous student),

and my Master's gown from when I graduated. Now, the staff looked at me like I was nuts...heck I am! :-) But the kids knew why i did it...and they thought it was great. I had kids today ask me where my "robe" was...they all thought of "Harry Potter" when I walked around school.

Now...I am Student Council Advisor for my "house" ...which we are in the process of naming; NHS advisor and in my spare time I am doing Staff Development for the school. This is no surprise to those that know me...I always jump in with both feet....sometimes without looking.

I also started teaching at the colleges I was hired at...three of them. Two online and one on campus. The on campus one was AWESOME! Age range was 18-50; I had the best class, the three hours went by so quick and they said it was painless. i can't wait til next week...more to come!

All in all, it was a great week and now, I have to play catch up with my life. Can't wait to see how my old friends are on the Death Star....

And we're off....

Well, it has been a while, but I am going to make it a habit of blogging atleast once a week. Summer for me is officially over - meetings, trainings and new hire paperwork are in my future for the next week, but I am excited.

I am starting at the new high school next week - bad new is the school isn't ready to move into. They said by Aug 20th we should be able to get into our classrooms; which will give us 5 days to get things ready for the first day. I am not worried, beacuse the school is beautiful - brand new, technology included and a great staff.

So, although it might not be finished, I know we're going to have a great first year. :-)

On top of that, new hire training and paperwork for the three other part-time teaching gigs I secured over the summer. All of them are with Universities in the area and most of them are teaching online classes in education and my favorite, psychology.

So, think I will be keeping myself busy for the next several months, but as I stated before, will make every effort to blog weekly.

I would like to wish my 5 readers my best going into a new school year. I look forward to keeping up with the goings ons of Palpatine and the rest of the fleet.

Is it over yet?

OK, so its been four weeks since I quit my job (for a great new one), attended a school required function (which I blogged about), completed all the requirement to be a teacher in my new home state (both college and high school...I'm now a HQT), moved, and unpacked!

I'm ready to get back to work!

I thought that being an on-line instructor would keep me busy, but I only want to reach in and smack the lil cherubs. This is supposed to be the age of technology, but I have never heard of so many excuses from seniors in high school, who can text message blind folded. Some of my favorites:

"my internet is down" (so what go to the library, or your friends)
" I couldn't find the assignment" (funny, since it is right there under the link Assignment 2)
"I didn't know that the discussions were due this thursday" (you're right I change the due dates each week to stress you out)
"I am going out of town..." (for which I responded, "good have fun, be sure to post your assignments on-time, as I am sure there is internet where you are going")


Now, don't get me wrong I love on-line instruction, but give me a classroom any day. The interaction with the students, who get my jokes, is always exciting and all though there are the excuses, I can actually give them a hard time even more f2f (face to face).

So, here I am teaching online, blogging, and doing homework for my PhD classes. I can't wait to get back into the classroom; a fresh start with University students might be just what I need to challenge me a little more.

Colloquium...

As part of a requirement for a PhD, the school I attend requires you to participate in 3 colloquia that are held in different places in the U.S. This time it was held in Arizona. It was a intellectual nightmare....Now, a little background:

My university is an accredited online institution based in Minneapolis, MN. Not many people think that "online" is a way to earn a PhD, but I have done more work in my 3 years here than in my Masters program (which was an in-class situation). This being the case, ANYONE, and i mean anyone can sign-up to take courses and get a PhD (or atleast this is my opinion after the week in Arizona). One thing that put me at ease was that, regardless of the number of people in the PhD program, the end result is what matters. Many of the learners I became friends with quickly noticed the lack of intelligence, or I should say, lack of effort many of these learners put in to the program.

The Colloquium is set up like this:
One week in Arizona with a number of 1.5 hour seminars (from 9-6) broekn into different tracks, depending on where you are in the process. I am in Track 2...one more and I am finally a doctor. The seminars are meant to supplement what you have learned in your courses and to help you apply it to developing a dissertation topic. What I found was that of the hundreds of people that attended, less then 1/2 attended the workshops - could it be beacuse there is no check in and check out procedure except to check in on day 1 and check out on the last day?

What makes me laugh is, as a teacher, I hear complaints about students not "doing what they should", are we any different? Given the opportunity will teacher (or adults in general) do the same thing? It boggles the mind.

So, I went to my seminars and even sat in them even if it was not something that I would benefit from, but did attend the "Conversations with the Dean" seminar to give my six cents! (I spoke 3 times with suggestions). For me, it was not a complete waste of time...I was able to narrow down my dissertation topic and network with three facult members that would be helpful in my writing of the document.

I can't speak for the others, but I know that the end result of this will be to see how many of the learners that are at the Colloquia will ACTUALLY earn a PhD...by my guess, very few.

Finally...

Well since I last posted, I have moved, unpacked the entire house, attended two in-service meetings (both which were very informative) and have had time to sleep in. Now, it has also been 106 each day...but I am not complaining.

My new school is beautiful and the staff is young and full of energy; we had a blast at the in-service. Its nice to be back in my own house...my dogs don't know what to do with all the room.

Now for the work..I am two weeks behind in my graduate classes and the classes end tomorrow...I should be working but I am not; I made a promise to someone that I would blog as often as I can and I will keep that promise.

I'm off to write a paper...oh joy!

The email...

Below is an email from a student in regard to a project that is due this week. A project which students have had over TWO weeks to complete, were able to select their group, their topic and the method in which they were going to present the topic. Many selected to do a video/podcast, however, some enjoy waiting until the last minute to get moving.

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Dear Dr. Psych,

I realize this is last minute but my group is having problems getting together all at once. I am available for pretty much every time but they are very busy with SAT class, sports, etc. Is there any way we could do a powerpoint instead of the original choice we made, because that way if one person couldn't make it we could work around their schedule.

For instance Student X can not work on it tomorrow; but Wednesday he can and I believe Student Y can work on it tomorrow for a little but not the next day.

We would really appreciate it. Thank you for you time Dr. Psych

Sincerely,

Student W
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Please understand that the students have had 2 weeks to work on this assignment, in which 4 days were given to utilize the campus and facilities to get the assignment started, if not completed.

I can't wait until FRIDAY!!

The count down begins...

Since my finding out about my new position and giving my notice, I have been busy; reason 1 for not posting anything. However, I now have 7 days before I have everything packed up and I am on the road. I am relocating and am taking the last two weeks off to attend a conference. People are not happy, but there is nothing I can do. I have not really mentioned to many people that I am leaving, but my students have been sure to pass the word around.

So...although I will make every attempt to continue this blog...i can't promise it is going to be very consistent. I think it will make for a funny way for me to keep in touch with the three people that actually read this.

Here's hoping that the road ahead is filled with....hmmm, who knows.

Change....not always a bad thing.

Many people knew that I had been interviewing for positions with post-secondary institutions and potentially moving back to where I used to live (one of the five in the MEME). Well, today I actually turned in my contract agreement for next year stating I was not returning, handed it to Palpatine, who sat there for nearly five minutes staring at it. After which I was told, that she was mad at me; but knew I had to do what made me happy, and without missing a beat asked me who was going to take over my courses.
You see (in my opinion), in the short amount of time I have been at my school, i have become a very popular teacher and teach a very popular course...so to find someone to replace me is going to happen; I am not sure how many of our student population will take the class once I am gone (I am going to encourage it).

So not 10 minutes after my telling Palpatine, three people approached me...so it spread like wildfire. I am hoping that my students don't find out before I get the chance to tell them.

Where am I going, you ask? I have accepted a position with a university teaching psychology and education classes to future teachers. I will also be potentially taking an ASB position at a local high school (possibly teaching a few classes too). I'm excited...

PS.
For the three people that read this...I will miss all of you; it seems like we just started to get to know each other. However, please know that you are all considered my friends and hope to keep in touch with all of you after I leave.

A Disturbance in the force...

So I have not been posting lately because of some many issues that I have been dealing with; however, as of Friday those have been resolved. Many of the people that know me know that I adopted a child six years ago, one with several psychological disorders. With my background in psychology, it was my belief that I could be supportive since my son's biological parents had no interest in being parents. Over the last five years, we have attempted to build an attachment. Now, I L OVE my son very much - please know that! It is very difficult to know that all my education and attempts to show him that someone loves him have failed.

He has had many run-ins with the law, and has really displayed some anti-social characteristics. Therapy, love and direction did not help the situation; there were days that I didn't sleep concerned that he was heading down the wrong path.

Now, until I write the book, you will have to wait to get the entire story; but as of Friday he was detained and booked into juvenile hall; which was very hard for me to accept, although a sense of relief came over me when it did settle in.

I just hope that he one day realizes that the issue is more than just someone loving him; but his having to accept consequences for his behavior; something that he has never had before.

I'm hoping that there will be more time to post from now on...

A MEME; is a blogological affects that...

allows others to "tag" you to get you to fill out information that is fun to share. I've luckily been tagged for this phenomenon, a meme and am honored to have been selected by a person that I think very highly of! Thanks, OKP! :-)

So...the rules:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.

2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.

3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

Here goes....

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
WOW....ten years ago I was living in Chicago, working in a large retail chain; living the single life, and enjoying it.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
1. Finish my Unit 5 homework for my graduate class.
2. Grade my online class discussion posts and quizzes
3. Read a book for my pleasure.
4. Call my parents
5. Call my partner

3) Snacks I enjoy: snap peas with ranch, Tomatoe and basil wheat thins, Snikers Bar

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire: Pay off my bills, buy another home, take time off work to travel, finish my doctoral degree and pay off my parents bills and buy them a home and finally, give my fraternity some money to get their own house.

5) Three of my bad habits: Overcommittment, overly judgemental and cleaning up after everyone; I have a bit of OCD so that is MY bad habit.

6) 5 places I have lived:
1. Chicago, IL
2. Las Vegas, NV
3. Long Beach, CA
4. Culver City, CA
5. West Hollywood, CA

7) 5 jobs I have had:
1. Retail Manager for the Gap
2. Bank Teller
3. Resident Assistant
4. Branch Manager
5. High School Teacher

I'll have to find some people with blogs to tag...but this was fun!! Stay Tuned!