Lots to Be Thankful For

Dear Diary,

Okay, it’s been a year…a little over a year. But a busy year.  Going back to the classroom was so much fun and felt "so good" that I decided to go back this year as well!

Last year proved once again my "theory" that 95% of the problems are caused by 5% of the population in the school/classroom. That percentage may have even been 97% by 3%.  I walked into a situation where I had to travel with a state student officer of a leadership organization – 9 total trips! Fun, interesting, exhausting! Most of the staff was unhappy with the principal and it didn’t take me long to understand why. When she announced her retirement in February (!) much joy was hard to contain at the faculty meeting – or so I heard. I was on one of those 9 trips.  I spent a great deal of time PRing for my courses and establishing myself within the school community. The  hard work paid off.

This year has been fantastic so far.  The opening of school was one of the smoothest that the principal said she had in 17 years as an administrator. The "new" principal was actually the old principal that had been reassigned 2 years ago when the retired principal was brought in.  I have some really good students. My biggest discipline problem so far has been cell phones. The rule is "not on and not visible inside the building from 7:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m."  Simple enough. Too bad too many don’t remember or choose not to heed.

Right now I’m waiting to hear when we can return to school.  I live southwest of Houston right off Hwy. 59. We’re about 60 miles from the coast – Galveston or  Freeport depending on which highway one takes.  Ike blew through and left much damage behind.  We were very fortunate – without power for about 30 minutes during the storm, mnimal tree damage and debris in the yard. My son’s home about 12 blocks away is without power and a portion of an old fence blew down. His neighbors across the street in front have power, the ones across the side street are without.  Rumor is that my school has a lot of water damage from rain coming in the roof and classrooms are a mess.  We’ve got the phone chain established so why aren’t we using it?   Before we left last Thursday, all computers were unplugged and covered. The website is down and the main phone line is out.  Patience is the name of the game.

All things considered, I have…

…lots to be thankful for!

~Susie