HMOs, PPOs, Elmos and Margaritas

So I haven't blogged in a while and here's why...

On Monday and Tuesday I had an all day training at Palm Springs HS for standards based lesson planning. After that I went to school until about 5ish to get work done. Then on Wednesday there was a new teacher breakfast and you would never believe how many people were at this thing! I think there are over 125 new teachers in my school district!! I had no idea how big this district was and how many schools it includes. Then there was a new teacher roundtable meeting with my principal and literacy coach, which proved to be quite helpful.

Thursday and Friday were the two most frustrating days simply because I was on information overload by that time. Thursday I worked in my room, then had a department meeting. The department chair is very nice and has been helping me out big time with little things here and there about school and science stuff. I got my technology stuff on Thursday though and this is so neat! I get an LCD projector (which basically transmits projections to a big screen so that all my students can see it.) This will work from my laptop, TV or my Elmo (which is an overhead projector that doesn't need transparencies). I also got my laptop finally!! My laser printer was delivered Friday and my laptop will be set up to print to this wirelessly!! Oh, and I forgot to mention that my building has wireless internet!! I'm so excited to learn how all of these things work and apply them to my classroom instruction!

Thursday did happen to get worse though due to a benefits meeting that evening. It was in a huge lecture room where they disseminate the benefit coverage to all new staff memebers, it was chaos. I had no idea which things to chose and found myself sitting by the "adults" of the room just so I could ask them questions! I finally called my mom to ask her about HMOs and PPOs and the differences. I finally figured out what I thought was best for me at this time in my life and went with it. The only problem was that by the time I was done with all the paperwork the turn in line was out the door. I waited for a long time with my new teachers friends and then we decided our time could be better spent at Margaritas next door. So, we headed over to happy hour and waited for the line to taper off.

Friday was the district kick off, Zangle training (attendance and gradebook program) and the almighty staff meeting! This was the longest day EVER! After the staff meeting I thought I was going to die because of all the policies and procedures and information that I had to take in and retain! I've decided to just focus on getting through the first day and not dwell on all the other stuff, however this is mighty difficult! The big day is tomorrow so expect a blog explaining about how I butchered the names of all my Juans, Joses, and Luz de Maries! Oh, and I've attached my "Meet Ms. Forgacs" Board in my classroom. I'll send more pictures of the classroom soon as I have added many new things!!