Seminar

It was what was expected. Former teacher/principal turned motivational speaker. Good to hang out with some teachers I knew and some I didn't, and we all are pretty much in the same camp about where things are, where they are headed, and what we can do about it. Basic take-away from yesterday was - proper procedures taught at the beginning of the school year (sorry, I was hired 7 weeks in) can cut down on misbehavior, and I should not raise my voice or embarrass a student by calling out their behavior mistake, but should talk to them quietly in a less than 10 second burst. Don't argue, don't even discuss things until the student is calmed down. I can work with some of this stuff, but not convinced quite yet. It would take a lot of buy-in from the principal on down.

Trivia was fun, but sparse. Only 7 teams, and we dominated, leading at the end of the first round, and in first by 13 points before the final question. Only two teams were mathematically close enough to catch us - one bet nothing, like we did, the other bet a bunch and were wrong, as we were. So another big win. And my cousin-in-law Jon stopped in to hang with the team.

Last night's dream was a nervous one again. Back in my old, small house in New Hampshire, but with all my in-laws. There was nowhere for me to go to get privacy, literally, including a room that doesn't really exist (must have been a tesseract).

And today should be a doozy. Once the seminar finishes, back to school for re-scheduled parent/teacher conferences. A couple of teachers yesterday mentioned that the other conference night they had NO parents show up (parental involvement being a major part of student success). Oh well.