A Week Full of Visitors

A week in the Media Center is nothing short of crazy with a circus act. Always.

Monday morning we put the Media Center back together from Friday night's coffee house,  I had a book celebration/makerspace day with my favorite ESE kiddos (we celebrated 3 SSYRA books they've read, built whales and boats with Playdoh, made Popsicle bookmarks, and built tree houses), delivered Chickfila lunch to the winner of our campaign sign contest, and I had some pretty important visitors. Our Assistant Superintendent and my School Board Representative showed up at the end of the day to announce that I've been selected as a District Finalist for Teacher of the Year. There were six teachers chosen: one elementary and one secondary from the north part of our county, the central part of our county, and the south part of the county. I'm the secondary south area representative. Six chosen out of over 4,000. That's CRAZY!!! I can't even begin to fathom how I ended up on that list. There are so many incredible teachers here in our very large county. I'm so incredibly honored.

Tuesday I had Ms. Ross's classes scheduled for book check out and we were disguising gingerbread people as book characters. In the middle of the day, this group of professionals show up and sit down and get comfortable and our tech guy tells me the room is his from 12:30-3:00. Wait...what!?!?!?!
Yes, we had to relocate to her classroom and send kids two and three at a time to check-out books. Which means I had to tell those kids from memory where the books they wanted were and make suggestions for them off what I *thought* we had in. There was a South Area Tech Training scheduled in the Media Center that NO ONE told me about and was not on my calendar. It's was a misunderstanding and some miscommunication and everything is good, but it was definitely a curve ball. The worst part is that I have an autistic student that comes to see me everyday during his lunch and he couldn't find me and got really upset. I always warn him when I won't be there so he is prepared and knows but in the midst of all the crazy, I forgot to let him know. He had a meltdown and I felt really bad because that could have been avoided. I failed to take pictures of their gingerbread people but they are decorating the Christmas tree that's in the Media Center right now. Also, check out Ms. Ross's book log for this year. #readersgonnaread

Wednesday I had our amazing Tech Integrator and hosted Ms. Rich's Civics classes and we went on Google Expeditions to see all the places Alexander Hamilton was based on what they've been learning about. We traveled to Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. The kids LOVED it and thought they were so important that they were the very first group of students at our school to get to use this equipment this year. I was also able to get all of our administrators in there and participating throughout the day so they could see what a valuable educational experience it was. In the middle of the first group we also had to run an infrastructure trial for the testing platform. I was a little worried about a big group coming in for me to run a testing trial with them while the other group was doing Google Expeditions but it worked and it was smooth sailing.

Thursday was another infrastructure trial and set up for Career Day. I also got updates on the next steps for the Teacher of the Year process. Yikes.

Friday was the 31st Annual Career Day at The Great Southwest. We invite people into our school to speak to our students about their careers. We have so many guests that there is a speaker for every single classroom. All of our guests gather for breakfast and coffee and then a Keynote in the Media Center that is pumped out through video feed to all the classrooms. Once the Keynote is over, the speakers are escorted to their classroom location and the speak to the classes about their career, what they do, and what it takes to do that. We also treat them to lunch cooked by Chef Poole and Mr. Thorstensen and served by our students. I had a former NFL player, our School Board rep, a City Councilman, Police and Fire Rescue, Kona Ice, chefs, real estate agents, doctors, pilots, and all kinds of amazing people in my Media Center for our Keynote and then I got to host the Youth Pastor from my church and his intern, Dario. It was so cool for the kids to find out what kind of training you need to have a job like that and how he choose his career. It was so interesting!

So what's next?

Monday (!!!!!!!!!!!) a committee of people will come watch me teach for 45 minutes, interview me, three of my peers, and my principal to see if I'm what everyone says I am. I was told that there has never been a winner from my school and I don't think (but I might be wrong) that there has ever been a Media Specialist win. Someone came in and mentioned to me that I have one shot to show them everything I do. It's a lot of pressure. A lot. How on earth am I supposed to show them everything I do with kids and teachers in one 45 minute lesson and some interviews? I can't. That's the answer and I'm not going to worry about it. I'm going to teach exactly how I normally would and answer their questions as honestly as I can. I've chosen three teachers that I think can show the collaboration that my position allows and that I'm a real teacher too. It will either be enough or it won't. I'm not here to prove I'm better or worse than anyone else. The only thing I care about them seeing is engaged learners. I want them to see what a Media Center really looks like. I want them to see the classes in there, the collaboration, the random stray students that come in for all kinds of things throughout the day, the teachers that stop by and need me on their planning. I want them to know that WE (not just me) work hard and are doing good things for kids. I want them to see I have the greatest job at my school and why Southwest is The Great Southwest and not just another middle school.

Tuesday I'm on a field trip with our music students (yay!!!!!). Wednesday I finish and submit our Follett Challenge video and application. Thursday I have a SAC committee meeting and Lara's kids for checkout and makerspace. Friday I have the GAPP kids again for checkout and a Jason Reynolds story contest, and our front office luncheon. Oh, and District Communications is coming to video me teaching Friday. It's also my oldest daughter's #EpicEleventhBirthday next week which has nothing to do with school but definitely impacts my week.

I told you. It's a circus, always. But it's my circus and I love it!

Also, if you could be so kind as to let me know how one dresses super professionally but in a way that you can still crawl in the floor with robots and not have the kids ask why you are dressed so fancy, I'd love to know.