We had a short week this week with the day off as an unused snow day today (Friday). I got nearly all the middle school and elementary spring tests boxed and ready to go. We use Pearson (some of you may be familiar), so the scoreable tests are boxed one way and shipped to one location while the non-scoreable items are boxed and shipped to another. All my non-scoreable boxes are sealed and ready. I need to make copies of my security forms and once placed in the box the scoreable will be ready to seal. I received my copy of the newest "Fill a Bucket" series. The kids really caught on to this as I was reading throughout the elementary. I hope to find some cheap buckets to purchase for each classroom next year so students can fill and review them independently. I ordered a t-shirt to go with it. Tonight is our h.s. prom. I'm missing it due to an injury I received this morning. I kicked at our fat (21 lbs.) cat this morning in an effort to be silly and shoo her on her way. I wasn't trying to kick her or hurt her, (I think she's a precious kitty and call her that all the time) just make her move. Being the graceful person that I am when I did this I wound up kicking the oversized chair. The outside of my foot is swollen and two of my toes horribly bruised. I tried to put on a shoe, but couldn't put much pressure on it and the shoe itself caused great pain. I'd planned on getting a pedi today until this happened. No pedi left me with ugly feet which meant no flip flops, too. I stayed home and missed all the girls in their pretty dresses and boys in their finest. :( Next week we continue with online testing for high school and four middle school studens who missed their scheduled tests. I will be taking down my door (Git R Done) decorations. I discovered students are removing and stealing parts of it so I have to take it down before I lose any more. So far three of the paper boots and the bandanas have been taken. This makes me sad and angry at the same time. I can't believe it will be May 1st on Tuesday! The year is almost over and there is so much packed into the last couple of weeks it's unbelievable. What a great year it's been. I have learned so much and continue to learn (from the many blogs I've discoverd, from friends, other counselors I know, my coworkers and even the students). I can't wait until next year to put some things in place that I've been holding off on and become more involved with the students.

Second Week of Spring Testing

We got through our second week of testing. It was another five day week. All of the elementary grades completed their tests, as well as middle school grades. I was right in the middle of it all! One of our staff had a death in the family. With so many coworkers attending the funeral (as they all should have) we were left short of administrators and proctors. Therefore, we had to move two testing sessions. Since we're so early in the testing schedule we still had time to get those completed. Monday we had another career cafe. Our Pre-K teacher came over as the presenter. She was GREAT! She read a book that she reads to her class at the beginning of each year. Two of the students attending CC had this same teacher when they were in Pre-K. I am always amazed at how wonderful my coworkers are. Not because I go through the year thinking they are less intelligent or that they aren't doing a great job teaching and interacting with their students. But, from time to time I get to see or hear about their other talents, skills, hobbies, life in general, and more often than not I learn so much about them that before I had no idea! Wednesday we had a meeting after school with three teachers, a parent, the principal and a student. It lasted almost two hours. This made for a very long day since two of us at the after school meeting had attended a meeing at 7 a.m. between our district committee leaders and administration. I was just short of an 11 hour day. We normally don't have any spring tests on Fridays. However, this week we tested Friday instead of Thursday. I got so much done in my office on Thursday. It was a much needed office day. Friday, after I arrived I prepared the two computer labs for testing and made a couple of phone calls. I was then administrator for one middle school session which took almost three periods. I gathered up all the left over scratch paper, pencils and got the computers back to testing settings. I grabbed a quick lunch (snack bar) and went right back to the computer labs. I readied them both with scratch paper, pencils, stress balls, testing tickets, administrator books and seal codes. Once finished I called the next group in for testing. This session took over three periods. By the end of the day I was worn out. I didn't get to meet with any groups or classes for story time. While on cafeteria duty Friday morning the elementary kids were asking me over and over why I hadn't been in the last couple of weeks and when I was going to be back. It was very reassuring to know what I'm doing with them, even though its less than ten minutes one time a week, is having an impact! Next week will be the same as we get through more of our high school sessions. The next two weeks are four day weeks. We're all very thankful for that.

The week is FINALLY over. :) After having a couple of short weeks it's always difficult to go back to a regular five day week. This was the first week of our spring testing season. It is always very stressful and very tiring. It gets easier, though. I'm trying to keep myself out of the testing process as much as possible so that I can continue with elementary story time and working with the kindergarten class on impulse control in addition to my administrative duties. However, every test session we've had I've wound up as administrator or proctor for at least part of the time. Today was an exception. I was able to excuse myself from today's session and get some much needed office time. I work on the weekly eligibility list, which takes me no less than 1 1/2 days. I was a little behind on this and today, though it was a little longer than usual, I got it completed! I didn't get to have any story time this week, which I didn't really like having to skip, but being only one person, I have no choice. Thankfully all the elementary teachers are very understanding! Earlier this week I was able to get the 8th grade and 12th grade diplomas and honor chords ordered and just in the knick of time. I had the opportunity earlier in the week, too, to give the 6th grade class the reading portion of their spring test. I thought this was a great opportunity for me to have some experience with the younger group and what their tests are like, as well as what they go through. All tests at the high school level are online, except for English writing, and almost all middle school tests are now online. There is a push in our state to have more and more tests moved to online format. Next week we continue with tests Tues. through Fri. Monday is Career Cafe'. The guest is our Pre-K teacher! She's very nervous about it. I don't know why, she's a veteran teacher and very good at what she does! I know she'll do a great job in Career Cafe, too!

Bulletin Boards

It's Wednesday, but tomorrow is my Friday due to it being Good Friday and we scheduled it as a snow day (which we didn't use). I made two bulletin boards over the last couple of weeks in preparation of state testing. One I saw on the School Counselor Blog. I made it for our elementary just going from memory of what I'd seen on the blog. The other I made last year for our hs/ms. I just changed up the colors but, kept the theme and wording the same this year. I had to do a western theme being we're here in the south. The elementary was very excited over their rocket display since I didn't get to do anything for them last year. The western board is actually my outer door since I don't have a b. board. I have an outer and inner office. Both doors I keep open when I'm there. It's a steady stream of students past my door.

I've dealt with lots of drama from students this week. I've had parents call, board members call, parents visit, and students visit, all over the same issue. Hopefully this will be resolved by tomorrow. I've been going through Hunter and His Amazing Remote Control with the kindergarteners and it's been really good. We worked on rewind and should today. They've got the channel changer and pause down so I'm sure the others will fall in to place, too. I worked on entering 8th and 12th grade names into a list this week for graduation and diploma orders. Friday I'm going fabric shopping, to the cake decorating store and out to lunch, all with a friend! It's a short break but still a huge blessing!