TOPIC: Re: Summer plans?
 CB> I had to laugh at your principal comments.  We are playing Russian
Laugh?  LAUGH!  You **laugh** at my misery.  You are cruel, cold-blooded
& nasty.  This is not funny stuff, Carl.  Let me give you a for
instance.  We're talking about a woman here who attempted to write up
another staff member for speaking to an association rep for advice.  Her
contention was that this person "violated the chain of commmand."
Excuse me, but Since when is a union or association representative in
any way in the administrative chain of command?  My personal opinion is
that she's a lawsuit on legs.
 CB> Roulette with the rooms also, (the ones that get the portables are
 CB> shot). But, it is generally with a cooperative decision between teacher
I lost my beautiful windows.  I am to be placed in an interior room.  It
could have been worse; I could have been put back into a 3/4 size room,
that would have been fun with my full & oversized classes.
 CB> and principal--I think we will keep our principal after hearing about
 CB> yours.
Geez, & I thought I had been discreet.  I miss Ramon (old principal,)
but I tried & succeeded at giving the new one my support & respect until
she told me that I had "chosen to escalate this situtation [my having
objected to being expected to provide free French translation services
to the district while they pay the Spanish translator] by involving the
union."  We have the right to have a rep present during any meeting
regarding a dispute; she apparently doesn't like this.  That was October
& everything went downhill from there.
She also seems to be unfamiliar with the philosophy of the First
Amendment & how it pertains to her position as a representative of the
governing board.
 CB> I too have been teaching business courses for a special training unit
 CB> for our local community college.  Win 95 lately, I hope to teach 3 or 4
 CB> training seminars this fall, I make lots more doing that than teaching.
Yeah, you're not kidding.  For roughly 8 weeks work, I'm going to make
over 1/5 of my salary with my so-called "summer job."  Plus, my expenses
will be reimbursed.  AND, I get to go live in Vegas for approximately a
month.  (I think I get to come home on weekends.)  I'm not a gambler,
but I surely do love the food there, & for heaven's sake, the idea of
getting to stay in a hotel with daily maid service just gives me
goosebumps, not to mention getting to use a nice rental car.  They've
lent me a notebook computer, not that Chris & I don't have good
computers at home, but I will need the notebook for making my
presentation using a screen projector.  I get to order snacks as well as
lunch for my participants.  The department manager told me that he
doesn't want the lack of some money in snacks ruin this project.  I love
this man.  I want to elect *him* my principal.
 CB>  As I only have 5 years until retirement, I may be looking for a job in
 CB>  another state to double dip, or I may go into this seminar business
 CB>  full-time.
It'd sure be worth it, I can't believe how few companies locally are
able to provide classes in the software I'm going to teach this summer.
5 years 'til retirement?  At last count (in Nov.,) I have 23 years.  Or
until I surrender my ground to the principal & leave public education to
go to the private sector.  I sure am tempted because, not only do they
pay well, they have treated me with respect.
Get this.  The old principal nominated me as one of four "mentor
teachers" on our staff (out of roughly 70 teachers in all); the new
principal has me on an improvement plan.  What is wrong with this
picture?  I have a dispute with the woman & suddenly, I'm a less than
adequate instructor?
 CB> Glad to see you back - what are you teacing in summer school?
Thanks, I've missed writing messages, but anything I would've written
about was so depressing that I couldn't bring myself to think about
school once I got home.  I am not teaching summer school.  As a
matter of fact, I won't even be thinking about school.  I'll be working
as a corporate trainer for a large construction company.  My husband is
one of the network administrators there & they needed a teacher, et
voil…, my summer is now spoken for.
This company is the general contractor for the new major league baseball
stadium in Phx, built the Luxor (as well as half of Vegas,) & has all
kinds of other jobs.  They mostly build stadiums, sports arenas, airport
terminals, & prisons, but casinos are the biggest part of their business
here in the West.  They're going to be building a new one & I'm SO
excited because I get to train the office staff.  Paris, Las Vegas.
That's what it's called.  Isn't that just the most perfect thing for a
French teacher?  They're going to build a 1/2 scale Eiffel Tower, among
other things.  I want free stuff for my classroom.
My husband's department is completely revamping the network, hardware &
software such as dual Pentium Pros on the servers, a T-1 line between
here & Vegas & implementing Win '95, Corel WordPerfect Suite 8 &
GroupWise 5.0.  Those are what I need to develop courses for & teach.
The Win '95 one will be easy; I found a local company that provides
courseware for companies like Intel, but unfortunately, they don't do
Corel WP 7 or 8.
Since Chris will be working on the installation side of this project,
I'll get to see him as he'll be coming up to Vegas frequently.  The only
things I'll miss are my new house & my cat.  (The house is so neat,
we don't even like to go out to the movies anymore & haven't been out
to dinner except with our realtor.)
I love my students & I would miss them if I left K-12 education, but
some days it's not been worth taking the blows to the gut from the
soi-disant adults.  As it is, I'm going to miss my little African girls
who have now moved to Florida like crazy, & altho' I hear we're getting
more, I doubt if they'll be quite as special.  (Besides, I really liked
their parents; they told me I sound like a Frenchwoman.  I think they
were being kind, but I liked it anyway.  My self-esteem needed the
flattery.)
Leona Payne
... I'm disgruntled and I've got a gun.  Is the Post Office hiring?
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