April Fools

Overwhelming is how life feels currently. It's working out -- slowly -- but mostly I'm feeling completely in over my head (and that's no April Fools).

My advisor called me into her office yesterday to say I could do my final project with actual high school students - not 6th graders as originally assigned and then called secondary students. I'm feeling relieved about that since I honestly don't know what a first year middle schooler's class schedule looks like. The project is to schedule four functional students for a week of accommodations and write one day of their lesson plans (for all four). That's a heap of lesson plans (around 24 to 36) -- and create a very complicated schedule since these are disabled students. Now, at least, I can schedule these kids according to high school standards and my lesson plans won't be so wacky.

This week we took the second of the three big tests this professor is giving in her class -- this one was on moving and positioning people. I also completed the 30 functional adaptive lesson plan notebook required for the second class I'm taking (this class has two huge projects but no tests).

Both professors are agreeable to my plan for completing the remaining two large projects in June. The first three weeks of June will be VERY busy.

My school district is cutting staff again this year. The school district one county over has cut 30 teaching positions and 33 SPED positions. That's not a good portent for my future.

At my school, the staff members over 60 years of age are taking retirement in record numbers. Those of us who thought we might last to 68 or 70 are rethinking our options. Our sister community is looking over half their staff at the end of the year.

The single elevator in our school has been out for the past two days. I'm on the top floor and getting my rolling cart up those five flights of double stairs every day ensures that once I'm at the top I'm not leaving my floor until I go home. I cut my duty on metal detectors this morning - but I figured my excuse was a good one.

Hubby and I went to the university's REP theater to see their product of Cabaret on Sunday. It was a stellar performance -- reimagined with part of the audience sitting on the stage as guests of the Kit Kat club (those tickets cost double the regular price). The dancing, costuming, and staging made an old play seem fresh and new again. We really enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

The boys had their annual grooming yesterday and looked spectacular for about five hours. Then the rains came down in torrents last night and this morning both were mud balls are the morning pee parade. There's $80 gone -- except the Schnauzer cuts are still presentable through the mud bath.

Oh! the April Fools of the title? Me, of course. Foolishly hoping for a winning lottery ticket, a new car from Oprah, and a vacation house on Chesapeake Bay. Might get one out of three if things work out just right.