Teacher PD day #3

Convocation for our district was today. For all of you non-teachers out there, convocation is basically one big pep rally for EVERY employee in the district. We are driven, via school bus, to the Performing Arts Center. My mom is a bus driver for our district and she happened to be one of my campus' bus drivers! She was pretty pumped about it! Most people in my school know her as "Momma Couch." I work about a mile from her house, and she routinely drops by with little treats for me! (She says I'm spoiled, I say blessed!) 

Mom and me!

We share ZERO similiarities. None. Pretty sure I was adopted! 😉

As you can imagine, it takes a while to get every employee in the district into the PAC. As everyone's walking in, there is always a DJ playing the latest hits. (Is it possible to even say that without sounding like you're officially pushing 30 and are just assuming they're considered "hits" at the moment??? Answer...no.) There are ALWAYS brave teachers dancing up on stage. Am I one of those teachers? You know it!!!

Totally kidding. I have NO rhythm. I can't dance and look normal at the same time. I'm okay with that. I'm basically like Elaine from Seinfeld. 

Have you seen this episode? Hilarious!!! That is definitely what I look like.

Our convocation speaker this year was BY FAR the best speaker I've seen at a convocation! She was so funny, so engaging, and so riveting! Her name is Dr. Bertice Berry, and I linked her website! She was simply amazing. One specific phrase hit me upside the head and I couldn't let it go. She said, "walk with a purpose, collide with destiny." Wow. There is such power in those words. I checked out her website earlier, and she has a few books. I've already put them on my reading list! 

After another wonderful hour long lunch went went to a RIVETING training over...

And all the teachers laughed out loud because they know. T-TESS (we LOVE acronyms in education) is our NEW (because we also love changing EVERYTHING) appraisal system that was introduced to us last year. It took the place of PDAS. (Yet another acronym! 😂)

(Side note...most of my friends are teachers. At dinner one night three of us were talking about school, and decided to try and think about all the acronyms we could name. We lost count. Yes, we're lame. We own it!)

We then headed into department meetings...yay math people! We talked about some housekeeping stuff so we can make sure we are all on the same page. Then I had a little "free" time before I could officially leave so I did some (online) training.

We are doing a lot of different trainings online now. The first round of them are due in September, and for some strange reason I am getting started early. I was able to knock out four today, and have six more to go for the section that's due in September. Typically, I'd be the person panicking the day before they are due, so for some strange reason I started early. There is still a chance I'm that person at the deadline...but at least I've started out correctly! 

What do I suggest today? 

1. Watch season 8, episode 4 of Seinfeld! It's called "The Little Kicks." All episodes of Seinfeld stream on Hulu! Another solid episode is season 9, episode 4 titled "The Blood." These are two of my favorites, but the entire series is worth watching!