Playhouses for a good cause

If you are anywhere near Stanford Shopping Center before June 12, 2009, stop by and look at some amazing playhouses that have been created and donated by renowned architects and builders.  The Dreams Happen Playhouses are auctioned to raise money for Rebuilding Together Peninsula.

This is an extraordinary collection of imaginative, life-size children’s playhouses.  If you just have to have one, they will be auctioned off on June 6, beginning at 6:30 p.m.  But bring lots of cash, or your loan officer.  

Here are three of my favorites, but there are many more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the Apple store (and others)

Let me tell you, dear Reader, about some of my customer service experiences today.  

I had a lesson at the Apple store for my new iPhone and the service, as usual at Apple, was wonderful.  The girl leading the lesson was very knowledgeable and very patient with her five students.  I left there feeling much smarter.  No one tried to sell me anything.  The store was filled with customers.

Before I went to Apple, I popped into Sephora to see about some blush.  The young lady who helped me was so helpful that I not only got the blush but also a foaming face wash and got checked out in under 10 minutes.  That service sure made me smile.  Again, the store was full of customers and they were buying.

So, my question here is:  why can’t the whole world operate like the Apple store, or even Sephora?  When you stop to think about it, these companies are doing well and others aren’t.  Hmmm.

So, there’s my week in a nutshell

This has been an amazing week, and yes, dear Reader, I am alive and well, just fantastically busy.  There are only 9 days of school and there is just so much to do.

The sophomores, whom I am not teaching this year, are doing their Padua Times project with which I am helping since I have the computers (MAC) that has the software they need to use (InDesign).  The English teacher takes the seniors while I work with the sophomores.  But, this next week that has to change as the seniors must get their graduation gowns ironed in my class to be ready for Academy graduation on Wednesday.  Big graduation, as I call the whole-school affair, is the following Tuesday.

My multimedia students finished their final project–brochure, web site, and video–for a local nonprofit agency.  I have to get the videos burned to DVDs this weekend so we can all watch them the last three days of class for the seniors.  (Our seniors check out a week ahead of the underclassmen.)  The juniors in the class will end the semester cleaning up the computers and moving around equipment.

The yearbook has arrived and was passed out the yearbook staff yesterday at a pizza lunch provided by our photographer.  It was sort of anticlimactic since they have been working on it all year and it’s much smaller this year than past issues.  We will pass it out to the rest of the school (all 180 copies, should take 10 minutes) on Monday.  I have 100 copies to sell which we will do on Tuesday.

This past Thursday I went to a conference at Stanford University on microfinance.  It was a great learning experience, and when I have time, I plan to write more about it.  If any of you dear Readers are involved in such an organization, I would love to hear from you.  This is such an exciting area in which I want to learn more and be more involved.  

And, for a little whimsy, here are most of my seniors with their Academy medals.

Can yearbooks continue?

In reading another blog, I found this article on the demise of yearbooks.  I keep wondering how long we can continue to produce one at our inner city high school.  Sales were very poor this year yet I get phone calls every day from parents who forgot to preorder and want to know if I”ll have extras.  (Which, by the way, I will.)  The books arrive this week, and as usual, I am so excited to see the finished copy as are my yearbook kids.  The kids want the books, they just don’t want to pay for them. (Our school paper is free.)

The main reason I see to continue the book is because of the historical value.  Our yearbook, The OWL, goes back to 1896.  The books are historical pieces and tell wonderful stories of what the school and the town were like during different periods.  Lately I’ve been perusing the books from the depression years to see how they managed to stay afloat.   The school never missed a year’s production, although some of the books are pretty thin.  I’m thinking next year’s book may have that similar look.

finally, a clean patio

I usually clean the patio of all its winter dirt by Easter. This year I have been unbelievably LAZY and just got around to it on Memorial Day weekend.  Although I did clean off the greenhouse pad, I’ve never completed the job by cleaning the patio and hauling the furniture out of storage.  The furniture is still sitting in my storage unit.  Maybe next weekend.  Of course, that is what I’ve been saying since April.

I have a wrought iron table and chair set on the patio that stays there year round as it does not fold up for storage.  This is an old set, at least 40 years, and I have replaced the seat cushions once.  They are easily removed for cleaning.  Here are the chair frames, sitting in the warm sun on the greenhouse pad to dry:

 

I liked the way they looked, like they were waiting for ghost guests.

After I got the chairs cleaned, then it was the big job of getting all the dirt off of the patio.  It’s a big patio, much like cleaning another room of the house.  Here’s the finished product:

 

The clean patio with chairs back in place

It won’t stay clean for long.  The neighbor cats enjoy living here and actually spend more time on the patio than any of our family.

do your school work, win money

It was again time for the NFTE awards dinner, and just like last year, my student took third place in the competition.  This is the competition where the students present their business plans, first in the classroom, and then if they place first there, at this banquet.  The top three students from each school win money, and if the student places in the top three at the dinner, they take home additional money.  

 

With the big check

My first place student got $450, the other two girls got smaller amounts.  It’s a great opportunity for all of us to show what we know and what we can do.

awake while the world sleeps, or so it seems

What do you do in the middle of the night when you cannot sleep?  It’s 3:30 a.m. here on the West Coast and I have been awake for an hour.  I finished a novel, made a to-do list for Saturday (oh wait, that’s already today), read some blogs, and now I’m writing.

My suburban neighborhood is very quiet at this time.  It’s quiet all the time, but at night, no one is out, no cars pass, no sprinklers swoosh, no lawnmowers roar, no children scream.  The dogs and cats are asleep.  I should be too.  

The week was insane, the next 3 will continue the madness.  I have so much to accomplish yet there is little I can do about it at 3 a.m.  Except, fret.

 A train whistle in the distance, the rumble of railcars on the track.  Someone else is awake.  Wonder if they want to be asleep.

Can we say busy?

All of you dear Readers in education know just what I’m talking about at this time of year:

Monday:  WASC meeting after school (minimum day for students)

Tuesday:  9th grade career day, practice for awards assembly

Wednesday:  two whole school principal award’s ceremonies, two business academy end-of-year awards, night time academic awards assembly

Thursday:  business plan presentation dinner

Friday:  another bomb scare (and they caught the kid this time)

Now, somewhere in all this whirlwind I am supposed to finish teaching my students.

Let the WASC begin

All high schools (and colleges) must be accredited if their diplomas are to count for anything.  Our state uses Western Association of Schools & Colleges (WASC) for this process.  To receive that accreditation, the school and it staff needs to show that it does what it says it does.  Pretty simple, but the process can be pretty complicated.  We started yesterday on our trek to next March or April when the visiting team arrives to see what we are doing.

I am co-chairing the committee on organization and yesterday we met to discuss the expected student learning results (ESLRs).  About 13 years ago our school spent a long time hammering out the original ones, but over time they have been altered, and needed to be addressed in view of other changes we have made.  It made for some interesting conversations.  The committee numbers about 50 and is made up of staff from all over campus ranging from the principal to one of our housekeeping staff.  We’re all in this together.

Breaking records

Temperature records, that is.  It reached 106 degrees today.  Fortunately for me, I could stay inside this afternoon with air conditioning and fans.  Seems very early for such high temps.  Can only imagine how this will affect our local crops, especially if the heat holds for a few days.

Just hope the girls at school don’t decide to start wearing skimpy clothes.