Mrs. Pollard’s Blog

I spent 12 hours yesterday at an all day rock concert with my son.  We had a really good time – the music was great, the weather was good and we had great seats.  It made me appreciate what a great kid I have – I always know he’s a great kid, but sometimes you forget when their grades go down, or they are begging for money or not doing their chores.  It was great to have that day together to enjoy each other’s company and not worry about anything.  Now to go put Aloe Vera on my sun burn. 

It’s funny how much harder it is to keep up with your blog during the school year!

I had a setback in the Teacher at Sea Process – I was waiting until I had more information to post.  The ship was being refurbished, and basically it won’t be ready to sail in time to make the “weather window” for this year for the southern hemisphere expeditions.  The expedition has been rescheduled for Nov. 4 to Jan 4 of NEXT year.  It’s not set in stone but it looks like I’ll just be sailing a year later than planned.  The other expedition that was a possibility is right during TAKS so that didn’t sound to appealing.  I’d rather stay with the crew I interviewed with, and also be able to have more access to students for live webcasts etc.  It’s hard to do direct to classroom education from the ship during the summer when most students are out of school!

Well, believe it or not – I DID get chosen for the IODP to be their Teacher at Sea for the upcoming expedition.  The first woman teacher at that!   I’m getting the details all ironed out now.  I’ve gotten the okay from my (wonderful!) principal, and from HR, now it’s paperwork time.  I mailed my passport application yesterday, and have a line on a long term sub.  My students are excited.  They LOVE the idea of telling their parents they  HAVE to use Youtube – it’s their homework!  I probably will upload my videos to another site though – one they can access on the school computers.    Wonder what they serve for Christmas dinner on a ship? 

We’re less than 24 hours from the start of the new school year.  I’m very excited, although as usual, I don’t feel 100 percent ready for tomorrow.  I have mellowed since my first year in the classroom, though.  No longer do I think the kids will be irreparably damaged if I don’t have EVERY SINGLE poster up on the wall!  (I ran out of double sided mounting tape, so they’re not all up there!)   The main thing about tomorrow is going to be showing those kids how glad I am that they’re walking through my door! 

Good luck everyone!  It’s going to be a great year!

I just mailed off my application packet for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program’s Teacher at Sea experience for this year.  I figure it’s a VERY long shot that I will be selected since it’s a national program, but since I have the support of a wonderful administrator who said “Go for it”, I figured what could it cost me but postage.   If I do get selected, I would travel for 6 weeks on the JOIDES Resolution ocean research ship in the Canterbury basin leaving port in New Zealand.  They are taking ocean sediment cores to look at historic changes in sea level and climate.  I would be working with scientists from all over the world on real climate research!  I’m aleady thinking of ways my students could be a part of the experience via this blog, and a video diary on You Tube.  It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and I think I’m uniquely positioned both professionally and personally to take a chance on it.  All my husband said was “Can I go too?”  And my son’s response was – “Be sure to sign me up for Drivers Ed before you go!”

The fitness quest continues.  I’ve lost about 7 pounds and 2 inches so far, so that is incentive to keep it up.  I have been frantically scrambling to tie up loose ends before we get back into the swing of things for school.  My brother in law is getting married this weekend so we’ll be heading to Lubbock for the wedding.  It should be interesting – he owns a recording studio so it’s going to be basically a rock concert with vows. 

After a bit of a scare while doing some hiking in Austin at a workshop (heat exhaustion and heart palpitations), I decided that I really needed to take better care of myself.  My mom and my grandmother both died in their 50’s and that decade is not too far off for me, and I want to be around for my family and my students.

Once I decided this, I did a bunch of things I had been putting off.  I’m seeing my neurologist for my carpal tunnel, I had a sleep study (which my husband had been bugging me to do for 5 years) and was diagnosed with sleep apnea.  I got fitted for the breathing device that will become my new sleeping companion last night.  If all goes well, I’ll be picking it up in a week.  I have a full physical scheduled for before school starts, and last but not least, I’ve joined Curves and am working out and following their diet. 

I am a little (a lot) worried about sticking to this plan when school starts, but if the payoff is more energy, more focus and feeling better, surely that will benefit the students too!  We’ll see how it goes.  I have my first “weigh in” tomorrow – I’ll post results afterwards.

Bear with me as I navigate the seas of technology with yet another new toy!  I’ve done blogging before, but on LiveJournal.  I’m working on figuring out this software and set up so I’m practicing.  I’ve set up a category Life & Stuff for rambling about my daily little world, and Classroom Chatter to talk about school stuff.