Friday, August 10 - CONVOCATION!

Convocation!

In years past, whenever I've had to go to LISD's Convocation event, I've usually dreaded going, because it's usually long and boring. The superintendent usually makes a speech, some of the administrators make speeches, a school board member or two might have something to say, the teachers of the year have to make speeches, and THEN the GUEST SPEAKER make his or her long speech. And THEN, we had to go to our schools for more workshops and meetings. It usually made for a long dreary day, not the way to kick off the school year.

Tatum's (TISD) convocation was totally different and in the best way possible.

First, the Tatum high school cheerleaders and Eaglettes (I guess that's what they're called-) welcomed us at the door of the Tatum HS Auditorium with a smile and a "How are you doing?" That, of course, was different. Then after convocation started and the superintendent, who was dressed in his best jeans and casual Tatum t-shirt,  welcomed us, the cheerleaders, Eaglettes, and drum corps each gave a nice performance. The cheerleaders even led "Back-to-school" cheers. The superintendent, Dr. J. P. Richardson, was definitely NOT like other superintendents I've seen in the past- He was having fun, very down-to-Earth, and told us about his summer in a way we all could relate to. He seems to be very approachable and friendly, and not someone who looks down on others because of his position.

After the performances, the district held numerous drawings for money, jean passes, gift cards, a nice duffel bag, and even a big screen TV. I was really impressed. But what impressed me more was that everyone seemed to be in a GREAT and HAPPY and FUN MOOD, everyone was actually HAVING FUN at Convocation. (Wow) It was the perfect atmosphere to kick off the school year. Shoot, I was ready for the kids to come to the school right then myself.

Then we had our guest speaker, Mrs. Tammy Whitehurst. I tell you, she was the best speaker I've ever heard for a convocation. She was very funny and told some great stories and had all of us laughing. One of the main things she emphasized (and something Tatum emphasizes period) was that we are a TEAM and a FAMILY. We're supposed to laugh, cry, help, support, and love one another just like a real family. And we have to look at the humorous side of things whenever things do go awry and remember we're doing this for the kids. She played music (TV show themes mainly) and for each age group the song represented, they had to stand up and sing and dance to the song. I have no idea what song the younger generation was dancing to, but I know that the 90s song was the "Fresh Prince of Bellaire" theme and the 80s song was "the Jeffersons" theme. Somehow, "It's Not Unusual" and Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" got played, and the superintendent did a great impression of the dance. That was probably the highlight of the day (besides many teachers winning $100 each).

Click HERE to play the Jefferson's theme

Anyway, when it was over, we took a group photo, and then we had lunch in the cafeteria prepared by the nice folks who work there. Then we were done for the day!

I should have come here years ago. :-)

Click HERE to play "It's Not Unusual" song

Sights from Convocation:

Thursday, August 9

District-wide SE Meeting

Today was our district-wide SE meeting, which was held at the middle school. Of course, I've been to those every year since I started working in education, but this would be my first one here at Tatum. The ones in the past usually lasted anywhere from two and a half to three hours, and of course, they were long and boring.

The first thing I noticed about this meeting was that there are not many individuals working in SE in the district; there was no more than 20 people attending the meeting- LISD usually had anywhere between 75-100 SE employees attending. So, due to it being a smaller district, Tatum's meeting was a lot more personable than Longview's.

I took a lot of notes, but there's not too much difference between the way Tatum does things in SE compared to Longview; Tatum seems to be ahead of the curve, so to speak, than Longview is, but Longview-LHS could get there if they'd start preparing and doing things early (like right now) to get ready for the school year instead of waiting until the last possible minute to get things done. Again, I know that there is a difference with Tatum being much smaller than Longview is, and having fewer students to work with, but if the system is in place and the system works, then no matter how many kids you have within that system, there shouldn't be many problems or difficulties. 

The main thing I got out of the meeting? Archiving- teachers should ARCHIVE everything within the system.

We talked about IEPs and accommodations, and since I've worked in Inclusion for the last 7 or 8 years, one thing I do not have to worry about anymore is getting those to each teacher- I helped this past year put in a system where the teachers could pull up the necessary documents on Skyward, and I still feel this is the best way to get those to the teachers- However, Tatum has their process, and since I don't believe that Tatum does inclusion (they have resource classes I think) or even a BAC, their process is probably what best fits their system. 

Anyway, the meeting lasted until 11:15, then we went to lunch. We came back at 12:15 and the teachers attended a gradebook workshop while we worked on all of the bulletin boards.

I think it looks pretty good-

Also, note to myself: Remember this letter:

I'll be seeing it again come December!

Wednesday, August 8

Today we went to the Tatum Elementary School for today's workshop.

We had breakfast catered by Dairy Queen which consisted of toast, biscuits, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, and orange juice. It was delicious and appreciated by all.

We had our Poverty Conference Workshop, and all of the employees from Tatum Primary and Tatum Elementary took part in a very interesting and fun exercise. We were each placed in different families in various units and settings- Some had fathers and mothers, some had fathers without wives and vice versa, some had little kids, grown kids, some had babies, grandparents, etc. Each family's situation was different as far as work, home, bills, and making money was concerned. Some had good jobs, some didn't. Some had homes to live in, and some didn't. Some had to worry about child care, food stamps, trying to find a job, trying to get an education, or just paying the bills period and being able to afford groceries. Each family started off with basically whatever their situation was (no money), and they had to go from there and live out one month of trying to make ends meet.

I was in a family where I was a divorced father who taking care of a 20-year old daughter, a 9 year-old son, and a small baby grand-daughter. My family did pretty well after one month; I had a job making almost $400 a week, I was able to make my mortgage payments, utility payments, child care payments, food and clothing, gas, and still have money leftover to create a checking account. Of course, it helped that 1. the daughter worked a part-time job and helped out; 2. We hocked some jewelry we didn't need (ha ha); 3. I turned to be the "best employee" at my job and received a bonus. All in all, it was a fun activity and it showed and taught us that not only do adults go through life's struggles, but kids do, too, and kids often times suffer from the lack of a decent meal, a decent place to live, or a life of comfort.

Afterwards, we took a lunch break, and then we returned to work and worked in our classrooms.

Tuesday, August 7 - CHANGES

My second day was NOT spent at Tatum Primary-

It was spent in LONGVIEW, of all places-

Our Principal, Mrs. Fite had a surprise for all of us when we got to work this morning.

We were going on a SCAVENGER HUNT!

So it was off to parts known to 1. Build a pyramid, 2. Find something just for kids, 3. Find something that has to do with summer fun, and 4. Smell the flowers.

We all rode in four vans and basically raced to reach our final destination: the Reserve, outside of north Longview.

There we met our principal, Mrs. Tamara Fite, and we commenced to having our first workday/workshop with her presiding. The main question she asked was, Do our beliefs align with that of our district/campus and why? (My answer was that I feel that not only is every child capable of learning, but each child learns in different ways. So I feel I am here to help each child learn and grow in a positive way.)

Of course, I had to get up and introduced myself- "My name is Cedric Edwards...I worked at LHS for the last 14 years in Inclusion and Lifeskills...I attended Stephen F. Austin State University...I graduated with a BBA in General Business...my minor was Information Technology...I received a Computer Applications Technology certificate in 2015...I have twins...I have twin grandchildren..etc...etc.." I would say that never gets old, but I'd be lying. :-)

We had another small scavenger hunt, where we got to kind of know one another better (I was still trying to figure out who everyone was), then we talked about schedules, duties, tardies, dress code, and other school-related things.

Mrs. Fite is going to be a great principal I believe because she CARES about the kids, her teachers, her school, her family, her beliefs, and she isn't fake at all about any of it. She's easy to talk to and she listens. I got the impression that many of the teachers were happy to see the former principal leave/retire/whatever and many of them (if not all of them) feel like this is like a breath of fresh air. I am totally digging this atmosphere and it's like night and day from whence I came from. 

I am still a little homesick (if you want to call it that) though because I left a lot of friends at LHS, some I've worked with for the whole 14 years, and I truly miss them. And of course, I'm going to miss my kids, especially the seniors this year, because I've had them all their three years in Social Studies (9th- World Geography, 10th- World History, and 11th- U.S. History).

Anyway, we had a very fun and interactive workshop- the highlight of the workshop was a dance the principal and some of the teachers did to a song I can't remember right now, but which kind of made me think, Okaaay- They wanted all of us to do it but I politely declined seeing how I was the only man there anyway. The food which I think came from Bodacious was nice and tasted good, and everything was wonderfully set up. We did an exercise with a bag of balloons that was fun, and everything was positive all the way around.

We each had to pick a keyword to describe our upcoming year- I picked the word: CHANGE.

I think it's going to be a GREAT YEAR.