I had my end-of-the-year evaluation last week. Everything went well. I even got a little bit of a raise. It was a great feeling to know that I will be coming back for another year! I had two complaints from two teachers. It was funny, I wrote a small paragraph on their evaluations about some things that needed improvement for next year, and they wrote two - three pages of complaints against me. What's even better, not once did they ever tell me to my face or write a letter about what they were feeling and it wasn't sent until after the school year ended that the e-mail was sent to my principal. Thankfully, he saw through what they were trying to do and had the same feelings I had. One of the complaints came from a teacher who thought I was always second guessing her and taking authority away from her. I believe in being open with my teachers and telling them what is going on with students and the complaints I receive from them and the stories they tell me when the teacher does not send a referral with the student to my office or call me and let me know what happens. Most of the time I only hear the student's side of the story. Later I ask the teacher what happened and tell them what they student said happened. There was one time when this teacher sent the troubled student to my office with another student to tell me what happened. After the second student told me what happened he then goes on to say that the first kid really wasn't doing anything wrong. So I went and told the teacher what the second kid told me. She thought I was second guessing her abilities. I just wanted to find out from her what happened and let her know that the kids she thinks she can trust are pulling the wool over her eyes and will lie to anyone they can lie to so they do not get into trouble. Perfect example, a kid had his yearbook taken up by this teacher because another student was looking at it during class after she said they could not look at them during class. She comes to me all concerned because the yearbook she had taken up was missing so I check the cameras then do a little investigative work. I see the yearbook everyone was talking about then ask some kids some questions. One kid says, "She never took any yearbooks away from any kids today during class!" I tell her what student had said that and she says that student always tells the truth and never lies. I heard it with my own two ears and saw it with my own two eyes. The kid then goes to her the following day and says he saw the owner of the book pick-up the yearbook from her cart. She believes the kid, even after he bold faced lied to me the day before. I gave her some advice and told her that she can't always trust one kid after only knowing him/her for a school year. The kids I trust have shown me over the course of two to five years that they can be trusted. She also told me that another student lied to me and told her truth about another situation, but refused to give that kid's name. This situation was something that was possibly going to get a kid thrown out of school that should have been thrown out of school, but because the one kid lied to me and signed a statement, the kid who should have been thrown out got to stay. She wants to complain about me undercutting her authority? The other teacher complained about me being unfair in assigning subs and giving my friends an easier sub schedule than what she had. On top of that I am a hypocrite in all ways. Granted, some of the examples she pointed out looked like they could be hypocrisy if she didn't know what I was doing. Every time I was talking to someone in the cafeteria it was about a situation that needed to be handled or a questions a teacher had about a topic, but not once did I ever take my eyes off the students and what they were doing while in the cafeteria. There were many times when I was talking to a teacher would see a student doing something that they should not have been doing and the complaining teacher would walk right by as if nothing was going on and I would have to go ever and handle the situation because she wasn't even paying attention or thought that whatever the kid was doing was okay. There were also many times in which I would look at the camera and she is talking face to face with another teacher while kids are running around the cafeteria, trying to fight, and yelling at others and she didn't do a thing about the situation. Anyways, I could have been a whole lot harsher then what I was in the final evaluation, but I like to give the benefit of the doubt and allow for improvement the next year. I guess they thought they could hammer me like that since I was a teacher last year and they could not deal with me being moved into the role I am in now. Oh, well. They will have to deal with me for at least another year.

So far summer is treating me well. I have lost four pounds since summer started, which is great! I am not going to worry about how much more I need to lose because if I worry, I will not improve. I am just going to continue to work out and have fun. We finally found a place to live, we just have to wait to hear back about whether or not we are approved for the place. Leland started his internship and thins seem to be going good so far. One of the guys he was out with yesterday asked him if he has talked to the head guy about a possible job when he finishes with the internship and school. Everyone seems to be getting along with Leland and like the work he is doing. Hopefully, fingers crossed, prayers answered the way I would like for them to be answered. He received an e-mail from his advisor about a group in Portland, OR that has a position to be filled. He just sent that guy to the trash folder. Now Leland's advisor is telling him that there is no way he is going to finish his dissertation before the first week in August. That just lights the fire under his butt and gets him more motivated. He should be finished in July. If he spends all of his extra time in the lab and library writing, he will do it. I have faith in him and he will get it done when he says he will get it done. If not, he knows how mad I will be and he doesn't want to make me mad. Things will get done, I am sure of it. Dad goes in for eye surgery tomorrow. He is getting a lot of work done and hopefully all goes well. The doctor even told him if things go well he may be able to get my dad's vision to the point where dad will not need glasses anymore. I told my dad that would be really weird since my entire life he has worn glasses. I may not recognize him without glasses ;) That's about it for this week, sorry nothing too interesting. It's summer, not drama, what can I say?