Middle School Orientation

Last night, we went to the parents’ orientation for the middle school Jeffrey will be attending next year (already? Yipes!). The principal, assistant principal, counselor, and a few teachers were there to present, along with more parents than could fit into the library (Jeffrey’s class is a big one).

In general, we came away pretty happy; they seem to have a good program going for assimilating the incoming 6th graders; they make extensive use of the rising 8th graders as mentors and supports, and from what I heard, the program works well.

There were, of course, questions from parents about safety at school — I was taken aback when one parent asked “Do you have lockdown drills?” (The answer, by the way, was “no”; they concentrate on earthquake, fire, and evacuation drills.) But I think the staff is on the ball in this area, too.

Next month, the school has their annual carnival, and rising 6th graders are cordially invited. Then they have an official visit with their 5th-grade classes in May; Jeffrey’s mentor should call him during the summer, and then orientation is the Wednesday before school opens — so much for travelling the last week of the summer!

And, just to add to the fun, the school is going to be torn down and rebuilt over the next two years; by the time Jeffrey’s in 8th grade, it should be quite a nice place. In the meantime, the good news is that the portable classrooms will have air conditioning.

Shabbat Shalom!

Crank calls, spring cleaning, and referrals

Today started awfully early — 2am, roughly, when the phone rang. I knew immediately that it was a crank caller, but I wasn’t awake enough to realize that I knew it, and kept talking to the guy for a minute or two until the glucose level in my brain reached a high enough level for me to figure out that the right response was to hang up the phone. I think I hung it up while I was in the middle of saying something, but I don’t really remember.

Of course, after waking up enough to deal with the caller, it took me a while to fall back to sleep, but I eventually did, and the alarm came as a shock, as usual. I much prefer days when I can wake up on my own schedule, but those are few and far between.

Spring Cleaning

I’m running out of room in my home office, so I’ve been going through some of the piles of paper, trying to get rid of stuff which I don’t need. This morning, I unearthed the score report from the test I took to become an OS/2 Certified Engineer — I took advantage of the opportunity to take the test for free at a Comdex many years ago, or I probably never would have bothered. As it was, I’ve never used the certification (I’m not sure I’ve ever mentioned it to anyone until writing this entry, in fact), so I guess I can probably get rid of the score report, even though it is prominently stamped “Save this report!”. Wonder where my certificate is….

Referrals

On Tuesday, I mentioned Artabunga as one of the more interesting booths I saw at the ACM1: Beyond Cyberspace Exhibition.

Today, I got a nice note from Helen Casserly at Artabunga thanking me for the mention and for the traffic I’d sent her way — glad to be of service, Helen!

But then I was wondering why I had so much traffic lately, and discovered that my tale of my day at ACM1 had been
Scobelized. Thanks, Robert!