JOHN - I had to be up early today because Rawlinson was having a teacher retreat which Mrs. Schiebel invited me to. It was an all day affair so I wasn't sure what to expect. When I arrived at the school and went into the library, I was surprised to see all the teachers there. In fact, I would say 90% of the teaching staff was there, raring to go.
Mrs. Schiebel took me around and introduced me to a lot of her fellow teachers as well as the administrative staff. Since I am not the best at remembering names, I knew I wasn't going to remember everyone's name that day. The one thing that I noticed was how pleasant and welcoming everyone was to me. Other teachers, who weren't in my grade or subject area, said that if I ever needed anything, to let them know. The entire environment felt all warm and fuzzy.
The retreat lasted until 4:00 PM that day. For the most part, I took a lot away from it and I was glad I accepted Mrs. Schiebel's invitation. Throughout the day, there were a lot of team building activities where you had to work together and get to know one another. Mrs. Pena, the principal, introduced all the new teachers (including me) at the beginning of the day. I was a little nervous but I cracked a joke about being from Normal and that seemed to break the ice. Even during breaks, other teachers would come up and introduce themselves and asked about ISU, Illinois and Maine (I had told them I lived there when I was younger). A lot of them seemed to have connections back in Illinois either in Chicago and even State Farm. It just goes to show you that we are now living in a small world!
Some of the team building activities included building a tent made of nothing but newspaper and tape. Another one required us to complete a maze, helping each other, but w/o the aid of talking. In between each activity, the activity would be discussed and reflected upon by everyone. This helped link everything we did to what was trying to be accomplished. This reminded me a lot of how Dr. Hatch taught his class. I liked how the activities were separated into random groups and then were required to work together to solve a problem. We had to step outside our comfort zones and learn to rely on each other's strengths. Which is a lot like how a middle school classroom should be taught. The purpose of all of these activities were to show us that students can work together to solve common problems and seek out answers to questions. Teachers do not necessarily have to give students the answers. If young adolescents are engaged in their learning, they are going to want to seek out the answers themselves. So, I may not remember everything that was discussed throughout the day. However, I can say that it help reinforce a lot of what I learned throughout my time at ISU (and ICC) and to see that it works everywhere, especially in San Antonio.
A couple other notes about the retreat: Everyone won a door prize, including me. Ironically enough, it was a $50 gift certificate to HuHot Mongolian Grill. I was just telling Jayma that I was crazing FlatTop and it turned out that HuHot was a stir fry restaurant. So guess where we went to dinner that night? Oh, I forgot to mention that the San Antonio Silver Stars mascot, came that morning to get the retreat started. It was a lot of fun. I was really impressed by the time and effort the administrative staff and other teachers put in to make this retreat a success. There seems to a good reported between the administration and teachers and it was shown that day. Any successful school needs EVERYONE to be on the same page if they want their students to shine. Rawlinson seems to reflect that exact sentiment.
Once the retreat was over, I headed home, showered and got ready for dinner at HuHot. Once we found it (I actually got us lost, not GIPS), we proceeded to have an outstanding dinner. If only Sara Bay was there to join us b/c I know how much she loves stir fry like Jayma and myself. After dinner, we did a little more shopping (you'd be surprised how much stuff you need to buy if you can only get so much stuff in a car). We went to Walmart and Jayma got a picture of me being goofy. After that, we went home and found a visitor on our patio door. After a few days of non-stop running around, we both crashed early.
Another tidbit...We saw this cute, little, fluffy, silver cat walking around meowing. Well, I decided to give it some milk b/c I thought it might be thirsty. Well, not the brightest thing to do b/c then the cat stayed outside all night and meowed. Of course, Jayma's bedroom is right next to the door so she may have heard the cat. Jayma didn't like the cat but we ended up naming it Allergy b/c she's allergic. We call it Allie for short. I wanted to take her in but Jayma said no. Allie had to go back home.
ROOM UPDATE: Day 3 and the room is still a mess and I am not unpacked all the way!
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