P.R. for the H.R.

**Disclaimer**
I have a job. I love my students. My last post alluded to some of the frustrations I have been having with said job. I have begun more actively searching for a new job. Not because I don't like where I'm at. I am not full time where I am at. I want to be full time. I want to be taken seriously and not taken for granted like I am at my current job. The interview I am talking about is for a job that wouldn't start until next August so it isn't like I am abandoning my current job. I just wanted you all to know this. The real post can begin now.

Today I did my hair. This is a rare occasion. I like to save it for special days so that it means more. "Oh Amy did her hair there must be something really important today!" Or maybe I'm just lazy. It is much faster to just spray a bunch of product in my unruly hair and pretend like it's "done". I know I'm not fooling anyone but it just takes so long to straighten. I know it's been too long since I've put effort into my hair when people are convinced I've cut it or dyed it when all I've done is straighten it. But this is only part of my story today......

Today I was supposed to have a job interview. It was a special occasion so I did my hair. I wore heels. Teaching in heels isn't a fabulous idea. Walking down the halls in heels draws way too much attention to yourself from the classrooms you pass. (Is that a horse I hear coming down the hall?) I was supposed to have this interview before Thanksgiving but they had to reschedule because the administrator who wanted to be present couldn't make it to the first interview. I told them I am already teaching and would need to schedule an afternoon interview. You would think that this would be a pretty standard request when interviewing teachers for a teaching position on a school day...."I teach at a school across the valley currently can I schedule an afternoon interview?" "Sure. How is 12:30 on Tuesday." Seriously? Luckily that was the interview they decided to reschedule and so a 3:30 interview was looking much better. I did my hair, wore my heels and put my phone in my bag, in a filling cabinet while I taught. Because good teachers don't conduct telephone business while teaching. Which is why I was surprised when I checked my phone at 1:00 and saw that the scheduler had tried to call me multiple times during the morning. She left a message saying I needed to come a half hour early or tomorrow. I got permission to leave early so I could make it. I called and she didn't answer. I called again a half hour later and she said that my early option was no longer an option, so she rescheduled with me for next Friday. (with no option for tomorrow like her message said) She had the exact same reasons as last time. The other interviewer couldn't make it.

Where is the communication? Shouldn't the scheduler be checking with the interviewer before scheduling? If an administrator is agreeing to an interview time and then canceling repeatedly is this a good sign? I had many struggles with this same district over the summer and have actually been trying to schedule this interview since last March but have been getting the run around since then. Even in school as future educators when discussing job opportunities with current educators this district was never spoken highly of. Sure the schools are nice. Sure the teachers are good. Sure the kids tend to be highly motivated and well supported. But every time they talk about the district it was negative. (Think about it... I'm sure if you pay attention to the news and talk of education you know which district I'm talking about... what have you heard? making decisions without talking to the community, taking away retirement money from long time teachers or forcing them into early retirement...) So here is what I think. I think the H.R. department needs some P.R. training. (Ashley? You on this?) Stop treating the "customer" badly when that customer is actually the person who will be teaching your children. Because when you treat teachers badly, they go elsewhere or they never come at all.

Unfortunately, with the way the job market is these days, I'll take the job in a heart beat and the run around will be validated to them.

Not feeling witty...

I have been trying to think of something to write about, but I haven't had many adventures lately and I haven't been feeling witty so deciding what to write in posts is hard. To make it worse the last 2 weeks in church we've had journal writing lessons. That just makes me feel like I REALLY should think of something to write. So I'm taking a page out of my cousin Ashley's blog and I'm going to make a list of some highs in my life right now. I'm not going to list the lows because I know what they are and so does most everyone, but that's not where my focus needs to be right now.


1. My students tried to nominate me for a teaching award even after I told them I wasn't eligible since I'm not a full-time teacher. They were "sticking it to the man".

2. We've started talking seriously about where we are going when we leave the home we're in now. It will be hard, but I'm getting really excited about the possibility of owning my own home.

3. Our ward is awesome and I have met some of the kindest most caring women. They remind me of my mother and are exactly the kind of women I want to be.

4. A woman I was talking to in a professional setting (she will remain nameless) burped under her breath and apologized then said, "only not really because I love that feeling. Do you drink Diet Coke?"

5. Driving home today I turned on Ben Folds louder than usual and I sang as loud as possible. I laughed through my tears at the irony of the "black tears running down my face" while I tried to remember that life could be so much harder and that I really am truly blessed.

6. Tonight I made dinner, NOT from a box. We even had side dishes. We ate fruit muffins and the fruit wasn't canned pineapple and mandarin oranges. It was kiwis and blackberries and fresh pineapple and bananas. (Thanks Jackie for leaving the fruit here!)

7. People like me dang it! And I'm cute!

Ninjas vs. Pirates The great debate

So I gave my first "official" test last week. The students did fairly well, especially the ones who studied. There was also an extra credit question at the end of the test to help them out. The question was: "Which is better, Ninjas or Pirates? Support your answer." I've never seen 9th graders willingly write as much as they did. I got full page responses on the merits of both ninjas ans pirates. Any debate coach really should use this topic. I was impressed with the responses that I got and it led to a discussion on forming your own opinions and I even was able to sneak in a little soap-box on being an informed voter. We talked about listening to both sides of an argument and forming an opinion while still respecting the other sides views. Here are a few of the responses that got this discussion started:

One girl arguing for ninjas said,"Ninjas get to wear awesome black outfits that look good, while pirates look like they shopped a terrible thrift store."
Another girl arguing for pirates said, "Pirates get to wear colorful beautiful clothes while ninjas wear boring, drab, black."

One girl arguing for ninjas said,"Ninjas can kill you with their bare hands."
A boy who chose pirates said,"Pirates have guns and can shoot ninjas before they are close enough to use their bare hands."

One boy who liked ninjas said,"Ninjas train for years and are very skilled."
Another boy who liked pirates said, "Pirates don't have to work so hard, they just find treasure, drink rum and float in their boats."

So as you can see, there is no right or wrong answer. But I really was surprised that nearly all the arguments were the same argument just opposite sides of the opinion.

And since I know you are dying to know. Ninjas won in one class and pirates in the other. But over all Pirates took the lead.

Flashback Friday: Lokalgrown

When I first moved out of my parents house I moved into a house with 2 of my cousins. Megan and Ashley are fabulous and I am lucky that I have the kind of extended family that you can live with! My cousin Ashley is a few years older than Megan and I and so she already knew everyone who was anyone in Logan. She had all sorts of hookups around town and was always bringing us with her to parties and concerts. She kept us really busy and taught us the ways of college life. Ashley happened to be friends with a group of guys who were in a band named Lokalgrown. Their music is awesome and they were THE band when it came to USU bands. Ashley happened to be their Public Relations specialist which meant that as her roommates Megan and I got to go to every concert they had and sell their shirts! This photo is of Megan and I with one of our other roommates (her name was also Ashley but she wasn't our cousin). This was about 2 days after I moved in and it was my first Lokalgrown concert. It was the 4th of July party in South Jordan back in 2004. We loved going to their shows and we were sad when they graduated and left USU. Their drummer was one of our good friends, Keith. He is currently the band teacher at Layton high school. Last week for a band fundraiser Keith got the boys together and Lokalgrown had a concert. A couple of the original band members live out of state and so they were replaced by fabulous singers and guitarists from the area. The show was fabulous and I was glad I got to share a lokalgrown concert with Brad since he never got to hear them in Logan.

TLAPD

Last year my favorite holiday fell on a Friday and so I did a Flashback Friday about it. This year since I've already told you how this holiday came about and one way I've celebrated I thought I ought to help you celebrate it yourselves.

I am of course talking about International (that's right, we see no borders when it comes to celebrating this holiday) Talk Like a Pirate Day. So to help you talk like a pirate I have stolen this list of terms you may or may not be aware of to help increase your pirate vocabulary. First off is the basics:

Ahoy! - "Hello!"

Avast! - Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise, "Whoa! Get a load of that!" which today makes it more of a "Check it out" or "No way!" or "Get off!"

Aye! - "Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did."

Aye aye! - "I'll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over."

Arrr! - This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. "Arrr!" can mean, variously, "yes," "I agree," "I'm happy," "I'm enjoying this beer," "My team is going to win it all," "I saw that television show, it sucked!" and "That was a clever remark you or I just made." And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!

Once you've mastered the basics, you're ready to start expanding your pirate vocabulary. Try these for starters:

Beauty – The best possible pirate address for a woman. Always preceded by “me,” as in, “C’mere, me beauty,” or even, “me buxom beauty,” to one particularly well endowed. You’ll be surprised how effective this is.

Bilge rat – The bilge is the lowest level of the ship. It’s loaded with ballast and slimy, reeking water. A bilge rat, then, is a rat that lives in the worst place on the ship. On TLAP Day – A lot of guy humor involves insulting your buddies to prove your friendship. It’s important that everyone understand you are smarter, more powerful and much luckier with the wenches than they are. Since bilge rat is a pretty dirty thing to call someone, by all means use it on your friends.

Bung hole – Victuals on a ship were stored in wooden casks. The stopper in the barrel is called the bung, and the hole is called the bung hole. That’s all. It sounds a lot worse, doesn’t it? On TLAP Day – When dinner is served you’ll make quite an impression when you say, “Well, me hearties, let’s see what crawled out of the bung hole.” That statement will be instantly followed by the sound of people putting down their utensils and pushing themselves away from the table. Great! More for you!

Grog – An alcoholic drink, usually rum diluted with water, but in this context you could use it to refer to any alcoholic beverage other than beer, and we aren’t prepared to be picky about that, either. Call your beer grog if you want. We won’t stop you! Water aboard ship was stored for long periods in slimy wooden barrels, so you can see why rum was added to each sailor’s water ration – to kill the rancid taste. On TLAP Day – Drink up, me hearties! And call whatever you’re drinking grog if you want to. If some prissy pedant purses his lips and protests the word grog can only be used if drinking rum and water, not the Singapore Sling you’re holding, keelhaul him!

Hornpipe – Both a single-reeded musical instrument sailors often had aboard ship, and a spirited dance that sailors do.

Lubber – (or land lubber) This is the seaman’s version of land lover, mangled by typical pirate disregard for elocution. A lubber is someone who does not go to sea, who stays on the land. On TLAP Day – More likely than not, you are a lubber 364 days of the year. But not if you’re talking like a pirate! Then the word lubber becomes one of the more fierce weapons in your arsenal of piratical lingo. In a room where everyone is talking like pirates, lubber is ALWAYS an insult.

Smartly – Do something quickly. On TLAP Day – “Smartly, me lass,” you might say when sending the bar maid off for another round. She will be so impressed she might well spit in your beer.

So to all my Brethren of the Coast, here's to hoping today be not the day we dance with Jack Ketch! And to all you land lubbers, talk like a pirate or walk the plank!

Flashback Friday: Phlegmily

When I was in High School I had many best friends. In fact chances are, if you read this blog and I knew you in high school you were at one point probably my best friend. Actually chances are if you read this and I knew you EVER, you were probably at one point my "best friend from..." whatever it was I knew you from. It's true, just ask my Father-in-law. (by the way he's pretty much my best friend out of all my father-in-laws) But this story is about one particular best friend. Her name is Emily Llewellyn Dabczynski Bell and her favorite letter of the alphabet is the letter L.

Emily moved to Utah from upstate New York when we were in 10th grade. We had a class together that year but unfortunately we didn't really get to know each other then. Our junior year we had English together and yet, we still didn't realize that we were meant to BFF's. At one point she wrote about me in her journal (she is an avid journal writer) and she referred to me as "Amy Fleming, Junior Class President" because that was all I was to her at that point in our lives.

And then all that changed.

Our senior year we were both assigned to be secretaries for our high schools Acappella choir. We spent a lot of time sitting in the choir office, making seating charts, giving grades, and keeping track of all of the 160+ students in the class. We realized we should have been friends all along and here is a short list of some of the reasons why we were destined to be friends:

• We are pretty much the same person. Pretty much.
  
• We had the same nicname. They were spelled different, but had the same effect. Flem and Phlegm.
• We both love Pirates. She loves them so much she decided to be born on Talk Like a Pirate Day!
• We both love making lists.
  
• People have been calling me Emily accidentally my whole life. Even before we found each other and even if they don't know we are pretty much the same person!
• We would unknowingly buy all the same style of clothes and accidentally wear them the same day. Except for yearbook signing day and graduation when we planned to wear the same thing so that we would be the same in all our pictures.
  

The reason I decided to reminisce about Emily is not only because tomorrow is her birthday and I love her, but because she recently took "the big plunge" and got married and I got to share her special day with her and I am so happy that she is so happy! So happy birthday Mrs. Bell and lets please see each other sometime sooner rather than later.

Crafting

Right before I got my job I did another sewing project. My aunt made one of these for my mom and she has been the envy of every lady who has seen it since. It is a first aid kit. I'm planning on keeping mine in my car but my mom keeps hers in her purse. You just need a pot holder and a handful of ziplock bags.

You just sew the bags to the hot pad and then you sew a button on the front of the hot pad so you can link the loop around it.


Brad wants one for his car but he wants me to find a hot pad with a superhero on it... I think I may just have to sew some superhero fabric over a hot pad.


I am also an activity day leader in my ward and I think I'm going to make these with the girls.