It's Been One of Those Weeks

Have you ever had "one of those weeks"?  You know, the kind where everything that can go wrong does? Where all of your plans are shattered, repeatedly? Where you want to cuss, cry, and eat chocolate?

It has been THAT sort of week for me. There are papers piled on my desk, waiting to be graded; actually, they are stashed away in a drawer because I didn't want the sub to walk in on Friday and think that I do nothing. The house is a train wreck - who can clean when having a bad week? And my truck??? After several days of freezing and thawing on a gravel road and hauling things to various activities, it MUST be cleaned, inside and out, today! And even though Lovey gave them both a bath on Wednesday night, these two dogs smell like, well, stinky dogs.

But these are just side notes, not the reasons for a crazy week.

Last year, our gifted and talented program was monitored. Seems harmless right? My G/T coordinator, Reasa, came by with the monitor-lady, introduced us, and we commenced with small chit-chat. A short time later, the two moved on down the hall. After said monitoring was over, Reasa came back by and asked me to consider presenting at the AGATE conference (This is the yearly meeting where teachers and parents of gifted students from across the state gather to discuss and promote gifted education.). Next year always seems so far away doesn't it?  And anything seems possible next year.

Well, next year hit me right square in the jaw this week.

What's that line the best laid plans of mice and men? I had formatted the plan in my head, I had discussed the plan with Reasa, I had proposed the plan to AGATE, the committee had accepted the plan, but the plan just refused to come together this week. I had the best little computer guru's on campus working diligently to help me with my problems. It just wouldn't come together. Video clips could not be found, memory cards were misplace, video clips were discovered (but only a few), oh wait, more were located, but they wouldn't open in the editing program - it was a roller coaster ride all week. But I must say, those kids worked on it all week long. And I am eternally indebted to them for their dedication to the plan.

I walked away Thursday afternoon with several unedited video clips saved to my external hard drive, my laptop, and a mac borrowed from EAST lab (never having touched a  mac - I wasn't comforted much by this), and hopes that something would work out.

(This post seems to be growing rather long - imagine my week!)

We arrived at the Peabody, hauled everything up to the room, filled Reasa in on the whole the plan isn't going as planned idea, and (here's where things started to look up for me) met up with a dear, long-lost friend and went to dinner. Yep, I dumped the two computers and the video files and went to eat a yummy dinner and share a few hours of conversation with friends - it was great!

After dinner, we went back to the room, hauled out those computers and went to work. With Megan's help, I managed to put together a powerpoint on the mac which included those unedited video clips. I went to sleep knowing that we finally had something that resembled the earlier plan ready for the presentation at 9:00 am. Not to be redundant, but...the best laid plans of mice and men.... At about 8:50, Reasa and I went in to the conference room to set up; only to discover the projector cord for hooking up the computer was not mac compatible, go figure! Reasa went on a hunt and located a tech guy. He said he could get a converter. He did - it didn't fit! With only a few minutes before the presentation would start, I was back on that dang roller coaster! While Reasa was doing the introduction and lead-in, he came back with the correct converter. I am starting to have a very deep connection with computer gurus!

The presentation flew by. I hope that something I said made sense.  No matter what I did, I was very proud to show off my students' work. They are an impressive bunch and made me look good. I'll have to do something nice for them next week - maybe a week of no homework.

After the presentation was over I had a few minutes to update my facebook status and was surprised to have another dear and long-lost friend comment that she too was at the conference.  We met for a quick visit just before lunch.

The luncheon brought the conference to a close and also brought about a happy end to a very stressful week. I had spent the last night at a swanky hotel with two very helpful co-workers, had the chance to catch up with friends from my past, and my dessert at the luncheon was the yummiest chocolate cake ever!

I already have next year's plan swirling around in my head! That really was some good chocolate cake.