MATRIX JOURNAL: The Lost Day

I forgot to send this out yesterday.
So, I came in extra early at 8:30am yesterday in order to join an interview and observe a lesson. The guy flakes and I was so annoyed.

Anyways, after that, I went over all the Spanish requests and grades again to make sure that I had placed all students properly and surprisingly some new numbers come up. I started to go over all the seniors to make sure that they had the classes that they needed to graduate. I'll e-mail the new numbers separately.

Then, Ricardo and Eric come into my office and the rest of the afternoon was spent looking over GPA, senior rankings, Latin honors, weighted and unweighted GPA. Then Ms. Harada comes and we started to look at Science specifically and found that we need 1 more section.

The afternoon was spent planning with Yolanda on Senior Institute Advisory plans. A lot of good stuff happened with differentiation between Juniors and Seniors. Next step is to begin to synthesize a binder that would create the advisory curriculum. Some great stuff around service learning was flushed out. It wasn't just some meaningless task of having to perform community service but one that included research, creating baseline, an action plan, reflection and a report back to the overall community. It looks rich! I'll email that initial plan separately.

MATRIX JOURNAL: The Blue Screen of Death and I need a break!

Hello everyone!

Wow, do I need a break!?! The blue screen of death (SIS) is starting to get to me. I know it's just tedious repetitive work but looking over student schedules is so nuanced that a few grade changes here and there will change the entire matrix make-up.

First, I was able to make all the course adjustments accounting for the final grades for Biology, Chemistry, Spanish (all levels), Korean (all levels), Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, Trig.

On Tuesday, I will be looking at every single senior's transcripts to make sure that they have the right classes plugged in. I will also be looking at 8th grade Math grades to see who needs the Math Intervention courses. I will also be checking all the ESL students to make sure that they all have correct schedules.

Be prepared for changes in numbers. And be prepared for more changes when they come back from summer school with credits.

Second, I have not heard from Michelle Hernandez and because of this, I have no records from our incoming FEEDER schools. I called Local District 4 to make a plea for help but all I am getting is voicemail. I am not sure how to service these incoming students.

I planned with Yolanda and Javier some workshops for the 8th grade bridge around high school credits and the A-G requirements and it should give the students an idea of how important the high school classes are going to be.

Got to to see Kim today and she is an amazing friend for listening to me verbally puke out frustrations. Thanks girl!

Well, I have tomorrow and Monday off so I will work on all this some more on Tuesday.

Some interesting news, I will be guest lecturing at UCLA's Principal Leadership Program on Matrix creation and the ASCA national model and standards next week. Woohoo! I get to hobnob with professors! That is my ultimate professional goal: professorship!

Also! I am inviting everyone to the Soka Gakkai International's Southeast Asian Festival. It's free! I will be performing (and choreographing) Pandanggo sa Ilaw at Oasiwas and I will be playing with a San Diego kulintang (Philippine gamelan) ensemble. If you need tickets, please let me know ASAP as it will be packed.

MATRIX JOURNAL: Chasing Pavements... sigh!

I'm not an Adele fan, but I'd like to quote her for today:

"Should I give up, or should I just keep chasing pavement, even if it leads nowhere..."

This was today's anthem, I felt like giving up from this daunting task. And it has been an anthem just career-wise for the past 6 months, it feels like.

Well, depending on TPTB, the gridlock in 7th and 8th grade may be solved. I was able to work on 9th grade today and so far the matrix has been created for 6th to 9th. Moreso, the matrix has been created so that the electives do not dictate grouping for the core-classes. Of course, this could all change depending on the re-check-up for Math, Science and Spanish as well as the Feeder schools.

First up, was checking all the final grades from Biology and Chemistry, then all the grades from Algebra 1 and from Geometry. It was quite headache inducing. However, numbers look like they have changed for Algebra 1A, Algebra 1B and Geometry. I just finished printing all the grades for Spanish and Korean and will be working on them tomorrow as well as Algebra 2 and Trig and seniors. It's not fun having to re-check all the student's course requests all over again but it has to be done. Specially for the seniors!

Next was checking on the grades from our Feeder schools, Young Oak Kim, Berendo, Virgil and all the other middle schools. So, there is a snafu in that none of the second semester grades are in from any schools. Furthermore, no grades for the entire year has come from Young Oak Kim. The entire 8th grade year is completely blank for YOKA. I called YOKA and none of their administrator will be in until August and the clerical staff said they didn't know how to do it. At Hamilton and Westchester, it's always been a clerical function. What is it with Local District 4 that basic clerical function cannot be done by clerical staff? I ran a week after we went off and there was nothing to it. I was so frustrated and even said I could walk them through it. They were no help. So I call SIS and they said that the administrators from the schools have to run a simple SIS program called TR22. I don't understand how all the middle schools could have goofed up such an important process.

MATRIX JOURNAL: Grind, Gridlock and Other Necessities...

Ranting ahead! Skip to second paragraph if you just want to see what's up with the matrix.

Hhhmmm... lovely story to continue on the Black Hole Beaudry entry. So, as I was coming from Beaudry, I decided to go to Hi-Fi Town (Historic Filipino Town) and visit some friends at SIPA; instead, I get a wonderful weird explosion of coolant causing a complete stall of my car. So, it had to be towed to my family's mechanic. I was admittedly sad. Oh well. Thank goodness for my ATT Roadside Assistance. Never thought I'd have to use it but it finally came in handy. Anyways, I want to plug my family's mechanic, Atlantic Tires, on Fairfax and Santa Monica. Please ask for Tito and mention me. Very good and efficient mechanic and wonderful people to boot. I guess this misfortune gave me the fortune of going to see Tito.

Anyways, today is a continuation of the gridlock from Thursday. I decided to see what would happen if I allowed 6th, 7th and 8th graders to have the same PE to see if it could accomodate the 1/3rd of the 7th graders and to see if I could accomodate teacher requests. As a result, I had to parcel out the electives away from PE and instead of the 7th graders being shut out of classes, now it was the 8th graders who were locked into one of two electives. I kept trying to make it work and it just wouldn't. I will try to work this out again tonight but it just seems like in order to give everyone their teaching preference, we will have to lock ourselves into a certain schedule which inevitably people will be unhappy with because it means that the electives dictate what classes students take. Long run-on stream-of-consciousness there.

I decided to look away from the matrix and focus in on other tasks needed. I was getting a headache from going in circles with the matrix.

PSAT Documentations needed for fee waivers: faxed!!! Please, please, please, PSAT approve it. Our students need this gosh-darn fee waivers.

Yay! We finally received our WASC letter (we are accredited for K-11th until 2014) and I faxed it over to UCOP! Please hurry up and let us have our accounts so that we can send our course listing to UCOP

NCAA Course Listing: oh, this is going to be another huge task trying to get all these courses over to the NCAA Eligibility Center. As it is, our current 12th grader athletes were supposed to register for the Eligibility Center by the end of their 11th grade year. IF I leanred anything from Westchester High School, this NCAA recruiters don't play! Anyways, if we want our students to play college athletics, we need to get our NCAA butts in gear.

Students made strides with our college database which students compiled for us. I am hoping to do a mass-mailout to colleges to send us their promotional catalogues, brochures, etc. Hopefully, I will use that same database to set-up a whole school college fair. But, I don't want to do it alone by myself for the other schools to benefit and not offered any assistance. I've offered collaboration before and people seem willing not to collaborate. Frustration city! If you want to look at the database and input into the database, looky here!

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtFGKQmm1-FEdG9lV0R1QVJVcWlLbHlkZmV2dUtzbHc&hl=en_US

MATRIX JOURNAL: The Black Hole that is Beaudry

So, in the middle of the Matrix Karmageddon yesterday, I discovered that my e-mail and single sign-on were no longer valid. The SSO was extremely important as it gave me access to MyData information for incoming students. It turns out that my SSO log-in wasn't working anymore because I was no longer on the Human Resources database. I no longer existed. Dr. Flores made some calls and I had to go down to Beaudry to process as a substitute. Sufficed it to say, I was in a terrible depressed state yesterday until I went and chanted at the LA Friendship center. And a Harry Potter night with friends was just what the doctor ordered.

Today was going to be a black hole day. I went down to Beaudry early at 9am and I thought I just had to show up to the Sub Unit. As I suspected, I needed documentation but foolishly did not bring everything. It turns out I needed a TB test. The good thing about being positive (for TB) is that you're constantly getting checked. So, I trekked all the way back home. I grabbed everything and anything: transcripts, old contracts and all if the above. I trekked back to Beaudry to go to the Health unit. Because I am positive, I had to have an x-Ray. It is a good thing that Beaudry had an x-ray technician and after a line I was taken cared of. Now, it was back to the sub-unit and the lady at the counter was rude, rude, rude! It took all I had not to snap back. I told her my principal said that I was going to stay on as the counselor and she said in what seemed to be the most vile attitude, "I don't care what your principal said, you're going to put down what I say." I sat down next to another RIF'd gentleman who got screwed over as well. He was offered another job and turned it down because they had him listed as "Displaced" instead of RIF'd. I told him I had a similar experience. He went up to the lady in the front desk and got the same royal treatment I got. We talked about how he has just bought a home and how his daughter just started college and it really woke me up how RIFs really hurted not just individuals but entirely families. I got called in by another lady to take a picture and she was REALLY NICE. I was really surprised. She and I joked around and she let me take my picture however I wanted. So, here is my picture. A trip to the Beaudry black hole ended with a kind person and this funny picture.

MATRIX JOURNAL: The Karmageddon that halted the Matrix

WALL-OF-TEXT ALERT BUT IMPORTANT!!!

Hello everyone! Happy Summer! I hope that wherever you are summer is treating you just fine. As for me, well, I'm working in my job as a substitute. Less pay for the same work right? Yay me!

Anyways, while I am working on the matrix for Fall, I thought I would share my thoughts regarding the matter. I am titling this one THE KARMAGEDDON!!!

As I began to work on the matrix, looking at the numbers for middle school, everything was going just fine.

6th grade matrix - CHECK! ALL DONE! JUST FINE! Except with a not so bad snafu with PE and Social Justice. BUT IT WORKS

8th/7th grade matrix Scenario 1 (Please look at attachment) - Yay, it works just fine for the teachers. WAIT! STOPPED IN THE TRACKS!!! DO NOT PASS GO! This is where I ran into the problem. The problem is this. The problem lies in that a 1/3rd of the 7th graders would not be able to take PE and 1/3rd of the 7th graders would not be able to take an elective. Also, this would also mean that for the second year in a row, electives and PE dictated where students are placed in their core-classes. I tried many, many different scenarios moving teachers, PE, Electives around and it could not get it to work for 7th grade. A third of the 7th graders would have a hole in their schedule.

8th grade matrix Scenario 2 (Please look at attachment) - Whoa! Everything worked! Core-classes work! Core-classes are freed from being dictated by PE and electives! :-D Great right? NOPE! THE KARMAGEDDON posed another problem! This scenario had English, History and Math teachers teaching during the same period. Aya! This scenario has it so that Nick would not be able to teach both 7th and 8th. This includes the new Social Studies teacher and the NEW Math teacher. Science is unaffected because Bagorio is teaching 11th and 8th. That worked out just fine.

So, I am halted in progressing further as this problem in 7th and 8th grade trickles down to high school.

What to do!?!

Well, I don't know but I'm off to see Harry Potter in 3D and hopefully something magical will happen to this KARMAGEDDON MATRIX.