About Work

Maybe in the last two weeks, I've been feeling very inspired by what I do. I spend a lot of time networking and visiting schools. I mainly work with one middle school and then I run a group for parents. Working with these parents is hard work! They are so demanding and they don't get along with each other. I finally got the courage up to tell one parent, Mr. A, "Yo no soy de acuerdo con Ud. Con todo respeto, pero las cosas no deben ser asi." They keep telling me that it is my job to make sure that ALL parents are informed about EVERYTHING we do and say. I keep reinforcing that they are elected representatives and that they actually share (most) of the responsibility for informing the other parents. They keep asking, "Y el plan? Que vas a traer a nuestras escuelas?" Again, I try to make it clear that when they voted to join The Partnership, they voted for more voice and shared decision making and that means it's not my job to come in and tell them what I will do. Action, TOGETHER... On Friday evening, I had a meeting with them and they kept me there one hour longer than I had planned. I didn't get home until 8:00pm. The parents at my school are so cute. They love me up all the time. They even call me Raque, Raquelito, Chiquita, and Flaquita. I get tons of hugs and kisses.

I have begun to create a team of English Learner (EL) coordinators who will work with me to change the way we service EL students in our classrooms. The majority of ELs in our schools have been in the system since early elementary. Yet, when they get to middle and high school, they are still being placed in ESL classes. It makes no sense to me. They are using the ESL program more like a remediation program rather than a language intervention. And you should see the text books they use in the ESL classes. If I were a 16 year old, I would be insulted and offended. (*If you visit the site, pay attention to the simplicity of the language and remember, you grew up here.) It's no wonder that kids wander aimlessly through the halls instead of being in class.

I have firmly established myself as the "creative" one in the office. This earned me my own official copy of Adobe Creative Suite CS3. Last week, I created a non-bureaucratic organizational chart to share with our community that illustrates, in a simple way, who we are and who to call for certain issues. We service schools in 4 areas: Curriculum & Instruction, Connecting Communities, Development & Partnerships, and Operations. (I work in the two areas of Curriculum & Instruction and Connecting Communities.) Now, I'm designing this folder/document that will allow students and parents to do self-planning and managing of their 4 years at high school. I hope that it will take some of the power away from counselors in deciding what students can and can't take. The folder is the tool that will support the process of students coming to the school to insist on the course of study they want. I also designed the letterhead for some major fund raising efforts that are starting up next month.

I've also started an extended conversation with my teachers about the role of surveillance cameras in schools and what they implicitly tell kids we think about them. Do cameras really make schools safer? What makes us think that?...