I love my job!

I absolutely, positively love my job!  It combines my love of teaching, learning, reading and traveling into daily adventures that are enjoyable for me.  My month of July is very flexible.  We were given a "To Do" list in June and told that the items on that list needed to be completed, and it was just up to us to manage our time to get them done.  Several of the items on the list fall under the "read and study" category.  No hardship for me!  I love to read...including professional material...and learning about what is up and coming in education is very interesting for me.  The other items fall under what I would call the "meet and greet" category.

Last week my partner and I spent one morning calling the districts assigned to us to set up meetings with our superintendents.  Between the two of us we have twenty three districts in six different counties in northern and northwestern Oklahoma.  We don't have all of the districts in all of those counties, but pretty close.  We have all of Garfield and Alfalfa counties and portions of Major, Grant, Kay and Noble counties.  Our districts are as far west as Fairview and as far east as Newkirk.  Our farthest point south is Waukomis and our farthest point north is Braman.  My partner and I have divided up the districts as far as who will be their primary coach, but both of us will be familiar with all of the districts and available to them if needed.

Today was our first day on the road and I loved it!  We drove through the western section of our region, visiting Ringwood, Aline, Cherokee, Burlington and Helena.  I felt the same relaxation and excitement that I did when I set off on my road trip back in March.  We only had about thirty minutes between locations, with the exception of our last leg back into Enid.  At each stop we met secretaries, superintendents and principals that we will be working with this year.  We scheduled professional development presentations and began getting a feel for the strengths and needs of our districts.  In the car we were able to brainstorm ideas about our upcoming presentations and work on our plans for the next few weeks.

We stopped in Cherokee for lunch today and both agreed that the best place to eat when you're in small towns is a local diner or cafe.  We found just such a place in downtown Cherokee called The Fat Hen Cafe. I'm pretty sure we turned the heads of everyone in there when we came in with our bags, binders, notepads and calendars intending to stay for a while.  I refrained from ordering the cheeseburger...although I'm sure it was very tasty.  In keeping with my weight loss efforts I had a salad.  When we left however, my partner was convinced that we probably smelled like cheeseburgers.  Like a true diner, the fragrance of grilled meat hung heavily in the air.  The fear that the smell clung to our clothes was a valid one.

That concern (knowing we had meetings all afternoon) prompted my creation for this evening.  We need a road trip kit!  We decided there were some must have's for spending most of the day in the car going from town to town.  Some of the must have's that made the list....hand sanitizer, back up make up, perfume (or Febreze...so we don't smell like a cheeseburger), gum, GPS and some basic office supplies.  If you've followed me on facebook you know I have the writing implements handled!

Here's what I came up with...

I'm sure I've included a couple of things we won't use, I know there are things that I forgot and we're each responsible for our own make-up, but here's a start to my mobile office.  Can't wait to get back on the road tomorrow!