Busy, Busy Day...

So, I know it seems like I'm always saying things are busy here in Chicago, but today was a topper. I started my day late--I slept in purposefully until 7:00 am. Then I ran off to school, getting my first mailing together for all of the school teachers. I taught three sections of general music and distributed treats as part of my new incentive system (and I also wrote a couple of notes home as part of my deterent system). During my lunch hour, I set up the PA system in the lunch room to prepare to calm the lunch room. Chowed my lunch, read about Taruskin's new book (The Oxford History of Western Music), and finally, ran off to my lunch duty. On duty I tried to corral 150 kids into orderly lunchroom behavior. Then I taught four more classes of general music to bilingual kindergarteners and the such. Finally, I performed my first teacher observation as part of my practicum program to become a principal. Once the school day was over, I put together my second mailing for the music teachers in the district. At 4:15, I finished addressing and sending my fifteen letters and I rushed out of the door to teach my trumpet lesson half-way across the city. On my way home, I stopped by Sears and bought a new outdoor patio set (to be picked up later). Once home, I slammed down some food and ran off to my principal's meeting at my graduate school. We interviewed a CPS principal and met in small groups to discuss our progress in the program. Then, (while trying to keep my car from overheating), I drove up to Evanston for a dress rehearsal with the Northshore Concert Band.

Now I'm home, eating a salad and a hardboiled egg, very pleased with everything that was accomplished today, but bummed that I didn't get to see my buddy Matthew while he was in town. I would have loved to have joined him for a reuben at the Artists Cafe.

Off to bed to do it again tomorrow!

New Portfolio Site

As part of my master's practicum, I needed to develop an administrative/teaching portfolio. Rather than create something in a book, I decided to put the portfolio online so that I can add some interactive elements like video, guestbooks, online recommendations, etc. It's nowhere near complete, but check it out and tell me what you think so far: N. Pedretti Portfolio

Henderson the Rain King

I took an old reading suggestion to heart this weekend and took to reading Eric's favorite Saul Bellow novel. Henderson is a beast of a man, drunken, cross, inappropriate, maladjusted, and one hell of a wealthy man. In his quest to find himself, he sets off to Africa with his friend Charlie to try to calm the voice in his head that pleads "I want, I want, I want."

In one part of the story, Henderson recounts the library he inherited from his wealthy father. If books weren't valuable enough for their ideas, Bellow furthers the metaphor by having Henderson's father use money as book marks. As he opens books, money literally falls out of them, even old yellowed big backs--a reference I interpret to mean an older type of money. What a clever way to highlight the value of books!

I took my first master's exam this morning and five blue books later, two exam questions answered, I've confidently completed my first assessment. Hopefully, I answered the questions to the level that they required, but I know full well, there was plenty more that could have been written. So now we wait for the results.

Congrats to Irena for her acceptance into an MBA program! Matthew good to hear from you. Joe, how about that album? Chris, update your blog buddy.

Thursday evening with Mark and Saul (the chocolate lab)