When You Having Nothing Good To Say, Say Nothing At All

It's true.  I haven't posted anything for awhile.  Why you ask?  Well, I'm disgruntled, and I have generally held to the theory of keeping quiet on the ole blog if I could get myself in trouble with my thoughts.  Upon request of a loyal follower, though, I have emerged once again.

• The school district I work for has frustrated me.  The plan for an extended school day to make up for all the snow days we have experienced leaves me disappointed in the leadership.  Our plan at the high school is to add five minutes to each class period to each school day after Spring Break.  The plan really doesn't accomplish much of anything in making up for lost instructional time.  It does give the school district a "win" over the teachers' association - who had declined adding more days to the calendar because there wasn't a fair way to complete that. Perhaps, too, the district accomplished a "feel good" public relations moment in its ability to publicly state that all the time lost during snow days will be made up.  If those were the goals of this plan, I suppose those objectives were accomplished.  Honestly, though, my initial frustration was over the hypocrisy of the first public letter that went out to the community, which emphasized a "value of instructional time" within the district.  Let me tell you, on a monthly, weekly, and often times daily basis, our students are excused for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with classroom instructional time, and I've never seen the district attempt to gain that time back.  I routinely have students gone on "family vacations" during the school year, and that doesn't seem to be a problem.  In addition, I've lost nine days of instructional time because the English Department has been forced to complete MAP testing, which up to this point has been a waste of time.  Also, we routinely have teacher development days and professional development half days that have yet to EVER discuss student performance data towards school improvement.  Finally, the district didn't have a problem reducing junior high language arts instruction in half five years ago due to budget cuts - what's the plan to get that time back?  I voiced all of these thoughts to our superintendent and school board members.  The superintendent courteously and respectfully listened to my concerns, and one board member was kind enough to respond to my email message to him.  Perhaps I at least subliminally felt better voicing my frustrations at least.
• The basketball officiating post-season has concluded for me.  It was a great run, and I was pleased and blessed to receive seven post-season assignments.  It's always bittersweet in the post-season because the selection process is somewhat confusing.  Some officials are selected over other officials that are more qualified, and it just doesn't make sense.  The IHSA has a process in place to help select the most qualified to work post-season, but years of experience seems to trump other factors.  Don't get me wrong, experience is an important qualification, but there are a lot of more experienced officials that just simply aren't as effective as others that don't get selected.
• I've started a new eating plan, which I'm now getting use to, but so far hasn't really produced results that I'm hoping for.  I'm going to stick with it, though, and see how it goes.  The official name is "intermittent fasting", which I think is more of mind over matter.  I know fasting has to slow down metabolism, and I'm charting my progress.  To no surprise, simply not eating for 16 hours doesn't really do much to help me lose weight unless I incorporate exercise and stretching and some strength training into my day.  Exercise is easy to accomplish when I'm officiating - not as easy when I'm between seasons.
• The weather we are having in my area continues to amaze me.  Monday morning, March 4 is suppose to feel morning wind chill temperatures of -20 to -30.  By that date, my first softball game to umpire is ten days away.  Ya, right.  
• While my basketball officiating season is over, "March Madness" is in full swing.  The time off from officiating and umpiring during this break gives me the opportunity to watch a lot of basketball.  And between that and political parties going after each other relentlessly, there is a lot of stuff on the tube.  I find myself switching back-and-forth between channels during breaks of the game to see the "breaking news" on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX NEWS.
• Okay...got to go.  Brooklyn is here, and getting to play with a one-year old is a priority!