Out of Order

Oh, did we get back into the swing of things when school started again.

Firstly, we're in production in six classes for Parent Day, and that means three different types of presentations, two scripts, endless pair scripts and monologues, various speech exercises and so on. In the middle of that, everyone seems to want me for something else, but more of that later.

Today's older class was excruciating. Of the eight students that are on the roll, five showed by class time. Our play requires all eight members, so we couldn't work on that. The speech work planned we did get to cover, but I'll have to reteach next week to the other ones, and this is a 32 line piece complete with motions and variations in pace, pitch, and energy. Ugh. Their pair scripts went very well, which gives me some hope for Parent Day. The biggest challenge is getting them focused. When I entered the room, all of them were on their knees and genuflected, saying "All Hail the Mighty Fish!"

OK, I admit, that was funny.

Most of the other classes are okay, but nothing I am too confident about. I'll lose a third class after January, as there are too few students to keep it open. That's one of the sub classes I picked up, and I'm not too sorry to see it go. How can you have a class with two kids in it? You just can't, though I've done it. Until then, we'll work on some pieces for an end of January Parent Day and then close the class. I want to blow them out of the water at that one so that everyone feels bad they wouldn't get their kids to class on time each week. (So there, nyahhhh.)

At the same time as all this, there are school things as usual, and election things approaching. One day this week I had one friend drop by to chat coupons for 5 minutes (when I was going to nap) and then two people over right after school for different things. One was letting her granddaughter try on my stage to see if she could earn money for pageants that way, and another wanted all the info on elections and primaries I could give him in five minutes. Yikes.

Shockingly (not) the PTA meeting was cancelled, and no sign of a reschedule in sight. This probably means no carnival. The president really needs to be removed, but this late in the game nobody wants to take her on. It's agonizing. And it's only going to get worse.

My friend J, who was there when I got the true story about being maligned, is in a dither. She's worked herself up over the incident and has decided to insist that I get a formal apology at the next meeting. What triggered it is a chance meeting at a restaurant with a peripheral member. They were talking PTA and the member declared she wouldn't be active in PTA because of the politics. When J pressed for examples, the lady referred to me and that incident. This was a full two months later. So J spent ten minutes setting the lady straight, at which the lady declared she was going home to make phone calls about this.

I'm STILL trying to live this down, and what ticked J off is this: when the president called me out over it (and I denied it) she didn't even have her facts straight, which a simple visit to the nurse would have accomplished. So far bad, but understandable. What was worse was when J walked into a meeting of the HOA a few days later, everyone THERE knew about the episode. Now, how, she asks, could that have gotten around without the president spreading it?

Well, I know; the president heard it from the Fundraising chair who misheard it, embellished it and then spread it far and wide, and didn't take the detour to the nurse before jumping me over it. For the record, J found out who did it and it was our old dear friend S, but again I got tarred with that brush.

Can't wait to see the sparks fly.

Oh, and the title for this post, which is what I logged in to blog about in the first place? I'm studying for the National Association of Parliamentarians exam, so my brain is awash in procedural technical jargon. I'll take it in a month but until then I'll be making motions and calling "Point of Order" in my sleep.