When does school start for you?? I know in the beginning (first 2-3 weeks) it took my body some time to get used to using the potty so often but I think my bladder got used to it because I drink the same water but don't go as much. Good luck

Thanks for posting. I'm in the same boat. My insurance packet was faxed over to Unicare 2 days ago on Monday so I'm waiting for approval. Kiddos return on Aug 22, I'm supposed to go back Aug 15 for inservice week. If I could just get approval and have surgery within the next 2 weeks I think I can miss the inservice week, and start school the 1st day of school for the kiddos. Otherwise, I too will wait until the weeks between Thanksgiving & Christmas. The Board is changing insurance effective Jan 1 and I'm afraid with all the cost cutting (new superintendent) they'll cut the WLS benefit. I already know of 5 teachers in the district who had WLS last year. I'm afraid to schedule during Christmas break b/c something could happen and it be pushed into Jan. and then no insurance coverage. AHH! I'm sitting her contemplating whether to call the insurance company precert dept. I'm afraid if I bug them they'll hold off on the decision, but if I don't maybe they'll drag their feet anyway. Jackie B.

Hi Carliss, It sounds like you are in a tough position right now. I guess just wait right now until your surgeon gets the letter and calls you to set up a date. I'd say between now and then you should do lots of soul searching and praying, if you pray. I started my paper work for approval in March so I could have my surgery over the summer. I had my surgery 2 days before the end of the school year last year and had the summer to recover. I also have a friend who teaches and she had the surgery over Christmas break and had no trouble what-so-ever. Good luck to you. It's a wonderful journey. Christie

Hi there Thank you all for this information. I teach at an all year charter school. I love it!!! I just start to think the trimester will never end and the kids are driving me insane and preseto--break time. We are off in Dec. April and August. The only time the kids have a problem with the schedule is in July. They are in school and the home boys are on the stoop. I follow my students for 4 years so I had them last year as Freshman, now ans Sophamores next year Juniors etc. Then back to 9th. Yeck. I was wondering if I could schedule sugery in one of my months off. Looks like I can squeek it in. But I have a long time until then. Am just starting so here we go. Sarah

For the past 5 years I have taught 7th and 8th grade computer and we have produced a newspaper in the 8th grade class. ( I have an English background so writing is very important to me.) I get a new group of students every 9 weeks...because it is a vocational survey class. However we used.....Publisher by Microsoft and it was nice....a little complicated at first...Also STARS is a competitor of Microsft and they will allow schools to load their software for free on as many PCs as needed and its very similar to the Publisher. Anyways...some of the things we included in our newspaper editions..... 1) Surveys for the season we entitled it "And the survey said..." and "Is that your final answer?" You can ask about favorite after school snacks...favorite sports/teams/ Holiday/ Christmas food/ ANYTHING your students can think to ask. ( this makes it a paper that belongs to the kids) We did certain questions for certain grade levels. ( I teach in a K-8 building.) 2) We did sections about "Around the Halls of CES" 3) Upcoming Events 4) We did 8th grade features ( since they were the top-dogs in the building) This was a questionaire that they filled out in homeroom and I kept them in a file and every issue we printed some of them ...so that everyone was featured in an issue of the newspaper. If you have too many 8th graders, then just have them do students of the grading period or have teachers nominate those to be featured. (If you do this, try to choose those who don't always get to be picked for things.) 5) Sports section 6)Coach and teacher interviews and highlights 7) I had editors that wrote the opening page.... 8) we did editorials about school issues....( screen the articles before you let them print.... you have the right to nix anything questionable.) 9) We did Music/Movie/Book reviews....Author Features.... 10) Top videos 11) "Around the Community ".....articles of interest 12) Jokes/Riddles/Cartoons page 13) Fun Page of puzzles The thing I reminded my students about was that this was a paper for our students and to never lose sight of who our intended audience was going to be. So you will have to decide that. Some warnings/advice for you.... 1) deadlines are crucial 2) publishing will be stressful 3) final product is rewarding 4) pre-sales help against over-printing 5) selling ads helps defray the costs ( we even sold "Happy Ads" to students around Christmas ....for kids to put in messages to their friends and teachers.) 6) Color costs more So with that....GOODLUCK! Cindy in Ohio