outrageousness

I know I'm not supposed to complain about work, but this is not complaining, this is simple statement of fact.

Several of you are familiar with the idea of a "4x4 block" in high school. You have four classes first semester and then four completely different classes second semester. Most schools study the 4x4 block for a year or more before switching to it. My school switched to it in August before starting school in september. No commentary here, but this meant students had left the previous year having signed up for 6 classes, and now needed to be enrolled in 8.

You can imagine the kind of confusion this caused at the beginning of the year, there were literally not enough places to put students, it was [commentary deleted] for the first week or so, but we worked past it.

Now, first semester is over and we're getting ready to start second semester. We took exams last week, today and yesterday were teaching work days, the kids are coming back tomorrow and starting four brand new classes.

Right? RIGHT? RIGHT?!?

Wrong. In their infinite wisdom, the powers that be will be sending the lovely students back to their OLD CLASSES tomorrow. Classes they've already taken finals and gotten grades in. Classes we've completed the curriculum in. Classes where they will have NOTHING to do but get in trouble for EIGHT HOURS. Keep in mind these are students who are, at best, not exactly little angels.

Wish me luck, I'll be setting up some kind of fund to buy body armour soon.

save the drama for you mama

when you're 15-16 years old, everything is SUCH A BIG DEAL.

I know I was like that too. And in case I ever forget, there are unfortunately several of you who can remind me, but oh my goodness it's annoying. Anytime you do anything these kids don't like, they freak out. There's one little girl who usually gets so made she starts to cry. This is when I tell her things like she has to go get a pass before she can come in the room late, really not big deal stuff. Part of that is just these kids, and the fact that they're never told "no." It's kind of reassuring to think that they are just normal homronal teenager things going on, too, though. Thank God the semester's almost over and I'll get a whole new batch, who will hopefully be a little more guarded with their emotions, at least at first.

it is a red level aggrevation day.

I've decided to start ranking my daily level of aggravation like they rate the ozone.

Things at school, are, frankly, complete chaotic. We got to school today not even knowing what time students were going to go home. (it's exams, firs tthey were going at 10:30, then 11, now 12) or what classes we were going to have. I can't stand it, it makes me nuts. I've found that I really do like to plan for my classes, and I hate it when I don't know what's going on. The kids can smell chaos a mile away, too, and it makes them lose their minds.

Speaking of not knowing what's going on, I'm scared to start planning for next semester because if I do they'll change waht I'm teaching, but I dont have a whole lot left to do for this semester. So basically, I'm bored.

long time since last post = much mixed news

So Friday was a really good day, I got my kids scores back on their state tests and most of them did really well, so I got to go around and tell the ones that passed. It was awesome. One girl, who is really sweet anyway, started jumping up and down right in the middle of the hallway and I thought she was going to cry. What did I do? Jumped up and down right along with her and gave her a big hug. it's awesome to have something to really celebrate with these kids, for once. My whole first period class passed, so tomorrow morning promises to be good, too.

I went home to see my mom for her birthday, and I found out, randomly, that it was opening night at the theatre I used to work at. So I dragged Martha to the opening night party, promising we'd only stay for like half an hour, and we ended up closing the place down. It was so much fun!! It's cool to come back and visit some place like that, because everybody wants to talk to you and it's so much more fun than it ever was when I lived there.

In the category of "mixed" Todd is going through a big bout of cluster head aches. I didn't know what a cluster head ache was until I met Todd, but they're kind of like migraines, only a million times worse. One doctor said they thought it might be the worse pain human beings experience. Women say it's worse than childbirth. Very serious stuff. His, thank God, are episodic, so he hasn't had any in like 3 years, but now he's having 2-3 a day, and it's very difficult for him. I've never seen anything like it. He's a real trooper about it, but can you imagine having a baby 2-3 times a day? They can come as often as 6-8, too! And some people have them all the time! Here is a very interesting webiste about it:

www.clusterheadaches.com
and
www.ouch-us.com

It's this huge public health problem that nobody really knows anything about! There are a few effective treatments, but often it's very difficult to get insurance companies to cover them more than once or twice a month, because they don't really understand waht a cluster head ache is.

Anyway, sorry for such a long post.

More bars in more places . . .

We are dogsitting this weekend, which is making life even more exciting than usual around here.

help

I need someone to photo shop this picture for me to put hte kid in a dook shirt. Maybe just turn the sleeves all black and replace the center logo with somethign crappy and dooky. anyone know anybody with such skills?


I have a larger version of the picture.

TGILF

Well, it's little friday again, and all I can say is THANK GOODNESS, because I'm whooped. I went from getting up pretty much on time on Monday, to having to drag myself out of bed more and more over my body's objections each day.

On that note, there was an interesting segment on the Today show yesterday about how artificial light can increase your chances of cancer. Apparently, melatonin, which has all kinds of health benefits like killing cancer cells and boosting your immune system, is only manufactured by the body in absolute darkness. So sleeping with a night light on, watching TV late at night, or too much ambient light through your windows causes a shortage. The segment even went so far to say that night shift workers risk of cancer, especially sex hormone cancers like breast, testicular, and ovarian cancer can be as much as 48% higher, and children sleeping with night lights run a higher risk of leukemia.

Two things about this are noteworthy: 1. How scary is it that after years of giving our children night lights we might have been increasing their risk of such a horrible disease?

2. The segment discussed how this was an "avoidable risk" and reccommended getting at least NINE HOURS of sleep to avoid it. NINE HOURS??? What adult do you know who actually has time to sleep for nine hours a night??

AAHH!

My kids take their state tests NEXT WEEK. It's bad enough they're not ready as it is, but the whole place has devolved into complete chaos. We had a fire drill yesterday, just as fourth period was settling down to get to work, and it of course almost turned into a riot. AND, they take their tests online here, and our network keeps going down. It's a crazy time of year. The good news is, THE SEMESTER IS ALMOST OVER!

NFL Playoffs

Well, it's NFL weekend in our house, and there's just one thing I have to say. They may be the mighty BENgals of Cincinatti, but their uniforms are RIDICULOUS. I mean really. They are black and orange with tiger stripes on the helmets and the shoulders. And their endzones are black and orange tiger stripes. They look like Hobbes. Really, it's dumb. I mean it. How can they expect to be a big bad football team when they look like a stuffed tiger?

yay Saturday!

It's that time fo the week again, the time I get to catch up on all the sleep I miss the rest of the week. Which is a lot. I slept for twelve hours last night. And I probably will tonight too. And I'll still have no trouble going to sleep sunday night, nor will I want to wake up several hours before the crack of dawn on Monday. I know lots of people get up this early, and it's really not that bad, but it's so counter to my nature when it comes to sleeping. Fortunately, the school I'm going to work at next year doesn't start until 8:30. That's going to be awesome.

Todd, as usual, got up several hours before me. Now he's in the kitchen making me Crepes. That's his new thing, crepes, they're VERY good. I always thought they were super hard to make, but it doesn't seem like it.

I am not a dancing with the stars fan,I think it's silly. BUT, I am a Kenny Mayne fan, because he's silly. And he's on dancing with the stars this season. I guarantee if you watch it while he's on, you will laugh.

are we there yet?

So here it is, the first day back at school. I got up on time for once, 4:45, left the house about six, got to school about 7, and low and behold, the busses are late. and I mean LATE. There was apparently some kind of chemical spill, and so far ZERO busses have arrived. School was supposed to start ten minutes ago. Kids who got rides to school are just milling around in the hallway not even pretending to go to class. I'll be suprised if class starts by 8. Just another day where nothing goes quite like I planned. At least I have a new job for next year. If I can just make it through this year!