I dreamt last night . . .

. . . Of doing tequila shots with Alton Brown.

Somebody out there loves chickens . . .

. . . and that somebody is reporting back to my MOTHER. :)


I love you Sarah.

The only thing worse than not having hot water?

Is having NO WATER AT ALL. I found a leaky pipe this morning and had to shut the water off. Due to various delays the plumber hasn't evencome yet. They might not come till Monday. I am VERY FRUSTRATED.

Slept like a baby . . .

I took a melatonin last night, and slept like a baby! I did, however, think I was late when I woke up at 6 and it was light out side.


aahhhh.

Softpaws!

Well, I succesfully got softpaws on all of bonnie's front claws (even the "thumbs") and now she's doing her darndest to chew them off.  She really behaved pretty well while I put them on, some growling and complaining, but not biting or scratching.  good kitty.  She had SUPER long nails, I think she might be one of those cats whose nails don't shed, which might be why she claws so much.

I was going to softpaw benny, but then he wouldn't be able to do his super cool tree climbing trick, so I'm going to hold off.

School went really well, today.  I was hoping I would be in my same room as for next year, but I'm in some random room on the foreign language hall instead, which is ok.  They already had my login and email all set up (which is amazing, usually it takes days) and they used my married name :)  tee hee!  I am still a little nervous about having my kids for six hours at a time, but it is what it is.

the first day of school!

i barely slept AT ALL last night. I was way too excited (Iguess.) It's not so much that I think that this job is going to be so great, as that it's just something NEW. I finally gave up and got out of bed at 5:30 even though the alarm wasn't set until 6. I hope the last year hasn't ruined me for sleeping in on school days.

More later.

Exhale . . .

This is it, the official start of summer. Friday was my first official non-pburg day, and it was boo-t-ful. Martha came to visit, which is always a good time. It was, unfortunately, a very short visit, but great nontheless.

The honey moon period with living with people is over. It's nothing too bad or unusual, but when you're living with multiple non-married grown ups in one house, there is going to be tension. Especially if you're a great big slob like me. I'm working on it.

There are several days I'm looking forward to this week (aside from sleeping in for multiple days in a row). On wednesday the HOT WATER HEATER IS FINALLY GETTING FIXED!! I can't even tell you how happy this makes m e. On Thursday, I start my new job. I'm excited, if a little nervous. Wish me luck!! :)

the recap . . .

Things I'm pleased with myself about this year:

1. I never got a speeding ticket, despite commuting 60 miles one way on the interstate

2. I never overslept to the point that I was late to school, despite the alarm going off at 4:45

3. I never hit a student or cursed at a student

4. I made the same kid go get a pass in the morning for 80 days straight.

5. My students, at least, learned to sit down and be quiet.

 

Things I'm horrified by:

1. Well, everything.

2. While I stood and talked to some other math teachers in the hallway yesterday, they discussed how they liked working here because they a) never saw the principal b) no one checked that they were making lesson plans c) no one cared if they didn't do their assigned duty d) no one cared if they came late and left early e) no one cared if they stood at their door during class changes.

 

It was all I could do not to tell them how unprofessional I thought they were and how much harder they had made my life all year.

 

THE LAST DAY

My life is a little like a tv show today . . . I was leaving the house, and two deer ran across the road right in front of me.  One of them stopped and gave me the Hairy Eyeball for about 30 seconds, I swear it looked like it was about to charge the car.  It wiggled it's ears and tail and even ran towards me a little bit before dissapearing, I think it's an omen for the day.

 

Today is the LAST DAY of school.  Yesterday, I had a grand total of three students all day long.  Today, I bet I can beat that.

Are there monkey's in VA?

I have discovered the downside to living in the woods . . . we get some CREEPY bird sounds at night. I mean, really loud and clear as day and nothing like waht you get out in good ole PBO.

There's one sound in particular, I think it's a Barred Owl, that first sounds like a regular owl sound, you know "hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo" and then turns into what I SWEAR TO GOD sounds JUST LIKE A MONKEY. The first time I heard it it really freaked me out.

What's worse, this particular sounds REALLY messes with the dog. As soon as she hears it she just totally loses it. Which, most of the time, is kind of funny. But when, in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT last night she lost her shit for no apparent reason, it was pretty alarming. And then I heard the sound, and I was a little annoyed, and then I was kind of freaked out for awhile thinking this bad-ass owl with a four foot wingspan was somehow going to get in the house. When I finally did fall asleep, I had really weird dreams about owls.

Thanks a lot, beth.

Blind Angry.

I'm too mad to really talk about it, but let's just say that certain students who should not have graduated graduated anyway, and that certain teachers were not told that the work they'd been doing for the last five months was completely disregarded and an arbitrary grade was assigned, and a certain teacher has written a very ugly leter documenting the innapropriateness of this situation.

and they wonder why this school is such shit.

I am a failure as a human being . . .

A kid walked up to me today, not a student I know but a student who is in the math teacher next door's class, and told me that students passed the other teacher's test and not mine because "you don't teach."

I'm not sure what this means. Does he mean "you don't teach effectively?" because taht would make a lot more sense. I mean, I know I teach. That is, I do something for eight hours a day. Does he mean I don't teach in a way that they can understand this seems plausible. but I do teach. something.

I was talking with this other teacher, and one problem I think is that when I teach math I want my kids to have a basic understanding of what they're doing, not just carry out the mechanics. I think that if you learn algebra as a series of tasks that you have to learn to carry out, than it's a fairly meaningless requirement. But if you treat it like a systematic way of looking at the world and problem solving, than not only does it collapse into two or three big problems instead of hundreds of small ones, but it can actually make you a more productive citizen, which isn't that, afterall, the point.

The other teacher thinks of his class as more of a drill. He said he had his students do about 100 problems a day, and by sheer repetition they learned to carry out the mechanics, if not understand the concepts. This is obviously a more effective style of teaching for these students, becuase his scores are way better than mine, but is it worth it? I know it's certainly not the way I want to spend my time.

(aside: several of his students failed my class last semester, so they may have done better this time because, oh I dont' know, it was the second time around.)

Anyway. Apparently, I have wasted an entire year of my life "not teaching." I am looking forward, in a week, to moving on to "not teaching" somewhere else, at least. Maybe, as I continue to "not teach," there will eventually be a little less "not learning."

not that I'm confused and bitter, or anything.

It finally happened . . .

. . . I am officially keeping a student from graduating. As you might expect, I have a lot of guilt around this. The only class this student needed to graduate was mine. She knew this all semester. She also knew all semester she was failing. She was failing on every progress report and report card she got all semester. I don't think she ever passed a single test. She missed class a few times a week, stopped coming all together a few weeks ago, and didn't even show up to take her final. So why, you might ask, do I feel bad.

She came by today (ironically, while she should've been taking her state test for my class) and tried to guilt trip me into passing her. She's going to come back later and try to guilt trip me some more. And I'm going to have to say no over and over again. I REALLY REALLY wish that she was at least a BORDERLINE student so i could just pass her, but she's not. She wasn't even close. She simply didn't even remotely fulfill the requirements for the class.

So really, I have no choice, I have to keep this kid from graduating.

But I don't have to feel good about it.

So, So Close

I am just the tiniest little bit depressed lately. Not in a major way, just the teensy-weensiest little bit. It's not so much one thing as the confluence of a lot of things. This (pardon my french) SHITHOLE that I work in is part of it, not to mention the increasingly large SHITHEAD that is my principal (I'm sorry, i can't help it, there are eight days left and I'm cracking up, and, believe me, he deserves it.) But that's almost over. I have all this wedding stuff to do, and it just seems like I can't make my mind up about anything. I'm a little concerned about summer school (because what am i going to do with the same kids for six hours a day??) And, of course, Todd is gone, which doesn't help.

Mostly, I think I'm just trying to get out of this place alive and with all my car tires intact. We're so close to the end.

Hot and Cold at the SAME TIME

Since last Saturday, the hot water heater at the house has been broken. The hot water heater is about 19 years old (they usually last for about 12) and kind of rare because it runs off Liquid Propane instead of Natural Gas. The HO (Home owners) were told by the inspector they should've replaced it, but they thought it was covered by the homeowners warranty. Now the poor HO's are being told it is a "preexisting condition" and it may not be covered. I totally empathize with the HO"s and htey're trying to argue their way into having it covered, and I don't blame them and support them and all, but meanwhile, it doesn't look like we're going to have any hot water anytime soon.

This would be bad enougha t the best of times, but it's SO STINKING HOT (the HO's finally turned our AC on yesterday, though.) that I feel like I smell all the time. Cold showers are ok and all, but . . .

annoyance level: Red

I'm only spending like 20 minutes with first period this morning, but they're still managing to drive me INSANE.

THis one girl, the one who really really really hates me, came in talking about how her brother got shot. And he died, and she just found out about it. But she doesn't seem that upset. Also, I read the paper everyday and watch the news every morning, and I have seen NOTHING about a shooting. At all. This is weird. Could she be making this up? How strange is that?

Anyway, I can count the days that are left on my fingers.