Stuff

TWILIGHT HIGH SCHOOL
-There is a teacher in my school whom the students believe is a vampire. I sorta believe them. He does teach with all of his blinds drawn and is rather pale.

THE POTTY PROBLEM
-I am not a fan of my schedule. I am going to wind up with a bladder infection I just know it. First of all, I have to perform a power-pee. I have literally 2 minutes to run my self to the faculty bathroom and back. I do get breaks, and a lunch, but there is ALWAYS a line during that time. My only remaining option is to rush there between my lunch duty and my 11th period class, pee like a racehorse and shove kids out of my way as I dive down the hall and into my classroom before my students get there. In what other profession does one have to hold their pee for HOURS??

And secondly, for the love of god, if you pee on the seat wipe it off. We are all adults here. It’s the FEMALE faculty bathroom. If I ever catch who is doing this I am totally gonna rub their nose in it “BAD teacher, BAD!”

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS
-Only 5 more school days till Christmas break!!!! 

Little Debbie my @$$

Yesterday was a not so great day. Yesterday, I consumed an entire box of Little Debbie Zebra Cakes. The chocolate variety. I brought an apple to school, and a 60 calorie microwave soup, and a package of instant oatmeal in a lunch box. With a bottle of water. During a break I marched my junk-food-craving self to the grocery store and purchased the aformentioned little debbie snack cakes, 2 bottles of cherry coke and a king sized snickers bar. Yesterday was a not so great day. Why is she called "Little Debbie" anyway? If she ate any of her own addictive crap then she would be as large as my butt is quickly becoming.

Today I will try to eat my oatmeal like a good and logical person would do as the Eating Holidays quickly approach us.


On a side note:
Mimi Smartypants is my hero. No really. She is. If I ever grow up, I want to be just like her.

Books!!!

Check out Britain's Smallest Library. I love the spread of a LOVE for READING!

Smile. Happy Friday!

Money, Madness and the Mundane

-I just read in an article online that in 2007-2008 the average teacher's salary in NYS was $62,332.............I would like to know where those average teachers work. At then end of the month when we go through out budget to figure out how we possibly spent the entirity of my income on bills and have absolutely NOTHING left to put into savings (or buy the new purple heels I've had my eye on) I feel sorta depressed. Essentially I am making more now than I have ever made as a waitress....I think. I admit that I didn't keep very good track of my $$$ and that as a bar tender I would sometimes go home with ALOT of money at the end of the night...so how do I start saving? Any ideas? We would like to go on a vacation sometime soon, I'd like to pay off my credit cards, and well.....I want alot. lol. How do you work a budget appropriately? How do people afford to have KIDS!!?? OMG, that must be expensive. There are not alot of things that we spend money on that are non-essentials.

-More important that all that: I think I am going crazy. I dreamt last night that I was a spider. I had to wake up and detangle the dog from the web of sheets I had stuffed her in.

-My swiffer is broken. I'm bummed.

-On a happier note: my cousins from Alaska are coming to Niagra Falls and I get to see them soon soon soon!

Clueless.

I have no idea what it means to be an adult. Apparently by some strange shift in the cosmos I have become a role model simply by becoming a teacher. I get that. I can dress appropriately, model good citizenship, exude enthusiasm for life, no problem. But, I am just as clueless as my 15 year old students when it comes to how life works, how people grow-up, what happens next......

The boy and I recently met up with a few friends from high school, the strange transitions that life takes us on really smacked me in the face. Our friends had evolved into this married couple with 2.5 kids and a house with a white picket fence. Where as, we too have bills to pay and responsibilities I feel we are essentially the same people we were 10 years ago. Our friends have changed. Why? Do we become the people that we need to be to trudge though life's little conundrums? Do we change to get through the crap that life sends at us? Have we not had enough crap yet? (cause I feel like we have.) Do we have no idea how tough things will get with marriage and kids? What happens to people on the other side of grown-up-ness? Do we ever hit a point where we really feel experienced? old? in control? Is there a moment when I will stop spontaneously dancing and singing down grocery store aisles because that is not appropriate behavior for an adult? What does adulthood mean anyway? And what has it done with my friends?

...I don't think I can resist the urge to hula-hoop in Walmart.

Happy Thanksgiving

As always, I have much to be thankful for. My family is fantastic and healthy, I have a steady job, my dog loves to cuddle me, and God is so good.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone. Remember to count your many blessings, hug your loved ones and take nothing for granted.

xoxoxox

I love my job

Talk about a roller coaster. One day up, another day down. It will probably fluctuate throughout the rest of the day from period to period, but right now I heart my job and my kids. I'll get back to you later as to if I continue to feel this way.

Today I love my students. I love their impromptu moments of greatness. I love them singing and dancing their way through their Julius Caesar projects, I love them acting out scenes from Shakespeare using entirely LEGO people. I love them with their foam swords in hand, reciting lines of the play like Pros, with true, honest to goodness understanding. I love the guitar-strumming, white-guy rapping, beat box remixes of iambic pentameter. Mostly I love that they are having fun, being respectful of one another's work and truly exploring and demonstrating what they know. I feel like dancing myself.

We all are ready for a break. It can't come soon enough. I cannot wait to close my classroom door for 5 days and not look back. But, its nice to leave them on a positive note, its nice to have nice kids for a change and its mostly nice to be DONE with Shakespeare.

Uplift yourselves....

and read the newest post at Teacher in a Strange Land

Its all about what we want for our children, and our collective children. I totally agree and hope that somewhere at the end of our rainbow there is a destination like this for all our students.

I know that I can rock this whole teaching thing....

What am I thankful for this Thanksgiving?

1.) My few fabulous students that listen to me, and respond appropriatly.

They are the little reminders in my life that I don't have to be a perfect teacher, or a perfect person, all the time. I can still reach kids, even when I make mistakes. Letting my inner pessimest get the best of me has been hard on my day to day classroom endevors. Not that I was giving up, I was just letting my guard down, letting my energy get low, allowing my crappy attitude to get the best of me and thus making my class not as great as I knew it could be.

2.) My pervious students who recently sent me a note via facebook (I let them friend me after graduation only) letting me know that they not only appreciate me now that they are in college, but that they miss having teachers who they knew with out a doubt cared about them.

That is my goal as a teacher. I let my students know that I care. That someone out there in this cruel, hard world gives a damn.

3.)My family who support, uplift and constantly deal with my whining.

I could not and would not be the person I am today without their help, guidance and frequent reality checks.

4.)Also, my battle with my self is getting better.

I feel less ineffective lately. I know that I matter, and than my lessons can truly guide kids to greatness. I am my own worst critic. Now that we are done with our Julius Caesar unit I am hopeful that the energy that is usually a part of my classroom comes back. I know that what we have been doing is waaaaay BORING and my lessons and their behavior reflect that. Hopefully now there will be a clean slate to come back to after turkey day.

5.) Lastly, my new fabulous co-workers. (not all of them are fabulous, but most are *more on that later*)

I am thankful to finally work with some professionals that exude professionalism. I'm happy to work with teachers that truly love their job and demonstrate that with their actions.

I thought the monsters...

...went away after Halloween was over.

My students are monsters. I don't even recognize them. They are like aliens from outter space. I'm not excited about what I'm teaching. They don't want to be here. I cannot wait for Thanksgiving break and a chance to regroup and recoop.