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.

I'm not complaining or anything but....

I hate when people start a sentence with the phrase "not to be mean or anything but so-and-so....." if you have to start a sentence explaing how you are not being mean than you are probably being a huge jack-ass.

That is all.

Alright I give up....

ok, so blogging on the weekends just isn't my thing. I can't post every day all month, I'm too busy LIVING every day all month. But it was worth a shot.

This weekend has been dedicated to grading, grading, grading.....and trying to pick a name for the new horse.

Almost forgot

I almost forgot to post today, its been a crazy, nutso day. I am trying soooo hard to post every day all month. I know I already screwed up the beginning of the month, but maybe I can redeem myself before the end. I have nothing fabulous to write about, except that I should be able to bring my horse home tomorrow because the fantastic men in my life built me a super, wonderful stall this week, they put aside all the other work that needs to get done around here because of me and my crazy ideas to get a horse as winter approaches. I love love love them!!!

Now if only cousin Brian would tell me he would go get her!!!! (he owns a barn where he boards horses and has a horse trailer. We don't have a trailer, which is also why it was a crazy idea to get a horse in the first place).

...I'm so excited.

Hurray for Veterans!!!!

I love love love Veteran's Day. Not just because I don't have school, but because it's so cool to have an entire day meant to honor the men and women who sacrifice so much for ME, my family and my country.

Everyone should take a moment and say a little prayer for all those people who give so much and get so little in return.

Thank you Veterans.

Tuesdays used to be fun

There was a time in my life..... waaaay wayyy back in my life, before I decided to be a professional role-model for a living, that Tuesday was Boozeday. It involved bowling, and friends, and well....Booze. And it was lovely.

My current Tuesday consists of dragging myself out of bed, trying desperately to pour myself a cup of coffee with my eyes closed, and dissecting the million reasons why my students protest to learning so vehemently. Then driving to school in absolute silence, because A) the radio stations that I like don't come in very well on the way to work, B) morning DJs regularly annoy the crap out of me and C) I have to mentally prepare for the over-audio-stimulation that I have pounded into my head for the rest of the day.

Today makes for a particularly mundane Tuesday since we have an after school staff meeting, then a meeting of a really cool writing club which might actually be fun, then I am meeting with a potential photography client..... all of which means I won't get home until after 8 and Im exhausted just thinking about it.

Wish me luck.

I'm a blogging superstar....

...ok no. But I am featured in the EduCarnival V2 Issue 11! That is (was) hosted this (last) week at a really cool teacher blog (that you should read regardless of the fact that I am in a post there!)

A new Day

Friday afternoon there was a fight in the hallway outside my door, there was blood. Later that day one of my students started lighting things on fire in the back of my classroom, there was smoke. Friday afternoon when I got home to pour myself a glass of wine and evaluate my teaching skills, there were tears.

Today is a new day. I have on killer, red, high heels. Today is a don't mess with me day. Welcome to English 10, your worst nightmare. Are you prepared?

I am turning over a new leaf in this classroom.

Crying Alien Baby

I babysat 3rd period today. No not my students (which often feels like I am babysitting), but one of those rubber pseudo-parenting dolls of which they force the girls to keep over night in an attempt at birth control. **Note: I have never seen a teenage boy carrying around these rubber monsters. Why is that?**

Cassie's math teacher said that she could not bring the doll to class, which seems counter productive to me as she needs to take care of the doll in order to pass another class, but who am I to judge? So she asked if I would watch the demon possessed creature whilst she went to math. She showed me very carefully how to hold the thing so that it's head wouldn't bounce backward or spin around like the exorcist. It comes with 4 keys, each one with a different purpose: burp, change diaper, feed, and give attention. As the thing begins to cry you have to stick the key into a slot in its back to solve its problem. Each key needs to be held in for a different amt of time from 20 seconds to 3 minutes in order to get the thing to stop wailing. (all this information is relayed to me by a very-late-for-math-class young lady). With that being said, she then leaves me to my slow and painful demise.

It starts crying immediately. I know that it registers how long it cries and knows if you shake the hell out of it. Cassie begged me not to kick it. Apparently that will cause her to fail. I also cannot let it cry for more than 2 minutes. (Aren't you supposed to let your kids cry themselves to sleep sometimes?)

I shoved keys in its crack until it shut up. Success! But I had to make copies. And grab some caffeine, and pee. Badly.

So I slung Baby Lucifer over my hip and headed down the hall thinking (foolishly) that it would be quiet for a while since it had just been fed/burped/shaken....

It screamed in the copy room.I had to put each key in twice until it would stop.It cried in the hallway, an ear piercing shriek. It waited to cry again until I had my hands full of hot coffee and a stack of 300 copies. I dropped the keys. I spilled my coffee (although not on baby) and scattered copies all over the hall. I did not drop the baby on the floor. (I think that counts as a failure for her as well).

The door to my left opens and out steps a rather irritated Cassie. "Really Miss W. I thought you were more responsible. Give me the keys."

She promptly shoves a key in devil baby, quieting its cries, gives me a disappointed look, glares at my coffee cup, and stomps back into class.

I am a failure at rubber-baby care. Although Satan Jr. sat quietly for the rest of the period, looking at me with his beady little eyes, I still feel like perhaps it's not the best idea of what parenting is. Most babies do not shut up with a quick key cure. And where are the young men toting diaper bags and babies with minds of their own? I think they should be held responsible too, and exposed to scary demon babies.

Before Cassie came to collect the rubber beast I lysol-ed its disgustingly dirty, H1N1 covered body. Do you think her health teacher will fail her for covering her kid with chemicals?

Warm, Cozy, Nerdy, Classroom Moments

I'm a huge nerd. I know I am not your typical nerd of stereo-typical nerdishness, but a nerd I am none-the-less. I dress well, I participate in non-nerd-like things such as tail gating and dart playing. I can make a mean home made pizza and I am a pretty tough farm girl. However, I am absolutely enamored with nerdy, socially strange things.

For instance, I love that my classroom right now is full of the sounds of pens and pencils on paper. The very sight of 24 kids bent over their papers in full-on concentration, excites me. They are taking their quiz on Act 2 of Julius Caesar. They hate it. I love it. I love the sounds of absolute terror from my students. More so, I love watching the "Ah-ha!" moments as they realize that they actually KNOW the answers. They're smart, and they are focused, and at this exact moment they are realizing that they are capable of passing English 10. Its a fabulous moment. (Except for that kid in the back who just snapped his pencil in half out of frustration...but we can't reach all kids all the time right?)

I stink at National Blog Writing Month

The first week isn't even over and I am already missing days on my posting. Oh well. That means that I am busy and dilligently grading papers and planning stellar lessons for my kids...... or maybe it means that I have been really absorbed in everything BUT school, but thats ok too.

Check back soon, I promise I will have written something interesting by then.

la la la....

I think I just bought a horse. Or at least found one that I love....and told the lady to hold her so I could make up my mind.



Her name is currently Abby. I need to change it because I dont like that as a name for a horse.

Did I mention I bought a horse today?

Teacher Hell

Overheard this from a math teacher during a fire drill today: “That’s what teacher hell will be I think. A low-level math class, filled with Never-Gonna-Graduates, and an incessant fire alarm in the background that no one can turn off.”

Mine would be full of kids that hate reading....but I feel her pain. Especially feeling blah, and anti-teacherish on this cold, miserable Monday.



BTW it's national blog posting month....I'm going to try to update every day this month. Or at least every week day. Sometimes I'm just too busy and tired on weekends!!!!