SchoolHouse Rock - Grammar The Tale Of Mr Morton

Tired, so tired...

I'm in a mood. I am ridiculously tired. I've spent the last two days feeling fuzzy headed and tired. I don't feel sick though so I'm wondering if my medications may be off.

I'm grumpy with my students. I have the unfortunate reputation as being the nice teacher. I don't know how to be mean apparently. I am honestly meaner than I was in the past but still my kids tell me I'm the nice teacher. They try to take advantage of me and I am frustrated. What is it with people who think that because I am not on their case every last second that means they can do what they want. I have been reminding myself that there are only about 5 kids in each class of thirty who are obnoxious (except for 7A which has 10 jerks in a class of 22) This morning, I was in the hallway supervising the movement between classes when the students in my room got into a fight. Moments before I came back into the room, one girl came out in tears saying that one of the guys had thrown a hard candy at her and hit her in the face. She was in tears and had a red mark on her cheek. I sent the boy to the office before class had even started. sigh... I bought some candy from Costco last weekend and I've been randomly handing out to kids that make me happy. I thought even if it didn't make a difference in behaviour in the class, it would help me remember that most of my kids are truly great kids.

My car is annoying me too. I got it back from the mechanics a month ago. The transmission works again but it came back with the power locks not working and the heater only works when the fan is on high. Over the past month, both my headlights have gone out. So I need to send it back to the mechanics again...

Last week we had interim report cards which are the report cards between report cards. These were accompianed by parent-teacher interviews. These went from 2:30 until 8:30 one evening. The meetings were scheduled every 15 minutes and I was booked every single times slot. Then we started taking walk-in meetings and I was getting double booked. At one point I was 5 meetings behind. It was crazy. In order to be ready for the interims, I needed to mark a pile of short stories (five classes worth = 140 stories. At average of 15 minutes per story to mark it was an additional 35 hours of work in one week.) This week, I haven't marked a thing but I'm taking in another story from one class at the end of this week and the other four owe me reports in the next two weeks. I have the real report cards due the first week of December so it will be another round of extra hours for me.

Colby's new intructor is fabulous. Cole is loving it and is totally back on track with the guitar.

It has been forever

I know it has been forever since I last updated (a whole month! How did that happen?)

Well, much has been happening here!

1. We had a fantastic time in Vegas. We played the slots, went to a show, walked the strip, ate some amazing food and did some major shopping. I felt like we did a bit of everything worth doing in Vegas. Of course, the best part was hanging out with my brother and sister-in-law. It is so hard to get time with just them when the whole clan gets together for holidays. OR maybe the best part was winning my money back on the slots. It is quite a rush to hit a bonus that earns you back all $40 you had spent. Too, too fun!

2. My dog has recently tried to kill me twice and then she attempted suicide. Four days ago, I came home and she was already outside in the backyard. In her excitment to see me she got her paw tangled in the school keys hanging around my neck. She bellowed at me and as she tried to pull away she took me to the ground. My knees got bruised and scraped and I'm all achy. The very next day, the stupid dog did it again. She took me down and my sore knees got another beating. The following day, she moved from attempted murder to attempted suicide. It was 11:30 at night and I'm thinking of going to bed when I watched the dog stick her head into an open cupboard and eat something. It took me about 15 seconds to realize that what she ate was a brick of mouse poison. I called the emergency vet and they said I should bring her in. So by 11:40, the dog and I were in the car heading to the vet. She was thrilled and I muttered a lot. We were there until 1:45 while they induced vomiting in the dog and then fed her charcoal. The vet laughed at how enthusiastically the dog ate the charcoal but I figured the dog's lack of digestive discretion is what got us there in the first place!

3. I got my car back after it had been gone for a month and through two different mechanics. It eventually returned to me cured but after a month I was sure I would be very poor. Fortunately the time was just them trying to figure out the problem but the actual part was cheap. The first mechanic decided not to charge me anything (I love him) and the second mechanic charged me just over $300. Yippee!

4. This past weekend, the weather was so nice, we decided to put up our Christmas lights. I know it is ridiculously early but last year we had snow by October 22 and it didn't go away until late March. I couldn't talk anyone up on the roof with the snow last winter so I never did get any lights on the house. This year, with it being +17 on a Sunday in mid-October it seemed too ideal to pass up. I love Christmas and I'm so excited that the lights are up.

5. Yesterday, I got dirt surrounding the house. It cost almost $900 and I'm not sure it is going to make a huge difference but I feel better knowing at least I've done something. The slope around the house now angles away rather than toward the house so I have hopes that this spring we won't spend two weeks vaccuming away the spring run-off.

6. We bought Colby guitar lessons for his birthday and so far he has been to four lessons. The first lesson I went in with him and it went fairly smoothly. The second lesson, S went and she decided not to hover and left them alone. According to Colby things went fine. The next lesson, I stayed in the waiting room and from what I heard the instructor played a lot of music and Colby did not. He told me later that he didn't do much because his hand and his leg hurt. I asked him what he did to hurt himself and he said nothing. He then tried to convince me that drums or even the piano would be easier then guitar. S took him last week and we had decided that she would go in with him so he couldn't pull that kind of stunt again. Colby actually asked her in the car if she was coming into the room and so she asked if he wanted her to. He was quite adamant that he didn't. She made an agreement with him that if he did everything the instructor asked then she wouldn't come in. After the lesson, she asked the instructor if Colby had cooperated and she was told that Colby refused to play guitar and instead asked to play drums. The instructor allowed this to happen. Colby said he didn't want to follow the rhythm so he just played like crazy. Needless to say, we are not happy. S called the school and talked to the women in charge and so now Colby has a new instructor and we'll be going in to the lessons with him. Dang manipulative, cute six year old.

That is it from here I think. Maybe I'll update again a bit sooner then a month from now!

Life gets busy!

Much to my amazement, school is still fun but the honeymoon phase is clearly over. The kids are getting quite chatty but they are still relatively easy to get back on track and respond well to what I've given them to do. I am finding two classes much more difficult then others. My grade 8 class has history with me and are falling into old patterns. I struggle to keep them focused. I've been handing out a fair number of DTs over the last few days. The other class that is annoying me is my smallest class I teach. They are grade 7s who have academic issues (one girl doesn't even speak english!) and they hate Language Arts. They are really hard to keep working and interested. The worst thing is that they are mean to each other. They are really picking on one girl but she is exceptionally obnoxious. I find her annoying and I only see her 50 minutes a day. I can't imagine spending all day with her. I find myself correcting behaviour and refereeing the pettiness that they are very hard to teach. I'll keep on working on them.

Other things going on in my life include:
1. Teaching sunday school. This was great fun. I actually got applause at the end. Teaching adults rocks.
2. Another teacher and I have decided to work out together. We have a fitness centre at work and so we've decided to make use of it. We are supposed to start tomorrow.
3. I've been losing weight and am now down 27 pounds. I'm pretty happy about that and am hoping to do some serious school clothes shopping when I'm in Vegas.
4 I've managed to have someone give me a quote on my grading but at the same time Mum and Dad found someone at the church who has a construction company and he would come give me a qoute as well. So now I'm back in limbo. I'm waiting for my second quote. I'll have to have something in place early next week though as we don't have much longer until it snows again.
5. I have all my required permissions and sub booked for Vegas. Getting very excited!

Creepy

This week has gone so smoothly it is eerie. My kids seem way better this year then last. I don't know if it is just a better bunch or if I have my act better put together. I've been asking around and everyone seems to think that they are okay kids but they are not as enthusiastic as I am. I actually thought today in the middle of my third block, "If every day were like this, I'd love this job!" I even had to boot a kid out of my room today and it still was a great day. Everyone is reminding me that this is the honeymoon stage and by the end of next week the kids will start showing their true colours but I recall struggling already at this point last year. I am trying not to count my chickens before they hatch but I think this may be a better year for me!

One thing I've really enjoyed this week is having all the students from last year greet me in the halls, tell me they miss being in my class and asking about my summer. It is fun to see kids treat me like they actually have good memories and a fondness for me. I've never actually experienced this kind of first week before. It is great to feel like I really fit in. The students and staff know me and I have my place.

I did, of course, tick a few people off today in the staff meeting. Our principal showed us our staff survey results which were quite low. He asked us to discuss what we think is causing our staff to respond so negatively. I addressed one concern on the list that talked about teamwork and said I don't think we do enough as a department and that teachers who have been in the school for a while don't seem to want to work cooperatively with new teachers. I also said that there is a lot of negative talk and I think that can poison the attitudes around the building. I got scraped over the coals for that one. I was informed by one of the negative staff members that "holding in your complaints is what festers and poisons. You need to put your concerns out there or it will destroy you." I didn't get to defend my comments but my thought was that I'm all for venting. I'm a big venter/ranter when things drive me crazy but there are numerous staff that I have heard the same complaints from over and over and over. They rant, hang on to their anger and months later they are still ranting about it. That is poison. I always want to shout, "Let it go, man!" We'll see if my vocalness will come back to bite me later.

On another note, today I met with a few church folks and agreed to co-teach an adult Sunday School. A lady named Jane and I are sharing responsibilities. I'm teaching the first seven weeks and Jane is taking the next seven which gets us to Christmas. After Christmas a third woman may join us. I'm excited about it. I really like teaching the adult sunday school. They are attentive, responsive and supportive. I also like feeling that I am contributing to the church.

Day 1 done. Only 199 days to go!

I actually really enjoyed day one of school. I felt organized and comfortable in my own room. I talked my face off. My jaw actually hurts. These poor kids had so much information dumped on them today they are probably still in shock.

First impressions, a few talkers but on the whole good kids. They seem brighter then last year's bunch which is good. I hope that I'll be able to do more with them then I could last year. I'd like to maybe even go on a field trip in the spring.

I think the routines I have in place and the fact I'm jumping on them a bit quicker will help with the day to day stuff. Tomorrow I see my one and only grade 8 class. I have taught 3/4 of these kids before so I may have a bit harder time not falling into old habits with them.

My roommate enjoyed the fact that for the first time in a couple of months, she was the last one to leave the house today. She likes it when my life is as busy and stressful as hers. Tomorrow she starts her first class though so her life is going to get one step crazier then mine.

Well, This is it!

Officially summer is over. I've had a fantastic time! Between the Amazing race, Summer Camp and Florida, I really couldn't have done much better. I didn't even come close to getting everything done that I wanted to but, alas, school has returned and time has run out. Golly, I really need to be independently wealthy so I can be a lazy slob just playing through life.

I've spent the last four days preparing for the next batch of kids. I'm teaching 4 classes of Grade 7 L.A. and 1 class of Grade 8 L.A. this year. I also have two classes of Health. It is a nice assignment. One of the best in the school actually. It is nice to have so much of one subject and grade level. It makes planning way, way easier. It also helps that this is a similar assignment as last year so I should be able to recycle much of my material. I have never taught the the grade 8 L.A. though. I talked to the teacher who has the most classes in the the subject and she has agreed to funnel everything she has got to me. We should be doing the same thing at the same time. This will be a huge help for me as again it is less planning and helps my one little class be consistent with the rest of the school.

I struggled with classroom management last year so I've spent much of the last few days really focusing on organizing routines and structure into the room. It is my hope that if I really have thought out how the transitions in the class will work that there will be much less chaos. The beautiful thing about grade 7s is they are new to the school and have no previous experience with me. That means I can implement all sorts of new things with them like I know what I'm doing and they won't know the difference.

I am nervous though. I really want to be an effective teacher but I fall short so often that I find the start of every new year a little nauseating. I'm always hopeful that this is the year I get it figured out and I'll really make a difference for these kids. This job is isolating and batters at you. It is difficult to get recognition and appreciation so your sense of accomplishement and even competency can really take a beating. I miss my homeschoolers who used to thank me after I taught them a lesson.

Tuesday, I officially go in to the fray as the students walk in the door! Pray for me!