Finally Friday

October 28 -- And the week is over.  I have no clue and yet I have many clues why this week dragged on.  One is that I am completely exhausted and overwhelmed.  Last week I loved teaching, this week not so much.  As my last period class left today,  it was all I could do to keep my head up. (I didn't.  I actually laid it down on the desktop.)  It was grammar day today and teaching linking verbs and helping verbs and action verbs just is hard and exhausting.

And the kids just wanted to go home.

And so did I.

Why am I doing this again?  Somebody tell me why I left my nice little part time, somewhat mindless job for this teaching position?  Why???  I feel like I am so much slower than my peers.  but today after school I was talking to a middle school teacher whose daughter is at our high school.  She made a comment about how her daughter was frustrated in her level 2 class last year because all the kids talked and the teacher couldn't keep them quiet.  And I thought to myself, well, that's something because I have all Level 2 kids and if there is one thing I do is keep them quiet.  For the most part anyway.  And we do have debates as well.  Good ones.  When I mentioned this to the teacher she tapped me on the arm and said, "now there.  You do something right.  Go home."

And so I did.

Shout out to my mom and dad who celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary.  63 years.  Geesh.

Will this Week Ever End?!!

October 27 -- And so we end Thursday of the week that lasted forever.  I have no idea why but this week is moving by soooooo slowly.  I just said to Brian, " oh last week I moved this student..." and then I thought about it for a second and realized that noooo, it wasn't last week, it was on Tuesday.  Only two days ago.  ughh..

Last week I loved my job teaching, this week not so much.  It's hard to pinpoint why exactly,  the weather, the time of the year, getting up in the dark and LEAVING in the dark to go to work isn't a great mood enhancer, I have to say.  But the kids seem off this week and I know I am stressed out about some upcoming things I am teaching.  I feel like there is no time to prep the larger books etc.  How do I have time to read them in advance if I am correcting papers and trying to stay on top of my daily lessons that i have to do right now.

The students are getting too comfortable with me right now.  And I am worried most about pace.  I feel like I am going so slowly but...I know they are totally learning the material.  And they are definitely not bored.  So isn't that the most important part of the game?  That they are learning and analyzing and using critical thinking skills and are becoming better writers too?  Still, I wonder about my speed.  Maybe, like a running race, I can start going faster as they get stronger in the classroom.  That's my plan anyway.

Dentist Visit Gone Bad

October 26 -- Today was the date for my return visit to the dentist after my last horrible visit when I learned I had three freakin' cavities.  I go my whole childhood and adult life with only a few cavities and now I had three?!   I was not happy about this visit and, considering the day (week/last couple of weeks) I had, I was not in the mood for dental torture.  Little did I know...

As I sat in the chair (okay, as I tilted backwards and stared at the picture on the ceiling) I was completely freaked by what happened after the dentist injected the pain medication into my gums.  When I looked at the light on the left, I was fine.  But as I shifted my gaze to look at the picture posted on the ceiling toward my right, I panicked.  Nothing was coming into focus!  Everything toward my right side was double.  The doctor put his face toward mine and I grimaced.  There were two of him.  I kept saying, "I am not crazy! What happened?!"  The doctor shook his head and was like, " this is has never happened to me before.  I don't know what is wrong."  But I knew something was screwed up.  My heart was racing and I was flipping out.  How was I supposed to drive home?  Riley was with me.  Why could I see perfectly fine if I turned to the left but wanted to vomit from nausea when I looked toward the right?  If I covered one eye at a time, I was fine but with both open, I was a helpless cause.  I said to the nurse, "it has to be the novacaine;  it had to have hit some nerve connected to my eye.  I was like, isn't there the sinus cavity around there?!"   She just kept shaking her head and patting my arm.

I wanted to get up and leave.  But, naturally, I couldn't.  Slowly, slowly, it got better, and finally, after about ten minutes, my vision came back to normal, thank God.  At that point, the doctor came back into the room.  He had called a friend -- an oral surgeon -- who assured him that it does happen if you shoot a novacaine up into the region near the wisdom tooth.  (which was where it was.)  Apparently there is  a nerve that with women, is closer to the gum line.  The doctor assured my doc who assured me that all would be fine.  I guess so, (and I was much relieved when my nerve theory was proven correct) but the psychological damage was done.  This makes the third (and completely freakiest) awful experience I have had with the dentist office during my lifetime. (never mind all of the smaller episodes interspersed throughout the years.)   I think maybe in a past life, I murdered a dentist and this life is all about karmic kickback.  Geesh, I don't know.  One would think that at this point, I certainly have paid my debt, haven't I?!   One (which would be me, of course) can only hope.

Girl Drama

October 25 -- I can't believe how different girls are from boys when it comes to dramatizing life experiences. When I watch Tessa integrate into the high school scene and I hear her comments about the girls on the cross country team and I read their comments on Facebook (Tessa showed me; I do not have a facebook page...) I am just awed by how different girls process things vs. boys.  It's like we females have to chew our food fifty thousand times before we can let it go.  Every aspect about one little annoyance is analyzed and broadcasted on Facebook and Twitter and what have you and then it is commented upon by other females and so on and so forth until you just want to stick a pin in your eye.

So Tessa pushed herself and ran faster than the other girls in practice yesterday.  Which basically came from her ambition -- she wants to run faster in the race on Saturday... which meant working harder during practice.  Which then led to a battle between Tessa and another girl who wanted Tessa to ease up during practice and stay back with the other girls and to "not be competitive."  What?!!!  It's a sports team for God's sake.  Is Tessa ballsy about her desire to be faster?  More than likely -- she is fiercely competitive.  But to turn it into a public website drama?  Really?

I guess I might have understood this battle way back.  In many ways, we female moms still have the occasional drama.  But I just feel that with the public sites -- this airing of female dramas has reached a new level of pettiness.  And it is certainly a waste of energy.  As for Tessa?  I hope all of this brouhaha does what it should do for her -- inspire her to be even faster in her race on Saturday.  (Now who is being competitive on a public site?!  Yes...that would be me.  What can I say?  The nut doesn't fall far from the tree. :)

The Birds

October 26 -- I am watching The Birds in my Great Films Great Books class.  Ughhh.  I do not like scary movies and I am totally freaked about the possibility of screaming in front of my kids.  A few of them have already seen it and apparently think that it is "no big deal."  I, however, am terrified.  When I was a little kid, I watched the movie with my sister and brothers.  It was awful.  I had nightmares for weeks.    But now that I am an adult, I am hoping it won't be as bad.  I am previewing it at home right now...Tippi Hedron (sp?!) just got bit by the seagull.  It's actually kind of funny at the moment.  But I know it will only get worse...all those sweet people living in Bodega Bay.  Yipes.

Sunday Blues

October 23 -- It is after 9pm on Sunday night and I am just finishing up my lesson plans for the week with a list of things I still have to do when I get to school.  Poor Brian -- I am just not here for him anymore.  I mean, I am but...I am very focused on getting the week organized and once I get into it...I just lose all touch with anyone in the house!  I told Brian though...I am thinking that next year it won't be as bad on Sundays because I will have many lesson plans and handouts and stuff, already done.  I hope so anyway because I am exhausted and the work week hasn't even started!

Fun Times With Friends

October 22 -- Got together tonight with a group of friends I haven't seen in a long time -- even though it is late and we have to get up early for Brianna's 7:30am mass tomorrow,  we had a lot of fun with a lot of laughs.  In the long run, even though I am sure I will feel lousy tomorrow, it was worth it.  From my perspective, life is difficult.  Friendship and laughter help make it easier, for sure.

Book Club

October 22 -- Tonight was book club meeting with the girls.  I really enjoy the members of this book club.  we talk about other things but we talk about the book too.  Usually anyway!  Our book for this meeting was Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  It was totally awesome.  (The book and the meeting.)  One of our better discussions I think.  There was just so much to talk about .

And then I came home (late) expecting a quiet house.  But Brian was still up working.  It's nearly midnight and I don't know when he will be done.  I worry about him.  Between helping me run the kids around (and he has taken over a huge share of that responsibility) and keeping two jobs afloat, I just wonder how far he can go.  But then again, this is a guy who has run marathons.  A guy who gets up early, brings me a coffee and then goes out for an early morning run in the dark.  I guess there is a lot more endurance to him than that which meets the eye.  Maybe a little like Louis Samperini.  haha.

National Writing Day

October 20 -- Today was National Writing Day.  I was wondering to myself if I had the kids in my classes do any writing.  Actually no.  We did more speaking with our Philosophical Chair debates.  But I guess we did a little writing too.  I wrote.  Yes.  I wrote a nice email to Brian with a list of items to talk to the well people about when they came over and tried to repair the damage from the defective filtration unit.  I added some nicer, more personal things to the note too -- I really laid on the schmalz.  It occurred to me though, as I thanked him profusely for being flexible with work and staying home while they came to the house that I had played that role for the last 15 years.

Oh well.  The well is fixed, for now.  We apparently have to "wait and watch" and see what happens to the appliances.  Truly.  This all sucks.  I realize it's not like getting chased into a sewer pipe, pulled out and killed (re. Ghadafi) but still...it's all relative.  It's not like I murdered thousands of innocent people to satisfy my egotistic need for power.  (karma is a bitch sometimes.)  So yeah, in my little world, dealing with the stupid, annoying and potentially very expensive ramifications of a defective filtration unit installed in my home deserves my frustration and anger.   Oh well.  One day at at time.

The Well Saga Continues

October 19 -- Perfect Peter's Birthday.    He is getting old too -- woo hoo.

Anyway, in honor of my brother's birthday, our well got majorly f'd up today by the well guys.  Apparently, they installed a new filtration unit and holding tank as the part two installation of this "fix the well process."  When Brian arrived home an hour after they left, there was no water.  He called immediately and that's when all hell broke loose.  Apparently, one half hour after they completed our job and went to their next one, the installers got a call from the well company owner, freaking out.  They had installed a defective product in our house.  I guess they got a shipment from the manufacter that had a defect.  Somebody didn't put in the right o-ring or whatever and the installation system was now spewing tiny plastic particles into our entire water system for the house.  And everything was blocked. Toilets, faucets, heating, appliances, you name it.  Our filters are blocked by these plastic particles.  Which, btw, blasted out of the faucets and were all over our counters and floor in the kitchen.

Un'f'ing believable.

Showers tonight at the gym -- thank God for that membership.  Creek water in the toilets for flushing (but omg they are totally filthy from all the junk that passed through the system.)  Bottled water by all of the sinks for hand washing and drinking.   Brian and I are in a panic about the damage -- our refrigerator alone is quite expensive, never mind all the other appliances...ughhh.  The owner of the well company assured me tonight he would take care of us -- that the manufacturer who he bought the systems from is going to pay for everything.  (I guess he had already installed three of the systems before they realized the error.)  But it's the hassle of it all.  when I consider the damage we incurred this past winter and now this...I just can't help but wonder what the hell is going on.  The owner of the well company said in all of his 30 years running the company, he never had anything like this happen to a client.  huh.  Go figure.

They Read this Blog in Russia?!

October 18 -- Lately,  I have been getting a lot of hits from readers in Russia.  Or one reader who is hitting the blog several times -- it's impossible to tell.  I mean, let's be serious here, it's not like I am getting a TON of hits but certainly more than average from one country.  To which I say -- cool!!  But my next question is, really?  I mean is there really someone in Russia who can read English and...I don't know, cares about what is going on in a small town in the USA with an aging woman who made a dopey goal to write in her blog every day?  (And eat chocolate and drink wine -- both items checked off my list for today as I sit here and write this entry.)

My name is actually Russian -- Tania.  When my mom, who is from Germany, picked out the name for me, my dad, who is from Poland, got really mad at her.  He hated Russia for what they did to Poland.  His father was killed by Russian soldiers who invaded Poland and attacked and killed when they were supposed to be aiding the Poles.  He was an anti-communist and wanted nothing to do with the country.  My mother, however, just liked the name.  She didn't really care about the politics.  After all, they were living in a new country and were starting their dream life living in a home they owned and working at a steady job with health insurance and, most importantly, living each day without the fear of being bombed in the middle of the night and losing everything.  Funny thing is that when my mom was pregnant with me, my dad was busy building our house.  His dream house.  For his family.  And when I say he built it, I mean that literally.  He would leave his job as a machinist at 4pm and would head over to the house and work until midnight.   So the battle over my name became lost in the drama of the housebuilding effort.

Personally, I am okay with it.  Time has passed and I do not share my father's issue with Russians.  And now that he is battling dementia, I don't think he cares anymore either.   But I digress.  Suffice it to say that this World Wide Web is certainly a great way to unite people.  I guess.  Jury is still out on that one...

Monday Monday

October 17th -- Needless to say, today is Monday.  Haha.  I am feeling particularly punchy tonight because I corrected the verb grammar quizzes in four of my classes and the top average was in the junior class with a 65%.  Two freshmen classes followed at 62% and the other freshman class was even lower.  But it's a starting point of sorts -- the first real assessment of how they are doing with identifying verbs in a sentence. And why, I ask myself, is this important?  Well, I answer (because I am clearly talking to myself here) this is how one becomes a better writer.  For example if one writes a sentence with more than one verb, it's important to keep them in the same tense.  If I don't know which one of them are verbs, how do I do that?

Heavy stuff for a MOnday.  But I came up with a brilliant way to teach them how to id a verb in a sentence.  Without getting into gerunds etc.  ughhhh.  Now I have to teach this method.  Let's see how that goes.  Fortunately though...I have a few days to prepare.  Grammar day is Friday -- woo hoo.

On Reflection...

October 16 -- Today was a day filled with anxiety and then...work completed.  I always feel really anxious on Sundays now because I need to prepare for my week's worth of lessons and...well, I get nervous because I know I have a lot to do and I want to do the best job I can.  And at the same time, I am resentful because I miss my Sundays where the only thing I had to worry about was thinking about whether or not the house was clean and if the kids had their clothes and homework ready for Monday.  Monday was always the breather day, the moment when everyone left for work and school and once again...it would be quiet in the house.  Blessed, total quiet.

But those days are over, replaced with the chaos of a work week that, for me, begins on Sunday and even, (as in this weekend) on Saturday.  It's hard to motivate myself when it is a "day of rest."  But I have to admit that the feeling I have right now -- of pushing myself and actually having some creative breakthroughs with lesson plans is unbelievably rewarding.  I do feel that I won't be teaching forever, that my life will take me down yet another path or two.  That is my prayer anyway.  So I firmly believe that the mental muscles I am exercising right now are preparing me for the next challenge which comes my way -- I am developing the tenacity and commitment I need right now, coupled with the feeling of satisfaction that I stuck to my goal even though it would have been way easier to curl up in bed with a good book!

So excited for Philosopher's Chairs and Socratic Circles!   Seriously, I love how this all came about -- learned about them briefly during an "off the cuff" conversation during professional development last week, and then as I was putting together plans I remembered them and googled them and omg they are awesome!!! What a great way to structure my class and incorporate poetry and critical thinking and literature and public speaking -- bam!  (as my Lukie would say...)

Talked to him today.  He is driving me a bit wild these days...I can sense he is changing but I don't have my finger on it.  I pray it's for the good; he says he is committed to doing well but has already slipped in Calc...ughhhhh.  What really kills me is watching my hard earned paycheck go straight to his school.  And so I told him, he is my "human investment" but also my financial one.  He better suck it up and do better.  He swears he is.  Time will tell.  In the meantime, I pray and hope for the best.

Sunshine ...or Not

October 15 --  The sun was out today, for awhile anyway.  I cannot believe how much rain we have gotten this fall and from what I hear, even more is on the way for next week.  Truly, it is almost eerie when the sun does finally come out.  And then, today, all of a sudden, it started to rain again.  Weird.   It just seems unnerving because a lot of the fall hallmarks -- bright blue skies, crisp cool days, bright orange, yellow and red leaves silhouetted against the sky -- are basically not happening this year.  In fact, many of the leaves are down without having turned any color at all.  The rain has just blasted through the trees and ripped the leaves off of the branches.

Even the days are shorter because it gets dark earlier when there is no sunset.  Truly, I feel like I am in Seattle.  But who knows, maybe even there they get more sun than we are getting.   Seriously, it really is awful.  Cannot imagine what winter will bring.

A Date With my Boyfriend...ha

October 14 -- Because Connor's birthday falls on my and Brian's wedding anniversary, we kind of get gypped in the celebration department.  Our day pretty much includes a quick kiss in the am and the cards we buy each other (and Brian always gets me  flowers) and some cards from the kids.   After that, it's all about Connor and his birthday.   So tonight I told Brian we should go out for dinner.  And we did.

We ended up at a Thai restaurant where we talked about stuff...sometimes I feel like we are so crazed we can barely finish sentences, so it was nice to actually have like, a conversation.    What I liked most about tonight was watching other couples at the restaurant.   There were young couples and older couples, and one couple who was older (like, our age) but definitely dating.  It took me a while to figure it out but as I watched them, I realized they weren't married.  They couldn't be -- the woman kept smiling at him all night.  I was thinking, really?  Who smiles at their husband for an entire dinner?!  And I mean all night long this chick was doing the "I think you're sooooo awesome" grin.   Non-stop, ear to ear.   No way were they married.  Sure enough, as we are leaving I hear him talking about biking and he goes, "you should try biking sometime," and she goes, "Oh, I would love to!"  (Gag me -- it was a total dating "come on" response.)   I guess it's mean of me to say "gag me" but I always worry when I hear one of the daters gush a little too much.  Ughhh.  Did I do that?  I don't know, maybe I did.  It was just so freakin' long ago, I can't remember!!

At least we talked all dinner long.  I hope we are never a silent couple.  Although,  if I had to be perfectly honest and reflective here,  I am not sure being quiet is a characteristic that's floating around in my gene pool.  Brian's maybe...but definitely not mine.

Luke Never Calls...

October 13 -- I cannot stand how Luke never calls us anymore!  I mean, I do understand that he is busy at school but he has a cell phone.  Call on your way to class.  On your way home from eating dinner.  Whatever.  ughhh.  I guess it's a good thing he is so busy and having a good time.  but he couldn't even call  on our anniversary?  on his brother's 16th birthday?  Geesh.

Brian sent him an email telling him to touch base.  He said he had been really busy the last few nights and that tonight -- he didn't have too much going on.  That he would call tonight.   But he didn't.

ughhh.  

Well, well, well...is Broken

October 12 -- So we are dealing with our first major house issue since I started back at work full time.  And I am happy to report (this part anyway) that Brian was amazing with his flexibility and "take charge" attitude.

This morning, I went to turn on the faucet to wash my hands and face and...no water.  Nothing.  Not a drop.  Turns out the well pump is fried, the wires torqued, and the holding tank is shot.  Kah-ching, kah-ching!   And the worst part is that replacement work won't be completed until next week!  Apparently, we can circumvent the holding tank to do laundry, shower etc., but the water has to clear of sediment before we can hook it up and...well...let's just say it's times like these that I am really grateful for the shower at my gym.

Early to Bed...

October 11 -- I keep writing "September" in the date part of this blog.  I guess September really did fly by. And now we are almost half way into October.  Geesh.  Today was a professional development day at school.  It was okay.  If nothing else, I felt like our department developed a vibe of camaraderie as we struggled through the new grammar curriculum.

But I did zero correcting.  I did, however, get some of my photocopies done for the week and I did get my grammar quiz fixed.  I just can't shake this feeling like I am "faking" it.  When I was a little kid, we used to play school and I would pretend I was the teacher, making my little brother and our next door neighbor fill out all these worksheets.  Is that who I am today?  A con artist?

One thing I have to keep reminding myself is that it is dangerous to compare myself to the seasoned teachers on staff and in the informative articles the administration keeps handing out to us.  These are teachers with years of experience.  So I plug away...telling myself that even though I am new and not "seasoned", I am still helping the kids learn.  I hope so anyway.

And now off to bed.  I am beat.  And tomorrow, I have more quizzes coming in -- short formative ones but still...more correcting.  (And I haven't even finished the old ones yet!  Yipes.)

So Much Correcting...

October 10 --  the three day weekend has come to an end and even though I feel like I made a substantial dent in my correcting pile...there is still so much more to do!  And some doozy exams as well.  And I just finished my plans and after a few days this week I will have even more to correct.  And tomorrow I have to spend the day in professional development, learning how to teach grammar and listening to teachers complain and ...  all I want to do is finish this correcting!  And Friday I have to go to a state workshop to learn about ... yup, correcting.

Today, I have a stomach ache about teaching.  I want these kids to learn, to become better writers.  But I am drowning in papers.   Truly.  Right now?  I can barely breathe.  Help!!

Big Day Tomorrow...

October 9 --  Tomorrow is Connor's 16th birthday.  And, mine and Brian's 24th wedding anniversary.  All on one day.  We just got home from dropping Luke off at school and I am totally exhausted.  THe last thing I want to do is blow up balloons and wrap birthday gifts.  But I will because every birthday with these kids is a blessing.  Connor is growing up to be such a wonderful young man (annoying teen mannerisms aside!)  I cannot even believe that this adorable little baby with the black unibrow and deep blue eyes has grown up to be old enough for a driver's permit.  Yipes.

Luke Is Home...For a Night

Sept 8 --  Luke came home today, for a night.  I thought he would have Columbus Day off since he is at a state college but apparently he has classes.  Bummer.  Anyway, he wanted to come home to celebrate Connor's birthday, our anniversary and most importantly, to get a hair cut.  (yes, the last reason is actually the most important one...)

It's so awesome to see him.  Even though it's only been a month (a little more), it seems like he is different somehow.  A smidge older and definitely happy.  I loved watching him today when he was with his crew team members.  He was pumped, I know, to have us there but I think he was even more excited about the fact that he was able to lead his team in both the race and with exiting the water.   (I guess I never realized before today how difficult that maneuver -- getting out of the water without help --  actually is. )  And I was totally proud of him.

The Boobie Bracelet

September 7 -- Lately, I have noticed a bit of a trend going on amongst the high school crowd.  Over the past few weeks I was seeing it more and more.  I thought it was strange but I didn't give it too much thought.  But then I saw more of it.  And finally, today, I figured it out.  And boy was I mad.  A large majority of the students -- boys and girls -- are wearing these rubber bracelets with the word "boobie" on them.  Some say , "save the boobies" as well.  I have to say that even though I realize it's a fundraiser of some sort, it's just the weirdest thing to have a kid hand you his homework with a big fat bracelet on his arm screaming, "boobies!"

So, during my last period class, I finally said something.  I told the kids that I realized the bracelets were being sold to "help fight breast cancer."  They all nodded in agreement, grinning broadly.  So then I asked them if they knew about any type of cancer which affects men, particularly in the ummm, male private area.  And they responded, "prostrate cancer!"   Yes, I said, that's very good.  And then I launched my zinger question.   "Then why, " I asked slowly,  "is nobody going around wearing a bracelet which says, "dick" on it?!"  They looked at me for a second and then they burst out laughing.  "But no kid says that word," they said.  "Kids say 'boobies' "  I agreed and asked the boys what word they used when they were little.  "Pee pee" one student answered and the boys all agreed.  "So then the bracelet for prostrate cancer should say, 'save the pee pee?!"    Again, more laughter.

Here is the deal.  If anyone is wondering how I could have this conversation with a bunch of 9th graders, I guess I would have to ask, why would a mother let her son or daughter buy the bracelet, wear the bracelet and walk around in public with it?!  (They are bright white and hot pink and black and white bracelets btw.)  And even more importantly (and what I emphasized to the kids) is why is it that the women have their private body part names on bracelets and men don't?!!!   I asked the girls, why are you not leveling out the playing field here?!!  Why is it embarrassing and evidently unthinkable to have the word "pee pee" on a bracelet but not "boobie?!"  Doesn't anyone want to help the fight against prostrate cancer????  I have to admit, I know I got them thinking anyway.  Unfortunately, I think what I got them thinking about the most was how to make and sell new bracelets...   sigh.

Lunch Duty

Sept 6 -- I had lunch duty today.  I have it once every five days, thank God.  It is probably one of my least favorite duties because you are supposed to stand around with your arms crossed looking all serious and strict for the whole time watching for kids who might throw food at each other.  (But they mostly don't. Mostly they just try to ignore the teachers who are standing around trying to look tough with their arms crossed.)  Another responsibility is looking for kids who are stealing food.  This duty is quite intense;  it requires the utmost skill and nerves of steel.  For example, one time I had to discipline a girl who was eating the pickle slice off of her hot lunch tray while she waited for her friend to get a sandwich.  It was all very dramatic and Hawaii 5 - 0.  I had to flash my badge and then read her her rights.  haha.  Seriously though, when I told the student dean (school disciplinarian) that I thought telling the girl she couldn't eat her pickle was a bit ummm, over the top,  he was totally serious.  "Oh they are not supposed to eat their food until they pay and leave the servery."  I was totally freaked.  I mean, I do that all the time when I make a sandwich.  I always have to take a bite even before I put the Miracle Whip away...  but I digress.

So today, there was a dramatic and startling discovery after the first lunch wave was over.  On one of the tables, it was suddenly discovered that someone had written "Hail Satan" on the table.  There was a large pair of initials next to the text.  A teacher walked by and said, "Oh, I know who this is!" and she told us who wrote it.  Geez.  So then it got intense.  One of the teachers on lunch duty with me went to find the dean who was busy disciplining some kid for some other infraction so he sent the teacher back to the lunch room with a rag, a cleaning spray and a phone to photograph the graffiti.  This would have been all very official except there was a  glitch -- by the time she got back to the lunchroom, another teacher and I (the newbie crew) had already cleaned off the table.  (we didn't know when she would come back and kids in the next lunch wave wanted to sit there!)   It was all very exciting and dramatic.  I told the teacher we should bring in a Ouiji board and play on the table...

I swear there is just too much excitement in the teaching profession.   I am simply worn out from the drama load.   Good thing I was wearing my gold cross today.

Steve Jobs

October 5 -- I cannot believe that Steve Jobs is dead.  The infamous mastermind who built Apple Computer from a start-up company in a garage to a top company on the worldwide business stage was only 56 years old.  I love his story, how he quit college and, with a dream and courage, started Apple Computers in his home.  (I think it was his home...maybe it was an apartment!)  Nonetheless, he was unconventional...and brilliant.  When I watch my kids grow and pursue their dreams, I am always so cautious to keep them from being too "out there."  (I have major Luke memories...!)   And yet, it's the "out there" thinkers who often end up shaping our world.

But financial success and technological marvels aside, the thing about Steve Jobs' death which amazes me the most is the ultimate life lesson -- no matter how brilliant or rich you are, there are no guarantees in life.  He was only 56.    And all the money he had wasn't enough to keep him alive.

omg, Grammar is Making a Comeback

October 4 -- It's official.  Grammar is making its way back into the Language Arts/English curriculum.  Woo hoo, I say and I am being totally serious.  I think it was rather naive of the curriculum dictators to take it out of the classrooms in the first place.  Every language -- with the exception of the English language taught in the United States -- is taught by identifying the nouns, the verbs, the direct objects and so on.  I guess the theory was that students in American classrooms would learn about grammar by writing and reading.

Unfortunately, the average American kid does not read outside of the classroom.  The number of children who read for fun is extremely low.  It used to be that kids had their weekends free, so they could conceivably get lost in a book.  But with travel sports and premiere sports and rec sports acting like travel sports, there is no free time left in a weekend.  The other filler is the internet and the video game market.  Why read a book if you can get completely absorbed in your Playstation?  While sports is good for the body, it comes at the cost of less time to develop the mind.  This is clearly a payment that many parents gladly make apparently, because they are totally convinced their son or daughter is going to get the 1% sports scholarships available to graduating seniors countrywide.  But in the long run -- especially in the grammar department -- kids in public schools are grossly under-educated when it comes to grammar.  It's actually frightening.

I am waging a war on this ignorance.  If my students are going to be good readers and writers, they need to understand what a verb is and what a noun is and how they dance together to make a sentence.  They need to identify verb tense so they can have the verbs all in the same moment -- the past, the present or the future -- they should know that the adverb actually needs to be placed near the modifier and not at the end of the sentence.   That's my goal anyway.  With high schoolers who have had next to nothing for instruction, it's starting from scratch.  Oh well.  Gotta start from somewhere!

Watching House & Livin' Life. All at Once

October 3 --  Okay, this is how bad I have gotten at trying to multi-task -- I am watching House with Connor (I am exhausted but it is our favorite show we watch together so I feel the parental urge to sacrifice my sleep for this bonding time with my son).  At the same time, or during commercial breaks, I am flossing my teeth, washing my face, brushing my teeth, turning off the house lights, checking my checking account (still low) and moving the laundry from the washer to the dryer.

Oh.  And writing my blog.  Con just yelled from the other room.  Commercial break is over.  Back to parenting.  Yipes.

I am So Mad!!

October 2 -- I just wrote this really awesome blog entry about the English explorer John Smith and how I found out this information about him which I can't wait to share with my students.  And somehow...it just disappeared from the screen.  It was actually a fairly long entry and I was winding down the copy and ready to save and it DISAPPEARED!  In all my times writing this blog this has never happened to me.

I am so mad.

Friendship Totally Rocks

October 1 -- Four out of the the five girls in my Fab 5 group came over tonight.  Quite frankly, it was a hysterical night for a variety of reasons but suffice it to say, I laughed all night long.  I was thinking about our "group" the other day...it is actually kind of weird to figure out how we all became such good friends.  We were on different sports teams in high school so it's not like we got cliquey from sports.  Two of us were cheerleaders. Three were jocks.  A couple of us were in band.  One did drama.  A few of us did yearbook.  We participated in all different realms of the high school and junior high school experience.  But somehow, despite our different interests, we all connected.  And I am damn glad we did.   These women are amazing human beings and I am so blessed to call them my friends.