Thank the lord for things like Fall Break. Yes, I had to go back to work in July. Yes, I've done a round of report cards and parent teacher conferences already. Yes, I'm pushing through trying to teach everything for benchmark two and being overwhelmed by fractions, decimals, and percents.
But holy hell, I'm on vacation for a week. Good job, Arizona.
I am currently visiting my favorites in NY City. I came in to visit this school (loved it, by the way), and to begin to make adult decisions about where I want to live. And work.
I've been having the BEST time visiting my loves. We've been frolicking around the city, taking in MOMA with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick (yes, celebrity sightings in the Matisse exhibit!), having amazingly ridiculous dinners with my sorority sisters (over 2 bottles of wine. On a Sunday night) and walking the streets just exploring.
Dear vacation, I love you.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Brilliant
This article is brilliant.
And true.
Read. Discuss. Start recruiting top people to be teachers. Start paying them more. Make it a career people want to have.
Don't forget, there is not a "prestigious careers that pay way to much money to do less work than that of a teacher" gap. There is an achievement gap. Let's close that. Immediately.
And true.
Read. Discuss. Start recruiting top people to be teachers. Start paying them more. Make it a career people want to have.
Don't forget, there is not a "prestigious careers that pay way to much money to do less work than that of a teacher" gap. There is an achievement gap. Let's close that. Immediately.
Friday, October 8, 2010
New Obsessions
I have recently become addicted to this game:
Who Wants to Live a Million Years?
Please play. Darwin would be proud. And it is definitely hilarious. (It may only be hilarious to the people that witnessed me say, "It's random selection, like Darwin.")
I do claim that I was very tired when I made that "selection error."
Who Wants to Live a Million Years?
Please play. Darwin would be proud. And it is definitely hilarious. (It may only be hilarious to the people that witnessed me say, "It's random selection, like Darwin.")
I do claim that I was very tired when I made that "selection error."
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Dante and video games
My lawyer friend enjoys hearing bi-weekly updates about his favorite student, Predator. Today was one of those days where we were laughing for a good 5 minutes about Predator.
Predator and I have an interesting relationship during Writer's Workshop. With the help of an aide (my coteacher is away being fantastic in the other coteaching room) most of my kids can fully function and write. We're enjoying working plot elements into our own narratives, showing that we fully understand conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Our stories are, for the most part, fantastic.
Except for Predator. Putting words on paper is all but impossible for him.
Yesterday, we sat together during workshop time and discussed ideas for his story.
"Predator, what do you want to write about?"
"POSEIDON." (he yells this during quiet time, by the way.)
"Really? Why him?"
"He's awesome! He lives in the ocean. Oh that's the setting. The ocean."
"Okay, well then can you describe the setting for me on your paper? Make it come alive."
"Wait. There's more settings. THE UNDERWORLD. With HADES."
"Oh and his three-headed dog?"
"HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?"
"I'm amazing. So describe the two settings then."
"HADES. IN THE UNDERWORLD."
"Predator, here's what I mean. When I picture the underworld, I see a river of death flowing. This river flows down through 7 layers, each with more and more pain and suffering on them. There are souls who cannot escape, screaming at the boat. Then, at the bottom of the underworld, in the worst spot ever, is Hades. What do you see?"
His eyes get bigger than I've ever seen. "You've beaten God of War?"
"What's God of War?"
"Duh, Ms. L. A video game."
"Oh no honey. There's this guy named Dante who described the underworld in The Inferno."
"Dante wrote a video game? He must be cool."
Predator and I have an interesting relationship during Writer's Workshop. With the help of an aide (my coteacher is away being fantastic in the other coteaching room) most of my kids can fully function and write. We're enjoying working plot elements into our own narratives, showing that we fully understand conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Our stories are, for the most part, fantastic.
Except for Predator. Putting words on paper is all but impossible for him.
Yesterday, we sat together during workshop time and discussed ideas for his story.
"Predator, what do you want to write about?"
"POSEIDON." (he yells this during quiet time, by the way.)
"Really? Why him?"
"He's awesome! He lives in the ocean. Oh that's the setting. The ocean."
"Okay, well then can you describe the setting for me on your paper? Make it come alive."
"Wait. There's more settings. THE UNDERWORLD. With HADES."
"Oh and his three-headed dog?"
"HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?"
"I'm amazing. So describe the two settings then."
"HADES. IN THE UNDERWORLD."
"Predator, here's what I mean. When I picture the underworld, I see a river of death flowing. This river flows down through 7 layers, each with more and more pain and suffering on them. There are souls who cannot escape, screaming at the boat. Then, at the bottom of the underworld, in the worst spot ever, is Hades. What do you see?"
His eyes get bigger than I've ever seen. "You've beaten God of War?"
"What's God of War?"
"Duh, Ms. L. A video game."
"Oh no honey. There's this guy named Dante who described the underworld in The Inferno."
"Dante wrote a video game? He must be cool."
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Showering is a must.
Today I got to see Ivy (my favorite!) in the copy room today.
Don't even get me started about how I lovelovelove my current job but hatehatehate that we no longer share a door. Or 3x daily conversations. Or window peeks or licking elbows or sighs of ridiculousness when her "observers" come in. I never get to see Ivy. Since she works in dangerous minds and I work across the courts in happy land.
She was dilligently cutting copies for her lesson on combinations versus permutations. I was reading her word problems, and I just starting laughing.
Question: In the morning, you shower, eat, and get dressed. In how many orders can this occur?
Me: "Ivy, do you expect to tell me that you should get dressed before you shower?"
Laughter. Much laughter.
Ivy: "OH. (Laughing.) The kids won't even NOTICE that."
later in the day...
Email:
This is what the kids said about the problem:
Kid 1: "what if you took a shower, ate, then got dressed. You’re sitting around eating breakfast like “yeah they like my body."
Kid 2: "why would you take a shower in your clothes?"
Reply: "Cuz its America."
Don't even get me started about how I lovelovelove my current job but hatehatehate that we no longer share a door. Or 3x daily conversations. Or window peeks or licking elbows or sighs of ridiculousness when her "observers" come in. I never get to see Ivy. Since she works in dangerous minds and I work across the courts in happy land.
She was dilligently cutting copies for her lesson on combinations versus permutations. I was reading her word problems, and I just starting laughing.
Question: In the morning, you shower, eat, and get dressed. In how many orders can this occur?
Me: "Ivy, do you expect to tell me that you should get dressed before you shower?"
Laughter. Much laughter.
Ivy: "OH. (Laughing.) The kids won't even NOTICE that."
later in the day...
Email:
This is what the kids said about the problem:
Kid 1: "what if you took a shower, ate, then got dressed. You’re sitting around eating breakfast like “yeah they like my body."
Kid 2: "why would you take a shower in your clothes?"
Reply: "Cuz its America."
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Out of control
You know what is out of control?
When you loose power at 12:30 pm and you don't regain it until 3:30.
Oh and you are at work.
And you have to keep schoolchildren occupied when there is no power.
And no power means no air conditioning.
Oh, why did we lose power?
Because of the torrential rain. And hail. And wind. The sky opened up and rained the contents of the Pacific on my school's campus.
So we couldn't go to specials, and we couldn't go to the bathroom (outdoor school. No lights in the bathroom. Torrential downpours.)
Needless to say, it was a ridiculous day. And the topping on the ridiculous hat? The superintendent called an emergency meeting after school in our library (where we all thought we were going to get fired, by the way) to tell us that WE MAY NOT HAVE POWER TOMORROW but we are STILL GOING TO HAVE SCHOOL.
And, because we will still have school, we each need to call our students and tell them that we may not have power...but we will still have school....but don't come if you think you'll get hot....and we don't know how we're going to have food....because we don't have electricity....
FOR CHRIST SAKE. How do you expect me to call the parents when a) our phones still don't work and b) the internet doesn't work for me to look up my kids numbers?
I "did the best I could."
It was a fricken mess.
...I'm not even going to go into the fact that I had my formal observation this morning and could barely stop shaking with nervousness...
When you loose power at 12:30 pm and you don't regain it until 3:30.
Oh and you are at work.
And you have to keep schoolchildren occupied when there is no power.
And no power means no air conditioning.
Oh, why did we lose power?
Because of the torrential rain. And hail. And wind. The sky opened up and rained the contents of the Pacific on my school's campus.
So we couldn't go to specials, and we couldn't go to the bathroom (outdoor school. No lights in the bathroom. Torrential downpours.)
Needless to say, it was a ridiculous day. And the topping on the ridiculous hat? The superintendent called an emergency meeting after school in our library (where we all thought we were going to get fired, by the way) to tell us that WE MAY NOT HAVE POWER TOMORROW but we are STILL GOING TO HAVE SCHOOL.
And, because we will still have school, we each need to call our students and tell them that we may not have power...but we will still have school....but don't come if you think you'll get hot....and we don't know how we're going to have food....because we don't have electricity....
FOR CHRIST SAKE. How do you expect me to call the parents when a) our phones still don't work and b) the internet doesn't work for me to look up my kids numbers?
I "did the best I could."
It was a fricken mess.
...I'm not even going to go into the fact that I had my formal observation this morning and could barely stop shaking with nervousness...
Monday, October 4, 2010
I'm irate
I was livid mad today.
I got an email at 4:40 that said I was getting a new student. I refuse to go into details that just make me more mad, but I'm not supposed to get an email at 4:40. If I'm getting a new kid, WE AGREED AND IT HAS BEEN SAID that the latest an email can go out is 3:00 pm. So I can get ready.
So I went to my principal, knocked on her door, opened it, told her I was "enraged" and said I would wait until she was done with whoever was in there. So when she was done, I walked in, and said, "I'm enraged."
She replied: "With who? Useless? " (I've decided that Useless has to be the new name for the most USELESS pile of space ever, the "special education" academic coach who is, in fact, the devil. A USELESS PILE OF DEVIL.)
I said, "Yeah, her too. But..." then I proceeded to tell her about the new student. And after that, she asked me, "If I were to have a conversation with Useless tomorrow about how you guys are feeling..."
And my reply? "Well, I doubt you can tell her that we want to stab her in the face with a fork?"
"No, I don't think I can say that."
"Well, can you tell her that she's useless?"
"In my own special way I can."
I feel quite accomplished in this conversation. I got her to get mad about what happened to me at 4:40 today. AND she's going to tell Useless to stop being Useless.
I got an email at 4:40 that said I was getting a new student. I refuse to go into details that just make me more mad, but I'm not supposed to get an email at 4:40. If I'm getting a new kid, WE AGREED AND IT HAS BEEN SAID that the latest an email can go out is 3:00 pm. So I can get ready.
So I went to my principal, knocked on her door, opened it, told her I was "enraged" and said I would wait until she was done with whoever was in there. So when she was done, I walked in, and said, "I'm enraged."
She replied: "With who? Useless? " (I've decided that Useless has to be the new name for the most USELESS pile of space ever, the "special education" academic coach who is, in fact, the devil. A USELESS PILE OF DEVIL.)
I said, "Yeah, her too. But..." then I proceeded to tell her about the new student. And after that, she asked me, "If I were to have a conversation with Useless tomorrow about how you guys are feeling..."
And my reply? "Well, I doubt you can tell her that we want to stab her in the face with a fork?"
"No, I don't think I can say that."
"Well, can you tell her that she's useless?"
"In my own special way I can."
I feel quite accomplished in this conversation. I got her to get mad about what happened to me at 4:40 today. AND she's going to tell Useless to stop being Useless.
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