November is the best month because I get about a million days off, comparatively speaking. First, on Halloween, which was indeed technically in October, we had movie day after lunch. For some wonderful reason there was no movie being held in my room and so I got to sit in another teacher's room with her and monitor the kids. Since the other teacher is a much more experienced authoritative teacher and because the kids were actually being totally awesome and simply watching the movie, I got to do a bunch of grading and basically had an almost two hour long prep. Hurrah.
Then, next Tuesday is election day and there are no students. There is going to be professional development but there might not be anything for me to do since I am a Spanish teacher and no one actually cares about Spanish. Half hurrah, but still hurrah for not having to teach and probably getting time to grade and whatnot. Especially since grades are due on Thursday morning.
Then! Monday after that, veteran's day. No school for anybody, three day long weekend filled with sleep and cookies.
Then comes half day for parent teacher conferences. I doubt anyone really wants to talk to me because as mentioned earlier, no one cares about Spanish. I am sure some people will want to talk to me and probably a lot more people will want to talk to me than teachers in core subjects get at other schools with different population demographics, however, a half day is a half day and I will take what I can get.
Then Thanksgiving and being that I eat little to no Thanksgiving food(vegan) I am just going to stay at my apartment and babysit the growing collection of cats we have(up to three now) and plan and sleep and watch t.v. on the new cable we got installed today.
Right now I'm waiting for the signal to go out from the math teacher who always goes out really late in the evening. It's already 9:45 and I am starting to feel droopy, but I owe her a drink and I had a little ex-boyfriend sadness relapse spurred by his randomly instant messaging me just to chat after not having spoken to me for five months. It's like some bell went off in his apartment that I was starting to get over him so he had to talk to me for no reason at all just to screw with my head and now I'm thinking about him again. And he's just no good. Long and complicated past that I wish would just go away.
Also, it is freezing in my apartment and the heating is "broken" or so we've been told. It needs to be fixed right away, I can't take how cold it is in here. I am starting to regret the giant windows in every room. Brrr.
I have had no energy for posting. I gave a test, which didn't go over well, and I spent one hundred hours grading it. I had no idea grading took so long. I will never, ever give a test to all 236 students again. What a horrible ordeal. I am loving school though and my students. The other day one of the kids said something that just cracked me up and I realized I love my students. I am kind of bummed on the weekends because I miss them all(most) so much. I am wondering if this is my honeymoon period? Hopefully not.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Weekends
I love the weekends so much. I wish they were three days long. I need one whole day to do nothing, one day to do chores, and one day to do work. Two days is not enough. Next weekend I'm taking a trip to Baltimore because my mother's going to be there for a work thing. I'm taking the train right after work on Friday and I'm coming back Sunday evening. I'm pretty excited, it'll be my first vacation since school started. I don't know what we're going to do down there, but it'll be nice to see my mom and hang out. I'm going to try and take a nap on the train since I can't stay up past 9:00 on Friday without one. I am also giving a test this week, so I'll try and grade those on the train when I wake up from my nap. So much work to do forever.
Oh my goodness! I almost forgot. My school had the first dance of the year on Friday and I chaperoned. Hilarity! Middle schoolers are amazing at school dances. It was the Halloween dance, so a lot of them were dressed up too. So bizarre. Middle school aged people are so funny and interesting. I love it. Very awkward and there was some whole thing going to down with these two popular kids who went to the dance together, I don't know. I didn't get all the gossip. I was mostly moving around the gym trying to position myself near the kids who were dancing too close so they would get so uncomfortable with me being near them that they would stop. I didn't break much stuff up, only some really sexually explicit moves. Which is disgusting by the way, 12 year olds!
I also realized that the end of the quarter is coming up soon. I can't believe that in an entire quarter I've done one unit. I feel very ineffective. Being a teacher is so overwhelming, I feel like there are a lot of things I would like to do but I just don't have the energy to create them. Like I wanted to do a review bingo that would have questions just like on the test, but I just don't have the energy to do that. I am going to have to have the kids come up with the questions for half the period and then play the game based on those questions. I can't possibly design two different jeopardy games and create two tests and grade projects. I don't have that kind of energy. I also should get going because I absolutely have to do laundry today because I'm going out of town next weekend.
Perhaps I shall post again before I leave, but it is not likely.
Oh my goodness! I almost forgot. My school had the first dance of the year on Friday and I chaperoned. Hilarity! Middle schoolers are amazing at school dances. It was the Halloween dance, so a lot of them were dressed up too. So bizarre. Middle school aged people are so funny and interesting. I love it. Very awkward and there was some whole thing going to down with these two popular kids who went to the dance together, I don't know. I didn't get all the gossip. I was mostly moving around the gym trying to position myself near the kids who were dancing too close so they would get so uncomfortable with me being near them that they would stop. I didn't break much stuff up, only some really sexually explicit moves. Which is disgusting by the way, 12 year olds!
I also realized that the end of the quarter is coming up soon. I can't believe that in an entire quarter I've done one unit. I feel very ineffective. Being a teacher is so overwhelming, I feel like there are a lot of things I would like to do but I just don't have the energy to create them. Like I wanted to do a review bingo that would have questions just like on the test, but I just don't have the energy to do that. I am going to have to have the kids come up with the questions for half the period and then play the game based on those questions. I can't possibly design two different jeopardy games and create two tests and grade projects. I don't have that kind of energy. I also should get going because I absolutely have to do laundry today because I'm going out of town next weekend.
Perhaps I shall post again before I leave, but it is not likely.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
My first cry
Back to school night went well. I didn't know what to say, but the parents didn't ask any crazy questions. Next year will be better I think. I'm going to take more time and really explain the details of my curriculum. It was actually kind of nice to meet some of the parents in an informal setting and just talk to them like people. I don't know when parent conferences are coming up, but I think those will be kind of yucky since you have to tell parents what is up with their kids. Nobody likes to hear their kid is a jerk or something. Hopefully my slackers can get their acts together before parent conferences. We'll see.
Speaking of which, last Friday I had my first cry. On Wednesday, during advisory, five kids got detention. I had them come on Friday because Thursday was curriculum night and I had to prepare for it. So, on Friday, two boys showed up S and R. I wanted them to clean out the desks since I didn't feel like making an assignment for them and the room was pretty disgusting. Middle school kids are very messy and sloppy. Disgusting. Anyhow, these two boys started kind of freaking out. One boy, S, started shoving the desks and the chairs around the room, causing one chair to topple over. I asked him to clean less violently and he started yelling at me. He went back to cleaning, but still shoving desks and chairs around very violently. I told him to stop cleaning and to come and sit down and calm down. He started yelling at me saying I'm pissed off at you!
The whole time the other boy, R, is yelling at me as well and talking on his cell phone to his mom because he had gotten another day of detention for complaining. He puts me on the phone with his mom and she doesn't speak any English so she's asking me to explain what's going on and as I explain to her, her son R is yelling at me, disagreeing with everything I'm saying. So S is still yelling at me and I tell him S, you can't have detention today because you're too angry and you can't calm down. He refuses! He yells, "I'M NOT LEAVING" and I started getting really stressed at this point. R is still yelling at me trying to say S shouldn't have to leave and other things. I kept telling him to leave but nothing. I called the AP and principal's office but they weren't there since it was after school and they do crowd control. So I called another teacher's room who seems to do really well with the kids and she came. He refused to come with her, she was trying really hard to calm him down. Nothing.
So that teacher wrote me a note saying I'm sorry I couldn't help, do you want me to get Ms. Assistant Principal? I said yes thank you and assistant principal came and got S. I still had R to deal with so I worked on Spanish stuff with him and he calmed down a little bit. He hates life and school and many things, so it's not exactly fun to work with him. Assistant principal said that S wanted to talk to me, but I was still working with R so I said we'd have to do it another day. Once R left, I jut broke down. I cried a bit in the corner, until assistant principal came in to check on me and cheered me up.
I wasn't sad because S and R didn't like me, but I was so frustrated that the situation got so out of control and I couldn't figure out how to diffuse it. I want to do really well and when I screw up I get upset. It's kind of hard being at my school because all of the other teachers are totally amazing, and it's easy to feel inadequate. Whenever people would say don't take it personally, I never really knew what they were talking about. I figured they meant don't be upset because kids don't like you or don't respect you, but after this whole ordeal I think it means don't let bad days make you think you are failing as a teacher. Everyone has bad days and nobody knows what to do all the time, but that's ok. You can still be an amazing teacher who doesn't know what to do sometimes.
After the whole ordeal we had a staff party which was awesome because there was free food and booze. I showed up late and tossed back many vodka tonics and I felt so much happier. It's nice to have colleagues who are young and don't think you're inappropriate if you get a little drunk. After the party we actually went out to a bar and then I went to a burlesque show with one of the teachers. It was such a good end to a bad day. Just the thing I needed.
I've got many many things to do now. I would really like to be better about posting, but I've been so busy with work. Hopefully things will calm down soon. Does that happen? Who knows.
Speaking of which, last Friday I had my first cry. On Wednesday, during advisory, five kids got detention. I had them come on Friday because Thursday was curriculum night and I had to prepare for it. So, on Friday, two boys showed up S and R. I wanted them to clean out the desks since I didn't feel like making an assignment for them and the room was pretty disgusting. Middle school kids are very messy and sloppy. Disgusting. Anyhow, these two boys started kind of freaking out. One boy, S, started shoving the desks and the chairs around the room, causing one chair to topple over. I asked him to clean less violently and he started yelling at me. He went back to cleaning, but still shoving desks and chairs around very violently. I told him to stop cleaning and to come and sit down and calm down. He started yelling at me saying I'm pissed off at you!
The whole time the other boy, R, is yelling at me as well and talking on his cell phone to his mom because he had gotten another day of detention for complaining. He puts me on the phone with his mom and she doesn't speak any English so she's asking me to explain what's going on and as I explain to her, her son R is yelling at me, disagreeing with everything I'm saying. So S is still yelling at me and I tell him S, you can't have detention today because you're too angry and you can't calm down. He refuses! He yells, "I'M NOT LEAVING" and I started getting really stressed at this point. R is still yelling at me trying to say S shouldn't have to leave and other things. I kept telling him to leave but nothing. I called the AP and principal's office but they weren't there since it was after school and they do crowd control. So I called another teacher's room who seems to do really well with the kids and she came. He refused to come with her, she was trying really hard to calm him down. Nothing.
So that teacher wrote me a note saying I'm sorry I couldn't help, do you want me to get Ms. Assistant Principal? I said yes thank you and assistant principal came and got S. I still had R to deal with so I worked on Spanish stuff with him and he calmed down a little bit. He hates life and school and many things, so it's not exactly fun to work with him. Assistant principal said that S wanted to talk to me, but I was still working with R so I said we'd have to do it another day. Once R left, I jut broke down. I cried a bit in the corner, until assistant principal came in to check on me and cheered me up.
I wasn't sad because S and R didn't like me, but I was so frustrated that the situation got so out of control and I couldn't figure out how to diffuse it. I want to do really well and when I screw up I get upset. It's kind of hard being at my school because all of the other teachers are totally amazing, and it's easy to feel inadequate. Whenever people would say don't take it personally, I never really knew what they were talking about. I figured they meant don't be upset because kids don't like you or don't respect you, but after this whole ordeal I think it means don't let bad days make you think you are failing as a teacher. Everyone has bad days and nobody knows what to do all the time, but that's ok. You can still be an amazing teacher who doesn't know what to do sometimes.
After the whole ordeal we had a staff party which was awesome because there was free food and booze. I showed up late and tossed back many vodka tonics and I felt so much happier. It's nice to have colleagues who are young and don't think you're inappropriate if you get a little drunk. After the party we actually went out to a bar and then I went to a burlesque show with one of the teachers. It was such a good end to a bad day. Just the thing I needed.
I've got many many things to do now. I would really like to be better about posting, but I've been so busy with work. Hopefully things will calm down soon. Does that happen? Who knows.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Three day weekend
I haven't posted in ages. I had an ok week. All of a sudden I love my eighth graders more than anything. I don't know what happened but this week I just thought they were all hilarious and awesome and wanted them to hang out all day. I actually feel like I may have lost some ground with them because once you start loving them and thinking they're silly, you aren't on them all the time to get their behavior in line and get back to work. I need to get a little more strict this upcoming week.
Speaking of which, three day weekend this weekend which equals short week! Alright! Our at-risk letters are due this week, which means I am going to have to spend a lot of time at school doing that. Any student who might not pass your class has to have a letter sent home saying that so the parent's don't freak out at you about it. Also, we are having back to school night or some sort of equivalent this week so I'll be at school really late one day of the week for that. I am really scared because it's the first time I'll be meeting a lot of parents all at once and they have the opportunity to ask me questions. I have no idea what I'm doing so if they ask me questions about it, there's a very good chance I wont know or I wont have decided yet. For example, a lot of kids ask how many points their final grade is going to be out of. I have no idea how many assignments and tests and projects there will be, so I haven't a clue what the amount of points is going to be. Do other teachers plan these kinds of things out so far in advance? That's not happening.
I am loving my three day weekend. So far today I've eaten and caught up with the tv shows I missed this week. Now I might take a nap. It's glorious to have free time. I have to grade projects, so maybe when I get up from my nap I'll grade the projects I have here at my apartment. Most of them are at school. I think I've finished about half of them so far, but I'd like to get them done by Wednesday so I can see if the projects affect anyone's grade as far as the at-risk letters go. Friday night I went out with a bunch of teachers. I love the other teachers at my school, I don't want to ever leave here. I feel like maybe my principal will encourage me to stay even if she doesn't think I'm awesome because there seems to be a very high turnover rate at my school and I can't imagine that reflects well on us. There were seven new teachers this year out of like 20 teachers total.
In other news, I got some bug bites on my knees which have swelled up to gigantic proportions. I always have bad reactions to bites. I also have a dentist appointment on Monday and I haven't been to the dentist in over a year since I lost my dental coverage when I graduated. I am very good with dental hygiene though, so I think hopefully the dentist appointment wont be too painful. I also need to decide what in the hell to do this week in class. I want to finish up with my eighth grade review unit and test them already. I need to do question formation and some vocabulary and then move the hell on. I think for now I'll get back to napping. Hopefully I'll find more time for posting soon. Probably not.
Speaking of which, three day weekend this weekend which equals short week! Alright! Our at-risk letters are due this week, which means I am going to have to spend a lot of time at school doing that. Any student who might not pass your class has to have a letter sent home saying that so the parent's don't freak out at you about it. Also, we are having back to school night or some sort of equivalent this week so I'll be at school really late one day of the week for that. I am really scared because it's the first time I'll be meeting a lot of parents all at once and they have the opportunity to ask me questions. I have no idea what I'm doing so if they ask me questions about it, there's a very good chance I wont know or I wont have decided yet. For example, a lot of kids ask how many points their final grade is going to be out of. I have no idea how many assignments and tests and projects there will be, so I haven't a clue what the amount of points is going to be. Do other teachers plan these kinds of things out so far in advance? That's not happening.
I am loving my three day weekend. So far today I've eaten and caught up with the tv shows I missed this week. Now I might take a nap. It's glorious to have free time. I have to grade projects, so maybe when I get up from my nap I'll grade the projects I have here at my apartment. Most of them are at school. I think I've finished about half of them so far, but I'd like to get them done by Wednesday so I can see if the projects affect anyone's grade as far as the at-risk letters go. Friday night I went out with a bunch of teachers. I love the other teachers at my school, I don't want to ever leave here. I feel like maybe my principal will encourage me to stay even if she doesn't think I'm awesome because there seems to be a very high turnover rate at my school and I can't imagine that reflects well on us. There were seven new teachers this year out of like 20 teachers total.
In other news, I got some bug bites on my knees which have swelled up to gigantic proportions. I always have bad reactions to bites. I also have a dentist appointment on Monday and I haven't been to the dentist in over a year since I lost my dental coverage when I graduated. I am very good with dental hygiene though, so I think hopefully the dentist appointment wont be too painful. I also need to decide what in the hell to do this week in class. I want to finish up with my eighth grade review unit and test them already. I need to do question formation and some vocabulary and then move the hell on. I think for now I'll get back to napping. Hopefully I'll find more time for posting soon. Probably not.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Birthday
I'm starving, but it's some sort of Jewish holiday which requires the Orthodox Jews to close their grocery store where the most excellent bagels are sold for 35 cents. It's also my birthday, which is exciting. I tried to stay out last night until midnight, but I couldn't even stay awake that long. I left the bar around 9:30 and came home and watched the season premier of the Office, which was so-so, and then went to bed by 11:30.
So now it's my birthday, which is exciting. I am going to do my laundry today finally, and once that's clean I'll be very happy. Then I don't know what I'll do. My teaching fellow friend V. is going to come out with me tonight and we're going to go somewhere and do something. I don't really care too much. I wouldn't mind using my i.d., but I hardly get carded anyway. I feel like I'd go out and try to get carded but wouldn't, and would then be annoyed at spending money that I don't have. Speaking of which, I thought I would be getting paid on Friday because I got paid two Fridays ago and that's how it usually works. Oh no. We get paid on the 1st and the 15th, even if those days fall on a Monday or a Wednesday. I thought that was annoying because I don't want to be depositing checks on a Monday, but I guess I'm technically supposed to have enrolled in direct deposit by now. Because I have TONS of free time before 4:30 to hang out at the DOE office in Brooklyn. Stupid jerks. I guess I could mail it, but I don't have any stamps.
I have lots to plan for this week, but I really don't want to do that on my birthday. Tomorrow I'm going to plan this week out and then next week, three day weekend!, I'll try to do some real planning for like a whole month or something. I also need to start typing up my lesson plans so that next year I could actually reuse them. I type some up now, but I also just sort of write the activities down on random pieces of paper which I promptly lose. So that's got to stop. I also have some projects to grade, but a lot of them were too big for my canvas bag, so I have to grade them at school, as if I ever have free time when I'm at school. Next week hopefully. Oh and I'm doing progress reports this week because At-risk letters, if you want to fail a kid their parents have to be notified in advance, go out on the 12th of October. Which I think is stupid since kids aren't allowed to turn in late homework in my class, so I don't know how much it will help. If kids have bad attitudes and don't do any work in my class, they know they're failing because I already told them. Will telling their parents change their attitude in class? I highly doubt it.
For now I'm going to relax and catch up on T.V. that I did not watch this week because I don't have television. Hooray birthdays.
So now it's my birthday, which is exciting. I am going to do my laundry today finally, and once that's clean I'll be very happy. Then I don't know what I'll do. My teaching fellow friend V. is going to come out with me tonight and we're going to go somewhere and do something. I don't really care too much. I wouldn't mind using my i.d., but I hardly get carded anyway. I feel like I'd go out and try to get carded but wouldn't, and would then be annoyed at spending money that I don't have. Speaking of which, I thought I would be getting paid on Friday because I got paid two Fridays ago and that's how it usually works. Oh no. We get paid on the 1st and the 15th, even if those days fall on a Monday or a Wednesday. I thought that was annoying because I don't want to be depositing checks on a Monday, but I guess I'm technically supposed to have enrolled in direct deposit by now. Because I have TONS of free time before 4:30 to hang out at the DOE office in Brooklyn. Stupid jerks. I guess I could mail it, but I don't have any stamps.
I have lots to plan for this week, but I really don't want to do that on my birthday. Tomorrow I'm going to plan this week out and then next week, three day weekend!, I'll try to do some real planning for like a whole month or something. I also need to start typing up my lesson plans so that next year I could actually reuse them. I type some up now, but I also just sort of write the activities down on random pieces of paper which I promptly lose. So that's got to stop. I also have some projects to grade, but a lot of them were too big for my canvas bag, so I have to grade them at school, as if I ever have free time when I'm at school. Next week hopefully. Oh and I'm doing progress reports this week because At-risk letters, if you want to fail a kid their parents have to be notified in advance, go out on the 12th of October. Which I think is stupid since kids aren't allowed to turn in late homework in my class, so I don't know how much it will help. If kids have bad attitudes and don't do any work in my class, they know they're failing because I already told them. Will telling their parents change their attitude in class? I highly doubt it.
For now I'm going to relax and catch up on T.V. that I did not watch this week because I don't have television. Hooray birthdays.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Refusals
I did not do any work today when I got home from school. I left early too, to go pick up my hard drive with my recovered data. Hooray! for tekserve, the most wonderful people in the world for saving my ass and my data. I still need to submit my curriculum maps to my principal, as they were due a week ago. I was supposed to do laundry too, but the last thing I want to do when I get home from working is lug a bunch of laundry two blocks and wait around. I am running out of clothes, but hopefully I can pull through until Saturday.
Saturday's my birthday though, and who wants to do laundry on their birthday? I am seriously considering buying more underwear so I don't have to do laundry. Or maybe wearing my fancy uncomfortable underwear that only exists for non-existent romantic encounters. We'll see.
Today in honor of my birthday I made a cheap heat up dinner and ate it all. However, I neglected to remember the fact that I have been eating so differently than normal, with my modified schedule and my limited time to eat, that eating like I would usually do, i.e. gorging myself silly, makes me feel all yucky inside. The alphabet cookies didn't help. Stupid Trader Joe's with their delicious sick-inducing products.
Also, last night I had my first grad course at my university. It went a lot better than I thought, the teacher is an old Spanish fellow and she said that we'd be doing stuff that we can take and use right away. I think that'll be great because sometimes I feel like the stuff I come up with is really dull, but I also don't have the time or energy to come up with brilliant lesson plans.
Today was sort of mediocre. I kept one of my classes 15 minutes over on accident because all the classes after lunch on Wednesdays are shortened to accommodate advisory period. Advisory went ok, we were reading again and I told them they could do anything they wanted while I read as long as I didn't hear them. And they were pretty good about it. They don't want to do anything so at least this way, they can feel like they are doing what they want, I don't have to be annoyed by their ridiculous antics, and they have to listen to the stories which are actually all about being a teenager and are more or less what advisory is all about, emotional well-being of youth. I think it's a good compromise. I most of all don't want to be annoyed at the end of the day, and today I wasn't. Hurrah.
I guess that's all. As a said, today is all about relaxing. I got a lot of planning done already at school and on the subway, I just have a few things to do for Friday. I am going to do those tomorrow and get to bed by 9. I needed this rest. Also, I want to give a thumbs up to NBC for their new show Chuck. I really enjoyed watching the pilot. I never watched alias, so if it's just a rip-off of that, then that's stupid, but if it's different then I think it's awesome. Also, a thumbs down to CBS for getting rid of that show with John Ritter's son and the friend girl from Mean Girls. I really liked that show and I watched the show it got replaced by, The Big Bang Theory, and it's horrible trash. Not funny and it feels sort of like watching a play. I can't put my finger on what it is though that makes it like a play. More fall previews opinions to follow surely.
Saturday's my birthday though, and who wants to do laundry on their birthday? I am seriously considering buying more underwear so I don't have to do laundry. Or maybe wearing my fancy uncomfortable underwear that only exists for non-existent romantic encounters. We'll see.
Today in honor of my birthday I made a cheap heat up dinner and ate it all. However, I neglected to remember the fact that I have been eating so differently than normal, with my modified schedule and my limited time to eat, that eating like I would usually do, i.e. gorging myself silly, makes me feel all yucky inside. The alphabet cookies didn't help. Stupid Trader Joe's with their delicious sick-inducing products.
Also, last night I had my first grad course at my university. It went a lot better than I thought, the teacher is an old Spanish fellow and she said that we'd be doing stuff that we can take and use right away. I think that'll be great because sometimes I feel like the stuff I come up with is really dull, but I also don't have the time or energy to come up with brilliant lesson plans.
Today was sort of mediocre. I kept one of my classes 15 minutes over on accident because all the classes after lunch on Wednesdays are shortened to accommodate advisory period. Advisory went ok, we were reading again and I told them they could do anything they wanted while I read as long as I didn't hear them. And they were pretty good about it. They don't want to do anything so at least this way, they can feel like they are doing what they want, I don't have to be annoyed by their ridiculous antics, and they have to listen to the stories which are actually all about being a teenager and are more or less what advisory is all about, emotional well-being of youth. I think it's a good compromise. I most of all don't want to be annoyed at the end of the day, and today I wasn't. Hurrah.
I guess that's all. As a said, today is all about relaxing. I got a lot of planning done already at school and on the subway, I just have a few things to do for Friday. I am going to do those tomorrow and get to bed by 9. I needed this rest. Also, I want to give a thumbs up to NBC for their new show Chuck. I really enjoyed watching the pilot. I never watched alias, so if it's just a rip-off of that, then that's stupid, but if it's different then I think it's awesome. Also, a thumbs down to CBS for getting rid of that show with John Ritter's son and the friend girl from Mean Girls. I really liked that show and I watched the show it got replaced by, The Big Bang Theory, and it's horrible trash. Not funny and it feels sort of like watching a play. I can't put my finger on what it is though that makes it like a play. More fall previews opinions to follow surely.
Monday, September 24, 2007
An excellent day
Today was the best day ever. I saw my two worst classes with the TWO worst kids I've mentioned before, anger management Marsha and the boy who has walked out of my advisory two out of three classes. They were both good if not excellent. I also had another girl who has been very hostile and disinterested the whole time and today she raised her hand for almost every question. She speaks Spanish with her family, so maybe now that we are getting into the Spanish she'll be excited to show off. Who the hell knows. Anger management Marsha was exceptionally attentive and even participated. I moved the boy who she hit last week to a different desk, and the girls she always chats with was absent. I was so impressed with her behavior. When I raised my hand and started timing, which is what I do when I want their attention, she even told other kids to shut up and pay attention to me. It was such a wonderful outlet for her rage! I told her as she left that she did a really awesome job.
Also, my principal came into my room while I was teaching and said she needed to talk to me on my next prep period. I was for sure convinced I would be fired, for what I didn't know, but I'm a worrier. She brought up the consequence papers, which she hates, and I just said flat out "I got rid of them." After that she seemed to really turn around. She seemed much happier and nicer. She still didn't tell me anything that would be a good idea, instead telling me that she didn't like my hagan ahora(aka do now, standard NYC public school warm-up activity.) Wait, that's not true, she did give me a suggestion to change my hagan ahora. So all in all not bad, especially since I didn't get fired like I thought. I still didn't get to do my laundry, so that's depressing. But my birthday is on Saturday, so I am psyched none the less!
Also, my principal came into my room while I was teaching and said she needed to talk to me on my next prep period. I was for sure convinced I would be fired, for what I didn't know, but I'm a worrier. She brought up the consequence papers, which she hates, and I just said flat out "I got rid of them." After that she seemed to really turn around. She seemed much happier and nicer. She still didn't tell me anything that would be a good idea, instead telling me that she didn't like my hagan ahora(aka do now, standard NYC public school warm-up activity.) Wait, that's not true, she did give me a suggestion to change my hagan ahora. So all in all not bad, especially since I didn't get fired like I thought. I still didn't get to do my laundry, so that's depressing. But my birthday is on Saturday, so I am psyched none the less!
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