I'm in the midst of the best week of my teaching career. I have 266 AMAZING students who are ready and eager to tackle the semester/year. I will post more this weekend.
I must say the best experience so far is when the group of athletes in my 6th period senior English class follow up a lesson of encouragement from me to keep their momentum up on their journey to graduation with a school chant that consists of clapping and mascot shouts.
I hope everyone is watching the DNC! Michelle Obama is one of my new heros!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Last minute preparations
All this week I have been at UHigh for our annual in-service training and I am still behind. Last year they only left us with one day to prepare our rooms and everyone was scrambling to get things ready for the first days of school. This time around they gave us two days to work in our rooms. Now that I know a little more about the school and know several of the support staff as well as all the teachers in my department I have had more trouble getting ready. Yesterday, the last day of in-service, I was helping another teacher set up her student computers for about an hour. I was also running around trying to find an ethernet cord longer than ten feet. The laminating machine wasn't up and running until about 3:00 (thirty minutes before we could leave). Needless to say, I haven't finished putting things together. Today, Saturday, I have to get into my room and cut up those posters I now have laminated, put the finishing touches on the paint job I did to the room, organize my desk, and write the first two weeks of lesson plans.
I don't mind going in today, I'm just worried I won't be able to finish MY to-do list. Having an out-of-town guest last weekend made it difficult to get a lot of housework and errands finished and now I am left with a house than needs some order, checks that need to be cashed, books that need to be returned to the library, packages that need to be mailed, etc.
I won't even get into all the things I need to do for my college classes. Ugg.
I don't mind going in today, I'm just worried I won't be able to finish MY to-do list. Having an out-of-town guest last weekend made it difficult to get a lot of housework and errands finished and now I am left with a house than needs some order, checks that need to be cashed, books that need to be returned to the library, packages that need to be mailed, etc.
I won't even get into all the things I need to do for my college classes. Ugg.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Naysayers beware
Already, there seems to be a general concern about whether or not I will be able to maintain my sanity this semester with my teaching workload. I should note that the concern is coming from people who do not know me very well. The teachers at my school have only known me for a year and our interaction has been very minimal (mainly hallway and lounge room chat).
I tend to do very well under pressure and the end product will speak for itself. And, when people doubt me, I always push through adversity in an effort to prove any naysayers wrong.
The pressure is mounting. I just received a fifteen-minute tutorial on how to use my course website from a technophobe, the laminating machine is broken, my class wall still needs some paint, there are no lesson plans written (all in my head), I have evening training at the college tonight, and my copious lists of “to-do” projects is growing rather than shrinking.
Game on!
P.S. While I should have been planning or sleeping last night, I was working on a sketch of my next tattoo... I will post it at a later date!
I tend to do very well under pressure and the end product will speak for itself. And, when people doubt me, I always push through adversity in an effort to prove any naysayers wrong.
The pressure is mounting. I just received a fifteen-minute tutorial on how to use my course website from a technophobe, the laminating machine is broken, my class wall still needs some paint, there are no lesson plans written (all in my head), I have evening training at the college tonight, and my copious lists of “to-do” projects is growing rather than shrinking.
Game on!
P.S. While I should have been planning or sleeping last night, I was working on a sketch of my next tattoo... I will post it at a later date!
Monday, August 18, 2008
First day back to the world of public education
Today marks the first day of "in service" training (a.k.a. teacher torture).
This cartoon serves as a gentle reminder to myself before I start teaching next week. NCLB (No Child Left Behind) requires that all students, including special education and students with limited English proficiency, pass the same standardized test. Yeah, right!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Long time... no blog
I’ve been bad. This blog has been sorely neglected for way too long. I can’t promise that I will be posting more frequently, but I will try. This semester has all the makings of an insane four months. I have been blessed/cursed with opportunities to teach three new classes. At the high school I will be teaching 10th and 11th grade English and I picked up three sections of two different classes at an area community college. I’m nervous and excited at the same time. For the last two weeks I haven’t been able to sleep through the night without waking up from some crazy teaching dream. Weird.
On to lighter news… I had a revelation today while shopping for clothes during the “tax holiday” weekend extravaganza here in South TX. Since I have little cashola to spare I made a list of all the places I “needed” to go and even went online to search the selections before walking into the stores. Two places that made it onto my list were Chicos and Coldwater Creek. Nobody told me this is where the geriatric crowd shops. I noticed something was odd when the sizes didn’t dip below a 6 but once I started to look around there was an obvious generation gap. Should I feel embarrassed that I was drawn to the clothing styles? They were very hippyish which tends to draw me in… there is something about a multi-print skirt that makes my heart beat a bit faster but dang… at least I know where to go in another thirty years!
On to lighter news… I had a revelation today while shopping for clothes during the “tax holiday” weekend extravaganza here in South TX. Since I have little cashola to spare I made a list of all the places I “needed” to go and even went online to search the selections before walking into the stores. Two places that made it onto my list were Chicos and Coldwater Creek. Nobody told me this is where the geriatric crowd shops. I noticed something was odd when the sizes didn’t dip below a 6 but once I started to look around there was an obvious generation gap. Should I feel embarrassed that I was drawn to the clothing styles? They were very hippyish which tends to draw me in… there is something about a multi-print skirt that makes my heart beat a bit faster but dang… at least I know where to go in another thirty years!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Hey now... who said I was white?
Okay, I'm somewhat guilty. I do feel good driving my Prius, but I must say that it wasn't as expensive as this post seems to think. And... I am up to 50.3 miles per gallon! For the record, I removed my apple sticker months ago.
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