There's hope

I'll have to admit that I really like India Arie, and I remember a year ago when I was student teaching, I used to play this CD a lot during project work time. A massive copyright violation, and I'm sure someone's fixin' to sue me, and all that, I know, but it was very appropriate for the kids and it helped mellow them out and keep them on track. By any means necessary, as the saying goes.

I still listen to this a lot driving to and from school, and it puts me back in a good frame of mind no matter what happens that day...

Back when I had a little,
I thought that I needed a lot,
A little was overrated,
But a lot was a little too complicated

Isn't that always the trouble? Most of us don't know what we want, and even when we have everything we need, we don't realize it, and go and mess everything up?

See, zero didn't satisfy me,
A million didn't make me happy,
That's when I learned the lesson,
That it's all about your perception

I figured out a long time ago, that being rich and famous wasn't the point. Probably a good thing because I'm in no danger of ever being rich. In fact, most of the time I've been pretty broke...but it is all about your perception. If wealth is just money, then I'm poor. Or maybe not, because to me, it's all about being happy with what you are doing, and getting the basics covered. I've got my little corner of the universe and I'm pretty happy being where I am and doing what I do. Sometimes it's been a rough ride, but I guess it keeps things from ever getting too dull. Would I change anything? Probably not, I'm making it work, the way it is.

So you act, so you feel, so you are
It ain't about the size of your car
It's about the size of the faith in your heart

That kind of reminds me of the same stuff I tell kids all the time...you're the one who decides whether we have a good time or a bad one, it's up to you whether you succeed or fail, and so on. There's times when I want to give up too, but one thing I have learned in life is that never works. It's better just to get up and keep moving, and trust that at least you are still moving forward...

There's hope,
It doesn't cost a thing to smile,
You don't have to pay to laugh,
You better thank God for that,

Word.

Saturday's state of being

Current mood :: Relaxed

Current clothes :: Military pants and a shirt that says "The beatings will continue until morale improves." Clay used to wear this shirt a lot, and I've always thought it would be a good thing to wear on the job as a substitute teacher.

Current annoyances :: Clouds, piles, and that's about it. I'm actually feeling pretty good.

Current smells :: Coffee

Current thing I ought to be doing :: Chores

Current book :: I'm currently reading "A Thousand Pieces of Gold". It's been pretty graphic and intense, but it's starting to mellow out a bit. Either way it's pretty gripping and it's hard to put down.

Current cd in stereo :: Shostakovich-the 13th Symphony and Radio Pig (Memphis).

Current hate :: Re-adapting to the vagaries of day-to-day subbing.

Last thing you Bought :: navel oranges, plain yogurt, chili-making ingredients, and artichoke dip.

...Drank :: Pipeline-Kona Brewing Co. It's beer and coffee together...my two favorite beverages. Hot diggety!

...Read :: An article about volcanoes.

TGIF

For some reason this week, I'm more than a little ready for Friday. Guess I just need a break, and now's a good a time as any. It's a district in-service kinda day, so that excludes me from working.

I spent the morning going over some LA curriculum with Margo, and since the whole thing with Parkrose didn't work out, we went out and ate lunch at a Thai restaurant.

Then I cruised on over to the North Portland library and Title Wave. I picked up some Shostakovich and some latin jazz to listen to on my endless commutes at the library, and bought several books on tape/cd to listen to in the car at Title Wave (some of them I can use with students--I figure a little read-aloud won't hurt anybody, and if we have some downtime, it's a more restful way of spending it than my usual wild and rambunctious games).

Then it was time to head for the barn and tackle my huge pile of aftermath at home. I tend to ignore anything chore-related until the weekend, but it's nice to try to do some chores and cleaning without having boys and dogs underfoot the entire time. This is one of those rare days when I can do that.

After picking up my husband, we went on over to Mezza which is a new Meditteranean (Lebanese?) restaurant that opened up just down the street from us about a month ago. We tried it once and liked it, so it was time for a return visit. I really like this place--they have different offerings than all the other places in town (even the standards that you get everywhere taste totally different here), so it's not the same ol' same ol'. Everything tastes really fresh, and the pita bread is homemade and to die for...not that dried out stuff you usually get in restaurants. It arrives straight out of the oven puffed up to the roof, and has the most delightful yeasty smell. The inside is downright velvety, and it's the most wonderful sensory experience to sit there and eat it. I've never known anyone who had time to make pita bread from scratch, so this is what I've been missing all these years... Aside from the amazing pita bread, they also have some cool drinks and deserts, so in the summer time I think I'm going to haunt them... I just hope the crappy economy and our less than optimal demographics (this is more of an Asian/Latino/Russian sort of neighborhood) don't get them down. Who knows, maybe we're due for a demographic shift, which I could really go for...it would be nice not to have to go all the way to Beaverton to get Meditteranean foods! If someone wants to open a Med-Mart down the street, I'd be all for it...

one day a month

So today I finally pick up a job with district #1.

I have been so busy at district #2 that I haven't worked for the first district since mid-December...

Today I was at a middle school that I've worked at several times this year, and a few times in the past as well. It's one of my preferred places to work (even though I usually have some kind of recess duty which is not my fave) because I know the kids pretty well, feel comfortable with the rest of the staff, and enjoy the kids at this school.

All in all it was a pretty relaxing day, and I just kinda coasted through the afternoon. The kids were kinda restless but didn't take it out on me at all, so it was pretty smooth sailing. I did a lot of science and math today (a theme lately, I guess) and I spent some downtime teaching the kids some Japanese. Yep, not a bad day at all, even though I was tired until well past noon.

This week's been so crazy that I think I'm just in need of a break. I'm kinda glad that all I'm doing on Friday is sharing some of my language arts curriculum with Margo, and hanging out a bit. I need a break for some reason...

This has kind of been my EBD week, which has given me some time to think about it a bit more. Am I the best ever at it? Probably not, but I'm not the worst either. I do have a decent sense of how to interact with kids positively, not to push them to the point of frustration and meltdown, and how not to get my own buttons pushed...That's probably about as good as it can be...it's not like I've ever been trained in this area--I'm just kind of figuring it out as I go along...

one day a month

So today I finally pick up a job with district #1.

I have been so busy at district #2 that I haven't worked for the first district since mid-December...

Today I was at a middle school that I've worked at several times this year, and a few times in the past as well. It's one of my preferred places to work (even though I usually have some kind of recess duty which is not my fave) because I know the kids pretty well, feel comfortable with the rest of the staff, and enjoy the kids at this school.

All in all it was a pretty relaxing day, and I just kinda coasted through the afternoon. The kids were kinda restless but didn't take it out on me at all, so it was pretty smooth sailing. I did a lot of science and math today (a theme lately, I guess) and I spent some downtime teaching the kids some Japanese. Yep, not a bad day at all, even though I was tired until well past noon.

This week's been so crazy that I think I'm just in need of a break. I'm kinda glad that all I'm doing on Friday is sharing some of my language arts curriculum with Margo, and hanging out a bit. I need a break for some reason...

This has kind of been my EBD week, which has given me some time to think about it a bit more. Am I the best ever at it? Probably not, there's people who are definitely way better, but I'm not the worst either. I do have a decent sense of how to interact with kids positively and productively, how not to push them needlessly to the point of frustration and meltdown, and how not to get my own buttons pushed in the process of working with some very difficult personalities.

Could I do this all the time? Who knows. But since I'm most interested in remedial reading and ESL, two subjects populated with some of the more disaffected elements of the student population, it won't hurt me to get better at dealing with behavior--whatever its causes.

Weird times

One thing that's bad about giving out your sub ID is you never know when something strange might be done with it.

So I'm in the middle of Fubonn, minding my own affairs, when all of a sudden, my phone rings. On the other end is an administrator for a middle school I work at once in awhile...

...Wanting to know why I'm not there.

Huh??? I didn't pick up any jobs off of Subfinder this morning, and I didn't get any phone calls from either district. So why would I have a reason to be anywhere? Very very strange!

It took a lot of convincing to persuade them that I had no knowledge of the assignment and wasn't a total flake. I get the feeling that the office staff already thinks I'm a bit off an odd duck, but I suspect they put up with me because I am there for what is considered one of the toughest and hardest to fill of all sub jobs-the self-contained behavior classroom. Not too many people will take those assignments, much less at the secondary level.

So later on, I check Subfinder, before going to bed, just to make sure nothing weird is going on, and there it is again! I'm automatically signed up for this mystery job without having to say or do anything.

Okay, so maybe it's not that big of a mystery after all--it's a job I've done a few time in the past (I like the school and the kids pretty well), and the employee has my sub ID number. Apparently she plugged in my info which automatically assigned me to the job somehow, instead of going through the normal request process.

The problem with doing that is:
a. I work for two districts for both job types, so it's dangerous to automatically assume I'm available.
b. Doing that circumvents the process where I get contacted and know where and when to show up.

It was kind of strange, but figured I'd just go ahead and take the assignment. Like I said, it's not a bad gig, I like the school and the kids pretty well, and things have been pretty dry lately. As I've said on numerous other occasions, I'm kind of experimenting with EBD this year, and although I don't think I'm the best ever at it, it's not something I'm finding to be any more difficult than any other aspect of subbing. I might as well do another middle school job while I'm still in middle school mode, but I have to admit that it's kind of weird to have to get back into the mode of picking up daily assignments. I'll admit that I got kinda spoiled by my cushy little long-term assignment. It was awfully nice to not have to do the early morning shuffle and have that sense of continuity. Now I'm back to playing telephone with two different districts...

this is the end

This is the end
Beautiful friend...

Well, I thought I had about 4 more days left but it looks like my cozy little long-term sub position is about to come to an abrupt end. It's a bummer, but this is how things go when you're a sub. It really is about living from day to day because you just really never know what will happen from one day to the next. (The analogy between this and the military is pretty apt, I think). I feel guilty because I didn't get a chance to warn the kids or say goodbye or anything. And yes, I will admit that I have gotten rather attached to them, warts and all, having been there for a few weeks now. Even though I know better...at least it all ended on a good note, and I don't have it on my conscience that anything was left hanging or undone. So life goes on, I guess. I'm back into the mix, and who can really say what will happen tomorrow.

Friday's musings

It's been awhile since I've written, mainly because I've been busy and tired. Most of the time, my brain is pretty fried after marching kids through math all day long, and then following it up by fighting the vicious snarl of traffic all the way home after school. I'm cruising into my last week of this month-long job at a middle school, so I'm feeling a bit reflective on this Friday.

It's hard to believe I'll be back out in the mix again pretty soon, doing god knows what, god knows where. I've gotten pretty comfortable where I've been at, so I'm going to have to get used to the ringing phones, the rituals of checking subfinder and mapquest, and getting up earlier. Lately I've been getting away with sleeping in 'til 6am, which feels downright lackadaisical compared to the 5am hustle I was doing all during fall. I will definitely miss the power of knowing names, situations, and so on.

Some of the things I've learned in the past month, just for the record:

#1 I've had a pretty solid middle school math review. I can't recall the last time I thought about the Pythagorean theorem, but I can tell you right now, it wasn't any time in recent history. The same applies for almost everything else we've been doing in the past 3 weeks.

#2 I have decided that I definitely prefer 8th graders to 7th graders. Sometimes 7th graders are just a shade too trifling and immature for me. 8th graders can be bad as well, but it's in a slightly different (and to me, more bearable) way. I think I definitely prefer 6th grade and 8th grade of the middle grades. I sort of remember this about student teaching, but I couldn't be sure at the time I was getting the full experience (due to other factors in the setting). It's funny because I didn't think I'd enjoy 8th graders much but they're not nearly as bad as I remember, and it seems like most of the multigrade assignments I've had in middle schools this year, the 8th graders have been the most fun to work with. If I ever end up in a middle school setting, I'll have to try to either do multi-grades (since ESL is a multigrade experience), or just sixth or eighth grade Language Arts. A stand-alone 7th grade class is probably not for me.

#3 It feels darn good to be appreciated, and I've been getting a lot of it lately.

#4 One of the nice things about this assignment is that I've had a chance to test drive some curriculum ideas and learning strategies that I've been working on for a long time now. I'm good at thinking up stuff, but as a sub, I rarely have a chance to do any actual teaching, so this job's been nice in the sense that I have a lot of freedom in this area. I usually have a "topic" that has to be covered, but how it gets done is entirely up to me, since no instructions were left. I've really enjoyed putting my ingenuity to work for a change, and testing it out on real kids.

#5 This has been a very challenging assignment in some ways, so I feel like I've learned a lot in the process. Most of the material that I'm teaching is only vaguely familiar at best, so I've had to really stretch beyond my familiar little comfort zones of the humanities. It's kind of reassuring to know that I can jump in and do it, and thrive.

Next week is my last week before the job comes to an end, and I go back out in the mix. What will I be doing next? Who knows...it could be just about anything really. With subbing, every day is full of the unexpected. A couple of weeks from now, I could be just about anywhere in these two counties...at any grade level, in nearly any subject, with nearly any group of kids imaginable. It's mind boggling sometimes.

I had this conversation with a 7th grade boy the other day that really illuminated something for me about why I actually enjoy subbing. It occurred to me that all I'm really doing is reliving my own school experience...more schools than grades is about the best way I can describe it in 50 words or less. As a child I went to a new school almost every year. Why should my adult life be any different? And if I successfully survived that as a child, why would that aspect of substitute teaching be difficult to deal with now? I'm still playing the military brat role, even if that reality show technically ended years ago. So it's time to think about packing up my bags and getting ready for the next "duty station" if you will.

1. I am a good teacher because...I am very patient with teenagers, good at dealing with tough crowds, and can turn almost anything into a game.

2. If I weren't a teacher, I would be...a dharma bum??? a hobo??? an eccentric goat herder??? a pirate???

3. My teaching style is...fairly constructivist, and decidedly not oriented towards direct instruction and scripted curriculums. ick. I'm creative enough that I feel cramped by both of those mainstays of teaching.

4. My classroom is...a game of musical chairs where I walk into a different room each day. It can be dizzying at times.

5. My lesson plans... are way over-planned. I usually have to cut them down in real life.

6. One of my teaching goals is...to get better at working with really disaffected and defiant kids.

7. The toughest part of teaching is...trying to reach everyone.

8. The thing I love most about teaching is...the fact that I laugh every day (or almost every day). Kids are hilarious, unlike most adults.

9. A common misconception about teaching is...that teachers keep normal hours. My typical day starts at around 5am, and doesn't end until about 5pm. And that's just subbing (with no requirements to do any grading or attend numerous lengthy staff meetings).

10. The most important thing I've learned since I started teaching...I'm like MacGuyver, I can walk into almost any scenario and make it work.

why blog?

Via hipteacher

1. Why did you start blogging?

I do it so I won't forget what's happened in my life. My memory's sketchy so this really helps me keep track of it all...

2. What do you blog about primarily?

Mostly it's a space to reflect on what I'm thinking about. Sometimes it's "I went here and did this". Sometimes it's just a place to stash recipes or do creative writing. Other times I like to rant about what's wrong with the world.

3. Professionally, what do you get out of blogging?

Believe it or not, this helps me fine-tune my philosophy on teaching--and life in general.

4. Personally, what do you get out of blogging?

Well, two things, I suppose. One of the downsides of teaching it's definitely one of those jobs where it's really hard to discuss the nature of your work with other adults--nobody really wants to hear about it. Your logical audience is other teachers, but most of us don't have the time or energy to socialize, so this is about as close as I can get to it. Also, I like reading other teacher's blogs (TFA blogs were good reads during student teaching because it helped me to know that there were other people out there going through the same things).

5. What advice would you give to new blogging teachers?

Don't post anything you'd be embarrassed about or ashamed of if your students (or their parents) read it. (Generally, I wouldn't recommend using names or identifiable situations in blogs anyway).

As a substitute teacher, I spend a lot of time in a lot of different schools, so I make it a practice to never identify either the district or the school I'm referring to in my posts, and I try to write in a very general way when I'm talking about school-related stuff so that no one's confidentiality is violated. For me this is essential because I do a lot of Special Ed, and see and hear a lot of highly confidential things...confidentiality is the order of the day in this field. Everything's confidential in Special Ed...

Whether or not you want to talk about your personal life is up to you. I generally don't get "too personal" in here...this is more of a cognitive storage space for me.

Current mood :: slightly frustrated, and tired, but also peaceful.

Current clothes :: Pretty unfashionable. I've got on a tie-dye shirt and some pajama pants. Woo hoo, Friday night, here we come!

Current annoyances :: chapped lips, dry eyes, cold winds, and kids who are off-task.

Current smells :: can't smell anything at the moment, my nose is out of order.

Current thing I ought to be doing :: something educational.

Current book :: I'm currently suffereing from a short attention span, so I am having trouble reading anything longer than a newspaper article.

Current cd in stereo :: the Misfits

Current hate :: lousy drivers and kids who don't turn in their work.

Last thing you Bought :: a label maker.

...Drank :: 1557.

...Read :: An article about autism social story videos featuring animated train characters (kinda like Thomas). Makes sense to me, since a lot of the more autistic kids I know like either real trains, or Thomas, or both (age-appropriate or not!)

Check In

1. Occupation?

Substitute teacher, mainly at the middle and high school level (although some days I can't afford to be choosy about the jobs). Right now I'm on a long-term assignment in a middle school in Portland which seems to be going well.

2. What color are your socks right now?

Right now I'm sporting rainbow-colored toe socks. It suits my zany mood. After all, it's hard NOT to be zany when you spend your days around 13 and 14 year-olds.

3. Last thing you listened to?

I'm having an early mid-life crisis so I've gone and pulled out all the stuff I listened to in high school that's still in my possession. Today it was the Misfits, who I can still sing along with without missing a beat. The thematic material seems appropriate for goofy middle school boys.

4. Last thing that you ate?

Mac N Cheese. We're classy individuals around here.

5. Last movie you watched?

Curious Case of Benjamin Button. But that was awhile ago. Lately we've been working our way through old episodes of Battlestar Galactica in anticipation of the new season which starts tonight.
There's actually some interesting-looking movies out right now that I'd like to see, although how many of them need to be seen in the theater remains to be seen. I'd like to see Slum Dogs, for sure.

6. Last thing that made you mad?

I got really mad earlier today because this kid worked on his make-up math test for two class periods and turned it in, and I noticed that he got nearly all the problems wrong. I could tell he had completely forgotten how to do everything, and he missed several days of class, so he's clearly pretty lost. I made him do it again (and work on each problem to the point of mastery).

The other thing that's bugging me currently is driving to work every day. People drive like idiots and I get really tired of it by Friday. I'm normally a patient person in most areas of my life, but this has never extended into the realm of driving. I sure wish I could go back to riding the bus (and just check out for an hour) instead of dealing with every blithering idiot on the road who clearly barely passed their driver's license exam...

7. What was your favorite toy as a child? I always liked things with wheels like bikes or roller skates or skateboards. I loved the idea of self-propulsion, and still do. I ride my bike all the time when the weather's nice, and at the end of last summer bought a pretty decent skateboard from Goodwill for $3. What made me think of this is the fact that I have a student who really loves skateboarding and talks about it every day when I see him. He reminds me a lot of myself at his age, and not just because we both sucked royally at math in the 7th grade. When he said he'd rather be outside any day instead of inside playing videogames or watching TV, I knew he was gonna turn out just fine someday...

Braineaters

Here's a little song I made up in the car on the way home. We had kind of a math-intensive day and I'm a little sick of marching kids through graphing and square roots, and the pythagorean theorem, and fractions. So in honor of my tired brain, here's a song just for my middle schoolers...

Math for breakfast,
Math for lunch,
Math for dinner,
Math for brunch,
Math is all we ever do,
Why can't we have some fun, why why why?

Math is all we ever do,
It's driving us insane,
Math is all we ever do,
Why can't we have a change of pace?

Math for breakfast,
Math for lunch,
Math for dinner,
Math for brunch,
Math is all we ever do,
Why can't we have some fun, why why why?
Why can't we have some fun, why why why?
Why--can't---we---ever---do---some----thing---FUN?

(yeah, I've been rockin' out to the Misfits today and it totally shows)

7th grade math

One day in the life of 7th grade math...

Let’s get started!
Lights off!
“So what we’re doing today is…”
Tapping our pencils obsessively
“…The Pythagorean Theorem and…”
Creating a drumline on binders still closed
Our undivided attention is on the oblivious kid
Grind of the pencil sharpener
Grating a terrible tune
“Yet there is some symmetry there…and then you find out—“
“Boogers!”

The squealing rasp of desks scraping across the floor,
Punctuated by giggles,
“Equals the square root of what?”
Could someone close the door?
*Poke* Don’t touch my right triangle!
Here you go! It’s Goofy Friday!
“I don’t want anyone to get lost.”
“Well, I’m not inviting you to my birthday party!”
Questions? “I have no idea.”
“I got all the ones I did…”
“I told you, I’m not inviting you to my birthday party!”
Questions? “Oh wait!”
“Why is this one yellow?”
“Because you’re golden!”
Questions?
“Oh yeah, we all got questions!”
Questions?
“Wax on, wax off!”
So no questions?
So what else do we know? “I have no idea.”
The square root of…
The winter sun is finally peeking through the window
Which equals what? “Poop!”

math games rule

After introducing some games into my math instructional routine, the kids are totally eating up my homemade math games. At first they resisted (what, you want us to do math for FUN?), but now they BEG to play the square roots game.

What is the square roots game, you ask?

Why nothing more than some totally ghetto flash cards that I made with cut up squares made out of recyled cereal boxes (lasts way longer than index cards, and free) with square roots written on the blank side. As long as everyone's done with their work and we have at least two players, it's on. Kids that aren't even in 8th grade math want to get in on it, so I give them calculators and show them how to get the answers so they can play too. (I figure the practice won't hurt the seventh graders a bit--and when they do it again next year, they oughta be champs). So whenever we finish work early, they start pleading to play the game.

The way it works is I put down a card, and the first kid who gets the right answer keeps the card (so you don't have to keep track of any points). If it's a tie, I keep the card, and shuffle it back in for later. At the end, we count up the cards, and whoever has the most gets to pick something out of the assorted candy stash as a prize. Then we play another round. Because it's SPED, I let them all use calculators because it levels the playing field for everyone, and not all the numbers are even, but they've played it enough that they're starting to memorize the ones that do come out even, so my goal (memorization and recognition) are being met...

I have another version of a square roots game where they roll my game dice and give me the square of the resulting number. This works nicely because the sum is usually a 7, 8, or 9, which are the numbers they have the most trouble with anyway. It's a bit harder, but they like that one too.

Either way, they are getting LOTS of practice with square roots and having a good time as well. Go figure.

on a completely unrelated note...

Not that this has anything to do with ANYTHING, but it totally creeps me out when you're watching a football game on TV, and they have a player's photo at the bottom of the screen, and his eyes blink...god that's creepy.

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress...

So far so good

I've only been at it for a couple of days, but so far this long term subbing position is going along quite nicely. I've got a little office of sorts, so I don't have to carry around my full bag of tricks, and the kids seem to be getting used to my ways. Now that I've been there more than once, the other teachers are starting to notice I'm there. It's only my third day I've been at this school, but I'm finally starting to get the hang of things, and starting to match names to faces.

I've got a core group of about 10 kids (mostly boys) that I work with intensively throughout the day (multiple subjects), and 2 classes (7th and 8th grade) that I work in as an assistant. I've already figured out who the goofballs are in the classes, and who needs a more "personal touch". I'm having fun picking on slackers, and using some of my best high school lines on a new and appreciative audience. For the most part, the kids seem to respond well to me doing my thing, and I'm enjoying them since they're really not too bad (for middle schoolers).

It's a huge change of pace for me since I'm doing a lot more math and science than I usually do, but there's still some ESL, reading, geography, social studies, and language arts to be done every day as well. It's definitely a multiple subject gig, but not self-contained, so the day goes by really fast with all the moving around I have to do. I have a feeling the month is gonna fly right by...

Around here

“I walk in the air
Between the rain,
Through myself and back again"
Can’t go to work,
But I can’t bear
Those empty thoughts
In my empty house
Silent hours
Decided to go north
Hang out with the crew
One more afternoon
It would be awhile
We’d get rusty with each other
Become awkward
"Round here we always stand up straight"
Too many empty desks
Too many strolling in late
Tough crowd on Tuesdays
"Round here we talk just like lions,
But we sacrifice like lambs"
Lots of surly demeanors
Was it a bad vacation,
Or do you still dream of being elsewhere
Not ready to be back in school
Awake and upright
Well before noon
"She knows she's more
Than just a little misunderstood,
She has trouble acting normal when she's nervous"
C-----s chessboard looks pretty forlorn
Sitting there in the corner,
That's gotta be a metaphor
For something sad,
If anything ever was...
"Step out the front door
Like a ghost into the fog
Where no one notices..."
And no one cares
But up in that window
Snowflakes still fall
And that empty chair
Will always haunt me
If you ever need
To get out of the cold
You can always climb those stairs
And someone will always be waiting for you

keepin' it real

Went over and hung out with Margo's crew again today. It'll be awhile before I have another chance, so I figured I'd go see how everyone was doing. As usual, some things change, and some stay the same...I guess that's like most things in life. A little bit happy, a little bit sad, a little bit good and a little bit bad.

Hot diggety

Well it looks like the second half of the school year is off to a roaring start...it looks like I may have walked right into an awesome long-term subbing gig at a middle school. Although this particular assignment isn't a perfect match with my particular qualifications, it does give me the opportunity to gain some sustained experience teaching 7th and 8th graders, involves a great deal of autonomy and self-direction (my favorite), will probably look good on a resume, and will ensure that I have somewhere to go every day for the next month.

About the only downsides are that it's a classified job (so I won't get paid as much--but certified jobs have been kinda scarce lately anyhow), and it involves a lot of math (fortunately at an instructional level I should be able to handle most of the time). On the plus side, the kids seem totally fine. Thus begins my adventures in a long-term sub position...

The end of winter break is at hand...

Well, it's the last day before school starts up again. Just like the kids, I'm sure, I don't know if I'm ready to go back to getting up early and turning my brain on before noon...

I haven't done much for the past couple of weeks, except geek out and work on my on-going Language Arts curriculum project. (I've been gathering stuff, ever since I first started working in schools, on the off-chance it ever turned into a more permanent gig.) Since I've been at it for so long, I'm really starting to flesh out some good unit plans. Since I'm also working in every imaginable grade and setting, I also have scrounged up a pretty good pile of worksheets and stuff for those "plan B moments" that you have sometimes when you're a sub.

It snowed again today, but not enough that I need to worry about them cancelling school tomorrow. I don't know if I'll get called for anything. I've only seen a couple of postings, and one's high school math, so there isn't a chance in the world of me taking it...we'll see what the morning brings.

All I know is I am getting kinda tired of lying around the house (endless freedom is no fun when the weather's lousy), and I kinda miss being around teenagers. Crazy, I know, but I'll have to admit that I kinda miss all the corny jokes, earnest stories, and exuberance that comes with the job of being a teacher of teens. Teens rock! Wouldn't want to be one again for anything, but I kinda enjoy having them in my life. It keeps things from getting too dull.

So yeah, the whole holiday shebang is over with for another year. I'm ready for Chinese New Year, and another semester of school time madness. Let's see what second semester has up its sleeves...

Best of 2008

* Film of the year: It was kind of a weak year for films, in my opinion. I'm gonna go with the Ken Peterson film done by my cohort. I never laughed so hard in my entire life.

* Soundtrack of your year: The End of the Universe.

* Item of clothing acquired this year and worn most often: Maybe the flying ninja monkeys shirt from the Walmart in Indiana after Greyhound lost my luggage on the way to Louisville.

* Favourite recipe of the year: salsa with roasted corn.

* Happiest moment: seeing Eva, and coming home to Brian.

* Biggest surprise: Obama winning the election.

* Word/phrase/expression of the year: "Squirrels" (to refer to students) or "Critters".

* Words that sum up your year: Intense

* Biggest lesson learned: This too shall pass. I dealt with all kinds of difficult things, and small annoyances, and realized that most things can roll off my back like water. I learned a hell of a lot about dealing with students, and with life, that's for sure.