whoa!

This whole week, we finally got to experience Williamsburg's "winter". Last Sunday, we went to see Pan's Labrynth. We wanted to see it Friday or Saturday, but I was sick. Usually, we would walk over to the theater, I was finally feeling healthy and strong enough to go, but didn't feel like pushing it. Plus, by the time we got out of the theater, it was going to be dark and colder (in the 30s). They kept saying we were going to see a "wintery mix". It was sort of raining when we went in, when we got out we saw:

It was kind of sleet, heavy rain, but didn't freeze or anything. I didn't get some major frost on my car until Thursday morning (or maybe it was Wednesday? I can't remember). Anyway, it was in the 30s most days and it was all leading up to Friday--the ultimate cold day. The high was only 30 and it was supposed to be in the teens (!!! ohno!) in the morning with a chance of wind! (noo!) The meterologist dude on WAVY 10 news Thursday morning said we might get snow overnight Thursday or on Sunday night. He said the "Snow Hope Meter" (or whatever rediculous name he gave it) was at a 1 and on Sunday, it maybe a 2 (whoaaa!!). As I was leaving school Thursday afternoon around 3, I was at one of the stoplights before my on-ramp to the highway and I saw a few drops of rain that were almost passing as snow. I was shocked! I saw them only there, then they disappeared. I figured there was some semi going on the overpass of 564 above me that was carrying fake snow or something, haha. But, the closer I got to WBG, the closer I got to some really dark, scary looking clouds. Then, at the perfect point in time during the first song off of Sufjan Stevens' The Avalanche (seriously! it starts off mellow, then the song changes and it was crazy how nicely it went along with the timing of the snow!), SNOW CAME! Or, rather, I hit the snow.

None of it was sticking on the pavement, but it was a real, fat flakes of snow. It was beautiful! I actually squealed because I was so excited to see real snow, since we had seen none in Michigan over Christmas. People slowed down to about 45 (from around 70-75!) MPH at the sight of the snow. It wasn't that heavy, which was nice. It wasn't until I hit 199 into town that I hit a few spots where the snow was falling really heavy and it was a little hard to see. It was absolutely beautiful, though. It stuck on the ground and trees, but not on the pavement.

It melted about a half hour after it stopped snowing! That's the kind of snow I can deal with: looks nice, melts quick and doesn't freeze on the roads. Friday was really cold, but nothing really happened besides that. It's strange because today is pretty warm and in the 60s again, it feels like spring. It's supposed to change again and be in the 20s Sunday night and stay in the 30s-50s the rest of the week. This winter can't figure out what it wants to do.

oh my.

good thing to hear: one of my co-teachers told me she was going to nominate me for Teacher of the Year but then realized that teachers had to be there 3 years to be nominated. She said that I had improved so much and she was so impressed. I was so flattered and surprised that I don't even know if I said thank you.

sad news: I came home to find our hampster, Sasparilla Knuckles or "Hamtaro" as David like to call her, dead. At first I figured she had died of old age. We've had her for over a year, they don't live that long. But when David got home and we went to take care of her, we found out what really happened: she had broken her spine. She was laying right by her wheel, so I figured maybe old age just got her while she was running. Instead, it seems as if she got pinched in the wheel and it fatally injured her. So sad! At least she died doing something she loved? Either way, it kinda stinks that she's gone. I'll miss hearing her wheel squeak while I go to sleep. We'll probably get another small animal sometime soon.

Guillermo del Toro is amazing

I woke up this morning feeling back to myself. This meant we got to go see Pan's Labrynth. You should see it. It was pretty amazing!

these kids make me sick... literally. ba dum dum!

Yesterday, very slowly, my throat got worse and worse. It started off a little scratchy. By the end of the day, it was very painful to swallow. I had to do a lot of talking during 8th bell, and it was horrible by the end of that time. I expected that after resting all last night, I would feel better today and not have to do a last-minute absence, but, unfortunately, that didn't happen. My neck is sore because the thing that always swells in my neck when my body is fighting off illness is nice and swollen. I've had a pretty healthy headache going on for a good chunk of the past 24 hours. My throat hasn't felt too bad today, except for the past hour. It stinks because I had to e-mail Chandra and ask her to put my stuff together for the sub. Not only that, but it was the last day for review and starting their essay part of the exam before my odd day kids had their exams next week. I would have liked to be there to review, but there was no way I would have been able to do 3 classes in a row like this. I probably would be way more sick than I am now. I'm not too surprised: a lot of the stress of the end of the semester is off now that it's ending and starting exam week and a lot of my students have had some crazy ailments recently (from fevers to throat problems to good ol' colds and such-- they've been nice and contagious).
This sickness was good timing though, I was having a rough week. My students have been crazy this week, due to having a LOT of exams next week and the pressure we've all been putting on them to do well. This whole part makes me ask exactly why we stress them out so much. What's the point of all this? Are they enjoying education? Are they learning? Are they enjoying it? Is this just becoming a bigger and bigger pain in the ass for them? If so, what's the point of this all?
All hail Airborne. Thanks, mom. That stuff is pretty awesome & has been helping a lot.

alala, alala

Holy moly, it's been a week since I've updated. Hah. It's not like Williamsburg is that incredibly exciting that we have so much stuff to talk about.
This weekend was a three day weekend for me though, thanks to MLK day. It's pretty awesome that they give the school a day off, Norfolk does tons of stuff on that day. The kids even knew why they had the day off! Fantastic! Let's see. I finally finished The Fountainhead, I watched all the movies that have been sitting around from Netflix, I lazed about and I changed up the patio stuff. Now it looks like we have more space and it's more comfortable. It was in the high 60s, low 70s this weekend, so I spent some time sipping wine and mimosas on the porch with David at night and reading in the morning with some coffee. Wonderful! I didn't have that much work to do for school, so it was a very lazy (and, at times, restless) three day weekend.
The prepping I had to do was mostly for the tea party. It was a theme to make it more fun and silly for the kids to start off their review for their semester exam. Yesterday went really good. Today... not so good. It was a combination of factors: My first bell complaining a LOT about theirs being cancelled due to behavior and one of my students being in a funk because of issues with his mom, one of my students in my third bell being in a funk because his grandpa died this weekend, and my fifth bell being pretty crazy and disappointing (they saw the very mean side of Mrs. P, unfortunately, but it needed to be done, I guess). For the most part, the kids did good and were helping each other out with their review. My 8th bell sillypants kids had way too much fun with the "tea party" theme. They took to sipping with their pinkies up (out of styrofoam-like cups... ultimate class!) and some amazing vocabulary appeared! "Mrs. P, this tea is simply exquisite!" "Excuse me, young lady, could I trouble you to tell me about coordinating conjunctions?" and the sort were what I heard a lot of. Those kind of days are why I love my 8th bell. My even day kids (2nd and 8th) are forgetful and hyperactive, but they are incredibly creative and silly, which I love. I couldn't take any pictures of them (consent issues! ugh! written consent needed! but no one knows where the forms are! what?!?), so I substituted this picture of me doing my best air tea sip. Enjoy.
What is causing a behavior problem now is the fact that they have exams all next week! EIGHT OF THEM!! My kids are stressed(!!) now that every class is devoted to putting pressure on them to pass every exam. That is so crazy. Eight exams. One week. Holy crap. I was talking to a few kids in my first bell who were complaining and wishing they could have the 4 class per semester schedule and that when they were in other districts in the area with that type of block schedules their grades were higher. They also wanted required planners, provided by the school (a system like we had in KPS), so they could keep track of their assignments. I was talking to another few students in my 8th bell yesterday about the no iPod/CD player stuff and the pros and cons of allowing that. I encouraged all of them to look into what they could do about that. Some of them automatically dismissed the idea. One girl said that there was a woman on the school board that outright said that students have no rights in the school. So I told her to talk to her mom about it. They still didn't think there was anything to do about it, but I'll keep nagging at them to give it a try. I am such a bad first year teacher. Look at me: encouraging my students to question authority and push for answers. Bad, bad teacher.
Anyway. We have visitors coming! In February and in March! I am so totally excited! I have a three-day weekend for Presidents' Day, which is the same weekend as David's birthday, so Miss Fancy Pants herself is coming for a visit! Perfect! Then, we have Meg and Mike coming down early March to spend their spring break with us. Hopefully we will find enough for them to do for that whole week, haha! Especially since we'll both be in school for that week (or part of it, in David's case. I believe his spring break starts the end of the week that they'll be here). Some of my students are excited to meet Megan since I have referred to her many, many times. Hopefully, they don't embarass me in front of them. I can only imagine...

keep it goin'

First thing first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA MARIE!

Now. How's life? Life's okay. Life is life. Life goes on. This week drags on forever. The past week and a half all I've talked about is appositives and participles and the phrases they make. Let me tell you, that is some exciting stuff. I've cracked some of the corniest jokes I've ever thought up in my whole life this past week and a half. I became a cheerleader for appositives and participles, the whole time thinking to myself: And why do they need to know this? They don't read enough yet to even give a crap! They don't need to know the names! They just need to be able to write and read and like to do both! I would be happy with that. (And also knowing the basics of language, sentence structure and where to put those pesky punctuation marks) I mean, really, how many of you have ever been asked to pull apart all your sentences and label every. single. thing. you did. NO ONE DOES THAT! Raaaar. Other English teachers must think I am horrible for saying that. But I ask them: Who the hell needs this shit? What I keep telling my students that ask is that it will help them improve their writing, they'll feel smart and accomplished and they'll wow crowds of people at cocktail parties.
...Which brings me to the tea party. I came up with an idea to help review ideas and concepts for their semester exam: a tea party. I thought thinking about bringing in some articles and having them highlight and color and circle and stuff (they love that stuff!) to review grammar stuff was fun, but man! I blew my own mind with the idea of the tea party! They must "dress to impress", they have to try and use adjective clauses, appositives and participial phrases in their speech, they have to only talk about what we need to review: short story elements, Catcher in the Rye, grammar, and essay writing. They'll have a cheat sheet with topics to discuss and also a collection card to fill out, describing who they talked to, what they talked about and the clauses and phrases mentioned above used. So far, the kids seem to be interested/intrigued about the idea and a good chunk of them are excited about dressing up. Amazing.
Also, I read a part of Days of War, Nights of Love to two of my blocks and my 5th block LOVED it. You could hear the change in the room, all of a sudden it got really quiet and you could feel them listening. When I was done, they didn't really move and a few of them added, "I liked that. That made me think." That's why my 5th bell is really growing on me.
Other than all of that, nothing too exciting. I've been trying to find the good things in this small town and I've been trying to finish books and write more, generally keeping myself busy.

absurd

Amazing movie to see: Children of Men. I was totally expecting something with a somewhat good story, but was basically an action movie set in the future, because that's how they made the preview look. But. It was something actually very, very good. I highly recommend it.

Absurd/hilarious thing to see: What Williamsburg's youth do on a Friday night. Which is: hang around New Town. When we came out of the movie, there were not double- no, no- triple the amount of teenagers hanging around outside. It had that wonderful tense feeling before a fight, complete with some kid yelling at another smaller kid. Usually there is only one cop car there, to make sure nothing gets rowdy, but tonight there were five. (Not to insult WBG, but that's probably like their whole force, no?) Anyway, it was crazy. We laughed about it. I am glad I do not teach in this town.