last day

Today was the last day I had to report to school.

Here's a whole bunch of stuff in a list because I'm lazy and do not want to put it in paragraphs right now:

• I sold my moped this week.. difficult. but at the same time, I know the guy we sold it to was SO EXCITED for it and LOVED it the moment he saw it, so I have faith that he will love it as much as I did.
• I'm 27? Really? Already? Wow.
• Next year will be my 5th year teaching! FIVE! How? What? Who? Feels like just yesterday...
• Two weeks in our new place and I LOVE IT. LOVE!
• My parents will be here on Tuesday!!
• This school year was better than I could have expected
• The last two days of school were way too dramatic.
• I still don't know if I'm in the right grad program
• I got a beautiful painted martini glass from a parent (who thanked me in the main office for the note I wrote her daughter) and student as a birthday gift! it was so sweet!
• I also received two emails from parents thanking me for a wonderful job and writing my nice end of the year notes to my students. That's the first time that happened! It was really nice!
• my students wrote so many nice notes on my board and all yelled HAPPY BIRTHDAY at me at various times on Wednesday
• Got an email from one of the first students I ever taught at GHS (seriously, he was in my first class as a teacher). He told me about his first year at ODU (did pretty well) and how he was really getting into literature (YAY!). I love that I get yearly/semester updates from my former students!
• I loved teaching 9th graders this year! LOVED!
• I am teaching 9, 10 and 11 next year. I'm excited to see a lot of my students from this year again next year. Seriously! I loved them!
• I love my department and the teachers in them. They are amazing.
• I might have a student teacher next year.
• Had to say goodbye to a really amazing special ed teacher who was laid off. As the principal talked about how much they appreciated her, I almost cried along with 3/4 of the faculty present. This woman was absolutely amazing but unfortunately was the last one hired, therefore, laid off due to budget problems. Heartbreaking.
• Have I told you I love living in Richmond? 'Cause I do. It's beautiful.
• I might have to do summer school this summer, but it's uncertain right now. Pros of doing summer school: Money to pay for my summer classes and a new laptop. Pros of NOT doing summer school: Free time, more time to visit friends & family, etc. Either way, I win.

Not sure what this summer will bring and I'm not sure what the first semester of school will bring (we're switching from an every-other-day block schedule to a 4x4 schedule). All I know is that I am determined to ace my two summer classes and return next year ready to take on the 4x4 schedule change. The first semester will be rough, but I know that I have other teachers to rely on to help as well as a principal who is very supportive and understanding. No matter what, my fifth year of teaching will be exciting! :)

What I've been up to

Teaching:

English 10 goes on as usual. This is my fourth year teaching it, so it just... goes. My only hope is that in the next year or two, I can convince the school to let me buy a class set of The Catcher in the Rye and move Lord of the Flies to English 9 because I really miss teaching Catcher and definitely think LOTF is way too easy for English 10 (I read it in 8th grade, most of them could easily get it in 8th or 9th). We're heading into the last essay of the year, same topic as last year (quite a few kids enjoy it): Has the world gotten better, worse or stayed the same since the Second World War? They enjoy debating it and thinking about it, which means: easy to write about! Oh! I almost forgot: I made them write persuasive letters and send them--DEFINITELY a good idea! The writing in those letters was definitely an improvement over other essays.

English 9, on the other hand, was the last grade I had not taught between 7th and 12th, so English 9 has been full of work. My classes were slightly different than the other 9s and my style different from the other teachers, so even though I used some of their materials, I mostly made my own. We successfully got through Romeo & Juliet, with one class making their own version of it (it turned out awesome). We are now through The Odyssey because the textbook we use cut the ever-loving crap out of it. They read about a quarter of the real thing, which makes it quick and easy to get through. We've really been focusing on the lessons children were supposed to learn from the epic and comparing it to modern American society (that's actually the topic of their last essay of the year). Two of our three 9th grade classes (the two that did not make their own R&J) are making puppet shows for The Odyssey. They're all split up into groups of 2 or 3, writing their own script, and making their own puppets. We're going to film it and put it together for each class. They were actually pretty into the whole idea. Kids in our 2nd period class kept asking if one group could have a Sassy Gay Friend for Odysseus or Penelope, hah!

Did I say yet that I love teaching English 9? Cause I do.

Remember when I was afraid of teaching 9th grade? I ended up really liking it.

Oh, and remember how I used to play Apples to Apples with students? We played that twice as a WHOLE CLASS. I'm talking 20 people playing in a huge circle. They did GREAT! I also introduced my two English 10 classes to Catch Phrase and they became kind of obsessed with it. There was a lot of screaming, stomping and laughter involved in those games. They got into it way more than I expected!

Altogether, I really enjoyed my group of students this year. So many of them were not afraid to get into the literature, get nerdy/geeky, and be enthusiastic and so many of them have a similar sense of humor, it was a really good year. I love having students who aren't afraid to react to the reading out loud, like one of my gentlemen the other day who kept saying, "Ooh! This is getting SO GOOD! I can't STAND IT! What's gonna happen? Is he gonna kill them? I would KILL THOSE DUDES for trying to touch my wife!!" while we were reading The Odyssey, during the part when Odysseus was disguised as a beggar and planning to kill Penelope's suitors. I only had one class that was a bit iffy--there were a lot of students with low self-esteem/negative attitudes, so it was very difficult to get them to open up. (It was even difficult to get them to play a game with each other! They mostly just wanted to sit there, be quiet and make fun of each other if other people were wrong. There were many times were it would be DEAD quiet in the classroom as if they were taking a test, but they'd just be sitting there... possibly writing, possibly doing nothing. It was... awkward. And the quietest class I've ever taught.)

Even though I love all my classes and students, I'm still happy that the end of the year is coming up. I'm starting to finish up all the end-of-year notes I usually do, which makes it a reality that the end of school is SO CLOSE! I only get a few weeks off before I do summer school (if there are enough students that sign up for it).

Other school news: Our school is switching in 4x4 next year. Should be interesting. Pros: Only 3 classes of students instead of 5, I'm already used to 90 minute classes, more electives. Cons: It's different--teaching every day vs. every other day. That's really the only change I'm worried about, but it won't be too bad--no matter what I teach next year, I've already taught it. I now have materials for 9-12 grade, so I told my department chair to schedule me wherever I was needed.

Literary magazine:

Our literary magazine finally came together and was printed! It ended up being 30 pages long with 3 pages of color and my principal herself stepped forward to cover the cost! It was so exciting! We printed 30 copies (we weren't sure how many people would want one) and have sold 16 so far. This is a very good thing because we need to pay back our loan. :) Next year, it will be even better! Now that it's out, a lot of new kids have become interested in submitting and/or being involved next year, which is about what I expected to happen.

Personal:

David and I are moving! We're just moving a few blocks south of where we live now, into a nicer, slightly larger apartment and closer to a few things, but still in the quieter part of the neighborhood. I'm really excited to move into a nicer apartment, I just hope it ends up being as nice as it looked!

I was also accepted into VCU's Administration & Supervision grad program. I'm starting two classes next week for the summer, then another class & pre-internship class in the fall. I'm pretty excited to get back to class, but a little nervous about how it's going to affect the amount of time I have for school. Since the school is changing to 4x4 and my student load will be smaller each semester, it shouldn't be too bad.

Other small things: I saw Megan graduate from MSU, we're going to Canada this summer and I'm 98% sure I'm selling my moped in the next month.

Whoops

I totally just remembered that I've been meaning to update this, but never actually did it. Oops.

School year ended today for me. Here's what I'll get around to after I get the required few hours of doing whatever the flip I want:

-Why I'm teaching 9th grade next year. 

-Review/reflection on my year at New School

-My birthday & graduation at Old School (it happened on the same day, so they are intertwined)

-Pictures of 2008-2009 hooligans

-Ideas for next year

That's about it, I think. Let me add this to my to do list on my fancy new phone... 

...which reminds me to also put here that I have a new phone number. If you don't have it and you want/need it, please email me (alikay@gmail.com) and ask for it.

end of the seniors

I love days where my students are loving and kind, they get along with each other and I get along with them and things just... go. Days like this make me happy I teach, they make me not wish for 3:00 or for summer vacation every moment. Even better is when the week goes by at a nice pace, things get accomplished, to do lists get finished, and everything works.

I hope it lasts until the end of next week!

I only have 2 more class days with each senior class. Their exam (both classes I have) is set for June 1st, but some are going to take it next Thursday or Friday since grades are due June 2nd. Thankfully, most of my seniors are exempt, which means I only have a few to worry about. I'm slowly getting research papers and quickly grading them and returning them. I'm giving them my usual end-of-the-year thing on Thursday and Friday.

It's nice to have seniors. Once they're gone I'll have two open blocks to get my room all situated for next year. It will be nice to have all that extra time after a whole school year of craziness.

I only have 7 more odd and even days left with my sophomores. I really love teaching 10th grade. I don't know why. I've really come to like this crazy group of kids. It'll be nice to see them next year again and possibly in 12th grade.

My last day with students is my birthday. This is the first time I've ever been in school as student or teacher on my birthday. When I was in elementary school, I was always bummed that I never got to celebrate my bday at school and bring in treats. That day is also the exam day for my 5th period, which is the class I see every day. That's exciting because they are the group of kids I get along with the best. That day is also graduation for Granby, so I'll be going down to Norfolk to see all my old students graduate! I'm so excited to see them again and see them on such an important day!

Even though things are going great now, I'm still looking forward to summer vacation! My birthday, a trip to Michigan, a trip to SF/Eugene, possible other trips are all exciting additions to the general joy of summer vacation. Nothing beats not having a schedule, being able to read whatever I want, not having to grade and not having to deal with 100+ demanding teenagers Monday-Friday. :)

best ever

"She's a teacher, I'm a genius and you're all tools." --Bryan, on why he figured out my response while we played Things
Earlier, he was asking me, "what if my whole family is murdered and I have no one and I only have your email address?" because I told them I would give them my email address if they felt they needed it for letters of recommendation next year, but not my phone number. I laughed and told him, "I'm pretty sure you can find someone else to take you in besides your English teacher of 2 years that lives 2 hours away."

My 1st and 7th bells are done. They were incredibly excited for the end of the year "party", loved their awards and cards and said thank you about a dozen times each. It all went smoother than I thought, which is great.
Graduation was at 3, so basically right after school. It was hot outside, but thankfully cool inside. They read the names quick and graduation was over in an hour. I gave a lot of my graduates hugs, told them I was proud of them and if they ever needed anything, to let me know.

A lot of my students are excited to now be able to add me on Myspace now. I never really use my myspace anymore, mostly using Facebook, and they use it consistently. For them, it's like having someone's email address. They don't use email, unless it's to see their myspace notifications. They use myspace as a way to contact everyone they've ever met. Before they add me, I remind them that they cannot put or do anything stupid on my page, I can see what they do on theirs (implication: I don't want to see your naked body on your myspace, mmkay?) and they cannot be a current student of mine and try to add me as a friend. I have let students contact me through myspace during the school year to ask questions about work, but not add them as friends if I have them in a class. Like I said, a lot of them don't use email (I gave a few of the students I'm close with and a lot that I've had for 2 years that, too, though), they use myspace to contact people. I never quite realized how dependent some of them are on it before this year. It's amazing how much myspace has changed the way younger kids communicate online.

end of the year rollercoaster

The week after Memorial Day weekend is always a tough one. Nothing like a 3 day weekend at the end of May to remind you (and torture you with this reminder) that summer-like weather has started and that summertime activities have started, but you still have 2-3 weeks of school left. Noooooooooo!! This leaves us on Tuesday, grumbling and tired, having to deal with a group of kids who got their first taste of summer vacation and not wanting to see your ugly mug again.
It doesn't stop in the classroom, either. Tuesday and Wednesday, during lunch and plan periods, I took part in and listened to other teachers whining and complaining about how we should just end the year at Memorial Day. I mean, it would make sense-- we start after Labor Day now and if they insist on keeping this old, tired schedule of September-June school year, then why not end it on another famous 3 day weekend? A lot of kids stop showing up right around then, anyway, so it would save a lot of their asses from failing due to attendance.
This week was also heartbreaking because two of my brilliant boys, who I've fought for all year, got into fights and suspended for the rest of the year (okay, well, one of them was a 10 day suspension on the day when we have 11 days left of school!).
One of them, KH, was involved in what administrators believe was a gang-related fight. I'm pretty sure this kid isn't involved in any of our lovely gangs, but he has fallen in with a small group of our basketball players (one in particular) that have dragged down numerous brilliant students this year. He beat the crap out of some kid with a few of them, for whatever reason and some other student (who is now forced to go to another school) snitched on them. This is something I never saw coming. There are certain kids you know would easily kick some kid's ass over stupid stuff. This kid? I never, ever in a million years would've guessed he would do that--especially not on school property. He's friends with one kid who every teacher dislikes, every security guard is tired of, and the principal has taken the disciplinary file of (usually the student's academy's assistant principal takes care of referrals). This kid has dragged down every student he becomes friends with. He's probably broken records for the amount of complaints and referrals. In other words, there is no reason this child should be in our school, while my student gets the ultimate punishment. Both of them were suspended for this fight, but guess who comes back to school yesterday? Yes. Problem Child. Not KH, but the kid who every teacher and security guard was thinking to themselves, "Finally!!". I am incredibly disappointed with KH, but now that disappointment has been overshadowed by the administration allowing this other student back. I don't usually blame kids for influencing behavior, but with 3 of my students, he's been a factor in their behavior and grades taking a nosedive. I place 90% of the blame on that jackass.
The other student, LaQuan, I've written about before. Another student, Shaniqua, comes banging on the workroom door during my 2nd bell planning period. When I open the door, I expect to hear to whining about her research paper, but instead, she's incredibly upset and just starts babbling: "Do you know what happened with LaQuan this morning?! He got in a fight with this other kid because the kid said he was looking at him the wrong way! He is so stupid, cause now he's going to miss the end of the year. Why did he have to do this? I had to leave my 2nd bell because some stupid ass girl was in there talking shit about him, but Dontay [another kid I had in LaQuan and Shaniqua's clas] stood up for him and told her to shut the hell up. I'm sorry to cuss in front of you, but I can't go back into that class cause then I'll have to shut her up and I don't want to get suspended. I am going to cuss LaQuan out for being so stupid later..." I told Shaniqua to tell him that I'm disappointed in him, but I understand that if someone's going to come at him, he's not just going to sit there and get beat. I was thinking to myself that I hope he comes in for his make-up exams on the last day and not just accept failure. Later on, I realized that I never got a chance to tell him that I started watching his favorite show, The Wire. It seems like a small thing, but for some of these kids, you have no idea how that small bonding point can mean a lot. He'd been trying to get me to watch the show for a long time, it finally came up on my Netflix list, and I now understand why so many people love it.

The week improved on Thursday and Friday. My 11th graders finished Gatsby and we watched the end of the film version. They're excited to watch the hip hop version of Gatsby, called G next week. My 8th bell 10th graders finished Lord of the Flies, mourned the deaths of two characters they liked and actually stayed awake for the ending. I hope my odd day students enjoy the ending as much as they did (I expect they will, my 8th bell is the hardest to impress with reading). Also, a few of my students gave me really sweet notes and drawings. One student (who I've had a real love/hate relationship with all year) sat at my desk while I was reading parts of Lord of the Flies to his class and drew a "BIG PUSH!" and wrote a note about how I was the best teacher on the back of his late pass. It was really good timing because it was one of those days you look around a classroom while the kids are falling asleep or doing other things and you think to yourself, "I put so much work and time into this, I don't get paid that much, and they thank me by falling asleep, not paying attention and generally being rude and disrespectful?! Why do I even bother??". There were some other good moments, too, like Bryan rolling up his shorts, walking around barefoot and yelling out, "BAREFOOT REVOLUTION! I'm sorry, but you're going to have to take off your shoes--TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES!!", and playing Apples to Apples with kids in my Study Hall and kids I had last year that are graduating.
Plus, yesterday afternoon, I finally got to use my gift certificate for my massage. I came in there, tense and tired from the week and driving home on Friday afternoon (always a pleasure--I am not going to miss that at all) and left completely relaxed. I slept so great last night. I love my massage therapist, she is amazing. I'm glad we're not moving that far away, so I can continue to see her. The place is near Prime Outlets, too-- sounds like a great reason to come back to Williamsburg once or twice a year, huh?

a very colonial birthday

So, it's now June 17th, which means I am now 24 and a second year teacher.
My last days of school included many nice times. I watched Pan's Labrynth and Stomp the Yard with my kids. I got hugs. I got a t-shirt. I got awards. I gave awards and cards (one girl cried). And we ate a lot of food. Oh! And I found out I will have my own classroom, Tyesha (a long-term sub I just looove, she's just amazing and hilarious) will be joining our department as a teacher next year, Amy (other Michigan teacher) will have a desk near me, as will Ahmasi. Good changes, even though we saw many teachers leave and Chandra and Jerilyn will be downstairs with the 9th graders.
I took class pictures of every class but 3rd bell because a lot of kids couldn't make it, were making up other stuff, whatever, and I ended up with only five kids staying. I had pictures of most of them already, anyway, so... whatev.
I'll post the class pictures here, my flickr will have all the other pictures I took of kids and their funny faces, dances and handshakes.

1st bell: Paul, Chris, James, Bryan, Colin. Cleo. Renika, Nycolle and Ronisha. We were missing about 5 kids, a few of which never showed up because of family or medical issues.

2nd bell: Justin and his beloved donut, Tremaine, Melvin, Sandra, Franklin, Aric, Annette, Ariana. (Front) Sequena, Bonnie, Josh, Tony, Cody. I loved this class, I love this picture.

5th bell (most of it, anyway): Danielle, Zakiyyah, Vanessa, Nekita, Matthew, Dustin, Chen, Robert. (Front) Damian, Brittany, Samantha, Chris, Taphanies and Ryan. Loooove them!

8th bell: Vicky, Dorian, Kristian, Bre, J'mari, Deena, Julia, Shane, Rodney, Eric. Lauren, Patrick, Shawn and Ashley (cutest couple ever.), Crystal, Cherae. James, Le'Stace, Carl and some kid from Bugge's class that snuck himself in there. This was my crazy, but hilarious class. Many times we all laughed until we cried. James and Patrick had an amazing handshake they showed me that day, I took a picture of part of it. I should have taped it, it was amazing. haha.

So, my birthday. Thank you to everyone that sent me a birthday wish, I really appreciated it. Meg and I went to New Town, shopped, bought stuff, had lunch, went to get manicures and pedicures and then we all went into downtown Williamsburg, got a gift to send to Amanda to help her heal, and went to dinner at the Green Leafe Cafe. Very delicious!
I played around with the photo merge program that came with my camera. Here is a visual representation of what I bought for myself, what was bought for me, and our nailzzzz. It was not a wild & crazy birthday, but it was relaxing and wonderful.


Our parents should be somewhere near Charleson, WV now, on their way here. Tomorrow by noon, they should probably be here, along with our cousin, Liz. We're looking forward to hanging out with them in the CW, shopping in and going to Va Beach and Norfolk, seeing Pet Sounds and maybe convincing them (or part of them) to go to Busch Gardens. Woo, visitors!

bad, sunglasses, bad!

Last week. Lastweeklastweeklastweek! It's just hitting me now that on Thursday, I will be done. No more students, no more grading until September. Oh. my.
Tomorrow I have my 1st/3rd bell picnic. On Wednesday I have my 5th bell. After that I'll have class pictures, a run-down of what happened, and pictures of kids dancing, doing handshakes they made up, and general silliness. One of the most awesome moments of teaching so far happened on Friday with my 8th bell's picnic. We had it indoors since the heat index was about 100 degrees! I gave them their awards, and Patrick, Deena and James started a cheering section because Deena complained that no one was clapping. So, they were in the back going, "YEAH! YEAH! GET 'EM! GET 'EM! KEEP SMILIN!! YOU GO (name)! WOOOO!" and all sorts of crazy stuff. They got the whole class riled up. I wish I had a video tape of it, because it was 15 minutes of awesomness. People started doing touchdown dances, making shocked faces like the ones you see at pagents or the Oscars, faking crying, doing crazy walks around the classroom. It was amazing. We were so loud with the cheering and laughing, not only were people crying from laughing so hard, but an assistant principal popped her head in to make sure everything was okay. I was laughing so hard that I could only go, "No, no, we're okay! It's all good! It's a good thing!" Amazing.
Yesterday I took Megan out to Knitting Sisters and ended up finding an "upscale resale" shop. I got some Report shoes for $8, which was pretty sweet. They are very cute and the price made 'em even better. Today I pulled my sunglasses I bought from H&M when Meg and Mike were here for spring break and found out they snapped in the same place as my others that snapped over a month ago! Damn! And superglue won't fix these, there was a chunk missing that I couldn't find. Oh well, they were like $8. I liked them, though. I have bad luck with sunglasses. Megan and I made a list of my bad luck:
1. Lost green sunglasses at Silver Leaf. Never got them back, although they said they would drop them off at the house.
2. Lost a pair walking Brody, we retraced every step and didn't find any trace of them!
3. Screws fall out of David and I's sunglasses while they're in the car. Strange.
4. Sunglasses break when I get my first flat tire.
5, Today.
I think it's because I really love finding and buying sunglasses, so I subconcious sabotage the ones I have so I don't feel guilty. We went to Target and I bought myself a birthday present: new glasses and a new bag, big and sturdy enough for a laptop that I'll hopefully get in the future or a weekend away or tons of books or whatever. Either way, it's sturdy, which is what I've been lacking in the other bags I've been buying.
Speaking of my birthday, I have no clue what I'm doing. Meg is getting us manicures and pedicures at the place across the way in New Town. David's coming down. We'll probably go to dinner. I'm thinking of inviting Norfolk people up, but I don't think any of them will take me up on it. But I'll try. The parents and Liz come down after, on the 18th, so I'll be celebrating then. I would say that while I'm in Kzoo, we could celebrate, but I'm getting more worried that I'm going for really no reason. Maybe to see two people, but everyone else will probably be busy or have moved on. I'm no longer needed or important and most of the people I was closest to there have moved, but I still miss it. Hopefully, it'll be fun.

make a list.

There's no good way to get in this and driving in the heat has completed fried my brains today.

Run down of the last week of school:
-Students are progressing through novels. Most are enjoying. Some are dragging/not really doing it (as usual. it's the "usual suspects", as well. doesn't make it less disappointing though).
-SOL tests are done! WHEW! Wednesday there was a huuuuge problem with the server being down, which meant that all tests scheduled that day were cancelled. I guess that's the downside of computerized testing (the upside being less paper and waste!).
-3 day weekend. 4 day week. But, alas! 3 of the four days are "A" days, due to the 31st and the 1st being back to back. Hurray? I will miss my "B" day crazy monkeys.
-I'm starting to put together the things I'm giving my students and the items/planning needed for our last day together. Most have picked the picnic outside, only 2 classes chose the movie option.
-I think I may have mentioned this before, but if not: I am teaching 2 classes of 11th grade (American Lit. yessss!) and 3 of 10th next year. I am still floating, but between 3 classrooms right next to each other! Thank you, Ms. Stein! I have so many ideas and ways to make 10th grade better next year and I already have ideas for a theme for my 11th grade year. We will (hopefully) have a "graffiti" wall that we fill out throughout the year to answer the question "What is an American/America?" as well as the constant idea of 2 Americas. We'll read the "classics" and then we'll read something from those that were outside of the mainstream. Hopefully, it all works out. I'm looking forward to having two preps, doing the same thing five times gets my head all sorts of confused. A nice thing is that quite a few of my students said they're going to request me for 11th grade-- that is such a huge compliment!

Non-school related:
-David is now in College Park/D.C. area for his internship. That's why my body and brains feel like mush, having to drive up there and back in 90 degree weather. It was surprisingly warm and thankfully not humid. Tomorrow, the high for wbg is 94. Oh. my.
-Last night my buddy Carly (formerly worked at GHS) gave me a call and asked if we wanted to go out. She was in wbg with some friends that she has been telling me since the day we met that I would enjoy. I almost turned her down because I was exhausted and felt kinda crappy due to allergies. I'm glad we went though because we had a grrrreat! time (Yes, that was a Tony the Tiger reference). It was nice to meet people that also live in wbg that have similar interests (like zombie movies). They were super laid back, friendly, chatty and genuine. They said that Carly will definitely have to call us for their house warming party (this apparently was a moving out party) in their apartment near ours.
-I still haven't decided if I want a part-time job for the summer.
-I am looking into visiting Kalamazoo in early or mid July. I'm thinking after July 4th, but before July 15th. I have been missing the dickens outta that place.

ace lip puff that hung.

whatsupwhitehouse.JPG
Originally uploaded by alipants.

Well. Hello.
The past week has been busy, as well as lazy since the busy part = complete exhaustion.
Megan showed up in D.C. last Thursday. Something about her flying into D.C. means delays! At least this time we were at the airport right by downtown, so we headed over there.
We hit up the White House, the WWII memorial, reflecting pool, Lincoln memorial and Vietnam memorial. We also sweat a lot, due to the incredibly warm temperatures. And we all wore bad shoes. I took quite a few pictures, they're on my flickr site.
Having Meg here is nice. She already has a job at the movie theatre across the way. FREE MOVIES! YESSS! We went to see 28 Weeks Later, which was pretty awwwwwesome! On Saturday, we re-arranged the place to give her more room in the computer room. It ended up making our living room a lot more comfy and lived in feeling.

School has been nuts. Not only is in May, mid-May, 3-weeks-from-the-end May, it's also been the start of the SOLs. Ohh, the SOLs. Such fun. I've had a lot of students missing from classes because they're taking tests and I've had to give up two of my plan periods to help observe the taking of the SOL. Hurray. Next week is the last full week of them, thank goodness. The only good thing is that we've been playing Mad Gab in class, due to lack of students. A few of my kids are hooked on it, it's kinda funny. Beyond that, I had fun scrambling around, trying to get everything organized to help the students in their literature circles. I chose 5 books for them to choose from: Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Lesson Before Dying, The Secret Life of Bees and Snow Falling on Cedars. So far, they seem to be enjoying the books. A good chunk of them turned in their "research" papers (yes, "research". Most of them haven't been putting in citations, making it not an actual research paper, but, instead, an essay with a lot of plagarism). Ugh. Those are fun to grade. I have a huge stack a-waitin' for me this weekend. But this week I found out that I'm teaching two 11th grade classes and three 10th grade next year- hurray for a little variety!

Anyway. Beyond that, I've been so exhausted. My bike finally got fixed and is ready to ride, but it's been kinda gloomy and rainy (that's supposed to change this weekend, though). Oh! And I finally finished #2 of The Alison Transmission. Let me know if you want me to send you one.