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.

a day in the life of an odd day

Today was another A Day, since it was the 1st. Sometimes this is really irritating, but today was really easy-going, since it was an extra day. I've been bringing my camera around more often, too, to get pictures of my kids before they leave me.

Since it was June 1st, I started telling anyone who asked what day it was that they only had 15 more days to figure out what they were getting me for my birthday. I usually got a "Whaa?"

So, first bell. We did some review for our exam, then some children started playing Apples to Apples (they're hooked, man!).
Billy declared it was "Everybody Be Gay Day!" and started sashaying around the room. He was trying to get everyone dance to the music I was playing (the Blow, Kanye West (their choice) and Interpol). He saw Ronisha outside and yelled out through the window, "Mrs. Pushie can see your stupid butt! Get your butt in here, girl!" I love that kid. I made sure he took the tag off of his new sunglasses before posing for this picture with Ronisha, his BFF!!!#%#!@!, who tried really hard to not crack a smile when I asked her about not smiling in any picture. "No smiling? Ever? Never. Really? No fun? No fun at all? Serious all the time? 110% of the time?" Oh, I went on like that for at least a minute! She held strong! It was amazing.
Maino said, "Take a picture of me doing my work!" Nycolle and I must have had the same thought, because we both said "The only time you do your work?" I must cherish this moment! Maino later challenged me to see if I was stronger than him by a shoulder fight (y'know.. randomly
pushing up against someone and seeing if you can shove them into the locker). Later on in the day, he stole some of the books I was carrying and ran into the men's bathroom, waited and peeked around the corner. That kid cracks me up.
While some kids played Apples to Apples, Bryan and I talked about music snobs vs. music slobs. Then he stole Kaila's hood and put it on his own head. Everyone agreed he looked like an elf.




3rd bell we did the same thing. A lot of students were missing, so it was pretty empty. We also cleaned out our lockers (hurray?) and I got a lot of the Literature books back-- sooo exciting, let me tell you. I don't think people realize how much paperwork and crap teachers have to do. Oh man, it's so incredibly fun. Especially at the end of the year. Totally fun.
After locker clean up, they still had silent sustained reading to do. A lot of the kids in this class (and a few of my others) actually enjoyed their novels and are almost done with them. I don't know if you even know how amazing that is. Not only did they just finish up their standardized tests, they also have 6-7 other classes, tests, projects, etc. to finish up (y'know, the end of the year=assign all those projects and tests! why does that always happen?) I can't imgine how these kids keep track of 6-8 classes! Anyway, I snapped a picture of some of my favorite ladies, Tiffany, Tyeiesha, and Elinida, (but who am I kidding? They're all my favorites) while they were reading their books. It would have never happened if I had asked them.
Some of the kids finished their review, cleaned up and then started playing Apples to Apples. This class is my hardest class to get involved in actually talking to each other (in a manner that's not joking someone), playing games, etc. etc. They would rather do their own thing. That's cool, but it's kind of sad when you want to "build community" and whatnot. But today a miracle occured! I had more than two students who wanted to play a game! (In the picture, it's Cory, Kyle, Tyrone, Tory, Elinida and Christina) One of the newcomers, Tyrone, enjoys pointing out any problem or mistake I make. That's just his sense of humor and I appreciate it because he can dish it out and take it and if I tell him that it's not a good time, he'll stop. Basically, we have a fun time making fun of each other every day. He really enjoyed the fact that I (as well as the other girls) were losing horribly. I had no green cards! I couldn't win! The girls also only had 2 or 3 cards. Tyrone ended up winning, in a sick twist of fate. That ass gloated like I've never seen someone gloat before! Amazing. I love that kid.



(you can't tell in this picture, but there are about 11 or 12 people playing this game)
Ahh, 5th bell. My light at the end of the tunnel on my long 3-classes-in-a-row A days. It was wonderful today. They crack me up and they've become really well-behaved, especially when I think about how rowdy that class was at the beginning of the year. They get their work done, they work well with each other and then they beg to play my nerdy games. Looove it! They also donated quite a bit of money for their end of the year picnic and some of the kids doing the alternative project (it's like a "10th Grade Will" all about English 10 in scrapbook or giant collage form) already started working on it! I was impressed!
Since the SOLs are done, so are a lot of classes. I've had a lot of students come and visit my other classes to play games or catch up on work, since they have nothing else to do. It's really flattering for them to come into my classroom, instead of wandering the halls. Today, Timmy B (he used to be in my 2nd bell, but had to be switched to another teacher due to scheduling conflicts with another class) and Sequena (my success story!) came to class. I kept telling Sequena I wasn't speaking to her until she turned in a research paper, but she still stayed. I took a picture of Zakiyyah, who's usually bubbly and smiling, but apparently refuses to smile in pictures. It could be because my comedienne, Crystal, did a stand-up routine for about 15 minutes about Zakiyyah's boyfriend until Z. finally stopped laughing.

And here is Jarone/"Pacman", Nekita, and Vanessa showing you how they look when they play Apples to Apples. Seriously, they posed like "Okay, this is our Apples to Apples play, ready? Go."


And during my 7th bell plan, I got to do the coolest (nerdiest) thing EVER. I didn't have much to grade, so I went to ask Rebecca (dept. head) if she needed any help with the book room business. We have to move all our English books from the A wing because the A wing will be all for freshmen and apprently we can't store the 9th grade books/novels in there next year. So she had to move all of them and she's wanted to organize the book rooms for us anyway. (She alo said she was motivated because she was trying to keep herself busy because one of the IB 12th graders was killed in a car accident which is pretty upsetting to her, other IB teachers and IB students, since it's a pretty small, tight-knit group of kids. It sucks even more because tonight is prom for seniors.) And, also, you know I love organizing, so I went to help. It was HUGE! And she had all the Shakespeare plays in one side and it turns out we have class copies of The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice as well as The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream!!! (Only the first two are on the 10th grade regular curriculum, though. I think MSND is on one of the honor's curr., but I don't think anyone does it.) That means that next year, I probably won't be doing Julius Caesar. It's so hard to do because it's really meant for people who know Shakespeare and are at a higher level of reading. It's so subtle, it's a lot of discussion and basically, it's a pain in the ass for 10th grade kids who've only read one other play by Shakespeare. Plus, as I pointed out to Rebecca, they go from Romeo and Juliet to Caesar to Macbeth! Talk about depressing! They never get to see Shakespeare's hilarious side. I told her I might do two of the other plays to see how it goes with them. I kept her company for a while while I picked out books to read from the stacks and stacks (some of them never taught any more) as well as the novels I'd have to read with 11th graders next year. It was pretty awesome.

Oh & if you ever wondered what I would look like as a cartoon:

Thank you, Cleo.

C'mon, gang members are totally feminine!

I've survived research papers and kids begging to play Mad Gab and now Apples to Apples (I've infected them!). My students have been introduced to my twisted sense of humor with that game and, fortunately, a few of my more surly boys appreciate it, which is the only way I win cards. It's hilarious watching kids be totally skeptical of a teacher's game and then get really into it. I totally play it up too, I'm a complete fool for these kids. I like making an ass out of myself to make them laugh/loosen up/make mistakes/laugh at themselves.
Funniest moment of my week so far:
Fard: I'm dropping out. School is gay.
Me: Yes. School is totally gay. So gay that, in fact, the homosexual mafia does actually run this place.
Fard: See what I mean? Gay, man, gay.
Me: I actually heard the other day that legislation is going through to ban all straight kids from coming to school.
Fard: See what I mean? George Bush, man. He is so gay.
Me: Yeah, I know. His constant push of the "homosexual agenda" is just messing everything up.
This whole conversation happened during their silent reading time, so it was even more awesome. It went something like that, but there were other things in there I can't remember them because the whole class burst into laughter. These are the moment we cherish, right? Haha. Fard is always good for a laugh, he's always got something crazy to say. For example, the day he found out that breastmilk is not injected into the breast, but, instead, forms naturally. He didn't know that. He will never live it down in 5th bell, though. This moment was almost as good as the time I made Cleo chug a cup of peaches while getting his friends to chant "Dooooo itttttt!" (completely inappropriate, but the things we do for entertainment during my caf duty) or the time this ninth grader turned to me during a debate with his friend and asked, "C'mon, haven't you ever gotten kicked in the nuts?" I need to make a list of all the wonderful moments like that I've had this year, but I'm going to have trouble remembering all of them.

Anyway, I'm finishing up my version of the 10th grade English final exam and counting down the days like every other teacher. This past weekend got me so excited for summer.
What do I have planned?
-Riding my mothereffin' gold and blue bike, man! We went on our first trip into the wild and crazy (ha!) streets of Williamsburg and man oh man, do I love this bike.
-Maybe possibly pulling out the moped. I'd be the only moped rider in Wbg and I'd have to wear my helmet (uggggh), but goddamn, do I miss that thing. I even seriously debated going to BBQ13 in Kzoo this year, but plans conflicted. Maybe next year and maybe I'll go to the Hell's Satans rally next April. I miss mopeds.
-Our parents and Liz coming down June 18th-June 22nd. It comes nicely right after my birthday.
-Trip to Kalamazoo! July 6th-11th/12th (depends on if we go to Chicago on the 11th). Yesssss. I hope to have lots of fun. Please don't let me down, Kalamazoo.
-One year anniversary of gettin' hitched on July 15th. We get to eat the top tier of the cake- hell yeah!
-Possible other trips, one will definitely be to see Miss Fancy Pants in Philly.
-Bands. Possibility of going to see the Horrors and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in D.C. on the 8th. I think we've all (that is, myself, David, and Megan) decided to go see Interpol on July 21st in Norfolk.
-Other people visiting? Who knows? People always talk, rarely come through, but hopefully they will. It'd be fun to have some visitors down here. I need some help making fun of the tourists.
-And, lastly, getting prepped for next year. I want to have a good idea of what I'm getting myself into before diving into the year (like this year). I already know next year's going to be better since I've already done the English 10 thing once.

I love the idea that my summer is wide open. I have a stack of books. I have ideas and determination.

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.

way to go, virigina!

THE MOST EXCITING THING EVER HAPPENED.
Okay, not really the MOSTEXCITINGEVER, but it sure sent the Hampton Roads area of Virginia into a tizzy. That picture above is the only one I managed to snag of Prince Philip (ahemtotallyazombie) and Queen Elizabeth II. It was awesome to see her. I had a perfect shot of her in her carriage (she was seated on the other side of the road) and then MY CAMERA DECIDES IT'S TIME TO SHUT OFF. So, I got the picture above. Mostly the Prince and a corner of Queen Elizabeth's pink and purple hat. Bah humbug! Lucky for me, there were some amazing photos in the newspaper the next day. Most importantly, I got to see her with my own eyes, totally close (there was no one in front of me)! And I got to be searched by the Secret Service! And there were snipers everywhere! So, it was pretty awesome.

Also, that woman is blessed by God. Not only does she look amazing for being 81, but two seconds after she was safely inside the Williamsburg Inn (and don't take that name as quaint as it sounds--to quote the childrens, "that shit is bananas" as in: super expensive and faaaaancypantsyyy), the downpour that had been waiting for the past two hours hit. It was amazing. It had drizzled a little bit, stopped once she was in that carriage, and then we got poured on right after she was under cover. She can control the rain.

It turns out that living in an area with 400 years of history under its belt can turn out to be a good thing sometimes.