snow shows its face in colonialtown

It's snowed a few times this week, but today it's actually snowed for longer than a few minutes and it's stuck to the ground. Last year, I didn't get to see what Virginian students do when they see snow for the first time, this year, I did. It snowed in Norfolk on Tuesday and my kids went berserk. It was pretty funny, except that we then had trouble getting them focused on their mid-term essay again and it made my drive through the bridge-tunnel and slow-going adventure.
Today my sinuses have started draining, so my throat feels nice and scratchy. Thanks, mom, for the Airborne/Walborne lozenges because they are perfect for today. I also woke up feeling kinda bummed. I really have no reason to wake up that way, either. It's a three day weekend before exam week, which means I don't have a lot to prep for. Plus, it's snowing and I don't have any obligation that would force me to do anything but stare at it from my sliding glass door while laying on my couch with our new, Megan-made quilt. Thanks, Megan, for making an amazing quilt that keeps me warm on these days.
And the mood might have to do with the fact we decided to get another cat, found two adorable kittens to choose from, decided on one after waiting a day to make sure we weren't make a rash decision, only to find out that both of the were adopted/in the process of being adopted. Dang, that was quick. Sorry, David.

Let's just blame the bad mood on me reading Jane Eyre. It'll probably pass by tomorrow, just like the snow.

I think school broke me.

During my 7th bell, my back started hurting like it has many times before. A nice, pinched feeling. Usually when this happens, I'm at home and I've been sitting in a certain slouched position for too long. This time, I was at school with over an hour to go. I limped around, tried not to bend and tried to covertly stretch my back. It didn't work. And now I miss a dance class. Which, I guess, is fine because our normal teacher isn't here this week and we do have class on the 21st (NPS has no school on MLK day- the 21st- so I was worried we wouldn't have class, which would mean being 2 weeks without class after a 3 week break.) Add in a bum pinky finger and confused sinuses (from the inconsistent temps both inside and outside the school) and you got a pantsload full of joy.
David blamed it on sitting in pews for Lydia's baptism yesterday. At least we didn't burst into flames as we entered the building (I haven't been to church since I was a kid, I don't know if David has). I could start a whole other entry here about what I thought about during the service, but I'm afraid I might offend people. So, I'll sum up what I'd say in this: It was a beautiful church and service, I enjoyed the general feel of the church and the people there, but I do not at all feel inclined to go to church, nor do I feel guilty that I don't go to church, and I'm pretty content with my own individual spirituality. I have lots more to say, but let's keep that for a more private conversation, eh?

And now, I have a few comments to respond to:
Miguel: Javi is adorable! I am very excited for you. I've seen "Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire", but haven't read it. I'm always a little uncertain about teaching books. They're either too strict, too liberal or very repetitive. But, since you liked it, I'll probably pick it up and give it a chance!

GBPack: Game on. BigPsh will be Trivia Champion!

how to be triflin', part 1.

I wore this shirt to school today. David got it for me for Christmas and we both thought it was pretty funny.

It was interesting seeing the reaction of the teachers. There were a few that gave me disproving looks or didn't quite get it. Others thought it was hilarious, a good example of stuff we teach (Shakespeare) being put into a modern context and language the kids would understand. My students LOVED it. They all asked to read it (sometimes my ID badge and pens were in the way) and they chuckled, giggled and asked where I got it. It cheered me up after getting a full page and a half note on how my 5th bell (and ONLY my 5th bell) treated the sub yesterday while I was at COMP. Well, okay, it was the shirt and the fact that it was Friday, a student in Shaw's Study Hall in my room told me that he's never heard a bad thing about me (and how exactly did I pull that off?!) and my 4th bell kicked some literary bootay during group work today and behaved!!(a new concept for them, believe me). One student that I have in 4th bell walked past my 8th bell and yelled "Shakespeare GOT to get paid, SON!!" when he noticed he wouldn't be interrupting anything. It helped my day end on a good note, despite having to teach grammar during the last block of the day on a Friday during the last stretch of first semester (if you ever wanted instructions on how to slowly drive yourself crazy, there you go...).
You might be asking yourself: Did he open the door during instruction to yell? *gasp* No, good friend, he did not. My door was open to let in some breeze because our A/C in the school is still broke as hell. This week's been in the 70s, which means we've all been sweating like whores in church and the whole school smells like the inside of a gym locker. Having the door open sucks because the kids get distracted by dumbass children in the hallway. For example, my 8th bell got to hear one kid declare "YO, I GOT TO FIND SOMEONE TO SUCK MY [you can assume the rest]". If our door had been closed, we wouldn't have had to hear that wonderful declaration. Thanks, child, for showing off your ignorance and complete lack of understanding of school and how to act in it. But, the way this school year has gone so far, a closed door wouldn't have stopped him. Even when my door is closed, I've had students push it open, yell into it and run away or push it open, turn off the lights and run away and many, many other annoyances that define the slang term "triflin'". They are seriously enjoying the fact that we can no longer lock their sorry behinds out.

Also, last year I only had one nickname (Pushlord. Thanks, Tim). This year, I have been upgraded to having more than one. So far, I've gotten Big Push (Shanice), Mzzz P (Jess), and Ms. Punchy (Devon). I think I like Big Push the best, mostly because Shanice says it Big PUSH! and then slaps me on the back or grabs my shoulder. She's got the Playful-Uncle-hitting-your-back/shoulder thing down, let me tell you.

I am making a conscious effort to be more positive. My major positive forces from last year, Chandra and Jerilyn, were both downstairs for the first part of the year. Jerilyn is now upstairs, but she's taking over another teacher's position, so she's been busy. I think this has definitely affected how I've perceived my classes and students because I'm surrounded by a lot more negative thinking AND I've put myself in a position to try and help a new teacher (who was put in the bad situation of teacher 4 sections of repeater English 9 classes with a co-teacher whose personality can be off-putting and usually conflicts with those around her). I've had to rely a lot more on myself to be positive and have enough positive energy to go around. Whew.

I cannot wait for second semester. Poetry, Julius Caesar (yes, like a fool, I am looking forward to it again), and Lord of the Flies (!!! and only that book, we're not doing lit. circles at the end of the year) for my 10th graders. And for my 11th graders, we start off with watching that Grizzly Man documentary to transition from Romanticism (what we're doing now) to Realism (what we do next), Their Eyes Were Watching God, drama (I have my choices of Fences, The Crucible, A Raisin in the Sun or Death of a Salesman. I'll probably try and find a way to teach the first three), and lots of really good literature that doesn't involve Puritans or English that has to be translated to teenagers. Hallelujah!

death and the student body

One of my students is convinced she will die soon. She was mostly joking, but the students have been discussing death more and more recently. The biggest reason behind this is because, in the last month, three students have died or been involved in causing someone's death.
The first was a kid I didn't have who was shot in his neighborhood. I have a lot of students who were friends with this student and teachers who had him as a student that really admired how hard he was trying to make something of himself, despite his past.
The second was an incident that happened right before school came back from break. Most of my students kept talking about a 17 year old Crip that shot a 21 year old Blood three times in front of a Game Stop in the middle of the day. One of my students even lived right behind the Game Stop. During 7th bell last week, I finally got the name of the 17 year old kid after hearing about it all day. He was one of my students, one that was in my class until he beat the living daylights out of another kid (who also happened to be one of my students). They kicked him out of Granby much too gladly. The students in my 4th bell were discussing it today, since, for possibly the first time ever, I knew something before they did. One student said, "I can't believe we were in class with a murderer!", another was just completely shocked. The kid was strange, but used to be really good. It seemed like he needed to fit in, belong, prove something and now his ass is in jail from going way too far with it.
It's strange that they were talking about former-student, now-inmate today because the third death happened yesterday. I was updating my grades in the workroom and Rebecca mentioned to Laura that some of her students may not be in school or will be very distracted/upset because one of their good friends died. She mentioned the girl's name and it was a student I had last year in my 3rd bell. She was on homebound due to cancer (and, if I remember correctly, brain-related, possibly tumors), but came back during second semester. She was an amazing girl: incredibly intelligent, friendly, kind, hard-working, beautiful (she showed me some of her modeling pictures--they were amazing!) and funny. People are planning on wearing pink tomorrow for her.

It's been a strange start for 2008 in our school.

total bummer and totally awesome

I am totally bummed! I sat down, readied my camera and thought I uploaded all the pictures from the holidays. Nope. I didn't. And I already deleted a few of the originals from the camera. Way to go, me!
So, all of the pictures after Sunday night, including the super nice ones I took of Meg and I out in the snow, are gone. Deleted. And I am bummed and out of time to blog about our quick holidays. Ah well. I still have a few good pictures to show off, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow (I know, I know--tragic. Just try to hold back those tears!).

I was not bummed, however, when I woke up to find the results of the Iowa caucus! Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee?? Really? How exciting! What are all of your thoughts on the outcome? Are you surprised? Or did you think that was going to be the outcome?
Also, I'm sure you've heard of Ron Paul by now. How could you not see some wonderful graffiti or illegal sign stuck somewhere by the side of the road? Ron Paul is... interesting and intriguing. Sort of in a good way, but mostly in a way that really disgusts and disturbs me. For example, he seems to enjoy hanging out with white supremacists. Plus, the many other issues I don't agree with that he's voted on/taken stands on, but don't necessarily have time to sit around the list every single one of them out. It's funny, because he sounds like he has interesting/possibly useful ideas, but I don't quite think he means it the same way I do.
By the way, if you are on the fence, have no clue whose running, or want to make sure your gut feeling is correct, I have two different websites that might help. The first is On the Issues. My students used this one to start off their Presidential research papers and it helped them a lot. You click on their name or picture, up comes every issue and every stand and vote on that issue, broken down into small issues. There is also Project Vote Smart. They have voting records of everyone out there in the political world, which is very useful.

challenge: 50 books in 52 weeks

Some of you already know that I keep track of the books I read. I keep lists of the books by seasons and I've done this for the past... 2 years? I think it's been 2 years. I got tired of forgetting all the books I've read, so I started recording it. This year, I decided to see if I could read 50 books.

Starting with the first book I read in 2007, ending with the last.
1.Days of War, Nights of Love: Crimethink
2. Birthday Letters: Ted Hughes
3. She Had Some Horses: Joy Harjo
4. Fight Club: Chuck Palahniuk
5. My Antonia: Willa Cather
6. The Sound and the Fury: William Faulkner
7. Into Thin Air: John Krakauer
8. The Mother Tongue: English & How it got that way: Bill Bryson
9. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: James Joyce
10. Little Children: Tom Perrotta
11. The Painted Drum: Louise Erdrich
12. Shalimar the Clown: Salman Rushdie
13. Seeing: Jose Saramago
14. Memories of My Melancholy Whores: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
15. A Walk in the Woods: Bill Bryson
16. A Lesson Before Dying: Ernest J. Gaines
17. Lord of the Flies: William Golding
18. Snow Falling on Cedars: David Guterson
19. Lamb: The Gospel According to Bif, Christ's Childhood Pal: Christopher Moore
20. The Namesake: Jhumpa Lahiri
21. Haunted: Chuck Palaniuk
22. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Ken Kesey
23. The Golden Compass: Philip Pullman
24. Jesus Land: Julia Scheeres
25. A Prayer for Owen Meany: John Irving
26. The Subtle Knife: Philip Pullman
27. Fahrenheit 451: Ray Bradbury
28. The Amber Spyglass: Philip Pullman
29. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: J. K. Rowling
30. Geek Love: Katherine Dunn
31. Birds of America: Lorrie Moore
32. Sula: Toni Morrison
33. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Mark Twain
34. Plainsong: Ken Haruf
35. Book of Ruth: Jane Hamilton
36. Going After Cacciato: Tim O'Brien
37. Slaughter-House Five: Kurt Vonnegut
38. Sense and Sensibility: Jane Austen
39. 1984: George Orwell
40. Under the Banner of Heaven: John Krakauer
41. Love in the Time of Cholera: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
42. Death By Chick Lit: Lynn Harris
43. The Wedding: Dorothy West
44. Rant: Chuck Palahniuk
45. Blankets: Craig Thompson
46. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha: Roddy Doyle
47. The Scarlet Letter: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Only 3 short! Well, considering there were a few books that I started and never finished that I don't count on the list, I sort of got my challenge completed. And, now, there's 2008.

surprisingly productive.

Whew! What a few days!
Yesterday, we had a 12 hour drive from Warren to Williamsburg. It went smoothly, the weather was perfect and we made really good time. Our cats had survived the days without anyone, since I gave Megan K. (aka "Megan Senior") the wrong key. There were cracker packages chewed through and left all over the floor and an empty cat treat can. Poor kitties! They drank water for about 10 minutes, took a break, then drank some more. Last night, both the cats slept with us, cuddled nice and close. Gabriel has been purring and near us all day long.
We spent last night with Megan and Corey, watching a SNL special and making fun of all the other NYE specials. David and I were exhausted from the drive, the clean up of the house and then staying up past midnight, so we didn't stay too long after the ball dropped.

Today has been very productive. I got up earlier than I have all break (mostly because it'll help with getting up tomorrow, ugh.) and made a to do list. I unpacked my bag, washed the trip off of me, and reorganized stuff in my bathroom to accomodate all the new bath/beauty products (and cute cosmetics bag from mike). We headed to former Food Lion, now Bloom (think Farm Fresh or D&W with a Harding's past, for those of you outside of this area) and as we were heading in, we saw a few people leaving with those reusable grocery bags from Ukrop's and Trader Joe's. We started discussing how we should've gone to Meijer when we were there and picked a few up. When we walked in, though, bam! 3 Bloom reusable bags were sitting right there, for $1 each. Awesome. The good day continued when we went to New Town to use up some gift cards and find a weekly planner I saw at B&N with Frida Kahlo artwork (it was still there and 50% off- yesss!!). We got home, rearranged the computer room so it works a lot better, put the Christmas decorations into storage as well as suitcases and other random stuff, cleaned up and whew! Most of my to do list is done and it's only 4. Thank goodness, cause I'm tired and need to figure out what I'm going to do with those students Wednesday-Friday. I don't know how many kids (or teachers, for that matter) are going to show up for a 3 day week--a lot of them don't show up for Thanksgiving week.
Right now, though, we're watching the hockey game between Pittsburg and Buffalo, played outside in the snow. Later today or tomorrow, I'll share pictures and a run down of the holidays. I still have a few things on that to do list to finish.