major moments

You can officially be proud of me:
-Submitted/submitting the first interim's grades (progress reports) and I can say I have less than 5 kids getting E's and maybe 2 or 3 getting D's. The rest are C's and above. One class has a majority of A's. Thank you, thank you.
-Had a very productive first bell. We started off on track, but the stereotyping activity went into a discussion about homosexuality. It turned out to be the best class we've had so far. Hopefully, it can keep up. That class is coming together nicely.
-In that same class, I have a student who loves to ask those personal questions. Today's question was for another student whose pants were so low I had to remind him twice to pull them up 'cause I got tired of seeing his butt crack. Near the end of class, he was walking from the computer to the seat and she blurts out, "Where's your dick go in those pants?" (He wears those skinny indie/hardcore kid pants that ride really low and are pretty tight) My jaw dropped. Then we all laughed about it. Then I asked her to please keep personal questions on either a low volume or outside of class. Also, the language needs to be changed. She's hilarious.
-I brought out the Serious Teacher Voice in an appropriate situation and it worked. Also, I made sure to talk to the students involved afterward to make sure we all understood what happened. It was a situation of disrespect that I felt I had to make sure to squash before it got out of hand (and with that bell, it would have). I was worried that maybe I was too harsh, but I think it was okay. I guess we'll find out on Monday when I see them again.
-A student who gives me lots of trouble in one block (he wants all the attention) came into my first one to ask one of the students something before the bell rang for class. As he was walking in and realized it was one of my classrooms, the lady friend he was with was like, "Why are we here? What are we doing?" and he said something along the lines of, "This is Mrs. P! My best teacher!" Thanks, kiddo.
-I got an oil change! I took David with me to have a comfort blanket-type situation, but at the end they told me my serpentine belt was about ready to pop. It was dry rotted and cracking. I went yesterday to see if I could get it changed, but the belt guy wasn't there. So I went back today. Did you get that? I went back by myself to deal with a car issue. I am a responsible car owner. Way to go, me.

Now I will enjoy a weekend mostly for myself. Only two more essays to grade, put grades in, submit them and I'm done with grading for the weekend! I have some planning I want to get done for the short story unit.

a buliding to get lost in

Today I enjoyed my camera and a nice break from grading. This picture is for my mom, who wanted a picture of the high school. Maybe next time, I'll be able to fit in the whole thing, but I was in kind of a rush after school today.
It's a big building. Huge. There are still sections of it I've not seen, I think.
The most exciting part of my day was the part of my week that's usually the most boring: caf duty. I saw a girl who looked to be in handcuffs escorted out, heard many stories about fights and saw a milk bottle go up into the air to land a few tables over on some unfortunate students. The kids were excited, but complained because it threatened their chance at a pep rally. One of the security guards's birthdays was today, him & his twin sister. What a birthday for him. He told me these kids would be lucky if they got a pep rally, the way things were going today. I love this school.

disorder, discussions, and illegal electronics

I am so glad to be done with over half of the essays I've had to grade this week. I guess sometimes it's good that students don't turn their stuff in on time; otherwise, I would be going crazy right now. Today we had our first test, but I think I'm going to hold off on grading that until this weekend (after grades go in), so the kids have enough time to worry about their essays that haven't been turned in or other classwork they've missed. These kids need organizers. Not that it would really matter, though-- part of their crazy mess is developmental. It's starting to rub off on me: I question my spelling and I'm a complete disorganized mess (well, not complete... but way more disorganized than usual). I even searched all over for a student paper I wasn't sure I left somewhere around here or at the oil change place or at school. I'm not even sure he turned it in-- I can't remember. I should have organized my crap better. I really hope I didn't lose his paper, that would be horrible.
Which brings me to how I spent my lunch today. First, let me explain the class schedule, so that everyone can know what the heck I'm talking about. We have an 8 bell (blocks, but everyone here calls them bells) every-other-day block schedule. On odd number days, we have our 4 odd bell (1,3,5,7). On even number days, we have our even bells (2,4,6,8). I have plan 4 & 7, cafeteria duty the last half of 6th bell. The way the lunches work is so: 4 lunches(roughly 500 students/lunch) during 5th/6th bell, which makes 5th/6th about 2 hours. (It's about 1hr, 40-50 min on early release days because of the lunches. Early release days are like half days, except you get out at 12:05 instead of 2:05. They still serve lunch and we still do professional development, but just not as long--yes!! I like it) Anyway. My 5th bell, since we are in a Academy C room, has the second lunch: 11:58-12:28. This means we're in class for a little over a half hour, go to lunch, and come back for an hour. It's kind of nice. usually, I go try and eat a quick snack in the work room, talk to Chandra for a while, and then check my groupwise e-mail and clean up anything before the kids come back. Today, though, one of my students hung back and asked if she could stay in the room. I've seen other teachers do this, so I wasn't bothered and I let her hang out there while I ran around the floor for a while. When I came back to the room to check my e-mail, we started talking about school, the system, how people act and why, etc. It was really nice because she sits in the back and kind of keeps quiet. It doesn't help that my 5th bell has a lot of needy, attention loving kids (who I love, but they take me away from those quiet kids, ya know?). It was a nice way to spend a lunch.
This morning, however, sucked. My first bell has some cool kids in it, but they're hard to get focused on the task at hand. Right near the end of the test, as we were getting ready to transition into the intro activity for short stories, one student who I wrote a pass to the bathroom came immediately back in saying, "They're coming to do a random search!" The poor girl had already been waiting about 10 minutes to go! haha. Right after she entered, the school police officer and two security officers (one male, one female) walk in and describe what's going to happen: It's a random search; they're searching for electronic devices like cell phones, ipods, cd players, etc.; you can refuse because you have (some) rights, but it'll be 10 days out of school and some sort of court procedure or administrative meeting (I can't remember what they said). They pull up students one by one, wand them down, make them pull up their pantlegs, shirts (only half-way up and I think they only did that with the guys), went through their bags... it was fun. One student jokingly refused the search, then said he was going to do it. About half-way through the search of the classroom, he got up, grabbed his stuff and left. He will now miss a lot of work because of that. Great. It was an interesting experience, for sure.
But today had a lot of good things: the amount of essays I've had to grade has gone down, grades have gone up due to students turning in late work, grades being caught up, class sizes are levelling out (but unfortunately I have two new students that I don't know what to do with-- we just finished an essay and a test! what am I supposed to do with them?!), we're starting a literature unit next, and my classes are generally getting better behaved as we fall into a nice routine. Oh! And I got major kudos from two experienced teachers on my Reading Minute idea. Wooo!
Non-school related good things that happened today include: finally getting an oil change (and finding out I need a belt replaced- a very important belt! I'm getting it replaced tomorrow.. otherwise I risk my engine getting messed up), getting my digital camera in the mail (!!! it's amazing!!), and getting to rest a little while with Jackie and Gabriel. Gabriel has a weird skin breakout again, but not flea related (whew!) and has found a new sleeping spot-- on top of the big bookcase. Whenever he jumps down, it's crazy. He manages to make a big BANG!!#%!#%! sound (seriously-- little punctuation marks pop up. He's magic). Jackie has been a lot more cuddly and has, in her own way, been following me around and laying in ways that say, "Admire me! I am adorable!"
Bottom line: Things are good, my car no longers groans or creaks, and I am caught up enough to be organized once more. Whew.

follow the white reflective line

Yesterday, we finally had a chance to go get some much-needed bike tires. David had replaced the front one on my Schwinn for my birthday (to make up for the one stolen from the bike last summer), but the back one went flat twice since we've been here. His bike needed two new tires since the ones that were on the bike were crap. We replaced all of those and took our first bike ride together downtown. Hooooly moly! That heavy ass bike could really haul (compared to how it used to attempt to go over 5 MPH). It sure does make a difference having tires that are actually inflated to the correct pressure.
On our way back, we had a fun time of getting through a stretch of road(s) without any street light. We hadn't bought lights yet and just missed the bike shop downtown's hours, which ruined our plan to buy some on the way to Aromas. Crap. Williamsburg still has these nice stretches of country-like road where there are no streetlamps. I kind of like it... unless I'm on a bike with no light. It was pretty exciting though. All we heard were bugs, squeaky bikes, and silence. Every now and then a car came along. Once we got to the light on Monticello, it got a lot better (more cars and a few streetlights). It was dangerous, but exhilarating. After we got home, it was agreed we would (probably) never do that again. We bought a headlight and two rear lights today.
If my writing is extra sucky tonight, it's because I just finished reading about 1/4-1/2 of my students' papers (I have about 130 students. That was a good chunk o'papers). Near the end there it got kinda dodgy. I don't know if I know how to write anymore. Or spell correctly. Or even think in ways that make sense. The kids have heart, but a few of those papers left my brain twisted up into one giant question mark. Their ideas somehow got all twisted on the page. I think maybe they got intimidated by the extra formal feeling of the paper, so tomorrow we're going to review the purpose, audience, etc. of the paper. Hopefully that will help out a few that wish to re-write and up their grade and those that have not finished yet. Ugh. Starting off the year with the most difficult and boring type of essay is a tough situation, ladies and gentlemen.
I am tired and still have some planning to do. This week we start short stories- hallelujah! Literature! How I've missed you!

In weather news, after a few days of freezing (50-60degree) mornings and somewhat cool(er) days, the temp went back up into the high 80s and low 90s. We were enjoying having the windows open, hearing the birds and weird huge bugs buzz up to our screens, and feeling the breeze, but, unfortunately, had to turn the A/C back on for today. It's supposed to go back down into the 70s or low 80s, so it'll probably be turned off again soon.

Two extras:
David now has a blog. There is a link on the right side of the page. He has a great writing style and sense of humor.
If you haven't noticed yet, you can post comments even though you do not have a blog through Blogger. A few people mentioned that they didn't want to get an account/didn't have an account, so they couldn't comment. There ya go, folks.

Happy 19th birthday, Meg!
Congrats Jen on being a contracted teacher for KPS!

yaaaay, let's buy stuff!

I haven't bought a whole lot of stuff recently, just stuff I've been meaning to buy. For example, some more teacher clothes. I found some good deals at Target and I have my eye on some stuff at the outlet mall. When that stuff goes on sale, ohhh my! Will I have some teacher clothes? I love clothes.
I also bought the fancypants camera you see above. I got it for a killer deal on amazon.com and also managed to snag a memory card for a good price, too. It was sent yesterday, so it's already headed my way! Once it gets here and I make sure it's what I want and everything works correctly, I will be sending Miss Katy my digital camera for a few dollars (price still to be determined. I'll see what she's will to pay for it. The whole camera works except for the zoom.) as well as a book that I suggested to her before I left Kzoo.

This morning I was having this wonderful dream about not having to get up because it had snowed! It felt so realistic: I got out of bed, shivering, and looked out the window to see more snow than I'm sure they're used to here. I was jumping around for a while, all excited about not having to go to school, and then went back to bed. Then my alarm went off and I realized that none of that actually happened. I was sleeping really good, too. It ended up being a good day in school. The classes were kind of unstructured because of the essay due date being today. Half of my more rowdy class on the "B" day (today) was in the library, finishing typing up their papers with my co-teacher. I was stuck playing babysitter to the already finished (and bored) and the completely unmotivated (and sort of whiny about having to write a paper). I had to explain multiple times things I've already explained and I had to explain why we're writing this paper and how, basically, no- it's not very fun for anyone and no- it's not a very good way to start off the year, but if we get past it, we've all overcome a big, boring obstacle and the rest of the writing for the year will seem soooooo easy. Ah well. That class needs more structure on most days, otherwise they regress into children. Which is usually managable for me, but the crushing weight of essays finished and unfinished and having to read so many of them the past week gave me a big, fat headache. Most of the students were pretty understandable and told others to quiet down. Since the season's changing, quite a few of my students have had some major headaches that we can do nothing about since I can't give them any drugs and they can't take any in school. I told them, basically, "Listen. I have a headache. You'll have to excuse me for any snappy attitude I may give you at this moment. I don't mean it and you'll have to show a little maturity and patience that I know you have. We all have those days, as I've seen from you-- now you're seeing one from me. Next time, we'll all be back to 'normal'." I'm glad most of them understood. I still felt pretty much like a failure at the end of the day and I knew I could've done this unit a lot better. Next time, I know exactly what to do. Lucky for me, I have an amazing department head and two great co-teachers who understand this is the first time I've ever done a unit all on writing one specific type of essay. Whew.

crazy recap!

I am writing this from David's snazzy new HP laptop he finally recieved today.
I've sent out a lot of mail and I'm looking forward to one specific package coming towards me soon. Oooh, fancy and mysterious!
School is amazing. Every day it gets better. The kids are just... wow. I have a few talkative kiddos, but for the most part, they are wonderfulcoolfunnyrespectfuldrivendeterminedamazing and so on. They turn in their essays tomorrow and we will all be happy to be finally over with the SOL (it's like the MEAP) test essay. Thank jeebus.
By the way, some interesting things: First, this is the first time since early elementary school that I've had to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. I'm totally not used to it and I always forget. A lot of the kids drag their butts out of the seat. Most of them don't recite it. But. They always respect the moment of silence we have before the pledge.
Also, I have quite a few gay or questioning or sassy youth. It's really awesome the way that most of them do not care whatsoever what their peers think. The stereotype of the South from us Yankees is that Southern folk hate everything, right? I've heard a minimum of "that's gay" or "fag". The "fag" usage is usually in jest, which is nice. Yesterday, though, a sweet girl in one of my early classes asked a classmate:
"Wait. Are you gay?"
He nods.
"You don't look gay. I wouldn't have ever told."
I ask: "How exactly is a gay person suppossed to look, my dear?"
"He looks like a gay thug or something! I mean, I would have never guessed!"
Other students talk about it. We talk about the guy from Real World that was "thug" and gay.
Then she asks him a personal question that ended with something like "...it hurt?"
He nods.
THE KIDS FLIP! OUT!
I ask her, "Did you seriously just ask him a personal question in front of the whole class?!" (I'm thinking: No sex life talk from anyone, thank you.)
He says, "What? Am I suppsed to be ashamed of it?"
Cue me feeling proud of him. I talked to him about how I wasn't trying to make him feel ashamed or that he had to hide anything, but I just wanted to make sure he wasn't going to be hurt by some of the reactions. He wasn't. Yes!!
Anyway.
This week also included an Open House on Monday. I met quite a few parents. They were very nice.
Not much else. I went to the ';[ppppppppp';] (gabriel says hello) Post Office and met the most efficient (but most likely to be a serial killer) post office worker ever. I saw the arty part of Norfolk and ate some delicous indian food with Carly. I told her she would love Kalamazoo (I'm pretty sure she would). I miss Mugsybugsy, Nataliesussenhose, Amandafancypants, Miss Katyloo and the idea of having friends nearby. soon, soon, soon.
Megan's going to be 19 soon! Make sure to say happy birthday to her.

cat vs. bird

Yesterday was spent mostly downtown. Parking was a hassle as it was Saturday (usually a busy day for Colonial Williamsburg) as well as the first football game for W&M. I believe they won against Maine. I also noticed, while I was watching the news last night, that Western Michigan won against Virginia. David said this was a big thing for WMU because Virginia is a good team. I know nothing about football, so, okay, sure, whatever.
Anyway. David had another panel to go see at the school of law, so we ran some errands, searched around for parking, finally decided on the buzzkill of a parking ramp (although it's a very beautiful and cute parking lot that goes along with the colonial theme) that charges $1/hour. We went to B&N where I found that all the Postsecret books (all 35 copies they had) had gone to some event. I finally decided to buy that book and it's gone. Damn. It's okay though 'cause I found it on Amazon for cheaper PLUS Amazon is selling a package deal: Postsecret + Found Magazine book (#1) for about the same price I would pay at B&N for just the Postsecret book. I'll probably do that later on. It was a day of disappointment at B&N. I got spoiled with Kazoo Books and find the price of books at B&N pretty scary. I checked out their magazine selection. Bust has nothing new out. I didn't see Bitch yesterday, but I think it's there usually. Some girl took the last Nylon and Venus was boring. The only interesting thing on Venus's cover was for a book review of Amy Sedaris's cookbook that finally came out (which I will probably look in to buying later on.). What a bust.
After David left for the panel, I wandered around a bit. I sat at Aromas drinking a mocha that was made with powdered cocoa. It was... kinda gross. Everything else they make there is good, but that powdered chocolate stuff is something I won't touch again. As I sat there reading and sipping, this couple with a tiny, adorable dog came. Someone stopped in the middle of the road to tell them how cute their dog was! And, of course, all the sorority girls flitting about stopped and asked, "Is that a chihuahua?!" (it was pretty obvious that it was not.. but. I guess small dog=chihuahua?) The best part was when this group of four people came strolling buy with their two giant dogs. The dogs got a long great and, as the group started to continue on their walk, the older gentleman with them started telling everyone outside Aromas to have a good day. It was adorable!
I finished up my "mocha", headed into Mermaid Books. I love that cluttered little basement. I found a copy of Julius Caesar for 75 cents, which will help me with planning. I headed over to Biggs to see what the Bonus Days gift was all about and the woman working the counter came over and said, "Can I help you with anything? I just love your hair color! That's natural, right? Don't ever mess with it!" I love this town.
Last night we booked our tickets to Michigan for Christmas. I was worried that if we waited any longer, the prices would keep going up. We found a good deal for one round-trip ticket at $123. I figured we should take it since we can afford it now and not wait to see how high it'll go. We leave December 23rd from D.C. and fly into Detroit, then return to D.C. on the 30th. It'll be a little trip from one side of Michigan to the other and back again. Whew!
I've also looked in to ticket prices for Germany in April. I found a good deal from D.C. to NJ to Berlin for $630. Hopefully, I'll be able to find that same price later on when I can actually afford it! I've also priced new digital cameras and I found the one I wanted: A Canon PowerShot A530. I found it for under $200 on Amazon and it's waaaay better than the digital camera I have now. When I buy it (sometime in the future), I'll be sending my old camera to Katy for a few bucks.
Oh and we tried a really good Mexican place: La Tolteca (spelling may be wrong). David and some people from his program went there after his first panel he had to go to Friday night. There was a lot of food and it was really quick. It was even good the next day when I ate what I couldn't eat the night before. Natalie, you would love this place.
The picture in this post is the cat that hangs around our building. She sleeps in that corner sometimes (very cute) and brings her kills to the building. After Ernesto, a squirrel showed up. We're not sure if somehow she got it or it drowned and she dragged it here or what. A mouse also showed up on the stairs. Yesterday, we opened our door and found a bird at the bottom of the stairs. I have another picture of the feathers that were a few inches away from it. She's a very good hunter, it seems.