Sunday Sunburn

I couldn't resist posting this video showing off Shawn's glowing sunburn from yesterday. He says I have a sick sense of humor.

Let Spring Break begin

The moon has been full and the students have been insane all week. Finally, Friday arrived, and I counted the minutes until the 3:05 bell. Last night, the school held an open house which lasted until 8:30. Parents and teachers came to the classrooms in shifts, at assigned times, so each teacher had to give a little talk about curriculum to seven different groups. Actually, I enjoyed talking about ninth grade English---especially, for a change, to an audience who listened attentively, didn't interrupt, didn't throw any spitballs, and didn't raise any hands in the middle of my discussion to whine, "What time does this end?" or "Can I go to the nurse?" They even asked questions! But after a long, long day that began at 5:30 that morning, I was exhausted when I got home. I had been scheduled to begin the practice scoring for the Delaware 10th grade writing test and to do two hours. I'd scheduled two hours because I thought the open house at the school would end sooner than it did. Thus, I could only do about 45 minutes of the test prep before falling into bed. Today, luckily, I was giving the students the unit test on Romeo and Juliet, so I didn't have to teach. I only had to monitor their test-taking. Since it was the end of the Unit, the last day of the week, AND the last day before Spring break, I could not see any reason to spend the last 30 minutes of class after a 90-question test trying to teach something new, just for the sake of appearances, so I let them finish out the class period just talking to each other(their biggest thrill). After the last bell rang, I had bus duty, followed by a few tasks before I could leave.

I'd scheduled three hours with Pearson for this evening, but two of our laptops had problems that prevented me from accessing the practice student papers on the Pearson website. Liberto tried to manipulate the programs in the Toshiba and fiddled with that computer for the entire evening, while I tried downloading and installing new ePEN software into the HP laptop, which also didn't work. I never had a chance to try it on the Gateway because it is so slow that I could start opening a website, go do a few laundries, and then come back before it opens. At 9:00, I gave up, and watched a little of a movie. By then, Liberto said he'd fixed the Toshiba's problem. But I was too tired, so I'll continue with that tomorrow.

I'm ready for spring break. Even though I'll be grading research papers as well as doing some standardized essays on line, I'll be around the house and have a few stolen moments by the pond.

Today has been beautiful! The birds have been singing their hearts out from every blossoming tree. The temperature is in the seventies, with sunny, clear skies.

The day has been uneventful, full of laundry, odds and ends, and nothing unusual. At one point, I asked L. if he'd like to go to the Bamboo Gardens, and he said yes, but somehow, the day slid away and it didn't happen. That's okay. At the end of a long week, I find it special just to be at home, hanging out.

Week after next, I have spring break, finally, and L. is going to take a day off so we can spend the day at Tybee, maybe walk the beach, eat a meal, have fun.

Last night, I turned on the back patio lights and saw the Gus-look-alike cat tear away from the edge of the koi pond, running towards the dark yard. He's been spotted in our yard several times at night. It must be part of his evening route. Confident cat that he is, he settled himself down in the grass next to Gus' grave. I could see his shape in the darkness because of his light coat. I walked over and caressed him, and he pressed his head affectionately into my hand. He seems to feel very comfortable with us now. I came out later with Paul and we saw him sitting happily on top of the fence, just like Gus used to. Just in case, I rearranged some potted plants as a barrier around the pond, in case he has a mind to go fishing. Despite how happy Paul and I are when he comes around, I have mixed feelings about aquiring more pets at this point, although I may feel differently in the future.

Pete had two walks today, lucky boy. I took him this morning, and this afternoon, Paul and I took him together. On the second walk, Pete was all of a sudden very slow, as though it required a big effort to keep going. Right now, he's lying down, taking another long nap.

I'm reading a book entitled What Was I Thinking?, a collection of very short stories written by women about husbands and boyfriends who turned out to have deal-breaking flaws which emerged during the relationship. The writers of these stories stayed in these bad relationships longer than they should have, but now look back and laugh about them or at least reflect wryly about how blind they were. Why would anyone want to read about bad relationships? For one, they are funny stories, but they also make any reader doubly grateful to have a husband who is not a classic bad boy, liar, cheater, skinflint, narcissist or otherwise loser!

Stormy week, beautiful Friday

The first email of the week was the shocking announcement that Mr. L., one of my colleagues at the high school who couldn't be a day over 40, had suffered a massive heart attack the previous day. He was on life support and his prognosis grim. That downer took us all by surprise. On Monday, hour by hour reports on the school email said he was critical. But slowly, the reports turned positive. By Tuesday, he was critical, but improving. By Wednesday, they'd removed the breathing tubes. By Thursday, he was talking and laughing. He's now expected to recover, but I'm sure he won't be back in the classroom before the end of the schoolyear. They've been saying he'll be in Intensive Care for a few more weeks before being moved to a regular room.

This week, the schedule was scrambled to accommodate the Georgia High School Graduation tests for juniors and seniors. On Monday, first block was extended until 10 o'clock. On Tuesday, we had a 2,1, 3, 4 schedule, Wed., a 3, 2, 1, 4, and Thursday, a 4, 2, 3, 1 schedule. The change in order made the students extra hyper, and the teachers extra crabby. Yesterday, I was sitting at my desk during my planning period. The teacher-who-shares-the room was teaching her class. Suddenly, there was a pounding on the glass door that leads out to the courtyard.An angry teacher from across the way stood there yelling that some student in our classroom was beaming a red laser light across the courtyard into her room, and annoying the students. Naturally, this disruption got the students all worked into a frenzy--how they love any drama! Then Ms. D., the teacher in my room, felt obligated to accost the students and accuse a few of the chronic troublemakers, telling them to empty their pockets and bookbags and give up the laser. An African-American boy began to shout that the teacher at the glass door had pointed right at HIM when she screamed about the laser, and he felt DEGRADED; just because he was Black didn't mean HE was the one, blah blah, blah, to the point that Ms. D. had to send him out of the room to wait in the hall. She then threatened to call the Administration to have them come in and do a class-wide search (the students blanched, thinking of their hidden cell phones), and finally, the Guilty One gave himself up and surrendered his laser pointer. All of this commotion took 15 minutes, not including the time Ms. D. had to walk the affronted African American student to the Guidance Counselor because he was so upset at being falsely accused that he had become unhinged. The next period, when I was teaching, a girl got up and ran out the glass door, and I, thinking she was leaving just to be cute, called, "Hey, where are you going?" until I realized she was vomiting on the grass outside. The parapro walked her to the nurse's office. It's hard to get a high school back on track after the slightest little distraction.

It has been a tiring week.

L. just called from downtown. He has a flat tire. He called AAA, but found it would take too long, so he changed it himself and was on his way to Sears to get a new tire, last time he phoned in an update. I'm waiting for him to get home so I can start a movie and help myself to some Chinse take-out and a cold beer.

Reminder of how long the old girl has been at it

Last Monday night, my new Valic advisor came to the house. I wanted a face-to-face conference to review the pro's and con's of launching my stock-based retirement. The lock-in feature I auspiciously signed up for in July 2007 assures that the 5% will be based on the pre-Crash amount, rather than the pathetic face value. My feeling was, why not start taking it now? I'm old enough,and with the market in the shape it's in, the face value will never re-reach the lock-in value. Why not use the money now, while I'm still working? We can stockpile it now. Anyway, the man began to review my working history. I mentioned having worked at Georgia Southern for years. He stared at me for a moment, and then broke into a smile. "I think I had you for English! I was at Southern in '91, and took a World Lit class with you. I still remember Beowulf and Song of Roland! I really enjoyed that class!" 1991, my third year at Southern. Eighteen years ago! To be honest, I wasn't sure I remembered him. That was about five-thousand students ago. But I was tickled that he remembered me and even liked the class. I also experienced the Rip Van Winkle Effect, the shock wave that ripples through one when one is reminded of how much time has passed.

After school on Thursday, I decided to pull down the "Most Dangerous Game" movie posters and replace them with the schmaltzy Romeo and Juliet cards created by last semester's students. They had been assigned to find any poetic quotation from R & J, copy it onto the front of a construction paper greeting card, and write a cute modern-day punch-line inside. The current class is reading R & J, so the cards would be timely. As I stapled them onto the bulletin board, I read the punch-lines. One of them jokingly mentioned a "couple" in last semester's class: Wesley and Stephanie. Again, the Effect. Wesley and Stephanie and all the other students from last semester suddenly seemed so far, far back in time; yet the school year has not stopped feeling new to me. But it's not so new anymore. The students' state-mandated End of Course test is April 27 and 28, just a month from now. The school year ends May 22 (with a few teacher planning days after that). I look forward to summer, to renew myself. I'm excited to realize it's sooner than I thought.

An unexpected fiasco occurred at the School Board meeting last month. Some newly elected Board members voted to retire the Superintendent, much to everyone's surprise. Gossip has it that the parents in the county wanted a Supt. who was more sports-supportive. This morning, an article in the newspaper said that her contract buy-out would cost around $200,000, including the paid vacation days, and the Acting Supt. was quoted as saying that "we'll probably have to fire about 18 teachers to pay for this!" Naturally, I worry.

L. is doing very well in his job. His evaluation was superior, so he is to receive the full bonus that city employees get. Despite his back pains, he gives 110% to the job, and fortunately, this is recognized by the powers that be. When L. oversees a project and the project is completed, he has a tangible park or road to show for it. It's hardly the same in teaching. Every day, I can give my 110% but have no idea whether I've made any impact.

That's why I love encounters with people like the Valic man!

Paul has been on spring break this week. Shawn continues to work at A.C. Moore, but is feeling discontent with his supervisor and the way she runs the store.

The television has just issued a tornado watch for the rest of the day.The weather forecast predicted thunderstorms all day. Right now, the weather looks fine to me. In fact, I wish it would thunder furiously. It makes me feel cozy when I'm inside on the couch watching the rain splash down outside.

Return of the frogs

A few nights ago, I noticed the first (huge) frog of the season sitting at the edge of the pond. The second sighting occurred this morning, just for an instant. I blinked and it was gone, leaving a rippling across the water. They are now awakening from hibernation, it seems, even though the weather is much colder than it should be for mid-March. Today it's rainy and gloomy. I'm glad to have the day off tomorrow. I'm seriously burned out. I've probably been too intent on doing a good job which for me, translates into lots of planning and lots of activities, which translates into lots of grading and paper shuffling.

Today was a teacher planning day. Grades were due at 11:30 this morning. The biggest obstacle to getting them in was the scantron problem with the Nine Week's Exam, which I'd given on Thursday and Friday. We're required to give Nine Weeks' Exams, as well as final exams. Last fall, for the first Nine Weeks Exam, I created a pedagogically sound test with open-ended questions. Big mistake. With seventy-some students, it took me two weeks to grade them, while the other teacher in my room had her multiple choice tests done within the hour. Reluctantly, I switched to multiple choice. I created this recent Nine Weeks' Exam using the Exam Pro software, which allows three versions of the test, for cheat-prevention. Since I also have seven or eight SPED students, they had to have a modified test, so I made that too, creating two versions with the software. Then I had to fill out five 150-question scantron keys. When I scanned the scantrons on Friday, I knew something was off. The machine was beeping excessive mistakes for some of the brighter students. Then I discovered that the Exam Pro had spit out inaccurate answer keys, which meant I had created inaccurate scantron keys. Luckily, this only occured for both of the SPED versions. This morning, I had to hand grade a pile of these tests to make sure I had the correct score.

Then PowerTeacher, the new grading software, refused to cooperate, even though I was following the printed directions. The printed report kept listing different grades than the ones in the cyber-gradebook. I finally talked to the Registrar, and she told me to print the reports and write in the correct grades, and she'd figure out later what was wrong.

I'm not sure if I can put a finger on why I sometimes feel out of sync with the other teachers at work. Part of it, of course, is because I'm older than most of them, though a few are in my age range. Part of this feeling, too, is because I'm new at the school. I think the biggest difference is that I'm so totally absorbed in the curriculum and the best delivery of it, and I don't get the impression that the other teachers stress themselves out over lesson plans and activities as much as I do. I also don't sense that they yearn to talk to each other about what they're doing in class, ask questions, share ideas, or anything of the sort. I do. I want to talk about what I'm trying and whether it's working. I want to learn what they are doing that works. I have that hunger for learning more about teaching 9th grade, but I don't think they have it. This is probably because they've been doing it longer than I have. I'm beginning to think that I'm just too serious a person overall. I wonder if that's something I can work on, lightening up and not taking everything, including the job, so seriously.

I'm reading Revolutionary Road, the story of a 1950's couple who feel dissatisfied with their boring, job-filled rat-racey lives in the suburbs, and believe that life should offer more substance and enrichment. They want to break away from society's expectations and "find themselves" by moving to Paris and living off their savings. The wife will get a job while the husband stays home and figures out what he wants out of life. I don't know what's going to happen because I'm only halfway through, but I like the universal theme of wondering if there's another path besides working at a traditional job. Breaking Bad, anyone?

American Idol season has begun again. Paul is thoroughly obsessed, and of course, the rest of us enjoy the show too. I kind of like Matt, the guy who sang "Georgia" during the early competition, and also Scott. Those are the two who get to me. Paul's top two favorites are 1)Danny Gokey and 2)Adam Lambert.

Shawn's friends from Maine are supposed to visit for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow. He's set up the sleeping bags on my office floor. People have asked if I'm going to the Parade. I'm ashamed to say, I've lived in Savannah for 20 years and have never gone to the St. Patrick's Day Parade. I just don't care for huge drunken crowds and noise. Maybe if that drunken crowd were standing around the Louvre or Buckingham Palace, or if it were the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade or New Year's Eve at Times Square, I'd feel different and would be eager to join them, but I just haven't gotten into St. Patrick's Day with the intensity that many local people do.

Fishing at Tybee

On Friday, the weather warmed up from the cold snap, and by Saturday it was beautiful, with azaleas popping out, and the temperature in the 70's. Because it was supposed to be gorgeous on Sunday, and because Liberto and I both needed to rid our minds of the constant work-related crap that whirls through our heads, we decided to drive out to Tybee beach, where Liberto and Shawn could fish. On Saturday, L. and I went to Outdoor World and bought a pole and some gear, and this morning, the four of us headed out. The films above capture segments of a great day.

This past week, one of Liberto's colleagues, a man in his fifties who appeared to be in good health, died suddenly. Just keeled over without warning. He had started with the City the same year Liberto did, in 1990, and they saw each other every day. Liberto has been feeling blue about that. In addition, his father has been weak and unenthusiastic about eating, despite Mama's and the muchacha's good cooking. L. is feeling apprehensive about Papa's condition; L. knows what a blow it will be if his father passes on.

We both needed to get out of the house and clear our heads. But...time to get ready for the work week. At the end of the week, the students will be taking Nine Weeks Exams on Thursday and Friday. On Monday, a teacher planning day followed by a day off for St. Patrick's Day, which is almost like a mini-vacation. The real spring break isn't until April.