Good Things

Good things are here this week. Last night I had the first PTA meeting and open house. I met parents of my students. I talked about the curriculum, classroom management, and letter books. No major concerns or hurdles came up. The night was done, and I came home.

Just knowing this, I was able to draw a deep breath of relaxation. I didn't realize I'd had that bit of stress about me, but it feels like sailing will be smooth from here on out. Tonight my new roommate begins to move her things in, and the stress I know I've been feeling financially will ease once again.

There's a long weekend ahead, which is always enjoyable. Things are good :)

A Nice Ending

The day has ended well. Better than well, actually.

I didn't pull any hair out at work (mine or others). I got paperwork done. I treated myself to a steak dinner. I realized that it had been some time since I'd really valued what I put into my body (not like that, pervs). When I ate my salad, my steak, my sweet potato with sugar and cinnamon, even my bread, I really appreciated all that went into making it. The live energy of plants, from the sun. The stored energy of the potato in the ground, the grain that made the bread, even yes, the life of the cow that probably is nowhere near as romantic a picture as I'd like to envision.

I came home after dinner to AC. YAY! I called roommate contestant #1, talked to her voicemail. I had reservations about how she changed the situation on me after I'd said yes to her. So I canceled the deal, and called roommate contestant #2. She was overjoyed to know she had a place to stay at the end of this week. Currently she's living on the couch of friends 2 buildings down.

That's where I've just returned from. Her and her 3 Russian/Eastern European friends :) We drank tea, and shared chocolates and talked of adventures abroad, and of languages. They were impressed that I could mumble a couple of phrases in Russian. It was a good time of community, and I look forward to more.

I have a new roommate :) I will have extra financial help. I will sleep well tonight.

Thank you for your thoughts and well wishes today. They helped.

Good Thoughts

Wish me luck and send me good thoughts today. I feel like I'm going to need it.

Grrrrrr

I am sooo frustrated and hot right now. And not in a good way. Several things all at once seem to lead to this.

#1 I've not had air conditioning in my apartment since Thursday. They'll come Monday (tomorrow) and fix it, as they say it's a half day job.

#2 I'm out of money till my next check on Thursday. I can't just go and spend a day at the movies this weekend and relax in popcorn scented AC.

#3 I'm trying to get a roommate, to help with situation #2. I interviewed 2 girls this weekend. First one is from India. I think it'd be cool to learn about her culture. Add to that, she's the first girl from her village to leave and go abroad for education, that she didn't stay and be a wife or mother, and I respect her. The 2nd, may stay only through December, and signed a rental app with someone else, doesn't know if should could get out of it. So I offered the room to contestant #1. She tells me tonight though, that she's got a friend coming from India and she has to help her. I'm like, so you want to get a place with her, and not with me? She's says she will know in a couple days. I'm like, I need to know by tomorrow night so that I can tell the other girl something. The best of possible worlds is I would get someone I can live with, who'd stay for a year. But not with the "lets let everyone move in" mentality. I have to have my boundaries, and I guess that's just one of them. I'd rather have a roommate for 3 months than open the floodgates for a lot of unknown people in "my" space. So now, I can't get any resolution to this till tomorrow night. And even then, a resolution may not occur. I could call the other girl, and she could still give me a day or 2 runaround.

#4 So now I'm thinking about all this for tomorrow. I should be thinking about my class. I should be working on a pamphlet to give to parents at the Open House Tuesday night. I feel like I'm going to go to work tomorrow all grouchy, automatically waking up on the wrong side of the bed.

#5 I've been sick for over a week. I'm on an antibiotic, but I'm calling my doc tomorrow for a decongestant for my ears. I'm tired of the congestion affecting my hearing. I'm tired of the corticosteroid I'm on, that helps decrease inflammation in my sinuses, because it increases my heart rate and gives me acid indigestion. And, not that you want to read this, but I think the antibiotic has given me a wicked yeast infection. So.. yeah.

Just Grrrrr.

Pluto is Fired!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/index.html

Pluto is no longer officially a planet. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's a major enough thing to me to blog about. Space has always been a subject of dinnertime discussions in my family. I grew up with books on astronauts to look at. When we moved to Florida in 1985, right near the Kennedy Space Center, it only became more so.

I've *taught* solar system subjects to 3rd graders before! Now... Pluto is out the window. Well, ok, it's been "reclassified" as a dwarf planet, but unless you live in Ironforge that's small consolation (geek joke). I can see the reasoning, that based on the criteria decided upon, Pluto doesn't make it as an official planet. It's just weird to think of our solar system with 8 planets, not 9.

It could be worse though. The extra celestial bodies out past Pluto could have made it in as planets also. Then we'd be dealing with Planet Xena and it's moon Gabrielle. No, that's not a joke. Michael Brown, from the California Institute of Technology discovered it and wanted to name it that. Somehow, that's just taking fandom a bit too far.

Memories of Me

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often or have never met in person, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want, either good or bad. (anonymous comments are allowed as well)

When you're finished, post this in your journal and see what people remember about you

A Case of the Mundays

Well, it's Monday. Munnday.... someone's got a case of the Mundays... (raises hand) it's me. Shock and surprise, I know.

I spent most of this weekend trying to get rid of a head cold. My first of the new school year. I'm congested and sneezy. I slept, watched Dvds, drank lots of liquids.

I did have a lunch date on Saturday, before I got to feeling poorly. I'll call him Mr. Writer, and he's a bohemian laid back sort of guy. Not a hippy, more like an artsy writer you'd find in Soho. He's also a gamer, and has played WoW on a different server from me. Not that he plays much anymore, nor do I.

I really like being with him. He's artsy, creative, funny... and of course, he digs my sexiness. We have a really good chemistry together, uncanny even. Who knows, we were prolly together in a previous life :P

Sigh. I don't want to go to school today, but I can't bear the thought of my 23 kids with a sub and my para. I'm going to the allergist this afternoon. Maybe he'd give me a prescription for amoxicillan to knock out my sinus infection.

bleh. Just bleh. It's Munnnday.

Pissed

I really, really hate being stood up. Last weekend I was supposed to meet someone, and they were honestly unavoidably detained. I wish I'd been called, but I understand when there's no cell coverage, and you can't help traffic jams. It doesn't feel great to have something you were looking forward to cancelled, but hey, shit happens.

Tonight however, got me really pissed. Different person, different situation. We're supposed to meet for a movie, I dress nice, do my hair, the whole nine yards. Movie time arrives, he's not here, no phone call. I call, thinking maybe there were wires crossed and he's waiting at the theatre. It rings, no answer. Twenty more minutes go by.

Now, last time he was late, he'd gotten turned around. So at 8pm I call again, this time he picks up. Is he on his way? No... He was down at his apt's pool drinking and chatting, lost track of time, and now is inebriated to boot. He tries to make jokes about it on the phone, and ends up asking me what I did all day. I'm like "well, I worked all day... I was with my class." Come to find out he fuckin' thinks it's Saturday cause he didn't work today. GAH.

What a fucker! What an asshole! I'm so pissed right now all I want to do is cuss up a storm and go hit something. I'm worth more than a subtext apology and an afterthought, dammit.

Day 2

Day 2 went much better than Day one. It still went pretty fast, was a lil disorganized, but that will straighten itself out as the cafeteria breakfast schedule becomes more routine. It's hard to start whole group activities and rules when a third of your class is still eating breakfast.

We went over rules and procedures, rules and procedures, and rules and procedures. We also played a whole group game with shapes in a bag where students would pull them out, and name the color and shape if they could. There were 4 shapes in there: a triangle, rectangle (two of the hardest to say and memorize), an oval and a diamond. Then we'd call color or shape, and see if each person knew which one they had and stand up with it. This is laying the groundwork for introducing small groups tomorrow. There will be 4 groups, denoted by a shape. Each shape-group have about 5 children (6 as we get more) in it.

Tomorrow the plan is to get the students used to identifying themselves with the shape and color (ie. orange oval, green triangle...etc). Our consequences board has a stop light on it. Each group will have a pocket with the shape on it. Each pocket contains laminated name strips of the people in that group. When a student does something they've been warned not to do, they have to go move their name from the shape pocket to the color pocket under the traffic light picture. First time is to green, next is to yellow, third is to red. Each color has varying degrees of consequence from a time out, to loss of part of recess, to call home or principal's office.

Eventually, the students will be in groups all day long. When we introduce center changing, each group will have to stay in their center for the full 15 minutes. They will have to get along with people in their group, even if a best friend is in a different group. They will have to use their own words to solve disputes and learn skills essential to independance.

Throughout the year, the members of each group will change. As well, new shapes will be introduced and old ones put away. In this way, students learn and review colors and shapes in an ongoing, meaningful way that has a direct correlation to their school day.

I Love The Smell of Diesel Fuel in the Afternoon

Wow.. what a day. The first day of school.

All in all, I can honestly call it a great day. No one pee'd themselves. No one threw up. No one cried till lunch time to go home. Everyone (knocks on wood) got home on the right bus.

These are the thoughts in my head as the buses revv up and get ready to motor through the neighborhoods, dropping off our new young apprentices.

I got to see old students today from last year, and boy, I missed them. Missed their smiling faces and hugs. I missed knowing what they were capable of, knowing what they were likely to do, knowing how they knew the routines. Whole new batch to break in, as it were.

Twenty kids showed up today. I had 23 on my roster. I get a new one tomorrow named Angel, so that makes 24. I think when I hit 27, that those numbers, combined with the other teacher, means the school can start to hire a new K teacher. I think we'll get there around labor day, to be honest.

One child spoke hindi, almost no English. She's a twin to her brother who was assigned to the other classroom. It was like breaking up two young loves to see them part and have the realization dawn on them that they wouldn't be together. And their anxiousness at bus time about where the other was, and would he/she get on the right bus.

Another girl was hispanic, spoke some English, and understood if you spoke to her directly (I think), but when it came time for whole group learning, she'd wander off, play with the counting beads, get out her notebook etc as if we were a montessori school. For good or bad, she shouldn't be there tomorrow. She was born in Mexico and needs to go to the International Center first to be tested and/or registered. I'll prolly see her again, but there's a chance I won't.

Mrs. Brown, my para and right hand, was much better about laying down the rules and enforcing em and getting the kids to learn routines. I felt like my head was full of "what comes next" for the day's agenda, and "do we have all the supplies separated from bookbags" and "how many do we still need to find their bus / way home?"

We didn't get any centers or activities finished, and I have to remind myself, that that's OK, and how it's supposed to be. We did a lot. We learned about the rules of the classroom. We practiced lunch and cafeteria, and restroom, and how to walk in the halls. We sang and jumped around. We went to PE, had a short recess made shorter by a shower. We learned where our cubbies are, the hand signs to make for wanting to go to the bathroom, and get a drink of water. We read 2 books about beginning school: Mrs. Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, and The Kissing Hand.

stop me if I'm boring you :P

An End to Summer

Today is August 4th, 2006. Next Monday I start back at school full time. We'll have a week of meetings and classroom set up before the kids come on the 14th.

Summer satiated my appetite for many things. My soul was well fed by painting in my classroom. Moon, sun, trees, grass, snowflakes... all these and more adorn the walls. I finally have the classroom I've dreamed of. Ok, in my dreams it was larger certainly, but the creative beauty is there. I walk in and I feel relaxed.

I went camping this summer with my friends. What a great time. I dodged dating a control-freak guy from Kenya, and a Korean guy who needed to smile more. I learned a new level of friendship with the Hippy. I visited my parents, my brother Glenn, my high school friend Ryan, and the Dallas Crew. I traveled a lot and was more than ready to come home by the time it was over.

Most of all, I learned about me. I learned to enjoy what I have, be content and happy in who I am. To connect with my intuition and spirit in a way I'd been neglecting. I shall look back on these months as the summer I became whole again.