Saturday, April 30, 2005

Can't sleep...must...play...with...lappy...

Yeah, I bought one. I love this thing more than life itself.

I cut my fingernails so they wouldn't click on the keyboard.

I loaded new software onto it, sitting next to it the whole time, reading the manual.

I ate dinner while surfing the net.

I love this thing!

Lappy Haiku:

I love my lappy.
It gives me intense pleasure
Not unlike a man.

Ha! I think that's pretty good. See? See how the lappy influences me? Poetry practially writes itself on this thing!

Thursday, April 21, 2005

4 weeks, 4 fires

Yes, you read that right. We have had not one week go by of the past month that someone hasn't set a fire in our school.

Welcome to public schools, everyone! This is what no discipline or follow-through will get you!

After today's fire, a bunch of adults were huddled around the main office assistant's desk, looking at her computer screen. If I didn't know better, I would have thought they were watching internet porn, they were so interested. Of course, they were looking at the playback of the fire incident. Yes, the children are so stupid that they will set a fire while on camera.

But I digress. While watching the video to see who the perp was, the assistant principal said, plain as day, in front of the office staff and several teachers, "It's the teachers' fault."


What the hell?


I hope this tells you a little something about what it's like to work in public schools. We as teachers wonder why the public at large has no respect for us? Well, why should we wonder? The administration of our building doesn't have any respect for us. The administration thinks that it is the teachers' fault that a child set a fire in the bathroom. How the hell did she come to that conclusion?

Well, the same way she comes to all conclusions; she doesn't want someone to blame her, so she blames the teachers, because we are easy targets. However, in this case, everyone is going to think she's a nutjob if she continues with her stance.

I know that she is afraid that someone is going to blame her. She won't hear it from me, but you all will hear this:

The administration has made their bed, and now they have to sleep in it.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, has been done to deter criminal behavior from the students, all year long. Students caught smoking pot on school grounds? They're here, in school. Maybe they were suspended for a couple of days. That's it. No ticket. No arrest. Nothing.

Oh, hey! Wanna set the school on fire? Go right ahead! We'll send you home for a couple of days, "...to think about what you did." While we're at it, why don't we give our puppies at home a treat when they shit on the carpet? Yeah, that'll teach 'em.

Which brings me back to the fires. Yes, 4 fires have been set in the past 4 weeks. Have the children been ticketed for arson? No, they have not. Have they been arrested? No, they have not. Have they received any consequences that show them that their pyromaniac tendencies won't be tolerated? No, they have not.

And here we sit. We, the teachers, are being blamed for a student setting a fire in a student lavatory.


Anybody wanna take bets on how long it will take before they get the whole school to burn down?


In stead

I was just typing a note to myself, and I used the term , "...in my stead."


So pretentious.

Monday, April 11, 2005

new t-shirts

Steve and I are going to have new t-shirts made. They will say:

"Suck it" means "yes."


How would we use such a t-shirt? A-like so:


Student: Mr. McGee, will you miss us over the summer?
Teacher: Suck it.


You see how easy? Now you try.



--groovygrrl, queen of fashion

Transfers

It's time for the annual "Transferring of the Teachers." This is different from the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain, because bulls don't have to do interviews.

The list came up on Friday. All of the teaching jobs that are available in the district were listed. I wonder which group of teachers was pissed off the most, you might ask? I'll answer: it appears that elementary level teachers are leaving their posts in droves. Of course, there are more elementary schools than middle or high schools, but damn! It sure looked like a lot of postings to me.

So I scribby-scrolled through the lists, and chose the jobs I wanted. You may recall that a) my health is suffering and b) "I can't take this crap much longer," has entered my vocabulary a bit too often, therefore c) I need to transfer. I got really picky, though. I applied for three jobs:
  1. Language Arts teacher: Online High School
  2. Language Arts teacher: CEC
  3. Language Arts teacher, IB program: High School
Please note the first one: that's the one I really want. It is so different, so removed from teaching in a classroom as I know it, that I believe I will be energized and renewed by it. That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it. And the more I think about it, the more benefits I see to teaching online:
  • no sarcasm
  • no cussing me out
  • no setting the garbage can on fire
  • no throwing spitwads, etc.
  • no whining that I would be able to hear
  • flexible scheduling
  • snow day? no problem! I can still teach my class. Therefore, fewer sick days used up.
  • wanna go to lunch? no problem! I can still teach my class.
  • wanna blog? send email? chat? no problem!
  • wanna sit and read a book that you want to teach? yes! do it! that's required!
I really, really, really want that job, but I'm trying not to want it too much, to avoid disappointment. Of course, I do want it too much, as evidenced by me using 3 "reallys."

The other jobs would be good, too. The CEC job would be good because it's college prep, and because the location is right along the Light Rail, so I wouldn't have to drive to work. Yay! Furthermore, the job description mentioned something about paying for mileage, which means I might be able to wring a bus pass out of them. Hmmm.

The third job would still be in a traditional high school, but it is in the International Baccalaureate (sp?) program, which translates into AP classes with a lot of rigor. Rrrrowwr.

So, here I sit, waiting for phone calls from principals for interviews. After 13 years of teaching, I still have that pang of worry, "Will they like me? Do they think I'm qualified?" Jesus H. Of course I'm qualified. If they don't like me, so what? They can suck it.

That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.


--groovygrrl, queen of job interviews