life(with 9th graders)

Contemplating Copiers

2010-10-13T20:34:00.003-04:00

I spent several minutes during lunch at work contemplating the copier. It really is a wonderful invention. Double sided copying was really what drew me in today. I have to unjam the copier quite often, but the inner workings are quite amazing. (really, they shouldn't make me proctor the PSAT for 4 periods without even a bathroom break and then go straight into teaching my next class, eating lunch while coping papers evidently drove me over the edge today)

On a completely different note--I'm taking care of my sister's cat. The cat freaked out when Bethany got pregnant--started peeing on things. She's quite fine here at my house. Today I sorted my laundry, Mila sorted herself

My cat, the continuing saga

2010-05-31T16:32:00.002-04:00

As usual, no posts for an eon. I think I should just write about my cat on my blog, there is plenty of material, but I don't want to be a crazy cat lady. But I'm not crazy, I just have a ridiculous cat. Reasons Bianca is ridiculous"

1. She stole my pillow this week, I wake up all uncomfortable and because I hear something. I open my eyes to see my cat sleeping on my pillow purring incredibly loudly.

2. She wakes me up at 5am to be fed. I get up and dump food in her dish. I go back to sleep. She wakes me up at 5:05. I get up and look at her dish to see why I am awake again. I have missed the dish with the food and she is refusing to eat it off the floor. I place the food in her dish and she eats and I get to sleep. (never mind that she has a habit of fishing one piece at a time daintily out of her dish and placing it on the floor to eat)

3. She wakes me up daily by tapping and petting my face--no kidding it is the weirdest thing. I am sleeping soundly when a small paw gently begins rubbing my cheeks, tapping my lips, and trying to open my eyes--fortunately she doesn't use her claws.

4. When I ignore the face tapping she takes it up a notch. She balances on my headboard and puts her claws out and combs through my hair until I get up.

5. She has to have the sink filled with water if I walk near the bathroom. When I filled it for her a little bit ago I returned to find her lounging alongside with her tail in the water--she was annoyed that I drained the sink. She is ridiculous, cats aren't supposed to like water.

6. She is scared of ceiling fans. I have to bribe her with cat nip to go in the den (which has a litter box so she has to go in there).

7. She is mildly obsessed with the furminator brush. Which is good to help keep down shedding, but she gets so excited it is hard to brush her, she can't stop rubbing her cheek against my hands and the brush.

8. She loves socks and underwear. She is in heaven right now because my laundry is sorted and on the floor waiting to go in the washer. I have to keep my drawers tightly closed, even an inch gap and she'll fish out all my underwear or socks and line them up from the bedroom to the front door.

9. She doesn't like my laptop, she thinks she is the only thing that belongs on my lap. To keep her occupied when I write lesson plans I grab a box of office supplies out of my desk drawer and let her fish them all out of the box while I type.

10. She whines like a toddler, but she is never going to grow up, I'd like to trade her in for a toddler if anyone would like to make a switch, you'd save money: no babysitters, college, car insurance etc. (although you do have a pay for boarding if you travel, she refuses to use her litter box even if you have someone come and check on her daily while you are away)

11. She gets annoyed with my Bible. It sits by my bed, but it also seems to be where her favorite sunbeam comes through the window. This has created a hostile relationship--I'm waiting for her to get struck by lightning because I don't speak cat, but I'm pretty sure she is cursing at the Bible.

2009-12-21T16:23:00.003-05:00

I have unpacked my camera! (So maybe there has been this one box in the office since I moved in August, otherwise, I unpacked quickly, really I did.) We have snow, lots and lots of snow. Philly's official total at the airport was 23". I think we got around 18" here. The view out my kitchen window is at left.

Now here is what I can see from the office. So Christmasy.

Below is my tree. A snippet and then all 9 and a half feet of it.

Since I would be inside for the weekend, I baked bread. They weren't kidding when they said to be sure the container was 6 qt. My dough popped the lid off!
I tried the No Knead Bread from Bakers Banter and really liked it. The dough was sticky, but not too hard to work with.

And the result was delicious!

well hello blog

2009-07-19T15:36:00.002-04:00

Not so good at the blogging for quite a while. I feel like my summer vacation has finally begun--but it is almost August, so much of it has already gone by. My thought of the day is that I knew I was a planner and like to know what is happening when, but I'm not sure how much I realized it bothers me to not know. I don't know when I'm moving for sure. Some time in the next 3 weeks it seems. I really don't like this not knowing. I am sick of having things in boxes and I really didn't get much packed until Thursday so it has only been four days. Unfortunately it seems that my response to the unknown right now is to be whiny and complain. I'm trying to work on that.
In other interesting news, I have either hit upon the laziest or best way to clean the downstairs bathroom. There was a fair bit of mold and mildew in the shower--not having exhaust fans in the bathroom leads to this problem. I like using Tilex mold and mildew remover because you don't have to scrub and it really works. The problem is that there isn't a good way to rinse that shower because unlike mine upstairs, the shower head is fixed. Today I decided, after 8 years of living here, that I wasn't going to try to rinse the walls with a cup. Instead, I found the nozzle for the hose (which involved crawling under a nasty table in the shed--really gross) and decided to drag the whole thing inside through the dining room and kitchen to the bathroom. Once I found a washer and installed it to stop the nozzle from leaking, it worked beautifully, the shower is so much cleaner and it was fun to do. Of course I still have a hose running through the house which is not ideal--probably should go do something about that.

NEW CLASSROOM

2009-04-06T23:41:00.004-04:00

Welcome to my new classroom. It is huge. I had trouble deciding what to do with all the space. I took these pictures really quickly on my way out Friday. I had good intentions of organizing a "tour" around my room, but we're gonna have to go with some quick snapshots of the various areas. When you are seeing the blackboard, you are "standing" in the front of the room. When you see the Smartboard you are in the back of the room. My plants are not usually on the table, they live on the window sills, except for when they move into buckets on the table for spring break. I haven't gotten posters up in the front yet, excuse the vast blue emptiness.

Spring Pajamas

2009-04-06T22:57:00.002-04:00

I'm wearing my spring pajamas. I find this very exciting (mind you the heat is currently running in my house--but it is April 6th and I want spring). Also, if you saw me you might point out that this top and pants looks an awful lot like my winter, fall, and summer pajamas, but you would have missed two very important details. This top doesn't have long sleeves and it is SPRING GREEN! I love the color green that everything turns in the spring, you only get to see it this time of year--bud green is my favorite color. I stood outside in the rain today just to appreciate the green. Now I'm going to switch computers and post pictures of my new classroom!

Productivity

2009-03-04T22:21:00.002-05:00

I've had a very productive evening. Wanna know what I did? (if not you can stop reading and find something better to do, I'm not offended--remember, I don't like writing, I just keep trying at writing a blog because I think as an English teacher I should write more and try to enjoy it. I actually write in here more than I ever did when I tried with pencil and paper--which tells you how bad I was at that.) I'm worried that I'm going to write everything down and look at it and feel less accomplished, that I will compare it to my to-do list and realize that I still have way to much to finish. But, I asked if you wanted to know so I better be willing to tell. I finished work and...
-went to Whole Foods and picked up some groceries that I've wanted for a while (I think their candied ginger tastes better than anywhere else)
-went to Home Depot to get new insides for the upstairs toilet (more on that later)
-took out the recycling (forgot things, ended up making 2 trips, visited with the adorable Greek neighbor lady for a moment)
-emptied the dishwasher
-reloaded the dishwasher
-scrubbed out my water bottle, including taking the cap apart and cleaning every little crevice
-made chicken salad (got distracted and ate all the heart of the celery, I love pale yellowy green celery hearts, they are so tiny and sweet)
-made corn and black bean salsa (made way too much and have been forcing roommates to eat it)
-packed my lunch for tomorrow
-fed and got water for the kitties
-scooped 3 litterboxes
-took the trash out from 3 rooms
-emptied the vacuum
-cleaned the dining room
-emptied the vacuum again
-replaced the water intake/float valve on the upstairs toilet as a piece had broken off and you had to turn the water on and off manually at the pipe before and after flushing
-lint rollered all the fabric in the living room to remove cat hair (curtains and chairs)
-refilled 2 humidifiers
-finally ate the chicken salad (and jelly beans, I love Just Born Jelly Beans, and there were 5 black ones left in the little handful from the bottom of the bag, I like black licorice jelly beans)
-ordered bridal shower gift and black cocoa for a baking project
-checked email
-washed hair
-wished for hot, chocolate chip cookies to appear, shared this with roommates, they liked that idea, we want the "oven" from Fifth Element that you just stick in the magic little item, push the buttons and out comes your food (not that I don't love to cook, just at that moment, I wanted cookies to appear piping hot with nothing to clean up)
-and now I wrote a blog post.
My to-do list still is way too long, and there is a small mound of items sitting behind me waiting to be taken care of, but I did get a lot done. In other news, my school decided to have another big cop turnout--I stopped counting at 30 cars. (no pics this time) Last Thursday we had two separate fights on the 3rd floor about an hour apart. One of our school police who almost never calls for back up, called, so between knowing that he doesn't call often and the shooting of the detective nearby (also within the hour), there was a serious turnout out of police. Several students were arrested and we had to be in "lockdown." Which we've never practiced in the 8 years I've been there. Don't worry, they wrote the procedure and we got it today. So helpful. As our roster chair says, "It's not the wrong way, it's not the right way, it's the Franklin way."
Alrighty, I better dry my hair and go to sleep.

2009-02-07T16:53:00.003-05:00

I got a MacBook to use for work, I'm pretty excited about it. On Friday we were diagramming sentences last period and the kids loved the activexpression flipchart on the smart board. They were ooing and ahhing, they were excited when I messed up and wrote preposition instead of adverb because then we could click the spray bottle and watch my mistake jump into the trash. Have you ever seen people excited about diagramming sentences (except my mom of course)? The kids loved it--can't wait to plan this week's lessons incorporating our new fun technology.
I just started playing with iPhoto (as you can see)

I also created a podcast with images and a book and now I'm going to play with Keynote (while my Dell laptop sits and looks forlorn)

The end of January

2009-01-29T22:16:00.003-05:00

I occurs to me it's about time for my monthly post. I really think about posting more often, it just doesn't happen obviously. The first few weeks of the new year started out poorly. The rundown of 2 weeks ago is as follows

Mon.-F. comes in with the knuckles on his right hand bleeding and one broken-fight with his mother's boyfriend. No nurse so I spent the day bandaging. He has since been to a clinic but they are still pussing. (I also felt like a doctor because KGB. hurt his elbow and his ace bandage keeps coming off--at one point F. hit KGBs arm and KGB hits Fs finger, it is amazing how whiny 11th grade boys can be)

Tues. I'm in the middle of teaching my ninth graders when S. comes in and whispers to me that she thinks I'd want to know that Isiah (one of my twins from 2 years ago) was killed in a car accident. I had to just go back to teaching. I hear later in the day that my student L. has lost her 5 month old baby.

Wed. S. is missing from class but is marked present on the attendance sheet, we get a note from the school social worker--she is down with him. Her mom had done something to her hands, they were bruised and she couldn't use them and had to keep ice on them-- This child has a good grade in the class--she is never a problem.

Thurs. First period K. is absent-her family is very involved and we have been in close contact so we email her aunt who emails back to say call immediately. We find out K. is missing-runaway and if we see her or hear anything we are to call immediately.

Fri- four boys are accused of rape by a girl, all the boys are special ed. I have taught 3 of them, one is on my case load. So I got to spend the day writing manifest determinations to decide if this was caused by their disabilities. Because what I want to do is have to describe rape incidents on forms. You should have heard S. yelling "why do I get all the rapists" (she has the one from last year who is out of jail now as well as the new four)

Not so fun. This week has gone much better. K. came back home. KGB is fine. F still has a broken finger but attempted to do work for the first time this semester. I think we are finally getting somewhere with teaching how to write a research paper. Today someone asked if they could just copy and paste from their sources and the whole class yelled, "That's plagiarism!" I've taught them something! Yesterday's snow day was a wonderful mental health day. I just reread the post, it sounds depressing. Really, this week has been better. I'm getting a new classroom. It is huge, it has air conditioners. Did I mention it's HUGE? They can't put my Promethean board and projector in my current class because of the leaky pipes. I'm so excited for the Promethean board. I'm wiggling just thinking about it! I'll put up pictures of my new room when I get moved. The pics will be huge!

It occurs to me...

2008-12-17T20:38:00.002-05:00

It occurs to me that I never mentioned that I finally gave in and had my colonoscopy (4 years late). Since mom was diagnosed with colon cancer at 36 I was supposed to start 10 years earlier than that. Everything checked out ok and I'm off the hook for 5 years. It wasn't as awful as people made it out to be, but I wouldn't consider it fun either. Anyway, good news. If you didn't want to know all that--my apologies.

Cookies!

2008-12-17T20:21:00.002-05:00

Cookie Baking! It is now officially the Christmas season--why you ask? Because I baked cookies (and not just me, Beth and Jonica baked too!) The magic cookie bars were so easy--I haven't made them since Sara lived here and I wish I hadn't stopped making them (I also wish they weren't all gone) Also for your viewing pleasure, my new bench scrapper, it cuts and scoops beautifully.
I made biscotti for the first time-cranberry walnut. This is is prior to the slicing, I seem to have not taken any "after" pictures, and I ate it (all by myself).

Here we have the shortbread cookies. Notice that banana? Wish I had remembered I had it there, it became banana bread last night.
Holly cookies--by popular demand. My mouth is a little green right now, I couldn't resist when I passed them on my way out to get the recycling.
This was my face around 11pm when I realized I had not taken the white chocolate salty out of the freezer where it was placed around 8pm to chill for about 15 minutes!
Here is the white chocolate salty, none the worse for its extra long freeze.
Are you hungry? :)

My house

2008-11-20T10:46:00.002-05:00

Have I mentioned recently that I hate my house? Sometimes I really hate it. Like last night when I was trying to go to bed early and I discovered a leaking pipe in the upstairs bathroom. After 8 years in this house I can hear a leak from floors away. No really, I walk through the livingroom and hear a leak and make my roommates mute the television while I hunt it down. I think I have been 100% accurate so far. There is something in our well water which is causing minute "pin holes" in the pipes which the water shoots out of in a very thin hard stream. (Which begs the question, what is it doing to our insides?) I had noticed a little water on the floor by the sink before my shower (but blamed it on Bek or the cats). Then I heard it while I was standing there trying not to squirt lotion all over the place (me without glasses=difficultly) that small hissing sound. I crawled around on the floor till I found it--right on a 90 degree bend in the pipe where it comes up through the floor. It was shooting against the wall and running under the floor. I turned the water off between the hole and the sink, but that didn't stop the leak of course (just made my cat mad because she was hanging out in the sink with the water dribbling--how did I get this weird water loving cat?) . So I go to the basement to get a pan and rags--flooding in the basement! This leak must have occurred between Monday night and Wednesday night, because I checked the basement and the furnace on Monday night. (Tuesday I was using a pneumatic framing nailer to help redo floors at a friends house and I couldn't take time away from power tools to check my basement). Anyway, back to the flooded basement. I turned the water off in the basement and tied a rag to show the landlords which of the billions of knobs was off. Then, on my way back upstairs, I stopped in the livingroom to check behind the false wall in the corner to see how much water was there, because I realized why the leak hadn't been noticed in the bathroom--all the water was running to the basement leaving very little evidence upstairs. There was only a little water there, one towels worth. Back upstairs with a pan and 2 towels. For good measure, once the leak was stopped, I took apart the u-bend in the sink because Bek thought her ring had fallen in--no ring, just hair--gross hair. Got to play with my wind up flash light and both vise grips (stupid old sink can't hardly get the the pipes). Finally, I got to bed after explaining everything to the roommates so they can call the landlords (I hate the phone, I figure I deal with the leak, that's my contribution). So there, that is why I hate my house (although I might take that back if I build a fire this weekend, I love that my house has a fireplace).

My cat, the continuing saga

2008-11-09T21:09:00.006-05:00

It is Sunday night, I have a meeting all day tomorrow so I had to get all my lessons ready before I left on Friday. A weekend without much lesson planning is lovely, must make a note to do this more often (although leaving work at 6pm on a Friday is less than fun). I am quite proud of the fact that I have just planned all my lunches and dinners for the next 2 weeks! So now I am going through the build up of catalogs and mail that I have been stacking on my desk in the "needs to be dealt with but not immediately" pile. I got myself all set up with a trash can, recycling bag and scissors.

Then I had to go down to the basement and put 2 more holes in my new belt because it is too big and it is difficult to deal with mail when you have to keep pulling your pants up. I returned to find this in the middle of my room. She likes to help with paperwork, she thinks she is an excellent sorter.
I have her attention but that doesn't mean she is willing to move. But if she wants to continue to eat she should get her butt off of my car payment paper.

Please note she has 3 scratching pads which she adores sleeping on normally (had to get two matching ones to get her and Rafi to stop fighting over the one)
I got her to move and thought I'd add my monthly "I finally remembered to write something" to my blog. Bianca thinks she has a say in this, too.

What's the point of knowing how to type with two hands when one keeps getting shoved off the keyboard?

Now she wants to be in charge of the camera.

Marrying cookies scoops

2008-10-01T22:21:00.002-04:00

So, you know you've been baking too long when...
you get a new cookies scoop out of the cupboard (where it has been waiting for a cooler day since it arrived in the summer) and begin scooping triple chocolate cookie dough onto a parchment paper lined sheet (because America's Test Kitchen says so, and you do everything they tell you)--and you never knew how wonderful a cookie scoop was, with its little spring loaded release and perfectly sized scoop--and you say--"I'm going to marry this cookie scoop" then your friends look at you funny and point out that the cookie scoop will not have children with you, or even sex for that matter. You consider this point, but at this moment neither of those things will get 5 dozen very fudgy cookies on the sheet, so you decide to stick with your scoop (at least for the next 15 minutes). But now the scoop is put away, and there are lots of cooling cookies, and you might need to take back your proposal to the scoop (but after 2 batches of brownies the spatula is looking pretty good).
Oh my, what 2 days off in the middle of the week will do to a person.

My Classroom

2008-09-15T19:56:00.006-04:00

Did you want a little tour of my classroom? Well then come on in! When you walk in the door you'll see my desk corner--it's a bit messy. You are also looking at the only working printer on the floor (I think). The BIG printer is broken, very broken, first time in 8 years I can't get it working. It is giving error messages I've never seen. That's ok, I don't mind sharing.
Next up we have the "living room." This is the silent reading area for Read 180 (if they behave--otherwise it is reading at a desk. For example if you pant and try to lick the girls in your reading group you go to a desk, or if you scream "I hate you, you're gay" you go to a desk. Or if you annoy Miss Eib in any other way, desk.)

While they are reading, there are 3 other groups working. One group is at this table with Ms. Delso my student teacher. She is great, she really doesn't need to student teach, I think she could have her own class now. Also, notice the fans--I think we have one of the coolest rooms on the floor.

Next is the other big table for group 3 with Ms. Miller. I had to cover it with contact paper because they kept trying to "tag it up." Also, you can see my new little file cabinet--it locks! (And keeps mice out!) The poster on the door underneath the pennant says, "It's your temper, please keep it!"
Finally we come around to the last wall. Here are the five Macs running the Read 180 program. I stole one more study carrel so everybody has their own space to work without being crowded.

There you go, my classroom, thanks for visiting.

Donors Choose

2008-09-09T16:28:00.001-04:00

first day back

2008-09-02T23:08:00.000-04:00

I survived my first day back, not too bad really. Definitely tired now. I went to Staples tonight--it was crazy. The line stretched the length of the store and that was just to get into one of the five lines at the registers. I got a mini sharpie (among other things) I like miniature things, I think it comes from having an amazing doll house growing up. So me and my mini sharpie are going to sleep now. Night Night

2008-08-25T20:14:00.001-04:00

I'm back from the beach.
I'm tanner.
I'm blonder.
I'm not unpacked.
I'm trying to convince my cat to use her litter box.
I'm a bit annoyed with her.
I'm going to keep trying.

Vacation

2008-08-19T23:16:00.002-04:00

I'm on vacation. I have a tiny bit of sunburn. Very tiny, sort of on the front of my shoulders and the tops of my knees. I promise I put sunscreen on twice. But I have a portable hammock so I don't lay on my stomach much and I guess the front of my just couldn't take all that sun. I haven't been out in the sun much this summer. (I should have been out weeding the garden, but I'm currently afraid of it.) I must return now to watching the Olympics--my sister is hoping people fall off the balance beam so the Americans win. Love how the games bring out the best in people.

Help for teachers

2008-08-12T09:18:00.002-04:00

Adopt a Classroom-- If you have a minute to vote for them to get big $$ that would be great, thanks! If you want to tell other people, thanks again!

For the second year, American Express Members Project is giving away $1.5 million to the project that receives the most nominations on the Members Project website www.membersproject.com. Last year, we made it into the Top 25. This year, I’d like to win, and focus national attention to the importance of teachers in our communities and the issues they face.

I greatly appreciate your taking a few minutes to go to www.membersproject.com and nominate “Adopt a classroom. Support America’s Teachers.”

You do NOT need to be an American Express cardholder to nominate a project. (This is a big difference from last year’s campaign.)

Click here to go to www.membersproject.com and nominate “Adopt a classroom. Support America’s Teachers.” and help Adopt-A-Classroom win $1.5 million to support America’s teachers.

As an fyi, this is the first of 3 rounds of voting. The next round narrows it from Top 25 to Top 5 and the final round narrows it to a winner.

Thanks so much for doing this. Please forward this email to your friends and family.

Jamie

James Rosenberg
Founder, Executive Director
Adopt-A-Classroom

Ohio

2008-07-29T17:04:00.009-04:00

Look, I'm posting (thanks Michelle for reminding me that it has been forever). I spent a little over a week in Ohio visiting family--I especially enjoyed finally getting to see my uncle's horse ranch--let me show you around.

They currently have 20 horses for trail-riding. This is the view from the mounting area.

This was my view most of the time as we hung out in the shade and placed bets on who would poop first. (Poop betting was a first for me and I lost every time). See Naomi there? That's who my mom rode--Naomi was a wild mustang--my mom is afraid of horses and quite thrilled with the fact that she can say she rode a wild mustang (if you ask her about it she will leave off the part about Naomi being the sweetest horse they have who would turn around and ask you if you were ok if you coughed). Kiowa was very friendly and came to visit me when I walked up the last day. I think he got used to me because this is his stall at the end and I gave him a little pat every time I came around the corner through the barn.

My favorite horse was Gypsy--I think big black horses are gorgeous. She made mom nervous.

Shawn and Glacier were showing off.

My cat

2008-03-29T20:41:00.005-04:00

So I boarded my cat when I went to visit my parents last week over spring break. I have been threatening to do this for a while, she has gotten into the habit of having an accident on the floor if I leave her for several days. It's not like I leave her alone, I have 3 housemates she can have at her beck and call--I don't think "accidents" is the right term "protests" might be closer. Bianca is smart, I think she knows exactly what she is doing. So to save myself worrying for 5 days I sent her to the PetsHotel. Yep, the local PetsMart has a pet hotel. She probably had a better break than I did (no offense to my parents, staying with them is lovely, my mom made my favorite curry and my dad baked an apple pie, but I tech their church's Easter cantata, too many 12+ hour days to count as spring 'break'). Bianca did well at the pet hotel, all the employees said she was a sweet cat, which she is, problem is now I think she is afraid I'm going to send her away again. She feels the need to be in constant physical contact with me. Every evening this week she spent several hours either on my lap or lying next to me. Tonight she has spent the last 3+ hours draped on my while I laid on my bed and now fighting my laptop for space (she wins, the laptop doesn't have claws--not that she was trying to claw me, she just tried to hold one while she slipped off sideways). Now she is sitting behind me making little annoyed noises. Either she wants the water turned on in the bathroom or the porch door opened, let me go see or I won't have any peace (if neither of those things make her happy she is getting squirted with the water bottle). Her highness desired running water. I think I'd like to be a cat--if there could be other arrangements made instead of licking ones own butt--I think I would definitely like the life of a cat.

The good and the bad

2008-02-07T14:57:00.000-05:00

The bad first, I always like to get bad news out of the way. I have lost a student for the second time this year. He was not a current student, having switched schools a year and a half ago, but still a student nonetheless. He stopped by our school Tuesday, but I was out of the building at an English meeting. He went home and was shot to death after getting off the bus. It is especially hard on my students because it was reminded them so much of Mel's death. We spent time talking about both of them yesterday. Even in their sadness the students' biggest worry was for the his family and how they are handling the loss.
The good--a huge thank you to the people who saw my note on Myspace or Facebook and donated to my proposal for my students. If you know any teachers, let them know about donorschoose.org. It is an amazing idea to help public school teachers get materials. If it only covered things like extermination instead of just materials--I am currently watching a mouse run around my room and jump the 7 mousetraps I have laid out. I keep telling the mice we are not friends. They seem to think that when the students leave we should hang out. I do not enjoy looking down from my computer screen to see a mouse staring at me. I repeat, "We are not friends. We don't hang out. Go away!" He isn't listening. It isn't that I'm scared, but I don't like all the darting around, it startles me and is distracting.

Never a dull day

2007-12-13T15:48:00.000-05:00

When people ask me about my job, my standard response is "It's never boring!" There is often too much to sum up how I feel about it. I love my students, sometimes it takes effort and some days it is easy. Today was easy. Every day starts off well, I have the best advisory ever. I have around 20 students in my advisory but I often have almost double that number of students. I'm only sorry that they are seniors and this is my last year with them. After that, I spent periods one through seven on a field trip--Tennessee Williams' play "Vieux Carre." While not my favorite play of his, it was well acted and I liked the set. The students were phenomenal--the play brought up just about every touchy and difficult subject known to man and they handled it so responsibly. I was so proud to be their teacher.

Yesterday I was less proud. This was the scene outside of my school yesterday. All those white cars, yep, police, 18 in total plus 2 ambulances. We had a "free-for-all" as the kids would say.

Today at my school

2007-12-05T14:37:00.000-05:00

I'm currently driving all of the boys crazy because I gave Keyshia a T-shirt. One of the girls was annoyed that I didn't have the decency to make it name brand so she added the "Roca Wear" label. One student was thrilled to have seen the original "hands only" image while traveling to school the other morning. He tried to show the students in my class--but was thwarted by the glue and tape I used to attach the shirt:)
Then we tried to do some research for a senior project. Problem is, we needed to look up a politician whose last name begins with R. But as you can see, my encyclopedia set is a few short. So much for trying not to use Wikipedia and show the difference between official published information and people's opinions on the internet.

Cute Cousins

2007-11-16T19:09:00.000-05:00

Mia, Marissa, Ava and the brand new AMELIA

Bridesmaid

2007-10-25T21:38:00.001-04:00

The top picture is me (obviously) in the bridesmaid dress for Lindsey's wedding (May 10th)The bottom picture is to show the color, except the trim will be chocolate brown organza--not pink.

things

2007-10-16T12:50:00.000-04:00

Here are a number of items I am currently enjoying, in no particular order

A Nintendo DS--I find playing Brain Age and Animal Crossing very relaxing after long days at school.

A new camera case--it was free! I complete surveys online and get points which I can use to purchase items. I've also gotten 2 CDs, magazine subscriptions, gift cards, car CD holder, car vaccum...

My camera and my computer weren't getting along, when I'd connect them my computer would freak out. So I got this memory card reader and we're all much happier.
As a teacher I spend a lot of time with my hole punch and my stapler. These are the best ones I've ever found. The stapler is so powerful I use it to hang things on my wooden closet doors. (I am having a little trouble removing the staples later.)
I'm teaching a different reading program this year (yes that would be three in three years) Fast ForWord and Reading Advantage are out, Read 180 is in--I really like it, and I think my students do too.
A new program means new computers--I'M GETTING MACS! I have to go dig them out of the closet where they were put last year. Today I grabbed the keyboards and mice, my classroom is a disaster area right now while I try to set up everything. I had to keep zooming in while taking this picture to cut out the clutter all around it.

A clean fridge--Liz and I scrubbed out every nook and cranny

Chocolate Calcium (& Vitamins D & K)--this tastes like chocolate candy, I look forward to finishing my lunch every day just because I get to take my calcium (I know, I'm weird)

This is so much smaller than my old one--with no cap to lose, I'm going to wear it out because I keep playing with it because I like the click.

Isn't it pretty?--it's a SIGG bottle, no plastic leaching into the water.

I love permanent markers, my students enjoy them too, we got a new set--except today I lost the black one on my desk somewhere.

Sad

2007-10-09T12:43:00.000-04:00

"mel"

A sad post--one of my students was shot to death on Friday night. First time in 7 years at Ben Franklin that I've lost a current student.

I've survived a week

2007-09-17T10:39:00.000-04:00

I survived my first week back (it really wasn't hard--only 3 days)
Here are lots of pictures of what I've been doing. First of all--my classroom and how it looked--I will try to remember to take pictures of it decorated now. I am applying for Extreme Makeover Classroom Edition with these.

My father retired and the church had a party celebrating his years as a pastor--here we all are waiting for the Harley motorcade to come get him.

One of the aforementioned Harleys

Coming later--cooking peach cobbler and dinner at Yangming.

Dad

2007-09-09T14:43:00.000-04:00

My dad retires today, school starts tomorrow, I am not ready, no time to post more.

School Begins

2007-09-05T15:46:00.000-04:00

My schedule for this year is as follows
Advisory: 12th graders--my favorite advisory from last year all growed up
1st: Co-teaching English I
2nd:?
3/4: English II
5: Lunch
6/7: ?
8: Co-teaching 11th grade PSSA test prep
9: Reading program

One of the 2 question marks is my prep, the other really is a ?, I just don't know which is which.

$100 free

2007-09-03T12:18:00.000-04:00

I spent my Sunday morning at Office Depot, I was there before the doors opened, standing in line--I got the following items free. A 512MB retractable Flash Drive, 512MB SanDisk memory card, 25 CD cases, 24 pack of Crayola colored pencils, Spanish language learning software. All in all it would have been $100 but with the rebates they are free! My rebate receipt was taller than me. I'm going to cut coupons now-

Cute cousins coming

2007-09-01T01:44:00.000-04:00

I am taking my cousins (who are 18 months, 3, and 7) to Chuck E Cheese tonight, stay tuned for fun stories and cute pics.
On a completely different topic-Did I get the RSS enabled correctly, Michael? I'm still figuring all of this out, teaching myself the HTML and such. I am pleasantly surprised every time I hit publish and it turns out like I wanted it to.

FINISHED

2007-08-30T19:48:00.000-04:00

I did it, I'm finished, no more Ikea furniture. I really like putting together Ikea furniture, and they were very nice and paid me well, but it was alot--eleven and a half hours to be exact.
My cat kept tripping me when I went home, her way of saying, "I haven't seen you, I will force myself upon you, you will not ignore my presence." She's kind of bossy, but that seems to be typical of cats. My computer is going to die so I shall post now.

The Blister

2007-08-29T23:25:00.000-04:00

There it is, my little Ikea furniture blister. And I'm getting another one on the heel of my hand because I can't press on anything with my palm--I didn't get a close up of that, one was enough to whine about. I can now add queen bed, 1 dresser, and nightstand to the finished column, leaving only 3 items to do tomorrow. The blister isn't that bad really, but it does hurt, and I had a tetanus shot today, so my other arm hurts, lets be honest I'm tired and out of shape and two days with large pieces of furniture have taken their toll. My students are right, 29 is old.

Ikea take 2

2007-08-29T07:19:00.000-04:00

In a completely separate experience from my "assdembled" one on Sunday, I spent most of yesterday assembling Ikea furniture--not for me. So far 3 drawer double wide file, desk with extension, small rolling file with 4 drawers, and rolling chair DONE. IN PROGRESS-queen bed and small nightstand. TO DO STILL 2 dressers, tall bookcase, couch, chaise.
If you are lucky I might take pictures of the blister on my hand.

Ikea

2007-08-27T08:46:00.000-04:00

I went to Ikea last night and found a stool for my classroom. I like sitting on tall stools while I teach--that way I can see everyone. So this stool was in the "as-is" section of Ikea-one of my favorite places in Ikea. A close look at the label revealed a small misprint--

One more thing

2007-08-25T17:42:00.000-04:00

The previous post was inspired by Confessions of a Pioneer Woman and The Pioneer Woman Cooks . Her blog is a billion times better than mine, I read it every day. You should too--I would recommend going their right now. Unless you are very squeamish, then you might want to avoid the selection on pregnancy testing the cattle. But the cooking site is safe, and delcious. And feel free to drool over her amazing photographs-not just the pictures of food.

Failed peach picking

2007-08-24T19:27:00.000-04:00

Today my friend Kathryn and I decided to go peach picking. We arrived at Linvilla orchards with high hopes, but the peaches aren't ripe yet. We both agreed we prefer our peaches to be so ripe and juicy you have to use them within hours of arriving home, and if the peach cobbler still has distinctive peach pieces in it after cooking they weren't ripe enough. These peaches did not meet those requirements. So we picked raspberries instead. They more than made up for the peach failing. They are amazingly melt in your mouth juicy and sweet. We also got some corn, squash, zucchini and blueberries. Now bellies are full and mouths are happy. Here are the fruits of our labors (yes we know, that is a pun, it's been said already tonight, now you can groan too.)
Cobbler anyone?

mmmmmmm

Zucchini Boats

Back from the beach

2007-08-23T20:59:00.000-04:00

This is going to be my first attempt at a post with pictures. I just got back from the beach. I had some kind of miserable cold sinus thing but still managed to get a little tan and a bit blonder. (I love it when the sun bleaches out my hair) There was a weird occurence at the beach--we had kind of an inland lagoon created on the beach.
The view is from the balcony of the condo (the Hirshes are amazing and let us stay there for the week)

The water was up to your knees as you walked across it.

I tried to take a walk along the water's edge, that would be the ocean's edge, not the edge of this special lake--the waves knocked me around and I wasn't even up to my knees.

(These pictures were all taken after the tide had been going OUT for several hours.)

digital camera

2007-08-03T00:13:00.000-04:00

I got a digital camera, decided 2007 was as good a time as any to join the information age. I'm hoping it will inspire me to write on here more--actually it will allow me to write less but post more. Anyway, you are probably asking yourself, "where are these amazing pictures?" Ummm, first, they aren't that amazing, second, I've had a knock down drag out fight with my computer all day. I have seriously accomplished nothing else but fixing computer problems all day. My butt hurts from sitting so long. (and I'm so tired I feel like I could start crying for no reason. and I hate crying and this feeling, and I just teared up at a line on a late night CSI rerun-yikes) so why am I writing this instead of sleeping, good question. I have cleared my bed of all the junk that accumulated there (like large beautiful framed paintings from my grandmother--the computer screen would only work at one point if the laptop was connected to my projector, so I've been working in larger than life size on my bedroom wall) I have fed the cat who threw up twice today and was therefore banned from food until her stomach settled, I'm in my pajamas, I should go to sleep-- But the fans are perfectly positioned for sitting in my chair, it's blue and curved, it makes me happy, the sale at IKEA the day I bought it also made me happy. Ikea in general makes me happy. nice happy thoughts before bed. My summer is more than half over--wait, that's not a happy thought. That reminds me of the large list of items still to be done before school begins. Ok, enough blabbering on, off to reposition fans and go to bed.

things I have learned

2007-03-19T16:37:00.000-04:00

Things I have learned in my 5 1/2 years at Ben Franklin High School (and yes, I realize some of these are inaccurate and racially insensitive, I promise these are things students have told me, I'm not making them up--remember most of my students are ninth graders and laugh)

1. only punks don't throw chairs out windows
2. white people smell like pennies
3. you should be allowed time to do your homework in class
4. black people don't go to the ocean
5. no one can agree on who the best rapper is
6. chocolate is a breakfast food
7. soda is a breakfast beverage
8. you should eat Philly soft pretzels for breakfast on Fridays
9. red, blue, and purple are flavors
10. your "old head" can be younger than you
11. your "young bull" might be older than you
12. all students at Ben Franklin are cousins
13. it doesn't count as cursing if you didn't mean to say it
14. everything in life is corny and irking
15. freebies (free lunches) are great
16. freebies are disgusting
17. if you come to class late and say "I'm not late" you shouldn't be marked late
18. sleeping is a full time job
19. having the longest hang time (length of hair) in the class is a valid argument for why you are right about an entirely separate topic
20. forehead size is is worthy of extensive discussions

Retry

2006-10-09T11:03:00.000-04:00

So, I've had this blog for a while, but I took all the old posts off and I'm trying this again. The problem with writing about school is I don't want to write about teachers and students in such a way that they will recognize themselves, which is too bad because I have some good stories. But I saved the posts and may republish them at a later date. For now, enjoy my trip to Rite Aid.

Pharmacist

2006-10-09T10:42:00.000-04:00

I think I'm smarter than my pharmacist and this worries me. I called to get my medication refilled and they said I had no refills left. This is impossible since I got the prescription in June and it is for a years worth of pills. Just the same as I had last year. My doctor writes the prescription for 90 pills and indicates 3 refills. Therefore 90*4=360, a years worth. My insurance prefers this for mail orders, but distributes 30 pills at a time for pharmacy pickups. Because my thyroid likes to change regularly I have been filling the prescription at the pharmacy, getting a blood re-test and then transferring it to mail order if it is still the correct prescription. I have to go in to talk to them about the lack of refills. I explain to the pharmacist that I had a new 1 year prescription in June but was told it was out of refills. He said, "Of course, it's expired." I explain it is not expired, it is three months old. He says, slowly like I'm not getting it, "You got it in June 2005 and it expired in June 2006." I tell him that I just got it this summer, June 2006. "Oh." Then he looks it up on the computer--which has a lovely scanned in picture of my actual prescription--new in June 2006. Then he says, "Oh, well you only had 3 refills so you are out." I inform him that I got three bottles of 30 pills which has only just filled the original prescription. He thinks and says, "Your doctor wrote an 8 in the refills spot which would be illegal, too many pills and over a year so you have no refills." Wait a minute, just a second ago I had 3 refills, now you tell me I have 8--I can see the screen, that's a 3. Then he decides the tech who filled the first bottle misinterpreted the "8" as a zero and typed 0 into the computer so they can't give me any more refills. I patiently try to explain that I have a prescription for 360 pills and whether they give me 30 at a time or 90 or type 0 into the computer I should get all 360 pills. This is the standard prescription I have been getting for the last three years, the only change is the strength of my synthroid. He then seems to notice the 90 and says "Well, your prescription plan is for 30 at a time so you got 30 at a time with 3 refills so you're out." But the doctor's intention was for a year, I should still get all the pills no matter how they are grouped for distribution. He tells me, "Give me 20 minutes." I return more like 30 minutes later to be told, "Come back later." Two hours later I return and they have decided to give me my 30 pills and 2 more refills and then I'll need a new prescription. AHHHHHH! I'm not trying to steal major pain killers or something here. I take the second lowest dose of synthroid--88 micrograms. This is only good for someone who has a damaged thyroid, no one else is going to want it. They are also having a discussion over the proper pronunciation of my last name when I arrive. The cashier was the only one who said it right.