Two Kinds of People

One thing that I have learned today in my meeting: There are people who work to live and people who live to work and the two are COMPLETELY different! I have discovered (okay I already knew) I am a live to work person. I don't get knit picky with technicalities, minutes and seconds, and with the small details of life. Oh my, There are people who I work with that are work to live-ers. They have to have everything down to the detail, the minute and second, and spelled out exactly clear as a bell. It is really driving me crazy!

Case and point: for the past 3 years Mr. Brandt and I have worked together HERE, with the same rules. If a child has been here 5 days or more we give them a grade on their report card. So today, Brad says if a child has been here 5 days then give him a grade. Then Mr. Brandt says is that five or more give him a grade or if 5 or fewer no grade? Now the technicality here is the kid who has been here 5 days exactly. To give a grade or not to give a grade that is the real question. On the report card there is a comment that we can choose that says "no grade given, student enrolled 5 or fewer days", which means if he has been here 5 days then you don't have to give a grade. But, oh you see the issue here, I don't have to define it further!

Now, I say,we have always given them a grade at day 5 so if they are here on day 5 give them a grade, day 4 no grade. This is what we have been doing last year and the year before. It hasn't changed. Why argue the point? It just wastes time and makes me frustrated!!! ERRGG!

Ever have a day where you just can't get going?

Well, that is me today. I can't seem to get moving. I got up, had two cups of coffee, surfed the net, made and ate lunch, moved on to cold caffene, and ate a candy bar. All I have is blurry eyes and a tired butt from sitting. So what do I do, work on my chair adjustments so it is more comfortable. Oh yeah, I am at work supposed to be working.

Nothing is getting done.

On another note about midnight last night Caroline posed this question to me. "Mommy, did you know that sharks wiggle when they sleep? Why do you think they do that?"

Anyone know the answer? I told her in my tired state of half sleep I was in that it was because they didn't want any other sharks or other animals who might eat sharks to think that they were asleep so when they wiggle it makes them look like they are awake so no one will eat them.

But not that I think about it, what other animals eat sharks? Now I am getting a headache.

Update on work

Well, I can forgive but I can't forget. That is the motto of the month. I am so not a collector of memories of wrongs committed against me. I move on quickly from events that are hurtful or that anger me. So with that I find myself going back to the same friendly conversation and such with these horrible people who I have to call co-workers. Jennifer Warren, remember her??? Well she has been trying to befriend me again and making fun chit chat and such. Mrs. Bomba, the one who had to consult others if she could go out with us for lunch last year and they said she couldn't go with us has decided to grow up a bit and is now making her own decisions and is trying to hang out with me more and wants to include me more in the lunches, etc. I keep her at arms' length but have obliged her and accepted her invitation to eat with her.

I had a conversation earlier this week with Brad our principal and he was talking about having a conversation with the staff about negative talk about each other and to each other as well as gossiping. So with that conversation I wanted to keep a bit of distance with the others before this talk we will get either next week or the week after. I just don't want to be associated with those who actively do this on a regular basis. So I have been eating in my room and not really talking much to others, which is fine with me anyway. When I eat with the group I usually end up with a belly ache or head ache from having to hear Mr. Levy, know everything about everything and complain and exagerate about everything too. Oh my, just gives me a headache thinking about it.

So that is my work update. I do have to say, Joel Hughes the PE teacher has been particularly nice to me recently which is a bit odd because he was the one who yelled at me last year because I was saying good morning to him every day last year. I am cordial but again, arm's length!!!

I am so sad....

I only have four more days left of my summer vacation. I return to work on Friday, August 1. We have a teacher work day on Friday and then start up with kids on Monday. I am so sad. I am more sad because I still hate everyone that I work with and I so don't want to go back to work.

Kenneth and I were talking and mused about taking the kids out of school and traveling around homeschooling the kids in our camper for the next year and selling my hairbows in craft shows to make money (and on line of course!) Do you know how many hairbows I would have to sell to make any money??? We would have to form a good ole "sears sweatshop" kicking out hairbows by the hundreds!!! It is fun to muse though.....

Okay, so back to reality. I want to really work on my Disney album and finish that up before I go back to school and I know the kids will want to spend a bunch of time at the pool so we will be spending the next four days here at the house and down at the pool with that clock ticking ever so much faster now....

I do have to say that I have really enjoyed having our camper down at Grey's Point Campground. The kids love it and we really like getting away every weekend again. It has been a long three years since we piled in the car on Fridays and headed down to the river for the weekend. We will continue to go through the fall and I am looking forward to the quiet fall weekends down there. I hope that Nicholas will want to do some fishing in the fall and that the girls will enjoy swimming in the warm river water once the jellyfish move out of there.

They have asked me (Grey's Point) to do some crafts with the kids. Last weekend I did notecards with them and will do that again this coming weekend and then in two weeks I will be painting with the kids.

Did I tell you...

that I ran into Jennifer Warren the other day. Yeah, she acted like nothing happened. It was a the movie theater when we went to see Wall-e (yeah, don't go it isn't worth it) So we were coming out of the theater and I said, hey I have to pee so we went to the first potty and there was a line and then we moved across the theater to the other one and there we saw her. No not in the bathroom but in line to get into the movie theater and we saw her and she acted like she was my best friend and introduced me to her hubby and the three kids she was bringing. None of them were hers but I was introduced to Ethan the autistic child and her paster's two daughters. She is such a two-faced bitch. Oh, there I said it. Well, that is the way it is. Oh well. I am not sure I will get over this.

I'm DONE!

I am done school!!! This day was a long time coming and I am so so so glad it is here. I have been in a crappy mood all day when I should be in a happy, gleeful mood. I can only attribute my crappy mood to the fact that so much has happened at work that is just wrong and it has really gotten to me. One would also think that because this job has been so frustrating that I would definitely be in a great mood today since it is finally over. But noooo, not me.... crappy mood.

Okay so more dirt on the crap at work. Since the blog is now private I am free to use real names and not descriptions of these horrible people. First character is Joel Hughes. He comes from a upper middle class family and he is our PE teacher. He went to Liberty University (praise Jesus) and met his wife there. They have been married for over 10 years and they had trouble getting pregnant and went the invitro route. I say all this because here is one of the many things that pisses me off about him. He and his wife tried without success for years and years to get pregnant. They finally got pregnant with the second attempt at in-vitro and they had a girl. Then a year later they did in-vitro again and had a baby boy. Now one would think that because they tried and prayed and tried and prayed to have kids and then finally had two kids that he would be thrilled beyond belief. OH NO!!! Not him. He has on so many occasions complained about his children and moaned about how one is cranky with a cold or this one kept him up last night, or this one runs all over the place or refuses to take a nap or WHATEVER! This man not only constantly complains about them but he does it in front and to ME! Oh let me get out the pity party banner here... JOEL, I have not two kids but THREE kids! You don't get to tell me how hard something is or that you haven't slept through the night in a week. I didn't sleep through the night for SIX YEARS!!! AND it is rare that I get to sleep in the bed with ONLY my husband. Most nights it is a freaking party in my bed. You little SHIT! Appreciate your kids, love them and enjoy them. You paid enough and tried hard enough to get them. You don't have a right to complain!

Three months ago, Joel came to me when he learned I was filling in for Brad (our principal). He and I had a talk and he wanted to make it crystal clear that while he understood that I was filling in for Brad, I would not and could not ever be his boss. I told him that I appreciated him coming to me and that as long as he continued to do his job that I wouldn't bother him about anything. Really now, what would I bother him about anyway, as long as he was doing his job I had nothing to bother him with. So about a week after Brad left, I am doing my job and saying good morning to the teachers as they come in to work and giving them any news I had that would make their day go smoother, changes in schedule, kids to pay attention to, etc. He comes to me and tells me that I am not genuine in my saying "hello" to him. WHAT???? He says that unless I had something to tell him that was important then I shouldn't come in to his room and say hello. Damn, I thought I was being friendly. So for the next week I made damn sure I had something to tell him each and every morning. The asshole. I will say hello if I want to.

Character number two, Joel's sidekick, Jennifer Warren. She is married to a man who has a heart condition and is on medical leave because he has chronic fatigue syndrome. They have been married 10+ years and they are BESTEST friends with Joel and his wife. They go to the same fundamentalist evangelical church that has about 30 members and they meet in a daycare center. Joel's brother is the pastor. If you don't believe in what they believe in then you are a heathen and Joel makes sure you know it. He tells everyone that the dinosaur bones were put in the ground by God for us to dig up and to test us on our faith that he created the world and that there is no evolution. (Hmmmm.....tell that to the frogs...)

Okay, back to Jennifer Warren. She is the music therapist. This past year she helped Brad with our schedule for the school and she made sure that Joel got the last period of the day as his planning period so he could leave an hour early every day. She also made it so that she really didn't teach but three days a week on any regular schedule. She and I have gotten along fine for the past three years I have been there. She is usually nice and I considered her my friend. Boy was I wrong. A few weeks ago I asked her to help organize a luncheon for the faculty. She did absolutely nothing to help with it and when I thought she had organized it, I find out THE DAY OF the luncheon that she hadn't made reservations for us or anything. So since then she has not spoken to me. Not real sure why but not one word.

Word on the street is that because Joel doesn't like me that he has told everyone else to not talk to me and to do everything they can to be as passive aggressive as possible. Not only does Joel have Jennifer in his clutches but he also has John Levy as well. John is a 60 year old man who I have talked about before. The three have attempted to get Kim Bomba as well and she played for a while but then recently has "seen the light" and not converted to their wiley ways.

What I don't understand and never will is what was so horrible that I did to them that I deserve to be treated like this. They are weird, silly, immature people.

When to stand your ground

I love the fact that I am not in the classroom right now. I desperately needed some time away from teaching and this position, though temporary, is beginning to give me just that 'vacation' I craved. However, I can't believe how some teachers are quickly seeing how far they can go. I know that when kids are growing up they are constantly testing the limits. They don't come when you call them the first time, second time, and then learn that when you get to the third time they are in trouble. Kids try to not wear a coat outside when it is cold just because you told them they needed to and when their little hands and noses are bright red with cold and they are shivering and you mention that coat again to them they say, "nope, not cold, don't need it." They push their curfew as they grow older and see if they can get out of their regular chores. All these tests are lessons they learn and help them move into adulthood. But then why do adults push the envelope too? I mean, really, didn't they learn when they were younger that the babysitter told the parents everything anyway and that they would just get into trouble later?

I come to my point: two of the teachers today tried to push the envelope. One said to me,

"You were so busy this morning that I didn't have a chance to tell you that I have to leave early on Friday, so I asked Mr. So and So to cover my last period class."
I respond, "oh, okay, thanks for asking him. Sometime today fill out a leave form and stick it in my box."
"It is just 45 minutes!", she screams at me(more tone than volume). "It isn't even enough time to put in for. Mr. (principal out sick) wouldn't have worried about it and just let me go."
"Fine", I say, "just fill out the form and I will ask him what I should do about it. If he says rip it up I will but if he says send it in I will need the form to do so."
"No, I will just take a half a day then", she says. "Just fill out
the form", I say.

Please, lady. Do you really think I am going to just let you go without any documentation? Did you think because you had already gotten the class covered that I would say "oh thank you for doing MY JOB and I will let you go early and just keep my mouth shut."? PLEASE, give me a little credit here. I am not new to this position or the authority. I am NOT going to just let you do what you please and turn a blind eye. AND if I HAD let her do that then who else would be trying to take advantage of me.

Well, I knew I would be tested and I was prepared but what blew me out of the water we when she half stomped into my office to fill out the form, she said, (and I quote), "don't worry about it. It actually works out better to take a half day and it isn't like I don't have any time to take I have 92 days sick and annual leave." OH MY GOODNESS! You did not just say that you had 92 days leave and you were bitching about a freaking hour!

So it doesn't end there. We had parent/teacher conferences tonight during visitation so we are all there this evening and one teacher is complaining because he had to get up and go have blood drawn today and he is so tired because he couldn't sleep in like he had previously arranged to do (another story all together) and come in late to work today. So his sleeping in time was taken up by going to get blood drawn. He says that because of this he will just not set his alarm clock tomorrow and wake up when he gets up and not worry about it. So I say,

"you'll be late then." He doesn't really respond so I figured I was correct. Then he goes on to say something about writing in a kid's file on Friday when he gets here and I say "you mean Thursday (tomorrow) when you get here."
And he says, "no, Friday! I am not coming in at all tomorrow."
"Oh", I say, and then say, "just fill out a leave form when you get in on Friday then."
He says, "oh no, I have a deal with [the sick principal] that he doesn't turn in those forms to human resources because they wouldn't give me all my time I didn't use when I had my heart attack in the fall."
Oh here it goes again. "I remember you saying something about that and I will ask [the sick principal] what he wants me to do with it."

And then he moves on to say that when he gets home tonight he will take his water pill and then until 4 in the morning he will be running back and forth to the bathroom and he won't have any sleep at all and he isn't coming in. I asked him if he could take his pill earlier in the day so it doesn't keep him up so late. Oh boy did I open up a can of worms. He goes on and on and on and there was something about a little stream of yellow on the floor and on and on and on.... The whole time I just wanted to put my fingers in my ears and say "TMI!!!!! TMI TMI TMI!!!"

Just because I wanted him to follow the rules...

Wanna see where I work?

Here it is...

This is the view from my desk which sits in the "back" of the classroom by the door. This is looking toward the left and the other is toward the right.

Notice the windows with the bars. The board that I use is a state of the art "Smartboard". It is hooked to my computer and I can project the computer screen up on it by my LCD projector mounted at the ceiling. I can touch the board and control the computer like a touch screen. It is pretty cool and the kids love to come up to the board to use it. I also have a regular white board that is on the right side of the room. The tables are weighted and weight a ton. The chairs are made of a durable plastic and are one piece.

For the most part it is a pretty normal classroom. I can't have too much stuff out sitting around. There is no bulletin board as we can't really use staples. The kids come in to class in small groups of 8-10. They are mixed in age and grade levels so they area all usually taking a different social studies course. I teach about 10 minutes to the whole group and then they begin their individual work, independently. In the first 10 minutes I tend to think of it as similar to Jay Leno's monologue. I stand up in the front and talk for a minute about whatever is on my mind. Recently it has been my frustrations in playing the McDonald's Monopoly game on the Internet. (Windows 98 vs. Vista) Then I instruct about some little topic, many times it is a skill of some sort or we watch CNN Student News for current events. Then they get settled in their books. They each have assignments on the regular white board that I didn't take a picture of. I walk around and help them out or sit with one person and instruct on a specific event in history or a concept.

The weird stuff: I have to flip mentally from Ancient World History to Modern (1500 to present day) World History, American History, and US Government in a flash. I can be helping someone with the definition of a complex civilization or why mummies in Egypt pulled their brains through the nose with an instrument that looks like a fish hook to answering questions about the electoral college, then to the first battles of the American Revolutionary war and back again. I have to count pencils going out and being collected each class period. When a child breaks a pencil lead we have to find the lead that got broken off. I can't use paper clips, real adult scissors, or leave my stapler out on my desk. I can use staples in paper only when absolutely necessary and then I have to be ever vigilant about watching the kids who have staples in their papers. We can only use pencils, not pens, not mechanical pencils. The kids can only use yellow legal pad paper. They can't use regular notebook paper to write on AND I have to give it out one sheet at a time. I have to report every doodle on every paper, book, or table.

A majority of my students go to school intermittently when not locked up with us. Therefore, they often won't get much credit for the work they do in our school. They do get credit for the time they are with us, don't get me wrong but when they go to a new school after they leave us it is up to the new school to decide whether or not to give the kids credit for their work with us. Knowing this, I often will work specifically on lifetime skills that will help them in real life and not require them to memorize massive amounts of bogus info that they won't ever use. I am not stupid and I do realize that most people don't love history like I do and I don't hold it against them.

Oh, did I say I love my job?

Reading

Today at work I took out my book carts from my closet and offered the kids to come up to the book cart and choose a book to read. On the cart are novels, encyclopedias, non-fiction books, reference materials, biographies, and cartoon books. I try to have books of all different reading levels and all different subject matter, however, most are historical by nature. I figured this would be a good day to do this because for the next three days the kids would be down on their housing units (jail cells) while we are at a conference.

"Why don't you head up to the book cart now?", I asked one tenth grade girl.

"I don't read books.", she tells me.

Don't read books! I think. I have heard other people say that too and it always strikes me a odd. "I don't read books.". I just don't think that there is another statement that could so fully define you than "I don't read books". Everyone should read books. It makes you sound uneducated, impatient, and unwilling to learn. It doesn't say "I don't read" it says "I read other things but just not books". Why books? I just don't understand.

The Longest Week

This has felt like the longest week. It is finally Friday. Whew! I made it. This morning I was commenting to a fellow teacher as we both dragged in late that even with an inservice day on Monday it has felt like a terribly long week. She too agreed and also added that she was glad that the bus came to pick up 4 kids to take them to prison yesterday. When that happens it makes the next day a bit nicer because those who are usually picked up are the ones that cause trouble during the days just before the pick up day. Are you following me? So today did feel a bit better but looking back it feels like last weekend was forever ago.

Another teacher also commented on it and our principal agreed as well.

Let's think for a minute, yes, 6 1/2 weeks to go before we are off for "summer break", if you can call it that. We work an extended year so our summer is only the month of July. Then the 1st of August we are back with our little jailbirds again. This year we get exactly 5 weeks to the day for summer break. I guard those weeks with all I have. This summer two of my three are going to summer school in the mornings and the afternoons are filled with time at the pool. I don't think we will get to the beach but I do plan on taking some long weekends camping. We have this trailer that we don't use enough. Anyone know any good fun places to camp in the VA, MD, NC, WV area? Tell me about them...