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Saturday, August 18, 2007 

Dog poop, lesson plans. They smell the same to me.

Daisy has the runs. It's flying out of her at such high velocity that I think she might actually lift off. She and Bear were outside in a pen at their original home, and I thought they would live outside when they moved here, but TH had other ideas. Two large, hairy dogs in the house. Fabulous! TH says it's not fair for me to demand that we put these two out when I would never put Sweet Tea out. But Sweet Tea was a Boxer. They're prone to heat stroke. And she had a heart problem that made it hard enough for her to breathe without being in the heat. Apples and oranges. Actually, to make another point, that was one apple, and these are two oranges. Ya dig?

Whatever. I'll go along with it. They're already starting to understand the concept of going outside to poop and pee. The only real problem is that Daisy is sick. She's going to the vet tomorrow morning. They both are.

I have to write five days of lesson plans for a substitute to use in case I'm out with no warning. It's due Monday. Actually, I have to have more than just five days of lessons. I have to create an entire binder of stuff. It's gonna take some time to do. On top of that, my regular lesson plans are due Monday at 8:00 a.m. Our department meets every Thursday to plan together, but it doesn't help me that much because I'm the only teacher who has the low level 8th graders, and I'm the only one who has 8th graders for two hour classes. So their 55 minute plans won't work for me. I have to plan double. The required department planning meeting hasn't done anything so far except frustrate me and make me have evil thoughts about the other teachers who seem to have it easier.

I hate planning. HATE IT. It's hard, it's time consuming, and it seems like nothing I do is right when it comes to putting plans together. We just got textbooks on Friday, so we have all been scrambling to find resources. We have also been making lots of copies. I've already been chastised for making too many copies. Would you like another example of how I'm not provided the necessary tools to do my job? I don't have a printer in my room, though I've been told several times that they're "working on it," but I'm still required to type out my lesson plans.

Oh well. At least there IS a copier, even if they're stingy with it. The books I got this week are a classroom set. The kids each get another one to leave at home. They're not allowed to carry back packs and there are no lockers, so letting them keep a book at home cuts down on what they have to carry back and forth. It also ensures that there will be a book both at school and at home.

As soon as they get their books for home, I'll be able to give homework out of the book. I'm supposed to give homework most nights per week. I still say homework on weekends is out of the question, but I've been giving a small assignment about 3 times per week. One night I told them to find a newspaper or magazine article that interests them, read it, and write one sentence telling the main idea of the article. About 15% of the kids attempted to do it and turned it in on time. About 5% did it correctly. You wouldn't believe how many of them cut out advertisements and photo captions instead of articles. I had to show them what an article was. I also had to provide them with newspapers, because most of them don't have newspapers at home. I had a stockpile of articles that I had cut out and mounted on card stock, but they all disappeared, much like HM's beloved doorstop, or that nice bookshelf I had.

Oh, yes...things disappear. The worst I've heard this year is that teacher rolly chair. I'm thinking it would be hard to disguise.

My son was helping a teacher use his new school laptop that all travelers got this year. Darn the bad luck! The year I lose my traveldom, the rest of them get laptops. Unfortunately, they have to carry them from building to building, which would be a royal pain in the patooty. Anyhoo...this guy couldn't get it to work, and my boy told him, "Duh! Your charge has run out. You need the power cord." To which he replied, "I left that at the other building."

To make a long story longer, they spied a power cord laying on top of another teacher's laptop, and the powerless teacher told my boy, "TAKE IT!" He did, and they spied on that guy all morning to see if he missed it. He didn't. I'm sure they gave it back later.

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