DeadpanAnn (old blogger version)

My lesson was awesome again today. For my two hour classes, it involved some reading. We are reading Monster, which all of the kids are interested in because it's about a teenager who's on trial for murder, and there are apparently a few curse words as well as a rape scene. This book is notorious among our youngsters. The eighth grade reads it every year, and every year the seventh graders hear about the juicy stuff from them and beg the teachers to let them read it. So my eighth graders have been looking forward to this for a year, and today when I pulled out the classroom set they nearly came unglued. Some people may say it's inappropriate to let kids read a book that includes a spattering of damns and maybe a shit here and there, or a rape scene. I say whatever it takes. These kids have seen and heard worse than anything this book will show them. More importantly, I've never seen a class of thirteen year olds literally overjoyed at the prospect of reading a book. An issue of Dub magazine, yes. An actual book? Not so much. They are reading a book, and they are loving it. Mission accomplished.

I have not read Monster. Well, I've read the first 25 pages now. I must admit I'm eager to read it too. Of course it's because I'm excited about teaching the elements of literature, and not because I want to read about a sixteen year old getting raped in prison. My favorite college roommate was an English Education major, and she had to read it for an adolescent lit class, and she told me about it then. She thought it was great. Of course, she was high most of the time, so...

...she would probably know...

This weekend will not be a relaxing one for me. If I get started on my work now and don't take any breaks, I might be done by Tuesday. There's a mountain of crap for me to grade, and I have to plan some decent lessons this week. They changed their minds about how detailed our lesson plans have to be, and now they're going to take me twice as long to write. I was barely getting it finished before. And the superintendent is coming to observe us Monday. On top of that, my house is trashed. Nary a towel has been folded in six weeks, and our coffee table is buried under papers and cups and who knows what else. My bedtime routine now includes moving a pile of clothes from the bed to the floor, then back to the bed the next morning, and we're pretending the kitchen doesn't even exist.

Today I went to Office Depot to get one of those rolling cart thingies to haul my weekend burdens back and forth. I checked out laptops while I was there, because that is my new longing. I could really use one for work. This Wednesday I had to spend an afternoon planning in a group of teachers and that experience confirmed that I need a laptop. I kept having to borrow people's jump drives and run back and forth between three computers to get everything I needed to one place. Meanwhile, two teachers who had their own laptops were making a major dent in their plans without moving from where they started. I was running myself ragged, and decided I'd tell TH I needed a laptop. He said fine. But then I started looking. I thought I would be able to get a decent one for a decent price, but you have to spend $1,000 to get anything good. I could get one for $600 or $700, but I don't know if it's worth it or not. I don't want to get a cheap machine that will not last two years, or that will be unable to run new software two years from now. At the same time, I don't want to spend $1,500 on one. It would make things easier, but I guess I can get by without one. Maybe Santa will bring me one. I've been good, you know.

Labels: Good Old Fashioned Bitchin', teacher life