Parent night

I'm trapped in my classroom for Back to School night.  Yes, I could be grading, but why would I really want to do that?  This is usually TV/Facebook time.  Over the summer, my school got a new internet service so I can no longer get into facebook here.  Sad.  I do have a TV in my classroom, but it doesn't get channels and I always for get to bring DVDs.  Besides, I only have 30 minutes left until it starts; an hour and 30 until parents come into my classroom and I get to talk about my classes. 

Is it just me or did teachers always know just what to say on Back to School night?  I don't ever know what to say, and last year a parent was so upset when I said that I don't give regular homework, they e-mailed the principal telling her I should be fired for not knowing how to teach.  I'm always too tired by the time parents come in to know what I'm even saying and then they fire off all these questions that I'm just too tired to think up answers for.  Sheesh.

I am still unpacking my mountain of boxes from moving two weeks ago, but it gets better all the time.  I haven't done much this week, but I made an important decision about where I want my depressed-enough-to-commit-suicide women books to be, so it's all uphill from there!

Guess I'll try to find some website that will entertain me until I have to be "on" again.

Back at School

I always say I will blog more, but I don't.  This school year I have 1st period conference, so that may change.

Mass. . .

I've been here in Massachusetts for three full days now.

 I went to an SA ward where they were very nice and told me I should choose to live here, but didn't have much help to offer.  I'm looking for a place to stay while I look for a job,and once I have a job I'll know where I need to live, so I think one has to follow the other.  There were a few leads on houses, but they fell through, so I'm still living at my cousin's mercy and I really shouldn't take advantage of them any longer. 

If I had a million dollars, I could just rent a place or a hotel room and it wouldn't matter, but since I am a compulsive shopper, I don't have much and there-in lies the problem.  So I'm sleeping on an air mattress in their office and trying to stay out of their way, while still trying to search for and find jobs and it's a little rough.  I hate always having to ask people for things, I'm very individualistic.  Maybe that's why I haven't found anything, I need to learn to rely on people and let them help me.  But I don't wanna!

I need to find a hotel that has wekly rates so I can move out tomorrow, which is when the parking pass I've been using expires.  Hopefully somehting will happen, but I'm not feeling like this was such a good idea anymore.  Here's hoping one of the people on Craig's List e-mails me back and has a nice room to share with me!

Summer

This is my summer of adventure.  I gave my apartment a 30 day notice yesterday, so now I have to pack everything up and go somewhere.  While Massachusetts is my ultimate goal, I think I'll spend a week with my sister Beckie in South Jordan, Utah first.  Not everything is working out as I had planned, but I don't really have any firm plans yet, so I'm not worried, and normally I would be.  Guess I'm doing something right for once.

So while everything in my life is up in the air, I'm actually happier than I have been all year.  Once the worst class of my life was gone, I've been feeling much better.  I even got sunburned over Memorial Day weekend, and it hasn't been too bad.  (I first got some bad tan lines at a wedding where we were outside for two and a half hours, so I tried to fix it and that might have been a mistake as there is some peeling going on.) 

I'm slowly trying to clean things out so I can pack up only what I need to take with me and we'll see where this takes me.  I still have my job here in California, so I can return and work here, but I would love a change.

sorry I never post

My school gets out in 12 days and then I can post all summer long.  I think I need to move this summer, just pack up and take off.  I'm so over California.

I was just looking on youtube for these bands that a few of my students have started.  They said they would be on youtube, but I can't find them.  Same work ethic they displayed in my classes.

And that's my life, school.  At least until it's over.  Can't wait.

Another password problem

I can't believe how difficult it has been for me to remember the password for this blog.  Anyway, I think I have it fixed * and then maybe I can do more writing!

Boston

I'm going to Boston this weekend to take three tests.  This is more stress that I think I can handle.  I also have three class sets of essays to grade and I can't do it.  I think there's a mental block that has to do with this trip.  Hopefully I'll get another half class done tomorrow, but it's not looking good, since book reports are due.  The book reports will be graded by tomorrow when I leave school, but the essays?  Probably not.

The stress that I have is about traveling.  I don't like to leave my classes because I have to prepare a lesson for someone else to give and then I worry about how the little darlings are behaving for a substitute.  I wish I didn't think about all these things, but I do.  Add to all that, I don't fly well.  If I flew more I'd need to buy stock in the Dramamine Corporation.  I can't sleep in any moving vehicle, which is horrible, and I have a hard time focusing on anything.  If I could focus, those essays would be going with me and would get done.

Once I get to Boston I need a shuttle to take me to the hotel I had to book before I knew where my test would be, so it is near the airport and the test is, well, not.  The three hour time difference will come into play when I will need to go to bed early, for those tests.  I'll need to leave the hotel at 7 am (4am pacific standard time) and take a cab for the first time in my life.  And there is a hockey game on that night.  So, I'll stay up watching it and then get no sleep and be taken to some random middle school to take three tests; one proving that I'm literate, one proving that I can choose appropriate main ideas after reading passages and one that proves that I am an English teacher.  I don't know if there will be food places near-by, so I will also have to pack a granola bar or something.  After the test I'll need to go back to the hotel and go to bed for the early flight I have to take back to LA.  And there is another hockey game on, which I'll want to see. 

So there will be a weekend of no sleep and too much stress and then I have to go back and teach on Monday.  Those poor little darlings.  They'll never know what hit them, especially if they are bad for the substitute.  I shouldn't care about that, but I do.  I like having a reputation for under control classes.  That might be gone soon.

Here's to my break down!