blogs are for updating

... which it would appear I'm not so good at these days. Sorry folks, school has been nutty, the extra job was a little psycho for a bit, moving was a classic gong show and parent-teacher-student conferences were just peachy. No internet at home is also not really helping. I've thought of updating at school, but have decided that I really should stick to teaching and helping my students. Anyway, internet should be a reality in the next couple of days so hopefully I'll get a whole shwack of blogs done. No promises as those are dangerous may cause something bad to happen.

well if I have to

I teach one of the nicest boys on the planet, I'm sure of it. Everyday he comes in and tries to speak French to me, he's taking core-french this semester and obviously must be loving it. He's so happy to be able to use new words when he can, it's fantastic. I'm not sure I've ever seen a student put such an earnest effort into learning. Last semester he was in a co-taught classroom - indicating he has difficulties in Math. Yet he outperforms most of the class. Probably feeling a little nervous about our first unit test that's coming up on Monday, he made an appointment to come see me for extra help (on Tuesday, almost a full week before the exam!).

However, today was one of those weird sick days. I woke up, felt kinda sick, but not so sick that I thought to stay home. A decision I immediately regretted once arriving at school. The world was a haze. Nausea kept sneaking up on me. Any little bit of heat felt like impeding death. I kept losing white board markers. You get the picture. Anyway, I like to warn my classes when I'm feeling under the weather - it's a little head's up for them that should they choose to misbehave I'm not fully feeling responsible for the reaction I'd have.

By period 3 I was feeling slightly better, but I wasn't looking forward to my lunchtime commitments. Not only did I have the help session, but a detention to supervise. My detainee skipped class, and his detention (looks like we'll be spending more lunch hours together...) so that got rid of that problem. I couldn't cancel my help session though, this young boy is so wonderful that I'd hate to discourage him in any way - though I'm sure he'd have understood.

Understand he did. About halfway through the class he came up to me, "Ms Parker, I'm not going to come today at noon."
"Pardon?"
"You're not feeling well and I really think you should go home and get some sleep" (my students know I don't teach in the afternoons)
"Oh no, that's alright, I was planning on being here during lunch anyway."
"Nope, I can just come tomorrow, you really should go home and rest."
"Really T, 30 minutes won't hurt me any."
"Well Ms Parker, you can stay at lunch today, but I sure won't be here."

Done deal. We're meeting tomorrow. I slept all afternoon. I still feel like there's a flu monster hiding in my shoulders and neck just waiting to devour the rest of my body, but hopefully another 8 hours of sleep will drive him off.

No fun news...

This was written about a year ago - makes you wonder why we continually refuse to listen to the smart people in the world...

http://205.188.130.53/ngm/0410/feature5/

Spam-alot

It would appear my blog loves spam. It attracts it, seconds after I post. So now if you want to leave a comment you have to type in one of those word verification dealies. I'm sure I should apologize for the inconvenience, but really, if you're already posting typing another 5 letters won't kill you. If it does, then I'll apologize.

I love green?

It was bound to happen. 12ish years of doing laundry, and I had to have a laundry mishap of large proportions. No, I couldn't just stick by my tradition of shrinking something every 6 months or so. There must be dye involved. Lots of dye. Unremovable dye. Green dye.

Now blog title aside, isn't the classic thing to do dye a load of whites a pretty pink colour? That's what you were expecting I bet. No one expects to dye a load full of colours a shade of strange green. Especially the washer. Especially a washer who's already washed everything in the wash before, with no mishaps. As I was pulling my laundry out of the washing machine, I was beginning to think my eyes were doing funny things. Anything of a paler nature was strangely tinged. I looked up to investigate my light source, it was fine. I continued pulling out clothes, some were fine, some were not. I realised for sure that I was screwed when I pulled out a "turquoise" tank top purchased earlier in the summer. The only thing turquoise about it was the stiching on the inside. Somehow it managed to get bleached and then redyed the strange green colour. In a very even manner. What? How does that happen? My funny "Canada since 1982" shirt suffered the same fate - previously baby blue, presently "baby green."

I blame Thailand. They have created some kind of crazy dye out of hatred of annoying tourists. How else do you explain the time delayed ink running or the special slight bleaching properties or the dye? Sure they act all nice and lovey while they're selling you the fisherman's pants. This is because they know the 6th time you wash them you're screwed.

This is one pair of pants that cost me more than $3.

Funny Kids

So today was our first day back with students. To avoid the shock of having to work full time after a summer of slothfullness, the student's only come for 30min. That's just enough time to go over classroom expectations with them, ie. scare the poop out of them. Now this isn't quite as easy this year for me as I have all grade 10s and frankly grade 10s are lazy creatures not affected by too much. No longer scared to be in high school, but not yet caring about marks for university/grad. But they proved that they still can entertain me.

So I'm almost at the end of my third round through my classroom expectations. I've finished off with the rules about mp3 players and ask if there are any questions. The largest grade 10 student I've ever seen - seriously, I assumed he was my gr 12 student, he looks 23 - puts his hand up and so only the people around him can hear, asks "so are you single?" in a reasonably polite tone.
Without missing a beat, I replied "No, no you can't sing."
He looked at me very strangely, and then just kinda shrugged it off saying "yes... that's what I asked."

Kids are funny.

First Day Back

So everyone grumbles about going back to work. It seems to be expected of teachers almost. You get these 2 wonderful months of summer off to frolic in all your free time and then are abruptly throw back into work. I admit it - I participate in these back to work sighs. But why? Why do people look at us like we're crazy if we act like elementary school children and admit we're looking forward to going back to school? The thing is, I like my job. I even love my job. Sure I also love my holidays, don't get my wrong. But no more complaining. As of today everyone can look at me like I'm crazy, but I'm going to choose to be positive about work.

The first day back is pretty administrative. Staff mass followed by a tasty breakfast - made tastier by it's unexpected appearance in my day. Then off to staff meetings, lunch, deptartment meetings, and of course all the walking around visiting and getting things in order. As much as everyone says they don't want to be back at work, and some may not, it was an inspirational kind of day. Everywhere I went in the school people were smiling, catching up with collegues and getting back into the groove of the school year. Everytime I turned around I ran into teachers helping other teachers get ready for the year. Offering materials, guidance, support. One of our new administrators carried a box of books to my classroom for me. This should probably embarass me, but wow, an administrator that has time for something silly like that? I love my school. Ever since I've been in University I've heard horror stories of teachers stranded without support, as lost as the thousand students their schools try and keep track of. I'm so grateful for all the help I've received and will continue to receive. It's incredibly motivating to work among people, who for all they may grumble, honestly want to educate and see young people succeed. Who create fantastic tools and then share them with anyone who is interested. When I grow up I hope to be just like them.

Post numero un

Alright. So I have decided to start blogging. I feel like I'm falling more and more behind with staying in touch with people since I've gotten home from Japan, and I enjoy reading my friends' blogs immensely. Really you guys, it makes my day to feel like I know what's going on in your lives and to be able to "participate" from afar. Also, hopefully this will become less of a daunting project than writing my group emails was. Seriously, those things took time! I can't promise too much, especially in the way of pictures, but I hope to update anytime I have something to say. Okay, not that often, I have a lot to say. If nothing else, my posts won't loom in your inboxes like reading homework.