Vicious Cycle

The schools up north I taught at would have parent teacher conferences where us teacher people would meet with parents for 10-15 minutes each to give them a glimpse as to what we see from their student. We would do this for several hours into the night. Most of the time we saw parents who needed that extra pat on the back for good parenting and rarely saw the parents whom we needed/wanted to see to resolve issues. Those were truly exhausting nights. Down here the schools do not do marathon conference nights but have parents schedule a conference for just after the school day finishes at their convenience. I think I am stuck in a conference rut as all my after school days have a conference booked by parents unless there is a meeting of some sort (faculty, department, committee, etc.). So here is that ugly cycle: student feels they are doing poorly for (insert whatever reason here), they complain to Mom/Dad. Mom/Dad schedules a conference - my after school time gets booked. During said conference it is usually mentioned about teachers having office hours or when they are available to help struggling students. My reply is that I am available in the mornings since my after noons are booked with conferences or meetings. Student never comes in during the wee morning hours and nothing changes. :(

Fell off the Wagon....sorry

I was doing so well with blogging something everyday in honor of the 31 for 21 but then this past weekend happened. *Sigh* I have thoughts to blog but then the escape me as soon as I put my butt in the computer chair. One of these days I will carry around a little notepad to jot down the ideas so that my blog isn't so blah. Here is a rundown of my weekend....

Thursday evening the niecey and BF arrive. We do the kid taxi game.

Friday - School for me as usual. We were in the media center and had to write up a few referral for "violation of acceptable use of electronic resources" b/c some kids had a little too much fun with the discussion board on my page when signing up for a research topic. (Duh....you are posting with YOUR name....duh....no delete option). After school the niecey had picked up the two oldest and then me (since I left her my car to use) and we had an adventure looking for the free flu shots. We found them in the hood. Dropped the oldest off for some 'nastics make up since she missed 3 out of 4 days of practice this week since she was sick. The rest of us shopped a little, picked her back up, got some Chinese food for dinner and the niecey and BF were in bed before 9pm. WTH? What happened to 20 somethings these days? I remember being out until the clubs closed then sleeping until about noon but these two slept more that my now 70 year old Mother (birthday shout out to her as well - Holla!).

Saturday - My usual runnings: Jazzercise then WW. Then I had to run around to get ready for the 'nastics meet: gas, cash, drug store run (got shorter on the oldest's meds). 2:30 drive to meet. FREEZING in the venue. Yes, it is a warm state but no over compensation is required, really. People were going to the local gas station and getting hot chocolate and cappuccinos to drink for warm. Back home about midnight.

Sunday - Dropped them at the airport 6am. Church. Nap - YES, I got a nap!!! I tool it with the Beans. Sneaky Mom trick, right? :)Jazzercise. Grading. Got almost all of it finished before today's test.

Fairly uneventful, Huh? But now you know......

Curriculum Writing

That is what I did today at another high school in the county. It actually did not suck. We were putting things in a mighty useful Wiki. Then tour connection to the Internet died and thus our in-service ended....early. :)

Perusing Teacher tube

Cool (?) way to start the school year?



This would be very fun to make.....I'm totally geeking out, I know



Not as good as a recently submitted student rap about atoms I have (will post later) but kind of fun in its own right...


Hmmmm.....


This has been circulating the FB


Admin walk through...


Powerpoint how NOT to


If some people got this idea......

Sicky McSickerson

Ugh...oldest has the flu...no, not THE flu...just the flu.....grrr.....she has a meet this weekend....needs to get rid of the 103+ fever though....more prayers needed....:(

2 years ago today

I had my final installment in the girl trio that is heart of my little family. Due to being breech, it was a scheduled C-section and other than that and the gestational diabetes, it was a fairly uneventful pregnancy. I am very blessed with a healthy and happy (well, mostly happy most of the time) two year old. Happy Birthday, Beans!

TGIF

My colleagues here crack me up. Our Friday afternoon "choir practice" always brings a smile to my face even with out the caloric beverages. One teacher is a Southern Belle. She is certified as a clinical psychiatrist and teachers IB and AP psychology. She is the life of the party. Some of her favorite expressions are: Is the Pope Catholic? Does Chatty Cathy have a plastic heiny? Does a hobbyhorse have a wooden pecker? I could probably write several posts about our inside jokes but I will save them for "the book".