mithrana

09:30 pm: Aiden has learned how to clap with open hands! (instead of fists)

09:28 pm: Writer's Block: I May Be Crazy
it looks like 2 hummingbirds attacking a bell shaped flower in the middle.


Tags: writer's block

11:05 pm: So I was poking around the web because I couldn't remember the gender differences in French endings. Was fiancee a man or woman? As I suspected, it is a woman. Anyway, while poking, I found this great website for people who routinely find things like "he made a 360 degree change" or "an historic event" irritating.

Enjoy! http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors

08:20 pm:

08:15 pm: General Life Update
So, I'll no longer be at my school after May 25. I am currently seeking other employment.  I am toying with the idea of leaving the teaching industry altogether.  I just don't know what I would do if I weren't teaching, but I am supremely unhappy in my current situation.  Kinder is great, but the rest of them I just really don't enjoy teaching, not even the good, cooperative classes.  This tells me I should not attempt to remain in the elementary level.  I am applying for intermediate and secondary level positions currently.  I'll give teaching another year or so, but if I still don't like it in 2 more years, I'm out for good.  I'll find something else to do!

Things are progressing well on the homefront though.  We've been looking at new houses and may possibly have one.  But, it's becoming a rain of stress and worries.  Oi.  Such good things come in painful packages!

09:15 pm: Thanks for helping out the team...and other news from school
So, I found out that one of our first grade teachers called in over the weekend, said she was taking the 90 days of sick/personal leave she'd stored up and wasn't going to return after that.  This would be the teacher with the first grade from HELL!!!!!  But, I have to say that the woman who is currently in the room with the students is at least in slightly better control of the real problem students.  Today, she kept six of them with her that had been having problems all day.  And guess what?  I was actually able to work with the students I still had!  The Pre-K students had a Christmas program today, and I was able to take this first grade to go see it.  They sat quietly and watched.  When we went back to my room, they watched a video on the creation of the carol "Silent Night" and then we played a hand clapping game.  It was really cool.  I still expect little hellions next week, but these small breakthroughs are nice. 

Speaking of Christmas programs though, I directed my first program yesterday.  It was with K and first.  The parents loved it and the kids sang well.  I was nervous starting it because I didn't know where to stand or what to do, but it went alright.  Tomorrow I have a program with 2nd and 3rd grades.  On Friday I have the 4th and 5th grade program.  I'll be glad when this week is over!  Next Monday starts choir auditions though, so that's making me nervous too.  I miss college with my month off for Christmas!

Tags: christmas, music, school, teaching

10:17 pm: Teaching with love
I know I've posted before about my first grade class from hell.  Well, recently I found out that one of the students who causes such enormous trouble in that class lives in foster care (basically) with extended family who don't give a shit what the kid does.  They don't care if he does well in school and they don't bother to do anything that remotely supports his education.  I also found out that he's almost always in trouble, both at home and at school. 

A thought occured to me, could it be that he's always in trouble because that's the only time anyone gives him attention?  It's a common issue, so why not?  I'd been falling into the same trap as his guardians.  He only got attention from me (in the form of scolding) when he acted up.  So for the last two days at school I made a very conscious effort to give him some sort of feedback when I saw him doing something, ANYTHING, right.  I smiled at him when he was walking in line correctly, or sititng without talking (at which point he would smile back and then hide his face in his hands).  At the end of the last class on Friday, I approached him as they were lining up to leave and told him how proud I was of how well he had behaved and how nice he'd been to the other students.  He got a huge smile and turned around to hug me.

A very similar situation with another student has also been occuring.  This student lives with his dad (whom the student is apparently afraid of because he cries like mad if you say you're calling his father).  I still don't think he gets much positive attention at home though.  So I've done the same thing with this student as with the other one.  Thursday I told him I was very proud of him and his behavior.  He looked up at me, on the verge of tears and said "really?  Can I hug you?".  It was so sweet I almost cried! 

I need to get a copy of "Teaching with love and logic" so I can make more ways to give positive attention second nature in the classroom.

Even though it was TAKS release testing all week, I think it ended rather well.  I have new hopes for my Tuesday first grade now.

Tags: school, troubled students

11:20 pm: Grandfather surgery
My grandfather came through surgery just fine.  His lungs had not started working on their own again yet when my mom had to leave to be taken to the airport, but considering how far under he'd been and that they'd had to remove all his blood and stop his heart for the surgery, it's not all that unusual.  I'm going to try and stop by the hospital for a few minutes tomorrow when he should (hopefully) be awake.

Tags: grandfather, surgery

09:14 pm: What to do...
My grandfather is going to be having heart surgery (valve replacement) here in Houston next Friday.  I'm trying to decide if I should ask for the day off work or not.  I only get 5 personal days and I didn't really want to spend them, but this might be a good reason to use one.  These are also the same as my sick days, so I wanted to make sure I still had some come February - March time. 

He's not a grandfather I've ever been really close to (step-grandfather actually), but my mom and aunt and grandmother will be here as well.  Hmm, I just don't know.

Tags: grandfather, school, surgery

01:28 am: Almost flooded, but not quite
So, as everyone else already knows, there were massive amounts of rain in the Houston area today. Well,jnasserand I had to park the car down in the shopping center parking lot and wade home.  We were so close to being home, and yet, not quite there.  Judging from the line of debris on our driveway, it looks like the water came up within a yard of the garage doors.  Scary.  Thankfully the house and dog are all ok.  No water actually got in the house.

I took a few quick pictures on the wade home though.


These are two larger vehicles that attempted to drive down our street and failed.


This is how far the water had receded by the time we made it to our house.


And yes, that's me actually wading out the check the mail.  Lo and behold, there was mail!!!!

So, there you have it folks.  Our adventures in almost flood-dom.

Tags: flood, house

05:59 pm: First grade breakthrough
So there's this first grade class that hasn't done shit this whole year.  They talk, they act stupid, they get themselves or others hurt doing stupid things, but they don't pay attention and they don't listen.  There were 7 students in that class causing the majority of the physical issues (all but 2 in the whole class do the talking).  Last week some changes were made to how the classes were organized for music, art, pe and library.  Last week it didn't really matter because we had Tuesday's schedule on Monday (longer story than I care to write at this point).  Monday's are Girl Scout days.  That meant all the girls from this class were gone, plus about half the boys were gone too.  So I didn't really get a good idea on whether these changes were going to make a difference.

Today, all but 2 students were there.  I have never made it through an entire lesson with this class.  I usually don't get past the introduction.  There have been times when we don't even get seated, we just practice lining up and walking in and out of the class.  But today, ... today was the first time this class has come in the room quietly without being told several times to go line back up and try it again.  I also made it through an entire lesson.  Until today, this class was the only class to STILL not have a single lesson taught.  I've a few other classes have a bad day and not get through much, if any, of the lessong.  But this class had been every day with nothing but talking and yelling.  I was so so so so so proud of them today.  I gave them all "Bucks".  These are bright yellow fake money that they can use at the school store at the end of every 9 weeks.  They can buy erasers, pencils, notebooks, t-shirts, and the like at the store.  Their homeroom teacher was grinning from ear to ear too when I told her how good they'd been.  I hope the change sticks.  They finally got to see that music really can be fun if they just quiet down a little bit at the beginning!

Tags: school

06:36 pm: School is....well, it goes
It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I should.  School is going pretty well.  I get along with most of the students.  Of course, the majority of those I don't get along with are those that very few faculty do.  So I don't feel quite as bad.  It's weird not being around people who share my sense of humor though.  Most of my team don't quite get things most of the time.  Oh well, at least the art teacher understands my humor.  That's good.

Nothing quite as exciting as rebelowl42's experiences have happened at my school.  I guess that's partially the elementary / middle school difference.

Tags: school

11:57 am: First week of school and nurse reports
So the first week of school is over now.  I was at school for about 12 hours yesterday because I was lazy the rest of the week and didn't work on lesson plans ahead of time.  (They have to be submitted every Friday before I leave)  I brought all the books home this weekend to get a head start for the next Friday though. 

Friday was the most interesting day of the week.  A girl in my first 4th grade class came running up to me in the middle of a song they were learning, and says "I need to throw up."  So I told her ok, and got one of the other girls in the class to start going toward the door with her (to take her to the bathroom).  The sick girl turned around and ran to the trash can, then fell over and started seizing.  I've never seen anyone in real life actually have a seizure.  It was frightening.  Thankfully, several of the students have been in school with this girl for a while, and have assigned duties when this happens.  Two girls collected jackets to make a pillow, and another went to get the nurse.  I was very glad they knew what to do, because the rest of the class that hadn't seen it before came running up to the top of one of the risers (which are plastic flip-forms where the top step flips down!), so I had to spend my energy getting the other students back into their assigned place before they tipped the risers over on the girl.  Then I had to just keep them quiet because half of them were screaming at the girl on the floor to get up.  Yeah, like that's gonna help!  Oi!  That was the longest ten minutes I've been through in quite some time.

08:00 pm: My First Day of School
Well, today was interesting I suppose.  It was what I call the "outclass mishmash day".  Basically, on Monday's we, the "outclass" teachers, meaning music, art, PE and computer, take every student in every grade level.  So, since there are four teachers, and five sections of each grade, that means we each take a class and a fourth.  If library were willing to jump in the rotation, we could just go to a five day normal rotation for the classes and not have these stupid Mondays.  Anyway, since Monday's are a special situation, it means that I have to come up with a separate plan for each grade level on Monday, as well as their regular lesson plans for their actual rotation the rest of the week.  Grrr. 

Today though, we just took every kid in every grade to the gym and went over the class rules for each section.  It was pretty easy, and not at all like a real day of teaching.  My first true test of merit will come tomorrow!

Tags: music, school, teaching

03:29 pm: School is almost here
All new teacher training and orientation is complete (for now) and school starts on Monday.  I'm excited about my new room and meeting all the kids.  It's going to be crazy for a bit though I imagine.  Not all the students know they're getting new music and art teachers because both the previous teachers left late in the summer.  Surprise!  Now I'm just trying to get my lesson plans finished.  K-2 down, 3-5 to go!

Tags: music, school, teaching

06:04 pm: New Teacher Orientation
So far I have completed two days of New Teacher Orientation (which also gives me some in-service credit so that's good too).  Yesterday was very boring.  I learned nothing I hadn't heard in the classes I took to get my certification, but I suppose a review is never a bad thing.  It just didn't make for a very "awake" day on my part.

The annoying part was the classroom planning.  There are around 800 new teachers in the Fort Bend system this year (many are from other districts, but about a third to a half are actually brand new teachers).  Apparently when the people got together and decided which seminars would be offered in which rooms and when, they forgot that there would be 800 people, many of whom all needed to go to the same seminar at the same time because the subject specific seminars were only offered at very inconvenient times.  (Like, in the middle of other more important 3 hour long trainings that teachers will actually be tested on at the end of the school year.)  Most of the seminars were full 30-45 minutes before they actually began.  Every single one I attended yesterday was standing room only.  It was a bit like those old old tricks of "how many college students can you fit in a slub-bug" except that we were all teachers, in classrooms, with desks, and most of the people sitting on the floor around the sides, down the isles and evern behind the presenter. 

Today was a little better.  They moved the big seminars (the ones that apply to teachers in general, not a specific subject or grade level) to the various auditoriums.  Tomorrow is going to be a very long day I feel.  I have two 3 hour trainings.  At least the last two days I've had a new class every hour so it didn't get as tedious at it might.  Tomorrow I'll get to sit and listen for 6 hours. 

Tags: jobs, orientation, teaching

03:24 pm: Confused fish?
I just finished setting up a 10 gallon tank for egg hatching. 
Why?  Because someone in our 40 gallon is trying to make baby fish. 
Who are the suspected parents?  A blood parrot and a salvani.  I guess we'll know for sure if any of the eggs hatch though.

I'm a bit nervous to see if anything actually comes of these eggs.  What strange things will be the product of a union between two very different looking fish?

06:22 pm: I Gotta Job, I Gotta Job, I Gotta Job, Hey hey hey hey!
So, as the title of this post says, I now have a job. 

I was on my back from an interview in Spring ISD (really too far away, but I wanted the practice and the fall-back possibility anyway), when I got a call from a number I didn't recognize.  It was Fort Bend ISD.  They said I had been recommended for the music position at the elementary school, would I be interested in taking the job?  "Of course", I said!  So, on Thursday morning, I will be heading over to their main office to fill out my contract and get all my information and paperwork.  Sweet!  The nice bonus is that Fort Bend starts later than some of the other districts.  My training doesn't start until August 7! 

So yes, 'tis a very good day with much celebration to be had.

10:14 pm: Interesting Sunday at "Church"
Well today turned out to be quite interesting.  There were 15 or so heathens here for a festival.  Much fun was had by all.  The best thing is that the ceremony involves much drinking of mead.  Hail to bees.

05:45 pm: Excellent Interview
Today was an excellent interview.  I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for Fort Bend ISD to acknowledge that I sent them an application.  Four weeks is a little absurd I think, to not even send an automated message letting me know they received my application.  Anyway, a principal from one of the elementary schools called me yesterday and set up an interview for today.  I went, and we talked for about 40 minutes.  It was more an indepth conversation about teaching style and lesson ideas than a real interview, but it went very well.  At the end of the discussion, she was showing me the music room and turned, looked at me and said, "Well, do you like our program?  Are you still interested in the position?"  Of course I said yes!  She then informs me that at soon as I get her the contact information for my actual teaching supervisors (not coordinating teachings, which is what all the applications want), she will send my recommendation form to the team.  She said she'd call in about a week to set up a meeting with the "team" because they'd really like to meet me.  As I was walking out the door she shook my hand and said "welcome to the team". 

It wasn't a firm job offer - here's your contract - type situation, but it was still a damn cool feeling, and the best lead I've had so far.

Tags: teaching; jobs