Who here likes inhaling dust? Just what I thought - no one. Then why do teachers let the dust and crap build up in their rooms? I’m sorry, but I just don’t get that. There is no way having all of your stuff covered in dust can be enjoyable to either the teacher or the students.

Me and my mom have been working in my classroom this week. There is so much junk in that room. Dust is only the beginning of it. There are books in there from the 60’s. Come on people, if you want to get kids reading, showing them an old black and white picture book with blurry pictures from the 60’s is not the way to go about it. There are also about four old sets of reading series materials: the student books, teachers’ manual, practice books, etc. If the teacher isn’t using them anymore, why keep them?? I stacked them up in the hallway for the janitor to do something with. Some of the books are ones I had when I was in first grade myself. They’re like over 20 years old people!!

I have a big pile of stuff to get rid of: old rugs, a dollhouse, some blocks from the 60’s - 70’s, old Legos, tons of very outdated teacher resource books, and the list goes on. It’s just overwhelming how much junk is in that room. It’s also amazing how a little bit of colorful border and bulletin board paper can really liven up a room.

I am grateful that there is also a lot of good stuff in the room. When I taught in Lexington three years ago, I walked into a completely empty room. I had no materials at all really except for the reading series and some Social Studies books. I am lucky that I am going to be teaching in an awesome school, with awesome teachers, and “stuff.” ‘Tis better to have junk than nothing at all? Then again, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure? Whatever the case may be, my room is going to be the rockin’-est room in the school.

(I will have to edit this post later (hopefully) and post pictures of the progress!)

I had ordered some Bare Escentuals from QVC back around the 8th or 9th (whenever it was the Today’s Special Value). I ordered their 10 piece kit and also the compact. Well, I got the compact in the mail on 12th I think, and since it was shipped the same day as the other thing I ordered, I expected to receive the second part of my order shortly after. I didn’t.

I finally did some investigating last night. I found my tracking number on QVC.com and found out my package has been sitting at the UPS facility here in my town since June 11th. It said that “the customer called and said they would pick it up at their local UPS facility. UPS will hold this item for 5 days.” What??? I was surprised by that. I have called UPS and went to pick things up before if I missed a delivery. They always leave a slip on your door that says they tried to deliver your package and they will try again tomorrow or you can call and pick it up yourself. I never received a slip this time though, and I most certainly did not call them.

Last night all I could get was automated service, so I had to wait until this morning to call and speak to a human. I told them the situation and the guy said my package was there. I went to pick it up, and the lady was a little confused by the situation (after I explained) and said she didn’t know what had happened but that someone must have took my slip and called for me. I’ve lived in my apartment for over two years and I’ve never had anything stolen or any problems with mail or anything. You have to have an ID to pick up packages, so luckily no one actually came and got my package.

Anyway, I now have my makeup and I am happy. <3

I also got my 40 tubes of Winsor and Newton watercolor paint I won from Ebay. <3

And… it’s my anniversary. <3 Colin and I are heading down to the lake area shortly. We’re going to spend the night there, have a romantic dinner, etc.

P.S. I had my “official” interview yesterday. It went super well. I got the thumbs up. They aren’t interviewing anyone else for first grade, so I pretty much have the job. I should get the “official” answer by Friday though.

School is out for the summer in two days. I absolutely cannot wait! Today was my last day of having any classes though. The next two days I will spend uninstalling things on the computers, moving around shortcuts and programs, cleaning the computers, backing up files, etc. I also have to work on this year’s calendar image that will go in the district school calendar next year. Last year’s got a lot of attention. I am trying to make this year’s just as good if not better! I am trying a chalkboard theme this year instead of a corkboard. Hopefully it’ll turn out okay. It has to be finished by June 1st!

A lot of talk has been going around about possible teaching positions for next year. I’ve heard a kindergarten job might open, a K/1 job might open, a first grade job might open, etc. So far, the principal hasn’t said anything to me about any of these jobs. I suspect it’s because she doesn’t know people are retiring or trying to transfer as is the case with some of the supposed jobs. I love my job in the computer lab, as many of you know, but I am not paid as a certified teacher. Having a two year break from a regular classroom has been wonderful, but I think I am ready to have my own class again. (The pay increase would also be nice.) I’m just waiting to see what will happen. I guess if it’s meant for me to have my own classroom again, something will open up at my school. Time will tell.

Speaking of school, I finally got a chance to try out podcasting with some third graders! It was kind of a rushed thing. It was my first time trying podcasting, so I had to make a few mistakes in order to learn! The podcast has some flaws (which of course is going to happen when working with kids!) but for a first time, I think it turned out pretty well! It’s cute too. You can download the podcast here to listen to it if you’d like.

Last but not least, Sarah (of Cherry-Pip.net) has created a fanlisting for me! Can you believe it?! I know, I was surprised myself! It was a pleasant surprise though. Go visit the fanlisting and check out the colorful layout and rainbowy buttons. And, if you are a fan of me, join the fanlisting! Everyone who joins gets free rainbows! Thanks again to Sarah for being so awesome enough to create a fanlisting for little ol’ me. Maybe this will motivate me to blog more often.

Tomorrow begins our two weeks of state assessment (called the CATS test: Commonwealth Accountability Testing System).

The Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) is designed to improve teaching and student learning in Kentucky. CATS includes the Kentucky Core Content Test, writing portfolios and prompts, alternate assessments for students with severe to profound disabilities…

Last year, I didn’t have to test any students. Instead, I had to cover a first grade teacher’s class while she tested someone. I found out last week that this year I will be testing a fifth grade special education student. I have to provide full accommodations for this student. I have to read everything to her and I have to scribe all of her answers. Fun times for me. The multiple choice questions will be no big deal. The open response questions might not even be so bad. I’m most concerned about the on demand portion. During the on demand portion of the test, students have to go through the entire writing process to answer a prompt. They have two hours to do it (and up to four if they need more time). Luckily, I get to do the testing in the computer lab.

I found out later in the week that I would also be having another fifth grader in the lab with me. This one needs no accommodations. It’s a girl who has been out of school and has been on homebound due to medical reasons. I’m not sure exactly what is wrong with her, but one teacher basically said she’s constantly in pain and could die any time. I think (or at least, I hope) that she was exaggerating. She’s going to be testing in the lab because she may need to get up and move around a lot, and her former homeroom teacher didn’t want her distracting any of the other students in that class. The girl was at the awards ceremony on Friday though, and she looked okay.

Testing lasts two weeks. Since testing will last from 8:15 until 11:00 every day, that means my regular lab classes will not meet at the regularly scheduled time. Instead of having classes for an hour they will only last thirty minutes. Short is good, but because of the fact we have to cram in all the classes during the week, my breaks will be fewer and shorter. It will be a busy two weeks for sure!

I’m sort of excited that I get to help with testing because it’ll be interesting to see how many of the answers I know.

This morning when I had my 5th grade class, there was some definite letter passing going on. It didn’t start until near the end of class, and they were passing letters that they had written before coming to the computer lab. I thought the owner of the letter was finally in possession of it, so I didn’t think it was a big deal. I mean, there were worse things they could have been doing while in the lab.

I didn’t give much thought about the letter passing until early afternoon when I went to log one of the computers back on and noticed a folded piece of notebook paper underneath the keyboard. This is what I found:

My Boo!

J****** would you go out with me. You have a great personality. The other reason is that you are sexy and amazing and also a hottie. We also can have a good time go out with each other. I am going to stop being so warsome and you have to stop being mean to me. The reason I know you are sexy is because you have a amazing body and your lips are big and juicy like I like them. That is the reason I want to go out with you. I am not done yet there is more. I will start being nice to you. I will do anything to go out with you because you are the love of my life. That paper that D*** was going to give to you was that she was asking if you will-

There was obviously a missing second page to the letter. I had two fourth graders in the lab working on their portfolio pieces and I told them I found a love letter. They begged me to read it to them, but of course I didn’t. Instead, here I am posting it for the world to read. I am breaking copyright violations.

This afternoon before school was out, I took the letter to the teacher and told her that I had found a love letter in the lab. Funny thing is, I didn’t find the letter underneath J’s keyboard or D’s keyboard, or even K’s keyboard (the girl who wrote it). It was under another boy’s keyboard! Apparently, the teacher has had problems with love letters in her classroom too. Oh, the raging hormones of young ones. *giggles!!*

April has started off rather wet here in Western Kentucky. As I type this, it is pretty much pouring down rain here and thundering. Yucky.

I have been kind of “absent” from the online world for the past several days (maybe even longer?). I’ve just been really busy at work, and when I get home I haven’t much felt like getting online really. The time just seems to fly by these days. Last Friday night I started feeling a little sick, and Saturday I work up and ended up having diarrhea all day (TMI, I know). That whole weekend was pretty much ruined. I was fine by Monday though. It was a 24 hour thing I guess.

This whole week I have been teaching the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders how to use Microsoft PowerPoint. Pretty much none of them have really used it before. I didn’t get a chance to do PowerPoint last year due to all the testing I had to do (way more than I do now). I wanted to make the assignment as easy as possible for everyone. Each grade has to do as many slides as the grade level they are in. (5th grade does 5 slides, 4th grade- 4 slides, 3rd- 3 slides) Except, they all also have to do a title slide in addition to their number of slides. Here’s what each class is working on:

5th Grade: Sense Poetry - Each student had to choose an emotion word (sadness, happiness, jealousy, anger, etc.) and then they had to write a sentence about their emotion word for each of the five senses. For example, if they chose ‘happiness’ they might say, “Happiness tastes like a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie my grandma made me.”

4th Grade: Fun for all Seasons - For each of the four seasons, they have to write what they like about or like to do during that season. I tried to make this as simple as possible for them because the 4th grade group is the roughest group in the school.

3rd Grade: Favorite Holidays - Each student picks their three favorite holidays and tells why they like that particular holiday.

The kids are really doing great with it and seem to be enjoying it a lot. I did some really pimped up versions of their assignments. I added transitions and sound and cool backgrounds and everything to get them excited about it. My plan worked. They can’t wait to add all of the clipart and things. I’m making them type everything first and making them keep everything boring old black and white until they finish their typing. I can’t wait to see what they all come up with!

I showed 1st and 2nd grade this really cool website I found called Kerpoof. It’s similar to the software we have called KidPix, but this is WAY more user friendly for younger kids. My first graders really struggle with KidPix, but love Kerpoof! It is fun! I created an account on there myself. The best thing is- it is super kid friendly, and there’s no advertising. You can make drawings, pictures, stories, movies, and cards on there. Try it out! It’s fun to make things!

I also found another cool website called Glogster. I haven’t actually tried it out myself yet, but it looks really neat. Basically, you can create digital collages or posters. You can add interactive things to you posters as well, and they have tons of stuff on their site you can add to your creation. It’s pretty nifty! I’ve found a lot of other neat sites while at work this week and last week too, and I’ll share some more later.

I taught Kindergarten how to play Sebran. Sebran is a free game I downloaded. It’s great and has lots of mini-games that make it up. Kids of all ages love this game. There’s math parts (adding, subtracting, multiplying), memory matching games, hangman, and a great set of games called “rain” games where letters or numbers fall down the screen. This is GREAT for helping little ones learn where they keys are at on the keyboard. If you have a small child, I’d recommend this for them. Most of the activities are geared for say K-2, but my older kids love it too.

I am so behind on reading everyone’s blogs! I also haven’t been ab;e to really return comments lately. Sorry! :shame: I also owe a few people snail mail letters. Hopefully I can catch up on things next week during my spring break (yay!). I will also be updating my site next week. I need to upgrade to WordPress 2.5 and I think I’m going to be making some changes to the layout and/or adding more content.

Oh, one of the teachers at school was collecting money for Relay for Life. She said our principal agreed that if we we donated $5.00 we could wear jeans all week (this week). I donated right away!

I leave you with this bracelet I made my mom for Easter. I love it! I want to make myself one. It’s made of acrylic and glass beads, silver stars, and sterling silver.

Well, after some silly moments I made it home yesterday about 4:00 p.m. or so. Let’s see, when I was checking out of the hotel, this man who was standing by the counter went, “Whoa! You smell gooooood!” He kept going on and on about it. Then he said, “I can see why you’re married.” The man behind the counter said, “What?” And the other man said, “She’s married, and I can see why. She’s smelling fine!” It was a little weird and creepy that he noticed I had a wedding ring on and thought I smelled so good. Clinique Happy Heart. Get some and attract weirdos just like I do. :sweatdrop:

I made it to the conference with no problem. I just wanted to add that the reason I went to McDonald’s so many times while I was gone is because it was the closest thing to my hotel, and I didn’t feel brave enough to venture out and find food elsewhere. My workshop on copyright was pretty good. A lot of my teachers are doing things they shouldn’t be. Hopefully they won’t be sued. Lots of people apparently left the conference on Thursday night to try and beat the snow. Lots of people left yesterday morning too, so all of my workshops were pretty empty. I ate lunch by myself at T.G.I. Fridays. I’ve never eaten in a restaurant like that by myself. It was definitely weird. I had to walk around in the snow and stuff. It was really cold. It started snowing in Louisville about 8:30 or 9:00 probably.

As I was eating lunch, a brilliant thought came to me. I hadn’t gotten all of my first choices of workshops since I registered kind of late. I thought that maybe since lots of people were leaving though, I could get into a workshop that I had really wanted. (The reason I wanted it so bad was because you get free software valued at $200.) I decided that I couldn’t possibly adequately learn all about 5 different types of animation software in an hour, so I decided to try and find out of I could switch from the animation workshop to the other one which was about creating newsletters and school newspapers. I asked someone at the registration booth, and she told me to go ahead and show up to the workshop I wanted and it would probably be okay. And it was. Only me and one other girl showed up. I got my free software though, so all was well.

I made it home mostly with no problems. It was hard to see driving out of Louisville. A lot of the road signs were covered in snow which made it hard to tell where I needed to go exactly. There was pretty heavy snow all the way past Elizabethtown. Once I got into Muhlenberg County, the snow decreased dramatically. By the time I was back in Hopkins County, the snow was like non-existent. It was really lame. They had cancelled school yesterday due to “the threat of snow” and it didn’t even snow all day really! Luckily, I got home just in time. The place to turn onto my road was starting to get slick. After I got home, it started snowing harder and snowed pretty much all night I think. We have probably at least 8 inches of snow. It’s crazy! It hasn’t snowed like this in forever. You could actually build a snowman out of this!

Pouncy has had a cold for the past few days: runny nose, runny eye, and sneezing. She was also having some trouble breathing it seemed like. I decided when I got home yesterday afternoon that she needed to go to the vet. They were closed. I took a hot shower though and had her stay in the bathroom with me. We also turned on the humidifier for her. The vet was supposed to open at 7:30 this morning, so I called and the vet said the roads were really bad and he wasn’t going to be there long. Luckily, the vet is like 5 minutes away. We bundled up Pouncy and took off through the snow. She usually freaks out about the car, but she did okay today. She also did okay once we got in the vet’s office. She didn’t freak out about the dog or cat that were also there. The doctor was the only one there, so he was also having to answer phones and everything. Once we got in a room, we had to wait quite awhile. Pouncy got anxious and antsy and started freaking out. She was panting and sounded like she might hyperventilate and stuff. She was growling and hissing, biting and scratching and trying to get away. She hates the doctor. Always has.

The doctor finally took a look at her and couldn’t believe that she’s almost 18, has FIV, and has been doing absolutely fine for the past 3 and a half years. He said she’s outlived any FIV statistics that there are. He did say she definitely had a bad cold though. He gave her an antibiotic and some medicine for her eye too. He said to keep taking hot showers with her too. It’s important that she doesn’t lose her ability to smell, because if she can’t smell her food she won’t eat. Luckily, she is still eating and everything. She just looks so pathetic and sounds so sicky. :(( I hope the medicine starts helping her and she feels better soon.

Luckily Pouncy is an inside cat and doesn’t have to deal with this —-> (And the pile is getting bigger.)

Today was insane.

I managed to wake up at 6:00 like planned. I went out to get in my car and go over to McDonald’s for breakfast. The plan was I’d get some food, drive to the convention center, and eat in the car in the parking garage. When I got in my car, I tried to start it and nothing happened. Nothing at all. I try again a couple of more times, but nothing. I started to semi-freak out a little bit, so I called my dad. My dad said I probably left a light on (I did :P) and that I would need to get someone to jump my car. Groan. I hate asking people for help with things like that. I was parked in a corner facing a fence too, so I wasn’t in an easy place for someone to get to.

I went back into the hotel, and three men and a woman were coming out. I could tell by their black and blue KTLC bags that they were conference folk. I asked the men if they had jumper cables and if they could help me. One guy had some cables, so he brought his car around to mine. Two of the guys had to roll my car backwards to get it out so they could get to the hood. They hooked up the cables and I tried to start my car. Nothing happened. They messed around with the cables and had me try again. Nothing. One guy thought maybe the starter was bad, but the other one said that if it was the radio should still come on and it wasn’t. I started getting paranoid again. I told the guys that a light was left on. They decided to try again, and the car finally started. They had to really twist things around and hold the cables just so to get it to work. The one guy said that he thought I had a bad cable somewhere. :sweatdrop:

I called my dad and told him what the guys said, and my dad said to go through the drive-thru at McD’s and not to turn my car off until I got where I was going. I got some food and headed to the convention center. When I got to the parking garage, there was a big sign saying the lot was full. So then I had to go to another parking lot behind that one. I finally got parked, and turned my car off. I tried turning it back on, and it started with no problem. I let me dad know. I didn’t really want him to end up having to drive two and a half hours to check it out. I got out of my car and got in the line to pay for a parking ticket. Then, I realized I needed to know what number spot I was parked in so I had to walk all the way back to my carl. I finally got my parking ticket and headed to the convention center. Once inside, I tried to follow the signs to get where I needed to go. I actually asked a security guard where to go. I went where she told me, and it was the wrong place! So then I had to take an elevator down to the right place. I got to my first workshop minutes before it was going to start.

After the first workshop, I was finally able to eat my breakfast. I had a second workshop, and then it was lunch time. I went to the parking lot to check my car. It started. I decided I’d head back to the McDonald’s by my hotel to get some lunch. Big mistake. I got lost. I cannot stand driving in big cities, especially downtown areas. There are so many one way streets. Downtown Louisville is so ugly anyway. I had to call Colin at work to help me find my way. I also called him last night to help me too. Thank God he’s so helpful like that. :kiss: I finally got to McDonald’s, got my lunch and headed back to the convention center. The big garage was still full, so I planned on parking where I did that morning, but it was full too. I had to call Colin again for help. He told me to try the parking garage at the Marriot but it was closed to the public today. :shame: Then, I went to another parking garage, and it was full too! Where do people park?! I finally got to a parking garage at the Hilton and was able to park on the roof there. Then I had to walk several blocks back to the convention center. I didn’t have time to eat my lunch. I made it to my workshop 1 minute before it was to start. :sweatdrop:

Colin helped me get to a Walgreens (so I could buy a comb since I forgot mine) and then back to the hotel. I was going to eat my food I bought for lunch, but the fries were cold and rubbery. I went to the McD’s and got some fresh fries and a sundae. I am so ready to just wash my hair and chill out for awhile.

The driving has seriously stressed me out. The conference itself has been fine. There’s just so much to fit in in two days. I wish I had gotten there way earlier on Wednesday. You live and learn I guess. I loved the podcasting workshop. The software is so simple. The kids could use it easily. It’s $99.95, but I think it will be so worth it. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it and use it with the kids. I think they’d love it. I have four workshops tomorrow, and the one I am looking forward to the most is the 3-D animation one. I had a workshop today that was about stop-motion animation (claymation). I want the software for that too.

I think I’ll have my sundae now.

Tomorrow I leave for the Kentucky Teaching and Learning Conference (KTLC). I will be attending seven different workshops while there. Here’s my schedule of events:

Wednesday, March 5th
8:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. - Registration (I’m leaving tomorrow afternoon from work, so I’ll be registering around 5:00 hopefully.)

6:00 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.
Opening Reception

6:45 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Welcome - from the Kentucky Commissioner of Education
Special Presentation - Building KEN to Prepare Student Learning for the 21st Century
Cruise Giveaway (Hope I win a cruise! Wish me luck! :D)

Thursday, March 6th
8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m Using Technology Effectively in the Social Studies Classroom
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Just Like Hollywood: Look What I Can Do! (Digital cameras and video software)
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Wherefore Art Thou Podcast (Podcasting! Yay! :D)
3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Beyond the Basics: KEY EncycloMedia for the Advanced User

Friday, March 7th
8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Copyright for online Teaching and Learning
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. KET EncycloMedia - Basic Learning Tools and Features for Teachers and Students
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Teaching Tools for Animation and Computer Science

I’m going to be busy tomorrow at work until I leave. My principal just called me and said it’d be fine for me to leave at 1:30. I should get there in plenty of time now (I hope!). I just hope I don’t run into any thunderstorms or snow.

I’m a little nervous about the trip. I’ve never really gone away out of town by myself before. I’ve never stayed at a hotel by myself before. I’ve never gone to a conference by myself before. It will just be weird being away from Colin and Pouncy. I’ve only spent the night away from Colin for like two nights since we’ve been married (because he was gone to a conference). It’ll all be fine I’m sure, but it will be a little nerve-wracking at first probably.

In other news- my brand new pink camera just arrived in the mail from Staples! I’m charging the battery right now. I can’t wait to try it out to see if I’m going to like it. If I don’t like it, I am totally sending it back. I had a $20.00 coupon and a $125.00 gift card, so it only cost me like $40.00. Bargain!

Calling myself a slave would be a little dramatic and slightly politically incorrect, but I seriously feel like one sometimes. However, it’s probably a little bit of my own fault. I have a massive amount of responsibilities on me at work. Everyone always gushes over how great I am at my job, and it makes me feel good. Therefore, I end up doing pretty much anyone asks me to and then some.

Teaching second and third grade in Lexington was a living hell. When I started my computer lab job last school year, it was a totally new thing for me. I didn’t really know nothing about being a school technology coordinator or administering online assessments. Luckily, I’m good with computers and have always been good at figuring things out for myself. Apparently, I am like a million times better than the previous computer lab person which of course, makes me feel good. At the same time though, it sometimes puts pressure and stress on me.

Some teachers in my school feel that the special areas teachers (music, art, P.E., computer lab, and library) have too much planning time. The teachers get an hour of planning each day. I, on the other hand, have at least two most days and sometimes three. The teachers are only planning for one class though. I have to plan for six different grade levels. Not only that, I have to go around and play superwoman and solve everyone’s technology troubles and install this or that, and take photos of things, etc. I guess some of the teachers feel we have too much free time to sit around and do nothing though. We (the special area teachers) affectionately refer to ourselves as “slackers” because some people don’t think we have anything to do. Whatever.

A teacher sends a kid to the library with a dollar and asks the librarian to buy her a drink from the coke machine. People call me on the phone while I have a class and expect me to leave and come help them figure out why their VCR isn’t working. It’s ridiculous. My principal doesn’t know a thing about technology so I am left to make ALL of the technology decisions for our school. It’s a huge responsibility to decide who gets a new computer first or which classes get an extra computer. Apparently, no teacher or parent has ever complained about me personally though which is nice to know.

It’s been a super busy couple of weeks for me (that is, when we have actually been in school and not out for now), and I just needed to rant for a minute. I am overworked and underpaid like most people, and sometimes it just really frustrates me. Do any of you How many of you have a job that makes you feel like this?

I posted a little snippet on Monday about how school let out at 12:45 that day. We were supposed to get some pretty bad winter weather and… we did! It began to snow, freeze rain, and all of that wintry mix stuff. Needless to say, on Tuesday schools were closed. Colin still had to work because the college he works at like never closes. On Tuesday (last) night, a state of emergency was declared in my county. Schools were closed today too. Colin left to go to work, and I checked the college website one last time after he left, and turns out, the college DID close today! He got to come home! It was neat that both of us got a snow day together. And guess what - tomorrow there is no school either! I am so thrilled!

We haven’t had decent snow days in a long time! While we don’t have a lot of snow, we do have a lot of ice. Ice is all over everything. A lot of people were without power which is part of the reason a state of emergency was declared. The sun actually came out for awhile today, so some of the ice has started to melt. If it gets warm enough tomorrow more should melt, and we should go to school on Friday, but who knows! I was expecting I might have to go tomorrow. It’s neat to work at a school and still get snow days.

This does mean that I will need to get an extension on the testing I’ve been doing in the lab though.

Happy Hump Day everyone!

I’m finally starting to feel better I think. Two Saturdays ago I got pretty sick. Some stomach virus/flu thing. Once, I got the flu really bad when I was in 5th grade and pretty much puked my guts out for days on end. Every since then, I haven’t been able to throw up when sick. Some people might think this is a good thing. It’s not always really. I mean, sometimes when you’re sick, it makes you feel better to throw up. Well anyway, since I can’t throw up I just sort of gag and get all nauseas and dizzy and stuff. It’s not fun. So when I was sick two Saturdays ago, if I could have thrown up, I would have been throwing up left and right. Instead, I just got to be very nauseas and gaggy and had diarrhea which is another fun treat in itself. I was also extremely achy. Luckily, the Monday was a day off (Martin Luther King day), and the Tuesday brought snow so school was cancelled. I did miss two days of work though. I didn’t go back until last Friday. It’s Wednesday now, and I’m starting to feel more like my old self again, which is definitely nice.

Some news about work- There is this conference I wanted to go to in March. It’s a two day thing, so I’d have to miss two days of work and stay overnight and stuff. I wanted to go because there are a lot of neat workshops that are being offered (some that give you way cool free stuff!) on things I am interested in. The conference workshops are largely technology oriented, but there are other general education ones as well. The main ones I am interested in are the podcasting ones, the animation ones, and the school newspaper/digital camera ones. Anyway, to go to this conference I figured I’d have to use two of my personal days and take off work and pay the conference fee and hotel out of my own pocket. I decided to ask my principal if there was any way I could go to this and be compensated for it. Well, Monday it finally got all sorted out. The budget committee decided that since we’re getting a lot of new technology stuff for our school (mostly document cameras and stuff) that sending me to this conference to learn about new things would be good. So… I get to go and everything is going to be paid for by the school! I even get reimbursed for mileage and all. I’m super excited! I’ve never gone out of town before, by myself, to something like this. I’ve gone to conferences before, but I never had to stay at a hotel by myself or anything like that. I think it’ll be neat though. I just hope I get into the workshops I want. So, on March 5 -7 I will be off hopefully having fun and getting free goodies in Louisville.

My new craft experiment: I bought some yellow yarn and Crocheting for Dummies last weekend. A couple of people have told me that the book is a pretty good one for helping to learn how to crochet. I’ve wanted to learn how for awhile now. I also bought this cd-rom that has crochet lessons on it. I tried it out yesterday, and I think it will definitely help a lot! The videos in the lessons are really good, and I guess I am pretty visual about things! Maybe one day I will crochet a masterpiece! Until then… I will practice.

I am mad. I am frustrated. The more I think about how mad and frustrated I am, the more mad and frustrated I get!

I am what is considered a “specials” teacher. For those of you who may not have young children or be older and not know what I mean by this let me explain. Elementary school kids go to “special” classes. In some schools they are called a different name but basically what I am talking about is P.E. (gym), music, art, library, and computer lab. I am the odd man (or woman I should say) out because I’m not even hired as an actual “teacher” so I don’t get teacher pay. This means I do as much (if not more) work than every other teacher in the school but get paid way less.

The regular classroom teachers have been complaining that we specials teachers have too much planning time. The teachers are saying they have too many meetings during their planning time and therefore are not having time to get their things ready for their classes. I have been where they are at. When I taught in Lexington, I had meetings a LOT during my planning and it was extremely annoying. But…at the same time, the teachers are planning for 1 class. Us specials teachers are planning for 21 classes. Not only that, but a lot of us do “extra” things too. I fix computers, update/create webpages, install programs and games, have classes come in to do projects, research, and typing, etc. The list really goes on. Teachers call me up when I have classes in the lab to ask me for help or to fix something for them. They send students to the lab when I have classes to work on things they need me to help them with. Apparently, one teacher often sends students to the library when there are classes in there with a dollar so the librarian can go buy this teacher a drink in the workroom. How rude!

So I guess the teachers started looking at our schedule and realized we do have a lot of “free” time. My “free” time is spent working on computers and such or testing kids or whatever else I need to do. See, we are down a teacher this year so the spot we would have had that teachers’ class is now empty for us. The teachers need to realize that we did not create the schedule. The schedule was created for us.

well I guess someone got the bright idea that we should start our specials at 8:00 (not 8:10) and keep each class 10 minutes longer. This will mean that we will not have a five minute break between classes anymore. Do the teachers not realize that they will have to be waiting in the hallway for the next class to get logged off and leave? This isn’t going to give me any time to set anything up for the next class. And did the teachers not stop and think that now their meetings can just go for 10 minutes longer? This extra 10 minute thing may not sound like a big deal to some of you, but it is going to throw off the entire school’s schedule. I’m talking lunch schedules, special education teacher schedules, reading invervention groups, etc. It is absolutely ridiculous.

I am really feeling like I am being taken advantage of. I work as hard, if not harder, than a lot of people at work and I get paid a lot less for what I am doing. If the teachers are going to push for this extra 10 minute thing, then they are just going to realize that I am not going to be able to run to their room and fix their problems at the drop of a hat. I’m not going to be doing anything to their webpages - they will just have to do it themselves which they should be doing anyway. I’m not staying after school to help them since I’m not being paid to do so.

There is still a LOT left of the school year, so a lot can still change, but I don’t know what I’ll be doing next year if stuff like this continues to happen. Ten minutes now and then what? It was discussed that maybe we’d have an extra class of each grade level each week. If that happened, there’d be two days a week us specials teachers wouldn’t have a planning time at all. I don’t want to sound like I am bragging or anything, but if I quit my job, there would be chaos. I do a whole lot of things the teachers take for granted. Without me there, a lot of things wouldn’t get done because no one would know what to do. I am beginning to think though, that maybe it will take me leaving for them to realize that.

My head is throbbing.

Today was just another long, busy day in my long, busy week. I’m so sick of testing. We’re still doing PLATO testing of course, and for the grade not PLATOing I’m giving them the STAR Reading/STAR Early Literacy tests. I cannot stand STAR. It is such an invalid test. It’s pretty useless actually. It gives teachers a reading level, but big deal. There are lots of ways to get a kid’s reading level. Most of them take more work on the teacher’s part mind you, but the teacher’s the one who should be dealing with reading levels, not me in the computer lab. I could rant and rave about STAR all day, but I won’t. I’m too tired to do that. :sleepy:

Funny how kids get dumped on me sometimes. There are three Jehovah’s Witness kids in our school. They don’t participate in any holiday activities, so they usually come hang out in the lab with me. Today, no one could deal with this autistic kid, so he ended up in the lab with me. Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against kids with different religious beliefs or kids with disabilities, I just find it humorous that I end up with those kids when no one else can deal with them.

And it’s now official- it’s so hot, kids are not allowed to go outside for recess. This means they have to stay cooped up inside watching movies or something. Poor teachers.

I have said news. Chunk is sick. He was sick about a month ago. He got this big swollen lump on him. I came to the conclusion that he had eaten too much. I have him a pea (this acts as a laxative for fish), and his lump shrunk in size. Well, now the dude is pretty darn huge and looks like a pinecone. He has dropsy. If you click on the link, you’ll find out that Dropsy is most often fatal for fish. I’m treating him with antibiotics, but I’m not holding my breath. He looks really bad. He’s still swimming around like crazy though. He doesn’t seem to be in any pain. He’s not gasping for air or anything like that. It’s sad though because I’ve had Chunk for over 2 years. I’ve had him since my first year of teaching which was in Lexington. He’s been through a lot with me! I hope he’ll get better, but I don’t know what the chances of that are.

The start of the school year is rapidly approaching which means back to work for me. I had meetings scheduled for July 30 and August 1-3. Luckily, the August 1-3 meetings were cancelled.

My mom and Katee have been helping decorate the computer lab. I’m going for an ocean theme. “Dive into technology.” The picture below is from the lab. I uploaded a few others to my computer lab album.

I have so many things to do to get ready for the school year to start. I’m running out of time! It’s exciting, but at the same time I’m not ready for my summer vacation to be over. I like watching my painting shows on tv and being home with Pouncy all day. :kiss: I guess all good things must come to an end though. I can’t wait to get the district calendar so I can see if they printed my school calendar image good.