Sunday, March 27, 2005

What?!

Is someone fucking with me? Why have nearly one hundred people stopped by since last night? Usually I figure those are people browsing through Blogger, using the "next blog" button. But the last ten have been direct hits. What the hell? I am suspicious of anything that people do that appears to compliment me.

Speaking of complimenting me, I have been fawned over this weekend, comparatively, a lot. On Thursday before us teacher gals went out, Ms F and this other lady were telling me how gorgeous I am, but how much more beautiful I would be with more makeup/flowier hair/shaped eyebrows, etc. I let Ms F do a bit of eye makeup, I borrowed some powder, and slapped on some lippy. Once the lipstick was on, Ms C and Ms H the math teacher were all, "ooh, girl, look at you!"

Last night I met up with my cousin, his mom/my aunt, and another aunt. The aunts have been in town visiting this week, and actually a third aunt was in town during the week too. But she's gone now, so I didn't see her. Anyway, I haven't seen those aunts in a long time, probably a year? Not sure; this moving-across-the-country has messed with my memory and sense of time. Feels like I've been here a few years instead of ten months. So one of the aunts was all, "Oh, you are just so pretty!" All fawny. It was very sweet. I was all, aw-shucks, but who doesn't like being told that? I'm just not used to it. I did have on the lipstick, so maybe that's the key. Some kind of Clark Kent/Superman trick. Throw on the lipstick and BAM! It's SuperPrettyTeacher! Heh. Able to leap tall buildings and grade papers at a single glance!

So dinner with family was fun. They were excited about being in New York, and about seeing the Met. My cousin agreed with me when I said that in my head, the Met gets mixed up with the Louvre and other big museums, and I always want to speak French, whichever one I'm in. They saw the Producers already this week, and last night they saw the Snowshow, which is apparently clowns or something. Eek, not sure I'd be into that. But anyway, it was very nice to see them. I was happy to be included and invited out. It's nice to see people, and it's also nice to see people who are happy about New York. Cause I'm just, meh.

It's always nice to be around people who know where you're coming from. Being from the West Coast is like being from another country around here. Different accents, different words, different frame of mind, different personalities, everything.

It's already Sunday--BOO! Yesterday I got some papers 'graded.' There are twelve sets, so instead of actually reading them, or even looking them over, I just checked them off in my gradebook. Sorry, kids. Your teacher is a lazy scatterbrain who doesn't have time to read every word you write. Part of me feels bad about that, but the vast majority of me is all, 'dude, are you kidding with this shit? Like I have nothing else to do?!'

Not like I actually do all that other shit. On Friday I did no work, but I wanted a day completely off. That's normal. Yesterday I only did that checking of papers, and couldn't even finish. Got like three phone calls in a row, and then I had to leave, so I only got two classes all done. Four more sets to check off.

That means today I need to finish the homework. I need to plan my week. I really need to get some test-prep work done. I really need to get some grades started so that next week I'm not overwhelmed with the in-putting. I need to clean my room like nobody's business; I have that all-my-clothes-are-in-a-pile problem again. We have no QC classes this week--HURRAH!--so I can legitimately forget about all that work. I should go to Target.

Waah, I don't want to do any of it! It's only 10.30, so I've got a lot of time today. But still, WAAH! I hate working at home on the weekends!

There is some exciting news though: I got a new bulb for my overhead from the AP! I didn't have to go buy one with my own money! That is very cool for me.

Yesterday I bought a bunch of teaching reference books, two of which are test-prep books. I plan to use them during the week either in class or possibly even for homework.

The third marking period ends on Thursday. Holy crap. We JUST did grades at the beginning of February. I cannot whine enough about how much I do not want to do them again. BOOOOOOO...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't you know? You're in today's New York Daily News!

Anonymous said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/293904p-251551c.html

Anonymous said...

I just wish the article had more to say about the failing and ludicrous "Workshop Model," the shame of wasting whole days with "Test Sophistication" practice tests,and the inane emphasis on bulletin boards.

Anonymous said...

Hello. I am a retired New York City teacher. I retired in in 2001 after teaching for 32 years.
I have frequently contributed articles to the Voice of the People, N.Y. Post, Newsday and Kings Courier.
Our once beautiful school system is in shambles. We may only blame ourselves for letting it deteriorate to the extent it has.
While we must have a union, the total spirit of the UFT was broken by the disastrous strike of 1975. We wound up losing 10 days pay for striking and several months later, we were forced to pay taxes on money we never got.
Why should the union fight for its members when they get in overwhelmingly each time there is an election?
Since 2000 over 15,000 pedagogues have retired. I am not referring to the people who just quit teaching or transfer to the suburbs. Something is terribly wrong and the public needs this to be emphasized.
Why do you continue to give cope money when our politicians, who get this, turn around and spit in our eyes?
Discipline has all but collapsed in far too many schools. The city laughs. Thanks to the Taylor Law, teachers can't strike. Why bother negotiating a contract on time when the city will never feel the heat for not doing so? In addition, if teachers can't strike, why should the city rush to a settlement.
How many out there are aware that Joel Klein was a 6th grade math teacher for 6 months in a Queens intermediate school before fleeing? How dare he and his 29 year old hotshots from a principal's academy try to boss around people who have been in the system far longer and know what is going on!!!!
Thank you for reading my comments. There will be more to read as time goes on.