Teaching with laryngitis. No kidding. It was basically the most complicated series of faux sign language ever performed. It involved a lot of arm waving and pointing. I also wrote a lot of signs on paper. Or used my kids like megaphones, whispering directions to the kid and having them say it outloud to the rest…
read more »The Mamas and the Papas were potentially right when they said that you can’t trust that day. Other days unable to be trusted include Sunday, at least this week. (I also maintain that Thursday is actually more untrustworthy than Friday. Students might be like horses toward the stable on Friday but they’re like belligerant mules…
read more »Starting off I should say, I LOVE the new school. I can’t think of a time when I didn’t resent working hard and when I genuinely enjoyed being in the classroom as much as I do now. Of course, it’s not without problems. I had a kid blurt out, “Miss, do you have a thing…
read more »Hello dear readers (both of you), Announcement time: I’m teaching again. I haven’t posted since my earlier announcement that I’m not teaching, mostly because I had nothing to say. I lived a happy, well-rested existence, trying to recover from the brain demon that stole my sanity earlier this year. Not much to report but, in…
read more »(quoted from Henry IV somewhat loosely) Very simple reason that I haven’t blogged in a while: I’m no longer a teacher. Or I’m not a teacher right now. This was initially as much of a surprise to me as it likely is to some other people reading this. About three weeks ago, Sept. 25 in…
read more »Early in the 1994 film adaptation of Jurassic Park, we are shown what appears to be a basketball court in an inexcusable state of overgrowth: a large, fenced-in rectangle of assorted prehistoric foliage with a fairly conspicuous lack of dinosaurs. We can hear, however, high-pitched screeching noises and dull collisions, and the fence rattles. The…
read more »Have determined that my 8th graders are squirrels. They’re so cute when they’re small with their little fluffy tails, and it doesn’t seem so bad if they climb into the bird feeder a couple of times and toss out the millet. Unfortunately, that permissiveness means that they will eventually be impossible to deter. The squirrels…
read more »In some ways I feel like I’ve been at institute for YEARS. Every time someone calls me at 11:30 p.m. with an “emergency” sign issue I’m sitting staring at my e-mail (with a hyphen) for 2 hours waiting for clearance on something I have to say, “no, the package room is N116″ the fax machine…
read more »Okay, three days into year 5. (Have I really spent half a decade doing this…?) I have 8th grade at a freakin’ magnet school. They should be angels, right? They’re smarter than average, right? They value their education and don’t get involved in messy, unnecessary drama, right? Under normal circumstances, yes. In Hartford, no. Two…
read more »I, like my fellow corps members, am feeling anxious about tomorrow. It is a big day, and I don’t feel prepared. My room looks good, and I have been to some great training this week. However, I am still nervous and unsure about how things are going to go. A lot of my trepidation has…
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