Halloween

I actually wish we were in class tonight because I dont like kids ringing the bell all night. The dog goes nuts and I have to give candy I've paid for to kids who've never learned manners and how to say thank you. How bout a holiday where kids come around, ring my bell and hand ME something. Oh that's right, it's called mischief night and they hand me my busted up pumpkin that used to sit on my steps. HAHA this blogging is fun, the keyboard is such a whiner!

Principals know your students?

I work in a small school, grades 5-8 with about 120 kids average in each grade. The principal of the school must be in his mid 60's while our VP is in his 40's with kids of his own. I would be hard pressed to think that COMBINED they could identify and name a dozen kids in our school. I find this very unfortunate as I work my way towards my masters degree to be a VP. Of course the VP knows the trouble kids and sometimes develops a rapport with them, and the principal probably knows the kids whose parents complain a lot or are on the BOE. It's the nice, quiet, middle of the road kids that are never noticed. I always felt that the accelerated ACE students get special treatment and special trips. All the special ed, classified students get help and special, smaller classes. Where is the B student factor in all this....and what is their name!?

How do you throw away a garbage can?!

Okay, this might be the most random post ever made but it's something that is blowing my mind. I have this old broken garbage can that I want to throw away. It's so broken there are 3 holes in it one long slit and the handle is hanging off the side. Every garbage day I come home from work to see it left on my curb still!! One day I went ahead and left it upside down, nope, still there. Okay, fine, I spray painted GARBAGE on it...big white letters. Well what do you know? They probably think I was just labeling my belongings!! Still here! You dont see me spray painting JEEP on my s.u.v do you? My last resort, I turned the garbage can to the other side and spray painted "TAKE ME" on it. I know it sounds borderline inappropriate but it's all I could fit. Guess what....yup, I still own it. Do you have to leave a note I asked myself. So I wrote a note to the wonderful garbage men, apparently they dont read notes, they just dump whatever is in your can (EVEN IF IT'S AIR) and throw it back on your lawn. HAHA, I laugh out loud, this is becomming comical when I see this thing staring at me from the street when I get home every week. My last resort, I must get violent, NO, not with the garbagemen, with the garbage CAN...I step on it, i kick it, i jump on it, I crush the thing into a small enough piece that I can stick it in ANOTHER GARBAGE CAN....well that'll do it folks, it has been taken away from me, and unforunately the game is over...true story, but THE END!

Interim, Nice work if you can get it

We had a faculty meeting the other day to meet the interim of special services. A man that has held several high ranking positions in our district. He was just approved to work in this capacity for a pay rate of $550 a DAY! I take offense to the idea of interim when there are many young men and women like ourselves with the certification and the desire to work and get our feet wet. How can our district pay these people these salaries when the budget just went down and they cut ALL the Freshmen sports programs. How much does it cost to run those programs...isn't everything we do "for the kids?!?!" Our school building has yet to hire a Media Specialist. Keep in mind i'm in a fairly new school building and the media center is beautiful, and it should be utilized by students everyday, but instead it sits empty except for a few music classes because they've assigned that teacher WAY to many students. Who is accountable for spending when my phys ed department just chipped in $20 each to buy more ink for our printer just so we can make dittos and tests for health class. Awful.

Is curriculum writing REALLY volunteer work

I apoligize for not "blogging" earlier but I guess I was waiting for motivation. Today, I was approached by my vice principal who said that the k-2 cirriculum was in what they call phase 3 which is the writing phase. The two teachers in their respective elementary schools have refused to write and/or volunteer due to their age and their general hatred of helping out anyone. Therefore, here comes the VP coming to see me (26 years old) and my non tenured co-worker in the Phys Ed health dept. He said "well, there's no one to write this so I told the super that you guys would be team players and help us out" My question is, who's job is it really to write curriculum. What if I have no plans to ever teach at that low level. Is volunteer work really optional. All these questions weigh on my mind as I dread the rest of the school year knowing that I have to re-vamp a whole curriculum before June. Health included. During phase 1 and 2 we're just looking at the overall status of the curriculum and in phase 3 we start writing. Phase 3 does earn you the pay rate of writing but what does that come down to per hour. Are we just bailing them out by doing their job? Does the strong arm come down because you're non-tenured? Is volunteer work mandatory!?