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2002-10-22 - 9:51 p.m. I wrote another entry the other day, and it got eaten. You would think I would have learned my lesson, but here I am, typing into the little box instead of in word. So who knows, this entry might just get eaten, too. I am thrilled to say that I have Thursday and Friday off, due to our budget cuts. We ended up having eight days cut. So anyway, three day week, and next week is a four day week. The bad thing is that we won't be paid, of course. I've been too afraid to try to compute how much money I will lose. This other teacher was telling me she would lose about $200.00 per month based on her salary, but she's a math teacher and I'm not. She also is way ahead of me on the pay scale. Anyway, life goes on. In January we might lose more days, however, because state funding is in a mess. I think it's pretty pathetic that I keep thinking about that guy in Hawaii. Nothing happened between us, and he was actually sort of a dork, and a real jerk. I guess it's one of those wanting what you can't have things. For about two seconds I felt like a "hot girl", and he made me feel that way. I feel like I'm losing my skater kids. Two out of three laid their heads down on their desks while we were reading today. I just feel so boring sometimes, like I just want to stop everything and say, "Let's do something fun and different! Screw this reading out of the book crap!" The problem is, I can't think of anything fun and creative for us to do because I am too busy trying to survive teaching and grading and all of that. That's not completely true, because we are doing fun and creative stuff in one of my classes right now, but in my freshman class I'm definitely feeling that. I got my grades in (early!) yesterday for the six week period. There were some F's, but a lot more A's than usual. I think it is because my pass thing worked exceptionally well. So well, in fact, that no one ever wants to leave my room. So. Maybe next time I will make them worth less, but I feel like I have to follow through on it. I sneakily have decided to make other assignments worth more so it balances it out. I am such an evil teacher. I went to Portland for the weekend and ended up buying a few new clothes that I really can't afford. In my defense, everything was on sale, and I spent under $100.00. Also, they were for work, and I desperately need some new work clothes. So I'm okay with the money I spent. I got a new sweater and a pair of pants, and two new shirts that are all sort of dressy. The teachers at my school dress really casually anyway, but I try to look fairly nice. I do wear jeans on Fridays sometimes. I also don't think that my freshman class is going to get much smaller because everyone's classes conflict when they try to schedule them into the new class. So basically the other English teacher's class got smaller, and the new teacher's class is small, but mine will still be fairly large. I feel like I would be so much more effective with that class if it was smaller. It's just pissing me off. I've just been telling myself all along that my classes would get smaller, and they basically aren't, and it just sucks. Any ideas on some non "uncool" icebreaker things for the freshmen? I feel like I haven't done a very good job at getting to know them, and getting them to get to know each other. They have this program where they do that already, so I don't want to do any dorky icebreakers, I want to do meangingful ones that won't make them feel like little kids. Everyone said that the third year is the year where you "get it" and everything falls into place. Well, I feel like I'm organized and fairly well-planned, and am even getting them grades fairly regularly. But I still don't feel like I've got it together. I still feel sometimes as if I'm a first year teacher. I hope I get that click soon, or I'm going to go crazy. I got sidetracked about my trip to Portland. We went to Portland to go to Mark's birthday party at his family's house there. I had a good time. There was a lot of good food, and I had never really hung out with his parents and they were very fun. We played a game that we all love playing. We also ended up going to see a movie--The Ring. I really enjoyed that movie. Some of it was very cheesy, but it kept me guessing and scared the whole time. I really haven't been that scared in a movie for a while. I definitely recommend it. The only bad part of the night was that Mark and Elizabeth got into a fight. I could see both sides of the issue, but Elizabeth ended up leaving, and then Mark's sister sort of started going off about Elizabeth. It was really uncomfortable. I didn't think Elizabeth was right to leave, but Mark also shouldn't have prompted her to leave by saying, "Well, if you feel that way you should just leave right now." The worst part is that sometimes when I see them fight I see myself and Justin in them, and that's no good. Are there no happy couples? :) So the other drawback was that we ended up not going out. No one really felt like it, but I am so sick of us always planning on going out and never actually going. I need a night to go out and have fun, and everyone around me is constantly getting tired and not wanting to go out. We're not 30 or 40, we are in our mid-twenties! Ugh. It's not like I want to party all of the time or anything like that, but occassionally would be nice. But I still had fun. I am constantly watching the old Felicity reruns now, and I have to say that it is up there with my top favorite TV shows of all time. This is my list, in no special order: 1. My So-Called Life 2. Felicity 3. Freaks and Geeks 4. The Wonder Years 5. Diff'rent Strokes 6. Three's Company 7. The Real World I feel like I'm forgetting something very important, but I'm not sure what. Does anyone remember that show Rags to Riches? It came out when I was in fifth or sixth grade, and it was about these six(?) orphan girls who got adopted by some rich guy? Man, I loved that show. I better get off or I just might fall asleep during reading time tomorrow.
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