So I guess I decided not to go to the party. I am getting so old it is not funny. I am definitely going to go to our happy hour thing next week. And I'm definitely dragging Justin with me.
Friday nights are so pathetic in the life of a teacher. I have nothing but negativity to report about that.
I am really happy because I'm planning a trip for Justin's birthday. He's never really had anyone make a huge deal about his birthday, but this year I'm going to do it! Justin, Jason, Elizabeth, Mark and I are going to go to go up to Seattle and get tickets to see a Mariners game. Justin is always whining about how he has never seen a real baseball game. I'm going to try to convince everyone that we need to get the best tickets. Since Elizabeth works for a big name luxury hotel we are going to be able to get phat rooms for really cheap. I know I just said phat, deal with it. I think it will be really fun. The tickets go on sale soon, so I just pray that I will be able to get good seats. I also am not sure how I am going to be able to keep this a secret until his birthday, but I am really trying.
Another thing that is cool about the launchcast radio stations besides making your own station is that you can listen to other people's stations. I am hearing the Indigo Girls for the first time in my life. Obviously I have heard of them, but I have never heard their music. I don't love it.
A bunch of bands that my friend Cassandra likes, and I like because of her are coming here. Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, and Quasi to name a few. I would really like to go to all of those, but I especially want to go to Modest Mouse. They are actually playing on a weekend, too. We'll see what happens. Justin is so anti-concert/show, but he has only been to one concert. A concert at the Rose Garden is different than a small intimate show, you know? I just wish he would give it a chance. Our constant argument is that we have nothing in common and won't try the things that the other likes.
My school days continue to rotate--every other day is a good day because I have the classes I like the best every other day. My nightmare class isn't quite as bad now as it used to be, but some days it is. Monday is going to be kind of annoying because I'm going to spend my prep. period again giving make-up state tests to the kids who were absent or not finished. I decided to just take all 22 down in one chunk, so it will be like teaching one more class. It seems unfair to me that the burden of making sure that the tests get made up falls on me because I am the Language Arts teacher. I also seem to have to go to the most IEP meetings because of this. It's not fair that the one who needs their prep the most due to having to grade the most is the one that loses their prep the most. It's not fair for anyone to lose their prep, actually. Oh well, that's life. I won't be crying about being an English teacher this summer! HA HA.
I had this great thing happen that I don't think I mentioned. During state writing testing I was looking over the kids' papers. Well, I come across one of the papers (along with her pre-writing). This girl is my new favorite student! Here's some background information: A few weeks earlier we had read a story that took place in an orphanage during the depression. Well, I took it upon myself to give the kids a mini-lecture about the Great Depression. I told them all about it, and led into the fact that some people couldn't even afford to take care of their kids. A week before the tests we were reviewing stuff I thought might be on the reading tests. We talked about elements of a short story plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution). Anyway, instead of calling it whatever it is really called, I had them call it a plot mountain and draw it that way. Well, my new favorite student showed that she actually was listening in class, and used all of this random information on her state test! She wrote a short story that was set in the Great Depression. She told all about how this kid was given up for adoption because of her parents not being able to afford to keep her (she even mentioned the stock market crash). While I was marveling about the fact that she remembered my whole lecture so well (I know they aren't studying that in Social Studies right now, either), I found her pre-writing page. She made a plot mountain to do her story organization! I just couldn't believe it. Maybe in math or other subjects it is more obvious when a kid gets something from your class, because you can go, "Wow, before they had my class they didn't know how to figure out what X is, and now they know how!" but for Language Arts it is often not obvious at all because Language Arts is so much more big-picture. I just felt so good because I actually taught somebody something!
You know, we constantly talk about how we have such a great group of kids on our team (although lately some of them are acting like little rotten stinkers), but in my four years of teaching I have always had a great group of kids. I often have that one class that drives me crazy, but for the most part I always love my kids. I don't know if this means that I have been really lucky, or if this just means that most kids are really great. Here's to hoping that it's the latter and I will never have a group of rotten stinkers.
