tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67539732009-06-26T20:01:38.423-05:00the daily comings and goings of a teacher, an educator, who... just happens to be homelessryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comBlogger750125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-55328784592400520422009-06-04T07:00:00.001-05:002009-06-04T07:00:00.300-05:00

Typically, I try to end the year’s entry with one that sounds like some sort of yearbook signing, like “Have a nice summer!” or “See you next year!” But this year, I’m just not feeling it. The traffic light a block away from school has been out of order for three weeks. That is not an exaggeration. I’ve been counting. To be precise; we’re at Day 23. It just gets me thinking: Does anyone care? I

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-51835198736437031282009-06-03T07:00:00.001-05:002009-06-03T07:00:00.862-05:00

Today is the last day of school. Well, it’s the last day for the students at least. We still have that dreaded last day for the teachers tomorrow. Anyway, this last day will be conducted differently than past last days for the kids. On the final bell of the today we are instructed to perform—a fire drill.That’s right. When that bell rings, we are to line up the kids and lead them out the nearest

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-64807254688269882942009-06-02T07:00:00.003-05:002009-06-02T07:00:00.944-05:00

It’s a shame that we have to start thinking about next year before this one is finished, but such is this life. Speaking of both next year and life, we got the re-enrollment sheets for our insurance in our mailboxes this morning. You know what these things look like. They have all those boxes that you have to tick and return. This year’s version is a bit different than previous years’. It had

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-52687204301734105942009-06-01T12:58:00.001-05:002009-06-01T12:58:54.353-05:00

With just half-days left now because these are testing days, I have a chance to clean out my room. This year I pledge to be more green. For example, I am going to wrangle up all the parent contact sheets that I passed out at the beginning of the year and were never turned back in but squirreled away like how these students do.I’ll flip through my class sets of textbooks and dictionaries and have

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-69436963683685116882009-05-29T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-29T07:00:01.051-05:00

It looks like the students are going to make it through the end of the year, but some of the staff seem to be at each other’s throats a bit. That especially appears to be the case for Dale and that other teacher again. This time I saw her storming out of his office only to turn around at his doorway to shout, “How are my students supposed to see an egg hatch, if United Streaming is not working

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-2667310483128918502009-05-28T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-28T07:00:00.849-05:00

One of my kids, whom I refer to as Jack-a-ninny Bear because this school year was his hibernation season (face was stuck to his desk, probably with his drool), arose from the academic dead to state, “I’m going to miss this place.”I bet he is! Where else can one go and do nothing and be given half-credit? That way if you slip up and actually do a lick of work, you get to pass. I’m mean, sure, your

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-9963092386919372172009-05-27T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-27T07:00:01.067-05:00

Man, these last few weeks this one teacher has been getting on my nerves. Partial blame may fall on the fact that I have end-of-the-year stress, but I doubt it. She never has her keys on her, so she’s always asking me to let her into places. I’ll be teaching, and there’s a TAP, TAP, TAP, followed with a “Can you let me into my room? I’ve misplaced my key.”Or, I’ll be on morning duty and it will

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-3937072791158574652009-05-26T12:18:00.001-05:002009-05-26T12:21:54.680-05:00

Let me see if I can get in one more Tale of Hallway Hijinks in before this year is up. I was lifted from my now half-packed room by a set of high-pitched squeals. By the time I am away from jack-a-ninny siren, some freshman was in her final moments of one last outburst. At the same time, a Spanish teacher comes hauling nalga around the corner in a panic. If she were a rookie cop from a cheesy TV

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-17699127265967623952009-05-22T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-22T07:00:00.728-05:00

The Family and Consumer Sciences teacher (the Home Ec teacher) has asked other teachers to refrain from taking items from her classroom. What supplies teachers are taking from the Home Ec teacher, I have no idea. Napkins? Utensils? Tartar sauce? Whatever it is, we seem to have multiple strategies. The first is that we’re coming in here while she’s actually trying to teach class. She finds this

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-591742055101584792009-05-21T07:00:00.001-05:002009-05-21T07:00:00.679-05:00

Hammer has made us aware that we ran out of referral notices and more were being ordered. She has also encouraged us to ease up on sending jack-a-ninnies to their associate principal, but if we were to send a kid then we are to have their current behavior logs attached so that justification could be supplied to the parents. Dude, I ran out of those four months ago.Here’s a question: Why can’t us

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-86633297711348150392009-05-20T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-20T07:00:01.260-05:00

The administrative assistant from the front office e-mailed us to let us know that someone left a note in her box with a message that the scriber was leaving campus at noon. That person didn’t sign the note, and the administrative assistant wanted to know who left the note. That’s not the only thing to be worried about. The end of the year is so crazy that the note could actually be a resignation

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-27869012176233331272009-05-19T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-19T07:00:01.187-05:00

A kid brought me a late assignment. We all have those at the end of the year, right? I call it the Battle of the Bulge because students will throw all kinds of late work at you around now in an last ditch effort to save their grades. This time it didn’t matter that I wouldn’t accept it because I couldn’t accept it. It was an assignment from the first semester. I wasn’t even his teacher last

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-92034439714530215582009-05-18T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-18T07:00:00.489-05:00

Textbooks are due today. Sure, there are two weeks left in school, but so what? These things are so old. I mean, I have been here for some time now, and I’m sure these things predate me quite a bit. The dang things are so old that they predict a fruitful career for J.D. Salinger.The fact that these tools for learning may be past their prime, plus the fact that they’ve only been open by students

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-58629261989472953432009-05-15T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-15T07:00:01.016-05:00

I had to ask a student to put away her cell phone during class, but she justified her actions by revealing that she was texting a student who has me later in the day what the assignment was because she was absent today. Since she was sharing with me, I decided to do the same. Beginning with recognizing her desire to help her friend, I went on to tell her that perhaps our absent student’s school

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-64758331671867207632009-05-14T07:00:00.002-05:002009-05-14T07:00:00.790-05:00

It’s the end of the year and as usual there’s that end of the year congestion at the Scantron machine. There’s just so little time for us to get the last grading period grades in before finals that a teacher must endure lines that look like a toy store’s on Christmas Eve.It’s appropriate that I bring up the holiday that celebrates the birth of Our Lord and Savior because when I became the next in

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-84851951652007087702009-05-13T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-13T07:00:00.354-05:00

Here’s a tip. Always be nice to the IT person on your campus. Don’t do it so that they will get things do for you when you need them. No, buddy up to them so that they do the things that you’re not willing to ask for. Let me explain.Some teacher was snapping at me in the hall. What it was about, I have no idea. With her I tend to tune her out and then sing a song in my head that matches her lip

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-40963696587014463882009-05-12T07:00:00.001-05:002009-05-12T07:00:00.210-05:00

The nurse e-mailed us to inform us that one of the teachers will be wearing a mask while we ride out this swine flu scare. If we see him, then we shouldn’t be concerned because he’s not contagious, but has a doctor’s note so he doesn’t catch anything. Look, I can’t judge the guy. He may be highly susceptible to diseases, and it is important that he takes such precautions.I’m just saying that if I

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-10972141670326686342009-05-11T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-11T07:00:01.035-05:00

An e-mail came out from the district today informing us that any incoming Math and Science teachers for next year will receive $3000 dollar bonuses. All returning Math and Science teachers will get a $2000 dollar retention bonus. Hey, I get it. We’re having our asses handed to us in those two areas and the administration needs to do everything we can to boost our results—except reduce class sizes

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-41316386989818565182009-05-08T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-08T07:00:01.031-05:00

Sure I get down on our students here from time to time to time to time to time—to time to time to time—well you get my point. But they also need some credit too.Take this morning’s evidence of a senior prank. Every year they fill the fountain in our student courtyard with detergent, so that it creates a bubbly mess. This year’s crop of pranksters though went a step further. They decorated the

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-58906370781077262552009-05-07T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-07T07:00:01.127-05:00

It’s getting to be that time around here—the end of the school year. The retiring teachers are starting to announce their grand exits from this ultimate fighting octagon that is teaching. I must admit that I am proud of them. They went the distance and can hold their heads up high. Seeing what my retirement will be they certainly didn’t do this job for the paycheck.One retiring teacher here at

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-69350691140323413612009-05-06T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-06T07:00:00.826-05:00

A fellow teacher came by yesterday to talk about her annual teacher review from her associate principal. She was really upset because she felt some of the questions on there were, um, “stupid.” There was one that she shared in particular that I feel needs to be passed along to you guys.The question asked what skills, interests or education could she use to contribute to a student’s learning

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-40583318095931854762009-05-05T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-05T07:00:00.304-05:00

Do you guys remember that gift card I was telling you about? Well, I won! Unfortunately, it turns out that they couldn’t give away a gift card to a restaurant because we could use it to by alcohol at its bar. Drats!So instead, I’ve received a $25 gift card to Office Depot. Great. I’m in a field of work where I’m cocooned in school supplies, so what do I get as a treat? More school supplies. I

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-87465041048531903052009-05-04T07:00:00.000-05:002009-05-04T07:00:00.551-05:00

There’s this girl who cuts her nails in my class. Of course it bothers me that she does it. It’s disrespectful and not to mention, gross. I’ve got this feeling, though, that if I put a stop to it, then it will just result in her doing something even more grievous. I mean if she can’t cut her nails, then she could move on to ear wax or teeth picking. Then where would I be? You have to pick your

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-33406235693215898322009-05-01T07:00:00.002-05:002009-05-01T11:55:35.674-05:00

This is the last day of testing, and I will now be eligible for the big prize! You see, to emphasize how critical it was for all teachers not to be absent this week because we were needed to administer these tests, the names of us who have perfect attendance will be entered into a drawing to win a $25 gift card from Applebee’s.The service I provide, educating the next generation, has just had a

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753973.post-41463837776678976542009-04-30T07:00:00.003-05:002009-05-01T07:29:44.355-05:00

I’m going to guess that this week’s state testing is getting to the students. I say that because yesterday after school I walked out to our big old paper recycling bin filled with flames. Actually, I can’t blame the thing on the students. I mean, I don’t have any proof. I didn’t see any signs of this being a student’s handy work. I didn’t really stick around to look for signs, though—for fear of

ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574967229976511604noreply@blogger.com