Got this from Vesper:
1. My ex is: not here. Hence the ex part.
2. I am listening to: I'm trying to listen to the television, but my upstairs neighbour is doing some renovations to his bathroom so right now I'm also listening to his hammering and scraping. It's bloody annoying!
3. Maybe I should: Get a cold glass of milk to go with my chocolate chip cookies!
4. I love: Six sexy British men. They rule my world.
5. My best friend(s): Are awesome! They are treasures and I love them dearly!
6. I don't understand: Nuclear physics. Mind you, I haven't tried. Yet.
7. I lose: Thoughts from my head. All the time. Look, there goes another one! Goodbye beautiful thought!
8. People say: You're funny. It's true. I am.
9. The meaning of my screen name is: not very interesting.
10. Love is: hard work.
11. Somewhere, someone is: having sex.
12. I will always: be fascinated by the stars and the thought of traveling in space.
13. Forever seems: like a really long time.
14. I never want to: get an enema. 'nuff said.
15. My cell phone is: in my purse. I don't think it'll ring tonight.
16. When I wake in the morning: I hit the snooze button. I roll over and wish for more time to sleep!
17. I get annoyed when: people don't do what they're supposed to do. If you've got a bloody job/responsibility - DO IT! Don't leave it for someone else (ME) to do.
18. Parties are: Fun when you're with people you know.
19. My dog is: on the farm. I don't even remember the last dog the family had. I'm a cat person, people!
20. Kisses are the worst when: they are sloppy and wet. Eeeww!
21. Today I did: Lots of work. I also played.
22. Tonight I will: Watch House reruns. Maybe continue the DVD I started earlier.
23. Tomorrow I will: Pick up and deposit my pay check. Possibly go out for a movie. Maybe book a massage.
9 Lasts
9. Last dollar spent: Buying a magazine to read for the bus.
8. Last cigarette: Never had a first cigarette.
6. Last movie: partial movie, Forrest Gump (watched the first and third hour). Full movie, Seven.
5. Last song played: Fast Cars and Freedom by Rascal Flatts.
4. Last bubble bath: Don't remember, so clearly too long ago.
3. Last time you cried: Also don't remember. Hmmm . . .
2. Last thing you ate: chocolate chip cookie.
1. Last place you were: in the kitchen getting the cookies.
8 Have You Evers?
8. Dated a best friend? No comment.
7. Skinny dipped? Yes.
6. Kissed somebody and regretted it? No.
5. Been in love? Yes. (aren't these witty answers?)
4. Lost someone you loved? Not in the sense of a permanent loss. Lost touch with, yes.
3. Been drunk and threw up? No. Never. Ever.
2. Ran away? No. Probably threatened to once or twice, but never done it.
1. Broken a bone? No. Thankfully, all my bones are and have been in the past, fully intact.
Wanna play along? Then TAG . . . you're it!
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Monday, May 29, 2006
Forrest Gump
I'm watching Forrest Gump on tv for the zillionth time. I LOVE that movie! It makes me laugh and cry. As you may already know, I love Tom Hanks. I'll be honest. I loved his performance in this movie. I fell in love with him in the movie You've Got Mail. What can I say? I'm a sucker for romantic comedies! Now what am I don't typing this? I should be focusing on Forrest!!
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Organizational Heaven
Even though this coming week is the school's Spring Break week, I have elected to go to work for two days. Why? I desperately need to get some stuff organized before June! I'm very good at organizing things if I do say so myself (though you wouldn't know if by seeing the perpetual state of messiness I live in at home), so I'm kinda looking forward to tackling a few of these projects. Over the next two days I plan on completely cleaning out my filing cabinet drawer (it's packed FULL of stuff. A lot of it I use a lot, some of it I don't), cleaning and organizing my desk area (which constantly has different stacks of papers all over it, in addition to the computer and several binders), sorting out the files on my computer, finding a place for all the back-up tapes and CDs that seem to have found their way onto my desk, and finding a place to store the program tests that we reuse every month. Whew. Hopefully by the time all that's done, I'll exist in a state of organizational euphoria that will carry me through to the end of the summer :)
Friday, May 26, 2006
The Underwear Story
Some of you may already know this story. I had a request from a fellow blogger to share it, so here you go Vesper!
Just over 3 years ago, I was a TOC is the Surrey school district. Around Easter of that year, I got a call to cover a 7th grade class. I did all my training with very little people - kindergartners and first graders, so 7th grade is NOT my favourite grade, but needing the money I took the job. As it turns out, the teacher was quite sick and I ended up being in the class for a total of five consecutive days. The underwear story took place on day 2. On that beautiful April morning I left the house without my usual sweater as it was quite warm out. I hopped on the bus (no license, no car) and headed to the school. The whole way there (about 20 minutes) my rear felt a little cool, but I was wearing fairly new pants, so I didn't really think too much about it. I got to the school, opened the classroom door, and began to mentally prepare myself for the day. About an hour later, I was well into the groove of the teaching day. The class was fantastic - a really nice group of kids who genuinely wanted to learn. At one point I was explaining a math concept to one of the students, and I sat on my desk to get comfortable. I could have sworn for a second that when I sat down I could feel the coolness of the desk on my skin, but still didn't think too much of it. Fifteen minutes later saw my students head off to another teacher's classroom and the beginning of my prep block. I headed off to the staff washroom, and that's when I discovered why I felt a little breezy down there. My pants, right in the ass area, were starting to rip! These were practically brand new pants, and the rip was right over the right cheek! It was one of those rips that would just get bigger throughout the day. I didn't know what to do at first. Luckily at this point it was still fairly small, but when I checked out the situation in the mirror, I could already see my leopard print underwear. Since I did NOT want to be known as the TOC with the leopard print underwear, I knew I was going to have to do something fast. I spent a few precious minutes trying to call my mom and sister to get a spare pair of pants, but neither of them was home. I tried calling a neighbour to find out if she had the spare key on the off chance that she could stop by my place and deliver me a new pair of pants. She wasn't home either. I managed to get some safety pins from the school's secretary and I used those to minimize the view, but it didn't do anything about the fact that the rip was getting bigger. Running out to get a new pair of pants wasn't an option since I'd never be able to make it to a store and back quickly enough by bus. I cursed the beatiful weather that had made me leave my sweater at home. At least with the sweater I could have tied it around my waist. That's when I hit upon a possible plan. The seventh graders I was teaching had sweaters proclaiming they were the graduates of the school that year (you know the sweaters I mean, the ones that all seventh graders get that have their year on the back, and usually each student in the class has signed it). When the students came back to the classroom, I made sure that I was sitting in my chair. Very calmly, I asked the students if I could borrow one of their sweaters for the day. One of the boys eagerly jumped up and handed me his sweater. I was able to tie it around my waist and carry on with the day. Not a single person at that school knew what was going on! I was so grateful to that boy, he loaned me his sweater for the entire day without question. At the end of the day when I returned my sweater, the boy shyly asked me if he could have one of the lollipops that their regular teacher had in his desk for rewarding the students. I told the boy that since he had been so generous and hadn't asked any questions, he could have two. That sweet kid kept one for himself and gave the other one to his friend. On the way home that day I stopped at the store and bought a new pair of pants.
Just over 3 years ago, I was a TOC is the Surrey school district. Around Easter of that year, I got a call to cover a 7th grade class. I did all my training with very little people - kindergartners and first graders, so 7th grade is NOT my favourite grade, but needing the money I took the job. As it turns out, the teacher was quite sick and I ended up being in the class for a total of five consecutive days. The underwear story took place on day 2. On that beautiful April morning I left the house without my usual sweater as it was quite warm out. I hopped on the bus (no license, no car) and headed to the school. The whole way there (about 20 minutes) my rear felt a little cool, but I was wearing fairly new pants, so I didn't really think too much about it. I got to the school, opened the classroom door, and began to mentally prepare myself for the day. About an hour later, I was well into the groove of the teaching day. The class was fantastic - a really nice group of kids who genuinely wanted to learn. At one point I was explaining a math concept to one of the students, and I sat on my desk to get comfortable. I could have sworn for a second that when I sat down I could feel the coolness of the desk on my skin, but still didn't think too much of it. Fifteen minutes later saw my students head off to another teacher's classroom and the beginning of my prep block. I headed off to the staff washroom, and that's when I discovered why I felt a little breezy down there. My pants, right in the ass area, were starting to rip! These were practically brand new pants, and the rip was right over the right cheek! It was one of those rips that would just get bigger throughout the day. I didn't know what to do at first. Luckily at this point it was still fairly small, but when I checked out the situation in the mirror, I could already see my leopard print underwear. Since I did NOT want to be known as the TOC with the leopard print underwear, I knew I was going to have to do something fast. I spent a few precious minutes trying to call my mom and sister to get a spare pair of pants, but neither of them was home. I tried calling a neighbour to find out if she had the spare key on the off chance that she could stop by my place and deliver me a new pair of pants. She wasn't home either. I managed to get some safety pins from the school's secretary and I used those to minimize the view, but it didn't do anything about the fact that the rip was getting bigger. Running out to get a new pair of pants wasn't an option since I'd never be able to make it to a store and back quickly enough by bus. I cursed the beatiful weather that had made me leave my sweater at home. At least with the sweater I could have tied it around my waist. That's when I hit upon a possible plan. The seventh graders I was teaching had sweaters proclaiming they were the graduates of the school that year (you know the sweaters I mean, the ones that all seventh graders get that have their year on the back, and usually each student in the class has signed it). When the students came back to the classroom, I made sure that I was sitting in my chair. Very calmly, I asked the students if I could borrow one of their sweaters for the day. One of the boys eagerly jumped up and handed me his sweater. I was able to tie it around my waist and carry on with the day. Not a single person at that school knew what was going on! I was so grateful to that boy, he loaned me his sweater for the entire day without question. At the end of the day when I returned my sweater, the boy shyly asked me if he could have one of the lollipops that their regular teacher had in his desk for rewarding the students. I told the boy that since he had been so generous and hadn't asked any questions, he could have two. That sweet kid kept one for himself and gave the other one to his friend. On the way home that day I stopped at the store and bought a new pair of pants.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
My Love of P
Got this from Vesper's blog:
Here are the rules: Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Write 10 words beginning with that letter in your journal, including an explanation what the word means to you and why, and then pass out letters to those who want to play along.
Here goes nothing!
1. Pants: I am a girl. I WAY prefer wearing pants to a skirt. I own several pairs of skirts and two dresses. But, I still prefer pants. Go figure.
2. Pee: (You had to know this was coming up) I pee everyday. Usually more than once a day. My students, who are teenagers, think it's hilariously funny to talk about pee. Oi vey!
3. Pretty: When I got my hair cut on Sunday I thought I looked very pretty.
4. Poo: (Yes, I am going there) Again, my students think it's hilariously funny to make jokes about poo. At our school, the staff have two possible bathrooms they can use. One is in the staffroom (next to the kitchen area, which is rather gross when you think about it). The other one is down a main hallway and is accessed by a punching a code into a keypad. The washroom in the hallway is the designated poo washroom.
5. People: As a general rule, I think all people are a little weird. I like to study people's behaviour and try and understand the reason why they act the way they do. There are days when I really hate people and the things they do.
6. Psychology: I was going to major in psychology in university! That is, until I figured out that I was better at English, and English was better for the education degree I wanted to pursue.
7. Peace: It's a good thing. My Korean students make the peace sign (you know, the first two fingers in a vee shape) in EVERY freakin' photograph they appear in. For them however, the sign doesn't actually mean peace, it means victory . . . as in Korea will be victorious over all.
8. Politics: I generally don't follow politics all that closely. I can say that I LOATHED one particular politician . . . Christie Clark, former Education Minister. If I ever meet her in a dark alley I'm going to go postal on her ass!
9. Pears: Not my favourite fruit. Unless they're diced and packed in pear juice. Then I will eat them.
10. Purse: I recently bought a new purse. I love it! It's a Roots purse, but I got it at Bentley.
Remember people, if you want a letter, comment on this post and tell me that you want to play too!
Here are the rules: Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Write 10 words beginning with that letter in your journal, including an explanation what the word means to you and why, and then pass out letters to those who want to play along.
Here goes nothing!
1. Pants: I am a girl. I WAY prefer wearing pants to a skirt. I own several pairs of skirts and two dresses. But, I still prefer pants. Go figure.
2. Pee: (You had to know this was coming up) I pee everyday. Usually more than once a day. My students, who are teenagers, think it's hilariously funny to talk about pee. Oi vey!
3. Pretty: When I got my hair cut on Sunday I thought I looked very pretty.
4. Poo: (Yes, I am going there) Again, my students think it's hilariously funny to make jokes about poo. At our school, the staff have two possible bathrooms they can use. One is in the staffroom (next to the kitchen area, which is rather gross when you think about it). The other one is down a main hallway and is accessed by a punching a code into a keypad. The washroom in the hallway is the designated poo washroom.
5. People: As a general rule, I think all people are a little weird. I like to study people's behaviour and try and understand the reason why they act the way they do. There are days when I really hate people and the things they do.
6. Psychology: I was going to major in psychology in university! That is, until I figured out that I was better at English, and English was better for the education degree I wanted to pursue.
7. Peace: It's a good thing. My Korean students make the peace sign (you know, the first two fingers in a vee shape) in EVERY freakin' photograph they appear in. For them however, the sign doesn't actually mean peace, it means victory . . . as in Korea will be victorious over all.
8. Politics: I generally don't follow politics all that closely. I can say that I LOATHED one particular politician . . . Christie Clark, former Education Minister. If I ever meet her in a dark alley I'm going to go postal on her ass!
9. Pears: Not my favourite fruit. Unless they're diced and packed in pear juice. Then I will eat them.
10. Purse: I recently bought a new purse. I love it! It's a Roots purse, but I got it at Bentley.
Remember people, if you want a letter, comment on this post and tell me that you want to play too!
Monday, May 22, 2006
Woo Hoo! Day Off!
Happy Victoria Day! All that means to me is that I get a day off of work, but if you celebrate Victoria Day then I send you my good wishes!
_________________________________________________________________
When and why did the weather turn to crap? When it comes to weather I'm very contradictory. I like the sun, but I don't like it too hot. I like rain, but not every day. I like winter, but it makes me slightly depressed. I like summer, but it makes me stressed out. I don't think I have a favourite season since there's something to like about all of them. I like the winter temps, the blossoming that comes in the spring, the fruits of summer, and the gorgeous fall colours. How weird am I?
_________________________________________________________________
Forgot to mention that I saw "The Da Vinci Code" on Saturday! Although it has pretty much gotten slammed in the press, I really liked it. They stayed fairly faithful to the book, though my one little disappointment was that they didn't really play out the whole "treasure hunt" aspect of the book. There were a couple of fairly brutal scenes though. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but there were a couple of gasps from me! I loved Tom Hanks (as per usual) and Audrey Tatou. Sir Ian McKellan was his usual self, which I actually don't overly like. There's something about him that irritates me, but whatever. Paul Bettany was good too as Silas. I'm not a very discriminating moviegoer; I pretty much like everything I see. But I did really enjoy this movie. I think those critics were just overly critical!
_________________________________________________________________
I'm going to leave you now with 5 things you (maybe) don't know about me:
1. I'm addicted to court shows. I love People's Court (which is what I'm currently watching) and Judge Judy in particular. Always have, probably always will.
2. I hated math when I was in school, but now I'm fascinated with numbers. And Numb3rs.
3. I have a list of hot men that I maintain with a former coworker. We have our individual lists and our shared list. Yes. My list includes Patrick Stewart and Tom Hanks.
4. When I was younger I attended many Star Trek conventions. I think I've been to 10. Good times. I will always regret not seeing Patrick Stewart when he was in Vancouver.
5. I got a sexy new haircut yesterday. Maybe one day, when I have time and the inclination to fiddle with my blog, I'll post some pictures. Until then, use your imagination! Oh, and when you do, make me look a few years younger, okay?
_________________________________________________________________
When and why did the weather turn to crap? When it comes to weather I'm very contradictory. I like the sun, but I don't like it too hot. I like rain, but not every day. I like winter, but it makes me slightly depressed. I like summer, but it makes me stressed out. I don't think I have a favourite season since there's something to like about all of them. I like the winter temps, the blossoming that comes in the spring, the fruits of summer, and the gorgeous fall colours. How weird am I?
_________________________________________________________________
Forgot to mention that I saw "The Da Vinci Code" on Saturday! Although it has pretty much gotten slammed in the press, I really liked it. They stayed fairly faithful to the book, though my one little disappointment was that they didn't really play out the whole "treasure hunt" aspect of the book. There were a couple of fairly brutal scenes though. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but there were a couple of gasps from me! I loved Tom Hanks (as per usual) and Audrey Tatou. Sir Ian McKellan was his usual self, which I actually don't overly like. There's something about him that irritates me, but whatever. Paul Bettany was good too as Silas. I'm not a very discriminating moviegoer; I pretty much like everything I see. But I did really enjoy this movie. I think those critics were just overly critical!
_________________________________________________________________
I'm going to leave you now with 5 things you (maybe) don't know about me:
1. I'm addicted to court shows. I love People's Court (which is what I'm currently watching) and Judge Judy in particular. Always have, probably always will.
2. I hated math when I was in school, but now I'm fascinated with numbers. And Numb3rs.
3. I have a list of hot men that I maintain with a former coworker. We have our individual lists and our shared list. Yes. My list includes Patrick Stewart and Tom Hanks.
4. When I was younger I attended many Star Trek conventions. I think I've been to 10. Good times. I will always regret not seeing Patrick Stewart when he was in Vancouver.
5. I got a sexy new haircut yesterday. Maybe one day, when I have time and the inclination to fiddle with my blog, I'll post some pictures. Until then, use your imagination! Oh, and when you do, make me look a few years younger, okay?
Friday, May 19, 2006
Quick Update
So I think I've been updating my blog fairly regularly, but for those who haven't been reading regularly, here's what's going on in my world. In no particular order:
1. The summer season at work is starting to gear up slowly. If all goes according to plan, May 26th will be my last teaching day as I come out of classes to focus on admin and curriculum. That was supposed to happen on the 15th, but the woman who was supposed to replace me ended up replacing another Junior teacher who abruptly quit.
2. I've been having trouble sleeping lately. I think it's a combination of stress and heat. Hopefully now that it's gotten a little cooler, I can get some sleep this weekend!
3. My "beloved" boss will be moving to a new campus in the middle of June. Hooray!
4. My birthday is coming up in August. I want to go see "Phantom of the Opera".
5. I have finished my online TESL course and now have my diploma. Yippee!
6. My school's Spring Break is coming up in two weeks. I'm currently debating with myself over whether or not to work two of that week. I could use the time off, but I could also really use the money!
7. I got a new computer a little while ago. It's S.W.E.E.T. Very fast and sexy.
8. I'm going to see "The Da Vinci Code" tomorrow with my best friend.
I think that about covers it for now! Check back often for more on what's happening in my world!
1. The summer season at work is starting to gear up slowly. If all goes according to plan, May 26th will be my last teaching day as I come out of classes to focus on admin and curriculum. That was supposed to happen on the 15th, but the woman who was supposed to replace me ended up replacing another Junior teacher who abruptly quit.
2. I've been having trouble sleeping lately. I think it's a combination of stress and heat. Hopefully now that it's gotten a little cooler, I can get some sleep this weekend!
3. My "beloved" boss will be moving to a new campus in the middle of June. Hooray!
4. My birthday is coming up in August. I want to go see "Phantom of the Opera".
5. I have finished my online TESL course and now have my diploma. Yippee!
6. My school's Spring Break is coming up in two weeks. I'm currently debating with myself over whether or not to work two of that week. I could use the time off, but I could also really use the money!
7. I got a new computer a little while ago. It's S.W.E.E.T. Very fast and sexy.
8. I'm going to see "The Da Vinci Code" tomorrow with my best friend.
I think that about covers it for now! Check back often for more on what's happening in my world!
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Thank you for not smoking
When was the last time you read something in an e-mail that made you laugh outloud? I had this experience yesterday when my friend D sent me an e-mail from Shanghai. D has been teaching in China for the past three months. He sounds like he's definitely ready to come home! He told me a funny story about how people in China smoke EVERYWHERE! He said he's seen teachers smoke in class while teaching, and people smoking in the gym while working out (WTF?!). Anyway, the smoking in the gym thing really bothers him so, as he relayed to me in the e-mail, after three months of politely asking people in the gym to smoke outside, he talked to the manager about the issue. He told the manager that as there were signs posted around advertising that the gym was a non-smoking environment, he would really appreciate it if the rule were enforced. The manager said "yes, that is a contradiction" and walked away. D thought he had won the battle and left for the day. When he returned the next day, all the signs had been taken down! If that story isn't laugh-worthy, I don't know what is!
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
So Tired
Okay, why am I always so tired these days? It's not like I stay up until all hours of the night or anything like that. Last night, which I would say is typical of my nighttime patterns, I was in bed and sleeping by 11:30. Since I woke up at 6:30 that should mean I got about 7 hours of sleep. But I feel like I only got 4 or 5! My limbs ache and all I want to do is go back to bed, close my eyes, and sleep until Thursday or Friday. This isn't really a great way to go work with teenagers since they definitely don't give me much of a break! Maybe this is like an episode of House from last season: this woman was active and walking around in her sleep and couldn't figure out why she would wake up in the morning all tired and sore! Of course in that case she was having sex with her ex-husband in her sleep, but mine is the same basic idea without the sex. Too bad I can't set up some kind of "sleep camera" that will tell me if I'm doing anything in my sleep that might make me really tired when I wake up!
Monday, May 15, 2006
Another quiz from Vesper
Here's another quiz I got from Vesper. Without giving too much away, I'm curious to know how they can decide what kind of love I want by asking me a bunch of questions about animals? How do they know I didn't answer based on the colour of the animals or something? Interesting . . .
| The Keys to Your Heart |
 In love, you feel the most alive when your partner is patient and never willing to give up on you. You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring. You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please. Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something that will confine you. You are afraid of marriage. In this moment, you think of love as something you can get or discard anytime. You're feeling self centered. |
What'>http://www.blogthings.com/keystoyourheartquiz/">What Are The Keys To Your Heart?
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Da Vinci Code
Have you read the book "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown? I have and I thought it was fabulous. It's very controversial, but I like it for its adventure story. I know people who won't even read it because it's so inflammatory, but to those people I say: "what are you so afraid of?" Seriously, people who won't read books that dare to question their faith bug me. Are you that afraid that your faith is going to be shaken? Is your faith so delicate that it's going to be rocked off its foundation because of a theory posed in a FICTIONAL book? Yes, the suggestions about Christ put forth in the book are shocking and beyond belief, but it's not like they're new ideas! Besides, I have news for you, history is full of examples of people who have doctored the "truth" to make their side of the story more sympathetic, so the idea that the bible was put together in this way shouldn't really shock anyone. Anyway, I bring up the topic only because the movie based on the book comes out next Friday. I'm planning to see it for sure. Besides the fact that I love Tom Hanks, I've really, really been wanting to see how Hollywood handles aspects of the book. After I read the book the first time I bought the illustrated edition of the book in order to better appreciate all the artwork involved. I was hoping to get some illustrations of other story elements too, but I was disappointed. Now I can't wait to see how everything comes together! And yes, for people who are wondering, I own two copies of the book - the original hardcover and the illustrated edition. The illustrated one never leaves my house, but I've loaned the other one out to half a dozen people already.
In other news, I'm so glad it's the weekend! This past week at work was killer. Then to top it all off, one of my students e-mailed me an essay that I had assigned him on respect. The essay was given as punishment for being very disrespectful. It was a week late. Now, to top it off, I discovered that the essay was completely plagiarized. It was very obvious from the first sentence I read that my student did not write a single word of this essay. So now I have to figure out how to deal with this situation. I'd send him to the director for punishment but as she's likely to just say to him "don't do it again" I'm not inclined to go that route. I've got to come up with something clever or he's not going to learn anything.
In other news, I'm so glad it's the weekend! This past week at work was killer. Then to top it all off, one of my students e-mailed me an essay that I had assigned him on respect. The essay was given as punishment for being very disrespectful. It was a week late. Now, to top it off, I discovered that the essay was completely plagiarized. It was very obvious from the first sentence I read that my student did not write a single word of this essay. So now I have to figure out how to deal with this situation. I'd send him to the director for punishment but as she's likely to just say to him "don't do it again" I'm not inclined to go that route. I've got to come up with something clever or he's not going to learn anything.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
The best laid plans . . .
So I'm completed pissed off and frustrated right now. I was supposed to stop teaching next week in order to focus on administration and curriculum development. My replacement teacher, whom I began training yesterday, seemed to be a really good fit. Then this morning happened. One of the other teachers who teaches in my program quit this morning. No two weeks notice, no talking in person, just an e-mail saying "I quit". So my replacement teacher quickly became HIS replacement teacher and everything changed! Now they have to hire someone else to replace me, which means I'll be staying in class indefinitely. There have been lots of interviews lately so hopefully it won't be long, but it's so bloody frustrating! I'm glad to have a bit of extra time with my students, but this just represents another change for them and as a whole, none of the students are coping too well. There have been a lot of behavioural problems lately, and today was no exception. Today we had not one but two doors broken! The first door has a hole in it as a result of one of the students kicking it to try and get it open (the handle of the door is broken so if the door is closed, it doesn't open from the outside). The damage is unsightly, but fairly minor. The second door, however, came right off its hinges while some of the boys were fooling around. There were two girls standing behind the door and a couple of the boys decided to push against the door for fun. The door already had a crack in it from some previous damage, and the entire thing came off its hinges. Then, as a couple of the male staff members tried to remove the door from the doorway, the entire top ripped off! Turns out that in addition to the fooling around, the door is really cheap - it's made of particle board and it's hollow inside except for the random pieces of cardboard stuffed inside it. Sigh. At least tomorrow is Friday!
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Novel Studies + Teenagers = Trouble
I have been teaching teenagers for 2 years, 6 months and 12 days. In that time, I've learned a great many things about life, but one of the most valuable lessons I've learned is that mixing teenagers and novel studies can make trouble! Today's Language Arts class was yet another good example of that . . . my students have been reading "Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux (they are ESL students, so this is a Penguin Reader edition of the book). During the time we've been studying the book, my *lovely* students have failed to do their homework twice, left materials at home, and generally fallen behind in their reading. Sigh. One of the first things I told my students about last week was the idea of completing a creative project to express what they have learned through reading the book. I provided them with a variety of possibilities including: a writing assignment where they would put one of the characters of the book on trial, a diorama assignment where they could express one of the scenes from the book in three dimensions, and an assignment where they would create a series of advertisements to entice people to buy the book "Phantom of the Opera". As we were talking about the possibilities this morning, one of the girls in the class put up her hand and said, quite seriously, "Kim, why does it say Phantom of the Opera" across the top of this paper?" (she was holding up the paper where I had outlined each of the possibilities for the creative assignment). Not quite comprehending what this girl was saying, all I could really do was stare at her for a moment. In that moment, everyone else in the class turned to stare at this student and said "Ahhhhh M, the project is for the book Phantom of the Opera!" That's when I figured out that she was genuinely confused! Sigh. I only repeated myself about 5 times, and wrote on the project sheet at least twice "This assignment will help you express what you learned about the Phantom of the Opera".
On a brighter note, I won't have to suffer these same questions and confusions next month when my students read "Lord of the Flies" (the full version), which happens to be approximately 2.5 times longer than Phantom. As I only have another 3 days left to teach these students (I'm coming out of teaching for the summer to focus on administration and curriculum), all I have to do at this point is get them through this current novel study ;-)
On a brighter note, I won't have to suffer these same questions and confusions next month when my students read "Lord of the Flies" (the full version), which happens to be approximately 2.5 times longer than Phantom. As I only have another 3 days left to teach these students (I'm coming out of teaching for the summer to focus on administration and curriculum), all I have to do at this point is get them through this current novel study ;-)
Monday, May 08, 2006
Book Review
Forgot to mention that I finished reading the third volume of Jeffrey Archer's prison diaries. It was an amazing book series that really shed a lot of light on the prison system. Even though it talks exclusively about the British prison system, I think most of the points the book tries to illustrate can apply to prison systems all around the world. I have never been to prison, but I could definitely visualize what it must be like after reading Archer's books. Great, great, great books. Now I can't wait to read his next work of fiction, which I'm still waiting to get from the library :-)
I'm not laughing!
Alright, I'm praying that this is some kind of weird hotmail error, but it seems as though hotmail has erased my entire contact list! We're talking hundreds of contacts . . . gone! I'm hoping they just temporarily "lost" them and that when I check my e-mail again tonight they'll have magically reappeared since I do NOT relish the idea of having to reconstruct my entire contacts list! What could have happened to them? I'm positive they were there last time I wrote an e-mail, which was maybe a couple of days ago? I check this e-mail account several days, and I know I checked it this morning and this afternoon at work, but as I didn't have any new e-mails at that time, I didn't bother to go beyond the first screen! HELP!
Friday, May 05, 2006
In the dictionary
| Kim -- [adjective]: Smells like teen spirit 'How" will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com |
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Wish Fulfillment
So the other day I wished for things at work to change . . . and now they're gonna! L, the boss from hell, is being transferred to our campus in Victoria! In approximately 5 weeks she'll be a distant memory - yipppeeeee! The current assistant director is going to become the new director, which is what should have happened 7 months ago when the previous director left. For the time being we won't have an assistant director, which is going to make things a little tough at first but I think everyone will adjust. Anyway, now I just have to survive the next 5 weeks with her ;-)
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Worst. Day. Ever. Period.
WARNING: For those who do not care for foul language, stop reading here. I have a feeling this post will be full of foul language!
So today I had possibly my worst work day ever. I had this funny feeling when I woke up this morning that I should just stay in bed. It turns out I was right. So here, preserved for all eternity, is what happened to me on May 3, 2006.
1. I got to work 5 - 10 minutes later than my normal time. This was planned because I'm tired of having to open the door on L's (The Director, other wise known as Dragon Lady, bitch from hell, etc.) day to do it. The phone was already ringing when I unlocked the door, but I thought it was more important to turn off the alarm than answer the phone. I spent the next half an hour waiting to see if the phone would ring again because one of my colleagues has been sick the past couple of days and I wanted to see if she would come to work today. She did, but only long enough to explain that due to some stress and mental health problems she's dealing with right now, her physical problems are being exacerbated and she doesn't know if/when she'll be able to return to work. Fucking great. I honestly do feel bad for her, but L is not a sympathetic person and wants to move her out of her current teaching job and possibly make her a TOC. That means the new TOC just starting out will take over for her, which means another fucking person I have to train and another fucking change for the students.
2. I waited and waited for the girl who subbed for my colleague the past two days to come in. 9am came and went and she didn't show up. I had to race around to find someone else to cover the class. The assistant director agreed to do it for a few minutes while we got another CA into the room. I had to spend another few minutes trying to figure out what had been taught the past two days so I could tell the new teacher what to teach. Luckily this person has been doing this job for a long time and can very easily and quickly adapt. She was fine for the rest of the day. While I was racing around I asked the receptionists if anyone had checked the messages that morning. They hadn't. They checked. The person who had been subbing for the past two days did indeed call in sick. Great.
3. During my second class of the day, one of my students left the room to join a student from another class in talking to L about a money problem relating to another student that had absolutely fuck all to do with them. L talked to them for close to an hour. WHY? Why did she talk to them for that long about something that was none of their business????!!!! My student missed the entire lesson and came in as I was letting the students finish some reading.
4. During the third class, one of my more problematic students mouthed off to me one to many times and I sent him out of the class with a dictionary to look up the meaning of the word respect. I had him copy the meaning. He managed, during the three minutes it took, to get into a conversation with a new teacher and get completely distracted. He completely missed the point of what I was trying to teach him. Great.
5. Lunch time. One of my less bright students came to the door of the lunchroom twice to get my e-mail address so he could send me some class materials he wanted me to print out. When I opened the e-mail I realized that my student had e-mailed me the completely wrong stuff. Wonderful. Who knows if he's going to have time to send me the right stuff?
6. Last class of the day. I'm thinking "great, only 1.5 hours left to get through before I can relax a bit in front of the computer and lose myself in curriculum work. WRONG! Three of my students were missing from class. One apparently went home sick. Two went to the bank together and were late getting back. When they arrived back they were in the middle of explaining that they ran into a former student who stole the wallet of one girl and they had to chase him down to get it back when two other students got into a swearing match over ?? It VERY quickly escalated and I realized that I had to remove the two students from the room and send them to L to sort out the problem. Here I was, naively believing that L would sort out the problem. As I was getting them to follow me out of the room, one of the boys, a shithead called Zack*, starting laughing at the anger of the other boy, Todd*. I could see it coming, but I wasn't quick enough to step between them and Todd literally kicked Zack in the ass. Well, by this point I'd really had it. I practically dragged them to L's office, explained the situation really briefly, and left them there. I was confident that L would keep them out of class as they had gotten into a physical fight. Nope. L brought Todd back to class a few minutes later and said Zack would follow in a few minutes because he was outside. Yep. Zack was outside fucking SMOKING! I didn't know we allowed that during class time. I'm thinking about taking up smoking now. As soon as Zack returned to the class, I could see by their body language that this problem had not been resolved and that there was going to be a fight. Luckily nothing broke out during class, but I knew at 3pm there'd be trouble. At 3 I asked Zack to stay behind for a few minutes in order to give Todd time to get away. I know that in a fight between the two, Todd would get his ass kicked. I talked to Zack and when I left class I didn't see Todd. I figured Todd had left.
7. I realized that I really needed some fresh air, so I headed to the door to go outside. I didn't even make it to the FUCKING door when I ran across the boy who had apparently gone home sick. He took one look at me and ran to hide in the boy's bathroom. I called him out of the bathroom and stared at him. He had the grace to look really embarrassed. I asked him if he knew why I was mad. He did. I asked him if he had told someone at the front desk that he was going home sick. He had. I took him to talk to that person at the front desk. That person talked to him for a few minutes and came into the staffroom to feed me the same bullshit story the kid fed him. AM I THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN TELL WHEN A TEENAGER IS LYING??? Why is lying straight to the teacher's face something that the students seem to be allowed to get away with? Then this person casually says "by the way, you know about the fight in the parking lot, right?" Christ. Bloody fucking hell. Yup, you guessed it. Zack and Todd, part two. A few minutes later Todd got a bunch of his friends together and they tried to gang up on Zack. Meanwhile, L had disappeared from the campus on a business-related meeting. She returned shortly after and ended up pulling Zack, Todd and Todd's friends into her office to "get to the bottom of this". I joined them. It was discovered at some point along the way that L had told Zack and Todd during their original meeting during class that it was okay to fight as long as it wasn't inside. Holy fuck woman! Are you a complete idiot??!! Then L goes on to lecture the students about how unsportsmanlike it was to gang up on someone and how unfair it is. Implied message: go ahead and fight as long as it's one on one. She did say a couple of times "no fighting", but what message do you think the students really took away from that? Then it came out that Zack took off his belt to hit Todd with. L told Zack that he shouldn't use his belt because it comes a weapon and he should only fight with weapons when he feels his life is in danger. Fuck yeah! Now when he gets into a fight again all he has to say to L is that he felt his life was in danger. Since he and his friends have L wrapped around their little finger L will probably end up throwing him a parade because he remembered her pearls of wisdom. L couldn't even get the boys to promise not to fight anymore!! She had them promise that the next time they felt like fighting they would go and talk to her first. Yes, because all teenage boys who get upset enough to get into a fight are rational enough to go and find an adult to discuss their feelings with first.
FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE L! I want to strangle her so hard that her little head pops off her little body. I am not a violent person, but I left work today so mad that I probably only narrowly missed having a heart attack. In case you couldn't tell, it makes me really, really mad that L doesn't think about the message she's sending to my students when she tries to discipline them. This over-50 woman, who has had two kids (boys) has no clue that my ESL teenagers routinely lie to her and play her for a fool. She thinks she's doing the right thing, but that makes her the president of fantasyland. No wonder we have problems with the students everyday! She can't even see that she's making the problems worse. This can't continue. It just can't. And I am still left with the question of why, when the two students came back to my class clearly still upset and with issues unresolved, she fucking sent them back to class.
* Names have been changed to protect their identities. This is Canada and in Canada we can't publish the names of youthful offenders due to the stupid Young Offenders Act.
So today I had possibly my worst work day ever. I had this funny feeling when I woke up this morning that I should just stay in bed. It turns out I was right. So here, preserved for all eternity, is what happened to me on May 3, 2006.
1. I got to work 5 - 10 minutes later than my normal time. This was planned because I'm tired of having to open the door on L's (The Director, other wise known as Dragon Lady, bitch from hell, etc.) day to do it. The phone was already ringing when I unlocked the door, but I thought it was more important to turn off the alarm than answer the phone. I spent the next half an hour waiting to see if the phone would ring again because one of my colleagues has been sick the past couple of days and I wanted to see if she would come to work today. She did, but only long enough to explain that due to some stress and mental health problems she's dealing with right now, her physical problems are being exacerbated and she doesn't know if/when she'll be able to return to work. Fucking great. I honestly do feel bad for her, but L is not a sympathetic person and wants to move her out of her current teaching job and possibly make her a TOC. That means the new TOC just starting out will take over for her, which means another fucking person I have to train and another fucking change for the students.
2. I waited and waited for the girl who subbed for my colleague the past two days to come in. 9am came and went and she didn't show up. I had to race around to find someone else to cover the class. The assistant director agreed to do it for a few minutes while we got another CA into the room. I had to spend another few minutes trying to figure out what had been taught the past two days so I could tell the new teacher what to teach. Luckily this person has been doing this job for a long time and can very easily and quickly adapt. She was fine for the rest of the day. While I was racing around I asked the receptionists if anyone had checked the messages that morning. They hadn't. They checked. The person who had been subbing for the past two days did indeed call in sick. Great.
3. During my second class of the day, one of my students left the room to join a student from another class in talking to L about a money problem relating to another student that had absolutely fuck all to do with them. L talked to them for close to an hour. WHY? Why did she talk to them for that long about something that was none of their business????!!!! My student missed the entire lesson and came in as I was letting the students finish some reading.
4. During the third class, one of my more problematic students mouthed off to me one to many times and I sent him out of the class with a dictionary to look up the meaning of the word respect. I had him copy the meaning. He managed, during the three minutes it took, to get into a conversation with a new teacher and get completely distracted. He completely missed the point of what I was trying to teach him. Great.
5. Lunch time. One of my less bright students came to the door of the lunchroom twice to get my e-mail address so he could send me some class materials he wanted me to print out. When I opened the e-mail I realized that my student had e-mailed me the completely wrong stuff. Wonderful. Who knows if he's going to have time to send me the right stuff?
6. Last class of the day. I'm thinking "great, only 1.5 hours left to get through before I can relax a bit in front of the computer and lose myself in curriculum work. WRONG! Three of my students were missing from class. One apparently went home sick. Two went to the bank together and were late getting back. When they arrived back they were in the middle of explaining that they ran into a former student who stole the wallet of one girl and they had to chase him down to get it back when two other students got into a swearing match over ?? It VERY quickly escalated and I realized that I had to remove the two students from the room and send them to L to sort out the problem. Here I was, naively believing that L would sort out the problem. As I was getting them to follow me out of the room, one of the boys, a shithead called Zack*, starting laughing at the anger of the other boy, Todd*. I could see it coming, but I wasn't quick enough to step between them and Todd literally kicked Zack in the ass. Well, by this point I'd really had it. I practically dragged them to L's office, explained the situation really briefly, and left them there. I was confident that L would keep them out of class as they had gotten into a physical fight. Nope. L brought Todd back to class a few minutes later and said Zack would follow in a few minutes because he was outside. Yep. Zack was outside fucking SMOKING! I didn't know we allowed that during class time. I'm thinking about taking up smoking now. As soon as Zack returned to the class, I could see by their body language that this problem had not been resolved and that there was going to be a fight. Luckily nothing broke out during class, but I knew at 3pm there'd be trouble. At 3 I asked Zack to stay behind for a few minutes in order to give Todd time to get away. I know that in a fight between the two, Todd would get his ass kicked. I talked to Zack and when I left class I didn't see Todd. I figured Todd had left.
7. I realized that I really needed some fresh air, so I headed to the door to go outside. I didn't even make it to the FUCKING door when I ran across the boy who had apparently gone home sick. He took one look at me and ran to hide in the boy's bathroom. I called him out of the bathroom and stared at him. He had the grace to look really embarrassed. I asked him if he knew why I was mad. He did. I asked him if he had told someone at the front desk that he was going home sick. He had. I took him to talk to that person at the front desk. That person talked to him for a few minutes and came into the staffroom to feed me the same bullshit story the kid fed him. AM I THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN TELL WHEN A TEENAGER IS LYING??? Why is lying straight to the teacher's face something that the students seem to be allowed to get away with? Then this person casually says "by the way, you know about the fight in the parking lot, right?" Christ. Bloody fucking hell. Yup, you guessed it. Zack and Todd, part two. A few minutes later Todd got a bunch of his friends together and they tried to gang up on Zack. Meanwhile, L had disappeared from the campus on a business-related meeting. She returned shortly after and ended up pulling Zack, Todd and Todd's friends into her office to "get to the bottom of this". I joined them. It was discovered at some point along the way that L had told Zack and Todd during their original meeting during class that it was okay to fight as long as it wasn't inside. Holy fuck woman! Are you a complete idiot??!! Then L goes on to lecture the students about how unsportsmanlike it was to gang up on someone and how unfair it is. Implied message: go ahead and fight as long as it's one on one. She did say a couple of times "no fighting", but what message do you think the students really took away from that? Then it came out that Zack took off his belt to hit Todd with. L told Zack that he shouldn't use his belt because it comes a weapon and he should only fight with weapons when he feels his life is in danger. Fuck yeah! Now when he gets into a fight again all he has to say to L is that he felt his life was in danger. Since he and his friends have L wrapped around their little finger L will probably end up throwing him a parade because he remembered her pearls of wisdom. L couldn't even get the boys to promise not to fight anymore!! She had them promise that the next time they felt like fighting they would go and talk to her first. Yes, because all teenage boys who get upset enough to get into a fight are rational enough to go and find an adult to discuss their feelings with first.
FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE L! I want to strangle her so hard that her little head pops off her little body. I am not a violent person, but I left work today so mad that I probably only narrowly missed having a heart attack. In case you couldn't tell, it makes me really, really mad that L doesn't think about the message she's sending to my students when she tries to discipline them. This over-50 woman, who has had two kids (boys) has no clue that my ESL teenagers routinely lie to her and play her for a fool. She thinks she's doing the right thing, but that makes her the president of fantasyland. No wonder we have problems with the students everyday! She can't even see that she's making the problems worse. This can't continue. It just can't. And I am still left with the question of why, when the two students came back to my class clearly still upset and with issues unresolved, she fucking sent them back to class.
* Names have been changed to protect their identities. This is Canada and in Canada we can't publish the names of youthful offenders due to the stupid Young Offenders Act.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
So funny . . .
Got this from Vesper:
http://img.quizgalaxy.com/pill-effect-bg.jpg); background-repeat: no-repeat;" width="400" height="515">
Kim Pills: Will cause an instant boost in original Nintendo play | ||
| 'What" effect do you have on people?' at QuizGalaxy.com | ||
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