I Hate......uh, Batteries...

I super love that somehow it's MY fault the batteries weren't charged when they needed to be used.  Even though I said, "You're going to need charged batteries for this thing" fifteen thousand times.  Even though I informed EVERYONE that they were going to need batteries for this thing on this day at this time...

So when the batteries show up and they're dead, that's my fault.

I'm not a generator.  I can't charge the batteries for you.  I would love to, believe me!  It would make my  life so much easier if I COULD charge the batteries for you.

But alas...they are your batteries.

I had my batteries charged the night before.  I charge my batteries EVERY night before I need them...and sometimes on the weekends I spend a lot of my own extra time making sure that MY batteries are ready to go when they're needed.

So again, please explain to me how your dead batteries are MY fault.

My Teacher Genius...or not

I just don't know how to not give 110% apparently b/c every time I turn around I feel the need to do something else I don't have the time for.

My latest project is a way to display the students' work.  I've always loved the idea of a "brag wall" but if you've seen my classroom you know that...well...I've covered every wall with stuff already and I have 100 kids to accommodate.  So I Googled "display work ceiling" and combined several ideas for this one:

Paper clips bend so nicely, and can slip right under those "beams" in the ceiling

So I'll tie a string to a paperclip that's stuck in the ceiling and at the other end of the string will be a clothespin.

Now of course that's not enough...I decided that I need to spraypaint the clothespins so they're yellow and then decorate them so they are pretty.  I had thought about putting each kid's name on it BUT then I'd have to redo them next year...and I don't love that.

I'm hoping to get it done soon-ish.  My goal was before open house...but now I'm not sure if we have an open house, and if we do when it is.  So I guess we'll see.

It's not like I have a million other high priority things I should be doing instead of doodling on clothespins.

Money Isn't Everything

So I haven't posted in forever...and that's basically b/c things have been crazy.

Lincoln is currently in Afghanistan and since my last real post we've "moved" back to Cleburne and I'm staying with my dad until next summer when Lincoln will wrap up his contract and we'll begin our normal boring life.

Lincoln during Counter IED Training.  I told him to take notes.

I also was absolutely blessed to be hired back on in town as a 7th grade ELAR teacher (that's, English Language Arts and Reading).  It's the exact opposite of everything math.  Every day I feel like I'm stretching that side of my brain...some days I feel like I have to kick it out of bed and poor some water on it.

I often feel the desire to post but want to be careful with my "personal internet life" now due to all kinds of issues with being a "public figure" and all that jazz.  Not that I ever, in public of private, do anything that would jeopardize my job...just saying.

Every year I sit down and kind of map out where my kids live.  Try to get to know their neighborhoods as it would be.  Do a little virtual home visit.

Now...as to why I was inspired to post.  I have the privilege of working with some amazing kids this year and I'm trying harder than I ever have to get to know them (and their first and last names...)  And after my activity this evening I'm reminded that money isn't everything.  In fact, in the big picture...how much money someone has says very little about who they are at all, good or bad, stereotype or not.

I guess it's the same lesson I learned in high school when we started sharing our essays with the class and some of the "richest" kids I knew were sharing really sucky home life situations with the class and made me realize that even though I didn't have Abercrombie jeans on and Doc Martin boots...I had a lot of stuff they didn't...like parents that cared.  In that way, I feel honored to be an English teacher now b/c there's a special sacredness to what gets shared in English.  When the kids write, it's a little peek into their little heads and that's something you don't really get a lot of when you are teaching other subjects.  Maybe that's why I already feel like I know some of them pretty well.

So in short...I'm excited about what this school year will bring.  I'm getting to be creative with all kinds of things and it makes it all very fun...sometimes.  Other times I kick myself after starting a project and ask myself if I'm actually trying to work myself to death.

Should I start keeping a tally count for how many times I get asked if I'm pregnant this year...if so, the count is at 2 (from the same day....in the same class period....)

Or here's a fun one..."Have you ever cheated on your husband?"

Goodnight everybody!