pamelonian

I have one night off this week, and this is it.  I work volleyball games, have Parent-Teacher Conferences, and aikido testing the rest of the week.

I am slowly feeling better.  Work is where it all makes sense.  I even woke up this morning with an idea for a creative and fun review activity for my Spanish 2 class.  I won't bore the world with the activity here, but I stayed late after work to get it ready, and I am even going to work on it tonight at my computer.  

You can put a little effort into teaching or a lot.  I know that the days go by much more smoothly when I put more effort into it as opposed to the difficult days when I know I did very little to prepare.  Things I don't like about my job:  Grading papers and typing.  (Ironic that I hate typing since so much of my life is consumed with it.)  I wouldn't mind creating tests if it weren't for all the damn typing.  I want to copy/paste from other sources!  I hate Word tables.  The feeling is mutual, since they never want to do what I ask...

Tonight a big orange striped tomcat came to visit me.  He was a very friendly guy.  He sat with me for a few minutes outside and let me pet his tummy.  I went in to get my camera and he was gone.  It was nice to get some kitty love!

A girl from the Journal-World (the local newspaper) came by kids' aikido class and took some pictures of them rolling, me throwing them, them throwing each other. They should be in next Wednesday's Game section of the paper. Her editor just told her to come down. She called first, and we asked all the parents' permission to let their children be photographed (you have to do that these days). I do enjoy throwing children around. Funny thing is, they enjoy me throwing them.

Because of aikido stuff, I could not go to the gym or ride my bike. It is now getting dark sooner, and while I will ride at night, I won't go down any country roads which is my greatest biking pleasure.

Carpooling is still going well. We are keeping to the schedule and I will be saving $80-$100 a month!

Teaching went well today. Even my worst class wasn't so bad. There were extended periods of time where they were quiet and paying attention. Wow! We all need a chance to settle in to a new routine. I now want to be doing better at my first class. I feel so disorganized starting first hour cold.

I enjoyed going back to the school and seeing all the other teachers. I stayed up until 12:00, and had to get up at 5:00. I didn't sleep through the night, either. I kept waking up. In my caffeine-enhanced haze I made it until lunch, for which we actually got to leave and eat at a restaurant (a luxury those of us in education seldom get to enjoy).

We got no work done in our classrooms (although Super Teacher managed to decorate and rearrange "our" classroom before I even arrived). My fellow Spanish teachers admitted to feeling intimidated by her. It is easy to do. They also admitted that they thought I got screwed because due to my building seniority, I could have had my own classroom and ST should have had to travel from room to room. Luckily, I don't care much about having and decorating my own room.

Someone asked if I had any interest in teaching Spanish 3 & 4 (the levels that my former roomie left vacant). Who wouldn't? I was afraid this might happen. If all anyone sees is me teaching Spanish 1, they begin to think that I am beneath them and that my language proficiency is also less-advanced. (Not true, I could kick any of their asses at Spanish. I am good at what I do.)

Turns out my department chair was in Spain when all this went down. I like to think she might at least have asked me about getting my own classroom or what levels I would want to teach. My goal for this year is making my feelings known, but not in a bitchy or nagging way.

Tomorrow is a Foreign Language teacher workshop. We have an afternoon session about using songs in our classes. (I think I will bring my guitar). I wonder if Super Teacher can play guitar. (She probably can!)