On “Emergency” Referrals, and Glogging

Today we got an email from one of the vice-principals.  She’s going to be out tomorrow, so she asked us to please not send any referrals to the office unless it’s an emergency.
If I’m to the point where I’m writing a referral, isn’t it pretty much an “emergency”?  Not a life-or-death emergency, but an I’m-at-my-wit’s-end-with-this-kid [...]

On Creativity in Schools

(Stolen from Mr. Teacher’s blog.)

“Dammit, Jim! I’m a teacher, not a martyr!”

I didn’t grade a thing this weekend.  I didn’t plan one lesson.  But that’s OK.
(Yes, I’m still behind and will pay for it this week, but I’m still at peace with myself.)
Just because I have chosen to be a teacher does not mean I should be expected to slave away every weekend.  I need time [...]

Homecoming Dance Chaperoning

Hubby and I chaperoned the Homecoming Dance last night.  I thought it would be fun.
Was able to hoodwink Hubby into doing this with me because the location for the dance was a place I knew he’d like to go to.  Because I was not yet wise to the ways of these things, I said we [...]

On Politics: McCain v. Obama

I am, pretty much, a bleeding-heart liberal.  I admit it.  (Given some recent events and our government’s actions about them, I’m seriously considering crossing over to flat-out socalist, but that’s another post.)  Before any of the nominees were even announced, I knew I was voting against the Republican; the way our system works, we have [...]

Teacher of the Week!

The football team chose ME as their Teacher of the Week.
The coach (pardon me, one of the bazillion football coaches) came by my room this morning to tell me.  I almost cried – part of it was because I’ve been under undue stress (it is “the beginning of the school year”), but part of it [...]

It’s Spirit Week! … Isn’t It?

[Disclaimer: Homecoming was actually a few weeks ago, but I didn't have time to blog about it then.  So I'm doing it this week, as if this were that week a few weeks ago.  Just pretend with me.]
This is Homecoming week.  We have a dress-up theme for every day of the week.  However, nobody seems [...]

So It Begins… Parent Conference Season

Does everyone have this wave of parent contacts at the end of the first grading period?
I had a parent phone call Tuesday, a student conference and a parent conference Wednesday, and two phone calls Thursday.  Pretty much they all went the same way:
Parent: “Why is my son/daughter failing?”
Me: “Because he/she is not doing the work.”
Parent: [...]

On Grading, and its Repercussions

Grades were due today.  Kids can check their grades online now, so we don’t even get a break between the hell of grading and the hell of report card day – it’s instant.
In my case, this online access to grades thing is even more of a problem – I’m a hopeless procrastinator.   Everything is left [...]

Excuse me while I toot my own horn…

The six weeks ended Friday, and grades are due tomorrow morning.  I’m still not even close to done grading…  but, as I was going through this one assignment, one of my students wrote this:
I just thought I would tell you that I really liked
this assignment.Even though it took a long time, I
like watching the videos [...]