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1914. arkymalarky - 8/20/2017 5:07:01 PM

Ha! It's been great, but I'm tired, and saw grandson this weekend, so even though you're saying what I'm hearing IRL, I think that once that grandson moves to one of the two coasts I'm going to have to be ready to travel anytime. I've been a little weepy just thinking about it, but Arkansas just did a great thing in its last legislative session I hadn't heard about until this past week. When you retire, you can apply for a permanent teaching license immediately, so after 6 months (minimum you can be out before you go back after retirement) or 6 years if I want to do something very very part-time I can do that. So now I don't feel like retiring means that I can't do things on a much more part-time basis without being in poverty. If I went back in part-time I would draw full retirement plus a part time salary.

1915. arkymalarky - 8/20/2017 5:08:16 PM

And I could do full-time, but I won't do that I know.

1916. arkymalarky - 8/20/2017 5:12:04 PM

Oh, and our test scores were great this year. My 7th graders beat the state average in every English category, English writing and reading. It was so much better than the year before, and a big part of it was doing a lot better preparation on the computers including interim assessments that we got which we didn't have the year before.

1917. arkymalarky - 8/21/2017 11:01:35 PM

something about this site locks up my phone when I try to post for some reason. I'll try this again, but it won't be as good as the first

I love where I work. The kids are so diverse and so unpretentious and good and I love watching them interact with each other. Today the science teachers had eclipse glasses for everybody and the principal brought watermelon and someone brought popsicles and for about 45 minutes the kids ate their popsicles and watermelon and watched the eclipse with their glasses. It was really neat. The eclipse glasses were cool, but I think I'm going to make a mint in 2024 by selling some that will actually stay on your ears.

1918. Ms. No - 8/23/2017 3:32:37 AM

All good news -- great news about the new retirement ruling!

We were in profdev on Monday, so we have lots of pictures of our staff out on a break watching the ecipse. We look just like a bunch of kids. Except taller and with more wrinkles. :-)

First day of orientation today, second tomorrow ending in a BBQ and Back to School Night. Great group of Freshmen this year, and I'm a little bummed that I won't have much interaction with them.

1919. arkymalarky - 8/26/2017 4:27:43 PM

Seeing a good group come in makes you look forward to the next few years. That's one thing about retiring, it's like trying to figure out timing, and realizing you can't teach all the kids you would love to teach.

1920. arkymalarky - 8/27/2017 4:07:33 PM

I swear I was planning to do this anyway:

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/08/26/opinion/sunday/memorize-poems-poetry-education.html?ref=opinion&referer=

1921. arkymalarky - 8/27/2017 4:08:10 PM

I used to do it every year, but haven't the last two or three.

1922. Ms. No - 8/28/2017 6:29:54 PM

Ooh! Great article! Gives me good ideas for projects/lessons.

1923. Ms. No - 9/7/2017 3:59:04 PM

School is off to a good start --- a little chaotic and bewildering since I'm teaching yet another new prep and had to miss the second day of school to go back to NC for a funeral -- but all in all, it's very good.

I like my student teacher, but I think I may not do one again. I'm too jealous of my students' time and attention. Right now we're still in the observation period, but the model is for co-teaching and that will start pretty soon.

Really, really awesome to have my babies back as seniors. I feel incredibly lucky to have this class my first year teaching Senior Project and Sr. English. They're very generous with me, and I think we're going to have a great year.

1924. arkymalarky - 9/8/2017 6:26:27 PM

Nothing more enjoyable than a good start to the school year in my opinion.

1925. Ms. No - 9/10/2017 1:51:46 AM

And for no real-good reason I can find, I totally crashed yesterday afternoon. It was like a black wave of depression came over me and I'm questioning everything about my life.

I'm trying to frame this in terms of things I DO want as opposed to don't want, but that's a little difficult to figure out.

Do want:

to live much closer to more family -- ideally we'd all be on the east coast
to be able to buy a house in a decent neighborhood that's walking distance to a vibrant midtown/downtown
to put more physical activity into my life, which means cooler summers for sure!
to be doing a hell of a lot more art and writing
to sing and dance again


So, now I just have to make a plan!

1926. arkymalarky - 9/10/2017 2:14:30 AM

The thing about English teaching is it doesn't leave much time for anything else. All the things I think in the summer that I want to do in the fall I just don't get to. I'm tired at home after work, and weekends are spent catching up on the shit I didn't get done during the week.

Maybe you should pick where you want to live first, move there and see what happens. Gulf Coastal property might become pretty reasonable in the next few months....

1927. Ms. No - 9/10/2017 5:34:44 PM

Yeah - I followed some clickbait to a story on 9 places you can live abroad for under $2000/mo. All I could think was, surely I could find some telecommuter job making two grand a month.

And what am I doing right now instead of lesson planning? Gah, this has got to be some hormonal thing.

Well, okay, maybe not. It's my 10th year. It's supposed to be a crisis year, right?

1928. arkymalarky - 9/10/2017 7:56:18 PM

Have you ever looked into tefl? I did when my school is closing and I thought I might just do something part-time for a few months and transition to retirement. You can teach English in foreign countries without being overwhelmed with prepes and lessons and all that. Stands nephew did it and he's an engineer. He lived in China teaching conversational English for 6 months and absolutely loved it. Didn't speak a word of Chinese when he went over there.

1929. arkymalarky - 9/10/2017 7:57:15 PM

I don't even remember my tenth year of teaching. I'd have to count from first-year through 10 to even know where I was.

1930. arkymalarky - 9/10/2017 7:59:55 PM

I was in my sixth School and the second year of my home that I left one time and went back to until it closed.

1931. Ms. No - 9/11/2017 12:01:39 AM

How do you get into tefl? Is it a set curriculum? (Asks the woman who loves to write curriculum but is just damn exhausted by it at the moment.)

1932. arkymalarky - 9/11/2017 1:26:26 AM

Haven't looked it over in five or six years, but it's very straightforward IIRC:

http://www.tefl.com/

1933. arkymalarky - 9/11/2017 1:26:52 AM

It's just teaching English as a foreign language

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