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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

1934. Ms. No - 9/11/2017 6:55:50 PM

Thanks! I'll check it out.

Got here this morning to find that for the first time in 13 years, someone had sprayed graffiti all over the school. Some of us called out by name as "fake" or "ass-kissers," and a couple of people are the principal's "dog", "boy," or "bitch."

It was shocking, and I felt so bad for the kids. Two of my early-bird students immediately came to my room to ask me if I was okay. That's how sweet our kids are. (for the record I'm the "ass-kisser). Fortunately most of it had been painted over by the time students were getting to school. The District acted really fast to get a crew out here to cover stuff up.

We've got video cameras everywhere, but the person was masked and wearing a bulky sweatshirt. We know for sure it wasn't a student. Right now we're thinking former staff member because of the way the individuals called out were referred to.

They'll slip up and we'll get them!

1935. Ms. No - 9/23/2017 7:35:53 PM

Second time in a week that I've run into a former student down on the K Street Mall --- obviously homeless.

This kills me.

I look around at all of the folks living on the streets and imagine them as babies. Somebody, somewhere, was once so thrilled they came into this world. Somebody somewhere once thought they were precious and adorable and ought to be protected.

I don't know what to do about this, but we have got to do something.

1936. arkymalarky - 9/24/2017 5:18:34 PM

Probably close to 30 years ago stan was working for the county and they had county prisoners cleaning up roadsides and one of my students begged him not to tell me he was among those on the side of the road. And it still amazingly hard to tell who's going to make it and who's not, despite what you see in all of the data about poverty and family backgrounds. The biggest thrill I have is a teacher is seeing a happy former student. Not so much the job and career but the happiness. I ran into one of my students in his forties who never got married but had worked in factories since high school and went back and got a degree in computer science because all of his co-workers and Friends kept telling him he was too smart for his job. I said you listened to them but you didn't listen to your teacher when you were in jr high school did you? He was black, dirt-poor, very rural, and had health issues in school. But he had core of character and good education that kept him on track even before he went back to school. That's why I rural public schools are so important. Especially for poor and minority students.

Drugs and alcohol in the biggest scourge on unhappy former students and I don't know what keeps some from going down that road. I've seen some great kids destroyed by it. And sometimes you think well it's the environment, and sometimes you think how could that kid possibly have gone that route with his or her family background?

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