Twitter

Happy Saturday!

I've decided to try to take this weekend off...no work...at least no work at school. So I'm starting the day messing around on the computer...one of my favorite things to do. I just heard a story about Twitter on NPR. I'm gonna give this Twitter thing a try for a little bit. Boy did I have a lot of stuff I could have tweeted about yesterday...what a freakin crazy day! Yesterday, I tried to kick someone out of my office, but she would not leave. I called security but she left before they arrived. It's amazing how much crazy sh*t happens after school. Ok, I'm going to try my first tweet. Wish me luck!

Next Video Post

So I'm trying to decide what my next video post will be about. Can't decide if I should read a book, rant about something, show you around my bedroom, go over the trimester 1 data report, read one of the handouts I've put in boxes, just stare into the camera, or read the newspaper as if I were the Lucky Charms leprechaun. Any suggestions?

Note: Illegal, immoral, and/or nasty suggestions may possibly be ignored.

The Day After

My allergies are killing me! No walking for me tonight...I'm too sneezy.

I'm glad Slumdog and Sean Penn won! If you haven't seen Slumdog, you absolutely must. I didn't get to see the last part of the Academy Awards. I DVRed it. I'll try to watch the last hour over the weekend. If I get to it. These days I watch very little TV. I probably should get rid of the cable. But baseball season is right around the corner. The Tudors will be on soon. And there's American Idol. Ok, I'll keep the cable.

Academy Awards

I've never really been that interested in movies. I guess I don't have the patience to sit for two straight hours staring at a screen. I've seen more movies this year than I have probably seen in the last ten years. This year I saw W, Four Christmases, Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt, and Milk. This is the first year in a long time that I've actually seen movies nominated for Best Picture. I absolutely loved Slumdog and Milk. Both are great movies. Sean Penn was amazing in Milk. He definitely deserves to win the Best Actor award. I decided to see Slumdog because of Dev Patel. He's in my favorite TV show, Skins. It's on BBC America. I LOVE that show! Dev is fantastic in Slumdog. And he's only 19! When I was 19, I don't think I even spoke in complete sentences. I can't decide which movie should win. Maybe the Academy will give both movies the Best Picture award??? Seems like everyone is expecting Slumdog to win, but I wouldn't count out Milk. I guess we'll find out on Sunday. I'll be watching.

Monday Thoughts

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend. I spent my Valentine's morning in the Saturn dealership. It was a cheap date, only about $90 bucks. Not bad. I had time to cuddle up with my Vanity Fair. I know, I'm a romantic.

I just got back from walking. I slipped on a puddle of water and landed on my knee. Ouch! I hope no one saw me fall. During my walk, a fairly large raccoon started to run toward me. For a moment, I pictured the raccoon jumping up and biting me on my face and then I scream and start running around Loynes like a crazy man with a raccoon stuck to my face. Luckily, once the raccoon got a closer look at me it scampered away.

I've noticed that the kids have been increasingly more disrespectful to each other and adults, especially the recreation aides. On Friday, a 5th grader called a rec aide "stupid." WTF? What is going on? On Thursday, a fourth grader asked a female classmate to spread her legs open and show him something. WTF is going on with these kids? Each day it seems to get worse and worse...behavior wise. Just when we seem to get a handle on one problem, three more pop up.

On the same topic of respect, Saturday I went to Target. I got in line to check out and started to empty my basket onto the conveyor belt, when the cashier pretty much barked at me to leave the basket on the belt. WTF? Usually I ignore rudeness, but I couldn't let this one go. I asked her "You meant to say please, right?" I'm glad she wasn't serving me food. The people around me looked at me like I was insane. Insane for wanting to be treated with respect? I don't think I'll be shopping at that particular Target anymore and I plan on calling the manager to let him/her know why.

Budget

According to the L.A. Times, it looks like Sacramento is close to a budget deal. Based on the article I just read, it looks like education is going to take a big hit. Sad. There is good news. The Economic Stimulus Package was agreed to by the Senate and the House. Some money will be coming to the district, possibly as much as $30 million. It probably won't be enough to prevent cuts. Sad. We'll have to wait and see. Chris is going to meet will all principals next week to let us know how much money we should expect to get. I'm going to try my best to stay positive. What else can I do? Crying doesn't work. Yelling kind of helps. Being in a foul mood is not an option...I tried that last year and it wasn't very popular. I'm hoping we don't have to make too many drastic cuts. We have very little left to cut. I'll let everyone know the outcome of my meeting with Chris. Keep your fingers crossed.

Oh and BTW, in the proposed state budget...the vehicle license fee doubles, we'll have to pay higher income taxes, the gasoline tax increases by 12 cents a gallon, AND the sales tax goes up by 1%. Seattle is looking really good these days. They have schools there too.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

If you're in education, forget asking for any dimes from Senate Republicans and Democratic collaborators. Education took a pretty big hit in the Economic Stimulus Package that the Senate will vote on this coming Tuesday.

Cut:

$600 million for Title I
$98 million for school nutrition
$1 billion for Head Start/Early Start
$16 billion for school construction
$3.5 billion for higher education construction

Feeling kind of left behind? Me too. So let me get this straight. Wall Street fat cats get what they want. Auto companies get what they want. Banks get what they want. Education gets no help feeding kids, no help providing interventions to the most at risk kids, no help giving four year olds a jump start on their education, and forget about any modernization to your 70+ year old school buildings. Thanks a lot Washington, D.C. Republicans and wimpy Democrats!

Check out the complete list of cuts to the package on cnn.com.

My First Video Post!