Day Off

Today I took a day off. I didn't go into work. It felt a bit weird. I'm such a creature of habit. I pretty much stick to the same routine every week. Cleaners on Tuesday and Friday. Groceries on Friday. Target on Saturday. It's A Grind on Saturday and Sunday. If someone wanted to take me out, they would have a very easy time of it. I guess I should get a little wild with the schedule. Maybe I'll get groceries on Thursday. Go to the cleaners once a week. I enjoyed my day off, even if it felt a little weird to be off schedule.

The World is a Mess!

The world seems to be crashing in all around us. Jon and Kate are getting divorced. Perez Hilton was assaulted by the Black Eyed Peas manager...allegedly. Barack is still smoking. Britney is having trouble selling her concert tickets. How much more of this horrificness can we take???? Personally, I'm not sure how much more I can take. Excuse me, I need to go meditate and then medicate.

F*ck Bubbles

Bubbles are coming. Friday will be Bubble Day. Each good choice-making kid will get a bottle of bubbles to blow during lunch. I spent a couple of hours today taking the plastic coverings off the bottles of bubbles...900 bottles of bubbles. I'm starting to hate bubbles. Lupe and a student aide helped. I'm so thankful to them. I cut two of my fingers trying to remove the stupid plastic things. The second time I cut my finger, I said something I shouldn't have said. I said it a bit too loud. There was a kid sitting in the hallway taking a make-up CST test. She heard me. I said "FUCK!" After I said it, I realized there was a kid in the hallway. I wanted to say "FUCK!" again, but I didn't. Please know that this is so unlike me, to use foul language at school or really anywhere. I peeked my head out the door and looked at her. She looked back at me and smiled. I said nothing. She said nothing. Our looks to each other spoke volumes. My look was one of pure horror. Her look said "I have something on you. Mess with me and I'm going to tell everyone what you said." I saw her again at lunch. She gave me the "look" again. I just smiled at her. I don't think she told anyone. I think she's saving it for just the right moment. I'm going to be blackmailed by a fifth grader! In a way, I'm really curious when she'll use her little tidbit of information. I'll let you know. Did I say I hate bubbles?

Suction Yourself

This afternoon I made my once every fourth month visit to the dental office for my cleaning and check up. I was so looking forward to it. Forty-five minutes of just lying down staring at the ceiling with NO ONE bothering me. I LOVE it! This time I had to have x-rays taken. The office has a new digital x-ray thingy. No more paper things in my mouth. Just a futuristic plastic thingy in my mouth. I could actually see my x-rays on a computer screen. Cool. The hygienist zoomed in to get a closer look at my tarter build up. Not cool. After the x-rays and zooming in and out were over, something very weird happened. The nice hygienist (she really is nice) told me I would have to suction myself. Huh? Suction my own spit? You have got to be kidding. She wasn't kidding. She handed me the little plastic suction thing. I made a joke about wanting a discount if I had to suction my own spit. She laughed and said I could ask. Should I be outraged by this? I mean, please, suction my own spit? Pffft! Am I being too bourgeois about this? I don't go to grocery stores where I have to bag my own groceries. I want my groceries bagged for me. I HATE buffets. I want to be waited on. I refused to suction my own spit. I just swallowed it. What is this world coming to when you have to suction your own spit at the dental office? Outrageous. OMG! She didn't even floss my teeth. She usually flosses my teeth! What is the world coming to???????

"F*ck You, F*ck you, F*ck You"

Today was sort of a horrific day. At times, I felt a little bit like a punching bag. It started out pretty great...coffee from Cheryl, bagels and cherries from Outey. Full belly and caffeined up...what could be better? It quickly went down hill as soon as I spit out the last cherry pit. I wish I could share details, but I can't. Believe me, it was a bad day. I will share one specific detail that is just too full of juicy goodness. It's about 2:15 and I'm making my way across the playground en route to the bungalow village to deal with yet another problem. Many kids are waving and saying "hi." One of the Head Start kids runs up to me to tell me he likes it when I read him stories. I say something like "I'm glad you like the stories" as I'm rushing off to my destination. Then his little brother, who must be late 3 or early four, comes up to me and says in broken English/little kid speak what sounds like "fuck you." Initially, I just smile and keep walking because there's no way this little kid just said to me "fuck you." No way. The kid follows me and stands in front of me as I continue to walk and again says "fuck you." I stop and look at him. He says it again! "Fuck you." OK, who paid this kid? I look down at him and tell him, "those are naughty words, you shouldn't say them...naughty words...palabras malas!" Then his mom comes over and I try to tell her what he said. She doesn't speak English, so an older kid tries to translate. Oh brother. I again tell him not to say those words...palabras malas!!! I'm sure he didn't understand me. I continue on my way to the bungalows thinking now I'm even pissing off the four year olds.

100th Post

This is my 100th post. Yeah for me! So many sad things happening at school lately. Some days are just down right depressing. In between all the downer stuff, there are brief moments of sunshine. For example, the other day a kid went on and on and on about the book she read. I live for the sunshine moments. Sadly, there are way too few sunshine moments. There was a sunshine moment at the end of today...the Think Tank. Seven people showed up. We talked about ways to improve our collaboration. I thought the ideas we generated were great! I can't wait to try some of them out. It's too bad more people don't attend the sessions. I would love to hear from more people in a relaxed, speak your mind atmosphere. I want to believe that everyone wants to know more, so they can do better.

Readicide

"...the overemphasis on testing is playing a major part in killing off readers in America's classrooms."

The previous is an excerpt from Kelly Gallagher's book, Readicide, How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It

That excerpt rang so true today as I spent the morning in a fifth grade classroom proctoring our first day of STAR testing. I felt sadness, anger, outrage, and frustration as I watched almost all of the kids do their very best to carefully read the several passages and answer the 41 questions. They definitely were winners and not quitters. It just seemed like overkill to me. Why so many freaking passages? Wouldn't two or three passages and 25 questions suffice? Why are we doing this to our kids? Why are we sucking the joy of reading out of them? I'm so angry that this ONE assessment is what makes or breaks us. These 8 days of "testing" determine whether or not we are "distinguished" or whether or not we are in "program improvement." I guess no one cares about what happens during the other 172 days. Something must change or we will continue to turn kids off to reading and to learning.