Another nothing to blog about entry. I fell back to my regular (irregular) routine. I went to bed at 1:30am, and up at 6am. My day was nothing special or different. I got out of the building about 4:30pm. I left the same time Ms. Across the Hall did, so we walked to her train station. The travel time for me is basically the same. It just means changing trains midway. Anyway, there was a bit of a delay with one of the trains and as a result, I missed my MN train by about 5 minutes. I ended up getting home about 6pm.
Well, tomorrow is the first of the month. Hopefully, I will be going to the gym to sign up for a one-year membership. I really should have my workout clothes with me. However, I did tell myself that at the very least, I would sign up for membership and go tomorrow, but a part of me believes that if I don't workout tomorrow, then most likely I won't do it this week. My plan (if I do workout) is just to do about 20 minutes on a treadmill. With my bad knees, I will only be able to walk.
Post Date - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 7:22PM
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Well, I started the week with a relapse. I left the school building about 5:45PM. The past weekend was another bust. I didn't do any planning, so today was hectic mostly of my own creation. Mostly. I was in bed at about 1AM and up at about 6AM. My students were in a very hyper state. Luckily, I sent off a couple of emails to a couple of parents of my more hypers , so they were not the leaders this time around. I got caught up with speaking with a parent about her son. Then another conversation with a colleague. Also, I heated up the school lunch that I didn't have time to eat during lunch. I used my preparation period to get my homework sheet started, however, most of my preparation period was wasted doing what I call "babysitting duty". I had to use my lunch time to finish up my homework sheet.
After work, I stopped by a Target store. I wanted a new flash drive for my keychain, but Target wasn't selling the kind I wanted. I also bought a pair of slacks for work.
When I got home I had a Healthy Choice microwavable dinner. I ment to call a couple of parents, but once online, time just flew by. It is now almost 9PM. I think it is too late to call a parent complaining about their child's behavior. But, I will send a couple of emails. I will try to aim for between a 10:30PM and 11PM bedtime. That is another thing I will have to work on, getting a regular sleep routine. Well, I better go. I have to send a couple of emails to parents -- Yes, complaining about their child's behavior.
Post Date - Monday, March 30, 2009 9:01PM
After work, I stopped by a Target store. I wanted a new flash drive for my keychain, but Target wasn't selling the kind I wanted. I also bought a pair of slacks for work.
When I got home I had a Healthy Choice microwavable dinner. I ment to call a couple of parents, but once online, time just flew by. It is now almost 9PM. I think it is too late to call a parent complaining about their child's behavior. But, I will send a couple of emails. I will try to aim for between a 10:30PM and 11PM bedtime. That is another thing I will have to work on, getting a regular sleep routine. Well, I better go. I have to send a couple of emails to parents -- Yes, complaining about their child's behavior.
Post Date - Monday, March 30, 2009 9:01PM
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Dragon Strike
Quick entry (I hope). I just finished reading E.E. Knight's Dragon Strike (Book Four [of five] of the Age of Fire). It was nice. I'm looking forward to reading the final book. The only problem I had with the book was my poor memory of the other three books. Names were being thrown around that I barely remembered. Luckily, the book was fairly easy to follow for those who have not read the other books in the series. For the Paolini book "Brisinger", I will probably have to reread the previous two before I read the third. I also don't remember much about those books as well. Or at the very least, I should read an online synopsis to refresh my memory.So, on the home front, is there any changes worth blogging about. No. Not really. I slept Saturday away. Today I decided to get up and out a bit early (for me) before the rain. I visited my foster father and made a quick stop at Staples store. I wanted to make copies of a mini test I want to give my students. I could have done the copies in school, but (as I will mention in more details below) I wanted to get out of the building early (for me). When I returned home on the express train, I met one of the school aids from my school on the train. It turns out she won some kind of lottery and was able to get an apartment (subsidized by the government) in one of the new luxury loft-style near the waterfront apartment. It is a very nice place with a 24 hour gym and concierge. Wow, she is lucky. And would you believe she wants to move back to NYC. I'm getting sidetracked.
Back to blogging about nothing new. There is one thing I'm really proud of (that probably wouldn't make much sense to most of my reading audience). This past week, I believe for the first time ever -- again, with my memory, I can't be sure. I think last week was the first time I've ever managed to leave the school building for the entire week before 5PM. The whole week! By Friday, it started to sink in the strangeness of being in the building so late (again with nothing much to show for it). There were three or four things I thought about doing, but I told myself that if I didn't get out of the building, I would be in there until 8 or even 9PM. So, I threw what I could into my granny cart and was out of the building before 5PM. Fridays have for a very long time been my late day to set up for the next week, but last Friday, I just said the heck with it.
The real test will be the coming week. I think I will need to keep the "early (for me) departure" routine for a couple more weeks before it can truly sink in. Besides, I want to rejoin the gym next week. What's different this time?
The month of April starts in the middle of the week as oppose to starting on Monday. The last two months with the Monday start, I also had to deal with the monthly faculty meeting which occurs on the first Monday of the month after 3PM. The last couple of "new starts" were ended before they started with the exhaustion and the faculty meetings. Now, I'm hoping that I will be able to start on the first of the month with the first being in the middle of the week. I hope. So how did I deal with arrive home about 5:30PM every day last week. It was so strange that I only continued the odd sleep pattern I've recently developed. I get home with Chinese takeout for dinner. And soon after eating, I would be sleep on the couch only to wake up 1 or 2AM, to begin thinking about planning or emails to parents about their child.
I better go. I just went back and added another 23 minutes to this "short" blog entry. Hopefully, this coming week will be the beginning of a new me.
Post Date - Sunday, March 29, 2009 6:33PM
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Cloisters Museum
Below is a slideshow of photos I took a few months ago. I've finally gotten around to uploading the photos.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
My Wish...
It has been a while since I've posted an entry. Lately, I been trying to avoid doing work related entries. Unfortunately, with my boring life, without work there isn't much to write about.
Below is an email exchange I had with a parent of a student in my class.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good Evening Ms. Mom,
Yes, you are correct about the phone. Did Anna tell you that I would have given it to her today? All day like a broken record, I kept telling Anna I would give her the phone just stop being disruptive. It wasn't once or twice, but throughout the day. From passing candy, to conversations to her friend across the room and conversation at her table conversation on line. She walked and talked the way she wanted, when she wanted. Again throughout the day. There was even a spitball incident with two names involved (mostly) Billy and Anna. Her (repeated) response to me saying "if you want your phone, then stop (this or that)" was to smile, stop (for about a few minutes) then resume. Morning and afternoon. The last straw was 10 minutes to 3pm. I needed to finish up a couple of 1 on 1 informal reading assessments. Anna should have been reading (preferably a chapter book), but in that time, Anna chose to sit next to her friend (at another table) talking (I had to stop the assessment to tell her to go back to her seat), continued another conversation at her seat (I had to stop again), She got up (she said) to get a reading response card but she had a picture book opened showing it to her friend then wanted to argue that she wasn't doing anything. When the day was finished, that's when Anna told me, "Oh, I need my phone". I got angry. I had every intention of giving her the phone despite everything she did during the day, but it was that last 10 minutes that really annoyed me. The last ten minutes told me that I was just there for her amusement.
As a teacher, I value the time when I'm teacher or helping students. I thought it was a fair (temporary) trade. Anna withheld valuable instruction time, I withheld (with many reminders) something she valued. I don't have a problem with giving Anna her phone. All I ask is that Anna not take too much of valuable instruction time.
Oh and please do not think that I'm singling out Anna. There were other distractions going on. One less distraction makes my job a bit easier. Example? Another of Anna's classmate couldn't go on the ice skating trip because of his behavior. Since he couldn't go on the trip, he was kept home and taken shopping (the very same day) for a new video game. Much of my day was devoted to dealing with him (and what he told me he will or will not do). There are other examples, but here it is 2:30 in the morning, and I'm still thinking about work and having to do it all over again in a few hours.
Regards,
Jannx
P.S. - Mentioning ice skating. I forgot about Anna's refund. Please have Anna remind me about the refund ($4) in case I forget. And of course, I will return Sironne's cell phone.
-------------------
Good evening Mr. J,
This is Anna's Mom I would like to thank you for finding the phone. I understand that she was mis behaving that is why you didn't give her the phone, but please return it to her @ the end of class tomorrow, being that it is the only form of communication I have with her when she leave school. Thank you and have a goodnight. Ms. Mom
Sent via Blackberry
Below is an email exchange I had with a parent of a student in my class.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good Evening Ms. Mom,
Yes, you are correct about the phone. Did Anna tell you that I would have given it to her today? All day like a broken record, I kept telling Anna I would give her the phone just stop being disruptive. It wasn't once or twice, but throughout the day. From passing candy, to conversations to her friend across the room and conversation at her table conversation on line. She walked and talked the way she wanted, when she wanted. Again throughout the day. There was even a spitball incident with two names involved (mostly) Billy and Anna. Her (repeated) response to me saying "if you want your phone, then stop (this or that)" was to smile, stop (for about a few minutes) then resume. Morning and afternoon. The last straw was 10 minutes to 3pm. I needed to finish up a couple of 1 on 1 informal reading assessments. Anna should have been reading (preferably a chapter book), but in that time, Anna chose to sit next to her friend (at another table) talking (I had to stop the assessment to tell her to go back to her seat), continued another conversation at her seat (I had to stop again), She got up (she said) to get a reading response card but she had a picture book opened showing it to her friend then wanted to argue that she wasn't doing anything. When the day was finished, that's when Anna told me, "Oh, I need my phone". I got angry. I had every intention of giving her the phone despite everything she did during the day, but it was that last 10 minutes that really annoyed me. The last ten minutes told me that I was just there for her amusement.
As a teacher, I value the time when I'm teacher or helping students. I thought it was a fair (temporary) trade. Anna withheld valuable instruction time, I withheld (with many reminders) something she valued. I don't have a problem with giving Anna her phone. All I ask is that Anna not take too much of valuable instruction time.
Oh and please do not think that I'm singling out Anna. There were other distractions going on. One less distraction makes my job a bit easier. Example? Another of Anna's classmate couldn't go on the ice skating trip because of his behavior. Since he couldn't go on the trip, he was kept home and taken shopping (the very same day) for a new video game. Much of my day was devoted to dealing with him (and what he told me he will or will not do). There are other examples, but here it is 2:30 in the morning, and I'm still thinking about work and having to do it all over again in a few hours.
Regards,
Jannx
P.S. - Mentioning ice skating. I forgot about Anna's refund. Please have Anna remind me about the refund ($4) in case I forget. And of course, I will return Sironne's cell phone.
-------------------
Good evening Mr. J,
This is Anna's Mom I would like to thank you for finding the phone. I understand that she was mis behaving that is why you didn't give her the phone, but please return it to her @ the end of class tomorrow, being that it is the only form of communication I have with her when she leave school. Thank you and have a goodnight. Ms. Mom
Sent via Blackberry
Monday, March 02, 2009
Snow Day
Woo Hoo!!!Here in NYC, our schools were closed. Again, Woo Hoo!!!
I woke up this morning stressed and annoyed that I was not prepared to go to work, so you can imagine how excited I was when I got out of the shower (hoping I wouldn't miss my train) and heard that NYC schools were closed. Once I checked a couple of TV news reports, I was happy.
So, why wasn't I prepared. This weekend like most others, I sleep or read it away. On Saturday, I slept until about 11AM. I went to the post office to pick up my Amazon.com order, that being a bit of a hike (about an hour walk one way) got me home about 5PM. I spent the rest of the day reading the Watchmen Graphic Novel. When I saw the trailers for the movie, I became interested in reading the book. Once I started reading the book, I really started to enjoy it. Sunday was more of the same, Watchmen and sleeping.
Well, I better go. I've been given a very, lucky break. I really can't afford to waste it.
Oh, I did a Google search to find the attached photo of "Snow Day".
Post Date - Monday, March 2, 2009 7:42AM
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