Back to the Salt Mine

Sorry, I was too tired to post yesterday. Yesterday was suppose to have been moving furniture and unpack the neatly labeled boxes. Well, that was just hopeful dreaming for me. First of all, I got started later than planned. I arrived to school about 11am. After I moved the furniture to their approx. locations, and cleared off the back cabinets, I was exhausted. Even though I had a fairly concrete idea of where I wanted everything to go, and my boxes were labeled so that I knew exactly what was in them. I still had to deal with a bit of a mental block (a kind of "where do I start, or what do I do" kind of thing). So instead of doing anything substantive, I kind of fritted away the time.

Today, I had a reservation with a mover to help me move my things back to my classroom. To make sure we were on the road as quickly as possible, I moved my things from my apartment to the sidewalk before the mover was supposed to have arrived; the guy was about 40 minutes late. He was a very nice guy though. When we arrived, the side area gate was locked, and the side door was locked as well. My classroom just happens to be the last class by the side exit. If the side entrance had been opened, it would have been a single flight of stairs to my classroom. The only available space was a fire hydrant further down the block. Since the mover couldn't leave his van unattended (and risk getting a ticket), and not knowing where to take the boxes, it fell to me to move my things into the building. Once in the building, I had to take the approx. 10~15 boxes up one flight of stairs. I was exhausted again. I was too tired to do anything productive like unpacking boxes, so I sat and organized the classroom library books. I took a break for lunch. I ordered a turkey sandwich from the local bodega. On the way back, the security guard was either off duty or on a lunch break, so Mr. Gruff (one of the custodians), came to the door...reluctantly (making sure to remind us[those trying to get into the building] that Thursday was the day we were suppose to return).

About 5:40pm, the fire alarm when off. In this school, that's the custodian's way of saying, "get out, now".


What's the attached photo? I took this picture while I was moving my things. On Sunday, someone on the first floor of my building left that trash right in the middle of hallway. They could not even be bothered to put it near the incinerator closet. Where my foster father lives, signs have to be posted to remind residents that they should not through soiled diapers and trash out the window. Amazing...and not in a good way.


Post Date - Saturday, October 25, 2008 11:53PM
Completion Date - Tuesday, August 26, 2008 9:48PM

This morning, my legs were still bothering me from the walking that I did yesterday, so I decided to not do anything. I spent most of the day surfing, and watching daytime TV. I watched the court programs (Judge Judy and the others).

I also surfed. I spent about a half an hour trying to find the nearest train station to the Professional Developement class that starts next week. 30 credit hours starting at 8am. To get to the school in Queens, I will have to leave about 6am. Luckily the class is only for one week (8am to 3pm), I should be able to manage. The class is supposed to teach basic computer applications for the classroom teacher. A class I really need to take. Anyway, I tried to use the Google and then the Yahoo maps to try to find the nearest train station, but the maps were a bit too sophisticated for me and my computer. Everytime a map loaded, my computer would freeze, or the program kept saying that the school address could not be recognized. Finally, I just settled for the MTA's travel planner website.

http://tripplanner.mta.info/

The MTA's travel planner was much, much easier to use. Starting location, and end location. You can choose arrival time or departure time to help you with your planning.

I also did a bit more shopping with Amazon.com. I also explored the zipcar website:

www.zipcar.com

I found an article in the Monday, July 9, 2007 Daily News newspaper. So what is "zipcar"? A company that lets you rent a car by the hour. All this time, I've struggled without a car. You pay a $50 dollar membership fee, and they charge about $8 to $10 per hour to rent a car. It would be great to have a car for those weekly errands like shopping, or going to the mall or movies. Unfortunately for me, the nearest company lot is 6 stations away on the Metro-North Hudson Line. I sent the company an e-mail asking for a location closer to me. If I could get a location to me I would be very happy.

Finally, as I mentioned above, I spent the entire day doing almost nothing. I almost avoided rowing today. But at the last minute(10:00pm) I decided to row eventhough I really did not feel like it. This time around, I only burned 105 calories, but I am very happy that I did exercise. Hopefully, I will be able to stick with the exercise routine.

Wt. = 198.2lbs. / BMI = 29.5% / CalB. = 105

Post Date - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 2:01am

One more day to go! Today was a bit of clean up/pack up day. Unfortunately, my students were a bit too hyper to really be of much help. For most of the day, I had to be teacher/baby-sitter. A minute away, the cats wanted to go wild.

In the hall on the way to science, an annoucement required me to call the office. in the space of 15 seconds, my students were fighting in the hallway. The phone call? AP1 wanted me to quickly bring my class downstairs, so that I could return to give a parent her child's report card. The rest of the morning, was more anger, arguments, and hostilities between classmates. I also ended up doing a lunch detention because a couple of my students refused to chill out.

For the afternoon, clean up/pack up began. About 1:00pm, the "Spanish" teacher came. He is the out of classroom teacher who was assisted to me during the morning skills period, and the afternoon reading mini block. However, he was oftern late or a no-show. When he did show for the afternoon reading mini block, he took his group to watch DVDs, or to the computer lab, causing my group to complain that I was being unfair for not doing "fun" things during the reading time.

Anyway, the Spanish teacher came to me in the middle of chaos, to give me two boxes of small cakes, asking me to cut and distribute the cake. I just was not in the mood. To begin with, they did not deserve a party, second, I did not like the idea of being dumped with a messy chore and I told him...in a very polite way. He said he would come back. He came back about 2:45 to start cutting up the cakes. He had his back to me the whole time, and never offered my any. But that was okay, I would have said "no thank you".

About three, I gave out report cards with the hope that most if not all would not come tomorrow. Unfortunately, several kids (including Hyper Screamer) told me that they would be coming tomorrow.

Once the kids were gone, I was able to finish up my students' cumulative records (the records that follow the student all the way to high school). I also packed up my copy machine. I don't remember when or where, but I pack up as if I am not coming back. Most likely I will be back.

Oh, I almost forgot, while I was talking to another teacher comparing "wild students" stories. The custodian asked me if I was all packed. He mentioned that a new charter school would be moving in. That much I already knew. He also mentioned that the new charter school would have the 7 rooms at the end of the hall where my classroom is located. According to the custodian, alls the classrooms have to be empty for the new school before August. He was shocked that the other teacher and myself had no idea about the new move. Things at this school tend to operate on a "need to know" basis, meaning lowly teachers are told what Admin "thinks" we need to know. I suspect one of three possible senarios:

1. Tomorrow the very last day, we will be informed that Admin just found out that the rooms will need to be vacated by the end of the day.

2. We will be contacted by telephone during the vacation and told, "oh, we just found out that your room will need to be vacated. If you choose to not come, then the custodians will have to move your things with no guarentee that things will be put where you want them.

3. We won't be told anything until teachers will have to report to school (two days before the students), and will have those two days to relocate.

We'll see.

Finally, about 6:25, I was in front of the school waiting for my taxi. The guy was about 12 minutes late. He called me to tell me that he was only two blocks away. He did not call to say that he was going to be late. The taxi ride was $35 dollars (plus a $10 tip). I was a little disappointed in myself, I should have been completely packed, so that I could take full advantage of the car ride. Unfortunately, when I am stressed out, I don't think straight.

Post Date - Tuesday, June 26, 2007 9:10pm