First and Last

Today was the first day of school. I haven't posted in a few days due to getting my classroom ready. After wasting the 3 day headstart, I was still in the pack of other teachers trying to get their classes ready. Since I did not finish on Friday, I signed up to come on Saturday, something I said that I would not do this year.

Saturday
Well, after arrived in the building, I was informed that we only had a half day to finish. I had arrived about 9:45am. After putting up wall and window coverings, knowing that I had to be out of the building at 12noon, I made sure to be ready. Well, when noon arrived, I was ready to leave. After chatting with Ms. Across the Hall, and the new second grade teacher (a former 5th grade male teacher, who was tired of the nonsense of the upper grade students and wanted a lower grade, but had to settle for second grade. An annoucement was made that all staff had until 1pm to be out of the building. Great, I had already shoved what could be shoved and put things away, so it wasn't worth touching anything at that point only to have to start putting things away again.I spent the remaining time chatting and helping Ms. ATH with her things.

Sunday
I was invited to my foster father's daughter's BBQ. This is a very nice family that often consider me a part of the family even calling me brother as if I've always been a part of the family.

Anyway, I decided to take public transportation. However, what is about a 16 minutes car drive from my apartment to my foster sister's place, would take me about 90 minutes by public transportation. The area I live in is mountainous with lots of rolling hills. Since most of the transportation traveled in north to south directions, I had to travel south then cross east before traveling North again. When I arrived at the closest bus stop, I then had to walk up a steep mountain road without any sidewalks (about 12 minutes). I arrived at FS's place, but the hostess or host were not home, but there were a lot of people. On my hike up the mountain side, I stopped off at Pathmark. I bought a large soda, large grade juice, granola bars, and a box of donuts. I was a bit annoyed that I just put the bags on the table with the "other things" without the hostess seeing that I did not come empty handed. Anyway, I spent most of the time on the upper deck, while most of the action was down on the ground level. Since I'm not really a party person, I did what I usually do, I just sat and watched the action pass me by. I left about 6:15pm to catch the bus. But the 6:33 bus just passed me by. I was so busy playing Tetris on my cell phone, that I did not see the bus until it zipped by. It didn't even slow down with me being the only one at the bus stop. I starting walking and waited for the next bus a couple of stops down the road, and again, it almost did the same thing. Apparently, you have to wave your arms like a madman to get the bus to slow down and stop.

I stopped off at the local area mall to do some clothes shopping for "Back to School" for myself. I bought a couple of white dress shirts, a couple of black slacks and a pair of black shoes.

Monday Labor Day
Monday should have been my errand day, but it was my procrastination day. I didn't do much but watch the clock knowing that school started the next day. Until the evening, I really couldn't get my mind to think about school related tasks. Finally, in the evening, I was able to type up my letter of introduction and my supply list. I emailed the letter of introduction hoping that I would beat the last minute rush so that I could send it out on the first day. Here, letters of introductions (as well as most communications have to have admin approval). I shaved (my head), showered, and ironed my clothes for tomorrow. I was in bed by 1:30am.

Tuesday, September 2nd
I was hoping to take a early train to arrived in school to do some last minute set up, but I missed the early train by about 30 seconds so I had to take my regular train that would put at school with about 15 minutes before school starts. Unfortunately, dragging the granny cart full with books I didn't use for lesson planning, and my gym clothes, I was dripping with sweat this morning. I was too hot to put on my jacket. So how was the first day?

Actually, it was okay. Despite poor planning, and an incomplete classroom set up, with boxes still unpacked, the day was nice. Even "Wild One" (the second grader who spent much of his time last year out of the classroom was [relatively] nicely behaved. Would you believe that he arrived to school on the first day chewing gum with nothing but a handful of wrinkled loose-leaf paper. Oh, I also had to revise my letter of introduction, because AP1 told me that it was too formal and needed "more fluff" (more please and thank yous). That surprised me. I'm a bit too soft and usually say please and thank you too much. I don't think I've ever been told that I have a rough edge (usually it is the opposite). I also couldn't send out my supply list because Admin had one for the whole school. On the last day of school back in June, an announcement was made to send down a supply list that we would be using for the coming school year. Since that was the first (and only) annoucement, I put it off, until it was too late. As a result, I now have to send out this crappy list with half the things I don't want my students to have, and missing items that I wanted to ask for. "Two packs of loose-leaf paper (wide-ruled)" is just asking for an endless supply of drawing paper and paper airplanes.

At about 6pm, I was expecting the firedrill bell to go off, but it didn't. Anyway, I left the school and went to the boxing gym with the plan of signing up for a 1 month package of group boxing lessons. When I arrived at the gym, The owner (or the wife of the owner) commented about how I had gained weight, and she wanted to know what had happened that I missed two weeks and I had been doing fine and making progress. Did I tell her the lessons were crappy, and I wasn't motivated to come? No, I just said that I was a procrastinating. As I took out my money to pay for the listed price of a one-month fee for group lesson, the lady told me, "oh no, the cost for changing from private to group lessons was about $180. With the "about $180" cost mentioned, and feeling I did not get what I paid for with private lessons, I told the lady I would think about it, but in the meantime I would clear out my locker. I should have taking my gym bag into the locker room, because coming out of the locker with my shower things and gloves, I felt like a quitter without several people stopping to see what I was carrying out. So, what did I do after? I went to Subway's restaurant; I ordered a foot-long sandwich and three macadamian cookies, with a couple of refills of soda. I came home hot sweating a tired. I fell asleep. Now, at 1am. I have to plan my lessons for tomorrow, and shower of course. Hopefully, I'll be in bed by 2am.


Post Date - Tuesday, November 25, 2008 8:52PM
Completion Date - Wednesday, September 3, 2008 1:02AM

Today was relatively nice day. I wanted to get up about 5:30 to catch the the second train around my time. I usually catch the 6:53am, as long as that train runs on time, I will arrive at work on time. The next earliest train is the 6:26am. However, since I went to bed at 1:15am last night, getting up at 5:30 was a long shot.

I arrived at work at about 7:45am. I really didn't have much time to do anymore classroom set up. I managed to set up my copy machine.

I started with 5 students, it was very nice having a small class size, but I knew it would not last. I received 3 new students. My class register is now up to 20 students. Everyone was fairly nice (relatively speaking), however, I can already see the "handfuls".

I finished at 3pm. However, I decided to finish carrying the textbooks from the old classroom that AP2 originally told me to just forget them. It took about 15 minutes for me to move the textbooks. I wanted to leave school at 4:30 at the latest, but as you know, "old habits die hard". One, I was just too tired to move. Then, I wanted to do a bit more classroom prep. I managed to clear off my desk. When I don't have a place for things, I quickly get overwhelmed and start leaving things everywhere and forgetting where I put things.

I left school about 6:10pm. Since I had time before the next MN train, I was planning to eat dinner at Subway's restaurant, but the clerk was moving slow chatting with another customer, and there was another guy in the back talking on the phone. I was standing at the counter waiting for about 2 or 3 minutes, but the clerk didn't say anything like, "I'll be with you in just a moment", so I left. I ended up going to MacDonald's next door. I bought the Big Mac meal.

I am going to really try to be in bed between 10 and 10:30pm. Tomorrow, I will tackle the back table in my classroom. My plan is to tackle one corner each day until my classroom is put together(hopefully, without spending a lot of extra hours after hours). The other two third grade teachers had the right idea, they were both out of the building at about 3:30pm. I need to start following their lead.


Post Date - Tuesday, September 5, 2007 8:28pm

Professional Development
My day started about 5:21am. I was tired, went to bed the previous night about 11pm. Since, I didn't have to stress about kids going wild, I did not have much difficult getting myself together and out on time.

I arrived at the school about 7:40. The class is a professional development for teachers. The class was scheduled for 8:00 to 3pm. The program is for the teachers to gain 30 hours of "development". About 8:00, the instructor came to the auditorium (where we were told to wait), to take us to the room. The room was located on the 4th floor, I decided to take the stairs rather than crowd into the elevator.

8:05 - The instructor explains that "paperwork" needs to be done(attendance, policies, etc...). Nothing has started.

A lady came to sit next to me. From her body language, I got the impression she did not know a lot about computers, and was looking to sit next to someone who could "help out". She sat, started pushing the monitor on button several times. And since it would not come on, she moved down one seat. She did not bother to try the power button. I thought I lucked out, but then...

20 minutes late, another person (a Russian lady) came (with the same "look") and sat next to me. She dropped her purse in my space, then starts giggling the mouse and repeating the same panic button push the other woman did. Wondering why the computer would not come on. I told her the class had not started yet, and that I was going to wait until the instructor told me what to do. But that was not good enough because "the others have their computers on". She was determined to get that computer on. She did manage the power button, but that wasn't enough, she then wanted to know the password. It amazed (and frightened) me at the behavior of a few of the teachers in that room. It is late, so I can give the details that I wanted to...sleeping, complaining, making shopping list, not paying attention, having to be told 4 or 5 times, and still not following directions, excessive talking etc...

8:50 - The instructor gives a 5 minute "talk" about the parking problem of last week. Still doing "paperwork". After the "talk" about parking, a couple of teachers were advised to move their cars. The instructor said that she would not start until they (two teachers) returned.

9:15 - Parkers returned. Instructor begins with...dismissal time. We (the class) have an option of leaving at 1pm with homework, or leaving at 2pm without homework. She tells us that it has to an all agreement, if even one objects, then 2pm will be the dismissal time. One guy honesty admits that he does not want homework, so he does not mind staying til 2pm. Then others agree with him. Others also don't want to do anything without the instructor to "help" them if they have difficulty. It is obvious to me that the instructor wants to leave at 1pm, but others can't see that, so they continue to defend their positions that 2pm is better than 1pm. After explaining the benefits of 1pm, again, the instructor tries to "take a vote". Again, it is not a unanimous vote. So, the instructors says that "since some are confused" we will revisit the discussion again later.

9:25 - The lesson begins with....individual introductions.

9:55 - The individual introductions are now finished. And...it is break time. After about 5 minutes of conversations, the instructor finally tells us the return time from the break is 10:15.

9:16 - I arrived back. The school is located in a residential area, the nearest store is a few blocks away. I returned. The instructor is having a one on one conversation with a student. The conversation finishes about 10:30am

10:30 - The lesson finally starts with the basics. "This is a mouse. This is how we hold a mouse." The first skill was typing our name two times, then saving the document. The next skill was typing our name three times, bolding the last one, then saving the document. Next, students were asked to type the Star-Spangled Banner lyrics, while the instructor left the room for something. I cheated. I cut and pasted the lyrics from the Internet. When the instructor returned, we were asked to changed the fonts, colors, etc...

12:30 - The subject of dismissal time is revisited. This time, the instructor clarifies, homework will be assigned whether dismissal time is 1 or 2pm. Then, instructor asked for a show of hands for those that objected to leaving at 1pm. No hands went up...Democracy at work.

Since we did not have a lunch break the instructor told us that we would be leaving earlier than 1pm. She is telling us this at 12:30. We only had to finish the Name Poems we were working on. We finished....1pm

I headed home. I stopped at 42nd street. I had lunch at the Japanese takeout restaurant "Yoshinoya". I returned to the Bronx about 5 minutes after the Metro-North leaving, so I went food shopping and stopped at the 99 cent shop. I bought milk, juice, and wheat bread at the supermarket, and disposable cups and plates at the 99 cent shop.

I returned home a little after 4pm. I was going to go to the post office to pick up anther package from Amazon.com, but I changed my mind. I laid down with a plan of resting for a couple of minutes, but ended up falling asleep. I woke up 5:31pm. I could have went on another walking event with the walking club I joined, but I did not want to risk pushing myself too much. Finishing at about 8pm, getting home about 10 (or 11pm). I finally dumped the 5 or 6 trash bags that have been laying around. I then decided to bake the chicken that had been in my refrigerator for a few days. I put the oven on low so that I could do my rowing and soak in the bath.
I rowed for about 45 minutes, and relaxed in the bath for about 30 minutes. Since it was late, instead of making a big meal, I ate about 3 chicken legs, 2 slices of wheat bread, and a glass of orange juice.

My day is finished, my blog entries are finished, and it is way, way past my bedtime.


199.6lbs / 29.2BMI / 125.6CalB.
Post Date - Tuesday, July 17, 2007 12:11am