Deja vu all over again

[wombat_socho]

So I got up super early (for me) and went over to the city school HQ for my substitute orientation. Got another pound or two of forms to fill out and found that all the stuff I'd jumped through my ass to collect for the orientation (TB test, recommendation letters, transcripts, etc.) would not in fact be needed until next week when I come in for fingerprinting. At that point they'll also hook me up with the SAM software/phone system and get me on the payroll. Anyway, the morning session was pretty good; the presenter has been teaching in the system (full-time and sub) since 1961 when they integrated TC Williams (see Remember the Titans) by folding the other two city high schools into it. Ironic that the high school named for the superintendent who spearheaded the city's massive resistance to racial integration has a 69% minority student body this year, LOL. Morning session also had a useful refresher on classroom discipline and management. Afternoon session was less useful; there was a brief video on biohazard containment and handling with respect to AIDS, Hepatitis C and other blood-borne pathogens that would not have been out of place in the infamous forklift safety video. This was followed by a presentation on special education students which had way too many "exercises" and damn little practical advice. I don't think they could have driven their point that special education students are SPECIAL and must be handled with DIFFERENTIATED instruction home any harder if they'd used sixteen-pound sledges.

Eh. Aside form that, it's in the forties, rainy, miserable, and blah. Debating whether to turn on the heat or just make a two-pound meatloaf with the ingredients I have on hand. Maybe pasta. First, though, I'm going to throw some stuff out while there's room in the dumpsters.