One more week after this until spring break. I need it. I have completely lost patience with my students and am finding myself snapping at them for perfectly reasonable questions.

GET ME OUT OF HERE.

My students are taking stupid MCAS tests this week. My fabulous vice-principal (the one I like) took those of us who teach multiple grades out of the proctoring rotation. As a result, I've got FIVE extra free prep blocks this week. Sounds like a good chance to get some extra work done, no?

Am I doing work during my extra free time? Go ahead,

So, against my dad's advice I went to school today. I am glad that I did, because I needed to get moving on my curriculum and given that this is the last week before break, if I wasn't here for the start of the week the whole week would be a wash. But holy shit, was I tired at the end of the day. I did leave a little early, though not as early ( Read more... )

The whole school was full of cranky people today -- cranky kids, cranky teachers, you name it, because we all stayed up too late to watch the Super Bowl, and then the stupid Giants had the audacity to win the game ( Read more... )

When you are about to teach a lesson about the urinary system, it's a good idea to go and urinate first.

I just spent an hour talking to my students about peeing while really needing to pee. I don't recommend it.

I am grading a set of descriptive paragraphs from my 7th graders, from when I bring them outside once a month to observe the changes in a particular tree over the course of the seasons ( Read more... )

It's been snowing steadily since about 1 PM (it's 7:30 now). Looks like about six or seven inches on the ground so far, and it's still falling without any sign of slowing down ( Read more... )

What a day. Remind me to never again schedule a field trip on the same day as parent-teacher conferences.

The field trip was awesome, though. We took our 7th graders to the Museum of Science to see the CSI exhibit (and those of you in the area have GOT to go see it while it's still there -- until January 1st, so not too much time left). It is ( Read more... )

Something in the water today -- kids are bouncing off the walls. This time of year, these few weeks between Thanksgiving and December break, are always completely nutty. I'm grumpy and irritable and trying really hard not to snap at the well-behaved students when they just have perfectly reasonable questions ( Read more... )

My phone rang very early this morning. I glanced at the caller ID. It was from school. Instant grin. No, it wasn't a full snow day, but we did have a delayed start, which meant we missed our first two classes (waiting for it to stop snowing and get the roads clear before putting the kiddies on a school bus on a slippery surface) and school didn ( Read more... )