..."ohh yeeahh"

I am aware that I may be a bit late in the game on this whole blogging thing. It's 20 days until the end of this school year. But I guess I can start here and see what happens. Here's an overview:

-I teach
-Not for the money or recognition apparently
-I have two periods of 7th grade Art and four periods of 9th grade English
-It's incredibly amazing how totally different 7th and 9th graders are
-My students keep me young
-They make me laugh
-They make me really insanely angry and frustrated
-But there is never a dull moment. I take that back, the fourth time reading "The Lottery" in one day can be a bit dull.
-I am a newbie. Just finishing up my second year.

I think that gets up to the moment. I must admit though, I called in a sub today. I needed a mental health day. That and someone brought in the flu two weeks ago and I have yet to recover from it. So I took a day away from snotty noses. I also work at Red Lobster on the weekends but usually only on Saturdays. This week, however, I was scheduled on Sunday because of Mother's Day and I just can't work Sundays and go right back to school on Mondays. I don't feel like I got a weekend at all. Here is the problem with subs though...They are great, I appreciate substitutes more than I can possibly say because they have a tough job. But a day with a substitute usually means I come back to this.."Miss H, you shouldn't have the assignment due because it was really too hard and we couldn't figure it out." "Miss H, no one worked on the assignment, can it be due tomorrow?" "Miss H, that sub was weird." "Miss H, did the sub say we were bad?" And usually, the room is a mess and no one has finished the assignment and they all complain about the sub. Oh well, you just have to decide if it's worth the risk sometimes and this time I decided it was.

We are starting Fahrenheit 451 and I have no idea where to begin. I have spent the past two hours researching ideas and help for teaching the novel and still don't know where to begin. I am this way at the beginning of every single unit. You would think I would have it down by now. But I do spend a large amount of my time thinking, "What AM I doing?" I worry about ruining their educational experience for life. I worry about teaching them things they really don't need or not being clear enough on the things they do. I worry about wasting their time. I worry about doing the wrong thing. It, meaning teaching, does not come with an instruction guide. You go through your college courses and your student teaching and then you get hired and they say, "Ok, well here's your classroom, you're teaching English 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 7th, Art you've got 4th and 5th. Good luck! Oh yeah and don't forget to teach persuasive writing, they have a test on that at the end of the year." That's it. And you walk into the middle of your new classroom and think, "Ok. Great. Wait...what?" I have discovered though, that I am not very organized. And that's a big problem. And when I try to get organized, I make everything really confusing for myself. And I am really good at making to do lists. Just not very good at crossing things off of them. Weeks later I find my list and think, "Oh yeah. Did I ever get around to making that rubric for next week? I forgot about that."

Which reminds me..."Oh Yeah" is the catch phrase of ninth grade. When I think of ninth graders, I think of "Oh Yeah" or more accurately, "Ohh Yeeahh." Example: "Miss H, what's the Love Connection worksheet?" "It's the Romeo and Juliet worksheet that says Love Connection on the top of it." "Ohh Yeeahh." "Miss H, can I use the hall pass?" "Sure, do you have one of the paper passes I handed out at the beginning of the term?" "Ohh Yeeahh." "What page are we on?" I point to the board where it is written in big, green marker. "Ohh Yeeahh." "I didn't know that the Writer's Notebooks were due today." "Well, it's been written on the board right above your DOL for two weeks now and I have reminded you every day for the past week." "Ohh Yeeahh." You get my point.

I'm more than a teacher though too. I'm an artist. I'm working on my own illuminated/illustrated alphabet. I'm up to the letter G. I make art journals. Most of this ends up being done during class though. I like to work on art stuff while my art students are working on art stuff. They like it too. I find their motivation for art projects is higher if I am working on projects too. I am a server at the Dead Lobster. This satisfies my need to adult interaction and spending money. And believe it or not, sometimes the restaurant industry rivals seventh graders as far as drama is concerned. I just got out of a long relationship and am moving downtown Salt Lake City at the end of the month. So I'm newly single. Which is still weird. I am a voracious reader. Although, lately my tastes tend toward the young adult end of things. Professional curiosity. Plus, then I know if they are cheating on book reports. I'm reading that Fablehaven series right now. It's all the rage second to the Twilight series, which incidentally I have not read and don't intend to. I sat through seventeen oral book reports on Twilight, I got it. How do I find time to read anything besides persuasive essays, you may wonder? I take long baths every night. With a glass of wine and a book. Usually, I spend the summer reading adult books and the school year reading young adult books. There are some really good YA books out there though. Don't knock it til you try it. Plus, my kids love it when I can discuss their favorite books with them. I got into a discussion recently with one student about the believability of the world that exists in Garth Nix's Abhorsen series. We agreed that it's very interesting but that we would not want it to really exist. I guess that's enough for an introduction. It's 8:18. I need to make my lunch for tomorrow and figure out how the hell I am going to introduce this novel and take a bath. Hopefully this works out for me.