Yuma's Creatures

The roadrunner. Until I arrived in Arizona I really didn't believe that they were real, just a foil to Wiley E. Coyote. But here's one, and frankly, they're everywhere. Ang has been trying to catch a picture of one, unsuccessfully, on her camera phone for weeks now at the golf course. Today I snapped this picture during our golf outing to celebrate the championship. (The parade and prime time special come early next month!) It's funny because the kids all know she's been stalking roadrunners and totally call her out on it! But this guy was only one of Yuma's creatures that I encountered today while on the course. I also saw several lizards, small guys who move super fast. And then there were the ants.

Red fire ants. I first came into contact with these horrible creatures in Texas when my feet instantly became covered in them last summer. It happened again today. There I was, standing by the green and boom! My feet were on fire. Now I know, why was I wearing sandals on the golf course? Well I tried not to, in fact I had my socks and golf shoes on before I even got to the course. But this weekend I bought new shoes, fancy, expensive sandals to save my feet the wear and tear my Payless shoes inflict on them. And guess what? They rubbed my feet raw on the tops of my big toes within an hour of putting them on. And I had to continue walking with them for the next eight hours.

So anyway, I managed to find not one, not two, but three hills of fire ants today while on the course, just my lucky day I guess! Thank goodness these were the only wild creatures I saw today.

But it was a good day, as Ang's blog attests. We had a great outing. Nine boys made it and they golfed, we laughed, teased, and had fun. We ate pizza and brownies. Their parents came and sat and talked with us. We gave awards (best effort to get back on the team after getting suspended for failing grades, best team spirit for helping to design the golf shirts, and number one player). And I loved it when one of the new golfers came up to me to return my clubs he'd borrowed to play with and handed me the two balls I'd given him and said, "Ms. Knapp, this ball really worked good for me!" (Yes, I let him keep the ball!)

And then to top it all off like a big bright cherry on a sundae, one of the seventh grade boys who hadn't bought a shirt at the beginning of the season and didn't dress out for the first few weeks (although his identical twin brother bought a shirt right away and wore it to school a lot, go figure!) came running up to me as we were cleaning up. He was clutching a twenty dollar bill and he asked if he could buy the shirt he had been wearing today in the pictures. I got one of those big stupid grins on my face you can't fake and you surely can't stop. This is what it's all about.

10 on Tuesday

This weekend I got a little downtime to play my favorite computer game. I don't play many and occasionally get hooked into some mindless Jewel Qwest (thanks to Mom who fed this addiction at Christmastime with a full CD version!) while listening to podcasts or procrastinating. But this weekend I had the chance to play a little Sims. Yep, I love the Sims. I'm not very good at it but I find it fascinating. (And if you have no idea what the Sims are here's a little intro: you create and control "Sims" or people, you get them jobs, build their homes, make them eat and talk and fight and so on. Yeah, it sounds weird but it's addicting. To watch and play!) So here's my 10 on Tuesday:
10 things going on with my newest Sim family
1. Sim Guy and Sim Girl do not get along so I had to buy a second bed, the cheaper "spartan" bed and now Sim Girl only gets 2 comfort points at night instead of the 4 she should be getting in the nice sleigh bed Sim Guy won't share!
2. Sim Guy had a good job as a playground supervisor which would have moved him up to substitute teacher soon. And then he overslept, three times. And got fired.
3. Sim Guy likes to nag Sim Girl about the house. Even though it's large and they have a maid and a gardener. Whatever!
4. Sim neighbors tend to come in and eat whatever food is about, a lot! And they have a tendency to stick around when it's time for bed.
5. The only job left in the Sim Times for my Sim Girl is for a pickpocket. I do not want to lead her into a life of crime but the gardener doesn't work for free and she runs out of energy every time she tries to water all the plants around the house herself!
6. Sim Guy has caught the stove on fire twice! And the last time it wouldn't go out and burnt down the stove and the counter next to it. And they could only afford a cheap stove. So less food points every time they try to cook.
7. Sim Guy is too depressed to paint but painting gets him fun points which lead to less depression. It's a vicious cycle!
8. Sim Girl has a hard time focusing on reading, which gets her fun points but she loves to chat with Sim Guy. And she tries hugging him a lot. He lets her but does not seem happy about it.
9. My Sims always pay their bills late. The envelopes turn yellow then red and there are late fees. This is troublesome.
10. My Sims seem to have budgeting issues, much like me. I have $53 left in the checkbook for 10 days....

So there you have it, my 10 on Tuesday. I know, I know, it seems like I have too much time on my hands but I really only played for about an hour and a half. Which in Sim time is like 3 weeks:-) And I don't let myself play much anymore (remember those long nights of Sims Eric? Andrea? Kristin? Ang? Susie????)

Memorial Day

On Friday we had some issues in my classroom. To begin, Miguel decided to talk during the moment of silence after the Pledge of Alligence. So I had to explain, very loudly, to him and the whole class, why we stand up to say the Pledge and why we have that moment. He looked shameful but I'd bet a few bucks he'll do it again. Apparently Angela's class heard my little rant all the way down the hall in her room too!

Then later in the day we were talking about having no school today and Eric says what's Memorial Day? So we had a discussion about all the people who have given their lives for the sake of safety and trying to secure peace in the world. We also talked about all the people serving in the war right now. So at least we had a good talk about it. But I find it hard to believe that my students have made it through over six years of public school without knowing these things. Selective attention I guess.

For me this Memorial Day is different but I can replay ones of past in my mind very vividly and I miss them. I have been having a touch of homesickness this weekend, added to the overwhelmed feeling of having so much work and school responsibilities to keep up with. But I finished week one of my online grad class and am feeling better about that, finally.

Memorial Day for me will always be a cool, usually rainy day in Michigan. We park at Grandma MacDonald's and walk to the parade route. We'll follow the high school band and the VFW cars and the mayor and the brownies and boy scouts into the cemetery. We walk past the graves of my great grandparents and too many friends, young and old. We stop near the lake where a row boat is going into the middle, getting ready to scatter flowers and lay a wreath. I look to the hill at my left, baby land, where my twin brothers are buried under a stone marker, Thomas and Christopher. The flowers are freshly planted and I always have to go brush off the nut casings the squirrels leave there. Just above them lies my mom's baby brother, more flowers.

If I stop I hear the sound of speeches, thanking our veterans, thanking those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. I will see families who lost loved ones in every war anyone here has lived through. I can see the family who lost their son just a few years ago in Iraq. I see the members of the VFW who keep the memory alive. Then I hear that song. Taps. That mournful, heart-wrenching song. If I look around where we stand there are friends, friends we always see here. Families who feel as strongly as we do about the importance of remembering this day. My grandfather served in the Navy, another grandfather and grandmother in the Army , my dad served in the Air Force, my friends are in the Marines and the National Guard. We know how important this is. Then we hear the gun shots. The twenty-one gun salute. It's loud and I wince every single time. But I know I am fortuante to only hear gunshots on this day, in this manner. I can do this because of those women and men who died for our country.

If I look past baby land to the next hill, I see the large stone with the antique cars carved in the front. There lies my grandfather. The little flag flying against his stone marks his status as veteran. There are daffodils and lilies and little purple flowers mixed with snapdragons that we plant just where grandma wants them.

This place, what it represents, is ingrained in me. This weekend I have missed planting the flowers, pulling the weeds, cleaning off the stones, filling the plastic milk jugs with water from the spicket to carry across the road. I have missed that familiar exercise in showing my appreciation and sadness.

I miss it but it's in my heart. It always will be.

Bragging!

It was another good day, marked by the hilarity of Ang carrying the trophy around with her ALL DAY LONG! Yes, all day! It started this morning, we had to walk in the front door of the school, not the usual side door and then we proceeded to travel all around the school with the heavy cup. But it was fun, everyone was happy for us and the kids. And boy were some of the other coaches jealous! That was great:-)
Our golfers were pretty excited too. They popped in randomly today and had giant smiles. I saw J.D. and Keilor, who'd picked up the trophy with us last night, first thing outside with their golf shirts on again. That was pretty cool. And yes, Ang even took the trophy out on bus duty with her. And she was an instant celebrity.
It certainly added levity and brightness to a day full of parents yelling, kids getting in trouble, and a dance that ended up with girl on girl fights among other things.
So yeah, we were braggin' today and it was great!

CRMS Champions!

Today was a good day. A very good day. We had our last golf match of the season and it went well. We had a large cooler of water we wheeled all around the course and handed out. We had parents come and set up lawn chairs to support their kids. We had a perfect 89 degree day with the slightest breeze and bright sun. We had 12 golfers all in uniform having fun on the course. We laughed and teased and took pictures and made great shots (even me in a driving contest with one of the eighth graders - thank goodness I won!). And then the day got even better.

They started counting up the scores and we heard Crane Middle School had ten points on everyone from last week. Good news. Then there was a sudden death playoff for first, second, and third place individual overall champions. And we took first and second! Go Austin and Brett!

Then we waited some more and before I knew it, we were being handed the trophy and crowned Yuma Area Junior Golf Foundation Champions of 2007! Woo hoo! It was pretty exciting. Most of our kids had gone home by then, the match had been over an hour and they don't have much say in how they get home but we had two boys left at the end, Keilor and J.D. (pictured above), and they were estatic to accept the trophy on behalf of their teammates. And I was so proud! I cannot wait to go to school tomorrow and brag on our boys!

So it was a good day, a very good day. And tonight as I sat on the couch, exhausted from an eleven and a half hour day, all I could do was look at that trophy (we didn't want to leave it in the car so it could be stolen!) and smile. What a great feeling!

Things that make you go hmmm....

1) I started my morning off with a parent meeting, my most unfavorite way to start any day. And while bestowing the wrongs of her child onto this mother, I sat there thinking, trying not to judge, that perhaps he is mimicing her behavior and that is why he is getting into trouble. Here's a kid who gets dress coded for his ganster-like dress almost daily. And he gets detentions frequently for chewing gum and lying about it and for having an MP3 player on campus (the gum I can handle, I just make them spit it out, the lying - not so much, and the MP3 player is sore subject at our school). And there sits mom, smacking her gum loudly, talking over teachers, and when her cell phone goes off - the ring is an Eminem song. Yeah. I rest my case.
2) Ang and I got to yoga class early and were excited to get spots on the floor in the corner next to each other (last week the class had 14 and was too crowded, we were all smooshed). Well this older woman comes in and proceeds to tell anyone but us that we're in her spot, not quietly. She also says she hops her gas doesn't bother anyone now that she's not in the corner. Now maybe this was petty but I thought, if she asks us to move, we'll move. But she never approached us directly. She just kept shooting us looks. And set herself and her little fan up next to us. But let me tell you, next time we'll steer clear because she was right about the gas. I guess I am just not one for giving in when people are passive aggressive! However, I think I'll give into her on this one!
3) Why do teachers insist on making students in online, virtual classrooms, work in teams? I hate that! I start my new class tomorrow and already have seen in the syllabus that we have to work on group projects which is tough enough face-to-face, not to mention in virtual land.
4) Why is it that a great movie like Come Early Morning (written and directed by Joey Lauren Adams and starring Ashley Judd) doesn't get onto hardly any movie screens but so much crap makes it into wide-release. I know, I know, one person's crap is another's gold. Anyway, rent this one if you like slice of life films and a family that reminds me a little too much of my own!

Relaxin'

Yes, I finally feel relaxed. I feel destressed and good. It was a very long week, finishing up the grad class, dealing with the dentist (found out an old filling had eroded leaving a space between two teeth with no contact point which causes a great deal of pain whenever I ate anything) twice, managing my ever-increasing management issues at school and finally, ending my Friday afternoon with horribly-behaved children, getting my tooth filled on my lunch hour (and having the Novocaine wear off mid-treatment), and then a parent meeting during class which required me to farm out my children for the last 20 minutes of the day. I needed a break by Friday night.
So we went to a nice new restaurant, an Italian place that had great food, so-so service, and ambiance that made it feel like we were anywhere but in Yuma, which was great. Then I ate a lot of ice cream (low-fat of course) and watched The Pursuit of Happyness. Great movie, very encouraging.
Then yesterday we went to yoga where I worked hard (good), then got a massage (even better), and then a pedicure at this new place that charges seven bucks less than the mall (awesome!); this was all topped off by a few hours reading magazines by the pool and enjoying living in the desert in May. Last night we watched Freedom Writers and I really enjoyed this movie too. It made me ready to go back into work tomorrow and do a better job. To try harder. It also was interesting to see some of my life on screen, the teaching side, the realities of being a public educator. The idea that second and third jobs become necessary to make ends meet, the idea that these kids consume your life, your thoughts, your time. It happens. And I don't think that part of the movie was ficitonalized at all.
The teacher became consumed by her job and I sympathize, it consumes me most days. For eight to ten hours a day you breathe these kids and their lives. Sixty-two lives. I know about their families and their jobs, their brothers and sisters, their illnesses and injuries, their court cases and probabtions, their needs and wants and hates and loves. I see them love each other and hate each other and be sweet and be cruel. I see a lot. And it takes over. It's hard to let that go. It's hard to walk away from that at five o'clock. There is always something more to do. Something more to think about. I worry that they don't tell me the truth about why they're absent. I worry that they'll miss another day for court. I worry that they'll get bullied again tomorrow. I worry that they're cutting themselves. I worry that their parents don't worry. I worry that I can't do more. I worry that he's still failing or that she still can't read any better than she could in August. I worry that they're doing drugs. I worry, I worry, I worry. And that's a lot of stress, 62 little lives.
But this weekend I've managed to put it on a shelf. Sure I haven't forgotten completely, I had a dream about my classroom last night. But that's okay. For now this is my life. And I like that. But this weekend I've gotten to relax. And I am so grateful for that.
Eighteen school days left. It seems like we just started. And to think, I'll have a whole new group of worries come August!

Little Things

It's the little things that get me through the day, those things that make me smile or think or happy to be doing what I do, with the people I do it with. Some examples:
- In X period today (the study hall-like class before lunch) I was reading from our novel Heat to my class that included some kids from another teacher's room who was out sick today. When I finished the chapter which marked the beginning of the story's climax, one kid started applauding and others joined in. I loved that - for the book and for me!
- One of my quiet kids was fiesty today, making funny little asides and being cute. And admitted he felt fiesty. That was great.
- A student bringing in his Scholastic book order and he'd marked the box "gift to teacher" which meant I got $5.95 toward a book purchase! Awesome!
- I actually got to do tutoring during afterschool tutoring today, not just babysitting kids in detention. And we had fun! There were 4 kids, Ang and I, and we laughed a lot, learned math, and worked on poetry terms.
- I had my HR meeting this morning and the HR director I am not a huge fan of was late so I only had to meet with my vice-principal and the HR assistant. It was great!!!
- My kids made awesome gains in writing as of their year-end "My First Year in Middle School" essay - yay!!!
- I made an appointment with my massage therapist this morning, who is now charging 10 dollars less per session!
- One of my girls came back from suspension and ran up all excited to see me and gave me a big hug!
- My friend Shannon got a new job!
- I got into the dentist on very short notice to get a filling replaced tomorrow, and I don't have to take time off work (I am farming my kids out during X period and then missing lunch).
- Tomorrow is Friday. Thank goodness!

Finally feeling right

Today was a payday. It always adds a little something to the day when there's an envelope in your mailbox telling you that your efforts aren't for financial naught. And then tonight when I did some budgeting and paid some bills something awesome happened. There's enough money. Not extra like I'd hoped but there's enough for this week and next.
Last month I paid off my car loan - after 5 long years of $405.94 payments the 23rd of each month. I'd managed to sneak a little extra in these past few months to make sure I got it paid off in time (darn those credit union skip-a-payment offers! So good at the time, so bad at the end of the loan!). And then an amazing thing happened this month, just like the financial guru who's class I took last summer and who's books I poured over said would happen, I was able to apply a large sum (relatively) to my lowest balance credit card! And get just a little closer to paying off the pretty large debt I've accumulated in my lifetime. By my estimates I'll have it paid off Sept/Oct and that leaves just three more cards to go. I am excited!
My secret? I applied the car payment to the credit card just as I would have had to pay the car payment. So I really don't miss the money. And another exciting financial happening - I was able to buy my plane ticket for this summer's vacation with cash! Woohoo!
Speaking of summer vacation - we have five weeks of school left and I might just make it! Then Ang and I fly home to Michigan on Friday, June 15 where we'll reside until Tuesday, July 10 on which day we'll fly to Texas where we'll spend almost a week with the Bricks! Yay for summer vacations!!!!
And on another exciting note - I am just about finished with my online grad class. I posted the final and the group project and I just have to post to the discussion boards this weekend and write a final learning summary once the assignment is posted! Then I'll have a whole week off until the next three week course starts. Three grad credits in three weeks is insane and I would not recommend it to anyone:-) But of course, where there's a will, there's a way!

Blood

Yep, blood. Lots of it. That's the first thing I saw when I raced out of my classroom 5th hour today when I heard a scream. There in the hallway was Angela, 2 other teachers, and one boy with a bloody mouth. And then came another with a bloody face to match. There had been a sub in the room across the hall and one thing led to another and before anyone knew what had happened, there was a fight. And I was charged with marching them down to the office. So I did, telling one who was dripping to put his shirt to his face and listening to the other one who kept asking me if his tooth was broken or if he was bleeding on the outside as well as the inside of his lip. What excitement.
Add this on top of a day that started with me getting a sub report from yesterday listing 15 names. That resulted in 13 detention forms I had to write out, 5 parent phone calls I had to make tonight, and another 7 I had to ask the parent liason to make because I don't speak Spanish. It was a bad day. I was angry, physically exhausted from the anger and frustration. And it came through. Instead of yelling at my students today, I simply showed my disappointment. I didn't smile or laugh or talk to them. I taught them and let them do their work. And they got the hint quickly. Also, I spent a good portion of my day going across and down the hall to the math teacher's classroom who's on my team. She's having serious behavior problems and she can't handle them so I offered to make my prescence known throughout the day. So as my children worked while trying not to breathe (again, they sensed my hostility), I would go stand in the doorway of her room with arms crossed, glaring. And it seemed to work. Yet I really don't like being the hardass. It makes me very tired and very angry.
To top it off we missed yoga (stupid parent phone calls!) and I am still writing papers for my online course. Yet, I was excited a bit today when I started making lesson plans for the next 5 weeks and got to write "LAST DAY OF SCHOOL" on June 14th. I can't wait.

Busy, busy, busy

I am still alive - barely! I am on week 3 of the online class and while it's kicking my butt, I am also kicking some major online class butt!!! So far I have gotten 100% on EVERYTHING! Yes, I am bragging but I really am really proud of doing this and succeeding. And it's giving me encouragement to keep going.
Other than that life is good - I am finally getting rid of my 3rd plague of the school year. And my kids are being really rotten, especially for subs. I've had 2 in the last week, for professional development classes, and they just can't behave. I hate that but I am at a loss as to what to do about it. I think the whole school is at a loss.
Also - we're coming up on the season finale time on TV and there's some good stuff on. I am loving Lost and Grey's and all my favorite shows, when I have time to watch them.
Okay - off to write more papers and my final exam, which has to be at least 10 pages! I cannot wait until June 14, the last day of school for me and the kids!!!
P.S. - Today marks my 200th post! Just thought you'd all like to know:-)