Scratch that...

Apparently we're leaving now at 7:40am TOMORROW.

ATL, here we come!

We're leaving for the Boise airport in about 2 hours. We're excited to be going home for about a week! We know it'll go way too fast but it's better than nothing at all! :)

Yesterday I had an interview for a German teaching position at a high school (actually it's at 2 high schools because I'd have to travel to the other to teach 2 periods). The bad thing about this is that I don't get a planning/lunch period...eating on the go is NOT the ideal situation for someone on Weightwatchers....the GOOD thing is that the pay is regular contract pay, PLUS 1/6 additional payment because I will have to teach 6 periods instead of the regular 5 that a "normal" classroom teacher would do. Money's good, especially when it's extra. But I better not get my hopes up yet though because there are 5 candidates and I'll never know just who they have in mind. Although, I have been getting very strong recommendations from the Boise High principal, who according to the French teacher, has some weight to throw around (haha, this is kinda funny because he's actually kind of a heavy guy too). He's really nice though and he lets me know every day that he's pulling for me. :)

One thing I have not let anybody know yet is---I've picked up another endeavor. I've started the ABCTE teacher certification program. What it is, is an alternative route to teacher certification for other fields of study (in my case). Only 4 or 5 states in the country accept this, which is a little stressful because if we somehow have to move before I'm done with this stuff, there's a chance that this money could go to waste. Anyway, I've decided to get certified in elementary education as a back up back up plan if neither of my other things (German or ESL) work out for me. I'm trying to make myself as marketable as possible. Unfortunately, it's a little overwhelming but I'm trying to take it one step at a time. I've got my praxis test for ELL coming up in late July and I've gotta study like a fool for that because sadly, my Master's program classes has taught me NOTHING in regards to technical language acquisition (i.e. phonology, morphology, syntax, etc...). UGH! So, I have a praxis study guide, notes I've been taking from that, and some newly acquired books from a friend of mine that has already taken the test. I think I'll be working on studying for this during this trip of ours. As for studying for the ABCTE certification exams (Multiple subject test and Professional Teaching Knowledge), I have up to a year to complete this. I can kinda put this on the back burner until I've come to grips with this Praxis stuff. *Sigh* I'm so busy. Busy, Busy, Busy...


Oh well...I've got big plans. Let's hope that at least something works out for us. :)

Drunkity-drunk, drunk, drunk! (I think)

Today was a different schedule--a nice one, seeing as though the kids were all dismissed in my 4th period by about 11:40am. In my 3rd period today though, I had some interesting events happen. First thing was that a girl had some kind of powder to put in a drink (a flavored sugar stuff) and she poured some of it into the hands of some other students. One boy decided it would be "funny" to snort it up his nose! I wrote him up. It's showing that he possibly has drug tendencies--I would say 96 percent of that class has drug tendencies! They almost always look stoned at some point in the week. Another boy came in a little late and I think he was drunk. He kinda stumbled in and was a little wobbly looking and very distant look in his eyes. He slowly made his way to his desk and sat down. I walked over to where he was sitting and asked him if he was okay. He said he was really tired. I don't believe it for one second. Later on in the period, he came over to my desk where I was sitting and he kinda did this leaning act and he didn't even look balanced at all! He said he was gonna ask me something and then he forgot what he was gonna ask. He just stood there for a minute kinda leaning off kilter. Then he walked slowly away. Even some of the other students noticed he was acting a bit "strange". I quickly emailed the assistant principal and actually it was unfortunate because of this different schedule because he didn't have a chance to call out this boy to his office. So now, he won't probably talk to the boy until next week--too late. But at least maybe he can get it out of the boy that he was under the influence of something. These kids are messed up beyond repair!!!!

What gets into these kids? The devil, that's what.

I had a kid in one of my classes blatantly take a red marker and go over to the debate teacher's side of the room and make a line of red on the teacher's debate team picture! What the ...??? I don't understand these children!!?? They make absolutely no sense whatsoever! I wrote him up IMMEDIATELY because I was just so aggravated and irritated at the little turd! No respect for personal property...AT ALL! I think I have the worst classes compared to the other foreign language teachers because whenever I tell them about what has happened in my class, they act all shocked and are like, "They really did that?" I guess it also matters that the other language teachers on my hall teach mainly Advanced Placement students. That makes a huge difference a lot of times. BECAUSE THEY SEEM TO HAVE THE BRAINS TO LEAVE CRAP ALONE THAT'S NOT THEIRS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just want to scream sometimes. No...all the time. My second period sheltered English class for ELLs are getting weird too. The boys are getting extremely aggressive with each other. Particularly with this one boy. This boy is a senior (22 yrs old, mind you). The only reason he's in school is the district interpreted the rules differently--how they did this, I don't know because I thought with all students, they are allowed a Free and Appropriate Education up until the age of 21. Anyway, that doesn't really matter to me. The other boys are calling him "pirate" because he's from Somalia. They also are just trying to pick fights with him and get him fired up. I talked to the head ELL teacher and she said that she's witnessed this also and she's tried to talk to them about it. Apparently, they just aren't listening. As much as I hate to do it, I may just have to start writing up the aggressors. It's driving me insane! They're so loud and they won't shut up! I constantly raise my voice at them to get them to shut up and sit down and calm down...that doesn't help (of course, I don't say shut up but I wish I would). I finally had to talk to the junior vice principal to see if he could talk about it with the boys. I don't know if anything will happen. I'll probably have to write some people up tomorrow during class.


I have 6 days left. Help. Me.

9 more days...

That's all I can say about now...I'm happy. Tonight I have to go to an Awards night because I had to nominate a couple of students that I thought were outstanding. I managed to find a couple, believe it or not. :)

Ha-Ha-Ha! Not getting away with this!

I had a senior girl tell me today that my game was "Bullshit and busy work!" You know what I did? Wrote her up! Discipline referral is what she got! She sat the whole time in class with her head down on the desk, "not sleeping" and when I asked her to participate and read along, she'd say, "I'm not sleeping..." Here's the thing too, she is always wanting to check her grades for German because she HAS to have an A or else she doesn't get money...boo friggin' hoo! Anyway, so she does all this complaining and then what does she do? Doesn't participate by putting her head down and "not sleeping". What a crock. Today just really ticked me off and I started getting irate with her and that's when she said the bullshit thing. Then she wanted to know why I was zeroing in on her. Go figure, this next week is her last week of school and it's gonna be crappy at the beginning because she's gonna get called into the VPs office to get a stern talking to. Awesome. Why someone would do this their last week of being at school, I don't know.

All I know is, she's sorry.

Bored with my routine but too tired to change it.

I've been getting bored with my exercise routine(s) but I don't have enough energy to change it up and that's bad because now I'm not wanting to go to the gym and earn the necessary activity points! It's not a good feeling especially since I've gained a new addiction: Dreyer's Vanilla Almond Ice cream bars...Granted, they're low fat but after eating 2 and wanting another and another--working out is an absolute MUST! I'm thinking that this slump is probably work related because I'm drained everyday after work. Ugh...I hope I regain my energy after this longterm subbing gig is over. Right now, I'm thanking myself for signing up for just the 5k instead of the half-marathon on the 20th. If I were about to run a half, I would definitely need to be getting off my butt and doing something. Although, at the same time, it's probably a bad thing that I did sign up for just the 5k because now I've cut back my running. I will say though that I can run 3.1 miles with no problems really. I'll definitely be going to the gym tomorrow or just running outside since it's supposed to be really nice and I'll probably try to run to the WW meeting on Saturday morning. It's supposed to reach the 90s this weekend for a temperature!!! Hello, Summer!