Yesterday, I lost one of my freshmen. She returned to her home in New Orleans. She has been with us for the last three weeks. She is an intelligent, confident, and hardworking student, and I am sad to see her go. I told her that I was sorry that we were losing her, but glad that she was getting to go home. She retorted wistfully that she wasn't so glad because she loved it here and wanted to stay. This moment made me swell with pride for my students and the many ways that they had embraced her. She experienced little of the discomfort and pain of the "new student". If only my students would respond with the same kind of love for every new student.
This student's presence led to a very awkward moment for me. The day after she arrived we were discussing Lord of the Flies and I connected the breakdown of the boys' society with the craziness in New Orleans (which now looks like it wasn't as bad as the media reported it). I forgot she was in my class; I think my words were something like "The boys on the island are just like the people down in New Orleans who went crazy after the hurricane". A couple of students on the back row started giggling. It was my New Orleans student and the girl at her table. The rest of the class soon remembered her presence and also started laughing at my discomfiture. I admitted, "Well, this is awkward" and offered a very lame qualification of my remarks. I approached her after class to apologize if she had been offended by my remarks. She thought it was funny and claimed not to have cared. I hope she didn't.
Peace
30 September 2005
29 September 2005
Saturday School
I have the privilege of hosting Saturday School this Saturday. I say "privilege" as each student will personally give me $25.00 to baby-sit him or her for four hours. Currently, there are seven students signed up for this special time. That comes out to $43 an hour (and change). Knife fights have at times broken out in the staff room for the right to host a SS. Two years ago I came home with $350.
A husband-wife team at our school pocketed $500, used the money to purchase five tickets for a school drawing for a vintage Ford Mustang. They won, sold the Mustang, and pocketed somewhere around $7,000 (I’m guessing). I couldn’t think of a couple more deserving, but that didn’t stop me from wallowing in a bit of jealousy.
I will either use this school bonus time at union wages to accomplish some real work (I have about 100 pages of papers to grade), or I shall endeavor to do some live blogging. Honestly, I will probably read online news for the first two hours, edit old posts (I know its wrong, but I can’t help myself), add more things to my Amazon wish list (currently at twenty items), and rearrange the items on my desktop (the physical one).
Peace
Update: I am up to 9 students. 9*25=$225 or $56.25/hour
A husband-wife team at our school pocketed $500, used the money to purchase five tickets for a school drawing for a vintage Ford Mustang. They won, sold the Mustang, and pocketed somewhere around $7,000 (I’m guessing). I couldn’t think of a couple more deserving, but that didn’t stop me from wallowing in a bit of jealousy.
I will either use this school bonus time at union wages to accomplish some real work (I have about 100 pages of papers to grade), or I shall endeavor to do some live blogging. Honestly, I will probably read online news for the first two hours, edit old posts (I know its wrong, but I can’t help myself), add more things to my Amazon wish list (currently at twenty items), and rearrange the items on my desktop (the physical one).
Peace
Update: I am up to 9 students. 9*25=$225 or $56.25/hour
28 September 2005
What I did with my Governor's Holiday
For those of you unaware of Governor Perdue's (GA-GOP) decree of this past Friday, the esteemed governor of our state announced on Friday afternoon that he was requesting that all Georgia schools close on Monday and Tuesday. I will not belabor you with my political response to the decision. Instead, I will belabor you with my personal response to the decision.
1. Unaware of the announcement, left school on Friday afternoon with none of my usual planning/grading burden and planning on taking the weekend off from schoolwork.
2. After receiving a phone call from my mother telling me of the announcement, spent the next seven hours wondering if our school (a small, private school) would follow the governor's advice.
3. Tried to sleep without knowing how long my weekend would be.
4. Woke up early, logged on, and discovered that our school would be closed.
5. Spent the rest of the weekend waiting for the call, "We will be closed, but we would like teachers to come in for a full teachers' workday."
6. Logged on to the internet as much as possible using dial-up. We do not have call waiting.
7. Considered blogging.
8. Purchased Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Complete at Walmart for $9.99.
9. Played Battleground.
10. Disappointed to discover Galactic Battlegrounds is Age of Kings with different sound effects.
11. Played Galactic Battleground anyway.
12. Looked up the cheat codes.
13. Played several battles where I made my enemy the Gungans. I played the Empire. Me so cruel.
14. Watched Alexander on pay-per-view while my family was away.
15. Wished I had that $3.99 back.
16. Wished I had those three hours back.
17. Considered blogging.
18. Ate a grinder.
19. Tried to start reading "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" seven times.
20. Considered mowing the grass.
21. Killed the biggest spider I have ever seen in a home. It was very crunchy. Like stepping in new-fallen snow, only unpleasant.
22. Watched Arrested Development, House, Simpsons. Enjoyed them roughly in that order.
23. Considered blogging.
24. Cleaned 1/2 of a room.
25. Received three magazines: Military History Quarterly, First Things, and National Geographic. Read parts of all three. Best line comes from First Things; the author quotes PG Wodehouse as (roughly) "She looked as if she had been poured into her dress and had forgotten to say when!" Reminded me of some proms that I have chaperoned. Actually, every prom that I have chaperoned.
Peace
1. Unaware of the announcement, left school on Friday afternoon with none of my usual planning/grading burden and planning on taking the weekend off from schoolwork.
2. After receiving a phone call from my mother telling me of the announcement, spent the next seven hours wondering if our school (a small, private school) would follow the governor's advice.
3. Tried to sleep without knowing how long my weekend would be.
4. Woke up early, logged on, and discovered that our school would be closed.
5. Spent the rest of the weekend waiting for the call, "We will be closed, but we would like teachers to come in for a full teachers' workday."
6. Logged on to the internet as much as possible using dial-up. We do not have call waiting.
7. Considered blogging.
8. Purchased Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Complete at Walmart for $9.99.
9. Played Battleground.
10. Disappointed to discover Galactic Battlegrounds is Age of Kings with different sound effects.
11. Played Galactic Battleground anyway.
12. Looked up the cheat codes.
13. Played several battles where I made my enemy the Gungans. I played the Empire. Me so cruel.
14. Watched Alexander on pay-per-view while my family was away.
15. Wished I had that $3.99 back.
16. Wished I had those three hours back.
17. Considered blogging.
18. Ate a grinder.
19. Tried to start reading "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" seven times.
20. Considered mowing the grass.
21. Killed the biggest spider I have ever seen in a home. It was very crunchy. Like stepping in new-fallen snow, only unpleasant.
22. Watched Arrested Development, House, Simpsons. Enjoyed them roughly in that order.
23. Considered blogging.
24. Cleaned 1/2 of a room.
25. Received three magazines: Military History Quarterly, First Things, and National Geographic. Read parts of all three. Best line comes from First Things; the author quotes PG Wodehouse as (roughly) "She looked as if she had been poured into her dress and had forgotten to say when!" Reminded me of some proms that I have chaperoned. Actually, every prom that I have chaperoned.
Peace
23 September 2005
Whoo-hoo!
Just received:
An internal audit of our insurance billing and payroll withholding has revealed that we overwithheld for medical insurance in June and July of 2004. We are going to make an adjustment to your Sept 30 paycheck. We will withhold $237.62 LESS than we normally do. This should bring the withholding and billing back into line. Your Sept 30 net pay will be higher than Sept 15 for this time only. I'm sorry that we did not catch this error sooner.
Don't tell my wife.
An internal audit of our insurance billing and payroll withholding has revealed that we overwithheld for medical insurance in June and July of 2004. We are going to make an adjustment to your Sept 30 paycheck. We will withhold $237.62 LESS than we normally do. This should bring the withholding and billing back into line. Your Sept 30 net pay will be higher than Sept 15 for this time only. I'm sorry that we did not catch this error sooner.
Don't tell my wife.
22 September 2005
Name Tags
A couple of weeks ago I considered writing about nametags. I am not sure what prompted the thought, but I realized that I had never had a job that required a nametag. I have had many different jobs in my life, and I once had a job that required a security badge, but never one that required a nametag. While growing up, I had always looked a little jealously at my friends' nametags. They came with pin-on stars for years of service or stickers for good service or ribbons for excellence or buttons for random atta-boys. Recently, I grew proud and even a little vain about the fact that I had never held a nametag job. I began to look down on nametag wearers in general. I thought, "There but for the grace of God go I."
Today, I got my nametag. It has the name of my school, my name, and the fact that I am "HS Faculty" engraved in black lettering on a gold surface. It attaches to my shirt with three silver magnets. On the back is a warning, "Caution-Magnet Device: Do not use with a pacemaker."
I could be more accepting of this fate if it were a true ID badge, but anyone could put this on and pass themselves off as "HS Faculty". The students were merciless all day. "So, you work at a hotel now?" "Are you on the hospitality committee at your church?" "Yes, I would like fries with that." I think I could even embrace it if I knew that nifty nametag accessories are just down the road. A "Teacher of the Year" medallion would look quite spiffy suspended from the bottom of the nametag. Alas, no such perks will follow.
I suppose I deserve it. My arrogance and hubris have been pulled out of my heart by three powerful magnets.
If anyone asks, I will be at the cardiologist. I wonder how much a pacemaker would cost?
Today, I got my nametag. It has the name of my school, my name, and the fact that I am "HS Faculty" engraved in black lettering on a gold surface. It attaches to my shirt with three silver magnets. On the back is a warning, "Caution-Magnet Device: Do not use with a pacemaker."
I could be more accepting of this fate if it were a true ID badge, but anyone could put this on and pass themselves off as "HS Faculty". The students were merciless all day. "So, you work at a hotel now?" "Are you on the hospitality committee at your church?" "Yes, I would like fries with that." I think I could even embrace it if I knew that nifty nametag accessories are just down the road. A "Teacher of the Year" medallion would look quite spiffy suspended from the bottom of the nametag. Alas, no such perks will follow.
I suppose I deserve it. My arrogance and hubris have been pulled out of my heart by three powerful magnets.
If anyone asks, I will be at the cardiologist. I wonder how much a pacemaker would cost?
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