Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving!




Hey, happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Thanks for reading. I've been making pumpkin pies this morning and locating giblets inside our turkey carcass. At least I think they're giblets.




Not that many days to Christmas break! Yipee!




Thursday, November 15, 2007

Mr? He mean!

I received a wonderful teacher compliment from a student. "Mr. is mean. Well, he's not mean, he's strict. He's nice, too." I'd like to be known as strict but nice at the same time. I don't know what I've been lately. I'm so full of mucus and sluggish. I really want to call out tomorrow but it always looks bad when you call out on a Friday. Plus, I'll sure as hell pay for it on Monday. A moment's pleasure and some cold recovery will turn into unbelievable torture come Monday. Just need to get through tomorrow. Sleep in Saturday and Sunday and then do three days and I cash in a 4-day weekend. I can do it!

On a positive note, the novel (about teaching, big surprise!) is coming along. To do 50,000 words in a month you've got to do 1667 words a day. I'm on it!

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Cathartic Shredding Scissors

I was reading a teaching magazine today and came across some photos of a particularly vile ex-principal of mine. I took out these new shredding scissors my wife just bought at the Container Store and chopped the sh*t out of him. It was so cathartic. It would be nice if more of the people who have been horrible to me would show up in the day's mail. A few snips of their pictures into the recycling bin feels so good.

I have a day off for election day and it's been wonderful. The only problem is I have to go in tomorrow. My mood is disintegrating. My patience is evaporating because I deep down just want to stay in bed tomorrow instead of driving in to school to shape young minds. I haven't missed a day and won't until it's necessary but another day off would be sweet. It's ironic that teaching makes me less patient. It should be the other way around.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Platitudes and Pablum

What are the churches so afraid of when it comes to Halloween? "We can't celebrate Halloween because we're Christians!" This is a bunch of malarkey. There's nothing in the bible about celebrating or not celebrating Halloween. Let the kids have their parties, sweets, etc. Everything is so watered down and dumbed down and safe. No thinking needs to happen because here's everything you need in a nice box. Put a helmet, flak jacket, and thick oven mitts on while you open it up. Don't think so much or at all. We did it for you. Open up wide and eat every bite. Ugh!

It's like that lately. My kids need to know things. We teach to benchmark tests. Who cares if the country is at war? Is it the Iraq war or is it Vietnam? I don't know. I don't care. What does it matter anyway, Teach? We only teach about Literacy and Math. Science? Social Studies? Don't even get me started.

Sorry for the venting. So much to vent about. We aren't allowed to think any more. We're just expected to spout platitudes and pablum.

At least National Novel Writing Month has begun! I've started mine!