What a Weekend

Well that was quite a busy weekend! After hosting Thanksgiving Thursday and having my friends over for 9 hours, I had to clean that mess Friday. After that, we drove to Myrtle Beach to have dinner and then go to my friends favorite dance club, Revolutions, for her birthday. We didn't get back to the hotel until around 3AM. When we kind of woke up yesterday morning, we had to collect ourselves and drive to the outlets in North Carolina, about 3 hours from Myrtle. My friends wanted to go to this store that has lots of Christmas stuff to buy. I was bored but whatever. Then we went to the mall in Raleigh, about 40 minutes from the Christmas store. We went to Cheesecake Factory and then to PNC Arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins at Carolina Hurricanes hockey game. It seemed like there were more Penguins fans than Hurricanes fans. My friend is a Penguins fan and that's why we went. They won 3-2. I didn't get home until just after 12 this morning. I slept for a long time and am being extremely lazy all day today. Back to the grind tomorrow... ugh!

Thankful

There are so many things to be thankful for. Unfortunately, this year I didn't get a chance to go home for Thanksgiving. This is the first year ever that I have not been with my family on Thanksgiving. However, I am lucky enough to have a strong group of friends that will be coming over today for Thanksgiving. I am cooking as we speak. I cannot wait to eat the delicious bird. Back to what I am thankful for. I am so thankful that I have a job. I am also thankful that I have been lucky enough to go to so many sporting events and concerts while I've been down here. I am so lucky and thankful I have a strong group of friends that I made in such a short time in North Carolina. I am just so lucky that I have so many great things. I know that there are so many people my age that do not have the luxuries I have. Trust me, I cherish every moment I have and appreciate everything that I have worked so hard for! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Productive

I actually enjoyed my workday today. I ended up getting a lot of stuff done. I photocopied three weeks worth of morning work. Now I'm all set with that until after the holidays. Normally I'm scrambling Monday morning to get the morning were packet done. Now I don't have to worry about it. I also got all of next week's math homework copied. Then I sharpened a ton of pencils for the kids because they always spend way too much time at the pencil sharpener because they like breaking pencils purposely so they can waste time. Hopefully now that I have some pencils for them they won't have to do that anymore. I'm glad today's over with. My turkey is brining and I'm ready to eat a big fat meal tomorrow.

Work Day

The kids don't have school tomorrow, but the teachers do. Well, at least some of us have to come to work tomorrow. It's called an optional workday. A lot of people wonder why I am going to work. I told them I have no problem going to work because I am here anyway so why shouldn't I be at work? I enjoy the day off with no kids. Therefore, I can get a lot of work done. Also, they have shortened tomorrow from 8 to 2 to 8-4. What's not to like about that?

Without Family

This will be my first Thanksgiving without my family. It's going to be weird. I couldn't go home though because flights were way too expensive. I didn't want to spend $800 round trip to be home for like 2 days. That's insane. It's okay though because my friends and I have a lot of activities planned for that day and the weekend. I'm going to be exhausted when I get back to work next Monday but it will be worth it even though I will be broke!

Brining a Turkey

I have never brined a turkey before. I'm cooking the turkey this year for my group of friends. I was told I have to brine it. I looked it up and it basically just sits in water for several hours before you cook it. I hear it's going to be extremely moist. I hope I don't mess it up. I'm excited to try this different turkey but I'm more excited to only have 2 days with the kids this week!

Mariah Carey

I already can't stand Christmas music. I don't want to hear it on Christmas or anywhere near Christmas. I especially don't want to hear it before Thanksgiving! Unfortunately, my friends are much different than me and started decorating their apartment with loads of Christmas stuff. Then came the worst Christmas song known to man. If I hear "All I want for Christmas is you" by Mariah Carey one more time I will scream! I cannot stand her whiny voice and the lyrics to that song. I hear that song dozens of times throughout the holiday season. I'm looking forward to January already!

Lame

I am the lamest person in the world on Friday nights. I'm surprised I'm awake right now at 9:18. I almost went to bed at 8! I'm so tired after a full week of work. This week was especially busy because of numerous parent teacher conferences. I thought the week would drag on but it surprisingly didn't. I actually did a little bit of grading tonight. It was more than I expected to do. I don't want to grade tomorrow and/or Sunday but I'd rather do it now than over Thanksgiving break!

6 Feet of Snow

Buffalo, NY got 6 ft of snow the other day. Not 6 inches, 6 feet! I cannot imagine that much snow! They are expecting another 2-3 feet this weekend. Insane! I got a lot of snow in New York, but nowhere near that much. The worst storm I can remember was maybe 2 feet. If we had that much snow down here, we would literally be shut down for a month. We just don't have the plows and stuff down here to take care of the mess. It's been cold lately, but now it's going to be 70 this weekend. We haven't had snow yet which is nice. I just don't know what's up with this weather!

Medication, Faltulence, and IBS

No, I am not a doctor. However, over the last few days I have almost felt like one during these parent teacher conferences. I have learned more about my kids than I ever wanted to know. I learned that probably 75% of my kids are on some sort of medication for ADHD, ADD, ODD, depression, biploar disease, and anything else under the sun. A mother told me that her boy was being bullied saying the other kid was saying he smells. I actually used the word flatulence to that parent, because her boy does fart a lot in my class. I have another student who has IBS and needs to go to the bathroom all of the time to the point where at times when he stands up, it just comes out. Those are just a few of the interesting conversations I have had with parents recently. It will be exciting to see what tomorrow brings!

Failure

I'm starting to realize more than ever that common core sets kids up to fail. I completely understand that they want the standards more rigorous and they want kids to learn more. I have no problem with that. However the amount of work they expect a 4th grader to do is insane! The way they want them to learn it is also insane. Once we start building up a topic, boom, we go to the next one. We have a pacing guide we have to follow in order to get to every topic before the big test at the end of the year. Some kids get the information quickly. Others will never get it. We do the best we can to tutor those students but we still have to move on. It's sad to see them so lost and scary to see what will happen to those kids in the future.

Parent Teacher Conferences

In the district I worked at in New York, kids had half days for a few days so teachers could meet with parents in the afternoon. The district I work in now used to do that, but not anymore. We had to schedule them after school. I have 40 of them to do since I am meeting with both classes I see. Luckily the other teacher and I are doing them together. Tomorrow, we have 9. At the rate we have been going, we will be lucky to see 5 of those parents. It's amazing how many haven't showed up. We even called someone today, the mom said she would be there, and she didn't show up. Another parent didn't show up and we rescheduled her and she still hasn't showed up! Now I know why my students don't hand things in. Since their parents clearly don't care, why should they? It's beyond frustrating because I can't teach kids to care. I can only attempt to teach them how important handing things in on time is even though some of their parents don't do that themselves.

Robert Morris at UNC

I'm just leaving the UNC basketball game. We sat center court row U second deck. I sat in the same section I did for the last Tar Heel game I went to, but I was in row G last game. It wasn't as packed as I expected it to be. The score was 103-59. Since they scored 100, we can get 2 sausage biscuits for 1.00 at Bojangles. Because I'm fat, of course I'm going to take advantage of that. They scored 100 points each game I've been to now. I can't wait for the Notre Dame game because I know the atmosphere will be much better than it was tonight. Go Heels!

Cold

It was insanely cold during my 5K this morning. I tried to run faster than I was going, but I couldn't. My chest was hurting so bad because of the cold. So many people passed me. I ended up running it in 25:36 which is far from my best time. I was 4th in my age group. It said that I was 28 on the sheet where they posted my time when I'm only 27! I didn't stay for awards because I knew I wasn't getting one and I didn't want to stay there bored and cold. I don't plan on doing another 5K until it gets warm out again.

Weather

The weather is so strange down here. In the spring and fall, sometimes you have frost on your car in the morning, then it's 70° in the afternoon. I have a 5K run tomorrow and it's going to be about 35° out. That won't be fun! The high tomorrow is about 48°. Then it goes to 70° on Monday and back to 45° on Tuesday. I guess they really want all of us to get sick or something. The drastic change in temperatures isn't safe! Oh well. We will see how my run goes tomorrow.

Turned Something Down

I made a very hard decision today. Of course once you continue reading, you will think I'm ridiculous, but I don't care. My friend asked me to go to the NC St football game again this Saturday. I thought about it for awhile and of course want to go. But I decided I need to stay home and catch up on whatever instead, especially because I'll be going to Chapel Hill Sunday for the UNC basketball game. Although I want to do it all, it's impossible to do that.

Anniversary

My parents are celebrating their 31st anniversary today! I know how lucky I am to have parents married that long. Most marriages don't seem to last 31 days anymore. I am definitely the way I am today because of my parents. I would not have the work ethic or drive I have now if my parents didn't instill that in me at a young age. If only I could get my students to put 1/10th of the effort that I put in into their work, I'd be golden!

Theme of the Day

I looked at three condos and two apartments today. When I told the property manager for the condos that I didn't plan on moving until January, she told me it wasn't a good idea to look at condos this early since they come and go so often. I knew that, but want to take my time looking at places since I was so rushed in January. After looking at the three places, I'm pretty sure she lied about the places coming and going quickly. There is a reason these 3 places are still on the market. Cockroaches, cockroaches, and more cockroaches! I'm not lying to you when I say that I probably saw 20 of them in the three places. Some were huge and some were small. The lady specifically said they were water bugs and not roaches. I don't care what you call them down here. I call them cockroaches and they do not belong in the place I'm going to live! The places were outdated, some had broken cabinets and the same place had this brown stain all over the door. I also looked at two apartments. One was hideously ugly and very small. The other was really nice, but a little pricey. I'm going to be looking at 4 more apartments on Saturday despite my moms wishes. She believes I should continue to live in a condo because of the space I get and the price I'd pay. I disagree because I don't need this much space and I've had nothing but problems in the one I'm living in now. I want to run away from the roaches and everything today pointed to signs that roaches would be in those condos too. We will see how the apartments Saturday look.

Day Off

Tomorrow is my first weekday off since Labor Day! The kids had last Monday and Tuesday off but teachers didn't because we had work days filled with exhilirating meetings. I'm shockingly pretty caught up on schoolwork. Therefore tomorrow I shouldn't have too much to do. I plan on apartment hunting tomorrow. That isn't too fun either. Oh well. I'd rather do that than be at work!

Long Division

I am going to have nightmares for the next few weeks. Tomorrow, I'm starting to teach division to my students. We will quickly jump into long division. This will not be easy for one reason only. My kids aren't fluent with their simple multiplication facts! If they don't know their simple multiplication, that means they don't know their simple division facts. If they don't know their division facts, long division will be impossible for them. I'm going to start off slow by going over their fact families and doing lots of repetition. I am determined to get these kids to learn something this year even when they won't put in that effort in return.

College Football Game

I'm not a fan of college football at all. I'm not sure why. I love pretty much every other sport besides that for whatever reason. Yesterday, my friend asked me if I wanted to go to an NC ST football game. His friend has season tickets and didn't want to go. He offered us two $50 a piece tickets and a parking pass for $50 total! Sold! We went to that and our seats were great and then there was an exhibition basketball game for free right after that. The football team lost by a lot and the basketball team won by a lot. We saw two different sports for $25. It was awesome! I love jumping on any opportunity I can.

Worms

We took the 4th graders to the Botanical Gardens today. We took a nature walk and learned about worms and other beautiful creatures. The tour guide gave the kids a pile of dirt and they were able to sift through it to look for worms. They were allowed to touch them and hold them. One kid wanted nothing to do with it. The kids asked me if I wanted to touch them. I also wanted no part in this. I'm not a big fan of nature and all of the bugs out there. I'm sure you haven't been able to tell with all of my cockroach stories. The kids seemed to have a good time and that's all that matters.

Grading

When I was in school, I used to get so mad when teachers took forever to grade and return work. I didn't care if it was homework, an essay, or a test. Even in high school, I didn't understand how it could take so long to grade things. Now I get it. I have probably like 7 assignments to grade. I've gotten so far behind because I'm lazy. I can't find the motivation to grade because I'm so exhausted when I get home. But enough about that... time to grade!

Cameron Indoor Stadium

I have a friend who went to Durham in March for a teacher conference. After that, he went to Duke to the basketball stadium to see the famous Cameron Indoor Stadium. While he was on the court, a worker comes up to him and starts talking to him. My friend bravely asked if he could hook him up with tickets for this year. He told him he could and to email him when the season is close. We got tickets to last nights game against a division 2 team. It was an exhibition game but it was amazing. I hate Duke but I'd never turn down a free game and Cameron Indoor is a bucket list item. The energy from the fans was unreal. The guy said that maybe he'd be able to get us more tickets. I hope so!

Pie in the Face

Today was the fall festival for our school. I was volunteered to do the pie in the face. I didn't have much of a choice in the matter. I didn't mind though because I know how uptight normal people get about doing things outside of the box that are messy and out of their comfort zone. I love doing those types of things. Yes, I absolutely implied that I'm not normal. Anyone who knows me knows I'm far from normal. There were three of us getting pied in the face. The kids had to pay 3 tickets to pie one of us in the face. I probably got pied about 15 times. It was whipped cream, so I was able to eat it, which was nice. We were supposed to do it for 2 hours but we ran out of whipped cream after about an hour. That was fine with me because it was cold outside! At least the kids had fun.

Haunted House

The haunted hayride we did a week ago was only okay. On Friday, we did a haunted house. That was scary! The technology and props they used in this house were amazing. They told us that the actors in the house couldn't touch us and we couldn't touch them. Some of the props could touch us though. There was one point where one of the monsters got in my face and I kept walking which in turn pushed him. He got mad at me and said I wasn't allowed to touch him. I didn't mean to! There was another point where I got backed up into a sculpture that was on the wall. I hit it hard and hurt my back, but was fine after a few minutes. There was fog and we had no idea where we were going. It was the best haunted house I've ever seen and it lasted about 30 minutes. It was crazy! That was a good way to spend Halloween night.

Paul McCartney

My parents saw Paul McCartney in Albany on July 5. For those of you who have never heard of Paul McCartney, where have you been? He was a member of the most famous band ever, The Beatles. I saw that he was coming to Greensboro on October 30. My mom didn't want me to go because Greensboro is 2 hours away from me and the concert was going to start at 8 and it was going to be a 3 hour show. I kept checking for tickets the entire week leading up to the concert. Thursday wasn't a great day at school. After school, I vented to my mentor for over an hour. I then saw that tickets were a price I was willing to pay. I got in my car to go home from work, and the first song on the radio was "Come Together" by The Beatles. It was a sign that I had to go to the concert. I got home, bought my ticket, got gas, and was on my way to Greensboro less than three hours before the show started. I got there at 7:30 and they weren't letting anyone in yet. They started letting people in at 7:45 and the show didn't start until 8:40. My seat was very close to being behind the stage. It was still a good seat though. Paul McCartney is 72 years old and doesn't look it at all. His voice sounds exactly the same as it did 50 years ago. I've seen older singers and you can tell their voices are raspy and not as strong. Not with Paul. He played 39 songs for almost three hours! He was absolutely incredible and worth every penny I paid, even though I paid almost double face value. I am so happy I decided to go. I didn't get home until 1:20AM then had to work a few hours later, but it was absolutely worth it. Paul McCartney is a legend and I was honored to see him!