Life of a Teacher

When we work from 7AM-4PM and then come home and grade papers and make lesson plans, it's exhausting. When we work all day then come back to work to present to parents from 6-7:30 like I did today, it's even more draining. Of course we don't get paid overtime for this. I know many people will yell at me and say I have summers off. Fine. You can use that argument. Why don't you try teaching the future day in and day out when they give you attitude, don't listen to you, do whatever they feel like doing, sit there and do nothing, when you don't get parent support, when the kids come in with more baggage than you have ever dealt with in your life, when you are distracted by phone calls, parent walks ins while trying to teach, assemblies, paper work, etc. Then tell me about my summers off. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching. But man is it tiring!

Trivia Crack

A few weeks ago, my friend told me about the game Trivia Crack on iPhone. It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a trivia game that you play with your friends. It's addicting, hence why it's called crack. I've played so much and it's very surprising that I've only seen about a dozen repeat questions. I'm like my kids when I answer the question though. I forget the answer right after I answer it. That's not learning! The game is still very fun and distracts me from the work I should be doing.

9/11 Pictures

On 9/11 this past year, I taught my kids about it. That afternoon a parent called and said, "I wish you would have told me you were teaching that." I thought, great, my first parent complaint. It was the opposite. Her stepfather was a first responder at the scene of the crash in Pennsylvania. We were able to talk to him over the phone the next day. It was amazing! This students mother gave me a CD with pictures he took. I tried to load them on my Mac and it wouldn't work. I can load them on my Windows computer, but not my Mac. That's surprising because it's normally Windows computers that are awful. I hope I can load them on to the Windows, email them and open them in my Mac, since my Windows computer is the schools and not mine.

Address Again

Remember when I said my apartment gave me the wrong address. Unfortunately, I was wrong! I was convinced that my road was Northsouth Rd. and not North South Dr. However, after I turn on Northsouth Rd., I have to then take a right on my road, which is North South Dr. It's unbelievably frustrating because I had already changed all addresses, including my drivers license, which cost $10, to Northsouth Rd. I'm in the process of changing them all back, besides my license. I will keep that the same because I don't feel like spending another $10 on it! Maybe I should have listened to property management in the first place!

Not a Good Day for the Lamps

I officially moved into my new place yesterday. It went much more smoothly than I expected. I got the U-Haul at about 9AM and got right to work with loading the truck. On only the second trip downstairs, we carried the mattress. All of a sudden, we heard a crash. We hit a lamp cover with the mattress and it shattered. Oops! It was on the outside of my old place. Oh well. Then we had to break apart he lamp I had. When I put it back together, it wouldn't turn on. I checked the cord and it ripped. It wasn't a good day for lamps! Other than that, the only other minor issues were a few small scratches on furniture. It went really well. My arms are killing me and I'm exhausted but I have amazing friends. Everything is pretty much put away except a few minor things. I will be doing that throughout the next couple of days.

Cleaning

Does anyone want to clean my apartment for me? I'm still busy doing laundry and packing for my move tomorrow. After everything is cleared out, I'm going to clean the entire house so I can get all of my security deposit back. I cannot tell you how upset I'd be if they dinged me a few bucks because there was a piece of dust on something. That would be my luck though. I just can't wait until this move is over and I'm settled in. Soon enough!

Delays

It was cold all over the nation today. Several districts in the area had two hour delays. The district I worked for last year had a 2 hour delay due to the cold. Normally the district I work for now and the district I worked for last year do the same thing in terms of delays and closings. That wasn't the case today. My district was open like a regular day. Their logic actually made sense. They didn't want to delay because the temperature was going to be about the same two hours later than when we arrived anyway. Another reason we didn't delay was because the high schools were testing. Both reasons are logical. My district in New York even had a two hour delay because they were so cold. They called it last night! They rarely call it that early! Oh well, I survived the day and my kids were really well behaved for the most part!