Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?
Friday
Divided into �School� and �After School� because I go on forever
School
Friday at school was a tense one of the students because it was the first progress report Friday. I hand out progress reports every other week. This was the first week that we had enough grades in enough classes for me to bother. This is also too early in the year for anyone to be getting anything lower than a B in anything. We are reviewing information and gaining traction on the school year, we have hit the ground running but we are still in the beginning of the September to June Marathon.
Friday also had the fun of the on-going �Idiot Music Teacher Drama� when the President of the Board of Education LOST my confidential memo to her with my assessment of the situation with the music teacher. After the Music Teacher ejected my student from class, she asked me to �inform her of my expectations for my students in music this year.� It turned out to a two page, six-bullet memo that in short says � she has to keep the students in class and teach them, she has to manage them herself � I will not bad cop to her good cop, she has to tell me before pulling students out of class for extra music � and politely deal with it when I refuse to let them out of class, I would not field angry parents for her or continue to back her up if she did not start fielding their concerns herself, I would continue to omit her nasty remarks on report cards until she started working with parents (I write everything on the report cards, I am not writing her non-constructive, nasty comments into the permanent record) and I would continue to collect and forward the students homework to her.
That last part I do for the students and not for her. I mark down that they did it so when the disorganized woman looses it I can stick up for the kids, while not the brightest bunch of humans in the world, they do work hard. Just because she looses the homework does not mean it was never done. She also does not plan her lessons or keep a grade book.
I am a Republican; of course, I opened up a can of �Watergate� on her ass. I broke into her classroom to look into this information. Her grade book is a fresh as newly fallen snow and so is her plan book � which is not out of the wrapper.
I also conceded to the President of the Board of Education that I do not view the Art, Music, Computer, or Gym classes as important as the core curriculum so I have no problem retaining my students from those classes for extra help in mine and I do have a problem giving up my students for those classes when they need extra time around Christmas when the teacher wasted her time until November. I also view myself as my student�s advocate and the next to last word on everything that concerns them in the school (the last word being the principal) and if the Music Teacher did not straighten her act out, I would teach Music myself. My students do not know their trombone for the trumpet. I can do a better job than she does, and I can control the students.
After School
After school, I packed for and embarked upon my trip to Boston. I needed fuel (gas for the car, Starbucks for me) so I pulled off the interstate where I knew there were a Starbucks and a gas station. When I was at the top of the off ramp, someone hit my car. I am okay, the car is okay. It was a fender bender that shaved an hour off my day. The other driver, seeing no damage to my car � but I must be fine, sped off. I hope I have no late blooming medical maladies ahead of me. I would be really annoyed.
After that incident, the drive to Boston was incredibly tame. There were no incidents to report and I spent most of the drive catching up on a week�s worth of news (gossip) from friends around the country as their weekend minutes started. There is a ton of fun things to do in Boston but after my week I wanted to be outside of communication, eat food that was not good for me and watch some DVDs in my hotel room.
Saturday
Saturday was supposed to be one part tourism and one part visiting my cousin � who is eleven. Visiting the cousin was built around the idea of watching him play Pee Wee Hockey and Soccer. I ended up spending the whole day with him and his father � who lives in Chicago.
Pee Wee Hockey is probably the most exciting youth sport that I have ever watched. It moves quickly and is full of action. My cousin is impressive on the ice, something his father and I agreed that neither of us could do. His hockey game ended in a tie.
My Uncle (who is only a few years older than I am) had forgotten the charger for his phone so we went in search of that and Taco Bell for lunch. Both were elusive and an annoyance to my little cousin who wanted to spend time with his father, not at the Verizon store.
I was not helpful. While I keep my class under control, I have a bad habit of winding my little cousins up. This one does not see our side of the family very often so he enjoys seeing us. He shows us how happy he is to see us by behaving as poorly as possible.
Soccer was not as exciting at Hockey. My cousin saw less time on the field and their team lost this game. They lost their goalie so they were forced to use random boys who do not know the position. I played goalie because I was the slow, fat kid. An inexperienced defense on my cousin�s team with a stellar defense on the opposing team made for a game that was painful to watch, even if I was not cheering for one side over the other.
After the game my uncle had to run errands with his son � father and son things. I was in their car so I ended up spending the rest of my day with them. After dinner, I went back to my hotel, exhausted. Just watching an eleven-year-old can be tiring.
Honeydew List
Today I was going to see things in Boston, but my list of things to do is too long for me to have enjoyed anything that I had done. My drive back was uneventful and perhaps there will be another entry later.
