Tour de America

I spent the last couple of weeks on one of the best vacations I'll ever take: a 3,500 mile, eight state tour of the Southwest. I went from Texas to California through New Mexico and Arizona, and then back through Nevada, Utah and Oklahoma.

I took some pretty pictures; parts of this country are so much more beautiful than I ever knew. Little places I'd never even heard of before - Moab, Utah and Morro Bay, California - turned out to be some of my favorites. Driving up the Pacific Coast Highway was insane. I've never seen so many places that look like they'd come out of a dream.

Eleven Days Left

Summer vacation is almost here. I only have eleven days of school left. This breaks down to:

1 day I'm taking off

1 field day

3 field trips

2 half days

+ 1 last day of school party

8 days I don't have to do anything

11 - 8 = 3 actual entire days with students left. These days will be spent preparing for field day, and cleaning up the classroom.

It sounds like I'm home free and that the rest of the year is an easy ride, but this is not true. Three days is 24 hours with these children. And at this point, almost all of them are awful. They're so frustrated and mad that every other school in this district except ours and six others are out for the year and they're still stuck in that miserable place that they can't function. They can't sit still, they can't control their mouths, and they can't control their behavior.

I, of course, am also frustrated and mad that every other school in this district except ours and six others are out for the year. I am sick of looking at most of my students. Very sick of some of them. Sick of coworkers. Really, really sick of administration.

But, most of all, I'm sick of the people from the Edison program. This is hilarious...we have to stay at school until June 30 with students. Two weeks ago, the Edison people took all our technology - computers, televisions, even the library is off limits now. Then, last week, they took all our curriculum. By that I mean they took all our textbooks, tradebooks, teacher's guides, math manipulatives - everything we need to deliver lessons to our students.

Then, in what felt like some sort of slap in the face, we got a memo in our boxes from the principal stating that we were still to teach the curriculum...What? This week, they're taking the copier, and we ran out of paper a couple of weeks ago anyway. I'm just doing what I can - making it up as I go along. We're almost out of supplies too (crayons, construction paper, etc.) so I'm inventing things like lessons in monochromatic art. I'm reading them Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the third Harry Potter book. I'm doing what I can, but these kids are so out of control and ready for summer that most of the time I just hang my head and feel like crying, for myself and for these kids.

It will all be worth it though on July 2 when I sleep in, then wake up and realize I have a glorious month and a half of freedom.

Costa Rica

During Spring Break, I traveled to Costa Rica. A backpack, rental car, and not that much money was all that was needed to see a huge part of this amazing land.

Love

Nobody gets more Valentine's Day presents than teachers. I swear. The entire back seat of my car was full of presents. Is, I should say, since I haven't managed to bring most of it up to my apartment. I just don't know what I'm going to do with the fake flowers [I got real ones too; those I brought in], trinkets, porcelain roses, and many, many candies and cards. 

I am sick of thinking/talking/writing about elementary school. Spring break is exactly one month from today. To say I'm counting the days would be an understatement. More like counting the minutes...the seconds...

I have a problem - my cat. She's very cute and sometimes I enjoy her company, but she's starting to drive me mad. She destroys things, makes noise at night, and causes evil, evil pain to my arms and legs with her claws. I think the only way I can keep her is if I get her declawed and she suddenly becomes uninterested in doing anything at all except sleeping and lying around. I didn't want this cat because I didn't want the responsibility, and now I'm stuck with her. Sometimes I think I should just get rid of her now before I get really attached. The thought of her being around ten years from now, which is likely since cats seem to live forever, is annoying. I don't want to be tied to an animal that requires daily care. So...disregard all the bad things I said about her...she's lovely - anyone want a cat?

I went to Shreveport last weekend. I "gambled," a term I'll use loosely since putting quarters into a slot machine isn't really a gamble. It's a safe bet that you're going to lose. I'd only lost $20, but was coerced into feeding a slot machine another $20 on the way out, bringing my total losses to under $50 which isn't bad at all considering all the free alcohol I drank. In fact, I'm pretty sure it just about evened out.

Needless to say, I did not want to come back to Dallas and teach school today, a day that 95 percent of the city was off from work - every school in town aside from these %$#@ Edison schools (I teach at one of the seven Edison schools in this district) was closed not only today, but Friday as well. I'm beginning to think that I've been suckered. The extra money and signing bonuses sounded great when the school hired me, but working until July is going to be a nightmare, especially when most of my friends will be getting out of school in late May. I shouldn't complain though - six weeks off in a row is still a hell of a lot more than most people get. 

Geography Lesson

I have no idea how to answer the questions the children are asking me about war with Iraq. They started asking all these questions yesterday, so we got out the globe to at least see where Iraq is located.

We passed Columbia, and here's the conversation that followed:

Student: I know everything about Columbia.

Me: Really? What do you know about it?

Student: I know that all the cocaine comes from Columbia.

Me: Ummmmm (unable to respond to this due to shock)

Student: I also know that if you sell cocaine, you can make a lot of money.

Me: Ok, but if you sell a lot of cocaine, you'll also go to jail for a very long time, harm others, maybe get yourself hurt...Why do you know all this stuff?

Student: My...um...neighbor...um...[realizing he should shut up]...I don't know. I made it up.

Again, these kids are eight years old. You should be very scared for the future of our country.

Tax Dollars

To any Dallas-area people reading, here's one to file under So Where do the Tax Dollars Go, Anyway?:

For two weeks, we have had no heat in our classroom. The majority of the school (built in the 1930s) is on a huge, beastly heat/AC generator that is controlled by the fools downtown. My room and the one next to me, however, share a small heater that's controlled in my classroom.

Two weeks ago today, it stopped working. Our maintenance people reported it to the headquarters downtown, and were basically told that the prospect of us receiving a new motor [that's what's broken] this school year was remote. I mean, please! These are little children we're talking about, trying to learn, trying to study, trying to take the !@#@$ TAKS test, and they're forced to sit in a room that is as cold as it is outside all day long. It's going to be, what, 38 for a high today? We can pay the superintendent half a million dollars a year, but we can't buy a stupid motor so that my students don't freeze?

Next week we have parent conferences, and if the heater isn't fixed by then, I'm going to try to get the parents to go downtown and complain. The last thing the district wants is 20 irate mommies at their offices screaming at them.

Insomnia

I got too much sleep last night and now I can't sleep tonight. Nyquil, sleeping pills, chamomile tea, illegal tranquili...well, I haven't gone that far, but almost.

Sunday nights do this to me. The degree of dread that I feel about returning to work Monday morning is only matched by the degree of dread I feel, um, most nights, since I loathe going to work so very much. That's not entirely fair - I don't really dread going to work per se, I just don't care. I don't really care about much of anything lately - it could be that I've been kind of sick, or I absolutely hate winter - I'm not sure. I'm not terribly sad, not really happy, just sort of here.

Standing at the top of January and staring down a long semester is pretty rough. My school doesn't let out until July - one week exactly before my birthday, actually. Six weeks vacation is one hell of a birthday present, but it just seems so far away.

I'm just so sick of thinking about, talking about, eating, breathing, sleeping and dreaming school and schoolchildren. I'm also pretty sick of Dallas. Plans are in the works to get out of here; it'll be a while [at least a year and a half] but knowing that I'm out of here eventually helps. I'm starting to look at grad schools and programs of study; I'm also looking into teaching abroad. I'd love to go somewhere fantastic like France, of course, but I'll probably be stuck in French Guyana instead. Wow. That place might not actually be so bad.

Whatever I took last is starting to work now and I'm feeling sleepy. Finally.