Strange Day

Yesterday was such a strange day for me. It all started in the morning when the secretary from my school came and found me all the way down in my room during my conference period and said that the principal needed to talk to me.

I haven't had an impromptu one-on-one meeting with my principal since my first year. And lets just say those weren't pretty (but I've grown and the principals have changed).

And none of those started with the secretary walking to my room to get me (which is literally as far from the office as you possibly could be).

So as I walked with her I was trying not to freak out, but inside I was thinking about all the things I could possibly be getting in trouble for. The main thing I thought was the parent that had emailed me in a tirade last week because I gave her daughter a lunch detention for not finishing her work. The crazed mom works in the Human Resources department of another district and really knows how to lay into someone (even though I had every right for handing out that punishment to her daughter).

But I sat down and he actually didn't have bad news. He said he was thinking of changing my seventh period study hall (the bane of my existence) into an 8th grade science TAKS rescue class. This means I would give up the 27 students study hall students, that need constant reminders of what they are SUPPOSED to be doing and how they should do it, for about 5 students that need extra help with science in order to perform well on the TAKS test.

WHOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Yes. Yes. YES. And once again, Y.E.S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've wanted to help 8th graders with the TAKS ever since I moved to 6th grade from 8th. It's not official yet, he will have to get the counselors approval and what-not. But, it looks pretty promising.

He also told me not to tell anyone yet, so naturally I turn to the internet and tell everyone there.

On a much different note, and on a totally different tone: I walked out of that room and into the hallway to find one of the assistant principals very distraught, to say the least. I asked if she was okay and she told me about the shooting on the UT campus. She further told me that her son goes to UT, lives in the dorms across the street from the library and called her whispering and hiding under his bed. She said they got disconnected and 45 minutes had passed and she cannot get in touch with him.

I do not know her son, but it was almost as if I felt a little of her emotion at that moment and nearly broke down crying myself. At that moment it was thought there was a second shooter. I spent what time I could trying to make her feel better before I literally had to go to get to my class on time.

Obviously, her son came out fine. I am so thankful that no one else got hurt. It could have been so much worse than it was.

On another strange side note, the shooter on the UT campus went to the same high school as my roommate. That high school happens to be just a few miles from where we live. I feel like this latest shooting hit a little too close to home for me (in more ways than one).

I really wish we could go back to the days when no one would ever dare think about shootings in public places. And they wouldn't dare high-jack planes for reasons other than money. Or a parent wouldn't think twice about a teacher giving a punishment to their child for not doing their work.

What a strange world we live in now...

Jukebox the Ghost

On Friday Jukebox the Ghost was playing in Austin. They are one of the bands I saw at Lollapalooza and I loved them and jumped at the opportunity to see them again.

I invited Emily R. to come and she brought Jenn (both from the night of karaoke). And Jenn brought two people she knows that just moved here last Wednesday from Tennessee. Remember Jenn moved here to pursue her music career. I asked the couple why they moved here and it was to enjoy the live music scene. So no pressure on this show being good, they all seem to know good music!

Thankfully, the show didn't disappoint. The opening act was a group called "Via Audio." They are from Brooklyn and they were amazing, we all loved them! They had lots of energy and sounded great. But unfortunately, when I got home and listened to their music on iTunes, it just wasn't as great. I downloaded a few songs, maybe they will grow on me. But I would definitely go back to one of their live shows!

The next band came out and during their sound check every member kept asking that their instrument be turned up (which is annoying to me). Then just before they started the drummer put on his noise-muffling earphones. That's when we looked at each other and all knew this wasn't going to be good. After one song of deafening noise, we decided to walk to a close by bar, Shangri La.

When we figured the coast was clear of the deafening band, we made our way back. Jukebox the Ghost had just started playing and we actually got a pretty great spot on the second floor. Here's some of the pictures and videos from the show (sorry I am still not great at video taping):

My favorite song, "Hold It In:"

For the encore they came out and played the cover song "I Love You Always Forever:"

It was a great night of music (for the most part)!!!

Football This Weekend

There's something about this song that reminds me of this weekends upcoming Alabama vs. Arkansas game:



And if you don't get what I am talking about within the first 22 seconds, then you need to give up.

And if you guessed that since the first moment I fell in love with this song at Lollapalooza I was also thinking about the moment these two teams would play, you would be right.

Happy football watching this weekend!!!

Two Things I Didn't Want to Hear

Today I was sitting in on an ARD meeting. They had sent a substitute to my room to watch my sixth period class, which I know is going to be a challenging class (though they've never really been bad for me). But mid-meeting the principals nextel phone beeped and this followed, "we need assistance, T just ran out of Miss Jones' class and is now running down the hall."

That was not what I wanted to hear. That CLEARLY means everything was going great in my classroom and they will be as ready as they can be for their test tomorrow. (In my sarcastic voice.)

The jailbreak student is emotionally disturbed. Apparently he got mad when the substitute didn't tell another kid to stop making noise with his ID. Though I appreciate his concern for the well-being of my classroom atmosphere, I don't think he handled it the correct way. As the story was told to me, he got up and tried to pull the chair out from under the other kid then ran outside the room and tried to hold the door shut when the substitute came after him.

Needless to say, I have a little damage control that needs to be done tomorrow (luckily, we have staff that deal with students like him, so I just need to deal with the rest of the class).

Second thing I did not want to hear was the one show I think I have ever liked from the start of premiere week is possibly getting cancelled. The show, Lone Star, comes on Fox in a tough spot being up against Dancing with the Stars, The Event and Two and a Half Men (I don't know what they were thinking putting it up against those shows). But if you missed it, there will be a re-run Saturday night at 10pm (I think), you should at least DVR it. OR, you could watch it online just go to Fox's website for the show. And then watch it Monday night because this next Monday is the make it or break it night. But it is so good, and I agree with critics that it is more on the caliber of HBO and Showtime shows. And who wouldn't want to look at the main character, he is sooooooo cute! Plus, they played good music, Mumford & Sons that we saw at Lollapalloza, had two songs on the pilot! Furthermore, I would assume that anyone that reads my blog either lives in Texas or has a piece of their heart that belongs in Texas and it's set and filmed in Texas! Why wouldn't you watch this show???

Here's a hillarious blog from tv.com about the cancellation of Lone Star, he says it better than I ever could! http://www.tv.com/story/24025.html

A Hold Your Breath Kind of Weekend...

Well Friday at work was one of the worst days of work I've had in recent memory, and the thing that angers me the most about it is that it was NOT the kids that angered me.

It was picture day, and I should just permanently put in my notice of absence the day they announce when picture day is. It's always terrible. But this year they managed to top all records of completely messing up picture day. Not only did it cause me to not see my entire first period, but I had to give up most of my second period conference to help them with the fiasco (and I've given up two conferences already this past week). My further list of grievances goes on, but I will spare you the details.

Then just to top off a wonderful day, about 1 minute into my already dreaded after-school duty started, it starts raining. We have a small awning, but the rain keeps coming harder and the wind keeps blowing stronger. Then the lightening started in. By the time I am already soaked, the principals finally re-direct us to another location.

But after I got home and showered and to the movie theater things got better and stayed better.

Catfish was a really good movie. I would say that anyone that has anything to do with Facebook would probably have an interest in seeing this movie. It is about a guy that meets a girl over the internet and facebook friends her (along with some of her family and friends). And I do not want to give anything away. And you should not let anyone give it away for you. But I will say that I experienced every range of emotion I think a movie could possibly give you. And most of it I held my breath (and want for a bathroom break) through. Here's the trailer, in case you are interested:



On Saturday I went over to a friend, Travis, from high school's house to watch football. It was just us, but we both love football: love the Aggies and hate Texas Tech. So we were happy to just have someone to watch football with that shared our same interests. Once we noticed the aggies were tied, we got out the computer and listened to the radio broadcast of the game. We also had the GameTracker pulled up. If you have never done this, you should just for the comical aspect, not for the practical. Because it is ridiculously slow and all they give you to look at is these old-school Nintendo looking people. It's hilarious!

But at one point, both games were tied and we were on our toes. And in the end, both of the good guys one! Yay, love it when that happens! No offense to any of my Tech loving fans, but I still am not on that boat.

So what started off not so well, turned into a pretty good weekend!

Last Weekend

I feel like before this weekend hits I should mention last weekend. I had a really good time last weekend and it all started with a little of this:

That's my friend Emily R. from the kickball team I was on (a year and a half ago) and her friend Jenn from college at a local karaoke bar. Jenn is a lawyer that just moved to Austin to pursue her singing career. To which I thought, wow she's crazy.

Then I heard her sing. I mean, it pretty much put the whole bar in it's place. Within moments people got out lighters and started swaying to her singing. Some people gave her a standing ovation at the end. She was awesome.

The picture above was a song they sang later in the night, not the one Jenn did so amazing at. Not that they weren't amazing, it's just that the first song really proved her talent. And in case you were wondering, no I did not sing. I have retired that forever. The first time I sang karaoke will always remain the last time I sang karaoke.

Saturday my friend Shannon came in town. We went to Alamo Drafthouse and saw "Get Low."

It was a really good and funny movie! I would be shocked if Robert Duvall didn't get at least an Oscar nomination. And Bill Murray was hilarious!

Tomorrow I am going to go see "Catfish." It is a documentary I had never heard of before my roommate told me about it the other day. Apparently, it was at the Sundance film festival and got rave reviews. But they asked everyone to keep the ending secret, and from what I hear, they did keep it secret. I watched the trailer and I am seriously scared about this movie. It is a true story (documentary) about a guy that meets a girl on the internet, starts dating her, facebook friends her, talks to her on the phone and does the whole bit. I guess he had never seen her in person, but then goes to visit her. And that is when the trailer cuts off with scary music and a quote that says something like, "It's the best Alfred Hitcock film that he never thought to write."

I hate scary movies, but I am too intrigued to not go.

Must find out what the last forty minutes of this movie is all about.

And if this turns out to be another Blair Witch Project, I will be ticked (because in case you forgot, people thought it was a true documentary the opening night).

And if I can't sleep tomorrow night, I will also be ticked.

They have a limited amount of wiggle room to not tick me off with this movie, we shall see!

Hit the Ground Running...

Or more like crawling, but whatever.



Last Sunday, the night before the first day of school I went to bed thinking lots of things, but one of them was "is my throat starting to hurt?"



Sure enough, the next day I woke up with a cold. I thought this past year when I had a cold during TAKS testing that would be the worst possible timing for getting sick. But I was wrong, the first week is the worst timing. There is never a time you have to do as much talking as you do the first week.



So when my voice completely went away on Wednesday, I had to let go of some of the OCD behavior I never realized I had. I think it worked out for the best actually. I allowed the students to read to the lab rules and let volunteers interpret what they meant. I realized I should give them more credit than I do. They did better than I could in some aspects, and in less time (lets face it, I can ramble on in talking).



Of course, I had things this week that I realized I hadn't covered. Like what to do in a fire drill (I think by sixth grade they probably are pro's at this anyways). But all-in-all the shortened rules are probably something I will try to keep. No need to overload the kids, they won't remember them if you do anyways!



To pile on more excitement for the week, we have a new principal that decided to replace our okay (could use SOME improvement) duty schedule with a confusing, I-need-over-time-because-of-how-much-I-am-on-duty-now and lets-make-everyone-mad-about-duty, new duty schedule. This schedule consists of me standing in the sun waving the car pool cars on. I miss my Air Conditioned duty of monitoring students in the cafeteria from last year.



By the way, heat is not good for a cold.



Every day for the first three days I would come home and go straight to sleep, wake up for dinner and a bath, then go straight back to sleep. My plan was to sleep the cold away. I think the heat counter-acted this plan.



But then my roommate, Jessica, stepped in with her hippie medicine (yet again, she's always got something for everything). This time it was Elderberry. It has a medicine dropper and you put a few teaspoons in the back of your throat (so you don't have to taste the awful taste). I can't be for sure, but I turned a corner on that cold after that! I am definitely going to try that the next time I have a cold. I immediately saw results, and it just kept getting better! Supposedly it is something you should start using at the very moment you first feel you are getting sick. But I really think it was what did the trick for me!



Before this week began we had a staffing with the teachers of a certain student we were getting. He is a student with autism. Autistic children have a special place in my heart, love them! But during the staffing they were talking about how the elementary school at the end of the year had to call the police on him. They were also talking about the many little things that set this boy off. It is always scary when you hear these kinds of things about children you have never met. The elementary school had also written that it was very critical that we make the first day run as smoothly as possible for this student. I knew I had this student in my first period science class and in my last period study hall. I knew we would be the best of buds (so to speak). So when they asked who would like to be his homeroom teacher, therefore the one that ensures success the first day, I nervously, but without hesitation volunteered myself.



I had my entire first day planned out as to how I would approach everything to him. And it worked beautifully! No problems! I think the elementary teachers over did their preparations they gave us. There is something that always happens to student before they get to our school because they are always better adjusted than people tell us they are going to be, thankfully!



But now the boy with autism cracks me up. He showed me a picture of a campsite he had drawn, but was not done, and he asked me what he needed to add. I said it could use some grass (as well as a couple of other things) and he responded with, "I don't know how to draw grass, but I do know how to draw dirt, so I will draw dirt." Okay, I thought using the green crown would have done the trick, but apparently just doing that is not up to his par. Then when he gave the picture to me I noticed that he had glued a little piece of paper to the back to cover up the hole punch hole. I asked what that was about and he simply explained, "The sun couldn't have a hole in it, so I put a piece of paper so it could be a complete sun."



Got it, will keep that in mind for my future art projects.



Today he handed me a drawing that had some very cryptic writing all over it. He is in resource language arts, so writing is not his strong point. But I seriously couldn't make out a single word on the paper and before I could ask questions about it he said, "so can you come?"



Eek. To what?

Then he explained as if I was completely out of line that it was an invitation to his birthday party this weekend. He said he wrote directions on there too. But I asked about them and he just told me it was the name of his neighborhood and to then look for his mom's silver minivan with the dent in the back.



I had to crack up, that is an autistic child's directions if I've ever heard them.



But no, I will not be going to his birthday party. Partially because I never do that sort-of thing, but mostly because driving around an entire neighborhood on a Saturday looking for a silver car with dent in it just doesn't seem like my idea of a good time.



However, I did help him invite this other girl in our class to his party. She is a sweet girl that is also very low and in special education. I sat them together, and they are two peas in a pod. I explained that I would be out of town and not able to make it to his party. But I suggested that he invited that girl because it looks like they are friends. He agreed and suggested I just make a copy of the invitation he gave me. I shuttered at the thought of her mother looking at that invitation. So I urged him to have his mom help out with the invitation, we'll see how that works out (I have no idea, maybe mom doesn't want this girl to come, though I doubt it).

Anyways, the school year started off a little rough but not because of the students (which is the important thing). But it is on the up-an-up now!