ouch

Ok, so, Mrs. Hubert walks like a gimp. Yup. It's true. That darn weights class on Monday has nearly paralyzed me. Today at school, I had to be super careful about how long I sat down...if I sat too long, I looked like a dork when I stood up because my legs simply would not straighten out!

My prefix/suffix game was a hit! The kids really enjoyed being able to work with group and I had a fun time watching them. We finished up learning the prefixes and suffixes yesterday and then today I gave them a 20 point quiz. Most did ok; a few did great; some royally blew it.

This is the phenomena I call Refusal to Study. Today, before I gave the quiz, I gave all of my classes 15 minutes to finish some paper work from yesterday and study their prefix/suffix charts (these had the definition's of the prefix/suffix). I thought, wow, I'm such a nice teacher. I know none of them did the assignment last night of studying the chart. I think I'll give them some time to study their charts because I want them to do well. Like they say in my favorite 90's movie, Clueless: AS IF! 15 minutes is a good chunk of time. They had the 20 definitions right in front of them and already had two days of studying behind them. I told them they could even study with a partner. I gave them hints on how to study. I helped a few of them come up with tricks to help remember the definition.

But you know what happened? Not many took me up on the offer to study. They basically refused. They basically were just lazy. They basically just sat on their chairs like big, old, fat lumps on old, slimy pickles. And then they complain that they have an F and 0.222 GPA?? If I had one wish and one wish only, it'd be to magically make my students not so darn lazy!

Needless to say, I was less than impressed with the outcome of the said quiz. But, I really don't have time to keep coming up with ways to teach these: with one week and a half until I give the LA CRT's, I'm running out of time. I still need to review theme, character, setting, external text features, and MORE!

We've been handing out spring portraits all week. It's been kind of crazy. We have set up a table outside the office before and after school and are slowly getting all of the pictures passed out. These are just the proofs of the pictures; the kids and their parents now decide which style/color they want and then order. I've had a lot of kids purchase the biggest package. Even though I feel the whole thing was kind of a fiasco, it's nice to know that some of the money is coming back to my budget. We'll see what kind of return I get, and then I'll decide if I truly want to go through the ordeal of spring portraits again next year.

Tomorrow I'm headed up to Ogden for my second day of AVID training. AVID is another program that prepares students for college. I had the first day of training way back in January. It has some useful information and gets me out of my class tomorrow, so yay! kinda. I just looked back at my notes and training manual only to find out that I have to write a 2 page paper describing one of the strategies I've used in the classroom since the first day of training. Yikes! I just came home and started rummaging through the manual to look for a strategy that I've done and now I hope to be able to kind of BS my way through the paper. It's been a long while since I last wrote a paper. Not so sure I'm in the practice. (I did, however, help Ben with a paper last week, and that felt kind of tingly). Anywho, I've got to go Visiting Teaching in one hour and I'm hoping I can pump out this paper within that time frame.

I recently got accepted into an ESL Endorsement program. I will begin the week after school gets out (June 1st is our last day) and continue for two weeks after that. Then, next school year, I'll go to one class a night each week and by this time next year, I'll be ESL endorsed. This is kind of a big deal because having an ESL endorsement means I can teach ESL classes. There are more ESL students at my school than Caucasian/English as a first language speakers, having this endorsement would be super. (Oh, by the by, ESL means English as a Second Language). That means I'd be able to help more students learn English. It also kind of means a little bit more $$$ and that can never be a bad thing. I'm considering starting a Masters program in the fall, as well.

My heart and thoughts go out to those affected by the tragedy at Virgina Tech. I think it is a sad, sad, sad world we live in where a person feels so much hatred and violence that his only way to 'solve' his problems is to harm others and then end his own life. I've had some conversations this week with some students who confided in me about their fears of something like this happening at their school. I pray to the heavens above that I (or anyone) will never have to go through such an ordeal. I also pray that the students at WL who bring the weapons (there are confiscations every day) won't ever feel like using them.

Now, off to the joys of writing papers...again....