There are two things that are special about this post. First, it is my 600th post. I’ve been posting for four years now and it just amazes me that I’ve posted 599 posts before this. Thank you to all that read my site. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing. Second, it’s the last day of school. Now that the school year is (almost) over, let me sum up my thoughts.
ISS teachers have to have the toughest jobs (besides SpEd teachers). Besides dealing with the worst kids (behavioral-wise), you have to jump in where their regular teachers left off. When you’re dealing with three grades this makes it even more difficult.
Breaks are nice. During MAP testing I actually got a couple breaks. Other than that, I didn’t have a break all year long. I don’t even have a lunch break. I’m with the kids for 7 hours straight, from 7:15 until 2:15. I do believe I lost some sanity.
If silence is golden, I want platinum. Being in a setting as restrictive as this means no talking. I talk to explain homework to students one-on-one, but other than that, no talking. I’m someone who likes to develop a rapport with students. You can’t do that easily in this job. The silence really is deafening. What little sanity was left after not having any breaks, I lost due to the silence. Of course, once the school day was over you couldn’t get me to shut up. I feel bad for the other teachers.
I would never do this job again. It’s true. This job sucked so bad that I could not fathom doing it again. There are no breaks, dealing with the troublemakers everyday tends to kill your passion for teaching, and hearing one thing from district office about what I can and should do and something totally different from building administration tends to lead to a lot of gray area.
Luckily there were a few teachers who helped me keep my sanity over the year. These were the ones I shared many a happy hour with on Friday afternoons. For those wonderful people, I will forever be grateful.
So what is in store for me? Well, if you didn’t catch one of my previous posts, I’m going to go work for a company that creates, manages, and hosts websites for churches, organizations, and small businesses. It should be a fun time and I’m looking forward to the change in scenery.
So there you have it. It’s been a long year and I’m glad it is over. At the same time, looking back, though this year has been slow, it’s amazing to me that I’ve written 600 posts now. I hope you keep reading.
Lego Indiana Jones
In celebration of the end of the school year, I went out and purchased Lego Indiana Jones for the Wii. I’ve been watching videos of this game for a while and was looking forward to playing it. This game is really fun. It is very easy to play and has great graphics. The story is really good with a bunch of humor added to the original Indiana Jones story lines. All of the original three movies make up this game. The only thing that I wish was different are save points. You can only save once you finish a scene. For someone like me, who only likes to play for 10 or 15 minutes at a time, being able to save mid-level would be a welcome addition. I guess the one good thing about it is since you have to complete the level it increases my chances of finishing the game. So far, I’m only in the first movie, but I can’t wait to get through the next couple. The Last Crusade is my favorite and I’m looking forward to playing that as a game. I think the developers of this game did a great job incorporating all the major aspects of the movies and injecting some humor to the Lego characters. I can’t wait to see what the Lego version of Batman has in store.
The School Year in Review
There are two things that are special about this post. First, it is my 600th post. I’ve been posting for four years now and it just amazes me that I’ve posted 599 posts before this. Thank you to all that read my site. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing. Second, it’s the last day of school. Now that the school year is (almost) over, let me sum up my thoughts.
ISS teachers have to have the toughest jobs (besides SpEd teachers). Besides dealing with the worst kids (behavioral-wise), you have to jump in where their regular teachers left off. When you’re dealing with three grades this makes it even more difficult.
Breaks are nice. During MAP testing I actually got a couple breaks. Other than that, I didn’t have a break all year long. I don’t even have a lunch break. I’m with the kids for 7 hours straight, from 7:15 until 2:15. I do believe I lost some sanity.
If silence is golden, I want platinum. Being in a setting as restrictive as this means no talking. I talk to explain homework to students one-on-one, but other than that, no talking. I’m someone who likes to develop a rapport with students. You can’t do that easily in this job. The silence really is deafening. What little sanity was left after not having any breaks, I lost due to the silence. Of course, once the school day was over you couldn’t get me to shut up. I feel bad for the other teachers.
I would never do this job again. It’s true. This job sucked so bad that I could not fathom doing it again. There are no breaks, dealing with the troublemakers everyday tends to kill your passion for teaching, and hearing one thing from district office about what I can and should do and something totally different from building administration tends to lead to a lot of gray area.
Luckily there were a few teachers who helped me keep my sanity over the year. These were the ones I shared many a happy hour with on Friday afternoons. For those wonderful people, I will forever be grateful.
So what is in store for me? Well, if you didn’t catch one of my previous posts, I’m going to go work for a company that creates, manages, and hosts websites for churches, organizations, and small businesses. It should be a fun time and I’m looking forward to the change in scenery.
So there you have it. It’s been a long year and I’m glad it is over. At the same time, looking back, though this year has been slow, it’s amazing to me that I’ve written 600 posts now. I hope you keep reading.
Stretch Your Imagination
A natural part of growing up for most of us is the loss of imagination. It doesn’t totally disappear, we just stop using it as much or start using it in different ways. Instead of imagining being an astronaut and flying to the moon we imagine that two-story house with the white picket fence. Our dreams are more down to earth. I think that’s why books that have magical qualities, books that stretch the imagination and push it to its limits are rare in books written for adults. There are obvious exceptions. For example, sci-fi and fantasy genres are full of magical and imaginative settings, characters, and adventures that take us to our youth. When you look at those books though, those are targeted to a specific set of people, people who never lost that great imagination. It’s rare that something will grab the mainstream and make us feel like kids again. The Lord of the Rings, thanks to the movies, found a new generation of fans. The Harry Potter series made adults remember what it was like to be a kid. Those seem to be exceptions to the rules though.
A couple years ago I read a book entitled The Iowa Baseball Confederacy. It was written by W.P. Kinsella, the author of Shoeless Joe (which became the excellent movie Field of Dreams). This is one of those books that is so over the top and out of reality that it makes you feel like a kid again. It makes you feel the magic as you read it. It’s not only about that though. No, not unlike Shoeless Joe, The Iowa Baseball Confederacy also has deeper meaning, and that is about a young man’s relationship with his dead father. The setting is in Iowa where a young man is trying to save his family’s legacy that a game played by the Iowa Baseball Confederacy All-Stars and the Chicago Cubs was played in 1908. No one remembers it ever happening, and there is no proof of this game ever existing, except in the main character and his dad’s heads. What ensues is a story so magical that you can’t help be caught up in it. It’s so good, I just started reading it again. Do yourself a favor, forget you’re an adult for a day, or maybe two, or three, and pick up this book, or any book that hits you with that same type of magic that you felt when you were a kid. It’ll be worth it, if only for a short while.
The End is Near
I saw that the school posted an opening for my job. Good luck to whoever takes it. They are going to need it. It’s hard to do this job and stay sane. No breaks at all. I even eat lunch with the kids. 7 hours non-stop of being with the kids. That’s a long time to be with the same kids without so much as a bathroom break or 5 minutes of time to take to yourself to preserve sanity. Oh well, in 5 more days it’ll all be over. I’m so excited for the school year to be over. I’m tired of the trouble-maker kids and this job. I’m excited about starting my new job. I’m looking forward to sleeping in an hour and a half later than usual. I’m excited to be in a job where I’m not drowning in deafening silence all day long; a job where I can listen to music, talk to co-workers, leave the building if I need to. All I have to do is get through the next 5 days. They are going to be long and hard, but I think I can do it. At least, I hope I can. I’m also excited for June because the hope of a new iPhone. My contract with Verizon is up near the end of June, so I will be buying an iPhone (if the new one comes out) and switching to AT&T. I can’t wait to get it. I don’t know what I’m more excited for, the end of school or a new phone. They both happen within a week of each other, so the excitement has built up considerably.
A Book a Day
I’ve been in a reading mood lately. I don’t know what it is but I can’t get enough of it. Friday night I bought two books, A Good and Happy Child and The Husband.
A Good and Happy Child was a pretty good book by first time novelist Justin Evans. It’s a book that explores demons, both literal and figurative. The book seemed pretty good at the store and the reviews made it sound excellent. I have to admit, it was a pretty decent book. I enjoyed the way it was told, in the present and through journal entries about what the main character remembered from childhood. I was a bit disappointed in the scare factor. Some of the reviews were equating it to a modern Exorcist, but it wasn’t anywhere near as creepy as said novel. It was still a decent and quick read. I was able to finish it in a day.
The other book was Dean Koontz’s The Husband. This was on the bargain shelf, and I am a Koontz fan, so I picked it up. I really like the direction Koontz has gone over the past few years. He’s done less supernatural-type novels and done more thrillers. This was a great thriller that kept me turning the pages wanting to know what was to happen next. The only disappointing thing in the book was how quickly everything was resolved. Usually Koontz is fast at conflict resolutions, but this one seemed too easy. Too fast.
Yesterday I went to Barnes and Noble because Chuck Palahniuk came out with a new book called Snuff. I also noticed that Koontz came out with a fourth book in his Odd Thomas series called Odd Hours. I’m almost finished with Snuff, which is classic Palahniuk, and can’t wait to start Odd Hours. I’ve basically been reading a book a day for the past five days. I can’t get enough.