Thursday, August 18, 2011

And...it's gone

Well, so much for THAT summer. Every year they just seem to be getting shorter and shorter! So how was it? Well, it was busy. We did a ton of things around the house, most that needed to be done before summer but got put off till I had the time to them. And we took some vacation trips, which were great fun! We do so love a good road trip!
One of the things I FINALLY did was go through my stack (actually that should read Rubbermaid Totes) of pictures. I had three totes of pictures and slides from my childhood, my life before kids and all the pictures one takes as your kids are growing and then all the pictures people give you of different occasions like birthdays etc... Most of them were taken before the time of digital cameras so I have "doubles" of almost everything. In a way that is nice since I had to split them up into two groups, one for each child to get eventually, but it makes the job more time consuming. So I got the mess under control and I have each childs' pictures that I want to work with in two manila, 8x11, envelopes (yes I know, 4 envelopes. Who needs all these?) I thought about just mailing them to each of the kids but I don't think that would be fair. I mean, after all, I was the one that took all these pictures meaning to do something purposeful with them. So I have decided to go through them, whittle them down again and do a scrapbook for each of the children. Luckily I only have two. I have discussed this plan with the kids and they say they do not wish to have any part of this until it is done. Not that they aren't interested but neither of them thought that they would get around to doing anything with the pictures and seemed pleased that I would do it. So, add yet another project onto the list. I will eventually get around to it. Summer is only 10 months away!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Finally!

It's here! It's here! the last day of school! I don't know who is happier: the teachers or the students. It has been a challenging year for me. Last year I volunteered to teach a Z Block class this year. We are on a three block daily schedule so Z block is considered an extended day period at the end of the day after the "normal" release time of 2:30. the Z block is only 50 minutes long. I thought, "How hard could this be? Not even an hour added to my day." Well, I found out just how hard this was. One of the most difficult things about Z block is that it IS only 50 minutes. I have been teaching at this school for 3 years now and have become VERY accustomed to the longer block periods (95 min.) and have tailored my lesson plans to that time allotment. By the time the kids in my Z block get all seated and have their materials ready, we are already down 5 minutes. I just don't feel like I'm actually getting anything done in 45 minutes. Granted, I have the kids all year instead of a semester, (I know, the schedule is confusing) and we have followed the curriculum calendar but I never feel I can get to anything in depth like I do the rest of my classes. the good thing about the class is that the students who had the class ended the year ahead in credits because they had four classes instead of three.
And I had no idea how exhausted I would be after teaching just 50 minutes longer each day! When you get up at 5:30 everyday, 2:30 is a nice time to end. I felt it especially with the recovery from my surgery in December. Most days I have made it home by 5:00 because I carpool and live 1/2 hour away from the campus. I spend an hour after that sleeping in my chair to get a second wind, and then I am OUT by 10:00, asleep, dead to the world.
Needless to say I DID NOT volunteer for a Z block next year. I am really looking forward to getting out of here by 2:30 every day. And I am not carpooling so I will be on my own time schedule and hopefully I will be home by 3:30 every day.
One of my students just asked me if I was going to party all summer. My response was "Any day I don't have to get up at 5:30 is a party!"
I'll try and keep everyone posted on my summer projects, vacation travels, etc...
Till then...I am anxious for this day to be over.

Friday, May 20, 2011

End of Year (school year, that is)

It is quickly approaching: the end of the school year 2010-2011. I know I haven't posted since January. I am a poor blogger. It's not that I haven't had anything to say; I just haven't put it down in print. I teach high school, if you didn't know. With so many cuts to our budgets here in California, it has been very scary to be in education these last couple of years. This is the first year that I have not received a pink slip telling me to not count on a job come Auguest, which is when our new school year begins.It was not because they are not handing out pink slips, they did, but I am no longer a temporary teacher in my district. Last year I got pushed, as we say, to Probationary status and when I signed my contract last month I was given the status of Permanent, which means I received Tenure. I am not sure that it allows me to totally feel secure but at least I am not on the bottom of the list of last employed, so I will not be the first one to be let go if they go deep into the "infrastucture," or what they call RIFFING (Reduction in Faculty).
Anyway...enough of that. The end of the school year brings about the beginning of summer vacation. Summer is not as long as it used to be. When I was in grade school and even when I was in high school, we got out of school in early June and didn't go back to school until after Labor Day. So we had almost three whole months to enjoy. I find that in the spring I start formulating a list of things I want to do during the summer; all those things I have not given myself time to get done during the school year.
And of course, there is always a trip to take during the time off. We are planning a 10 day trip to Arizona and New Mexico.
This year I want to work on photos. I have two large Rubbermaid tubs of pictures plus misc. albums (all half or less full) hanging around. At least I have tried to put them in one place! But I really need to go through and decide what to keep and what to toss. I want to build albums to give to each of my children. and I want to go through and toss pictures that have absolutely no bearing on ANYTHING. I inherited a bunch of albums from my mom and dad and there are a ton of pictures in them of people at different functions they went to and clubs they were involved in and such. I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE! And both parents are dead now so I will never know.
I also have made this year the "year of the quilts to friends." So those are on-going projects. I hope to work on a couple of quilts this summer.
My husband and I have been working on cleaning and down-sizing STUFF. It is amazing how much STUFF two people acquire over the years. So I am hoping to continue that process.
Hope seems to be playing a big part here, huh?
I will try to be a better blogger. I notice on the blogs I follw they don't always write long posts and maybe that is the secret. I'll try that and hopefully you will hear from me more often.
Summer...here I come!

Monday, January 17, 2011

It's been a while...

Well, it's been some time since I posted. Sorry. I wanted to post on a weekly basis but I took some time away to have a surgery and then the beginning of the new semester came along and before I knew it...well, here I am, 3 weeks later.
I have had quite a bit of "down time" since my surgery. Watched T.V., did some reading, and got some sewing done...more about that later. But I have noticed a trend in the past couple of years regarding T.V. and the ads companies put out. It seems like anything is acceptable now. Many ads are just disgusting and some just make me grind my teeth.
The ad that first comes to mind is the one I have seen repeatedly for Gain Detergent. It starts with a man, Bob, getting dressed in his bedroom in the morning. He is joyous as he puts on his clean shirt, smelling it all over. The announcer comes on and says, "Bob couldn't have it much gooder..." and then the announcer goes on to tell how fresh his clothes smell, etc... Really? Gooder? Maybe it's just me, I do teach English, but don't these companies know that there is no such word as "gooder"? Please! What moron in that advertising agency, not to mention the announcer himself, the company ad exec that approved the ad, the copywriter and a host of people listening to the ad BEFORE it ever got to T.V. didn't know that there is no such word? I can hardly believe that NO ONE noticed it. Do they know how stupid it makes them sound? Do they think the American public is stupid? That we wouldn't notice? Please, again!
So. I don't buy Gain Detergent now, but if I was in the market for a new detergent I wouldn't buy for a company that assumes I am too stupid to notice the ridiculous flaw in their advertising. Judging from the fact that it has been running quite a time, they have no intention of fixing the problem.
I shudder to think it is because no one has noticed????...hmmm. Maybe I need to write a letter. It would be a "gooder" thing to do, and save my blood pressure!
BTW...as I spell checked this post the only word that came up wrong was "gooder" and there was NO suggestions...gee.