another cute email on teaching...

Came across another cute email about what it means to be a teacher (this one is a little less "warm and fuzzy")....

After being interviewed by the school administration, the eager teaching prospect said:

"Let me see if I've got this right. You want me to go into that classroom with all those kids and fill their every waking moment with a love for learning, and I'm supposed to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, modify their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse and even censor their T-shirt messages and dress habits.

You want me to wage a war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for weapons, and raise their self esteem. You want me to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, sportsmanship, fair play, how to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook, and how to apply for a job.

I am to check their heads for lice, maintain a safe environment, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, make sure all students pass the state exams, even those who don't come to school regularly or complete any of their assignments.

Plus, I am to make sure that all of the students with handicaps get an equal education regardless of the extent of their mental or physical handicap. I am to
communicate regularly with the parents by letter, telephone, e-mail, newsletter and report card.

All of this I am to do with just a whiteboard, a computer, a few books, a bulletin board, a big smile AND on a starting salary that qualifies my family for food stamps!

You want me to do all of this and then you tell me......I CAN'T PRAY?!?"

i have become one of "them"....

Well all of these years I have made fun of those people who wake up in the middle of the night to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving...well I am now one of them! I really needed a new laptop and I finally had to admit that I was able to put a price tag on my dignity: a $300 instant savings combined with a $50 rebate.

I drove by at 9:00 on Thanksgiving night and there were maybe 15 people in line so I figured the game was on!! I woke up at 2:30 in the morning, stopped for a huge cup of coffee and then got in line at Circuit City by 3:00. There were about 100 in line - but I figured this was still doable. So I waited for the 5 AM store opening curled up in my coat watching newly downloaded Lost epsiodes on my iPod but then the INSANITY hit!!!!

About 4:15 things started to get real ugly. More people started to show up and foolishly some tried to start cutting so there was yelling and some people almost coming to blows. Around 4:30 there was a surge to the front door as the lights came on from the employees which means people started running over other people...some still sleeping, some playing cards, some just looking like lost puppy dogs playing in the street with a massive car headed straight for it.

Then the doors finally opened and it was as if there were cowboys on horses running after us shooting off guns trying to coral me and my fellow stampeeding breatheren.

I ran to the computer department which was packed with people trying to get the $200 laptops advertised but when they were sold out, they turned to the next most expensive and then to my $850 HP so I had to start getting ugly. Since the HP dv6139US was my original choice, I was not going to be beaten out by someobdy who was just "settling". I hated what I had turned into but this was totally a "Lord of the Flies" moment - eat or be eaten. Let's just say there are now 2 Pakastani gentlemen who I am sure will not be putting me on their Christmas card list.

I finally got my laptop by 5:20 and then came the part I was not expecting - GETTING IN ANOTHER LINE TO CHECK OUT! These lines had already snaked through the store so I jumped in and stood there FOR THE NEXT 2 AND A HALF HOURS!! It was like being at Disneyland with no fun ride waiting at the end and no people wandering around in big dog and mice costumes to entertain me with their silly antics.

When I got home as much as I wanted to crack open my computer and a start playing with my new toy...I felt this incredible urge to just take a shower to try and wash away this filthy experience.

Needless to say I am soooooo exhausted....but at least here I sit typing on my new computer.

I hope you all had a great break and were smart enough to just stay in bed throughout the night.

drugs and 8th graders

We just finished our "Red Ribbon Week" at school and I decided to pull out my presentation on the biological effects of club drugs for all of my 8th grade classes. It is a pretty intense presentation not to scare or preach but rather to talk drugs from a scientific approach.

Well at the beginning I simply asked them the question "how many people in the room know of a 13-14 year old who has already tried drugs?" - conservatively I would estimate that 80% of my 140 students raised their hands!!

I used this to emphasize the point that they are living in a time that is MUCH different than when I was their age back in the early 80's - I told them (and this is true) the biggest scandal that happened my 8th grade year was that somebody was caught smoking a cigarette behind the gym!!

It is sooo scary in how fast these kids are being forced to grow up...