Christmas Holidays

It's the night before Christmas Eve Day and the Christmas rush is upon me. My presents are bought, wrapped and under the tree, with a couple exceptions. The laundry is on (yes, at 1:00 am) as I am preparing for my voyage south. The next 2 days are packed with family activities and Christmas Turkey will be bountiful.

There are a couple family traditions that we have in our family - one is that we spend every Christmas Eve with my husbands family. They always made Christmas Eve the big night and had a big turkey dinner and opened presents late and played and slept in late on Christmas day - and we still do that! And Christmas morning (well, usually late in the morning) hubby and I do our gifts and stockings at home. Christmas Day is always with my parents and my moms side of the family. Again, there is more turkey, more presents, and more fun. By the end of Christmas day, I'm normally turkey-ed out and tired, but its well worth it. All in all, Christmas is all about being with family and friends, giving and receiving, being with those we love, and yes, we celebrate Christ's birth.

Past Boxing Days have brought various things - sleeping in, more Turkey, sometimes running out to stores early in the morning for the sales and spending all that precious Christmas money or gift cards.

This year Boxing Day brings a road trip!


We will pack our bags and leave sometime Friday afternoon, headed for the sunny south. Temperatures in Florida this week have been around 25 degrees Celsius (Don't even ask me what that is in Fahrenheit...) and that's a lot warmer than -10 degrees and snow. So I'm looking forward to a road trip with hubby. We have audio books, iPods, portable DVD player & DVDs, the radio, and each other to keep us awake and alert for 24 hours until we hit Tampa Airport and pick up our Florida Buddies Saturday night (who fly in instead of driving, lucky ducks). Then, they get to keep us somewhat sane for the last hour to the condo, where we will likely both collapse and sleep until Sunday morning, when the fun begins!

ideas...

Today was a refreshing day. I attending a conference on eLearning, and it challenged some of my ideas on how to use technology in all classes, both in an eLearning environment and in a traditional classroom.

The neatest thing... Cell Phone Film Fest ... yup, all those teenagers with cell phone video cameras have to create a video that is filmed entirely on their cell phone (editing allowed after the fact) and then submit for a film fest and judging. Never would have thought of it, and kids would eat it up. Something to consider if I can find a way to work it in. (Dont think I'm quite up to it yet though)

We talked about podcasting for presentations instead of getting in front of the class. Letting kids test, edit, and finalize what they say... rather than the pressure of getting in front of the class. And yes, I know the argument against that is that it isn't like the real world,... but on the other hand, I wouldnt want every presentation to be "virtual" just one or 2 to give them the experience of recording, revising, critiquing and analyzing their own work, which is a higher order thinking process in itself.

Also, taking pictures of completed assignments or notes on a board with a cell phone, submitting it to qipit.com and getting a PDF sent back to you to post on your website, email to absentee students, display and save exemplars, etc.

There were some really interesting things discussed. And I was also introduced to Twitter, and that looks like a lot of fun. More things to play with!

Good morning...

Ever feel like this as you go through the daily grind?
Luckily, there is but one more week before the Christmas Holidays.

Full moons

For 3 years I have been in the teaching profession and for 3 years I have begun to recognize and analyze a trend... the problem now is how to utilize this trend to my advantage. The trend is the moon phases and the affects it has on children and teenagers. (Yes, I realize I will start to sound like an old witch who should be standing over her cauldron chanting "Double Double Toil and Trouble").

For many years I have spent my days with students who are extremely "active" or "jubliant" or "wild and rangy", etc etc. That's not to say that the kids are "bad", rather some of them have been brilliant at times. But alas, hormones always seem to kick in. And for some reason I have yet to determine, the week around the full moon is always the worst for behavior and rudeness and kids sent to the office. For many, this is a time when they seem to lose control of themselves and forget that they are in fact human beings who can think, reason, act and behave. For the few days leading up to and after the full moon, said "children" become beings who forget what manners and respect are, and become totally self indulgent (yes, even MORE so than they normally are, if you can possibly believe that). All reason and logic flee said individuals, leaving teachers in a frustrating state of insanity and at a loss as to why seemingly normal students have lost all ability to think and reason.

And then this teacher went home and complained to her significant other about said students. Said Significant other then opened up google and said "Oh look, a full moon" ... And lo, the heavens opened and the light of knowledge shone down upon me and I said "That explains EVERYTHING".

So there it is. The Cycle begins again. When another full moon comes upon us and I am caught unawares again, I hope to have hubby to remind me of the madness that will ensue in the school for a few days before returning to normal.

Which leads me to my dilemma that brought this rant up in the first place... How do I deal with such knowledge? How do I harness the power that a full moon has and a) remind myself ahead of time to expect Dr. Jekyll instead of Mr Hyde, and b) prepare myself for the the inevitable outcome of insanity for a few days? Add to this the fact that the holidays are a week away and they are hyper with the prospect of the myriad of gifts that are forthcoming (spoiled brats that we raise in society today). This all equals a double trouble for teachers.

What is the answer? Is the answer in the all mighty movie day? Should I plan ahead and show movies on days of the full moon? Or just continue on as usual? Continuing doesn't seem to work without causing stress and frustration on my part. For now, I'll just rely on the fact that there 6 days left of school and then a 2 week break that is much needed.

Favorites

ICHC has added another new site (I love when they expand) called Once Upon a Win and it is full of goodness from my childhood, such as LiteBright, Fraggle Rock, Fisher Price, Nintendo and Atari! It really brings me back to days as a kid playing with these toys and watching these tv shows. Who knew I'd be looking at it years later over the net (which didnt exist at the time) and writing about it on a blog... ahh as the world turns.

In other news, my favorite author of all time Jacqueline Carey has posted a link on her site to the newest blurb about her next trilogy and I'm drooling already. Too bad I need to wait 6 or 7 months before I get it. However, it does add to my excitment for the summer. For the last few years, every June brings not only the end of school and the beginning of a summer vacation, sunshine and freedom, but it also has always brought a new Kushiel's book with it! And this year seems it will be no different. The last book, Kushiel's Mercy, I read... nay, devoured in about 4 days. Its a pretty hefty book too. Her prose is so alluring and sensual. I always buy the hardcover copy of her books. There's something satisfying about holding a hard bound book fresh off the press. Writing is a huge process, and to hold it firmly in a hand and feel the presence of the book and the writer is just as much a part of enjoying the book as actually reading it.

My apartment is getting more decorated for Christmas, which is a favorite time of year.

Work is getting closer to being done for a 2 week break, which is always a bonus.

My Roadtrip south with the Hubby is also getting closer... thats a favorite too, and add in my love of the ocean and a couple of favorite friends and I'm all set for a great vacation.

People are fools...

Technology...

It's interesting how things happen at the same time...
Today as Hubby posted a rant about technology I also was part of a conversation at school about the exact same thing.

A couple of students were meeting with a co-worker and friend of mine who teaches the Sociology, anthropology and psychology course. One student was unsure of a thesis for their ISU essay, and they were brainstorming ideas for it. The Topic: Dysfunctional families in the future. My co-worker asked if I had any ideas for things that would affect families in the future IE: Something that will cause dysfunctional families. The first thing that came to mind.... Technology and the net.

Yes, its a wide wonderful world of information and entertainment, but I can see it causing more dysfunction in society as time goes on. (and it does)
The big reason is this... As much as technology is helping make the world a smaller and more accessible place (for example, I can keep in touch with my friend in another province easily and for no cost (other than my normal internet cost) which is something I wouldnt be able to do as easily without the net).
However, it also changes the way people communicate. And with the younger generations (listen to me, I sound so old) I find they are losing the ability to communicate effectively. Back in the day (oh gosh, I sound like my mother) if I wanted to see / talk to a friend, I walked down the street, around the block, and knocked on their door and asked to see them or play with them... and we then socialized face to face and learned how to communicate and deal with people, with disagreements and with conflict, while also learning respect, sharing, manners etc.

Today, when a 13 year old wants to talk to a friend, theres no communication. Its a facebook message or a text message "o hai wtf u doin 2day? ttyl gtg" (ok that was painful to type)
I did a survey on my grade 10 students in sept and sure enough, many of them rely on facebook, text messages and msn to communicate with friends and family.

And so here is where the dysfunction starts. There is no face to face communiction. No ability to see a face, to get feedback, to see the reaction on peoples face, to read finer social cues that body language and facial expressions convey in a way that text messages never will. A whole generation is growing up without those abilties being reinforced every day. Some day, when those people are in real relationships, living day in and day out with someone in a family environment (traditional family, blended family, same sex family, etc, it matters not to me) they will be unable to deal with the daily interactions between spouses, children, co-workers, etc. Their ability to resolve conflicts and deal effectively with conflict and communication isn't developed the way it was when I was young, when the everyday interactions you had were always face to face. They won't have that knowledge and experience as a child/young person and will be totally disconnected from the world of relationships and communication. This will add to the breakdown of families in society that we already see every day, adding to the stress that accompanies any close intimate relationship (married or not, there are always conflicts to overcome).

Yes I realize the slight irony in my rant, being over the internet and in a medium where you cannot see my face, cannot tell if I'm serious or sarcastic. In some ways I am dead serious. I see students who are unable to deal with face to face communication, who dont read social cues. Still others dont understand the need for manners and respect. Its a vicious cycle that continues, as young people can bury themselves in technology and cyberspace.

On the otherhand, I also realize that I am perhaps going overboard with the analysis here. Still, it makes for a good thesis for sociology. I'm excited to actually see this essay come to fruition (if it does) and I will be bugging my co-worker to see the essay once it is handed in!

Giggle

One of my daily habits is to check my favorite sites for updates.
These sites include Melissa's Miscellany, I Can Has Cheezburger (and all affiliated sites) and my favorite Webcomic, Ctrl-Alt-Del, or CAD.

Usually I prefer the storyline arcs in CAD. The characters are great and the story has been really involving over the last few months, so I've been hooked to it like glue. After the happy resolution of a comedy of errors between the main couple, Tim has gone to drawing a bunch of cartoons for different video games that are out. Normally I look at them but Don't always get into them as they tend to be games I either havent played or have no interest in.

However, Today's entertains me enough to link it on my blog...
Brings back memories of old video games I played with friends growing up, and a couple of my favorite 80s cartoons...

(Note: I can't get this to properly show on the blog.. I'm working on figuring out that, but for now click on the image and it will link to CAD. Thanks!)

Weekends and Christmas approaching...

I enjoy this fun chart. As a student, and as a teacher, it is the truth. LOL.



It's been a nice weekend, staying warm inside with the hubby today and going on a shopping day with a wonderful best friend tomorrow (BluntDaisy). It will be great to start looking for Christmas presents! This year is going to be a small budget year as we are paying off debts and looking to save some money. Christmas is hard for me to not spend everything, so it will be a challenge to find that perfect gift at an affordable price. But it will be so much fun! At least I get to listen to Christmas carols at the stores all day.

Bring it on!

I'm also still psyched up for our trip south. It's going to be our present to each other. Transportation plans were finalized today and it looks like it will be a go ahead! We are driving down to Florida, which is a nice 23-24 hour drive. Yes it sounds crazy, but its actually a lot of fun to push through and drive it straight. I do the day shift, hubby drives the night shift. We keep each other awake and listen to music and audio books and last year had some movies on the DVD player going (for passenger to watch and driver to listen to). I love road trips with the Hubby!

Fire alarms... and all that jazz...

So today we had the fire alarm go off. Not a pre planned, the office lets me know a day ahead kind of fire alarm drill. No, this was the someone decided it would be fun to light something in order to set off the school sprinkler systems in a back stairwell kind of Fire alarm.
So when we evacuate the building near that stairwell, a wave of water comes flooding down the stairs and scares the crap out of a few students who have no idea whats going on. So I spent over half an hour outside in the cold, below freezing temps and now I have a very sore lower back from standing with my back to the cold wind for so long with no coat on. So I'm sitting with a heating pad on my back.

In other news, I went to dinner with some friends tonight and started planning a trip to the sunny south for the week after Christmas... MMM Sounds wonderful. I hope it all works out and I can spend a few days sitting on the beach! Theres something wonderful about the Ocean and me. It calls to me. Its the one thing in nature that really makes me feel at home and makes me long to be near it. Water in general has that effect on me, but the ocean is the strongest force. theres something primal in it.

Maybe its because I'm a Pisces? Its like going home for me.

I'm really excited to feel the wind in my hair and on my face, taste the salt, feel the water around my feet, and long to walk in and keep going forever and ever. Sometimes I really could, and not in a morbid death wish kind of way, but in a purely primal "returning to the ocean" kind of way.




"Absorb thyself in this Great Sea of the waters of life. Dive deep in it until thou has lost thyself. And having lost thyself, then thou shall find thyself again. Even as it is written, she had her dwelling in the Great Sea, and was a fish therein."

Engrish

This speaks for itself. I love Engrish.

Hubby found this on the weekend and I liked it because its true.

Then and Now: School in 1958 and School in 2008.

Scenario:
Jack goes quail hunting before school,
pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.

• 1958- Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun,goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
• 2008 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers

Scenario:
Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.

• 1958 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
• 2008 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario:
Jeffrey won’t be still in class, disrupts other students.

• 1958 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
• 2008 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car
and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.

• 1958 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
• 2008 - Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.

• 1958 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
• 2008 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario:
Pedro fails high school English.

• 1958 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.
• 2008 - Pedro’s cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that knowing English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro’s English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July,
puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.

• 1958 - Ants die.
• 2008- BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny’s Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee.
He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.

• 1958 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
• 2008 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

It is amazing how much can change in the span of just 50 years. For better or for worse the world is drastically different.


(from http://www.bloggled.com/blog/2008/11/13/how-times-have-changedschool-1958-vs-2008/)

Tv shows & Mondays

I'm pretty picky at times with TV shows. I hate those stupid brainless series where you need no brain to watch and the valley girls always giggle .. ie: Friends.

Anyway, I've started to get into some darker TV shows lately and I am really enjoying them! Dexter season 3 is well underway and I'm enjoying this season as much as ever! I can't wait for it to get juicier, as it always does farther into the season.

My Mother In Law also introduced me to a series called True Blood. Its a vampire series, and although I was never one for vampire movies, I like this series. Its not just vampires, but shape shifters and werewolves and other faerie types. Its also very sexualized and tantalizing and sexy too. Which adds to the appeal. Hubby and I are currently in Episode # 3 and enjoying it.

Report card season is done at work. It's partly to blame the last week for my lack of posting... I had lots of marking and then lots of time entering marks and writing comments. I don't exactly do 100% personalized comments - thats too time consuming with close to 100 students. Sad but true. Maybe it makes me a worse teacher, but I need time to myself too. I spent 3 nights last week at school until 930, 1030 and 11.

On that note, going back to school today was difficult. It seemed like a long day.
In my senior class this afternoon, a student and I figured out that there is only 6 weeks left of teaching time until Exams. WOW... That was kind of scary... Then add 2 weeks for Exams and Review days, and add in the Christmas Holidays and the semester seems so short. The year goes so fast when you are a teacher! Then again, some weeks seem to drag on for Months...

So, here are my thoughts for the rest of Monday... You said it Kitteh...

Hallowe'en

For Hallowe'en this year I chose to dress up.
At work they like it when the staff dress up, last year it was semi "demanded" and this year its more optional, but I actually put more effort into it this year than I did last year!

Hallowe'en is the one time of the year you can dress however you want, and not have anyone take a second look at you. On the other hand, the long green wart covered finger gloves I wore last year got a LOT of reactions from my kids, and that was fun too. This year I'm going for a more classy look, as a southern belle.

I haven't exactly gotten the accent down, but maybe if I don't talk too much it won't matter! ;)

I loved Hallowe'en as a kid - it always meant spending a few hours with dad the day or 2 before Halloween carving the pumpkin. Getting your hands good and dirty and slimy, pulling out gobs of pumpkin guts with your hands and poking out the face once they were carved... and then sorting out the seeds and eating roasted pumpkin seeds. Mmmm those are great salted. Today a coworker had some and was sharing them around in the staff room. I haven't had roasted pumpkin seeds in years and damn they were good. Me thinks I need to get a pumpkin just to roast the seeds... Too bad kids don't trick or treat in the apartment. (then again, maybe thats a GOOD Thing).


Trick or Treat!!!

Happy Hallowe'en

Where did the month go?

Wow, here it is, almost a full month later. What a month it has been. I haven't been posting as there has been a lot going on in my life - several family members in hospital and teaching and parents night and thanksgiving holidays and traveling here and there. Thankfully most of it worked out for the better, and everyone is doing better.


I hear this song a lot on the radio station I listen to lately and it seems to speak to me. So this is my thoughts on life sometimes when life gets really hard as it has been lately...






The broken clock is a comfort, it helps me sleep tonight
Maybe it can stop tomorrow from stealing all my time
I am here still waiting though I still have my doubts
I am damaged at best, like you've already figured out

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain there is healing
In your name I find meaning
So I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on
I'm barely holdin' on to you

The broken locks were a warning you got inside my head
I tried my best to be guarded, I'm an open book instead
I still see your reflection inside of my eyes
That are looking for a purpose, they're still looking for life

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
with a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain is there is healing
In your name I find meaning
So I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on
I'm barely holdin' on to you

I'm hangin' on another day
Just to see what you will throw my way
And I'm hangin' on to the words you say
You said that I will be ok

The broken lights on the freeway left me here alone
I may have lost my way now, haven't forgotten my way home

The IT guy...

Given that we have had a zillion technical problems to the start of the school year, we started the first staff meeting with this. I love my new boss.

FAIL!!!!!!!!

Yawn

I was looking for something humorous and fun to add to my blog but I'm out of ideas and ready for bed soon.
On to week 4 ... and its a 4 day week. YAY for PA days! I'll be sure to take an extra large coffee with me...



Good Night!

New Addiction

iMovie.

My new Addiction is iMovie. All I can say is WOW. In a few clicks I can take a video of myself at this very moment, then throw it into a movie, (or import a bunch of pics), add a voice over or song or adjust the audio from the video, add a few captions and transitions and voila! You have a new movie, 10x faster than using Movie Maker.

So I have spent the last hour and half making 2 movies and playing with some photo importing and realizing I REALLY need to get my old Harddrive up and running so that I can get all my recent photos. Saving from facebook back to my new drive I noticed the quality really sucks, so That won't work for very long. However iSight (the cam in my mac air) is pretty cool too. I was never much for videoing, but I think I could get into the hang of this.

I'm getting old...

I'm getting old.
I was in bed before 11 last night and I'm yawning at 9:50 and having a hard time keeping awake!
I think its time for bed.

So much for the late nights...

TGIF Tomorrow!

The Honeymoon is over

So, as all good things must come to an end, so too has my honeymoon period with my grade 10 class. Today was hellish. I partially blame the moon (why oh why must it be full?).

several teachers agreed that today was the day classes started to act up and fall apart, relatively speaking as compared to the way they have been for the first 2 weeks.
So, Honeymoon stage is over. My darling Angels are gone, here come the fallen ones. I say that tongue in cheek, because really they aren't that bad, but I did take 3 phones (have I mentioned how much i hate cell phones at school?) and hand out a couple detentions and send someone to the office today. All in one class. UGH. Little Monsters. Although my other classes werent too bad.

Hubbys new job is progressing well, so thats good news!

And finally, my fav site I Can Has Cheezburger (see links on the right hand side) has added a new section - LolCelebs, or ROFL Razzi.
And seeing as I have NO love for celeb drama and bs, I quite enjoy this site.

So I leave you with this one that made my night...

Why I like Mac... Just another Reason...

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting..

I love this pic because it reminds me of my Kona! She jumps at toy mice just like this and fetches! She will actually play fetch for hours, and its normally when I am busy and dont have time to play that she will pester me for a while to play.... or late at night when its time for bed.

Tonight is a full moon, and my kids were pretty stir crazy, especially my grade 10 boys, man, they say the moon is feminine and affects the tides, blah blah, womanly things. I think its just as bad if not worse for the teenage boys.

I'm going to have to one day chart the behaviors of students according to the moon phases, because I swear they have a profound affect on teenage behavior and hormones. I'm not the only one on this theory, Daisy also feels that the moon affects her daycare kids, and generally the wild times with both her kids and mine line up ever so precisely.

Free Puppies!

This is totally true...



And whoever made this sign is brilliant. I would love to see this done at a local mall...


That's it for me. I'm done playing with my new toy. Good Night!

Stranger things have happened?

The post below is one that I started around 1:30 this afternoon. It was the 2nd attempt at making a post. The post you are reading is actually my 3rd attempt at posting today. Why you ask? Well, let me tell you a story...

I began a post about the weekend, and then my computer shut down. All by itself, it just shut down. How? Well, when we tried rebooting it there were some weird musical sounds and it said the processor was having a "thermal event". What is that you ask? Well, after consulting the techie hubby, we realized it was probably due to a mass of cat fur that tends to fly around the house (having 2 fuzzballs) and so we opened the computer up and sure enough, there was some cat fur in the fan and in the case. So, we pulled out the can of air and sprayed the fan, pulled out the fuzz, and cooled the processor. Then I restarted the computer, which worked great, and then began once again typing my blog. The post immediately below this one is said post from about 1:45 or so...

As I was working on this post, I was thinking and talking about Flexibility (and now dear reader, go read said post below this post in order to get the full irony of what is about to happen).

Go on... I will wait...



...


...




Ok, now that you have read the post BELOW this one, I will continue...

I was looking for a fun clip to rant about and post and I found a delicious clip on youtube about Chocolate Coffee Marinade for Steaks... Talk about greatness, combining 3 of my favorite foods into one, and grilling it over a BBQ. Fabulous.



Just as I was thinking about "flexibility" and my classes upcoming for the week, and the yumminess of said Chocolate Coffee Steak, my computer once again experienced a "thermal event".
And died.
Totally.
Ka Put.

And so, the hubby and I had to become FLEXIBLE. I mean, what is a teacher these days without a computer of her own to work on? I plan, I email, I IM, I draw up lesson plans and worksheets and activities and search for resources and ... the list goes on and on. So here's where the flexibility comes in. I have long been drooling over a Mac Air. Like so.



For me its a perfect fit. Its small and sexy. I have had the big clunky laptops, and while they are totally functional I eventually get sick of lugging a huge bag around on top of whatever else I have for school with the laptop and various accessories etc. The smaller, the better for me. As for the performance, I'm not a heavy user in terms of high performance graphics (if I was ever to pick up a game seriously again I'd definately go with a desktop to game, not laptop, so thats not an issue) and what I really need it for is for work, and multimedia. I love my iTunes and my photos and my iPod, and I like to surf for internet videos (youtube etc), but otherwise I'm a pretty basic user. Word processing, email, web (blogging, reading, researching), and the odd flash game that catches my fancy, but otherwise thats it.
Pretty simple eh? So the Air appealed to me ever since I saw it on TV.
The Air doesnt have a DVD player, but honestly I can't remember the last time I ran a DVD on my computer. I don't burn disks as I live on my USB key for work. If I'm taking a bunch of pictures to Walmart to print, I have a flash card and a USB that are quicker to access and bigger than a CD and frankly I don't print enough pictures to warrant a DVD!
We have an external USB DVD burner that hubby carries place to place when needed so I have that at my disposal if I ever needed said burner. Combined, we have several external harddrives for backup and music sharing, so disk space isn't an issue.

I drooled over the Air when I saw it advertised, and I'm drooling over it sitting on my desk.
My small functional and sleek laptop is perfect for me. Plus, if I havent mentioned this already, its pretty damn sexy. You gotta see this thing in person to appreciate how sexy it really is. Plus the keys glow! And the mouse is wireless and doesnt need a big usb thing to communicate with. (gotta love Bluetooth!)

Fortunately, Hubby thinks he can recover the data from my Harddrive so I wont lose all my files from the beast. It was so old, I think its time to put it to a peaceful death. Rest in peace old desktop, I knew thee well.

Bring on a breath of fresh Air.

Week 3

Well, Here we are at the start of week 3 of school. Also the start of the 3rd week of my blogging relatively regularly... Yes I say relatively, because I realize it's been 4 days since the last post, but all I have to say in my defense is that its been a busy week!

This week begins the 2nd of the 5 day weeks. Next week is a 4 day week *YAY* due to a PA day on the Friday, and then there's 2 - 5 day weeks again followed by another 4 day week, which takes us to the week after Thanksgiving. Thinking of it that way makes it seem far away, but really it isn't.
Ah yes, this is the way a teacher thinks, in terms of how many days in the week, so that thinking of week long lesson plans is made easier. You just start thinking in multiples of 4 or 5, depending on the week, and then all your planning gets thwarted by the odd assembly or thing that comes up and you have to re-shift your plans. Flexibility is KEY.

Kitteh!

I'm tired and not much to say at this point. I'll post more tomorrow since I didnt get home until 10:30 at night.

So I leave you with these...


this one is in Honour of DaemonQ's Blog



TEEHEE!




I swear my cat thinks this all the time...

TGI ... Tuesday?

Its only Tuesday, and DAMN am I tired.

I'm not really sure why, but I think its just acclimatizing my body to the school again. I guess I can't complain too badly after a nice summer, but it takes a lot out of me the first weeks... At least I'm not the only one, everyone seems to be dragging their ass today.

I had 3 guys in my gr 10 class ask me to coach boys hockey this year... apparently to "coach" hockey really only involves "supervising" hockey, since they implied that parent volunteers are the ones on the ice doing the training and the plays, etc.
So, it actually tweaked my interest. Tomorrow I'm going to talk to one of the Phys Ed guys and see exactly what it entails. Hockey is the only sport I know about, and let me tell you, my knowledge isn't very impressive. I know the puck goes into the net... I know what icing is (and no, not the kind on the cake) and well... I can tie skates up... I can stop on skates... and um ... I can do first aid?

If this does become a pet project, my dad will sure be proud!

I've had this song in my head all day long...


Much better to get it out of my head. I really need to find something else to listen to to get Evil Dead out of my head, but with a broken iPod its proving difficult.


This made me giggle though. I love ICHC.

What The F*@k Was That?

The hubby stumbled across this video, and since I grew up loving Animaniacs, I immediately had to blog it...



Its incredible what they did actually get away with, and coincidentally I actually was reciting the scene of painting naked people today to my in-laws (don't ask how that topic came up, lol).

Today marking is beginning to pile up - 30 assignments came in from one class, and I'm getting 30 more assignments Wed and 27 quizzes and ... sigh. Just when you get ahead of the ball on planning, the marking starts. Back to work as usual, Summer vacation is definately over...

While I'm marking, I'll be doing the necromonicon... :D

What a Weekend!

What a Finale!
Evil Dead the Musical was awesome the final night... They finished the opening song ("Cabin in the Woods", see previous post) and the audience cheered for about 3 minutes. They just stood there frozen on stage waiting for us to stop, and we didn't! Everyone was so great and we loved being there! There was some extra improv, (from the last we saw it anyway) and lots of extra blood (POOLS of it) left on the floor after the show! Only compliant I have is that the "regular" person who played Linda wasn't there and the Understudy was. She did a great job, but after hearing the "regular" singer the first time (and I beleive she's the one on the recording?) the voice just didnt sound right to my ears. (Possibly from listening to the recording 100s of times!) But nonetheless it was a great night!

The 2nd week of school is upon us, and it feels like business as usual. I'm still getting to know names and faces of approx. 90 kids, so it takes a bit of time.

more animals

I LOVE IT

Evil weekend lurks ahead...

Well, day 3 is done and I'm still alive. But exhausted.

After not doing much for the summer, talking for almost 4 hours straight (3x 75 minute periods) you start to get sick of hearing yourself. Plus I have a really hoarse voice, I lose it at night and by the morning its working again, and then by the night, its gone again. Hopefully this doesn't last too long!

I've had a great week, I always like getting to know new faces, and seeing a few old students again in my class this year is always amusing.
I think the kids who had me last year for second semester and who have me now groaned when they saw who their teacher was... By the end of this semester they will have spent a whole 10 months with me. (technically a year with a 2 month break in the middle, but still, its a long time!) Fortunately we get along pretty good so there's no problems. I've been teaching for 3 years, and I've taught one student for all 3 years... his grade 8, 9 and now 10 ... I'm sure hes SICK of me! He thought he was getting rid of me.. imagine his surprise when I show up at the same high school as him! Technically I could end up teaching him in grade 11 and 12 too... Its really neat to see them grow over 3 years and teach them in different subject areas.

For anyone who argues that teachers have it easy and that a 2 month vacation is too much, let me tell you about my first week. This is the quote EASY unquote week of school right? no one does much the first week, right?

Tuesday - up at 6, at school by 745, in class till 2:15, at school until 7 photocopying, staff meeting, arranging rooms, finding more chairs & desks as my enrollment climbs, i think i sat down for maybe 2 hours between 3 and 6, came home for dinner, did planning that night for a couple hours after, in bed around 12.
Wed - up at 630, at school by 730, meet with another teacher and discuss coordinating our classes, classes till 2:15, had a student stay until 3 to discuss course stuff, conference with the department head till 5, hubby picks me up at school and we have dinner out to celebrate his new job, back home and prepping for school for 2 hours at home. In bed around 1130 or 12.
Thurs - up at 7, at school at 8. Teach till 2:15, discuss a course I taught last year with the teacher who is teaching it this year, prep for 3 classes, at 6 go in to photocopy a 10 page double sided activity booklet for 31 kids and realize that the 1 copier is out of toner and wont run, and the other gives an error anytime you try to use the double sided copy function. Spent 20 minutes playing with the copier to no avail. I still need to go in early and hope someone has the time and skill to fix the one thats erroring (yes I make up words) or get Toner from the office (which by the way is locked at 6 at night so I couldn't get that either)... so I go and set up my desk. I finally got prep room space after being at the school for a year. My prep space last year was a pile on the floor next to the filing cabinet. (can you tell the school is crowded?)
Leave school at 6:45, come home and rest a bit, and here I am blogging ...

all that in 3 days... and it doesnt stop there. Once I get ahead on the planning then comes the marking, the report cards, the phone calls to parents, the extra curricular activities... and when I leave at 6 or 7, theres still cars in the lot and people in the school. and I know many teachers who drive an hour to school, so they are up at 5:30 am...

If anyone DARES to tell me that teaching is an easy 8-3 job, I will tell them where to go. (and read my blog!)

Well, with That rant aside, Tomorrow is Friday!!! I have been looking forward to this weekend Since the 26th of July. Why you ask? Well, on the 26th of July, Hubby and I saw Evil Dead the Musical for our anniversary (was a better idea than club supersex ...lol)


And we LOVED Evil Dead. Loved it so much I bought a shirt and a poster. Went home and decided we should have bought the CD so we got it from iTunes. And we both said, "Damn I'd love to see that again!" ...
Then a wonderful opportunity arose and I had the chance to get 4 PRIME SEAT tickets to the Closing night show! Sat Sept 6th...
Hmm Who do I know who would like to see a crazy bloody horror comedy musical with us? Answer was pretty simple ... Melissa's Miscellany!!! So After a bit of logistics involving the transfer of money and tickets, we had 4 tickets!! So I've been waiting since then anxiously to see it again. I hope they do something cool and wild for last night. We are at the edge of the splatter zone (stage blood!!!!) and I Can't wait! I'll hopefully be buying a white t shirt there to wear in hopes of staining it nice and red.

On a side note, a certain couple who are coming with us to this show haven't actually SEEN the original movies... How can you be born in the 80s and not see the Evil Dead movies and Army of Darkness? Some people... So that calls for a movie marathon Friday night and we'll definately have some drinks during that... OH and that reminds me, there is BAR SERVICE throughout the musical. SO you can drink and eat (munchie food) while watching a musical. And the more beer you've had the better the blood looks!

Anyway, in honour of my excitement for the weekend, I found this on youtube. Its the opening of Evil Dead the Musical (from the CD) and someone has wonderfully set it to the SIMS... I think they have way too much time on their hands, but it is VERY well done!


And there it is. It makes me so excited to listen and watch, even if it is computer animations!
Yes, I have listened to the CD countless times (to Hubby's chagrin) and I can sing probably 90% of the songs and I will be singing along (not TOO loudly though) all night. I can't wait!
TGIF Tomorrow. I get to wear Jeans to work AND get a movie marathon... Life is sweet.

Well the first day is over! Overall everything went well...

Within 30 minutes of school starting, I heard through the grapevine that one kid was already in the office and was having his/her cellphone taken away. Cell phones are the worst problem ever in high schools right now (followed closely by the ipod fiasco, but thats another post for another night).

Remember "back in the day" when you left class to go to the bathroom and you would sneak by your friends classroom, wait for the teacher to not look at the door, wave/signal to your friend, and minutes later they would join you in the hall/bathroom for a socializing moment? There was a certain art to that, a certain stealthiness, a risk of getting caught, the thrill of sneaking around, etc.

No more.

Now, students leave their class, go into the hall/bathroom and text their friend. The minute the friend feels that lovely sensation of the vibrating cell phone in their pocket, they immediately leave to go to the bathroom, and voila, no stealthiness, no art, no talent whatsoever involved.

Kids these days are lazy. And uninventive. Proving once more that technology can be a crutch...

Ok so maybe I'm over analyzing the situation, but still, the cell phones constantly on is a pain. If I cant text my friends all day, neither can they. And frankly, if you sat and texted all day at work and never did your job, you wouldn't last long at that job would you? Thats what I thought.

But apparently school isnt supposed to resemble the real world (what is that?) and we should let the kids do whatever they want and assume that magically they will have an epiphony and become perfect, law abiding, dutiful, productive citizens on their own.

Riight.

Another Year, another start... Another blog?

Monday September 1.
Labour Day.
THAT day.
THE day.

The day teachers fear. Yes, the day before school starts again for another year.

Believe it or not teachers get the heebie-geebies the first day... or in my case, bad dreams a week and a half before hand. After talking to many co-workers at my school last week, it turns out lots of us have the "oh my god its the first day of school and i have nothing planned and no books and no binders and the bell just rang and my boss is in the hall giving me the evil eye and i have nothing to teach and the kids are starring at me" dream. True.

So we spend the week before school opens planning and photocopying in some vain attempt to appease the anxiety demon that lurks in all of us. And there's also the lunches out, the beers out, the talking about our summer, welcoming and meeting new staff, seeing friends for the first time in 2 months hugs, all of that good stuff too.

And so, tonight I'm hoping for a couple of good classes, some good students, some funny entertaining students, and some good times.

Tonight I am also re-starting this blog. You see, I started it way back in February, and never really got around to actually blogging. However, 2 of my good friends (Melissa's Miscellany and Daisy's Measuring Cup) have been blogging for some time and I religiously check theirs... And now my hubby started his own blog (DaemonQ's Blog) as well. Seeing as he is spending some time every night blogging, I started getting the writing itch again, so here I am... we'll see how long this lasts!

Tonight I leave you with a fun clip... in honour of all my students and their favorite word...

Update

Update... I have again returned to blogging... sorta...
Heres an update of things I'm doing/thinking.

- 5th wedding anniversary on July 26!
- still random tattoo thoughts, brought on by 2 people drawing on me yesterday...
- camping with friends in August
- Its a summer for Weddings!
- disgust at the fact that kids cant fail, and if they do theres a chance I get in trouble instead of them. (More post on this later)
- Dreaming of seeing Armin Van Buuren in person for a few hours...

And I gotta run... Will post more later!

Good Enough

The idea...

"If music be the food of love, play on..."
- Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night

Occasionally I get inspired to write and then something comes up and it never gets written down. Today I was inspired by a song (Alanis Morrisette, of all people) to record my random thoughts and ponderings on life. I do this under a nickname for many reasons, one of which is my job. It seems the only thing teenagers today know is how to communicate on the internet,: Facebook, MSN, MySpace, Text messages, etc. I suppose at some point I will want to ponder those beings that I spend my day with, and although I wont directly mention any names - ideas, circumstances and (god help me) ... pedagogy may be discussed. Its an endless debate that baffles my brain most days.



How bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out
How bout not equating death with stopping

Thank you India
Thank you providence
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you nothingness
Thank you clarity
Thank you thank you silence
- "Thank U" by Alanis Morissette

It scares me to realize (as I looked up the lyrics just now to copy/paste them) that this song was released 9 years ago in 1999. The Grade 9s I teach would have been 5 at that time. Ouch. I feel old.

Anyway, the verse I quoted struck me today, as not many will unabashedly cry, and although death is often equated with stopping, it really isn't stopping, just another change.

So then my ponderings started going and here I am, finally trying to blog yet again.
And the quote opening this post... one of my favorite plays.
And since music started this... play on.