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...