Homecoming Week....Oh Boy!

What a crazy week.  I have most of my students out of class to work on floats, doors, hallways, the dance, etc.  The few remaining I can't get anything out of.  They had mid-term exams last week, so today, we went over the test and talked about the answers.  I had promised them that if they behaved for the sub, they would have a free day.  That day was today.  Tomorrow, we are having the PLAN test, so all classes are in homeroom until 11:30am, so I will only have one actual class tomorrow.  On Wednesday, I have a Science in Motion teacher coming to do an experiment with the kids, but the kids won't know what it's about because we haven't even started learning about it.  On top of that, this particular lesson will take another week to cover, so I'll end up 3 weeks behind schedule instead of 2.  Welcome to high school!

HudsonAlpha is the Greatest!

Just completed a 2 day workshop with the HudsonAlpha Group.  It was called the GREAT workshop.  Stands for Genetic Resources Empowering Alabama Teachers.  I had not realized that a lot of what I have been teaching was wrong.  I spent two days at Auburn University (which, for an Alabama fan is rough!)  However, the town and university staff were so wonderful.  I have never met a nicer bunch of people.  After two days of intense genetic study, we were given a tub filled with great classroom ideas and a flash drive with all the powerpoint slides and links.  All in all, a wonderful time.

I had to be out for two days, so the deal was that if I don't receive a note about any of the students then tomorrow they can watch "Lie to Me" episodes for the entire class.  (We have mid-term exams today and tomorrow, so I can't really start anything new on a Friday after mid-terms anyway).  Hopefully, all went well and the kids did their work and behaved.  I didn't get a call during the conference, so I'm assuming all was well.  Keep your fingers crossed, just in case.

A crazy 24 hours!

Okay, it all started yesterday.  Car duty was insane, followed by two mice in my room.  Whew!  Went to bed last night around 10:30pm.  Woke up and looked at the clock - 11:57.  I don't usually wake up in the night, so I figured it was one of those times when your immune system is fixing itself.  So, I go back to sleep. I wake up again and look at the clock - 3:10.  I close my eyes and in the back of my mind, I realize that when I looked at the clock, it was daylight.  I open my eyes again and look at the clock again.  3:10 and daylight.  I find my cell phone and check the time - 7:10am.  My atomic battery operated clock is wrong!  So, I jump up, cursing, and throw on clothes and makeup and haul butt to work and got there by 7:23am.  Record time, eh?  I get into my room and since I didn't get breakfast, I tell myself I'll be fine after a cup of coffee.  I go to make coffee and no coffee.  At this point, I'm grabbing my hair and stifling a scream.  Luckily, I found coffee in the library and my students didn't have to suffer.  I saw the same mouse again today after school, at about the same time as yesterday.  I put a new trap down, but he hasn't gotten stuck in it.  A man came into my room with a clipboard.  He told me I had four lights out.  I told him I knew that, seeing as I was in this room everyday.  I told him I also had 3 water leaks, but he said he wasn't fixing anything.  Not sure if he is going to replace the lights or not.  Not really sure why he was in there if they aren't replacing things.  Anyway, actually got out of there at 4pm and tonight I'm setting my phone alarm.  I'm also having my son set his phone alarm...just in case.

Geez! Car pickup is getting dangerous!

Things at school were fine today, considering the kids just got back from a three day weekend and this is a short week.  However, when I went to do my car pickup duty, things were nuts!  I almost got run over by a parent driving about 40 mph in the parking lot!  Then had a lady turn the wrong way down the one way street after I stood in front of her car the motioned for her to go the other way.  A little gray haired lady in a white car passed the bus as it was loading - at the school! And another woman decided to pass all the parents who were picking their kids up and almost hit another parent's car.  I'm gonna buy one of those bright orange vests that hunters wear tomorrow...

At least I'm not the worst teacher there.

I admit that I have my issues as a teacher.  Students complain that my tests are too hard, I go to fast for them and my handwriting is atrocious.  However, today gave me a fresh perspective that made me feel as if I'm doing just fine as a teacher.  During my planning, another teacher used my room to teach a dual-enrollment biology class.  Apparently, her students had done poorly on a diffusion test.  What made me feel so good about that, aside from the fact that her students complained her test was too hard, was the fact that my kids studied diffusion two weeks ago, so my average kids are further along than her college kids.  Another moment happened when another science teacher (the favorite of the administration who will be teaching all the biology next year because he coaches) took his kids to the laboratory today (for the very first time this year) and he was teaching them about the microscope, which puts his kids about 5 weeks behind mine and about 11 labs behind.  Then, I went to the history teacher's room since my room was occupied during planning and laughed until tears flowed as another teacher was telling the history teacher that almost every word she says get tweeted by her students.  She also had a student yesterday tell another student to "shut the F**k up", then had them repeat it today to the same student.  She had two girls start fighting in class and I heard them in the hallway as she was trying to get them to the office.  Then, as a final feather in my cap, as I was going to the bathroom later in the afternoon, I saw a bunch of students outside a room yelling and cutting up. I went into the room to see who was letting students out in the hallway during class and there was no teacher in the room.  I got them seated and quiet, then found out it was microscope guy's class.  Of course, there is bad with every good.  I got so caught up in making out tests for tomorrow that I completely forgot to go to car duty today.  And then, as I was leaving, the administration was looking for a student who didn't get on her bus and had not made it home.  So, I'm feeling guilty about leaving the other teacher to handle all the car riders without me and worried about the 9th grader who didn't get home.  Hopefully, that will have a happy ending.

I forgot the whipping cream!

I completely forgot to buy the heavy whipping cream so the kids could make butter.  What does butter have to do with cellular respiration, you ask?  Nothing really, but they were learning about fermentation, which got us on milk, cheese, cottage cheese and yogurt, which got me talking about making butter from scratch, so then the kids wanted to do it.  I told them if they brought in the supplies, I would do it.  They brought the marbles and someone brought a tiny container of whipping cream.  I told them I would buy the whipping cream this weekend and we would make it on Monday.  Except I forgot about it.  So, today, they were all excited about making butter.  However, after school, I bought two quarts of whipping cream ($11.00!), so tomorrow I will let them make butter.  I'm even going to take some crackers, so they can eat their butter on crackers and enjoy it.  Am I the best teacher or what?