Parent meeting cancelled

After school, I was supposed to meet with a parent because my student flipped his chair over and got embarrassed.  Not sure why I was meeting with the parent.  It's not like there was anything I could do to stop his embarrassment.  Anyway, it was cancelled.  The only thing that irks me a little is that nobody told me the meeting was cancelled until I had locked up my room and walked the length of the school to get to the conference and nobody was there.  Then had to walk to the office and find the AP, who then told me it had been cancelled.  Great.  My feet were killing me and it was cancelled.  Oh well.  The good news is that I got out of there by 5 pm.  So far, this week hasn't been half bad.  Let's hope my optimism continues. LOL

Trouble with the 9th graders already!

I have a parent meeting tomorrow after school.  Three days into the new year and already have a parent meeting.  Geez.  Had a student flip his chair over yesterday (very loudly).  He didn't get up, so I went over and asked if he was alright.  He said he was fine.  I told him to get up and he said he would just lay there.  I asked him if he was really alright.  He said yes, he was fine.  I told him he had to get up. (He was lying spread eagle behind three other students sitting in office chairs on wheels.  His fingertips just inches from their wheels.  He finally sat up, but didn't get off the floor.  Realizing that this class was too big to risk a lot of our fun experiments on due to safety, I told them that right now they have a yellow flag.  That if they walk into class one day and there are books on the desks, I didn't want to hear a bunch of whining and complaining, because I had to consider everyone's safety.  Apparently, this embarrassed the student and his mom needs to discuss it.  Wow.  Really?  Of course it embarrassed the student.  The fall was so loud it scared the entire classroom.  Everyone stared at him and some giggled nervously.  Oh well. Another year.  On the good side, he was an angel today. Tomorrow, we break out the microscopes and they will look at cork and thread under them.  So, here's to hoping nothing gets broken and no one gets hurt tomorrow. Say a prayer.

Well, everyone survived the first day! Hurrah!!

I always love the first day of school.  I got everything prepared.  Arrived at school by 7 am and situated everything.  The "magic" worked wonderfully!  Students were amazed and a little nervous.  I think the long black skirt, fuzzy hair and black granny boots threw them off a bit.  I even had one student tell me as she walked into class that she was changing her schedule to take chemistry, but by the end of class, she said she decided to stay.  How's that for a great first day?  The magic potion grabbed their interest, but I think it was when I stuck my hand in the crystal clear water and pulled out a ball and a cube that they got a little freaked.  (In a good way).  I didn't get a chance to do it with my first block class because the class was only about 5 minutes long, due to a really long homeroom time. Anyway, I'll try to get some pics of the balls tomorrow if I remember.  I don't have a planning period, so that will be tricky.  And I already know which class will be my challenge.  But the other classes are shockingly fantastic.  Even the challenge class was pretty good.  I can just tell that I'll be moving some girls around and I can sense the drama to come.  Kind of like, if we are in a lockdown I don't want it to be with that group or we're all dead kind of feeling.

The "magic" is ready!

Well, I conjured up some magic potion for tomorrow and took it to school (I'm always scared that I'll forget it on Monday).  Spent an hour or two setting everything up and entertaining the kids of a colleague who was also there preparing.  I really hope that I can hook the kiddies this year.  Plan on wearing my "witch" outfit.  Long black skirt, black clodhopper granny boots and dark lipstick and heavy eyeliner.  I have almost 200 kids this year, so I'm praying that I can handle them with grace and temperance.  (and if not, maybe a bullwhip!)  I have an activity for each day this week, but they are getting laptops this year and I'm a little worried that I will get in trouble if they aren't working on them.  I'm going to make them hand write their notes because it creates a stronger neural connection when they see, hear and take action, as opposed to having one kid type all the notes and forward them to everyone else, which is what I suspect they will do if allowed to use the computer.  I am looking at some software that I can use to get them using their cell phones, which I think will be fun for them.  Still have to figure out a way to get their laptops involved.  So, tomorrow's the first day of school - officially.  I noticed on our calendar that there are four days this year where the kids get out at 1:30pm.  When someone asked our principal what that was about, he didn't know.  Oh well, I'm thinking they are doing that instead of letting them out of school for inservices, but I don't know who knows for sure why they put that in the calendar. I know it's going to be a rough one because I don't have any planning this year and I have about three classes that are overcrowded.  We lost two science teachers at the end of the year and could only afford to hire one person to replace them, so we are seriously overworked.  But, with this economy, I'm just grateful to be working at something I love to do, so I'll take whatever they give me!  Here's to a great school year!

My tablet's been fixed....I hope

I'm about to go pick up my tablet for school.  I hope it is fixed and I don't have any more trouble out of it.  I wanted to just buy an Ipad mini, but will wait and see if the Lenovo works this time.  Today is the last day for sleeping in.  Will have to start getting up at 5 am tomorrow.  Well, lots to do today, so I'll give an update on the tablet tomorrow hopefully.

Specimens are ordered!

Well, I got the specimens ordered yesterday for this year.  It costs over $2,800.00 for worms, frogs, owl pellets, brains, cow eyes, sheep hearts and pigs.  I also ordered lumbriculus this year just so we will have something live to work with.  I think the next time a student or parent complains about the $20 lab fee I'll just show them the invoice for this.  It doesn't include the physical science stuff I ordered, or the "magic" and measurement experiment we'll be doing this year.  But, at least everything's ordered.  I'm also crash dieting to lose 30 pounds before the kids return in a couple of weeks.  I know you're thinking it is impossible and I agree.  But if I can just lose about 15 pounds, that would be really great.  And I think I can do it.  I'm low carbing and exercising every day. I'm going to buy a couple of outfits once we get a little closer to school starting.  Actually, I'll shop at the end of the month. The last weekend of the month is when Dillard's has their additional 30% off. My first day of school clodhopper, Army, kickbutt, super cool granny boots have been resoled and I am ready for the first week of school!  Well, almost.  I accidentally deleted my Powerpoint on scientific method and measurement, so I have to redo that today.  And I haven't made out their tests, but other than that, I'm ready. Still working on my filing system, but it's coming along nicely.  Things are always exciting as we get closer to school starting.  I turned in my professional development papers yesterday.  We have to have up to 30 hours of professional development time.  I have 124.8 hours, so I'm good.  Well, that's the update.  Today's goal is to clean off all the desks (especially mine!) and get my Powerpoint redone.  Will also try to go through some files and put them in their correct week in my new filing system.  Wish me luck!