I Love My Job

So Much Crazy Stuff Happened

2008-10-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I can't talk about all of them, because that would violate privacy laws. But I will tell you the ones I can talk about.

So we had our first lockdown drill today. My Homeroom did not take it seriously at all, but then again when have students ever taken an emergency drill seriously, I know I never did. It's just hard to be the one in the room that's not laughing when we're pretending that there is a crazy person (or what have you) outside the classroom. All that stuff about setting a good example.

I'm super excited to be hosting the sabotuer this saturday, it's going to be so much fun. Even the planning has been crazy fun. Of course I'm the kind of person that loves planning and organizing, and since I'm one of the people in charge I don't have to make sure that everyone is willing and happy with what we're doing. That's really the reason why it seems like I'm an indecisive person, I'm a pleaser.

You've probably already heard that I went to Castle of Choas this week. I really enjoyed it, although from what the people I went with said I can understand why they were disappointed. Since it was my first time, however, I didn't have any preconceived expectations, therefore I had a great time.

Fall break is next week Thursday and Friday. I have no plans so if anybody wants to do anything at all I am up for it. Anything, going out to lunch, watching a movie, driving off a cliff, ANYTHING. I'll be sure to bring a helmit. It will be nice to have the break, that's one of the cool things about my job, I get every state and national holiday off, refer to the title of this blog.

No, I'm Not Tired (he said tiredly)

2008-09-28T21:39:00.000-07:00

The Seminar at the dojo, which I'm sure you've heard about from other people (I'm too tired to write all about it), was pretty much exactly what I expected. It was hard. But, I did it, I made it all the way through the main classes, and I was so tired at the end of it (I think of words to say besides tired, but I'm too tired, I didn't even think of the word synonym a few seconds ago). The best news of the evening was that next saturday is a swords seminar, and I'm not in swords so I don't have to go. I'm glad I made it though, and I found out that I really need to do more strength training, because my body is so not used to it. Hopefully I'll be fine by tomorrow for school.

Oh, and before I forget, I went on the field trip, my homeroom is seventh grade. Refer to the title of this blog.

Even though there is school tommorrow...

2008-09-24T20:07:00.001-07:00

There are basically no classes. That's right it's parent teacher conferences so that means a very short half-day, on top of that there's a seventh grade activity and eighth grade test for the entire shortened day. But which will I be attending/administering. Well if you've been paying attention you should be able to figure it out (here's a hint it's based on our homeroom class). A million points for the first person to answer without asking me. Refer to the title of this blog (i'm trying it out earlier this time).

I went to a sweet/sour party yesterday, it was so cool, for pictures and stuff go to K La's blog (which once again is accessed though Clarissa's blog, I should have links... I'll do it later). The only problem was that I really love sour and it was sad to eat my favorite candies with the bite. The orange juice was amazing though.

I just finished watching Project Runway and I have to blog about it for just one second so here goes. Kenley is such a fool, she knows absolutely nothing about hip-hop, what was she thinking telling everyone that her outfit was totally hip-hop, even I knew that that outfit had no place in the rap scene and I hate rap (granted I do have a brother that listens to it all the time, so my knowledge of it is probably much greater than the readers of this blog, prove me wrong). The one good thing that came from Kenley designing a hip-hop outfit for Leann was that we got to see the two whitest girls in America try to act black. Badly i might add. But you already guessed that.

Alright, got that out of my system. One of my mexican cousins moved to London with her husband, and all I can think of is "She's going to roger the gogglely." On a side note my parents signed up to be a friend family for new BYU freshmen from other contries, we we're expecting them to be from a latin-american country, but we got a letter the other day about them. They're from the UK, I'm really excited, however my mom is not. In the past when we've watched movies or seen anything with british accents my mom has told us that she didn't understand a word. She speaks english very well, but she can't do accents. It's going to be great.

Since I already typed my phrase earlier in this post I won't repeat it down here. But I can tell you now that I will never do that again, this post just doesn't feel complete without it... Refer to earlier in this post when I told you to refer to someplace else.

Results

2008-09-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

We played the saboteur on wednesday evening, and unfortunately I lost. Someone else who reads this blog won instead. The one thing that I can say was awesome was that I got so many other people to use my strategy of focusing on one person (which for me was Shanna by the way). Deny it all you want readers you know you stole it from me.

Here's some shocking news, appearantly I'm most closely alligned with the the Green Party. I share a 90% similarity with their candidate, Cynthia Mckinney, on the issues. I can honestly say that I had no idea who she was before, but since I took a quiz (I'm not sure of the site this instant, look on Cavan's blog (and to look on his blog you'll have to see Clarissa's (woah, did you see that, a triple parenthesis) blog) to find out) I might seriously look into her and maybe even vote for her.

I also helped make a movie this week, The Honor Code Avenger: The Recyklor, look for it in a theater near you sometime in the future ( the very distant future). I love making movies so much, I'm just so surprised we haven't been kicked out of BYU for doing such crazy things on campus, nothing against the honor code of course.

This week while teaching (look I actually talked about it last in the post, maybe there is hope for me writing about things besides teaching after all) I found out that Boy's P.E. has a wrestling unit in it, and when I told everyone else no one found it strange. I guess it's because at my middle school we only played basketball, football, and soccer. I never had any experience in non-mainstream sports, and I hated it. Maybe that's why I've never really gotten into sports (let's face it I'm not a mainstream kind of person), don't get me wrong I'm not blaming my lack of expertise in sports on middle school, but it would have been nice to at least do some kind of sport. Anyways, they won't be starting the unit until november, but the wrestling coach from the High School came by this week to introduce it for two reasons, first since the season is going on in november and he would be very busy at that time, and second because the junior wrestling club will be starting either next week or the week after that.

This is turning into a really long post, so I'll leave you with my famous parting words; refer to the title of this blog.

The School Resource Officer...

2008-09-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

Is like the nicest guy on the planet. I was talking to him the other day in the teacher's lounge. He even speaks spanish, he went on his mission to... somewhere (I can't for the life of me remember right now but it was south america), I was a little surprised at first (he's very tall and very white, but he has a perfect accent). Anyways, the main reason I think he's nice is that he always helps us (the special ed department) out. Now if you know me (or even if you've just seen me) you know that I'm not a very strong person, but I am the only guy in the department. The Officer has helped us out on so many occasions, with it's moving very large equipment, or helping to calm down a student that has gotten a little out of control he always comes to lend us a hand. I hope he knows how much we appreciate him. Refer to the title of this blog.

On another topic, I am excited for The Sabotuer 2. In case you didn't know I am the reigning Champion, I just have to choose one person to focus on and hope I get lucky again. Oh and if you're one of the other players, then don't read the sentence that I just wrote, that's my secret winning strategy! Nobody steal it please.

Congradulations to Teresa and Steve, they had their baby on Thursday evening. And also to me, Payday is today!

We finally have a fifth Para!

2008-09-08T21:52:00.000-07:00

We have been needing one for so long (well since school started anyway), it's been a little difficult to adjust from last year when we had seven. Last week was the hardest, two people had to take time off, they had arranged it before hand so there was no problem with getting subs, and the subs themselves were amazing, unfortunately there are certain parts of our job like feeding that can't be done by anyone else. So me and the other sub had to switch our schedules around and totally confuse the subs about were to go, but the fifth para came to the rescue, she did need a little training, but I am so glad she is here. And now thankfully all the paras are back.

Tomorrow will be a little weird. Two of the new teachers and one of the paras will be gone for a training meeting at the district. We'll have it totally under control though. Actually one of the new teachers told me I can't be sick ever or else he wouldn't know what was going on. We're using programs that I've had experience with from last year and he kind of put me in charge of it, which is awesome. Refer to the title of this blog.

People also want me to start talking about stuff other than my job in this blog, so I guess I'll start doing that a little.

I need to go shopping, not for anything in particular, I just need to. Shopping for clothes has lost some of its flair for me since I only really get to wear whatever I want on saturdays, so I have no clue what I want. If anyone has any ideas about what I want please tell me.

Running is hard, but I'm really starting to love it. I guess I did get some of my parents running genes. I can go for miles and miles as long as I have some music, frankly without music I have no motivation. Kind of weird I know.

There that's enough branching out for tonight.

Second Week Crazier than the First

2008-08-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

If that even makes sense.

I don't know how, but for some reason all of the new assembles and firedrills and anouncements that should have been made last week were done this week. Just when we were actually starting to teach. And the worst part was that the DRP was this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Thank goodness all my literacy classes are double in length or we would not have had time to finish it (there are still a few who were absent that haven't even started yet). We also had our very first visit from the officer when a student started throwing things around the room.

Today, during seventh period, was also our very first firedrill, and let me tell you I was running around the school for most of it. I had to help students out, help students back in, help them out again to get on the bus, help students in to get their backpacks, and help them out one last time, oh and I almost forgot that I had to go back in to sign my time card. I did find out right then that I got about a one dollar raise, so all and all today was great, refer to the title of this blog.

The New Dress Standard

2008-08-20T22:44:00.000-07:00

I guess I should explain the dress code since I mentioned it in the last post. I thought it was big news in Provo when they announced it last year, but I guess it was only a big deal to the teachers and students.

First off let me say that it's not a uniform, we haven't become a private school, or a foreign school. Basically the administration is just requiring that all students wear collared shirts and nice Bottoms. The only requirements are that the shirt not ahve any writing on it, the pants (which can be jeans) have no holes and aren't to baggy, shorts and skirts are not to short, and that flip-flops may not be worn. As staff the only extra thing that we have to follow is no jeans except on Fridays.

The no jeans part is kind of a bummer since I love jeans, but that's okay. As I've been walking around the school during the week it just seems like a nicer place to be. I thought that there would be a lot of resistance from the students, but there has been almost none so far. All and all it makes my workplace more pleasant, refer to the title of this blog.

Back In Session

2008-08-18T22:24:00.000-07:00

School started up today. It rocked, the seventh graders are so nice (it was just them today), I hope they stay that way for the rest of the year. Tomorrow the eighth graders will be back, I'm semi-excited, it will be cool to see them after the break, I just hope some of them have calmed down a little from last year.

Work is very different this year. Whereas I used to be a math teacher, I am now a literacy teacher, I guess they finally decided that my habbit of correcting other people's grammer (If you find a grammer mistake that I've made in this post, then screw you) meant that I should be an English teacher now, so I no longer have any math classes. Academic Achievement is also no more, the administration eliminated all term classes so many classes have been either cut or extended to full semester classes.

Anyways, it's getting late so I've got to go to bed, refer to the title of this blog.

Oh, and the new dress code is actually kind of nice.

Sorry I Haven't Posted in a While

2008-06-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

Right after spring break we started doing state testing, which is probably the worst part of my job, don't get me wrong I still love teaching, I could just do without the state testing.

After that there really wasn't much to write about, we finished out the year, there will be students that I miss and students that I'll see next fall, we had end of the year activities that were fun, but for most of them I had to stay behind to clean the room and prepare for next year. School ended and I was sad, because once again I had nothing to do during the day, just like during spring break. I'm mainly doing temp jobs right now to earn money during the summer and they are so boring, but that's okay it's just for the summer. Unfortunately my afternoons are really boring too, I don't really do much besides karate two times a week and D and D one night after that. This makes for kind of a crappy summer. I decided to take spring and summer off from BYU, but I guess that was kind of a mistake, I really wish that I had signed up for anything so that I would have something to do. I guess I should stop writing such depressing things, I'm not really that sad, I'm just bored.

On a lighter topic, one of my favorite games, Persona 3, will soon have it's next game come out, Persona 4. (I try for so long to get that sentence to sound right, and it still failed so let me try again) Persona 4 is going to come out soon in Japan. I really want to get it but it's bound to be really hard to understand. Oh well, it will probably give me grat practice, so I think I will get it online so I can play it in japanese.

Oh and before it suddenly becomes not my birthday, I guess I should tell you that today is my birthday. That's kind of been a running theme today. Anyways, once school starts up again I will tell you to refer to the title of this blog, but you don't have to right now.

Spring Break...

2008-04-20T16:41:00.000-07:00

was so boring. Not that I did nothing all week, just that during the day when everyone else had class or work I was at home doing nothing. I knew it was going to be boring too, in the teachers lounge the day before spring break all the older teachers were saying how most of their friends are teachers because they are the only other people, besides students, who have the same schedule. I did get to study for finals, but I can only take so much studying before the descent into madness kicks in. On the bright side I am now half way done with finals. And since there are no more BYU classes I get to drive the car to work (previously I had been dropped off and picked up by my brother everyday, which usually resulted in standing in the freezing cold for about 15 minutes after school).

So sorry for the short post, but let me say again that my spring break was unbearably boring. I am very excited about going to work tomorrow. Refer to the title of this blog.

Decades Week

2008-04-12T17:23:00.000-07:00

This week was really busy for me for some reason, and I guess that reason is the fact that the semester is almost over so all of my college classes have a lot due. That's why I've been lacking in posts.

Everyday this week at work was a different decade, and even though none of my students dress up I still love to dress up for all the crazy dress days. Monday was 50's day, so, of course, I had on a leather jacket and a white t-shirt, none of my students wore anything, but I did see all of student government dressed up. This was not too crazy so I didn't get stange looks from my students for it, but I assure you it was the only day when no student called my weird. Tuesday was 60's day, unfortunately I have almost nothing even resembling anything from that decade, my cousin came to the rescue and lent me a tyedye shirt, once again none of my students wore anything but there were quite a few students dressed up since they had been reminded the day before about it. Wednesday was 70's day, a pair of white bellbottoms (or as close to bellbottoms as DI had in my size) and a sparkly shirt made my outfit, and, surprise, none of my students dressed up, in fact only three teachers dressed up for it; me, one of the science teachers, and the student government advisor (not even student government dressed up for this day). Thursday was, you guessed it, 80's day, my favorite day. I had a headband and crazy workout clothes, it was so much fun, and a lot of students looked equally as good (read bad), none of mine of course but I was used to that by now. And finally 90's day, this was the hardest day for me to figure out what to wear, I ended up just watching Fresh Prince and then looking for similar stuff at DI, appearantly hot colors were in style even though I never noticed it here in Utah, maybe I get invited to all the wrong parties. I would say that in a miracle some of my students dressed up, but that would be a lie. All and all it was such a fun week. Refer to the title of this blog. Oh and go buy some vintage clothes, they are so fun to wear, and you will look awesome.

Very Tired

2008-04-04T23:19:00.000-07:00

After the great monday that I had the rest of the week was pretty mundane. Not much to report, my third period is getting a little wild and are falling behind because of it, but nothing to bad. I am glad that it's the weekend though, I haven't been getting very good sleep this week so I need a long sleep in day. One of the teachers that I eat lunch with is getting married, so there was a shower for her after school, I didn't attend, seeing as I'm male, but I saw the media center where it was going to be and it was decorated amazingly. The classy class (etiquette class) teacher planned it so it was expected to be very proper.

I am going to be testing next week in karate, so that's exciting, and a little nerve-wracking too. Hopefully I'll have all my forms down, thankfully I've been taught by four different people, who eached noticed different things about my technique and helped me out. The japan festival (nihon matsuri) is also coming up and I'm going to be volunteering at it. I can't wait for it, the first one I had to miss because I was leaving for japan on that very day, ironic I know. and the second one I wasn't able to attend.

Anyways I have to go watch TV or something to stay awake so I can go pick my brother up in a few hours, it's his shift at the hospital tonight. Refer to the title of my blog.

Awesomest Seventh Period Ever!

2008-03-31T20:21:00.000-07:00

So I had to leave a little earlier this morning then normal because of the snow. I made it fine, but I had heard that about twelve teachers were delayed. In fact the science class that I help out in first period had no teacher, she was in an accident on the freeway, I heard that she was okay but that she couldn't come at all today. I just had the students watch a movie, I would have done something else but I'm not really in on the planning of that class. All the rest of my classes were pretty mundane, except for seventh period (that's what this whole post is about anyway). The principal came in during seventh to observe the lesson, and it went really well, all the students were focused, they participated in the discussion, and everyone got their assignment done. It ROCKED! After class the principal told me that I did a great job, and that she could tell that I really knew what I was doing. I was ecstatic as I left the school, I finally got feedback about my teaching from higher ups and it was amazing. Refer to the title of this blog. Many times.

The End of The Crazy Week

2008-03-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

On Thursday all of the 8th graders had an activity, they went roller skating or something I don't really remember. Because of this my classes were at half capacity. This also happened to be the day that the main district special ed coordinato showed up unannounced, and with the classes only half as large as usual the kids were amazingly good, I got through all of my lesson plans with no crazy outbursts. It was awesome!

Later that day at the Dojo, we were practicing basics and then Sensei watched people do their test forms. I practiced my first two forms and unfortunately tore open the blister that I had developed on Tuesday. Thankfully my brother had already cut it open from the side to drain the fliud, but I still wasn't supposed to open it all the way up. Oh well I guess.

Friday was a bit of a strange day as well, all the students were there, but we had to start testing all the special ed students. It's uaually done at the end of the year, but since we only have a few teachers testing and quite a few students we had to start now so we could finish, since they all have to be tested one at a time. So I had a sub and was in and out of class all day. I'm told that the students have been improving since the start of the year at these tests, I came iin halfway through so this is the first time I've done these tests. I started a few students on their tests and I almost got one finished, so hopefully next friday I'll have some students done. Hopefully next week will be more normal. Refer to the title of this blog.

Career Day

2008-03-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

...was yesterday, but I was too tired to post about it, so here we go today.

It started out with a fifty minute homeroom to give the presenters time to prepare in the classrooms that they would be in. Unfortunately, there was no presenter assigned to my room. This meant that I had fifty minutes of students asking me why we were in homeroom for so long, I wondered that myself actually. When the day finally got going it got better, I was assigned to help out in the room where the police officer was, which rock. Mainly because our school resource officer was the presenter, and since he's "big and scary" all the kids were quietly listening to him. He was also a really good presenter, he told cool stories about his job, he should the kids his tazer and explained how it worked, and he reacted to the kid's questions rather than just having a set speech so I never heard the same story more than twice. We had five rotations of Career Day, and then surprize, another forty minutes of homeroom. The second session of it was not nearly as bad though, the students were writing thank you cards to their favorite presenters. We got out at about noon so I had a nice bit of relaxation time afterwards before I had to do anything productive again.

After that I went to the dojo, and practiced the first two forms untill I got blisters on my feet. But that was okay, it was kind of fun to work out like that, it was a little repetitive though, oh well.

Today was a normal day at school, the last one we're going to have this week, but more on that in another post. My academic achievement classes have been made much smaller this term with so many students now passing their classes, which is good and bad. Good becuase we now have a much more manageable class and can help students on a more one on one basis. But bad becuase the students who left might have their grades fall again, and I miss some of them. Math is still the same, although we did move some students into different groups based on progress.

Nothing left to say today but, refer to the title of this blog.

My Students Rock

2008-03-24T22:37:00.000-07:00

With today being the first day of the term I had my academic achievement students check their grades online. I told them that this weren't their official grades, but they were a good estimate, and really they only could have gone up from what was posted. The coolest part though, was that about 80% of my students were passing all of their classes which is a huge improvement from how they were doing at the middle of the term. A lot of them were really happy, one said that this was the first term that he had ever passed all of his classes, and another had gone from failing five classes to passing them. I was so proud of my students today, even those that were not passing all of their classes had still made big improvements.

So pretty short post today, tomorrow is Career Day and a half day so I'll have much better stories. But in my mind today was so cool. Refer to the title of this blog.

Phones

2008-03-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

So I got a new one today. And I'm on a new plan with a new provider (Tmobile) since I'm probably going to be moving out soon and I wanted to get used to paying more bills.

The most exciting part is that I got the coolest phone, it's just like someone else's new phone but it's black. It has the ability to play MP3s which is great because my iPod died quite a while ago and I've been missing music. So I guess that's pretty big news.

Saturdays are my most fun day of the week to be honest. I get to hang out with friends playing D and D, video games, and other fun things. Also it's really nice to have some break time from work, just so I don't burn out from a lack of fun. Not much else to report today, although I did wake up at noon, not that I'm lazy, it's just that I had to stay up untill three this morning so I could pick my brother up from the hospital. He volunteers there on fridays during the graveyard shift in the ER. Driving at that time can be either cool or horribly frustrating, at least in my case. Sometimes all the lights turn green for you so you never have to stop and you make excellent time. But other times my Red Light Curse kicks in and I have to wait at intersections for what seems like an eternity when no one else passes through it. My brother says he just passes through those lights, but if you know me you know that I feel uncomfortable breaking any rules.

Tomorrow is Easter, but it will be a very sad Easter for my family. Our rabbit, Sammy Davis Jr. Jr., died a little earlier in the week for reasons unknown. The saddest part is that on that very day I metioned that we should buy something nice for him just as a joke. We buried him in our side yard. Ther was a touching wake for him.

On another subject, this monday is the first day of the forth term, but since it's right after Easter many of the teachers said they were going to take it off to spend time with their families. We will probably have a lot of subs, so it could turn out to be a very interesting first day. It all depends on what kind of subs we get. But, really, that's what makes my job so much fun. Refer to the title of this blog.

Finally

2008-03-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

So I guess it's a little weird to be starting my very first post with the word finally, unless this is sometime in the future when I have tons of posts and for some reason you're reading them backwards chronologically.

Anyways, I decided to start a blog so late in the game mainly because I'm not a very internet literate person, having had it for less then a year currently. Also becuase I lead a very dull life, don't get me wrong it is thrilling to me but I'm not sure everyone would be so enthusiastic about it. So here we go.

I never really read young adult books, aside from Harry Potter but I'm not sure if that falls into the "young adult" genre anymore (maybe it did at one time, but not now), I went straight from The Bailey School Kids to The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But ever since I started teaching middle school I've been reading them during homeroom since there are never any other books around, and I always forget to bring one. I guess all the movies out now that are based on those books are another contributing factor. My main reason for bringing this up is because today was the last day of the term and we had a free day in all of my math classes, so we decided to watch a movie. Now if you talked to me while I was a sub you know that I hated watching movies, the first period would be okay, the second was boring, and the last period was brain-melting. Of course this was because of the choice of movie (The Little Rascals is NOT funny!!!) but since I'm one of the teachers I have a little bit of say in this matter. After having it cleared with the lead coordinator we got to watch A Series of Unfortunate Events, and let me tell you I laughed even on the fifth time of the first 45 minutes of that movie. So basically, I had a great day today. Refer to the title of this blog.

P.S. Violet is Hot!