No Childrens Left Buh-hind?

Well, after getting really excited about the chance of using blogs in the classroom, they decided to deny my request to use them, stating that they had "no educational value." I had given them a 5 page proposal citing stats from different states and countries and other information that my librarian friends put together. They still denied it. Furthermore, the school website person says that we don't have the capacity to have any type of discussion board or blog format on the school server, so I'm stuck again. I'm going to try Tapped In, (international teacher discussion forum) though, and see if I can get that one approved, because then I can go through their website (they have a student section). I will triumph!

Missed Opportunity

So we go to Crazy Cajun for some boudin and hurricanes (which kick ass, btw...davenport 2) . The CC is a restaurant, but they have a bar called the Oyster Bar. Anyway, an entire table of Latina collegiates are there, so I try to get Glinda to come (if I had said they were abnormally short, she would've been there in a heartbeat, I promise), but she's too busy eating eggs and pasta. So we're drinking hurricanes and then some concoction by the bartender called Coyote Juice, which is just deadly, and this one girl turns to me, falling off her barstool, and says, "How am I going to get home?" We walked, so I told her that I didn't know, but her friend took her home. ANYWAY, HELLO, GLINDA, ARE YOU HOME????? She wouldn't come out. Free, drunk, relatively short (5'2") Latina girl, and you would rather eat eggs????-not that I advocate taking advantage of drunk girls, but you could've talked to her at least or been her knight in shining armor! (BTW, Glinda, they have a Cheese PoBoy for your veggie pleasure). Gotta go play with my koosh ball again now. Bye.

Motivation?

Yesterday, we teachers got a letter in the mail stating that our "cost of living" raises this year would be cut due to the fact that the legislature couldn't make up their mind about Texas teachers. Of course, the $100 annual raise won't put much of a dent in my wallet, but it's still disheartening in principle. Today, however, the district decided that our motivational speaker would be this assclown. You can look over his credentials and other material and even see video clips, if you wish. From what he says, he's never stepped foot into a classroom as a teacher, but apparently his principles work for everyone. These principles include always "remember the rainbow" which is the positive side of things and to stop watching or listening to the news because all news is negative and "what goes in comes out." Instead, we should listen to "motivational Christian speakers like Chuck Swindoll and James Dobson." Plus, under his guarantee on his website, he promises to never be rude to the audience members. HA! He spent 4 hours berating us as teachers and pointing out people individually if they were late or had to get up. In fact, when the school facility manager came in and brought come chairs for the people in the back, he told the man to pack them up and get out because since they were late, they didn't deserve to sit down. He pointed to some seats right in front of him (mind you, he was not on stage but standing on the front row so the people's faces would end up right in his crotch) and told them that if they needed to sit down so badly, they could sit right there. He also stopped his stupid little anecdotes about his fabulous mansion with a cool gameroom and about his 23 year old sophomore son to scream at a guy who came in late saying that he was welcome to come into the time management seminar. The guy walked right back out. He then continued anecdotes about how he likes to drive up to Whataburger drive thrus and speak in partial sentences just so that he can get the point across that the workers have no annunciation skills and about how he likes to go into the deli at various grocery stores and ask them to cut meat 12 different ways and then claim not to want it just to see if they would become angry or have good customer service. It was like listening to a frat boy give a motivational speech. The worst part, however, was when assclown told us that we (teachers universally) were the biggest "bunch of whiners" and should stop whining about pay raises because we don't "need anymore money. [We] need to stop getting ourselves into debt." He said that we wouldn't need to cry about pay raises if we would stop buying our $35,000 SUVs and that if we were so concerned about our money, we need to get out of the job. "PISD would be happy to see you go," he said. I listened to about 5 more mintues of his disgust with negative teachers who are perfectionistic and obsessed with money and the "destination disease" which is constantly looking toward the future instead of living in the moment. Finally, I got up, waded through the seats and walked right out the door. I wasn't about to listen to anymore. Only three other people went with me. He then said that negative people like to flock together and asked everyone else who were "postive people and liked the things they were hearing to please raise [their] hands and say,'OUTSTANDING.'" The four of us were amazed at the unbelievable positive roar we heard as we walked to our 10 year old cars.

Epitaph

Zardoz was wrong. The Davenport is Evil.

Amnesia

Ok, the lowdown on this place I've been teaching during the summer. First of all, they only have 3 employees. That said, they can never remember my name. Everytime they see me, they call me Elizabeth. I gave up correcting them. Secondly, they can't ever remember when they need me to come in for work. For example, the week of 4th of July, they asked me to come in (even though the school was closed) to do some admin work for them. I show up, and they look at me like I'm from Mars and say, "Elizabeth, what are you doing here? We're off this week silly girl!" Another example: Last Monday, I told them that it was the last day I could work for them since I started inservice at my "real" job on Tuesday. They did their sob story about how Elizabeth would be leaving them and said thank you, etc. This morning, though, they call me at 7am and ask me why I'm not there--well, they asked my answering machine anyway. They left this message about how they really needed me to come in...blahblah...in a bind...blah blah....should let them know...blahblah...whatever. I would think it was I who had a problem with amnesia, but they've done other things. Final example: everyday they go get lunch for people. They come in and ask everyone what they want and write down what they ordered/collect money, etc. Everytime I stay long enough to have lunch, they come in and ask me what I want. I tell them and give them money, and I freakin watch them write it down. 45 minutes goes by, and I wonder what in the hell happened. I go into the lunchroom, and they are all eating and look at me and say, "Hey, Elizabeth. Did you bring your lunch today?" I say, "NO, you took my order," and they look at me with this doe-eyed stare as if they truly don't remember that they took my name or money. One time I looked at the sheet and they had written my order but no name and gave it to someone else. Another 2 times, they had written my name by my order but came back sans order. I finally told them to forget it and began skipping lunch. Unbelievable.