The Good, The Bad, & The Oh-So-Ugly

I should be grading papers right now. I really should.

What am I doing instead?

Drinking a glass of wine, eating Kit Kats & Reese Cups, rocking in the corner.

Okay, the rocking in the corner part is a lie, but the rest is true. This is what the kids have pushed me to. A day after my resolve to "eat healthy" this is where I find myself.

Let's start with...

The Good


Let me say how proud I am of my little nuggets who have been working their butts off to pull their grades up this 9 weeks. They have been meeting with me one-on-one and making sure they have what they need to do well in my class.


I really feel like I've gotten to really know these kids over the past few months. Some of them are going through things that I can only imagine dealing with while others have really opened up.
I appreciate when they're real with me and the love I can feel.

The Bad


I still have quite a few kids failing my class for the quarter. I've given these kids the opportunity to pull it up with a major project grade this week and some of them still didn't do it. at all. 


Out of 150 students, roughly 15-20 have Fs & maybe 8 have Ds. I know that's a small majority, but it makes me upset to have to fail anyone.


Side Note: Teachers do NOT like to fail you! It disappoints us more than anything...




The Ugly

Discipline. The word itself irks me.

Having been a rather laid back student in terms of rules, I myself would prefer to be lackadaisical and allow them the freedom to be themselves. They're almost adults, and I believe they should act like it.

Take, for example, my food policy. If it doesn't end up on my floor, I don't care what you eat. I also really don't mind talking as long as you don't talk during my lesson, and I don't really give a hoot about the dress code policy. My goal is to educate my students not crack down for a shirt being untucked.

Which brings me to my point, I have written 4 referrals thus far and plan on adding 2 more to that list this afternoon. I absolutely, positively loathe referrals. If I could avoid these irksome pieces of discipline, I would in a heartbeat. Alas, students have pushed my tolerance to its breaking point so it is with regret that I will give them their due repercussions.

My last item of contention is in administrative reviews.

My administrator is a pretty stand-up person overall. What I do not understand, however, is the general disconnect to teachers in regards to appropriate observation times.

Example 1: During FCAT week (NOT appropriate)
Example 2: On the first day of school, during the first hour of your day (NOT appropriate)
Example 3: The last 10 minutes of the last hour of the day (NOT appropriate)
Example 4: Homecoming week (NOT appropriate)
Example 5: The last day of the end of quarter marking period (NOT appropriate)

All of these examples are unfortunately real instances that myself or someone else has experienced this year already.

......

And so we are back at my glass of wine, strewn candy wrappers, and hypothetical rocking in the corner of the room.

Lord give me strength through the rest of this first year of teaching & help me get this pile of papers graded before the due date!

Home Sweet Home

Wow it's weird to be living somewhere new....
& I just realized I haven't shown off the new house since we moved in!

David & I are finally nice and settled into our cozy place. Apparently, living in PSL makes us "Pizzle Rats" according to our friends in the area, but I could care less. With a cheap place to live 10 minutes from the beaches in a gated community nonetheless I'll settle for being considered a "rat"...for now. :)

Here, in pictures, is our place before & after.

Before:

The living room & dining room

Our porch

Another angle of the living/dining room...kitchen kind of in view!

Oh how I'm glad this is over!

Guest room/office

Our room

Pond in the back

After:

Still a little plain, but CLEAN.

Don't mind the random beer!

 & Pay no attention to my dirty dishes.... ;)

That cute little table was a steal for $45. Thanks mom!

Spare room/office

Master bedroom

Right now our house feels like a hodgepodge of things. Most of the furniture is mine, and it seems I had a bit of a thing for black furniture in college. However, now I would really like to lighten up at least the main living areas. The bedroom furniture is only a few years old and won't be changing for quite awhile!

David & I are going for- what else- a beach theme. I've always considered it pretty corny, but I think in the right doses (cute local art vs. terrible hotel style paintings) it will work out.

I also would really like to try to make some of this stuff. We're collecting shells on our bookshelf that we add to every time we go to the beach, but I would like to create something out of or inspired by the local terrain.  Any ideas for cute & fun beach crafts??


Speaking of art, I am SUPER excited for this Wednesday. It's my mom's (& her twin's) 50th birthday!!! To celebrate we're getting all her girlfriends together to paint & drink wine. I have heard amazing things about Painting With A Twist so I can't wait to try them out. Afterwards, we're going out to Cheesecake Factory for some dinner & dessert.

Stay tuned for a full post on my Land O Lakes trip...should be interesting spending 10 days back home!