The Countdown is On!

My stress list is dwindling. I had my meeting with my principal and she forgot to even grade my grade book. She, however, didn't forget that she still needed to observe me one more time. Blah, blah, blah. On the bright side, grades are done, report cards finished, parent conferences were fine, and I finished my graduate paper a day early. I only have to finish typing a test for my students to take on Tuesday, and I plan on doing that in the morning before school.

Life is less stressful again.... however, then some smartass at school mentions that there are only 16 school days until the state testing begins and writing portfolios are due.

I really think that with teaching, if its not one thing to be stressed about, it would be something else. I admit I do work well under stress. However, I prefer to have stress in small increments with time for my body to relax in between. This is not the job for that. They* just keep piling it on and on and on.

*They- in this case means my principal, the board of ed., the state department of ed., and all the way to the top with the fuck in the big white house on Pennsylvania Ave.
Poop on all of the them!

My list

I decided I had to pick my top ten movies. However, I was so attached that I couldn't make a final decision. Also, I couldn't make a decision for an exact order, so there are some ties. But, hey, it's my list, if you don't like it, go someplace else. :)

Starting from the bottom...

15. The Girl Next Door- I love the premise, and I've always been a fan of high school movies.

14. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- This is a great remake of the book.

13. The Little Mermaid- Favorite cartoon of all time.

12. 28 Days Later- Awesome acting, awesome zombies.

11. Resident Evil- Again awesome zombies, and I love it when the girls are the ones kicking butt.

10. Batman Begins- I do believe this is the best of the Batman movies.

9. Van Wilder- Great example of a college movie and fucking hilarious.

8. Frida- one word- beautiful

Tied for #7
7. The Usual Suspects- Keyser Soze rocks!
7. X-Men- Made me fall in love with comic book movies.

6. Rent- I wish all movies made me want to sing like this one.

5. Chasing Amy- Kevin Smith's greatest.

4. You've Got Mail- Gotta love Meg Ryan...it's the chick in me.

3. Keeping the Faith- Edward Norton rocks with his acting and directing.

2. High Fidelity- Great music, great story, great script.

And tied for #1
1. Braveheart- I love epic movies and James Horner rocks the soundtrack.
1. V for Vendetta- After many years, this movie actually competed for my #1 spot. Awesome story and great fighting scenes.

The to do list

Stress level is high yet again. Blood pressure is following suit.

To do list:
1. Finish averaging grades
2. Fill in report cards
3. Prepare for district walk-through
4. Prepare for grading of grade book
5. Write Science unit test
6. Complete graduate class paper
7. Prepare for parent-teacher conferences
8. Get substitute for a training on Wednesday
9. Call doctor to get a physical because blood pressure was too high

And these are all things are not part of the usually weekly list like completing lesson plans, detention duty, conferencing on portfolios, and creating PowerPoint presentations.

Which Serenity character are you?

I like that I got Zoe, and Dustin got her husband, Wash...Perfect fit (for all of us.)
Your results:
You are Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)
Dependable and trustworthy.
You love your significant other and
you are a tough cookie when in a conflict.

Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 75% Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 75% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 75% Wash (Ship Pilot) 60% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 55% Inara Serra (Companion) 45% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 35% River (Stowaway) 35% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 20% Alliance 20% A Reaver (Cannibal) 0%

Click here to take the "Which Serenity character are you?" quiz...

Weekly Review

The week began with the news that Kelly, my sister-in-law, had to have emergency eye surgery. Luckily everything went great, and Kelly and the baby are doing great. Her eye is swollen, but it is not bruised. My mom and step-dad came into town, and it was nice having dinner together a couple times this week.

School went by quickly. I figure everyday before state testing and the portfolios due date are going to speed by. I wish I had more time to teach everything I needed to. My grade book is due to my principal on Tuesday to be graded. Pretty ironic to grade a grade book. My report cards and parent/teacher conferences are on Thursday. Unfortunately, I have a huge stack of papers to grade before those due dates. I hate that my days off are going to used for work.

This week has been spring break at EKU. It has been nice to not have any homework. Next week I have a big assignment due as well. I hope I can get everything done.

Tomorrow we are headed to Louisville to see The Blue Man Group. I am very excited!

Keep my family in your thoughts.

Please keep my sister-in-law, brother, and their child in your thoughts tomorrow. She is having emergency eye surgery. They are trying to keep the retinal for disconnecting from the eye. It is a complicated because as many of you know she is six months pregnant. They will have to put her under for a couple of hours, but luckily she will be able to go home that day. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Family-filled weekend

Quick run down of this past weekend's events:

Friday:
River Dance with Dustin. It was a great show! Awesome dancers from all over the world.

Saturday:
Joint 75th b-day parties for my grandparents. It was great. Yummy food provided by mom. Lots of desserts.

Sunday:
Lunch with my dad, step-mom and sisters. My sisters are growing up to fast. The oldest is in the height of her middle school years at the age of 12. I believe she is now taller than me and brilliant in school. The little one is 8 and finishing up 3rd grade. She is full of spunk and very proud of her no-hands flip that she can do on the trampoline. My dad is applying for jobs in Germany again. Is it bad that I hope he doesn't get any so that I can watch my sisters grow up?

Success...barely

I worked several hours on my encyclopedia assignment. The downside was that I could not access one of the mandatory encyclopedias from my internet at home. I had to wait until today after school to finish the assignment. Once it was finished and a whoppin' 9 pages, the problem was, the guidelines said it had to be double spaced and only 3-5 pages. Luckily my professor didn't set any other guidelines. So I changed the font size to 11 and the right and left margins to 0.75 inches. After some maneuvering, my final paper was exactly 5 pages. And I got it submitting at 6:15 with a 6:30 deadline. Needless to say I am glad next week is spring break for EKU!

School news is that I had a girl who may or may not have hit, slapped, shoved, and kicked about 6 students from 5th grade. It's a mystery since "no one" did anything wrong, and "no one" started it. I wish "no one" would transfer schools.

On the home front, Dustin and I are going to see Riverdance tomorrow. I am psyched! Also, we are going to my grandparent's joint 75th birthday party. This party is going to be massive with over 100 people. My poor mom is organizing and cooking the meal for it. She is super stressed. I feel for her.

That's about it here. I want pizza, but my diet says no. :(

Too Much Work

This is one of those weeks where I have so much to do, I see no light at the end of the tunnel. Tomorrow I have a huge paper (that I haven't started) where I have to critique three different kinds of encyclopedias. (sounds exciting, huh?) Tomorrow after my lovely faculty meeting, I'll be working on it all evening.

If I don't finish, I have three choices. 1. Skip sleep until it is complete. (This is too hard on my body to do and not really a choice.) 2. Finish as quickly as I can on Thursday after school before the 6:30 due date. Or 3. Take a day off of school to do my master's class homework.

Its pretty bad that I may have to take off work to do more work. Wish me luck...

I am trying to find a different way to relax and release stress. Here's what I've tried: taking a bath, watching TV, reading, making lists, listening to soothing music, and napping.
Any suggestions on something new?

tidbits

Randomness abounds...

I like to mix syrup with peanut butter, and dip blueberry waffles in it. Yummy :)

I'm enjoying watching House on DVD.

Grading open responses gets old.

What's going on?

I honestly never know what to type when I blog. So many blogs I read are interesting and insightful (i.e. Steph and Chris, Erin, Mike, Scott.) However, mine is usually just rants about school. So I'm going to try to stick to what is going on in my neck of the woods, including random thoughts and moments.
So here we go....

The highlight of my school day was when one of my students decided to use a permanent marker and make a mustache on a piece of scotch tape. He then wore the mustache (that honestly perfectly fit over his top lip) throughout my reading lesson. I decided it honestly wasn't worth trying to tell the kid to take it off due to some defiant issues he has. So I told him it looked cool and went on teaching.

Random thoughts...
I like rain in the daytime.
Gingerbread chai rocks.
I need to find a new way to release stress. I keep internalizing it, and it is effecting my body.
I need to connect with my friends more.
Portfolios + 9 and 10 year olds = burn out
Firefly was too great of a show to cancel.