My new favorite author strikes again...

Mrs. L is so sweet and good and fun and she gets activites. She has spelling words and she loooves the Kids at Hope.

As I was writing down what he told me this said, I said to him, with a laugh, "Wow, there's kind of a lot of Os there in love, huh?" I know for a fact he knows how to spell it correctly. He said to me, "THAT'S because you looooove the Kids at Hope!" This kid just cracks me up!

(Kids at Hope was a program we had at the Hell-Hole during Big Cheese's last year there. We still say the Kids at Hope Pledge every morning, though - I am a Kid at Hope. I am talented, smart, and capable of success. I have dreams for the future, and I will climb to reach those goals and dreams every day.)

Flowers, flowers, everywhere!

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. I always made a point to do something for Stud Muffin's teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week, especially during those years that I served on the executive board of the Parents' Club. During his last two years, when I was co-president, my girlfriend and I really worked hard to make the whole week special for the staff. We did something different every day. One day, we catered in breakfast, and one day we did a catered lunch. The one day that was the most popular with the staff was the day we set up the teachers' lounge with an array of appetizers, dips and desserts, so they could wander in and out throughout the day and graze. One of the days (I'm pretty sure Monday) we presented each teacher with a beautiful vase of fresh flowers, and planted flowers in the two giant planters at the front door of the school. We always wrapped up the week by presenting them with some kind of personalized gift. One year we ordered custom picture frames, imprinted with their names, and then one of the moms, who was available during the day, went to school, and secretly took a class picture of each teacher's class, which we then put in the frame.

At other schools that I've worked at, there was usually something done for the teachers during this week. Since I've been at the Hell-Hole, I've come to expect nothing. CPS usually sends cheesy, generic certificates to us, which our principal is supposed to pass out. One year, The Big Cheese just gave us the blank certificate, and told us to write our own freakin' names on them!! Oh, what a piece of work he was!!

Yesterday, during our very brief staff meeting, New Principal mentioned that it was Teacher Appreciation Week, and said that a package would be coming to us later in the day. The day ended, and the packages never came. I really didn't give it a second thought, cuz like I said, I've come to expect nothing. Today, near the end of the day, there was a knock on my door, and when I opened it, there were the gym and art teachers, as well as one of our parent volunteers. The brought me this...
and this!!
These are already transplanted into a planter on my deck. So pretty!

When I pulled up to the house after picking Stud up from school, I immediately saw that my gate was closed, which told me someone had been at my house while I was at work. (Normally, the gate is open, so I can pull into the garage.) Stud thought it was his father, who had to drop off his dirty lunch containers from yesterday. Naturally, I started my (very mature!) ranting about CSJ, and the fact that the gate is closed, blah, blah, blah.

Well, as I started backing into the driveway, I turned my head, and immediately noticed...

Yep, my goddess of a mother-in-law came to do my annual birthday planting!! God bless her heart! My birthday is Saturday, and she always does this the week of my birthday. She does something different every year. This year, she planted mostly petunias, in only white and white-and-purple striped. So pretty! It's always such a wonderful surprise to come home on planting day, and see everything looking so pretty! And, yes, that IS a penguin on my porch. He's like my little sentry. I'm tempted to start dressing him up like those silly geese people keep on their porches, except that, I think those are silly! Besides, I like that he's always in formal wear. He used to have a little hat, but the squirrels kept pulling it off him, and I finally had to toss it. I'm thinking, now that I'm such a pro (haha!) I'll just make him a new hat myself!

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Buster was wondering what the hell I was doing out there with my camera. He's pretty cute for an old geezer, isn't he? Last Thursday, he turned 13!!!

We're in the final hours....

Click here to donate.

....before the Big Shave. Thank you so much to those who have donated and/or linked this info to their blog. Stud didn't quite hit his lofty goal, but he still did great. Right now he's at almost $1,200. Yay! If you're interested in making a donation, but can't do it before tomorrow, remember that donations can be made even after this event. I will leave the link to his page on the sidebar indefinitely. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the after photos.

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I know I've been AWOL for a while, but there's been lots going on around here. If you read Smileygirl's blog, then you know that one of my uncles has been in the hospital. Things have not been good with him, but that's all I'm going to say about it for now, other than please send your prayers and good thought out for him.

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Actually, I had two uncles in the hospital last week. The other is an uncle on my mom's side. He's home now, but has a laundry list of things he has to go back for in the next month or so. And, where was he today when I tried to call him? At work!!! WTF?!? He needs to have 3 separate surgeries in the next few weeks, and he went to work! Oy!

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Last week one of my friends lost her aunt, who was more like a mother to her, so that's another reason I haven't really had a chance to post. This friend of mine is the mother of Stud Muffin's best friend, and this friend was incredibly close to this aunt. She was his godmother, and more like a grandma to him. I can't even get into all the details, but suffice it to say, this was a HUGE loss to both my friend and her son. Stud and I were with them for the entire wake, and then the next day for the funeral and luncheon. After the luncheon, Stud went back to their house and hung out for the rest of the night. Aunt Shari was far too young to have died (she was 62) and the rest of the week, I was really in a funk, and thinking about my own mortality. I was definitely NOT in a bloggy place.

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Things at work have been insane, but I'll have to come back later for a proper post about it. Let me just share this little tidbit, though. A little piece of me died today when New Principal pulled a Big Cheese. She put a memo in a mailboxes about some professional resource books that she has available, and she actually wrote "fill free to borrow the books...." FILL free!? Holy crap! It was like the Big Cheese was right there!!! (Believe me, this wasn't just a simple typo. It was written on two different memos that way, and at least three people read these damn memos BEFORE they were copied and then stuffed in our mailboxes!)

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The last few days with my babies have actually been pretty wonderful, so stand by for some posts about that, too. I already miss them, since I won't see them again until Thursday. I'll be volunteering at the St. Baldrick's event at Stud's school tomorrow. They have really been pretty damn sweet lately, and they all wanted bear hugs at the end of the day, and they all whined that they're going to miss me tomorrow. I stopped and bought them a treat for Thursday, assuming that they're going to get a good report from the sub. It figures, just when I'm start to REALLY fall in love with this group, we're about to go on a two week spring break. Don't get me wrong, I'm DYING for this break, but I'm just afraid that they're going to come back and we'll be at square one again. Ok, no more negativity. Moving on...

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On a positive note, it's been GORGEOUS here in ChiTown!! Today, it was about 65 and sunny when I came out of work. Woo-freakin'-hoo!!! The windows and sunroof were open before I even pulled out of the parking lot. I've been walking around without a coat for almost a week here, and lovin' it! One of my cousins from California, and his wife, came in over the weekend (mostly to visit our uncle in the hospital, but he said he came to see all his uncles) and of course, they thought it was a little cold. They were wearing coats and scarves, etc. Then, I walk in to my parents' without a coat on, and they thought I was nuts! This beautiful weather is supposed to last all week. Yay! Do you remember last week when I posted about the funny news tease? Well, it happened again last night. "Joggers, you'll be breaking out the shorts and tank tops this week. We've got mid-60s coming!" This afternoon when Stud and I stopped at the store, I did see a couple of nutjobs in tank tops. One particularly white-trashy-looking young thing was in a tank top, capri pants and flip flops. OK, it's nice, but COME ON!! Then, Stud made me laugh even harder because he asked me if that was tattooing on her legs, or just lots of leg hair. Tee hee!

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Well, that's enough bitchy-judgemental-ness for one night. I'm off to bake some shamrock spritz cookies to share with the other volunteers tomorrow.

Wow, what a day!

I had a whopping 14 kids come to school today! Woo hoo! It was such a great day. Then, one went home early at about noon, so I finished the day with 13. That's how many I had out yesterday!

I wish I could say that I made productive use of this small class size, and that we did lots of intensive one-on-one lessons, but truthfully, we did a whole lot of nuthin'! The babies got to take out the "computers" in the morning. Since there were so few kids, everyone got their own, and they were delighted about that! While the babies played on the computers, I organized and prepared a sub folder for Monday. I'll be out for Bestest Friend's mother's funeral. I essentially retyped 3 pages of sub plans, then copied worksheets, put together some extra coloring books (in case a time filler is needed) and left everything the sub will need in one place. Then, I typed out the newsletter and made the homework packets for next week. All the sub has to do is pass them out at the end of the day. Why do I have a sinking feeling that the packets will be right where I left them when I come in on Tuesday? I hope to God Ms. H. comes in to help the sub. I told her yesterday that I would be out on Monday. In the past, I had an assistant who took off almost every time I said I was going to be out! Or, if she came (which sometimes she did because then she'd be in charge for the day, as Big Cheese didn't always get a sub for my babies - yeesh, don't get me started....)she would then ALWAYS take the next day off. In some twisted way, she was getting even with me for being out. Bizarre, right? Anyway, I just hope Ms. H. doesn't decide to stay home, because she'll be a tremendous help to the sub.

I jotted down just a couple of funnies from this weeks DIBELing. They're not that hilarious, but they made me smile. The words in italics are the given words, the rest is the sentence they gave. The first three are all from the same little angel. He was cracking me up because he wanted to give the definition for each word instead of using the word in a sentence. But, he was so animated in his explanations, I couldn't help but crack up!

nobody-that means when people are invisible and you can't see 'em!
coach-that's a part of football, soccer, basketball.....oh, and baseball!
path-that means you when you follow a map!
coach-that means football, soccer-ball....

OK, time to finish the dishes. Stud has a friend over, and I need to take them to school in a bit for a basketball game. I'm so glad Stud's friends actually participate in social events at school, because he never would on his own. One of his best friends spent the entire ride home today begging him to come to the game. By the time we dropped him off, he had Stud convinced. Then, as we were driving home, he called to say he couldn't go himself! WTF? But, by then, Stud has already called another friend to see if he wanted to go, too, and now that's the friend who's here. I'm just glad he's hanging out with his friends. I kinda wish they'd decide to skip the game and just hang out here, just because I selfishly don't want to have to go back out tonight. Twice, since I'll have to pick them up. :( The temperature is supposed to take a serious nosedive tonight, with below-zero readings. And, that's withOUT the windchill factor. Yikes! That's a little chilly, even for ME!

Well, if that's not a hell of a "Welcome Back"

New Principal decided to do things her way, and this afternoon I had to give up 7 of my babies to a new class. Ugh! I'm completely irritated and disgusted! There is now a new K/1 split class. She took 7 of my highest kids, and had the other two 1st grade teachers send their lowest 1st graders. I suppose in theory that makes sense, but at the Hell-Hole, nothing goes the way it should.


The worst part of the whole thing is the teacher she's sending these babies to. She is nothing more than a waste of skin! Big Cheese tried to get rid of her a couple of times, but of course he didn't do anything the proper way, so she was able to fight it every time. It's just ridiculous that my babies are going to be subjected to this assbag! The 7 I sent her are the top of my class right now, and I guarantee that by Christmas break, they will either still be at the same level or, God forbid, they will go down! They're supposed to grow!!! Argh!! I'm sick about this.



New Principal and I talked for a while after I gave her my list, and without coming right out and saying it, this is all part of her master plan to get rid of some teachers. Teachers who shouldn't be teaching, like the one who's getting my sweet babies. Apparently, New Principal HAS been doing the proper paperwork, and following the necessary steps to get rid of her and the others. She seemed to imply that it would be happening fairly soon. She also actually said that she'd be bringing my friend, Mrs. F., back once all the dust settles. You may remember reading about the bullshit she was put through in an earlier post. I'm glad she has a plan to get rid of the worthless teachers on our staff, I just wish she didn't need to use my babies as pawns in her little game. :(



I don't want to think about this anymore tonight. I'm trying really hard to just accept the changes and make the most of them. There's a part of me that wishes she would have moved a few more, since this still leaves me with 27 kids. Oh, yeah, I got a new one this morning. Woo-freakin'-hoo.



OK, off to make cupcakes. A few of my friends from work and I are having a baby shower here tomorrow for Mrs. F. She was at school today to sub, and holy crap, she's ready to BURST! That baby should be here any day now. Yay!! Here are a few of my favorite "baby quotes."

A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on.

~~Carl Sandburg

Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.

~~Elizabeth Stone

A new baby is like the beginning of all things-wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities.

~~Eda J. Le Shan

Diaper backward spells repaid. Think about it.

~~Marshall McLuhan

OH MY HELL!!! How did I almost forget to share this little tidbit?! Apparently, Big Cheese stopped in at the Hell-Hole this morning, and asked New Principal if he could speak with her. She said NO!!!! WTF?! Either this woman is a crazy bitch, or she's my hero. ;-)

End of Week 2

Well, I survived another week. What's that? It's only Wednesday, you say? Well, you're absolutely right. I, however, am done for the week. Woo-freakin'-hoo! I have to attend two days of professional development tomorrow and Friday. Now, my long-time readers know exactly how I feel about professional development days. But, as tempted as I am to leave, I think I'd better stay, since the PD is for our new reading series. We'll see how the first day goes. Perhaps I'll be enjoying a free day on Friday.. ;-)

I may or may not have mentioned that this new series is practically identical to the series we've been using for the past couple of years. I'm hoping that the first day they will let us know what actually comes with the program, so that I can look for it when I get back to school. I don't necessarily need any information on how to use the program, which is why I'm thinking I may just skip Friday. Like I said, I'll have to see how it goes.

I can't tell you how thrilled I am that I don't have to go to school for FOUR WHOLE DAYS!!! And, thankfully, a friend of mine will be subbing for me these next two days, which meant I didn't have to do a fraction of the crap I usually do to prepare for a sub. I've actually been meaning to post about this friend for a week or so, and I just haven't had the energy to do it. (You know, cuz I've been too busy bitching about things!)

I try to keep this short. This friend of mine, Mrs. F., has worked at the Hell-Hole for a few years now. At the end of last school year, Big Cheese told her that he lost her position, and told her she'd have to start looking for another job. He even offered to get her a sub one day so that she could attend a job fair. Since she knew her position was being eliminated, she signed up to work summer school, just in case she didn't find a position right away. This way, she'd at least have some money coming in. Well, we all know that Big Cheese got canned over the summer (she's actually the one who immediately called me!) and that New Principal took over a few days later. Mrs. F. spoke to her that day, and they talked about her situation. New Principal told her not to worry about anything because she's not letting a good teacher get away (she said she observed her teaching summer school) and she'll figure out a way to get her a position. Mrs. F. didn't completely buy into this, and kept attending job fairs. On the last day of summer school, Mrs. F. handed in her keys and said good bye, but New Principal said, "Oh, no, I'm not losing a good teacher. I'll have a position for you." Mrs. F. asked several times if she was sure, and was told yes. Around the middle to end of July, Mrs. F. actually received calls from 4 different schools offering her a position, but she told them all "Thanks anyway, but I have a position."

Jump to the first week of work. We had those 3 days without kids to set up and attend meetings. (Remember? Those horrid days when I could get in my damn room? But, I digress....)She spent those days hauling her stuff from her former 2nd floor classroom on one end of the school to her 1st floor classroom, literally on the OTHER side of the building. Oh, I'm sorry, did I forget to mention that Mrs. F. is pregnant?! Yeah....good times, good times.... So, the next week, the kids start school, and on Tuesday, the 2nd day we had kids, New Principal proceeds to tell her that she may have to close her position. WTF?!?! Naturally, Mrs. F. was not happy. But, she kept working hard with her students, and hoped for the best. Well, come Friday afternoon, at 2:00, Mrs. F. was called into the office and told her position had been eliminated and she didn't have to return on Monday. I was shocked, as was Mrs. F., to say the least. But, New Principal seems to be talking out of both sides of her mouth, because as she told her she didn't have to come back Monday, she also told her she didn't have to take her stuff because she will probably be able to hire her back. Are you kidding me?

I've been so upset for Mrs. F. She let at least 4 other jobs go because she was PROMISED a position at the Hell-Hole. She asked New Principal 100 times if she was sure she could keep her, and she was assured that she had a job. Now, those other 4 positions are surely closed, and seeing as she's going to be giving birth in about 9 weeks, it's going to be almost impossible for her to find another job right now. I'm just sick for her.

She actually has subbed everyday this week so far, thankfully. And, she was told that they would call her as often as possible. But, that still screws her in many ways. First of all, she no longer will be making a teacher's salary. And, unless she's a permanently assigned substitute at our school (known as a cadre) she won't get benefits. Plus, she just told me this afternoon that she's going to get screwed out of all the sick days that she's banked, and that she planned to use to help cover her maternity leave. Now, that's just bullshit. CPS should at least have to give her a payout for those, wouldn't you think? Again, I'm just sick about this.

Now, luckily, Mrs. F. and her husband are both in the military, so her medical expenses should be covered at least. And, they'll still have her husband's salary, but I don't know if that's going to be enough to live on. I don't know much about the military. She and her husband are both in the reserves. As a matter of fact, her husband just returned from Afghanistan about a month ago after being gone for two tours. (Obviously, he got a short leave about...oh...I don't know...8 months ago!) I don't know if she even draws any kind of salary because she still only does the two weeks a year, one weekend a month kind of thing. Thank God she's never had to go overseas. Unfortunately, her husband has. As a matter of fact, he was shot right after the holidays. He was literally patched up, and within two weeks, he was back on the front lines. OK, I surely don't want to start on this rant, so let me get back to Mrs. F.

I hope and pray that everything works out for her. Feel free to say a prayer or two for her, too. She needs them!

I realize I didn't write about how today went yet, but I've got to run. I'm taking Stud to get a haircut. He goes back to school tomorrow!!! Yeah, he's thrilled, too.... I'll try to come back later.

She's trying to kill us...

Oh my hell. I know I have absolutely no right to do so much complaining, given that I prayed for a long time for Big Cheese to be gone, but Lord, I don't know how much more I can take.

I forgot to mention something that happened last week. My little darling, A.G., of The G Family, was moved to 1st Grade. Yay! You may remember that she and another little boy were in my class last year for half the day. They both spent their mornings with me in kdg., and then went to pre-school in the afternoon. They both have late birthdays, so they technically weren't old enough to be in kindergarten. However, D.F.'s grandma, who is our security guard, arranged for D.F. to be placed in a 1st grade class this year (with my approval). I thought A's mom was going to do the same, but she never talked to anyone in the office. I ended up going to the office for her, and was able to get her moved. As much as I'm going to miss her, I was glad to have one less baby.

I also found out that one of the boys who had been sitting in my room for 3 days was also supposed to be in 1st grade. The 1st grade teacher had been listing him as a "no show." That's 2 babies in one day! Woo hoo!

But, that excitement was short-lived. I immediately got 2 more babies the next day, so I was back to 29. Then, this morning, when I went out to pick up my class, a woman walked up to me and essentially handed me her child, saying that she was going to be in my room. Yep, the 30th baby had arrived.

On an up note, preps started today. My babies went to computers today. Yay! And, Ms. H., my parent volunteer, stayed with them and brought them back down for me. She's awesome!

OK, time to bitch about a stupid parent...
One of my babies was still standing outside with me at 3:00. He was the last one, and was waiting for his brother. Turns out the brother's teacher had kept them late, and I obviously missed them coming out, since I was already on my way to the office. I HUGE thunder shower hit as I was walking back into the building, so apparently the brother just went home instead of looking for his baby brother. I sat with him for a while, and finally at about 3:25, I called his house. I was surprised when his mother answered the phone. I identified myself, and told her that T was still sitting at school, despite school ending nearly 45 minutes ago. She goes, "Oh, I didn't even know." WHAT?!?! I mean, seriously, WTF? How do you NOT know that your 5 YEAR OLD still isn't home 45-freakin'-minutes after school got out!? THEN, she has the balls to tell me, "well, he can just walk home by himself." I wanted to reach through the phone and slap a bitch!! What part of HE'S FIVE YEARS OLD did that moron not understand!!?? Argh!!! Ok, I feel my blood pressure rising, so time to move on...

In my never-ending quest to end on a positive note, let me just say again how nice it is to have Ms. H. helping out. It's been working out to about an hour in the morning and about an hour in the afternoon, which doesn't sound like much, but it makes a world of difference, trust me! And, the best part is that she told me she doesn't mind taking my class to their prep and bringing them back when it's over. Woo hoo! You have no idea how wonderful that is for me!! That means I will truly get a 40 minute prep!! Normally, by the time I get the babies together enough to walk, then get them up (to either the 3rd or 4th floor!) to the prep, and come back down, anywhere from 10-15 minutes of my prep is gone. God forbid I have to do something crazy, like pee (!), I end up with about 20 minutes to actually do some work. This is going to almost double the amount of time I have to get things done. THANK YOU, Ms. H!!

One down, 39 to go....

That was the looonnngggeeesssttt first week in history! Once again, I was at school until well after 5. I could barely drag myself to my car. Besides the long day, and the physical demands of herding cats, I mean dealing with 30 5 year-olds, the freakin' heat just zaps any little bit of energy I have left. It has just been so unbearable this week. By the time I leave, I feel like I've been run over by a Mack truck.

I did, however, force myself to do my Wii when I got home. I just kept reminding myself that as soon as I did it, I could relax for the rest of the night. I barely made it home before Stud's friends started coming over. I told him he could invite a bunch of guys over to hang out on Friday night. It was mostly a ruse to get him to stay home. He finally came home Thursday after almost 2 weeks at his father's. He came home to cut the grass, but his father wanted to pick him up when he was done. Um...I don't think so! So, I convinced him to invite the guys over, guaranteeing that I'd get to see him another night.

His one friend arrived about 5 minutes before I finished the Wii. His other best friend was supposed to be coming with another boy, but when he showed up, he was alone. (He couldn't find the other boy.) When I realized it was going to just be "my 3 sons," I was thrilled because I realized after my shower, I could just put on my pajamas, and relax. The other boy did end up coming at about 9:30, and by then, I was already settled into bed! The boys moved down to the basement just as I was passing out, and I never heard a peep. Stud and his late-arriving buddy were both up by 7 this morning, which is unbelievable! The other little darling is still asleep.

Oh, wait, I was supposed to be writing about school, wasn't I? I can NOT wait for preps to start this week. I'm hoping it makes a difference in my exhaustion level. I have about 7 days worth of work to do this weekend, and unfortunately, I have to work tonight. I'm starting to get a little panicky. I'm probably already on New Principal's shit list because I never did turn in any lesson plans this week. I HAVE to turn them in on Monday. I'm really a little freaked out about doing them. I know that sounds crazy coming from someone who's been teaching for a couple of decades now, but let me tell you, I've gotten really lazy and out of practice after so many years of working for the Big Cheese. I always did my lesson plans (which was not the norm around that place!) but for the past 4 years, I've only had to do half the work. I decided years ago that it made more sense for me and my partner to do our plans together, with my partner doing the math and science plans and me doing the reading/language arts plans. (And, truthfully,after saving them on my computer, all I've had to do the past year was change the date!) Now, since I have NO partner, I've got to do them all by myself again. And, I can't even use the plans I have saved because we're switching to a new reading series. God, just thinking about how much work this is going to be makes me want to cry. I don't want to go back to those days when my entire Sunday was spent working on lesson plans!! And, now that I work Saturdays at our bar, I don't know how the hell I'm going to be able to do that, since most Sundays I don't get home until 5 or 6 am! OK, I'm starting to feel my chest tighten again....

This group of babies, for the most part, are just that - babies!! This is one of the most immature groups I've ever had. It says a LOT about what the hell must be going on in our preschool program. Um...that would be...NOTHING! These kids can't even write their names, nor write their letters. They think the whole day is for playing. I keep trying to tell myself it'll get better. It's only their first week, it's got to get better.

ALL of them except 1 showed up yesterday. Yikes! I had to put 5 of them at my group table, since it's the only other table I have. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do next week when I actually start doing small group instruction. I'm going to have to have a lot of movement to keep shifting them from table to table.

The pep rally was WAY too long yesterday. My babies were amazing, though. Hey, wow, did I just say that?! I going to try and focus on that fact next week. I was really impressed with how quietly they were able to sit for well over an hour. That's a long time for 5 year-olds to sit. At least without a cartoon on for them to watch! :) We ended up having to leave before it ended because we needed to start getting ready for dismissal. We should have started about 30 minutes earlier.

New Principal introduced the entire staff, and had us come up on stage, while the kids cheered us on. I have to say, I was really touched by the reaction I got when my name was called. The whole auditorium erupted! It was really cool, and reminded me that I really do make a difference in the lives of some of these kids. (My first class at the Hell-Hole is now in 7th grade, so pretty much the entire school knows me.)

After the staff introductions, New Principal and our AP, Mr. H., went over the rules and expectations for this year. We talked about the uniform policy, and each teacher was asked to send 2 students up on the stage to show the proper uniform. My 2 did a great job, but they didn't take their eyes off me for even a second. It's a little scary to stand up on stage in front of the entire school!

When all the talk about rules, etc., was finished, each class then came up on stage and did their little presentation. We were first, of course, and the kids actually did a great job. We kept if very short and sweet. I "borrowed" a line for the pledge our kids are expected to say every morning. They loudly, and proudly, said, "I am in Room XXX. I am talented, smart and capable of success!" Thankfully, I had Ms. H. to help me again yesterday. She helped get them back in their seats as I got them off the stage. Then, they were forced to sit there while the rest of the school gave their performances. We only made it to the 4th grade performances, then we had to go. Unfortunately, because the upper grades still had to perform, that meant most of the students were dismissed late, which then meant that I was stuck outside on the playground, in the blinding sun (!) waiting for big brothers and sisters to pick up my babies.

OK, I've procrastinated long enough. I'd better start working on these lesson plans. I hope you all have a great weekend. Think of me slaving away while you're doing something fun and relaxing!
;-)

What the....?

Wow, talk about a doing a 180! Today was NOT at all like yesterday. Those kids drove me freakin' crazy today!!!! I actually could feel myself raising my voice by the end of the day. I NEVER like to raise my voice the first week of school. I don't want them to think their teacher is some big, scary dragon. She's supposed to be The Queen, remember? I'm up to 25 babies now (with about 17 "no shows" on my list.) As much as I'm not enjoying having such a full class, I'm still wishing that about 25 more would show up, so that New Principal will open the other kindergarten class again, and put my friend back in kindergarten with me. I have a sinking feeling that the majority of the missing kids will show up after Labor Day, since their parents don't think school starts til then. I'm just afraid that by then, it'll be too late to open up another position, since it will be after the 20th day of school. (That's the 'magic day' that most of our funding is based on.)

I forgot to mention yesterday that one of the things New Principal told me at the end of the day was that she was going to send one of our parent volunteers to help me out during the day. She's one of my very favorite volunteers, so I'm very excited. She's actually worked for me in my afterschool program for the past couple of years. New Principal mentioned that if I kept getting more kids, she would send another person to help, as well, until she can reopen the other kindergarten. I'm glad she's as hopeful as I am that this is going to happen.

Even with Ms. H. to help me, the babies drove me nuts today. Even she couldn't believe how they were acting. We couldn't keep still, keep our hands to ourselves, or keep our mouths shut, to save our lives today! It was infuriating! I wonder if part of my lack of patience comes from the fact that I was just so very in love with my last class. They were phenomenal!! And, with the very short break that we had, I didn't have a chance to "forget" how wonderful they were. I don't know, whatever it is, I hope I can find some extra patience to deal with this group. The fact that I've been spending my days drenched in sweat is doing nothing to improve my mood, either!

Oo, Big Cheese news! I found out from my favorite mom, Mrs. G., that ever since Big Cheese was "evicted" from our school, he's been over at another school, doing absolutely NOTHING! This particular school isn't actually a functioning school with students. It's used for professional development, and as basically a holding place for displaced principals! His plan is to wait out his time until the end of the month, and then he can officially retire. Hopefully, the board will get their investigation going by then, or he's gonna get off scott free!

Mini Update

Ok, so we had a meeting yesterday with our new principal. So far, so good. It was a VERY short meeting, far too short in my opinion, but she was able to touch on a few things that sounded promising.

One of the things I'm most excited about it that she going to be strictly enforcing the uniform policy. Like just about every other CPS school, our students will be expected to wear white shirts, WITH collars, and navy blue pants/skirts/jumpers. THAT'S IT! Big Cheese had decided that any white shirt would be acceptable, including T-shirts. He decided black or blue pants were ok, and hey, even jeans would be ok. WTF? You just gave the kids permission to dress in the neighborhood gang banger uniform - white T-shirt and baggy jeans. Nice!

Last year, he decided to try a couple of new things. White, yellow or blue shirts would be acceptable as uniform, and that every Friday (EVERY Friday!!!) would be dress-down day. Seriously?! WTF?! I had actually argued pretty strongly with him about that one. I don't see anything wrong with an occasional dress-down day, as long as the kids have to EARN it. Maybe the last day of each marking period, and you have to have worn your uniform everyday up to that point. NOT every week, that's ridiculous! I don't think any children were in uniform last year. Which meant I could easily tell you what kind of boxers every one of the boys wore, because their jeans hung down to the back of their freakin' knees. The girls were no better, wearing shirts that they probably took out of their kindergarten sister's drawers!

I'm so excited about this one little change, it's crazy! She already has the marquee outside of school stating that uniforms are required on the first day of school. Yay, New Principal!! (I need to get to know her a little better before I can come up with a clever nickname.)

I had thrown out a suggestion to her regarding something we did at my last school. On the first day of school, all the teachers dressed in "uniform" to let the kids know how important it was to adhere to the uniform policy. Well, she got all excited and said, "I'm so glad you brought that up. I was going to tell you all this later, but at my last school, the teachers did this every Monday, and so we'll be doing the same." Oh, and she added, "If we were off on a Monday, then we did it on Tuesday." Woo hoo!! That's seriously one less day that I have to worry about figuring out what I'll be wearing to work. I think it's great!

She has already made some big changes in the past week and a half regarding the appearance of the school. There must have been a cleaning frenzy going on! She basically gutted the front office, threw out about 60% of the furniture, and rearranged what was left. It looks amazing. Our payroll clerk, who used to basically sit in a vault all day, is having a very difficult time with the new boss, however. She's been told that she will be expected to move out of her "closet" and sit out in the office. She also is expected to actually do all clerk duties, not just hide away all week, and only do payroll. Now, those of you who either work now or have worked in the past at the Hell-Hole realize what a huge thing this is!! Apparently, she tried to tell the new boss that, no, she's just the payroll clerk, and that's not her job, but that went over like a lead balloon. I can't wait to see what fireworks come from this!

The school looks so different already. There are REAL flowers and plants all over the place! Not just in the office, but in the hallway. I was amazed to see vases of fresh flowers beautifully places around the entranceway. Someone has gone down the hall and covered all the bulletin boards with fresh new paper and borders, and bright, pretty colors. New Principal told us in the meeting that she loves to see color, and she plans to keep adding it to the school. For as long as I've been there, the entire school has been the same shade of...I don't even know...dirty beige? There were some volunteers that came the week school ended and painted murals around the building. There's a HUGE one directly outside my door that is beautiful. I love it. The only problem I have, though, is it's on a wall that I used to completely cover with my babies' work. I'm going to have to figure out where to hang their beautiful papers and projects now. I was told that there are other murals on the second and third floors, but I didn't venture up there yesterday.

She told us she plans to "beautify" the bathrooms, and enlisted the art teacher to spearhead that project. She said she wants to have a "theme" for each bathroom (i.e. Mickey Mouse, Spiderman, etc. Possibly a copyright infringement, no?) which I'm hoping will help cut down on all the graffiti.

I stepped out the front door to talk to a parent (Mrs. G., who you all know I love!) and literally gasped when I saw what's changed already. We have grass in our courtyards! AND flowers! It looks like a completely different school. Somehow I got sucked into being on the School Beautification Committee (or whatever the hell it's called) and we are going to be applying for a grant to get landscape materials. Specifically, we will be turning our front courtyards into butterfly gardens. I think it's going to be magnificent. Most years I try to do the whole butterfly thing with my babies, and now we'll have the perfect place to release them. Our engineer has promised to bring me some caterpillars when school starts so we can do it right away. (I suppose that one advantage of starting school so early. Hey, I'm trying to find the silver lining here, people!)

I'm really excited to see how these changes all come together, and what effect it will have on our students. I hope they get on board with the new program. Although, she seems like a tough cookie, so they may have no other choice! The school she came from (where she was for over 20 years) is not too far from our school, but is directly across from one of the biggest projects in the city. She said the demographics of her last school were comparable to the Hell-Hole, but I have a feeling it was a bit rougher. I assume that means she'll be able to handle anything (student, parent, teacher) that tries to stand in her way. Yay!! Finally, an administrator who has a spine!!!! I'm so excited!

Well, I suppose "mini"update isn't all that accurate now, is it? I'm going to stop right here, before you all fall into a coma from boredom. But, hey, I'm excited!!!

Updates

Ok, it's been a bit busy around here since last I posted. After receiving that very exciting news yesterday, I had to get over to my Daddy's house, as he left for Italy yesterday. Stud needed to say his good-byes, and then I drove him to the airport. My niece came along for the ride, and we spent about an hour hanging out with Grandpa at the airport and had lunch together. When it was time for him to go to his gate, she was NOT happy. She kept telling him that he should sell his ticket to someone else and just stay home. Thanks to the NEVER-ENDING construction on our expressways and tollways, it took much longer than anticipated to get home. I had just enough time to get in the shower and get ready for an appointment with the "girly" doctor. Nothing like having your naughty bits poked and prodded to end your day on a high note! (Truth be told, without really putting all my "bid-ness" out there, I really did have a great appointment, and was able to by-pass a procedure that I was dreading.)

Ok, so my point is, I didn't get a chance to share the little updates I received throughout the day. On the way to the airport, my friend, who originally broke the good news to me, called to tell me that some of the staff were in a frenzy. The two LLTs, and a few other teachers (who have been there the longest) were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, cleaning out files, purging closets, one was even filling out report cards (WTF?!?!? Shouldn't that have been DONE already?!) The business manager (the woman in charge of all our money!) was frantically SHREDDING PAPERS AND FILES!! Seriously, WTF?! Perhaps there's more to this firing than we know. However, NONE of us are shocked or even surprised. We've known for quite some time that there was plenty of dirty business going on in our office. For example, what happened to $60,000+ in Special Ed funds that mysteriously disappeared? (Could that have something to do with the fact that we were under a microscope this year surrounding our Spec. Ed. dept. and practices?) Or, where is the monthly check we supposedly received for having a tower on our roof (for some mobile phone company)? We've always assumed it went straight into the Big Cheese's pocket. The business manager is one of the shadiest people I've ever encountered. I'm really hoping she's the baby that gets tossed out with the bathwater!

Later, I received a call from another friend (the one who is supposed to be moving down to kingergarten with me next year) who told me she heard that the new principal is a woman. That makes me a little nervous. I hate to even say it, but I don't like working for women! They tend to be very controlling and bitchy. Sorry, I know, as a woman, I have a lot of nerve even saying that. But, it's been my experience. Anyway, she supposedly also heard that as of right now, none of us have to worry about our jobs. This was a concern, as sometimes principals like to bring in their own people. Or, at the very least, change everyone's assignments and shake things up. So far, it doesn't seem like that's the case, but then again, she hasn't even started yet!! I plan to go up to the Hell-Hole and meet our new principal on Monday.

This past school year, many of us laughed every day because The Big Cheese had this placed on our marquee when school started - "Hell-Hole School - The Happiest Place on Earth!" It was there all year. And every time we saw it, we laughed. Well, I'm hoping that maybe now, that will be true! I'm determined to go into this new adventure with a positive attitude and just hope for the best. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst....

Ok, on a lighter note, I just totally stole this from Happy Wife, Happy Life. It made me giggle!

OH MY HELL!!!!!!

At 9 am (just a couple of minutes ago!!) one of my good friends at the Hell-Hole called to tell me----THE BIG CHEESE HAS BEEN FIRED!!!!!!! Oh, happy day!!!!! I'm so excited right now, I can't really write any more. I need to go check my CPS email to see the letter he sent us all letting us know he was canned. Woo hoo!!!

Spirit Week, The Recap

I had intended to write this post over the weekend, when I could include photos, but I think I'll just have to come back and add them later at home. Today, only 13 babies showed up for school. Apparently, I never received the memo that stated a pizza party signifies the end of the school year. Hmmm...oh, well. I'll just have to deal with having 1/2 my class gone... ;-)

Ok, so I already shared Monday's festivities. Fun, fun, fun! Tuesday was Crazy Hat/Hair Day, and the babies did not disappoint! The girls had the crazy hair, and the boys wore the hats. I actually only had 3 boys that did not have hats, but as luck would have it, I had three "crazy" hats in my trunk (from last year's Spirit Week!) so it all worked out perfectly! I didn't need the paper hats after all. I'm going to pack them away for next year. I've already thought of a hundred different things we can do with them (including making 100th Day hats! yay! I've warned you all several times now that I'm a helplessly geeky teacher, right?) I tried to take pictures of my hair for you, but of course my camera died! I had the front of my hair up in a ponytail (picture samurai hair?) then I braided that. I put the two sides up in pigtails, and the back was up in a bun. The babies thought it was hilarious, and the adults all told me I looked like a little girl (because of the pigtails). I took pictures of the babies, though, and I will post them later.

Wednesday was Mix 'N Match Day, and it was too cute! Let me first tell you how I dressed. I prayed all the way to school, that I wouldn't get pulled over or in an accident, because I would have a hard time explaining myself! I took half of my hair and put it in a french braid, then put the other half in a pigtail. Because I did this immediately after I got out of the shower, my hair was soaking wet. As I drove, I must have been twisting the pigtail, because by the time I got to school, it was one big banana curl (picture Cindy Brady!) I had one brown eye and one green eye. I had on a crazy patterned top (flowers and hearts) with a pair of penguin pajama pants (navy blue pants with white penguin silhouettes) I wore one orange sock and one red sock, one slide-on sandle (the ones that I adore, that make my foot feel better! smart, right?) and one clog. I looked utterly ridiculous, which was the point, after all! Most of the babies wore two different shoes and/or two different socks. A couple actually wore some mixed patterns.

Unfortunately, the Trail Mix was a big bust! Most of the kids didn't like it, and I watched my $$ get thrown right in the trash. :( I don't understand it. It was all stuff they liked individually. As I told them what each ingredient was going to be, I kept hearing "mmmmmm!" but then once it was mixed together, they didn't want it. Go figure!

Thursday was a cute day. Not all the babies brought Teddy bears, though. Some of the kids, however, brought bears that were literally bigger than they were! It was hilarious! I had downloaded a bunch of teddy bears pages from a website, so we colored teddy bears, wrote our Daily News on teddy bear paper, and made a jointed teddy bear. That afternoon, the Teddy Grahams and Gummy bears were a HUGE hit!

Friday was Pajama Day, always my favorite day! I wore a different pair of penguin pajamas (I know, you're shocked that I have more than one, right!?) and put my hair in pigtails (this time they both were in Cindy Brady curls!) and most of the babies wore jammies, too. All but one of the girls wore cute two-piece pajamas, as did about half of the boys. One little guy, DB, wore his Superman pjs under his clothes, but didn't want to take the clothes off. He had denim shorts on over his long Superman pants. It was hilarious! His mom also brought us cupcakes, which was an unexpected treat. Another mom brought three big bags of candy for the kids (I ended up making candy bags to take HOME!) so we had lots of treats. During my prep, I convinced my friend to go to the grocery store with me, so he could run in for me, (I didn't want to walk around the store in my pajamas!) and get the Popsicles. Turns out we didn't even eat them since we had too many other treats. I'm hoping we have a warm day tomorrow or Wednesday so we can go outside and eat them. It's raining today :(

I guess because we had a week of celebration, my parents assumed that school was over. Um, hello!! Who the hell said that?! I guess I shouldn't be complaining, but I'm not ready for the babies to leave yet. I haven't given them their end-of-the-year gifts, they didn't empty their cubbies, they didn't take their papers home, WE'RE NOT READY!! They didn't even get their report cards yet. And, many of them owe me library books. I'm really pissed about this, to tell the truth.

I have never let my students take my library books home before. Never. I knew I would never see them again. Now don't get wrong, I have hundreds of other books that I let the babies "borrow" because I don't really care if I get them back. Some were here when I came to the Hell-Hole, and the rest I've accumulated over the years, either through donations from colleagues, book drives, or other programs (we have this awesome program every year called Bookworm Angels.) Anyway, I made a list this morning of every child who owes me a book, with the name of the book and the replacement cost, to hang on my door. I'm also giving the office a copy because none of those children will receive a report card until the book is brought back or paid for. Sad thing is, most just won't get their report cards because their parents could care less. But, since today's post is not going to be a bitching session, I'm moving on....

We only have two full days left of school. Thursday is a teachers institute day so the kids are off, then Friday the kids are supposed to come for one hour. What a waste! I actually convinced the Big Cheese to print the report cards out early so we can pass them out on Wednesday, thus eliminating the need for the children to return on Friday. Our attendance is anticipated for the last week of school, anyway, so the kids are already marked present. The teachers only work a half-day on the last day, so we are finished at 11:30. That is, IF you worked both Report Card Pick-Up nights. I don't know why they always stipulate that. Who would NOT work Report Card Pick-up? But, I guess some people don't, since it's in the evening. Who knows!

Traditionally, I meet for lunch with a group of my teacher friends on the last day of school, since we get out so early. Even though we don't all work together anymore, we still try to keep up with this, since we so rarely see each other anymore. I'm really looking forward to our lunch.

Oh, one crappy little thing I realized today...we start back to work on AUGUST 5TH!!! I want to cry. I keep trying to find the silver lining in this year-round BS, but things like this make it really, really hard....ok, I said no bitching, right? I'll come back and do it tomorrow....

Wow, thanks...

...to all my Bloggy Buddies, and the other commenters, who have shared their love and concern for me and my Hell-Hole situation. Actually, I'm feeling a bit guilty that I even mentioned the whole shooting thing. Well, truthfully, I don't really know what I feel about that. The shooting was the LEAST of my concerns when deciding to take today off. It was due more to the fact that I've been completely stressed out from dealing with bratty kids all week. Couple that with the fact that Stud Muffin has the day off, AND his bed is being delivered today, and all the planets seemed to align for a mental health day.

Tuesday, the other Kdg. teacher was out, so her kids were nuts all day, which meant I had to deal with their poor behavior all day and help out the sub who was unfortunate enough to be assigned to that class. They actually act 10 times WORSE when their actual teacher is there, but that's another post.

Then, on Wednesday, the 1st grade teachers were both out for workshops, so the class across the hall was FUCKING AWFUL!!! I have NEVER seen them act the way they were. They were running around, throwing things, fighting with each other, just acting like animals. I could hear them clear at the opposite end of the hall, they were so damn loud. They were so incredibly rude and disrespectful to their sub. I was just in shock. One of the parents stayed all day to try and help the poor woman who was subbing, but the kids were just as rude and disrespectful to her, and she's there almost everyday, as they were to the stranger. Unbelievable. I finally had to step in and take over for a while. They were supposed to have gym that afternoon, so I had the sub take MY class to gym, and I took the first graders into my room for 40 minutes of lecturing. Yeah, I'm a bitch, what of it? I also had them write letters of apology to the sub. If they said they were finished, I had them put their heads down and just be quiet until the period was over. They all knew better than to piss me off, so it was pretty much silent for 40 minutes. (You know what else in unbelievable? That the two "security guards," that sit on their asses all day in the hallway, BOTH commented on how "that class is just off the chain!" but neither one of them made any attempt to go down to the classroom and see if the sub needed any help. You know damn well that the office could hear the noise just as well as I could, but Big Cheese didn't bother to go down there, either. Pitiful!)

For some reason, my own babies drove me nuts yesterday. It was probably a combination of the previous two days of having to be Super Bitch and the fact that I think I'm PMSing. (Plus, I had perfect attendance yesterday, so every one of the babies was there to push my buttons!) The cherry on top was Big Cheese making that announcement at the end of the day. I wasn't scared by it, just pissed off. I mean, for God's sake, why don't you scumbags just kill each other and get it over with, and leave us the hell alone! It's just another inconvenience of working in the ghetto. I've said before that shooting goes on all the time while we're in school, but usually it happens during the day, when the kids are all in the building. I haven't taken my kids out for recess/playtime in years because of all the shooting. The reason Big Cheese even mentioned it now is because the gang bangers are forgetting the unwritten rules, and are shooting it out when kids are around. Assbags!

Getting back to my confusion about how to feel about this, after reading all your comments, I was hit by how numb I've become to all the madness that is Englewood. I should be as scared for myself as you guys are for me, and yet, like I said, I'm just annoyed and irritated by it. There's something wrong with that, isn't there? I don't know, I suppose that's what happens after a decade of working in the ghetto. Whatever it takes, I guess, to come back everyday for the babies. Truthfully, some of your comments made me feel really guilty about not being there today when the babies are there. On some level, I feel like I've abandoned them, even though I know, logically, that's NOT the case. Like I said, the situation is really no different than any other day. Sad? Yes. Fact of life in the ghetto? Yes. Will I be returning Monday, after a long weekend, feeling refreshed, both physically and mentally, ready to give my all to the babies I love? YES!

For the second day in a row...

...the Big Cheese came on the intercom, about 10 minutes before dismissal, to tell us that there has been an unusually high amount of gang activity going on in the neighborhood, and that everyone should basically get the hell out of Dodge! He told the kids they should go straight home, and not linger on the playground or around the school. He told the teachers to go to their cars as quickly as possible and leave the area. WTF? Apparently, yesterday morning there was shooting going on right outside at about 9, which is when school starts. One of my friends/coworkers told me she was standing out on the front steps talking to a parent, and actually saw the shooter. She saw the guy raise the gun, and then saw the flash and gunpowder "puff" around his hand. And THEN she came inside and managed to TEACH ALL DAY! They sure as hell don't pay us enough!

Between this nonsense, and the fact that my kids bugged me all day today (I don't know, I must be PMSing) I decided to take a mental health day tomorrow. My son does not have school tomorrow, so we'll get to hang out together. Actually, my in-laws just bought him a bed, and it's being delivered tomorrow, so now I'll be here to let them in, so it all works out perfectly.

Since I'll have some free time tomorrow, I plan to come back and finish the post about the babies. I have many more cute pictures to share, plus some funny things they've said. I've been trying to keep track of the funnies by emailing them to myself as soon as I get a chance. This seems to work better than writing it down. Probably because I never remember to bring the damn papers home, or I lose them in my purse, or whatever. This way, they sit in my inbox until I get around to posting them.

OK, off to clean out Studly's room to make room for his new QUEEN size bed. He's so damn spoiled!

Happy, happy birthday, My Baby!!

OK, technically, I'm a day late, but yesterday was so full of birthday "stuff" I obviously didn't have time to post.


I can NOT believe my "baby" turned 15 yesterday. 15!! How the hell did that happen?! Most of the time, I think I'm still 18 myself. I had intended to put together a lovely little montage of photos to highlight the past 15 years, but I've now been sitting here going through old photos for about 2 hours, and I'm not getting a thing done. I'm far too sentimental for this project. I started with the envelopes on the top of the box, so I have a few pictures to share, but they are not baby pictures. Considering that I have the next 5 days off (gotta love sick days!) I might just post a few a day until I get to those adorable baby pictures.

• This was his 10th birthday, 5-freakin'-years ago!! He's so damn cute. (Jeez, I just realized this was in the middle of the kitchen remodel, and I see we had started peeling the wallpaper.)

• I think this was taken the same year. We were trying to get a picture for our Christmas card. I could just eat up that face!!

• This is my son and my niece, who is 6 months younger than him. She attends the
  sister school to his Catholic boys' school. Sometimes they still act like this.
  You know, like they love each other. Haha!

• Here we are at Lincoln Park Zoo, one of my absolute FAVORITE places in Chicago! I think he was about 6 here.

• As you can see, he's getting younger and younger. This is all three of the kiddos at my older niece's ballet recital. I think this was May '99, so he was 5 1/2, she had just turned 5, and the little one was about 2 1/2. How cute are they!?

*Warning -Inappropriate comment coming*

This is my uber-hot brother. This picture is a few years old, and was taken at one of my nieces' dance recitals. After I had this picture developed (yes, back before I had a digital camera) my first thought was, "I'm sending this into The Bachelor!" He's pretty easy on the eyes, don't you think? I know, it's creepy for me to say that about my own brother, right? Sorry. But, look at him!

I'm going to keep digging through my boxes of photos, and scanning. Considering I have a LOT of free time from now until next Wednesday, I'll be back!!

(I suppose I should explain the time off. The students have today off as a teacher institute day, and next Monday is also a teacher institute day. We are all off next Tuesday for Veterans' Day. You would think the idiots that run the board of ed would have made Monday the observed holiday, so that the teachers could enjoy a three-day weekend, but no. They expect us to work Monday, then take Tuesday off. Morons! The kids are then off Wednesday because it's Report Card Pick-Up Day. I'll be out Thursday because I have a workshop to go to, so I'll only see the babies one day next week, Friday!! Anyway, I decided that since all my work is done and I'm completely prepared for Report Card Pick-Up Day, I am taking today and Monday off, and I'll be giving myself a 5-day weekend. It's only 11:00 on Friday morning, and I feel like I've been on vacation! This is exactly what I need after Wednesday's bombshell from the Big Cheese!)

Crappy, crappy day....

We had our weekly staff meeting this morning, and I was completely blind-sided by the agenda. First item on the list -

1. I. HELL-HOLE School will be going on the Track E year round school calendar for the 2009-2010 school year.

YEAR ROUND, PEOPLE!!!!!! WTF?!?! I didn't sign on for year round school!!! Last time this topic was brought up, we were told it was going to be put up for a vote later in the year. Then, BOOM, we just handed this fucking piece of paper!!! Ugh!!!!! I can't even tell you how pissed off I am! That just figures, since I was actually enjoying this year so far. It's been a dream compared to the past few years. I should have known the other shoe would drop eventually. I've already sent out emails to every single teacher I know letting them know that I am very actively looking for another job. I will be putting together a list of schools to send my resume to asap.

I would love to know the reasoning behind this decision. Another teacher said in the meeting, "I thought this was going to be voted on?" to which the Big Cheese barked, "No, there wasn't no vote, it was an administrative decision!" (and that's NOT a typo!) Many, many schools here in Chicago have gone year round, but it's been something that is done to relieve over-crowding. Quite obviously, that is NOT the problem at the Hell-Hole. We barely have enough kids to justify the number of teachers we have. We already had a teacher lose her position several weeks ago because of our low numbers. So, what's the deal? The building is very old, and decrepit, and had NO air conditioning. Other than in Big Cheese's office, that is! Anyone who has ever been in Chicago in the summer knows what that means. Sweltering heat, unbearable humidity, basically just hell. How is that going to work?! The ONLY reason I could see for the Hell-Hole to go year round is to now provide year round FREE babysitting! Arrgghh! The whole thing is literally making me sick.

The Big Cheese has done many, many inappropriate things in our PUBLIC school, including leading the children in prayer. The last line of the agenda was this:

1. Also, let us all give thanks to America for electing Barack Obama as the new President. Good Bless America!

Um...can we say inappropriate!!?? How DARE you impose your political beliefs on your staff. Seriously, WTF?!?! This agenda was already filed right in the box with the rest of the inappropriate agendas/memos/notes etc. that he's ever given to us. You never know when they'll come in handy. Jeez, I should have known this year was going too well. Prepare for the daily bitching, I mean posts, to return!!

Ta dah!

This is the pumpkin my son finished last night before going to the dance.
He'll be carving a second one this afternoon. I wonder what he's going to do with that one...

The dance was nice. On the way there, my son said something about how maybe he really didn't want to go, and so on, but I reminded him that two of his best friends were going to be there (because they have younger siblings that still attend that school) so he kind of just sucked it up. But, once we got there, he was thrilled that he went. I couldn't believe how many of the kids from his class were there. It was great to see them, since we hadn't seen most of them since June.

After the dance, we had to head over to my friend's salon to get our hair done. My son actually wanted to come with me and get his hair cut. I was a bit surprised, but I wasn't going to say no! Needless to say, it was a late night, and I'm very sleepy today. As a matter of fact, I'm going to play hooky today from work. It's a staff development day today, so the kids aren't there anyway. I could use a long weekend. And, I certainly don't have the strength nor energy to sit through one boring meeting after another at school today. I'm not in the mood to listen to the Big Cheese butcher the English language, either.

I felt bad for my baby, though, this morning, because he had a hard time getting up. He's gonna be tired and cranky all day at school. But, he can go right to sleep when he comes home :) He had planned to try and stay up all night, then sleep during the day tomorrow because they're having a Freshmen Overnight tomorrow at his school. The kids are basically locked in the school from 9:00 Saturday night until 7:00 am Sunday morning. They will have access to the pool and the gym,and they'll be watching movies and playing games. Apparently, the only thing they WON'T be doing is sleeping. He's excited about it, and I'm excited for him.

I was originally going to play hooky with a friend, but he just called and the plans have changed. Damn!! Maybe I'll just go to work....I don't know....crap, crap, crap! OK, I'm going to go figure out what the hell to do. Now I'm annoyed!!!

What a waste...

...of IMAX tickets. With less than 24 hours notice, we weren't able to make it to Navy Pier tonight to see the movie I won tickets to. Bummer! But, we did spend the evening at my parents' house visiting with them. My aunt (mom's sister) and my brother & his girlfriend also stopped by, so it was nice spending time together. For anyone who may be out of the loop, my mom just returned from 4 months at her villa in Italy. Yeah, rough, right? Unfortunately for her, she spent the day at the hospital today undergoing a battery of tests. She'll be seeing her oncologist in a couple of weeks for the results of today's tests. This is the longest she's gone between tests, because she was in Italy, so of course we're all a little worried. But, we're trying to keep only positive thoughts on the forefront!!

I had bought my mom a game called Wineopoly (yes, Monopoly with wine) as a Welcome Home gift, so we played that for a while. Really cute version of Monopoly, I must say. The playing pieces were a cork, a carafe, a wine bottle, a goblet, a wedge of cheese and a bunch of grapes. We didn't realize until we were putting it away that all the "property" cards had tons of info on the back about the kind of wine that was on the card. (Instead of properties, you buy wines - Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, etc.) We'll have to read them the next time we bring the game out.

Today was an OK day at school. The highlight - there was a Subway fundraiser today, so I had a yummy tuna salad sandwich and Sunchips for lunch. Yay! Apparently, we're going to do this every two weeks. What a great idea! The meal (sandwich, chips and a drink) costs $5, and $1 goes right back to the school. My friend who runs an outside program within the school brought these people in, so kudos to Mr. C.! It was VERY popular with the kids, so it's a win-win situation for everyone. Another highlight of the day - Big Cheese was out! tee hee! Ok, I shouldn't be like that. He's actually being pretty decent this year. I'd better not press my luck with the universe by putting out negative vibes, right?

Thanks, Former UN!

I miss my former upstairs neighbor very much, but luckily for me, she still checks in here once in a while. You must (or as the Big Cheese would say, muss) go to yesterday's post and read her comment. She made me laugh out loud, as usual! I miss you, Former UN!! BTW, I'm so happy to see you are no longer unemployed. Please fill me in via email!

So, as I was driving here to the bar this afternoon, I saw that the crack in my windshield has already started to spread. Oh, joy! Big Cheese better be ready to endure my wrath on Monday morning! Like I said, he was already gone Thursday when it happened, but I saw him Friday morning in the parking lot, and told him what happened. I asked him what the Board was going to do about it, and his answer was, "I have no idea." Shocking, right? So I told him, "You need to find out, because not ONE cent is coming out of MY pocket to fix this, and it WILL be fixed." He pretty much hid from me the rest of the day, which is even funnier because his office is across from my room. Dork! [On a side note, I called the central office before I called the police on Thursday, and after being on hold a total of 20 minutes, and being transferred no less than three times, I was basically told "Tough luck." They are not responsible for the actions of the students. If my car had been damaged by CPS property, they would fix it. I reassured them my car was parked on CPS property, but they said that's not enough. So, maybe if those little shits had thrown, say, a desk from their classroom at my windshield, THEN the board would pay for it to be replaced. See how that works? Good, now explain it to me!!]

My dad did call a friend of his in the business to get me an estimate, and it could be worse, I suppose. His friend said he would fix it for me at cost, which would be about $275. But, when I mentioned that I was going to try and get school to pay for it, he said they'd have to pay full price, which made me laugh a little. A couple of women at work asked me at the end of the day what Big Cheese told me about it, and I told them "nothing." They were in agreement with me about how I shouldn't have to pay anything. They think Big Cheese should figure something out, and of course I agreed. One said that maybe he would pay for it himself. Ha! Or, that maybe he would offer to split it with me. I told them, "I don't care if y'all take up a collection for me, I'm not paying for this!" (sometimes my Englewood comes out :) )

The woman who said that is actually our security guard (and I use that term VERY loosely!) and she feels really bad, since she's the one who eventually shagged the kids out of the lot. But, she can't be everywhere at once, so I don't hold her the least bit responsible. In the morning, her post is the front of the school, not the back where the lot is. We obviously need more than one person doing security. And, no offense to Mrs. T., but someone else who isn't a middle-aged, slightly overweight woman in her sixties! She's said herself, a million times, "I ain't chasin' after no kids. Let 'em run!" God forbid a fight breaks out on the third floor, cuz she ain't goin'! I know it sounds like I'm picking on Mrs. T., but I'm really not. I really love her as a person. As a security guard, not so much. Unless a security guard is supposed to sit and do word searches all day. Then it would be my bad!

On a different subject, I finally took the plunge and assigned my babies their numbers yesterday. I tried to hold off because I figured I'd be getting a few more kids, but hell, it's three weeks in to the school year. Maybe this is it? Anyway, some of them already remember their number, which is huge for me! I use their numbers for everything!! First and foremost, it makes putting their papers and things in alphabetical order without any effort, because I just do in numerical order. Easy peasy! I have them write their numbers on everything, as well, because it helps me identify who the things belong to a lot easier. Most can write one or two digits, even if they can't write their name yet. We use our numbers for lining up, picking centers, raffles, jobs, you name it. I keep a can with numbered craft sticks in it, with the number down in the can, so I can't see it. Then I can randomly draw numbers for jobs or whatever. Then, that stick goes in the used can, so everyone gets a turn, before switching cans and starting over. I love that I can remove myself from the process completely in their eyes ("I didn't pick him, the sticks did.") even though sometimes, I will say a number that is different from what is on the stick. Yes, I know I'm a cheater, but sometimes I need a specific child for something. Naturally, because I assigned numbers, I will be getting at least one new student next week. Oh, well...

Oh, another funny/cute thing I wanted to share from my DIBELing last week. One of the boys from the other room was with me, and I could see in a matter of moments that this little one was very bright. The first page of pictures for the phoneme test has a tomato, a cub (that is a freakin' bear up in tree!) a plate (even though everyone else would call it a dish!) and a picture of a criminal in an old-fashioned black and white striped prison suit, complete with the hat, but we tell the kids it's "jail." (I can't tell you how many of them, upon being told "this picture is jail," say, "Oh, my daddy/uncle/mommy is in jail." So, so sad...) Anyway, as I was trying to give this boy the test, he wanted to just keep talking to me about the pictures, which would have been great, if I wasn't trying to administer this ridiculous test which is TIMED! So, everytime he tried to tell me something, I had to cut him off. I felt terrible. Well, the last of the 4 questions for each page requires the child to tell you what sound a certain picture begins with. For this page, the last question is, "What sound does plate start with?" He correctly told me "/p/", but then points to the picture and says "Cymbal starts with /s/" At first I was thinking "WTF?" but then I looked at the stupid drawing of the plate, and it does indeed look like a cymbal. It's even almost gold in color. What a little smarty pants!

I wish I didn't have this pounding migraine, which is now on Day 7, because the bar is empty, and I have lots of time to bore you with Hell-Hole stories, but I really need to stop looking at this computer screen because it isn't helping my head. Time for some caffeine, I think. Have a great weekend everyone!

In the first place God made idiots; that was for practice; then he made school boards. ---Mark Twain

Oo, one last thing. (Man, do I have ADD or what?) Last week, I added a ticker to this blog to count down the school year. It's at the bottom, though, so I bet none of you have even noticed it. I'm working on fitting it in somewhere else, but for now, if you're the least bit curious, scroll allllll the way down to the bottom. :)