Little Gripes

Well...we have finished the first 2 weeks of school. That is sooooo hard to believe.

For the most part things have been great. Well...they have been great in comparison to last year when I was starting to teach high school in the middle of Virginia. That was horrible...so there wasn't much that had to happen this year for it to be better.

The kids are good. I only have a few with attitudes that I am going to have to deal with. I am teaching 5 classes of 7th grade and 1 class of 6th grade. My 6th grade class is last period of the day. So...I teach 7th grade all day and then at the very end of the day I have to completely switch gears and do something new.

My 6th graders must be the most whiney group of kids in the world. I taught 6th graders for 3 years in Irving and they were nothing like these kids. The complain about everything I ask them to do. They regularly tell me that what I am asking them to do is not fair and then procede to mutter under their breaths (but loud enough for me to hear) how horrible it is and that they shouldn't have to do it. That is about to drive me up the wall. I will be lucky to keep my temper for much longer.

Thursday we had a meeting with the science person of the district. I left the meeting feeling horrible. Apparently they want us to start teaching curriculum on the FIRST day of school. What a joke. Oh...and we aren't supposed to spend time teaching what they learned last year. Hmmmm...lets think about this for a minute. I have yet to meet a middle school student who can actually use a ruler. Yet, we are supposed to do labs in which they measure accurately in centimeters or millimeters. Most of the time as I walk around helping I have to get them to use the correct side of the ruler. They measure with the inches side...and while this might be understandable if the ruler WASN'T labeled...IT IS LABELED!!!

I am supposed to assume that they learned science last year and a simple review will be enough. It isn't. End of story.

I am also realizing just how much of a perfectionist I am. I always worry that I am not doing good enough. Turns out I am doing more than most teachers even pretend to attempt. I know I know...everyone else has realized this and be telling me as much since I started teaching....but only now am I starting to realize just how true this is. Problem is...it doesn't make me change my over-acheiving, perfectionist ways.

All this adds up to NEW ulcer pain. I was in the middle of 5th period the other day when the stabbing pain returned. I had just eaten lunch and had probably given my body just enough time to get some of my stomach acid into my colon (where my 3 ulcers are located). It was grad school all over again. Except that this time I know I am not dieing and I know that I don't have some kind of Colon cancer or something. Also I can't lay down until it ubsides I just have to keep teaching. My tollerance of pain greatly increases when I know I don't have any choice but to suck it up!

Let's see...what else can I gripe about????

I haven't done anything wedding related in weeks. Of course we got most of the details planned before school started. I think I will start wedding dress shopping in September. Then I can pick bride's maids dresses and decide for sure on colors and then I can start making the invitations. :) That is happy!

Oh yeah...I can gripe about the heat! I do miss that part of Virginia. I know it was never 105 degrees there in the time I lived there. It has been DAMN hot and I am so sick of it. Of course. I do live in Texas.

Maybe when we go on our honeymoon to the far far northeast (Maine, New Hamshire, Vermont, and maybe into Canda) it will be so perfect that Nathan will be convinced to move there! LOL....not likely. He hates the heat and the cold...can't figure out where we could live where it is neither hot nor cold. LOL

Enjoy the heat...I am going to grade papers.