Friday, November 7th

What a flippin' day. School is just going to stress me completely out. I know it. I found out about this the other day, but I spent the night last night grading papers all evening and didn't get a chance to post, so... it's all going to be here.

We found out yesterday that we are losing two inclusion teachers to another school because the administration of the school district says that we have too many teachers for our special education department. They have to report to their new schools on Monday. That's not the kicker though. The kicker is that the inclusion teachers were taken from the English Department. It now means that *I* am the ONLY Inclusion teacher for the whole English department. This is not good. You see. We have special education students in all grades from 9 - 12.

I knew that this was going to affect me, so I decided that I was going to be proactive and go in this morning and send an email to the two people who do the scheduling at KHS. The email that I sent basically said the following:

"I went to all the teachers who had the two inclusion teachers that we are losing and have decided to be pro-active and see where I was needed the most. I can either do one of two things:
1) I can help Mr. Myers out 1st period - he has 12 inclusion students and needs the help dearly. However, a new content mastery teacher will need to be found for first period and I can also go into Mr. Wilson's class 7th period and help out there as well. He has 7 inclusion students and it would help him out as well. I'm willing to lose my conference period to go into an overload status. I would hate to have the kids schedule be changed.
or
2) If you feel it better to pull the students out of the inclusion class and put them in a class where I'm teaching them - I could be my own inclusion teacher with my certification - or be a resource teacher. Whichever. I just hate changing the kids up when they have their own schedule set so far in the year.

I'm just want to do what's best for the kids."

So... I talked with both of the people that my email went to. One said that I was the best and would look into what might happen. My boss told me that he was leaning more toward moving the kids into my control. But things haven't been settled yet. So, Key has told me she wants me to be in Eric's room starting on Monday to at least help out. It might all change, but at least he's getting the help that he needs until things change.

So... yeah, I'm stressed. I don't even know if I'll have the same classes as I do now.

I think that I'm just going to try to do the right thing and go where God wants me to go and do what He wants me to do. It's quite simple to just follow... and do what I need to do. So... I guess that's what I'll do.

I *knew* that they were going to mess with me as soon as this happened. So, I guess being proactive and initiating the conversation about it makes it look a little less of them telling me what I'm going to do and more of what I want to do.

I need a drink. Strong. Water ain't cutting it.

~MJ

Wednesday Nov. 5

It's been an interesting day so far (and it's just the morning) hearing how my fellow teachers are a bit upset over Obama becoming president of the United States. I mainly just listened and tried to keep my mouth shut. One of the most interesting things that came out of it all was when my next door teacher (a government teacher) put it in this light. He's a republican, btw. - but he said, "It doesn't bother me that Obama is the president. I really don't care. He's a symbol. All he does is sign documents into law and he can't do anything without the governments approval." He's more worried about the senate and the house of representatives. I understand his thought process there.

Moving on...

The kids here are more than rowdy today and it's really upsetting. I still have a flippin' headache at 10:00 AM and it's getting really old. Seriously old.

So, I turned to my bible to read a few words. it's amazing how when you need something from God, He delivers it to you in a wonderful, non-pushy way. I've been scared of something that I really cannot change. I can only deal with it the best that I can. Back to the bible though, I opened it up to have a small devotional and it led me to Proverbs 23: 6 - 9. There are deceivers and liars around these days and God gave us a brain and a conscious to be able to guard ourselves from the evil around us. Thankfully, the One who knows our hears will keep us safe through life's trials and difficulties. AMEN. He also sends us friends who are more than capable to help us through those tough times to give us strength. I'm so thankful for my friends and their strength.

I will continue to jot things down throughout the day to help me get through today because I know that only God can help me to cope with all the things going on within my life: the headaches, the patience that I need to teach, the will to keep going when I want to quit and to be strong in my convictions no matter what they are.

Oh good grief. 3rd period ticked me off. Unfortunately, that led to me setting up a new seating chart because they decided that they should sit beside their friends again today and I was tired of the noise. (I wonder why.) I had to write 2 students up. One refused to move to the new seat assigned to her. She walked out of the room after I told her that if she walked out that she'd get a referral. The other student moved as I asked, but when I told him to get out his work and work on it, he told me to shut up - twice. I sent him directly to his assistant principal. I will not have a child talk to me that way.

Lunch - thankfully was calming. I got to vent and that helped some. I really wished that Donna was in the room at that time, I really would have liked to have her input on the situation, but she wasn't there.

4th and 5th period were okay, but Donna looked like she was ready to just give up on everything so I took over. Sighs. We are just tired of the kids. I know that much for sure. We need a break... a long, alcoholic break.

6th period: Again, I had an issue with the kids. They didn't want to do their work. They just mainly wanted to talk (even after I complimented them on acting relatively OK for the substitutes that they had Monday and Tuesday). So, I'll have a new seating chart for them tomorrow. I even assigned a student lunch detention with me. If he doesn't show tomorrow, I'll be telling him he has one more day before a referral will be written.

7th period: I had another student to write up. LOVELY. He's not even my student, but he asked to go get a book from the bookroom, I called out to him to stop that it wasn't opened and he left. The substitute told me that he came back into the room and told him that he had to get his planner because they wanted to see it. He left again and then didn't come back at all. When he didn't come back to class he was truant. TRUANT!! AUGH.

So, that's my day in a nutshell. Well, I mean, only to come home, grade papers and get more stuff done around the house and then work on audio.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh boy. What a day.

I'm just glad that I can jot it down here and get it out of my system so that I don't have to just rant and rave to someone and feel bad about dumping my issues on them. HOWEVER, if they want to read about my day and comment on it... that's their business... right? Right.

And... now after typing all of this and dealing with the grading of papers, my fingers (pinkie and ring finger) in my left hand are going numb. Great. Just peachy. It's not a good thing when that happens. It means that my not cubital tunnel syndrome is acting up. This means that I'm going to have to start wearing that brace again. Yay. (Yes, that was sarcastic.)

Tomorrow is a day of "fun" and math. It's going to be interesting to see how that all works out. I'll explain that later.

I must work on some audio... then thankfully bed.

~MJ

Monday / Tuesday Nov. 3 and 4th

Monday post:
Today, I played hookie from school (well, the principal knew what I was doing). Matt, Joy (his mom) and I went to the school to be with Meghan. You see, the Burnet High School band made state rankings and they wanted to see where they actually ranked. We traveled with the band (in charter buses) to San Antonio to the Alamodome.

Throughout the day, twenty school bands played to see who would continue on to the top seven later in the evening. Just as an FYI, Burnet had made it to state before, but they have never ranked in the top seven. They played at 3:45 and they were awesome (as usual). After they played we watched a few other bands who actually were a bit better than Burnet. I hate to say that, but I will give kudos where kudos are due.

Burnet did end up playing again. They were one of the top seven!!! By eight o'clock though, I was getting a headache and had nothing to take. However, they didn't make the top three bands. *frowns* But they placed seventh out of eight hundred bands in the state of Texas. We left San Antonio around 10:30ish. We got into the charter buses and on the way home, they decided to play the movie "Sweeney Todd." It's not a good movie to play when one is tired and just wants to sleep and try to get rid of a headache.

Tuesday Nov. 4:

We got home at 1:30 AM. By the time we got home, it was 1:45. I went directly to the pantry, got medicine (high powered) and took it then went to bed.

I woke this morning with a migraine. I'm starting to hate these things. I called in for a substitute today at 6:00 in the morning and made sure that the kids were up and about before I moved back to bed and slept the majority of the day.

Around 9:45, I did wake, dress and vote on our elections. I don't know where the world is going to, but I just hope that we, as a nation, can come to grips with what we do and who we elect into office. I just pray that we are all ready for whatever the outcome will be.

I talked with a few friends this afternoon that were online and they kept me company for a little bit, but finally told me to rest. So, I did. And I dreamed. I dreamed of someone holding me close as I slept, keeping me safe from whatever evil was about and who loved me. He kissed my head and held me ever so close, caressing my face as I slept. He watched over me... and I was content.

My head though is better. Still achy, but if I sleep much more today I'll have an issue with sleeping tonight. I will just keep my thoughts on being kept safe, warm and secure.

Until tomorrow...

MJ

Sunday Nov. 2

I know that I normally don't do a lot of blogging, but I'm going to do my best to utilize this to the best of my ability. So... keeping that in mind, I'm just going to see what I can do to keep a small little diary here for myself - at least of some kind.

Although I have been in various churches growing up (Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist) I found that I most enjoyed going to a Baptist church. A few issues have come to pass at the Baptist church that we attend. It seems that a few of the elders think that children should be seen and not heard, and unfortunately, that's not a help when you have three children in your family who are vocal.

Other issues that came up with our church was through the musical vision of the choir director and myself. I thoroughly enjoy music and I love to sing. I had joined the choir and the director asked me if I would like to sing in the service in a couple of weeks. So, excitedly, I said yes that I would. It so happened that I was sick one weekend and the next weekend, my family came in and we weren't able to go to church because they came in on Sunday morning. Needless to say, I got a phone call from the director of the choir that afternoon. He told me that although he really appreciated my voice within the choir, that he would not need my service for the next weekend. He went ahead and informed me that only the faithful of service would need to perform for the parish. It took me awhile to get over that, but I did, but I have not been in the choir now for awhile, and that really bothers me, because I do love to sing. :(

So... this weekend, we decided to try a new church. We tried the Church of Christ. It was decent enough.

I went to the golf course this afternoon. It was the 2nd time in my life that I've acutally been on a gold course. It was okay though. By the end of the 18th hole, I was pretty lit up though. From the first time that I went - I didn't think that I'd like it, but being able to drink and just chilling... it was okay. I did get a little sunburned though. That may not be a good thing though. I don't like being sunburned. I tend to just burn and not tan. :( Sucks.

Now, it's about 8 o'clock. We finished cutting up a deer and have enough meat now for awhile. It's really good meat too. I actually had a piece straight from the bone - tartar. :) Very nice meat though. Very very good. I can't wait to have some chicken fried steak with it. It's absolutely awesome as fried steak. Yumola.

I do think that I'm going to try to get a little bit of mixing done this evening. I don't know if I'll actually get any done or not. With my mother in town, spending the night, I don't think that I may be able to do so. She's on her way down to my great aunt's funeral on Tuesday in Rio Hondo.

Aunt Trudie - 102 years old. Wow. I know that she said that she wanted to be home two years ago, but I know that she's happy being home now. I know that there's a big family reunion going on and that I'm missing out on it. *grins* I just pray that her family will be okay with having her within their lives for so long.

Time I think to leave for tonight. I know that I may need to go ahead and get some stuff done. I must go ahead and get a substitute for tomorrow. Meghan's band (Burnet High School Band) is going to state competition and I know that that they are going to do good. :) I can't wait to see how they do.

~MJ~