Only on Weekends

I never get sick during the week during the school year and apparently, the pattern holds when I teach summer school, too. It's a guarantee, I begin to feel bad on Friday afternoon, wake up Saturday morning feeling horrible but by Sunday night I'm better. Well, feeling well enough that I'll be there Monday morning. Ugh.

What day is it again?

I spend a great deal of my time totally disoriented as to what the day of the week is. If it weren't for my cell phone with it's handy day and date display I'd be hopelessly lost. All it takes is for me to take a nap (one of the joys of summer) or lose myself in a book and I lose all sense of time. At 1:30 this afternoon the mailman delivered two new hardbacks I ordered and had been less than patiently waiting for. I finished the first around 5 and realized I hadn't had food since 8 this morning. After cooking dinner, I started reading the second book and finished it about 9:00. What happened this morning? This morning..... that seems like days ago. No wonder I can't ever stay mad at anyone. A nap or a good book and I've forgotten what I was mad about to begin with.

Another principal, another "gentle reminder" about grades

It happens all the time. It's being reported today because the principal in question mentioned No Child Left Behind. One of the easiest and quickest ways to improve public education in this country would be for teachers to once again be in charge of their grade books. Principals and parents whining after grades have been assigned should have no ability to affect grades. Click here for article

Why Brass Billygoats????

Almost twenty years ago, my high school band director (we called him the DRL) was on one of his infamous tirades and yelled at a kid, "You don't have the sense the good Lord gave a brass billygoat." At the time, those of us out of the DRL's line of vision barely suppressed the guffaws at this further example of his tirades being the ultimate in non-thinking spew. I have no clue who the kid was that was being yelled at that day, I'm pretty sure he played trombone and he was probably a freshman. I don't even remember what the poor kid did or didn't do to set the DRL off. But those infamous words have stayed with me and never fail to bring a smile to my face. So when I begin to wonder if there is some sort of mass intelligence robbing virus infecting those around me, I pause and compare them to those legendary brass billygoats. It doesn't end my frustration but it does allow me to deal with it with a smile on my face.