Mileage Reimbursement?

So, I had a half-day gig this morning at school a few miles away ... stayed to lunch with some nice teachers then headed back home. Nearly there, I pulled in for some gas and my phone rings - it's the school and they need me back for an afternoon gig!!! So, I turn around, re-trace my commute, and got another half-day's pay in the bank.

In-a-pinch movie

For the last two days, I have been subbing in a middle school math room. Stressful enough, but I had the same group of obnoxious seventh graders three periods a day! (Math, Social Studies, and Study Hall.) Ugh. So today, I brought in a rented DVD of "Life," a show that was on the Discovery Channel a while back. It (mostly) saved the day: the boys got really engrossed in the Komodo Dragon hunting scenes and the Ibex calf hopping around cliff faces. Some of the girls chose to gossip in the corner, but at that point I really didn't care. We watched one episode during Social Studies and another during Study Hall, and boy did it save my sanity!

Good Things.

So, those of you who know me know that I had one particularly awful day on Tuesday and that the fallout is still ... falling. I will post about it once all the chips are down. Anyways, the rest of the week was spent at different assignments at OHS and boy was I glad!! It's like going home. And the kids are so awesome. A few examples from today:

I wore my "Queen Bee" costume and got lots of laughs and compliments. I even got one "Your Highness." And a drawing!

Not bad for a 17 year old, right?

One of the girls dressed up as Tank Girl. So rad.

One of my former students offered to organize some sort of march on the school district office to get me my job back.

A special ed kid told me that there is an eagle in his head that is controlled by the GPS and other machinery in his glasses. Only not really! Ha ha!

AND one of my former co-workers bought me a beer after work. TGIF!

Back to Work!

Great vacation.

Anyhow, back at the salt mine:

Ms. GT: "Okay, let's work on that still life drawing!"

Cranky Student (C.S.) : "I don't wanna draw! This is hard!"

Ms. GT: "Well, yes, but this will make you a better artist if you try something new and challenging."

C.S.: "It doesn't matter for my art! I only draw manga."

Ms. GT: "Even manga artists need to know about shading, proportion, and drawing realistic objects that might be near the characters."

C.S.: "It makes my brain hurt!"

Ms. GT: "Good. It's supposed to."

At this point other students at the table start to snicker a bit.

Ms. GT: "If you told the PE teacher that benching made your arms hurt he would say the exact same thing. Exercise all your muscles."

C.S.: "But I don't wanna."

Ms. GT: "If there was a class in complaining you would have a 4.0."

C.S. "I wish there were. But I'm stuck here drawing."

Up, Up and Awaaaaay!

Just had 2 very nice days at AK8 Part Deux - a different K-8 school that the AK-8 teacher moved to which is also called .... AK-8. Anyways, I saw all grade levels, drew elephants and value scales and volcanoes, discussed "Washington Crosses the Delaware" at length, and somehow survived the technology classes too.

Tomorrow I believe I am taking off work and taking off in a plane! I'm hoping not to work but you never know if your favorite teacher will have an emergency. Then I'm headed to the East Coast without my laptop for a few days.

Ta ta!

F*#&ing Eels

Argh!

Teenagers can be such slippery, evil little eels. They wiggle out the door and are never seen again. Today I had to take second roll at the end of what should have been a fairly self-contained Spanish class because they kept slipping out rather than wait for the hall pass or because it is a nice Friday and they "don't wanna do Spanish!" Grr!!!!

Checkers

Played checkers in special ed class ...



... and lost.