It's really written for the end of the day tomorrow. Here's the text of it. I thought to link at the end was funny.
_______________________
Once again we've come to the last day.
On my first last day, I finished cleaning my room, and it finally passed inspection (Arnold Hayes had a strict idea of how a room should look before a teacher could check out).
I turned in my keys, went to the parking lot, and then sat in my car for a few minutes. I couldn't believe I'd survived the year. Looking back, I thought that I'd accomplished the impossible. If anyone would have told me what a year of teaching involved, how complicated it was, how emotionally entangling it would be, how mentally taxing, I think I would have run the other way.
I felt like I did when I was in elementary school. Summer is here! I thought. Summer is here!
Summer is here. I hope all of you rest, change gears for a while, recharge, and then come back like the newly born.
31 Signs You've Been a Teacher Too Long
Yeah, like any rejection is good.Still, a favorite story of mine that I know is weird and will be hard to place came back rejected yesterday. The language on the reject was the standard stuff, but the editors added, "PS A difficult decision."
I'm very happy for the PS. I think the story is a good one. I just have to find the right editor on the right day.
A student of mine said to me the other day, "Do you remember when you used to receive rejections?" Right. Like there will be a time when everything I write is exactly perfect for every market in every instance.
Most of the time, when I receive annoying little scams like this one, I immediately trash it:Atten Beneficially,
This is your first Payment of $5000 usd register today,
So kindly reconfirm your receiver’s name information to the office
For your approval payment of $1.7Million sign to release immediately,
Contact Western union Office:
Name: Mr. Frank Benson.
TEL: [redacted]
E-mail [redacted]
Your western union, maximum amount receiving each day
From tomorrow is $5000.00 daily until the funds complete
Transferred. Once we receive info. the transfer will commence.
Mr.Daniel Ejikeme
But today, I was thinking: what these scammers want to have happen is for me to eventually reveal my bank account number and password so they can drain my account. Why couldn't a clever counter-scammer design a fake bank, with fake account numbers and fake passwords, and as soon as anyone tries an electronic transfer from the fake account, a hard-drive crushing executable is sent instead?
Clearly I have too much time on my hands this morning.
Woe to the teacher with any kind of vision problem. Here's a paper I struggled with for a while this morning. It took several reads for me to figure out that the scrawled word in the middle was "message." This is by no means the worst handwriting I deal with, by the way.
Fortunately, some of my students write very legibly. Witness this very readable essay:
Although you would think by the time a student got to high school, the handwriting issue would have settled down, I see a wide variety of competencies. Here's a writer who writes all her stuff in 72pt.
She moaned to me earlier in the year that she hates to type because her essays that she's so proud of (that are multiple-pages) are reduced. I see her point. The page I pictured here had 58 words on it. If she typed it, single spaced, a nine-page hand-written effort would turn into a single page.
I have found through the years that I need to grade in increasingly better light. Students who turn in work written in pencil with a soft touch are almost unreadable to me. I don't remember having that problem when I was grading papers in my twenties!
This looks very futuristic to me, even though it's a fairly obvious amenity at an airport. At $12 an hour, I'm pretty sure I'd take a pass, and the claustrophobic have to see these as their nightmares made real.For some reason the image made me think of Woody Allen's Sleeper. Fewer folks would balk at the fee if they actually were orgasmatrons.
I've seen pictures of Japanese capsule hotels that the pods are also reminiscent of. Having read J.G. Ballard's "Billennium," Harry Harrison's "Make Room, Make Room," and seeing Soylent Green makes the sleeping pod idea triggery for me.
When I was ten, though, I think this is exactly what I wanted in my room. It's a little kid's fort (with Internet access)!
Stand on Zanzibar, here we come.
Ray's work populated my imagination from early on. Dozens of his creatures became the stuff of my nightmares and then fertilized what I wanted to write about later.My two favorite Ray Harryhousen moments come from the fighting skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts, and the giant crab from Mysterious Island. I also thought Talos from Jason and the Argonauts was scary and convincing.
Kids in my science fiction class are in love with modern special effects that are practically photorealistic, but I like the old movies a great deal. I'm sorry Ray is no longer among us.
Today we celebrate National Teacher Day!Are you one of those people who can't wait for this holiday? The National Teacher Day tree is hung with lights and blown-glass apples. The kids are going door to door, singing the traditional Teacher Day carols. We did our National Teacher Day secret supporter gift exchange. Later, we'll meet at the principal's house for a night of partying and good food. And, tomorrow, of course, we get the day off to tell stories of our favorite teachers to each other.
Ahh! I just love this time of year.
Wait! What? That's not how it goes in this version of the universe?
Dang.
One of her premises for the argument strikes a familiar sentiment:
It is important to note that most of the dictates for schools are proposed by people who have never taught. Regardless of the studies and research aimed at school improvement, I believe good educators have always known what makes schools work more efficiently. However, we get bogged down in rhetoric and what is "hot" at the moment. I believe that sustained school improvement will take guts (good old fashioned courage), focus and stamina.
She makes five practical suggestions for improving the school: focus on attendance, cull ineffective teachers from the ranks, intensify efforts on early-reading competency, rehire or reinforce counselors and support personel, and build a "winning spirit" in all children, which means that the schools shouldn't appear to celebrate only our college-bound students.
You can now break into small groups and discuss.
P.S. I don't know about other teachers, but for me it seems that the school year is ending before I'm done teaching everything I need to teach. Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow cut off the first month of the school year (the month when we don't have much of a relationship with our kids) and add a month to the end of the year when we have a much deeper understanding of what it takes to help our students to learn?
