I'm Supposed to Turn Those In?

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll remember that I write a lot when there are other things to do. This evening is no exception. For those readers not intimately aware of the school calendar, I should mention that this is the last week of the first grading period. That means grades are due tomorrow by noon, lesson plans from the past nine weeks were due at the end of the day today. Here's the thing though, I didn't hear about the whole lesson plan thing until yesterday at lunch in my very first "departmental meeting" (it just so happened that the fine arts faculty ended up eating lunch in the same room).

The lesson plans shouldn't be difficult since I've only done one or two things since my arrival on campus three weeks ago (can you believe it's been that long?). Unfortunately the lesson plans require using a completely different and totally mysterious teacher language, a language which I haven't yet learned. There is a form to work off of, but to my untrained eyes, it looks like a bunch of gobbledygook which I can hardly hope to translate before tomorrow.

All of a sudden I feel like the kid scrunched down in the chair in the back because he forgot to do his homework or study for the test.

Despite being behind in the lesson plan department, I'm beginning to recognize the early flickers of confidence. I'm growing, dare I say it, comfortable in my job. Don't get me wrong, I am still flailing in the vast ocean of the public school system, but my flailing is beginning to resemble treading.

The Mom Song

I saw this on some website and thought it was hilarious. So I thought I'd share. Enjoy!

The First Referral

I had to write a guy up Thursday. It took a week and a half of teaching. That's probably not a good thing. I found myself wondering what I'd done wrong as far as classroom control goes? He and I had a discussion earlier in the class period about his grade (which is not good to say the least, although I haven't actually calculated it yet). In hindsight, I probably should have drawn the line and said I wasn't discussing it. Frankly, I don't know what else he was expecting from his performance. What gets me is that he didn't even try. Last week he told me that he didn't really want to be in my class in the first place, something about not wanting to be an actor. I told him that I wasn't expecting amazing performances, and all he had to do in my class to pass it was try. Just try, that's all I want. He said he wasn't smart enough to memorize his lines. I told him he' s selling himself short, and that he has potential to do whatever he wants.

On Thursday he walked out of my class without permission. What else was I supposed to do?

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In other news, I've blown my monthly quota out of the water. I'm pretty excited about that. Maybe my annual average will be 6 posts a month. It's just a product of actually having something to write about for the first time in a long time. Good times.

Auditions, Red Ribbon Week, and a Sort Of Clean Stage

This has been a fairly productive week. I ordered a copy of "A Christmas Carol," taken steps to get the rights and worked on purchase orders to buy scripts. I'm still overwhelmed, but for the first time since last Monday when I started, I think I might actually make it.

Last week a girl from SGA came in and asked if the Drama Club wanted to do a skit for Red Ribbon week. Not knowing that Red Ribbon Week was only two weeks away at the time, and that this week's class periods were basically lost to PSATs, I accepted and put the students to work. At first we had an extravagant plan which included a whole lot of monologues and a whole lot of people. But we realized how little time we have left today, and decided to cut it down to a few people, like seven. The cast for the skit is entirely students I trust (and who trust each other). I was worried that the younger people would get scared being in front of everyone in the courtyard and forget lines or just refuse to perform, but cutting it down to just these few people makes the entire situation a lot easier. Although I'm not sure how everyone else will react when they find out that they're out. I think they'll understand though, and hopefully they won't be upset.

I also spent three and a half hours in the theatre meeting with my Drama club officers and cleaning the stage just a little. It's not as clean as I would like, but I talked to the maintenance guy and he said they could mop the stage and clean up the wood finish that someone spilled, which actually makes me really happy. I thought I would have to go in and clean it up myself on Friday, but now I don't have to and can spend Friday getting ready for auditions on Monday.

And I've finally scheduled auditions for "A Christmas Carol." Monday at 3:30 in the Drama room/PAC. Cold readings. So this weekend I'll have to find scenes/monologues for my prospective actors to read for me.

My freshmen are performing their first scenes tomorrow. I'm expecting disaster. No one was really off book last class, which means they have a lot of work to do before tomorrow's class period. I'm sure a few of them will surprise me. Others might disappoint. Either way, it means I don't have to lecture.

Oh, and I think I might want to do "Urinetown" for the spring musical. Really, it's a lot cleaner than it sounds.

Characters

I spend every day with characters.

There's Bon Jovi Guy. He looks like Jon Bon Jovi. He's kind of crazy, and likes to do semi-acrobatic things while running around like an idiot. I yelled at Bon Jovi Guy and company today for being idiots.

There's Pee Boy, who asked to go pee in the first five minutes of class on my first day of school. No, Pee Boy, you can't go pee. You should have done that during lunch. He hasn't asked to go pee since.

There's Crazy Girl, who has emotional problems.

There's the Suck-Up, who insists that I am her favorite teacher and Drama is her favorite class. She's had me for all of a day, and she's had a sub in Drama for the rest of the year. She's trying to get on my good side. She's a Suck-Up.

There's Girl-With-Too-Much-On-Her-Plate. She does band and sleeps in my class.

There's the Corner Girls, who don't pay attention, and who will be getting low grades on their first assignment because they haven't been working on them. At all. So they're getting low grades.

There's Well-Dressed-Guy, who always wears a tie. And he was wearing Seminole colors on my first day. That was pretty awesome.

There's Attitude Girl (more like three or four Attitude Girls) who insists on talking over everyone else, then giving them attitude when I tell her to be quiet. She wasn't in class today. I was happy about that.

So, I spend my day with characters. I don't really want to, but it's my job.

Have I Mentioned...

...that I feel completely incompetent in my job? I'm realizing this week how little I know about the process of putting on a play, especially in the early stages. I went on the Dramatist Play Service website today to try and figure out how to buy the rights for "A Christmas Carol". I personally would rather have written my own adaptation and avoided the royalties all together, but given that I have a new job to learn, lesson plans to write, and a month and a half to get this show up, I decidedly don't have that kind of time. It doesn't help that I come home every day emotionally and physically exhausted. Anyway, the thing is, not only do I not know how to buy the rights to something, I don't know how to do that with my Drama club budget. There are forms to fill out, I know that much, but when do I do that? How do I do that? And then there is something about budget restrictions because our budget is basically entirely from dues, and funds from dues are already spoken for (something about shirts). The problem is, I don't have details on that. The last teacher didn't leave details; either that or I just haven't found them yet, since I can't get into my filing cabinets because I don't have keys yet. NO FREAKING KEYS! There are about six different things that I want/need to do that all require keys, not the least of which is letting my students into the classroom in the morning so I can do something, like maybe, teach.

If you couldn't tell, I had a really bad day. I expected to get keys, didn't get keys. I found out that my entire budget is about $2,600, and I can't use all of it. And did I mention that we don't have a sound board because someone was skipping in the PAC a few weeks ago, broke into the booth, and poured some kind of liquid all over the sound board and shorted it out. Lack of sound board means lack of sound system. We also don't have any lavaliere mics, and they cost about $1000, and we can't opt for the cheaper variety because Colonial is in the flight path of two airports, and the planes interfere with the signal. So if we're going to have our actors wired for sound, we either rent or borrow mics. Did I mention that our entire budget is about $2,600?

Oh, and our shop is a mess. The one saw that we have that has a blade has a frayed power chord, and I am hesitant to let anyone use it.

On top of all of this, I have to start worrying about Districts, because registration is December 1st. Oh, and guess what, that costs money too. A lot.

And I think my classes hate me. And I don't know what I'm doing.

The First Two Days

I survived my first two days.

I spent Monday at the 9th Grade Center dealing with freshmen. In the eight years since my own time as a high school freshman, I had forgotten the depth of immaturity. I went in assuming that exercises I enjoyed in college would work fine for my new freshies. I found out very quickly that things like walking around the room without talking to classmates or examining oneself in the mirror and following instructions are completely beyond the range of possible behaviors. Thankfully, there are only two periods of freshman Drama I.

I left on Monday afternoon exhausted, discouraged, and completely exhausted. As I drove away from campus, I wondered what I'd gotten myself into. How could anyone do this for a living, day-in-day-out fighting the natural tendency of 9th graders to pay attention to anything but the teacher? Despite my emotional and physical exhaustion, I drove to my alma matter, University High, to get advice from those older and wiser: my own high school drama teachers. I watch them rehearse the fall play for a while, then I sat down with Mrs. D to go over what it is exactly that I'm supposed to be teaching these students. I quickly realized that my initial plans were far too optimistic, and I needed to adjust my expectations. It is after all Drama I, and they are not IB kids. And it turns out that the assignment I gave them on Monday (memorize, rehearse and perform a scene) is a bit too advanced for them. I decided to let them carry on with it, just so I could see what they do with it.

Tuesday I went in nervous and worried. I only had two classes on Monday, and this time there were three. Could I make it through the day? Do I have that kind of stamina? The answer: yes, because unlike on the freshman campus they are old enough to control themselves. Tuesday was great, and a small bit of my Monday afternoon doubt began to evaporate. The were involved, and up for playing goofy theater games and actually giving it a good effort.

I finished the day energized and in a surprisingly good mood.

Day three was an entirely different story which I will save for another time. In any case, keep praying; I'll be in survival mode for quite a while.

Separation Anxiety

I knew it was coming. When I decided to get a Mac, I was fully aware that there would be a learning curve. I've spent all day (literally about 8 hours) getting my computer set up and working the way I like it. After about four hours, I realized that I'd only half installed most of my applications, so I had to get online and find out how to a full install. Not really difficult, but a nice reminder that I'm no longer working on a Microsoft machine, thank goodness. But along with that there are a few things I'm beginning to miss about my old computer.

1. The keyboard. I could fly on that thing, and this new one is going to take some serious getting used to.
2. The shortcuts. I just don't know what they are. It took me two or three hours to figure out what one of the shortcut symbols means (it's Option, by the way, or Alt on other machines). Oh, and there are four function-type keys instead of two. And heaven forbid it lock up on me, because I have no idea what the Ctrl+Alt+Del equivalent is. Thankfully, it's a Mac, and I shouldn't have to worry about that for a while.
3. The familiarity. I just haven't gotten used to it yet, and when I came upstairs and used my old computer a little bit, it felt like coming home to where everything is familiar.
4. The 'x' button on the right-hand side of a program. I'll get used to it.
5. Knowing where everything is and subsequently feeling a little computer savvy.

I accidentally deleted the Pictures folder in the Finder menu and had to create a new one. But it doesn't have the cute little Pictures folder icon, and I want it back, so if anyone happens to know how to make it come back, please leave me a comment.

I'm considering buying some form of Macs for Dummies. Until then, all Mac related advice is greatly appreciated.

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Unrelated Notes:

We're one week into October and I'm posting for the fourth time. Maybe I'll make up for being a total slacker over the summer.

Condolences to all Gator fans. LSU sucks. And they're rude. (Did you hear what they were chanting after a very nice Tim Tebow touchdown? That's just not polite.)

While today it sucks to be a Gator, it rocks to be a Seminole! Dare I hope for a winning season? Unfortunately, the tough part of our schedule starts now. Wake Forest, Miami, Boston College, Virginia Tech, and the game that makes Thanksgiving suck, Florida. At least we've started putting up some offense.

And while I'm on the topic of football, let me just say that USF shouldn't be ranked higher than UF.

You Can Come In Today

I awoke Friday morning to the sound of my cell phone ringing. I shook the sleep out of my voice as I flipped open my phone. Colonial. Dang it. "Hi, Laura. This is J at Colonial. You can come in today if you want." It was 7:30, and there was no way I wanted to face my new students without time to prepare. So, I opted to start work on Monday.

That afternoon I went to the main campus to just orient myself, find the light switches, you know. I got there around 1:45 and spent a little bit of time in the office and then made my way over to the drama room, my room, to look around. The front doors to the PAC were locked, so I went around the sides and started trying doors. I rounded the corner and heard a promising chatter behind one. So I knocked. The door burst open and I was met by six or seven drama students. "Are you the new drama teacher?" "Yeah, I am." And then I was being hugged by some person I've never met. Pretty crazy. After that I went inside and met the substitute whose been teaching the drama classes for the last two weeks. She did her best to scare me out of my mind. Watch out for these four, I had to give them referrals. The drama 3 and 4 kids are really good students, but they like to talk a lot. So after that we went over what they've done so far, at least to her knowledge. It wasn't much, and it sounded pretty boring anyway.

So, I have until Monday to figure out what I'm doing with these kids in our first class. The sub will still be around to help with the transition, and we'll see how that goes. Monday I'm on the freshman campus, Tuesday on main.

In other news, I got my laptop today, and have spent the entire afternoon trying to figure out how everything works. I think I'm getting it, but it will take a while.

The Sheriff's Office Would Not Say What the Dessert Was

This article popped up on my iGoogle news feed. The headline read, "Cops: Florida Boy, 13, Killed Brother, 8, Over Dessert." Being in need of a good laugh, I read the brief article. The highlight of the article comes near the end: "The sheriff's office would not say what the dessert was." Immediately I started thinking of slightly altered headlines: "Teen kills brother over Little Debbie Snack Cake," "Boy Blames Twinkie for Brother's Death." There's a banana cream pie somewhere in there too. And then I think of some reporter standing on the steps of the police department addressing a harassed looking officer surrounded by pushy TV news crews. Pencil poised, he asks, "And what kind of dessert was it? Did it have a creme filling?" Of all the questions one could ask, did the child have a history of violence, are the other children okay, they chose to inquire about the dessert.

Oh, and it happened in The City Beautiful. Yup, sounds like Orlando. And The Simpsons, come to think of it. ("Lisa, no! Your hands are too weak!")

Anyway, I thought it was amusing...the dessert line, not the death.

Orientation and a New Computer

Once again the self-imposed post quota was not met. I was so close too. But October promises to be an eventful month as I should be starting in the classroom within the next week, so the only thing to keep me from writing is busyness, or perhaps a mental breakdown.

And speaking of mental breakdowns, OCPS did their best to steer me down the path of insanity yesterday at Pre-Employment Orientation (PREO). I arrived on time, much to my surprise. Having left ten minutes behind schedule, and siting in Orlando rush hour traffic, I expected to be dashing in, breathless and confused. Instead I strolled in, and waited for them to let us in. Go me. Anyway, the morning session was entirely paperwork. Two hours of writing my name, address, phone number, social security number, signature and the date. Every so often I would actually read what I signed. Thank goodness I learned to quickly skim through documents and get the general idea in college. My favorite form was by far the drug test release form. Yes, you can study my pee, especially since my employment is contingent on the results of the drug test. Once I'd finished the substantial stack of paperwork, I went and did the drug test, got fingerprinted, and had my picture taken for my OCPS employee badge, then left for lunch.

The afternoon session was almost entirely form free, and completely exhausting. Never in my life have I had so much important information thrown at me in so little time. We had sections on payroll, health insurance, life insurance, retirement, teacher certification, OCPS general expectations, etc. They gave us this folder that has a cute collage picture on the front and scary information overload on the inside. Thankfully I have a couple of weeks to figure out insurance stuff and five months to think about my retirement plan. It's strange to think about retirement, since I haven't even started working yet.

Now that I've been hired, I decided to go ahead and get a new computer. My old Dell is on it's last leg, having spent four years in faithful service (except for that one time the hard drive died and I lost all of my pictures from Barbados). I can't say that I'm sorry to see the end of this era. Waiting a minute and a half for it to open Firefox (or any other program for that matter) has become more and more frustrating. So it is going into the computer bag forever and it's spot on my desk will be filled by a brand spanking new MacBook. Yes, I'm making the switch. And I'm pretty excited about it.