More Reactions to NPR

I've been listening to NPR a lot lately. It's a nice break from the inane conversations I have every day at work. There's lots to like about NPR. No, not the pledge drives, although I think I would be ecstatic if Ira Glass of This American Life called me and shamed me into pledging. But I like hearing the stories. I like that the news comes in narrative form, with real people telling the stories. And I like that more often then not, it makes me think about the world outside of my microcosm.

So I was listening to an All Things Considered* story about soda in America. The story posits that children today drink too many sugary drinks, largely due to a lack of education about what those beverages do to the human body. There was even mention of children who drink soda in the morning to "get them woke up." Kind of appalling, right? When asked about water, the kid says he can't drink water, he has to have something with flavor or his digestive system acts up. Really appalling, right? So all of this I agree with. Something should be done. I'm not opposed to taking soda out of schools, it's a small step, easy to make, and would probably do a world of good (although they tried to do that when I was in high school, and if memory serves me correctly it lasted less than a year). Then the reporter asked whose responsibility it is to educate children about good eating habits. Parents? Teachers? The guy at the Quik-E-Mart? "We all bear responsibility," the interviewee said. Again, I don't necessarily disagree with this. As a teacher, it's my job to help mold my students into happy, healthy, productive young adults, whatever that entails. The problem is, how do I teach them something if they go home and their parents teach and model the exact opposite?

This highlights a more widespread problem with education today, something that I've observed by interacting with parents. Lack of parental support and involvement. The principles, concepts, and behaviors that we try to instill in students at school are undermined when they go home. The problem isn't always with teachers or the public school system, although we tend to take the blame. It starts at home. That goes for learning and nutrition.

*Question: do you italicize radio program titles, or put it in quotes? Standby for MLA check--my handbook is still within arms reach of my desk, even though I haven't written a paper in years. Indeed, you do italicize. The episode title goes in quotes. I WIN!

Another One Bites the Dust

This weekend was a serious fail as far as NaBloPoMo is concerned, however, I blame it on The Foreigner and am resolved to try to continue for the rest of the month (until I get busy again).


Speaking of Foreigner, it's over. Two months of hard work has come to an end, and the only thing that remains are memories and dried droplets of paint on the black stage from careless brushes. And maybe some stickiness from spilled Coke. That reality is one of the hardest things about theatre in my opinion. It's so temporary. You work on it for a set amount of time, then you do it, then it's over. I don't think I would want it to keep going much longer, but I still miss it when its gone. For me, taking down the set is the hardest part. We spent weeks putting it up, getting it to where it needed to be, painting, building, taping, painting some more, hour after hour; the whole thing came down in three.


The only thing that makes it easier for me is knowing that there is another show coming in a few months. There are already things I'm working on and planning for December and January. I have not one, but TWO one acts in the works, one with 6th period as an in-school performance, one with 4th period for Districts. I'm only sort of directing them, acting more as a consultant/producer for student directors. I wanted to put it in my student's hands and see what happens. Hopefully they will rise to the occasion.

21 Hours and Counting

"The Foreigner" goes up tomorrow night, yet I'm strangely calm. Maybe it's because I've done this before. Maybe it's because I fell strangely detached because I've had to be at ESOL class two nights a week rather than at rehearsal. Maybe it's because I'm just having a hard time caring this year. Maybe it's because I've lowered my expectations. Regardless, I'm calm, and I'm trying to decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I've realized that regardless of my mental/emotional state, the show will go on, and it will probably be relatively good. Sure, the run time might be a little long, but that's okay I guess. There's nothing I can do about it at this point, so why should I worry?

In fact, I think this is the most comfortable I've felt about the technical side of things. We actually programmed light cues this year. I have three reliable people running the boards. I think I can actually sit and watch without having to worry about the house lights not coming up. Or maybe I do. Maybe I'm being foolhardy.
Anyway. There's that.

Baby Steps

Someone asked me in the first few months of teaching what my goals were for my Drama program. I didn't really know how to answer; my best response was basically that I wanted it to be like the drama program when I was in high school. That was my goal two years ago, and still is, to a certain extent. But now I approach the question with a slightly more educated and realistic eye (is that the best way to say that? I don't know). My ultimate goal is to be able to put on excellent productions that are primarily student run. I want to be able to sit in the front row and watch, without having to worry that there will be some disaster backstage that will require my immediate attention.

That is a pretty lofty goal, especially from where I'm standing. But I think it's doable. Here are a few steps we need to take towards excellence:

1. Establish a sense of pride in the program as a whole and in the quality of work. At this point, we don't know what a really excellent program or even an excellent production looks like, nor do we know what it takes to get there. I need to start showing my students what excellence looks like. We need to go watch other people who are being excellent. This has its pitfalls. The tendency might be for them to compare themselves, rather than take it as inspiration to do better.

2. Get out of the mindset that we can wait until the last minute to pull it off "because we always do." I think this is what has killed us with "The Foreigner." A few strategic people have established the attitude among the cast that later is okay, so we've taken far too long to get off book, and find costumes, know our cues. In today's rehearsal, we were where we needed to be about two weeks ago because two weeks ago, I was still yelling at people to be off book, and they were still making excuses. This is a great segue into my final point.

3. I need to be a jerk about things like missed rehearsal/tardiness, and missed deadlines. I don't know how to do it. I don't have the heart to tell someone who has been in rehearsal for a month that they won't be in the show because they aren't off book, or because they missed 3 rehearsals, or because they were late a few times. How do I tell a parent that their kid is out of the play because they had some kind of obligation and didn't tell me in advance? In reality, I HAVE to if I want the program to succeed. Teaching them that being there sometimes is not okay. Aside from the difficulties of trying to rehearse or block a scene without a character, it also destroys a sense of trust among the cast. How can I expect one person to rely on the other to make an entrance or know a cue if they aren't even at rehearsal?

[Insert Witty and Alliterative Title Here]

So, I obviously haven't been writing much on here lately. I think it's a combination of school starting back up, then Vision '13, then the fall show starting up (The Foreigner, November 5, 6, 7 @ 7pm, November 8 @ 2:30), and online reading courses starting up--not learning to read, I know how to do that, learning to teach reading. Next week I begin my ESOL course, which, sadly isn't online, so I loose another two evenings out of my week.

Anyway, life has been busy, but good for the most part. There are, as always, the normal complaints about teaching and working in general, but I think I'm okay with that garbage. Sadly, getting okay means that I feel like I'm falling into a rut. Oh, the ever dreaded rut. Ruts are bad. Ruts are what make me feel like I need to get out of said rut. Ruts are indicative of discontent.

Basically, I'm going through a quarter life crisis.

I was at a meeting for area drama teachers a few weeks ago, and I sat there looking at the faces around the table wondering, "Is this my life in 10 years? Really?" What happened to doing something adventurous? Now, I know on the grand scale of things, my job is pretty sweet. I get nice long summers, and two weeks at Christmas, and a week for Thanksgiving, and Spring Break and I don't have to clean toilets. And don't get me wrong, I love my students. Sometimes I catch myself imagining what the program will look like in two or three years when my freshmen are upperclassmen, and they know how I roll. And then I imagine the dark circles under my eyes and the slight hint of madness etched on my face. I don't know if I'm that resilient.

On the Eve of a New Year

Well, summer has come to end, and I'm staring a new school year in the face. I also have a terrible case of insomnia. Dang it.

I am incredibly un-enthused about this school year. I'm going into it without knowing a lot of things, and with more work than I had last year, and with less room for error just because it's my third year, and not my first or second. Also, we're going back to the 7:20 start time. I'm not a morning person. At all. In one sense, I'm glad that I'll get out of rehearsal at 5pm instead of 6:30, that I'll get to see something other than school in the daylight. On the other hand, anything I do before 9am is basically rubbish.

As frequent readers of this here blog might remember, I'm a worrier. It's what I do. Also, I like lists. So here, in no particular order, are things I'm worried about this year:

- Fall play. I'm not sure what it is yet. Both options have their own separate set of problems.
- I don't have a good strong senior leader. This could be a problem.
- My classes are all a jumble, and they may stay that way all year long.
- I had a couple of GREAT classes last year, and I'm afraid my standards for awesome are completely shot. Forever.
- No strong Senior leader.
- I had some really awful students last year, and I don't want their kind again. Ever.
- Musical. Don't know what it is yet. Also, no seniors (it seems ridiculous a little, but they're REALLY important).
- One Act. Don't know what it is yet.
- Certification stuff. Should have done it this summer. Didn't. Will invariably do it on the night before it's due and have Dad proof read it. Just kidding. But seriously.
- Two more preps this year than last year. Didn't do them over the summer (in my defense, I didn't know that I had them, one of them I found out about YESTERDAY, dang it.)
- Did I mention that I don't have a strong Senior leader?

Why I Do My Job

The girl that wrote this note on my board made my life suck last year. We had clashes almost daily. At the beginning of this year, she was on the top of my list of people to kick out of the class because it was too large. That ended up not happening, and I'm so thankful that it didn't. This kid--no, young adult--has surprised me with her maturity, and I'm looking forward to working with her next year.

This kid is just a naturally talented young person, and I'm hoping she's in my class next year too. Not quite as "afternoon special " as the first, but I touched by it as well.

That's why I do my job, the off chance that maybe I'm making a difference in these peoples lives. I'm thankful that I got to see some of the fruits of my labor.

Hi. You May Not Remember Me. I'm Laura. I Write This Blog

I've started writing a blog post no less than four times in the last month, but each time I got about three sentences into it and realized that I was whining (again), when I really had nothing to whine about. The things about which I complained were petty at best, things that I deal with every...single...day. So I didn't feel like I should whine about them, because that would only encourage this habit of whining about silly things (like having Memorial Day right before the end of school. I have my reasons, but why am I whining about a three day weekend?).

To be honest, my life has been pretty comfortable for the last month since Guys and Dolls ended. Happy, comfortable growth. This has been a semester for personal victories. Here are a few:

1. I stood up to someone who I would have let run me over a year ago.
2. I directed a musical, and it was okay. Not great, I dare not even say good, but we got through it, and the kids--and maybe me, too--had fun.
3. I got my guitar string callouses back. And a new guitar. It sounds pretty.
4. I got over my fear of calling parents. I think they're more afraid of me than I am of them. I still don't like it, but I'll do it. One area that needs growth: sounding like an adult. I called a parent and they asked me three times if I was the teacher. Maybe it's my youthful enthusiasm. Or sarcasm. Just kidding.
5. I get to keep my job. Not an area of personal growth, but I think it speaks to my growth over the last year and a half, so I feel justified including it in this list. Yeah, I'm pretty stoked about that.

A Diatribe Against Laziness in English

You may have seen something called “No Fear Shakespeare” in the Shakespeare section of your local bookstore. These ‘editions’ of Shakespeare have the original text on one side and the ‘translated’ text on the other side. In my one week’s experience of teaching Shakespeare, I’ve found that these “No Fear” editions have accomplished the exact opposite.

Students fear Shakespeare because they do not understand the language with which he speaks. As a freshman in high school, I struggled to understand the Bard’s early modern English and subsequently the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. My teacher walked us through it scene by scene, and we were able to make the first halting steps toward comprehension. I have done the same thing with my Drama I students (most of whom have already studied Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in their English classes), yet they aren’t even familiar with the abbreviated words (flow’r, o’er), or the common words ‘doth,’ ‘wast,’ ‘wilt;’ some even trip over more familiar archaic language like ‘thee,’ and ‘thou.’ How can they be completely unfamiliar with the language if they have indeed studied Shakespeare in English? No Fear Shakespeare. They haven’t read Shakespeare, they’ve something 'translated' into modern language, void of the language which makes Shakespeare Shakespeare.

Why should we even study Shakespeare if we aren’t studying SHAKESPEARE? One doesn’t read Shakespeare for plot, since many of his stories were recycled from mythology and folktales. We read Shakespeare for the poetry, for the way he molded the words and images to capture his audience’s imagination. We study Shakespeare because he was able to hold the attention of the uneducated groundlings that attended his plays for hours on end. We study Shakespeare, because even after four readings of the same text, I'm still discover something new each time. Do you really think Romeo and Juliet is famous because of its tired and worn out plot (which, by the way, had been done before)? No, it’s because Juliet said, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Sure, the story is timeless, but I almost think Leonard Bernstein did it a little better in the 1950s when he set it to music.

Furthermore, using No Fear Shakespeare as a class tool has taught the students that it's okay to let someone else do the work for them. We don't give students the answer in math class, why should we do the same thing in English? Shakespeare is like any difficult problem, it takes time to learn it, but once learned the concept is the building block for bigger and better things. The skills I learned from doing close readings of Shakespeare have proved invaluable to me as I went to other classes, and into my job now.

Finally, No Fear Shakespeare sends the wrong message to students about themselves. Handing them a pre-solved puzzle is like saying, I'm sorry, you're not smart enough to understand this for yourself, you need someone older to tell you what's going on. All of this isn't to say that there is no place for No Fear Shakespeare. I can see how it would be beneficial to show students that this is English, and that they can draw parallels to the language as we speak it today. It might provide a good starting point for students, a model of how they might go about understanding it for themselves. But how are people supposed to learn and grow as human beings if they face no challenges to their intellect? How are they to get past a 7th grade reading level if we keep giving them the dumbed down version of one of the greatest writers of the English language? Quit taking the easy way out in education. It won't do anyone good.

Hello 2009

Well, the new year has arrived, and with it the promise of January 5th--the first day back to school--looming in the near future. I have decided that I'm not a fan of the Spring semester. It brings with it more stress than I'm paid for. In an attempt to stave off the imminent anxiety for just a while longer, I have begun working on the set design for "Guys and Dolls," our spring production.

So, for the first time ever on this blog, I'm showing you something that I've drawn. Pardon the darkness of the photo, I tried it with flash, but it just got really washed out. This is the view of the main location, Broadway of the 1950s. The things with the darker edges are meant to be flats built with a little bit of forced perspective (hurray for the Italian Renaissance and forced perspective!). The lighter stuff is a rough idea of what I want for the backdrop (and yes, I know the Empire State Building is a little weird looking).

Anyway, I'd love to hear what people think.

P.S. The cat is asleep next to/half on my pillow. I don't want to move him because he's so darn cute, but he's kind of in the way.

The Odd Couple

Here's the info on the bottom if you don't want to click on the image and read it in the pretty font:

The Odd Couple (Female Version) by Neil Simon
Colonial High School Performing Arts Center
November 13, 14 & 15 @ 7:00PM
November 16 @ 2:30PM
House opens 30 minutes before curtain
Tickets $5

Be there! Or just give me $5 bucks!

Oh, and 6 posts in October! Whohoo!

Pet Peeves

I didn't think I had pet peeves. Sure, there were things that bugged me a little bit, but nothing that drove me really insane. Then I became a teacher. I now have several. The most prevalent is the mispronunciation of words/use of words that don't exist.

Here are the top three, with plenty of snark on the side:
Anyways. It's not a word (okay, maybe it was in the 13th Century, but it's not standard today). But somewhere along the line, teenagers must have decided that since there are multiple 'ways' there must be multiple 'anyways,' which is, of course, not the case. Somehow, it wormed itself into even the smartest of students' vocabulary and frequently rears its ugly S-shaped head. I do my best to battle the unnecessary 'S' wherever I may find it. I am slightly ashamed to admit that I too have on occasion succumbed to its awful powers. But thankfully, the light of proper grammar always shines through, and I return to the singular 'anyway.'

Supposably. This, I'm guessing, comes from the lack of written word in teenagers' lives. They heard the word 'supposedly' but have never seen it written, so their brain didn't have anything to connect it to. I believe the term for a misheard word is mondegreen, but I could be wrong. Anyway, we now have supposably, a bane of my existence. And now, a short anecdote: I once was lecturing about Greek theatre history and used the word 'supposedly.' A hand shot up in the back row. Ah, I thought, an eager young mind! and nodded for the student to speak. I was simultaneously amused and appalled by what I heard. "Miss," the student said, "don't you mean 'supposably?'"

Ax. No, not the tool used to chop wood, the verb meaning 'to inquire of'. That's right, fair reader, medieval weaponry has been confused with the simple, harmless verb 'ask'. I'd heard this mispronunciation many times before I began teaching, but the frequency since has driven me to the edge of frustration, so much that I've even created a sign. It reads, "No! You may not AX me a question. You may, however, ASK me a question." One of my students read the sign yesterday, tilted his head to one side and said, "I don't get it." I hope that means he's never heard the wonderful word 'ask' slandered in this manner.

So, one year of teaching and I now have pet peeves. Oh, and I hate being called 'Miss'. I have name, thanks.

One Year

Here's an excerpt from my personal journal from October 8th, the one year anniversary of my first day as a teacher.

"I felt that I should write something today because this day, October 8, marks the one year anniversary of my first day as a teacher. The only thing I can say is thank God I survived. There have been more than a few times in the last year in which I thought I would not make it (Christmas Carol show week, Districts, States...), so today, I breathe a sigh of relief and hope for a better year."

I ended up not actually writing much because the power was out, which incidentally is why I didn't write it here in the first place. So, a week later, I'll try to flesh it out a little bit.

I still don't feel like a teacher. When people they walk in, they come up to me and ask where the teacher is. But I have an advantage this year over last, my students knew I was the teacher from day one, rather than assumed I was jut another sub. This year, I'm not telling them that I'm only 23 years old, and that I only graduated from college a year and a half ago, and that some of them have siblings older than me. I am acting like I know what I'm talking about (which I generally do), and that I've been doing this for a while.

The biggest difference, though, is the distinct and wonderful absence of worry pangs. Last year I spent half of my time with a dull feeling in my stomach rooted in the fear that I had done something wrong, or that I'd missed something important. I imagine myself as a little puppy trying so incredibly hard to do everything everyone wanted of me, freaking out whenever I fell short. I've been more relaxed this year, and it certainly feels better.

One year...and counting.

Fact: Free Time Leads to Slacking

I've known since my high school days and especially the summers of watching the same movies over and over again (Mulan one year, The Emperor's New Groove another) that I don't get anything done if I'm not really busy. In a way, I'm glad that summer is over so that I can get back to being productive. In other ways, I'm sad to see the summer go. The Olympics ended today, and although it was getting a bit tiresome going to work exhausted from staying up too late watching some event, I will miss the pageantry and the weird sports (what's with syncro diving?). But the sports void will soon be filled with college football and the regular fare, so I'm sure I won't miss it too much.

More than the demise of anything else I associate with summer, its end means the beginning of school. Although I spend most of my vacation time feeling pretty useless, it's time that I'm not stressed out. This school year, if it's anything like last year, promises stress, short nights, long work days and mistake after mistake which I will have to fix. The most stressful thing is the ever present worry that one of my mistakes might get someone hurt or get me fired. That seems ridiculous, I know. I tell myself that every time it pops into my head. But it doesn't change the periodical reminders that teachers (especially young ones without tenure) are essentially at the mercy of their students in many ways. It doesn't help that I'm supposed to be teaching my students about things which are inherently dangerous, like power tools and fly systems.

Anyway, if you're wondering why I haven't been writing, blame it on summer.

Interesting (and unrelated) observation: I've been having a hard time writing in paragraphs lately. I spend so much time around drama and dialogue that I've started thinking in it. I can bang out a conversation about something pretty quickly, but paragraphs and narration are something of a trial. I'm pretty sure it's not a good thing.

On Exams

I've finally kicked my butt into gear and looked into the registration process for the Florida General Knowledge Exam which I must complete before the beginning of October if I want to keep my job. The act of looking it up and filling out the registration forms online brings back memories of high school and registration for the SATs, IB and AP exams. There is this distinct feeling I get when I think about exams. I dread them in general, but at the same time look at it with a fairly large ego. I've never done horrible on a general knowledge test. The FCAT was remarkably easy in my memory, and the SATs, while a good deal harder than the FCAT, presented only things I had seen and studied before.

In fact, I don't think I've ever had a horrible experience in an exam. There was the ACT, which I took on the morning after our second performance of "Les Miserables" for which I was only half awake. But even then, my score was better than average; I didn't get the score I wanted, but it was still better than many. Incidentally, I took that exam at the school where I now teach. I recall the first day of IB Chemistry being difficult, but I attribute that to the unfortunate schedule which placed it after IB History, thus my brain was already fried. In hindsight, spending the lunch break at the bowling alley thinking of anything but chemistry was perhaps not the best choice. The AP Calculus AB exam was absolutely atrocious. Since our main focus was the IB Calculus exam, we hadn't really prepared for the AP. Also, I had missed a few important days because of Drama (go figure) and could not for the life of me find the volume of a shape rotated around the x-axis (or the y-axis for that matter). I spent most of that exam doodling and drawing fish in a cylinder.

Yes, my senior year of high school was full of exams, some fairly easy, other decidedly not. My main memory is going in with confidence. Never nervous, always a little unsure, but confident. Hopefully this time around it will be the same.

It's Over

They have this really great tradition at the 9th Grade Center. On the last day of finals, the teachers walk their students down to the bus loop and wave goodbye as the buses pull out. I think the real purpose is to prevent fights by getting the students out of there as quickly as possible, and by flooding the area with adults. It is nonetheless satisfying to see them leave. Once the buses are gone, the teachers cheer. Goodbye and good riddance. It was a great feeling.

Anyway, we still have another two days of work. The end of the year is packed with paperwork, and since I've never done any of it before, it takes a really long time, which is why I'm up at 1:00AM working. It's been a long time since I've done this. I want to say I miss this feeling of burning the midnight oil, but when I did that I generally had a lot more sleep than I have this past week. In any case, back to work.

Eulogy for a Break

Let us all remove our hats and observe a moment of silence for the untimely demise of Spring Break. Enjoy this last moment of student-free bliss and look toward the coming weeks with tenacious resolve and perseverance, for there remain only 9 weeks until the carefree days of summer are upon us. April is the cruelest month, for it brings with it Spring Break, a small taste of the happiness to come, only to yank it rudely from our fingers and push us back into the daily grind.

So, school restarts tomorrow. Can you tell I'm not looking forward to it? Perhaps that's to do with me not quite knowing what is coming next in my classes. I have a vague idea of what to do next, but no definite, "This is what we're doing today." I'll figure it out before 9:20 tomorrow morning when the kids walk through my classroom door. In a perfect and ideal world in which I'm someone else, I would have spent the last five days planning the rest of the year and writing out my daily lesson plans to alleviate the stress of the next few weeks. Instead I spent it sleeping, reading Jane Austen, and watching movies. In my defense, we had friends in town for the first half of the week, so I consider myself excused from accomplishing anything, but Wednesday through Friday is completely my fault. I did get bits and pieces of things done for the show (compiling the massive props list and creating a build list), but other school related things were completely ignored.

At times like this, I'm reminded of my 9th grade summer reading assignment, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and wonder if paying attention to that might have helped in my life as a student and now as an adult [do you hear laughter?]. It is possible. I am, however, inclined to think that the timeless words of Dr. Stephen R. Covey would have been more beneficial had I not thought that "paradigm" was pronounced "par-a-dig-um," and indeed, believed it to mean "something beside a digm (whatever that was)," for the entire summer. In any case, the years since have brought me to believe that I'm just not a proactive person.

All of this to say, I didn't get much done. But I did read some Jane Austen.

Orwell Had It Right

I was going through the archives of my blog and found this post which never quite made it to publication, so I thought I'd share it now. I don't think I ever really finished it, but here it is in it's unfinished glory.

Perhaps in the future I'll post more "Snapshots Classics."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
April 4, 2007 1:32 AM

My Modern British Literature teacher assigned us to read George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language" which is somewhat about politics and very much about English. He talks about the degradation of the English language, and how people don't speak in concrete language any longer. Instead of opting for tangible imagery and simple language, we use conceptual descriptions and big Latin and Greek based words which have little meaning to the average reader. He says a lot of other things too, but I haven't actually finished reading the essay.

Whatever the case, I think he got it right. Today especially, we self-edit, or perhaps more accurately, self-censor. There is a fear of offending people that stops us from saying what we really mean. We speak in euphemisms when we say things that might offend. That is not a bad thing necessarily, but sometimes situations call for frank and honest language. The thing is, we've gotten so used to softening language that we (or maybe just I) find it hard to write concrete thoughts. I'm not used to doing it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I'm seeing this phenomenon more clearly as I teach, especially when the time comes to critique performances. It takes a long time to say what I want to say because I'm very careful not to say something which might offend them or hurt their feelings. Although good in certain situations, my hesitance to speak with complete honesty means the person on the receiving end misses something potentially important. Today, for example, a group got on stage and presented a scene which they had obviously not rehearsed enough (or possibly at all). I tore into them. Frankly, they deserved it, and I thought, why should I try to be delicate when they obviously didn't care enough to put any kind of effort in to begin with?

Anyway, it seems like I can never escape work. Half the point of this post was to talk about something not teaching related, yet here I am once again complaining about my students. Oh, how I anticipate the day when I'm done with this phase and I can think about something else!

Districts and a Week to Decompress

Until Monday, I hadn't gone home earlier than 5 PM since my first few weeks of teaching. I'd forgotten what it was like to spend more time at home than at work. But this week is my relaxation week, when I get to tell my students to leave after 6th period, and find out what the traffic is like coming back from the 9th Grade Center in the afternoon.

The District Thespian Competition was on Saturday, and I my troupe performed pretty well, all considering. We, or should I say they, received four Superiors, three Excellents, and another one that we don't talk about. I can't take credit for any of it, they worked really hard, and did well. Having been through it as a sponsor, I have a list of things I will do different next year:

1. Audition acts long before registration, probably as early as November 1st. This is to prevent any problems with really really bad acting, which we had.
2. Give the performers their Adjudication Forms before we get on the bus so that I don't have to worry about them and it's not my fault if they get lost. In case you're wondering, yes, we had problems with the Adjudication Forms. I left them on my desk at school and found out as the first act was on stage doing their intro. I then lost another set again when I handed them to one of my students who walked off to go watch someone else.
3. Make rehearsal and punctuality absolutely mandatory. Cut acts who fail to rehearse to my satisfaction.
4. Be harder on them in rehearsal. I wasn't nearly critical enough.
5. Read the plays I'm not familiar with.
6. Clearly define responsibilities. For example, assign who is responsible for blocking their scenes/monologues.
7. Require that their stuff be memorized by registration at the beginning of December.

All in all, it was a really great experience. I had a really good time, and I think they did too which is what matters.

Rehearsals for "Once On This Island" are Monday. Here we go again.

Parking Stickers

I cleaned out my car a couple of weeks ago, ridding the windshield of the parking stickers from college. I've finished that chapter in my life, and pulling the stickers off the glass was just putting a period at the end of the last sentence. Being the pack rat I am, I wanted to keep them, so I taped them into my journal. I like keeping things that mean something, have some kind of sentimental value.

For me, the represent membership in a club to which I no longer belong. Last year I lived at ADK House, I was one of the girls, I could park there with no fear of the ever roaming tow truck. That bit of my past is over and done with. If I went back and knocked on the door there is a 50% chance that the girl opening it won't recognize me.

Its the same with the FSU parking sticker. I no longer have a right or reason to be on campus. Driving down I-75 on the way back to school, I used to get this feeling of solidarity as I looked through the rear view mirror and saw the same sticker in the windshield behind me. That person and I are alike in at least this, we have that it common. I don't have that anymore. As I drove up I-75 a few days ago to visit a friend, I didn't see any of these parking passes. I wouldn't have recognized an FSU sticker even if I saw one.

In case you're wondering about the pictures, I finally got a digital camera and have been going picture crazy ever since. It's a good thing. I'm a visual person, so having a way to show you what I'm talking about is a good thing in my opinion.

I really don't want to go to work tomorrow. I had planned to get some lesson plans done over the break, but true to form, I procrastinated and haven't really done any of it. I think I know what I'm doing with them tomorrow, but beyond that I have no idea. I have some more thoughts on this, but I really should get some sleep so that I'm not unprepared and exhausted tomorrow.