Grading

I spent the evening grading. I've still got more to do. The 6-weeks ends a week from Friday. We're going out of town this weekend. I don't care how much work I have left to grade, I need the mountain air.

Where was I when the world stopped turning?

I had left the computer business (progamming & technical writing) for??? I didn't know. I was still a ways away from deciding on teaching. I was working in the hardware dept. of a Home Depot, hustling to get it open in a week.

On Sept. 11, 2001, I was scheduled to go in at noon or 1 pm, or something like that. My then girlfriend, now wife, called me and said she'd heard a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I didn't know, because I believed then as now that daytime TV makes you stupid. Anyway, I turned it on in time to see the second jet go into it. Then I just sat and watched it until the building came down.

I found that I didn't want revenge. I still don't. I can't see this as an act of war, to be responded to with war. This was a criminal act, to be treated with arrest and trial. I believe in the rule of law. I believe in courts and juries. I believe in punishment for crimes committed. From time to time I may think of revenge for situations, but I don't believe in it.

I love the direction I've moved in my life. I'm sad about some past events, including this one, but I'm happy.

(I got the title question from Janet at The Art of Getting By.)

Good Monday

Today was a good day. I was in a good mood all day. I'm wiped. All that teaching is tiring.

Plus, I turned in at least 10 more attendance referrals. That makes over 30 in the past week. Almost a third of them were 2nd timers. If we could come up with a better system for dealing with no-shows, I wouldn't be doing as much.

Anyway, we're rolling right along in both US Hist & Gov. The Declaration of Independence in both preps. I'm going to be so tired of summaries of that thing. Fortunately, I won't have to revisit it for a year.

I tracked down the boy from 5th that I thought had my TE of the Gov book. He pointed me in the direction of another boy, who said he left it on the desk. I know it wasn't there. Today, I announced to the class that I was searching for it. I was just starting to offer a reward when I saw it sitting on the bookshelf next to those boys, along with an empty Powerade bottle. I don't know if it had been there all along. The first boy told me he thinks the second boy put it there when he came in today. Either way, it's back.

When in the course of human events...

Today we tackled the Declaration of Independence. They read it around the room, one sentence at a time, then broke into groups and paraphrased it. There was a lot of complaining, but when they got into it, they got into it. It was a flex day today, so I only had two periods of Gov't. Two hour long periods. It was fun.

I have one more Gov't class tomorrow, so more fun. Then into the US History.

Funniest thing: I can't find my Teacher's Edition of the Gov't book. The last time I saw it, a student was showing me something in it. I think he walked with it. It won't help him with the class, but it could be interesting.

Short week

Bam! It's Tuesday again.

We took Friday off so week could travel 250 miles south to help my parents start the process of moving up here. We came back Saturday so we could get a couple of days rest.

I was apprehensive about leaving my students with a sub this early in the semester, but they got a good sub report. Sigh of relief.

So, holiday yesterday, normal day today, flex tomorrow & Thursday, and in-service on Friday. Two classes with everyone. So, of course, everyone's squirrely. The juniors are the worst. But one of my senior classes was also too hyper for school today. And we're getting interrupted 3 times a period with lists of names of students who must report to the library because 3 weeks into the semester, registration is still screwed up. I would like to try teaching sometime.