Mel Wishes She Could Twitter on Facebook

... but I don't have Facebook. But here are some of my "twitters," or whatever the hell they're called.

• Mel Just Watched the Phillies Win the World Series!
  
  
• Did I really invite my students to the "DARK SIDE" when I assigned them a scary story to write? Really? 'Cuz someone said I did.
• Mel doesn't know if she can handle worrying about the ramifications of the "DARK SIDE."
• Right now, Mel is doubting her sound mind. How could she have invited her students to the dark side?
• Oh God! What's next? Will one of her student's heads spin around? I don't even know an exorcist!
• Okay, fine. I invited them. The invitations were super nice. Embossed. AND YES, I think someone stepped over the bounds and entered the dark side. OMG. I can only hope I don't have to call home.

Other Twitter Entries:

• How Could I Have Let All This Grading Pile UP?
• Sir Hilary's Everest : My Grading Mountain. It's almost the same.
• Mel hopes she's just as happy as this Phillies dude - when she's finally done with this grading.
• 7th Grade Writing is totally awesome - when it's not as high as Mt. Washington!
• REALLY? I gotta get progress reports out again by the middle of next week? REALLY?
  
• Mel Really Wishes We Had a Real Snow Storm Today!
• This morning rocked winter! Seriously.
  

nada

I am ambition-less. Lacking all "oomph."

I haven't done much new. I haven't read much new. And, most importantly, I just don't want to go to school tomorrow.

I'm bored of scary stories. (That's what we're working on right now.) Well, not really. Actually, I had one class that I didn't want to get too ahead of the game, so we just scary stories out loud today. It was super low-key and relaxing.

I'm just tired. I've spent two weekends away from home, which is always exhausting. Also, a weekend away totally throws me off my schedule. So imagine two in a row...

I have one not so interesting thing to note:

At times I find myself watching the HSN channel. Yesterday, they were selling a group of 9 mismatched socks for children. For 31 bucks! Some of their selling points? Your children won't be late for school because they were searching for matching socks. You'll have 36 different combinations! Imagine how much money you would have to spend to come up with 36 different mismatched sock combos! It was so awesomely redunkulous that I wish I had taped it.

Reading:
I've been reading R.L. Stine short stories. Pretty good. I don't care if they're low level.
I've started reading The Sea of Trolls. It's going to be good ... if I can ever get enough oomph to get into reading again. (It'll happen.)

Marking Period 1 - Finished

Good News! Grades are in for the first report card of the year!

Also interesting, the word macabre (for which I am still trying to work on the pronunciation), derives from the Apocrypha book of Maccabees. And I always thought it must be French in origins.

Other words I have been wanting to discover the etymology: cowlick and adjective

My Day: Okay

Scary Story Season

Skeleton Man (YA) by Joseph Bruchac.

Molly's parents mysteriously disappear and a strange uncle shows up to act as her guardian. He's a gaunt, odd man who prepares her lavishly fattening breakfasts each morning but locks her into her room at night. Imprisoned in her room, Molly is plagued with nightmares about a Native American tale about the flesh-eating skeleton man. With the exception of her school teacher, the rest of the adults in Molly's life refuse to believe that Molly's fears are valid. Molly must rely only on herself if she's ever going to free herself from her uncle.

Grade: B+

The Shame of Expecting Too Much

Some days I forget that I work with 7th graders. These past few days were some of those days. I created a quiz that was much too hard. It's hard to accept defeat when you've tried so hard otherwise. We practiced. We used guided notes. We acted things out. We practiced with a study guide. We created "cheat sheets" to use while taking the quiz.

But they failed miserably. As a teacher, that means that I fail, too. Damn, that is not something you want to admit to. I mean, who wants to admit that they were ineffectual? And as a teacher, who can waste 5 days when there are only 180?

At first I was stunned. Then upset. Disgusted by myself. I couldn't sleep last night. How could I have failed them? How could they have failed? (And the read-between-the-lines question: How could they fail me?) Today my esteem returned a bit. My support teachers reassured me. I tried my best to right wrongs. We went over the quiz as a class. I'm providing them the opportunity to retake the quiz. Things are getting better.

But I still feel embarrassed. How could I have been so naive?