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?

Contemporary Musing on Fairy Tale Infatuation: A Chick Lit Read

The Frog Prince (Adult Fiction) by Jane Porter.

This was a book from the book bin in the teacher's room. A colleague had it, lent it to another, and it finally found its way to me. Honestly, I doubted whether I should read past the first few chapters. It seemed old. It seemed uncomfortable. Honestly, it started off in all the ways that chick lit does; and in the end, it pretty much wrapped up in the same way too. But like all good chick lit, it was fun and silly and vaguely uplifting. And like all chick lit, I definitely felt myself angry for living in this podunk town. Argh. I've always wanted to live some place urban; someplace where I could forgo the necessity of a car. (Ha! I just financed a new car!) Like most chick lit, it made me feel a bit old and a bit behind, since most of the protagonists are younger and seem more professionally advanced than I am. But enough of my kvetching.

This is a great weekend read. Really. A solid B+, temptingly perhaps an A-. But that's only within the definition of chick lit.


What's Next? IDK.

The Dead and the Gone

The Dead and the Gone (YA) by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

Wow. But you can't end that "wow" with an exclamation. This book is too intense for that. Like Life As We Knew It, the companion book to The Dead and the Gone, there are no easy answers in a post-apocalyptic world. But this story has more gravitas. While Miranda, the protagonist from LAWKI, lived through the death of one world and the birth of another, she did so under the protective and guiding supervision of her mother and older brother. Alex Morales, the protagonist of TDATG, however, is left as the head of the family.

The Morales family lives in NYC, and when the asteroid hits, both parents die. Alex is left with little more than $50 to his family's name. What I found intriguing about this book was the aspect of religion and social hierarchy. While LAWKI focused on one family, because it was in a rural setting we rarely saw what happened in the community. In TDATG, we see how a community unites, dies, and even turns against itself. Pfeffer also allows readers to witness how social class differences allow the privileged to survive and escape, while the average and the poor are left trapped to die on Manhattan. Another interesting aspect is the strength of the Morales family's faith in God and their love in each other. While the situation surrounding the Morales family seems harsher than that of Miranda, in other ways it seems more heart-warming. Despite the violence, the characters seem to have more empathy, hope, and faith.

I think I like this book better than LAWKI, but it's a hard call to make.