Whew! It's been forever since I've posted anything on this blog!

Sorry folks! I know it's been a long time since I've written on the blog. The life of M-Dawg continues to be busy and crazy. I am alive. I am kicking. I am exhausted! :-)

Let's see. . . where do I start?

*Survived midterm exam week and finished grades. I was extremely disappointed in my freshman co-taught class grades. Over half the class failed for 2nd quarter. Part of the problem is that the SPED teacher in the room with me does not do his job and help the students (please note that I've vented about this guy many times on this blog). I follow the accomodations according to their IEP (Individual Education Plans) as best as I can. By law, I have to follow their IEP's. I have 25 kids in the class and 16 of them are on IEP's. The SPED teacher is supposed to be in the room to help these kids. He doesn't help the kids. He sits in the back of the classroom and falls asleep. In the rare occassion when I do ask him to do something, he gives me an attitude. And yes, I've already went to his head teacher and administration to complain about him and the response was not supportive nor good. He does the same thing in the other four classes that he's supposed to be co-teaching in as well. So I know it's not just me. He's riding out his time until he retires so until then we all have to suffer - including the kids. The thing that makes me so angry . . . he makes the same salary that I make! I bust my ass to do my job and he does nothing. And they (government, media, public, etc.) wonders why public eduation is failing in this country???? This guy doesn't have the same case load of SPED kids that other SPED teachers have because "he can't handle anymore kids on his case load." (per an administrator). So the administration is aware that the guy doesn't do his job. The man falls asleep in his own SPED meetings with parents and kids! I've witnessed it folks! Scary! I feel bad for my kids not doing well but there isn't anything I can do.

*The school system I work in ended up getting a loan from the state government to try and save all the teacher positions. We ended up losing 5 paraprofessionals and two custodians and 1 secretary in the end of the budget crisis. The numbers were going to be higher. Plus, the community rallied and donated over $400,000 to save jobs as well. FYI: The auditors finished their investigation and turned everything over the police to investigate the Business Manager that did all this craziness. Let's hope they fry the guy! Good news out of this experience: the city is looking to consolidate the city and school budgets. Read about it here.

*I starting teaching a new course called Current World Affairs. 10th-12th graders can take the class. I am very excited to be teaching this class because over the summer, I helped write the curriculum for it. The kids seem to be enjoying it too. The first week was interesting because a lot of seniors thought it was going to be a blow off class and I made it quite clear that it was an academic class that required work to be completed. I even assigned a two page typed essay on the first day! Kids started dropping out like flies! :-) I even have some kids contracting for honors credit for the course. The other teacher that helped write the curriculum over the summer is also teaching a section of it so her and I have been meeting once a week to plan together. She taught a section of it last semester but she found that it was tough on her own. She told me that I've been helping her stay focused and more on task. And, I guess I'm the creative one when it comes to activities so she loves that too.

*On the personal homefront, had a funny experience on Match.com. Yes, I went back to trying the online dating thing. I'm having a really hard time meeting guys so I figured, what the hell??? So, I post my profile and a few pictures of me on the site. I get an email from a 72 year old man. Yes, 72 years old. It gets better people. In this email, he asks me, "Would I like to play with his 'two Irish pototoes'"!!!!!!!!!!!! Dear God . . . he's a dirty old man! And, I check out his profile and his age requirement is 18-38 only! My age requirement was 32-48 (I'm going to be 37 next week). So that's my funny story of the week. At least I can laugh about it????

*Have school this week and then I'm off for a week for Feb break. Half of my break will be with Harvard Mock Congress and 13 students in Boston. Really could use a bit of a break.

*Yes, I will be 37 on the 14th of this month. I'm trying to grasp the idea that I'm getting old! :-)

Oh, sorry about the mispellings in this post. Blogger won't let me spellcheck for some reason???

Any news with you folks out there????