Back to school . . . .blah! :-(

It was an interesting Feb break.

Did all the Dr appts. Shoulder is feeling better. Meds and physical therapy is working. I still can't lift my arm or rotate the shoulder for the most part.

Harvard Mock Congress in Boston was interesting. We had a few issues with the three of the boys on the trip. They decided to blow off the first committee meeting. Little did they know that 1) my co-advisor and I were checking on them, and 2) The committee chairs were taking formal attendance. I sat in one of the committees and I heard two of the boys names being read out and of course, no boys anywhere! So, I call them on their cell phone and they didn't answer. I call their parents to let them know their sons are MIA (Missing in Action) and within five minutes I get a phone call from the boys telling me their cell phones were turned off. Gee - if their cell phones were turned off, how did their parents get a hold of them so quickly????? Yes, I left a message but one of the boys slipped and admitted they were "screening" their calls. Stupid kids. Another boy decided to smoke in their hotel bathroom and run the shower to try and cover the smoke. The room was a non-smoking room and they all signed an agreement that no smoking was allowed on the trip. Of course the fact they are only 16 and 17 years old means nothing. The girls were fine. Giggles and typical girly behavior. They were good about obeying the curfew at midnight which was good. It was the other students from other schools that tended to be a pain in the butt since their advisers were not watching them. I hate having to watch other kids when they are not my responsibility.

When I wasn't sitting in on meetings with the kids, I walked around the Prudential Center and Copley Place. The Sheraton is attached to these malls. EXPENSIVE!!!!! I ended up having to buy new shoes because my black dress shoes fell apart on me when I was walking around Harvard. I went to Aldo and bought a pair for $50! I tend to purchase really cheap shoes so the fact that I paid $50 for a pair of shoes was a huge deal for me.

I met teachers from all over the country at the conference. Some high schools from IL were there too - all suburb schools. Overall, it was a good and educational trip. Most of the kids got into their roles as congressmen(women) so it was a good experience. Only one of the kids wanted to take a tour of Harvard University on Friday so my co-advisor and I took him to the campus tour and we had a faculty luncheon on campus. Harvard Square and Cambridge is always a unique experience.

Came home on Sunday night exhausted. I need a break from my break! :-)

Hope everyone has a good week -

I'm on vacation! Yahoo!

I'm officially on Feb break. Yeah!

I have Dr's appt's, hair appt, physical therapy appt, etc. Sorta busy. This is the week I tend to get all this crap done.

Rotator cuff is still a problem. I find that when I don't use my arm or shoulder a great deal it tends to feel OK. I can't lift my arm/shoulder very high. The pain is insane! The pain meds and antiflammatory works but I can only take them at night since they make me really sleepy. I suck up the pain during the day.

When I was working at Paws this weekend, I overdid it and the pain in my shoulder was killing me. I get very frustrated because it takes me more time to do things since I use my left arm more. And then I end up using the right arm and the pain kills! I know this is my own issue and I need to work on it. Ughy!

Today is the only day that I don't have any appointments so I plan on taking it somewhat easy and head over to Barnes and Noble at some point to get some correcting done.

It's raining here today. In the 50's. Sorta of a blah day. I guess the rain is better than snow! :-)

On Thursday, I head to Harvard Mock Congress with my co-advisor and 13 students in Boston. We will be staying at the Sheraton in Boston until Sunday. Schools from all over the country will be there so it will be a great opportunity for the kids to meet other kids from other schools and places. And, I like meeting teachers from all over the country too! :-)

So, it will be a busy week.

I won't have email access at the end of the week so if I don't respond to emails or blogs, please know it's because I have no access to the Internet. My co-advisor is going to bring her laptop but we don't know if we have to pay for Internet at the hotel or not. My laptop is not working right now and doesn't have wireless anyway.

Have a great week!!! :-0)

Happy 37th B-day to M-Dawg!

This photo was taken when I was in 7th grade. Ahhh . . . the cheerleading days!

Yup! It's my birthday. I turn 37 today.

List of b-day happies:

*Happy to have a wonderful family. Mom called today to sing happy birthday to me - a tradition in our family.

*My silly and supportive friends. Thanks peeps! :-)

*Ellie the Cat cuddling with me this morning before I left for school.

My friend Carla will be taking me out on Friday for my b-day celebration. I don't want deal with the Valentine Day stuff so I pushed off the night out to Friday. I find that the older I get, the more sensitive I get to not being in a relationship with a great guy. Just don't want to deal with National Single Awareness Day aka Valentine's Day. :-(

What will you be doing on V-day??????

Had to take a day off.

I had to take today off from school to go to the Doctor. My rotator cuff/shoulder has been in some serious pain for the past 1 1/2 week.

So I've spent the morning going to the Dr, got two prescriptions filled (one is Vicodin - yahoo!), made an appointment for physical therapy, and waited over an hour for an x-ray at the local hospital.

My shoulder is killing me from all the poking and prodding. I have an appt next Tuesday to figure out where to go from here.

Now I get to get my taxes done. Here's hoping for a nice big refund check this year! :-)

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????

The summary of Midterm Exam week for M-Dawg . . .

I had a busy yet productive midterm exam week:

*Had Monday off for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I cleaned and did some school work. I met a friend in Portsmouth for dinner.

*I didn't have exams the first two days. However, I was in a cleaning frenzy! I cleaned the whiteboards, desks, and swept the classroom floor. The custodians don't sweep my classroom. They empty the garbage cans (if I'm lucky). Everyone commented on how clean my room smelled and they could smell down the Hall. Good. It's better than the alternative! :-)

*Starting on Monday, I'll be teaching two sections of a new class called Current World Affairs. I co-wrote the curriculum over the summer with a colleague. I'm so pumped about teaching this class! Her and I met for three hours on one of the days to start planning and organizing the first week of the class. My numbers are high right now due to the teacher cuts.

*Corrected the Final Projects for my local history elective class. Some of the kids did an amazing job! One of my seniors made a model of one of the historical homes - the detail in the architectural features is amazing! Another student designed a Monopoly board game using all local street names, houses, and historical information. Cool stuff.

*We have no formal curriculum for the 9th grade World Studies class that I teach. It's frustrating but we all do our own thing right now. So, I typed out unit objectives and essential questions for each unit for the rest of the school year. At some point, we will have to write the curriculum so I figured that I might as well get a head start on it. Currently, I use the curriculum from my previous schools and align everything with the state frameworks.

*Midterm exams were given at the end of my week. My college prep kids tanked the exam. They didn't study at all for their exam. I gave them a study guide and told them to take it seriously. My Honors did alright overall. Looks like I will have high failure rates again for 2nd quarter. Ugh! :-(

*My co-advisor and I met with our class officers to start organizing their Sophomore Social. The kids seem to be under the impression that they can do everything at the last minute (Ex: book a DJ, get paperwork signed for approval, decorations, food, etc). They are in for a rude awakening . . .

*The Freshman House teachers met to discuss the grading policy. We had a huge debate about whether or not we should type in a letter grade (F) for those students that fail or enter a numerical grade (25%) on their report cards. All of the other grades are entered in as numerical. But, the idea of the F thing is to encourage kids to not give up and that they still have a chance to pass for the year. I believe in giving the numerical grade - I already give the kids a printout of their grades (I use GradeKeeper for calculating grades) so they know their "real" grade. Right now, only the Freshman House is going the "F" thing. We shall see if it works . . . .

*I would like to send my sympathy to my friend and her family. I attended the wake on Thursday evening of her father. Sending ya lots of hugs and love.

*Today after school, a few members of my dept and I went out for coffee at this cool cafe. We relaxed and chatted for a few hours.

So, it was a productive week overall. Exhausting. I have Saturday off from Paws so I will hang out at Starbucks to finish up correcting.

I needed this at a time when all was icky in the world!

During the week of the cuts at my school, I received an invitation from a student to attend her National Honor Society Induction Ceremony (students pick one teacher to invite that has made a difference or impact in their life). I had this student last year in my US History Honors class. In the inside of the invitation, this is what she wrote (names have been changed to protect the innocent):

"Dear M-Dawg:
I would like to thank you for your immense effort in helping me academically in the past year or so by inviting you to my National Honors Society Induction Ceremony. In US History Honors, you helped me to enjoy and value history more deeply and I am grateful for all that I have taken with me into my junior year from that class. I enjoyed the Civil War Scrapbook project that we did and the current events at the beginning of class. These, among other aspects of our class, made me see history in a new light, as one of my favorite subjects. I am also appreciative of the fact that you challenged and encouraged me to take AP US History. I am benefiting greatly from that class. I look forward to our Harvard Model Congress trip and having you as a teacher for Current World Affairs in the 2nd semester. You are a kindhearted, down to earth teacher who knows how to make students feel welcome. I feel that you have made an influential contribution to my academic excellence and getting me to where I am today. Sincerely, M-Dawg's Student"

Words can't even begin to describe how I felt when I read this note. I received it at a time when all was dark in my world and I thought I might lose my job. I was very emotional all week because none of us knew if we were going to be cut.

I've received a few of these kind of notes in my nine years of teaching. As educators, we don't get this type of recognition very often. There are so many times when I want to give up teaching because I feel ungrateful and underpaid. And then ya get one of these notes or emails. Brings tears to my eyes!

I just received a nice payment in that note - it may not be monetary but it's the payment to know that I made a difference in a life.

Day off for M-Dawg! :-)

My district originally had scheduled a professional day today. In the midst of the new contract vote and lay offs, they decided to give us the day off. No one seems to know if we have to make it up at the end of the school year.

Overall, I'm enjoying the day. Going at my own pace. Productive but not running around with my head cut off. Had to take the car in for an oil change and tuneup. $280.00 later, I walked out with an almost new car (they wash and vacuum it for free). Ran some errands.

I'm now back at home. Doing laundry. Catching up on blogs. Paying bills. Doing some correcting and grades. Ellie the Cat is loving me around the house as I write this post - she's laying across the computer desk, purring away. :-)

A few updates in the life of M-Dawg:
*The new contract got voted in by 9 votes. I voted no because the city was offering a 2% raise but raising our insurance by 5% (the city currently pays 80% and we pay 20% - it will now be 75% paid by city and 25% of the employee expense). The folks that voted yes said, "This is the best that we will get" and my personal favorite, "I don't get the health insurance through the school (they get their health insurance through their husband's work) anyway so who cares?" Nice! :-(
*We got some good news regarding some of the cuts. Businesses and citizens of the city donated a total of $200,000 to save teacher jobs. You can read about it here. The money will be used for the elementary teaching positions that were cut. There is hope that more money will be raised to save the middle and high school positions that were cut as well.
*The bumping is still an issue and I will keep folks updated on that topic.
*I was invited by a student from last year to their induction ceremony into National Honor Society on Thursday night. She wrote a really nice note inside the invitation that I will post over the weekend. It brought tears to my eyes!
*A group of teachers from the induction ceremony decided to go out last night for a few drinks. Let's just say that a nice time was had by all - including M-Dawg! I NEVER drink anymore so it was somewhat entertaining.

I also want to acknowledge all the support that you all gave me during this rough time with the cuts. My friends and family were there for me and I really appreciate the emails, phone calls, cards, and comments on the blog with words of support and love.

I Love Ya Man! :-)

Enjoy your weekend!

Snow Day for M-Dawg! :-)

The naked snow day dance worked (for your visual folks - just ignore the "naked" comment)! :-)

No school today!

I just finished digging out my car so the plow could come in to plow me out of my parking spot.

Relaxing and hanging out with Ellie the Cat.

Enjoying some down time.

For your New England folks, please be careful driving out there today! :-)

I still have my job . . . for now.

Just wanted to give an update on the cuts. You can read about it here.

The 11 cuts ended up being 9 because my Principal and the three assistant principals took a pay cut to save 2 teacher jobs. Unfortunately, they are not making it public that the administrators took the pay cut.

I made it through this first round. Now I have to worry about possible bumping next week.

The support staff won't be told about their cuts until Monday. I don't think it is fair to them. They've been just as stressed about this drama as the teachers. I think we are going to lose the majority of our support staff.

This situation is so sad and ridiculous! All because of one man that screwed the city!

The Principals referred to Friday as "Black Friday" - how true is that statement????

Please continue to be thinking happy thoughts and positive vibes for my school community. We took a huge blow on Friday. :-(

Update: M-Dawg is "hanging"

Had an emergency faculty meeting on Monday and received a memo from the Superintendent in our mailbox.

There are going to be 20 teachers cut from my building alone. I can't even begin to describe the sense of stress, emotions, and resentment that filled that auditorium. The atmosphere in my building is horrible right now. I need to point out that it's not that positive to begin with so it's even worse now.

We were informed today that the positions cut are now down to 11 teachers. At last nights school committee meeting, the city was able to "find" some money to reduce the number to 11 instead of 20. There are going to be over 100 total positions cut city wide (includes secretaries, aides, custodians, and teachers).

Those folks being cut will be called out of their classes on Friday to be told the icky news. They (the administration) expects us to work two more weeks (gotta give those midterm exams and complete grades before they shit can your ass) and it's done. No more teaching.

The word has spread to the kids. They are upset too. So now I'm dealing with their emotions as well as my own. Joy!

Those that remain behind are left to the horrible task of having increased class sizes (in most cases over the 30 mark which violates contract) and dealing with angry students and parents of why their child had to switch teachers and schedule changes mid-year. Double Joy!

Life just sometimes sucks! :-(

Please be thinking happy vibes for myself and my fellow colleagues this week. It's been a rough week and we are trying to hang in there but it's really tough.

Happy 2008!

I know I'm a little late posting my New Years wishes and resolutions. Life has been a tad bit crazy since I came back from Chicago on the 1st.

Happy 2008 to all my family and friends. Let's hope for a happy and healthy New Year. :-)

Resolutions for 2008:
*I really need to lose weight. I did well a few years ago and lost over 70 pounds but I hit a wall. Eating healthier is a goal for me to work on this year. I know that I will feel better about myself too.

*I started a savings account a few years ago but I haven't really been keeping up with it. I would like to work on building up my savings to at least three months worth of fiances in case of emergencies.

*Try and get another teaching job at a different school. I will be entering into my 10th year so I don't know if it's even a possibility due to all the budget cuts but I really need to look for another job. The system I work for is not a great school system and there are a lot of problems that the administration doesn't want to deal with so I need to get back into a healthier school system. I may even leave teaching all together. I don't know yet. I just need to be happier in my professional life again. I may not have to make a decision . . . in the next few days my school will be cutting 100 jobs in the school system due to a $1.8 million (plus) deficit. I'm at the bottom in my dept so my odds are really good of getting cut. The cuts will take place immediately. :-(

*I have to make a decision about my condo. I'm trying to refinance and get out of my 3 year ARM and I'm having a hard time getting someone to help me out. The decision will need to be made within the next two weeks so I can figure out if I need to sell my condo or not and go back to renting.

*Try online dating again. It would be so nice if I could meet a nice guy. It's so tough being single these days. If anyone knows of a nice guy that would be perfect M-Dawg, send them my way! :-)

I know this is an ambitious list. But I really don't know how else to make the necessary changes in my life. I'm hoping that by blogging about them that it might motivate me more to accomplish these goals. Any suggestions would be great! :-)

Again, Happy New Years and best wishes to a wonderful 2008!

What are your resolutions?

Still in IL. Still relaxing. :-)

Just some random thoughts for today:

*Happy Birthday to my Dad. He turns 59 today. Happy B-day Daddy!

*Hung out with my "peeps" from high school last night. We had a lovely time at The Maples Restaurant (they have no link or web site). Thanks for coming out ladies . . . had a nice time catching up! :-) Went back to Joann's house to hang out. She bought me some great gifts for Christmas . . . gift cards, stuff for school (paper, Post-it's, pens, etc) and my personal favorite, Western dressing! I love this dressing on my salads and you can't find it in New England so she loaded me up! :-)

*Christmas was low key. My plane ticket to IL was my Christmas gift and got some awesome gift cards in my stocking my Santa. My sis and I gave each other the same gift - The Third Pirates Movie on DVD! You can't tell we are sisters, can ya??? :-)

*My Godfather and his wife drove down on Thursday to spend the day with me. They've always been so good to me. I'm so blessed to have such great folks in my life.

*On Wednesday, the family and I went to Chicago for the day. I wanted to check out this museum. Very informative and gets ya to stop and think about our freedoms and rights. Ate lunch and then my sister got us tickets for Altar Boyz. It's a spoof on the Catholic Church. Oh my goodness, I laughed my ass off! Highly recommend seeing it. Sis went on line that morning and got us front row center tickets for half price! Good deal!

*Not doing anything for New Years. Just going to hang out at my folks house. Low key. I have some resolutions that I'll be working on. Do you have any resolutions or changes that you'll be working on in 2008?

Happy almost New Year and 2008!

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick shot out to wish all my family and friends a Merry Christmas on this fine day.

Hope Santa was good to ya! :-)

Hugs from M-Dawg! :-)

Personal Day for M-Dawg

Resting. Relaxing. Getting some stuff done today.

It's a personal day for M-Dawg. I tried to sleep in but was awaken at 5:45 AM by a text message for a two-hour delay for school (I signed up for a text message through one of the local Boston TV stations for delay or cancellation notice). Five minutes later - the school calls me. Ellie the Cat and I went back to sleep - she's soooo cute! She loves to cuddle with her Momma! :-)

Taking Ellie to the vet today for her yearly shots and check up. I swear it's more traumatic for me - putting her in the carrier is a huge drama! Ughy! She hates the carrier and she hates the ride in the car. Poor Ellie Mae! :-(

Probably will do some laundry. Bake some cupcakes for my department meeting tomorrow. Complete some correcting. Easy day overall.

Hope everyone survived the crazy storms -

Alive and kicking . . . barely!

I'm here. Overworked. Underpaid. Exhausted.

No news yet. Rumor mill states next week will be notification of cut teacher positions due to the budget. Merry freakin' Christmas to you too! :-(

Oh, the $1.8 million deficit is now $3.0 million. Joy.

I do know for a fact that personnel is going through every one's file to make sure they have their P's and Q's tied nicely in a red bow.

Taking Monday off as a personal day. A mental health day is needed for M-Dawg. The only planned activity: taking Ellie the Cat to the vet for her yearly shots.

Working all weekend at Paws. Seeing the doggies and puppies always cheers me up.

Enjoy your weekend peeps! :-)

Overwhelmed and overworked!

Just a quick check in.

Things in my life are really busy right now.

I need to send out an apology. I won't be sending out Christmas cards this year. I have NO time to fill them out. This is the first year eva! Ughy! :-(

Also won't be blogging a lot the next few weeks. Please understand that I'm working a zillion hours between school, my second job, advising the class of 2010, and advising Mock Congress. I have no life as it is right now.

I know I should be taking care of myself but that just ain't happening anytime soon.

I'll be on a plane to Chicago on December 22nd. I'll rest while I'm at my folks house. :-)

Happy Belated Birthday to Cheryl!

Cheryl caught a fish! Go Cheryl go!!! :-)

Happy Birthday to Cheryl . . . we've been friends since high school. Cheryl is a wonderful friend . . . she's always been there for me no matter what. She's a wonderful Mom and wife. She makes me laugh!

Enjoy your day with the hubby and the kids! Love ya kiddo! Can't wait to see ya in IL around the holidays!!!! --)

First round of budget cuts announced.

Opened the local paper this AM and the school committee announced the first round of cuts. Things like not hiring two new teachers (shouldn't they have been hired before the school year?), cut a SPED teacher (isn't this against a SPED law?), turn down the heat in all school buildings by 2 degrees (some classrooms in my building have no heat so how does the savings impact them?) and professional development money (according to Ed Reform of 1994, each school is supposed to provide money for professional development). There are other cuts of various programs as well. Total cuts: $515,458. The total deficit is $1.8 million.

It's the first round of cuts. We've been told by the Mayor and Superintendent that more cuts will occur soon.

Joy.

A rough commute this AM

The weather in New England can sometimes be a challenge this time of the year. Ever since I put my car into a ditch in NH about five years ago, I'm a big baby driving in snow/icky weather.

We had a nice storm (thanks to the Midwest) last night and today. My commute into school was a bit of a challenge. I live about 34 miles north of where I teach (I live near the NH border). Most schools in my area were either cancelled or a two hour delay. I would've enjoyed a cancellation since I really would like a day off and not be penalized for it but it wasn't in the cards for M-Dawg. :-(

The highway I take into work was horrible! At one point, it was dead stop traffic. I passed a few accidents along the way which didn't help the morning commute at all. The secondary roads were not great either.

I made it into school late. I teach a first block class so that was amusing. What can I do? A few of the schools in the same area as my school did do a two hour delay but not my school district. I sometime want to call up the Superintendent and say this: "Look buddy! A huge percentage of your faculty does not live in the city! So, how about accommodating us and giving us that two hour delay?" Oh. There were a ton of teachers out today anyway due to the weather. Nice.

How was your commute today??????

Oh, happy Monday! :-)