My Little Eponine

I absolutely love my kids this year. I teach some of the cutest little choir nerds there ever were and most of us are getting along swimmingly.

There's one little girl in the 7th grade who I absolutely adore. She always has 3-5 HUGE books with her and if we have even a minute left at the end of class, she's reading. She also writes short stories and poems for fun. I've read some of them and they are classic middle school unrequited love poems. Awesome.

We haven't started our UIL music yet this semester because with the long class periods, they learn music quickly and get bored easily. So, we've been sightreading like crazy and learning "fun" pieces to practice reading music and singing in harmony. "Castle on a Cloud" was one such piece and this girl really liked it.

She is the first student of mine that has connected that the technique we use for sightreading can be applied to all music and is now a sightreading nut. She dug up all her old choir music at home and has snuck out a copy of every piece we have in the room. Every day she reports to me with her latest sightreading conquest and at least one or two questions about what the heck key is this piece in and what should she do when those pesky accidentals show up.

Not only have I encouraged this, I'm sneaking her new pieces to practice. On Friday, I played "On My Own" for her and sent her home with a copy. Today in class, after the usual report and questioning, she said, "Oh yeah, and that other piece...I love it. Sigh."

Workin' on my Fitness

Last weekend, during our glorious Monday holiday, Meri and I went and joined a gym. We decided on one of the dorky all-girl ones because (1) it was close to the apartment (2) it was awesomely cheap and (3) I find watching the "fit" guys checking out the "fit" girls to be uninspiring to my pathetic workout.
I started working out on Monday, and already yesterday had gotten over my sore-after-every-visit phase. Yay! Maybe my muscles do have some memory of my former gym dedication.
One thing this gym has that I had never experienced before was their "fitness consultation." When you sign up, every member meets with a personal trainer to weigh, measure, calculate fat percentages and come up with workout/eating plans for themselves. Holy crap. I joined a gym because I know I need to lose weight. Please don't make me look at a machine that tells me I have 97% body fat (slight exaggeration).
Another thing this gym has that I'm pumped about are girly classes. Yoga, Zumba, Nia, I'm there. The Nia class is even having some sort of dance-off this Sunday called "Mamma Nia" which is, yes, dancing to Abba music for 2 hours.

Why Teachers Drink, Part 349

Yesterday was my last day with children this year and today was a teacher workday to assure all grades were done correctly and on time. That's it. Just grades to worry about today then we are free to do as we please. Simple, right?

I started this job in October just 3 days before the first six weeks ended. Because the previous teacher had left suddenly, some classes had been given grades during her weeks there and some had not. By the time grades were due, I did not even have a computer to enter them on, let alone any feasible way of assessing them, so I was told not to worry about it.

Fast forward two and a half months.

I'm being told, rather condescendingly, that I'm responsible for fixing all 150 of my students semester grades that are incomplete. Some students were given a 100 for the first six weeks and some were given no grade at all. Also, as an elective teacher, I frequently have students transferred in and out of my class. All of these look wrong in the computer and, despite the fact that I have still received no training, I have to fix them all this morning. Great.

I spent an hour or so in the computer teacher's room as he walked me through the process, completed all my grades, and when I made it down to the counselor to see if they were there and get my verifications done, how was I received?

"Ms. F, why are you making all these grade changes TODAY? It's the busiest day that I have! Now I have to run ALL OF THESE before you can print anything out."

Fucking awesome.

Is it Christmas yet?

Proofread much?

MERRY Christmas

to: Mrs. F
from: 1st peroid langue Arts class Mrs. Richardson

Merry Christmas!
Ms. Teacher that I don't know!
Happy HOliDaYS and a Merry Christmas!
Mrs. F That I Really love anD charish.
_________________________________________
Christmas is like a Snow white



I'M

not

done

Surely McFail

Yesterday on a cupcake quest, we pulled into Cupprimo, an adorable cupcakery/coffee shop. Next to Cupprimo is a dance studio.

Me: I'm gonna enroll in a dance class here. Then I'll come next door after class and ruin all the work I've done with a cupcake.

Merida: Haha.

Me: What a counterproductive idea, who would put the dance studio next to a cupcakery...

Merida: Shirley McPhail

**explosive laughter**

Me: Yes, trying to stay in shape by dancing there you surely would mcfail.