Tragic

I came home to find a very brief email from a very close friend. Her son was killed yesterday in Iraq. I am still coping with this, as is my family - we all knew him and really liked him. He was a student at my friend's high school, and she helped him get a job as a counselor at the summer camp where we all worked. Back then he was fun loving, but very responsible. A great guy to be around.

His home life was a little bit on the depressing side. His mother was not around for him, and therefore he had little stability, and wound up dropping out of school and living in my friend's house. She and her husband helped him get into some programs to help him develop skills and pass the GED, and to enlist and get a decent assignment. My friends became his new family and he was a son to them. On leave he went to stay with them, most recently only about 2 months ago. Now, like so many serving, he is gone.

On a slightly less depressing note, the meeting with my student's parents went 90 minutes with little or no resolution. Mother refused to acknowledge any point of view but her son's, wants us to praise the positive, but neglected to inform her son that reminding him not to be talking at certain times is not a negative, and he doesn't have to become surly because of it. I see more meetings in the future, as this boy won't rein himself in.

Dinner for the anniversary (shifting to the positive) was nice. We went to a place called Beauty Shop - which used to BE a beauty shop. Some of the seats are those dryers with the hoods. Good food, too. She had steak frites (steak was bacon wrapped filet with peppercorn and mustard crust) and I had a really nice cioppino. mmmm

Another day down

Sad that I feel that way. Some classes easier than others. Some students still struggling with their need to disrupt my teaching to get a sense of accomplishment - one who had a tantrum last week and spent the period drawing got himself an overnight suspension (basically an urgent request for a parent to visit the school to talk about their child) for a "cute" stick figure drawing of him shooting me. The administration talked with the dad last week, but today the mom spoke with another one of our teachers (all of us have problems with this honor student) and wanted to come in to talk about why I am picking on her son, a view that was not taken kindly by the administrator. Should be a fun day - I have a decent size file amassed.

Youngest plays volleyball on the fifth grade team. Some of the girls are pretty athletic, others less so, mine being one. This being said, I still get to chauffeur to and from games, and attend the home games. They have yet to win. To add insult to injury, most of the other schools charge admission - $4 for adults and $1 for children. A little pricey, so I usually watch from the halls. Season is almost over, so I have that going for me.

Tomorrow is 19th wedding anniversary. They are all big these days, but next year is one of those 'round' dates.

Motivation

I know things go easier when I plan out a week in advance, as we are supposed/required to do. The tough part is - there is one lesson to go in the chapter, which means some review. And Wednesday is a field trip for 50 of the students, leaving 60 at school (if none ditch). Friday during the last period we have students we will have an incentive - Ice cream social...and that class is the one farthest behind. Funny how there is always once class that struggles with discipline and falls behind on learning. That leaves me with two "toss-up" days this week, with a test in there.

Just hard to get things done on the weekends. Weather has been REALLY nice. Dark during my morning commute, so I picked up a front light, not for me to see, but for cars to see me. And since Monday mornings are especially troublesome, I do all my packing up the night before. Breakfast and lunch, clothes, lesson book, etc. in the messenger bag.

My poor breathing machine. One of these days I need to go back and hand them back the replacement part that didn't work. Both of the usual technicians weren't there and the lady helping me gave me something she thought would work, but advised me to just find the part that broke off and super-glue it. Which worked for about a week. At which point I noticed the replacement part doesn't really match the other parts I have. So I have a cobbled together solution. I wish they could just make the mask so it won't break (as this one has, twice, in the exact same spot).

Crazy Times Coming

Slept weird last night. Dreamt of being choked by a strange man. Literally could not breathe. Didn't seem like apnea, just a powerful dream.

Today we had a mini-team meeting, started as just a chat session with all the four teachers. Then it turned to two of our "new" students, both of whom were suspended last year for 180 days (that is a full year) but went to an alternative school (I guess you could think of it as reform school) for a few months and are now kicked back to us. They promise to be a handful, and one I had last year and was more than a handful. He got caught dealing pot in the final month of school, after showing some significant sociopathic tendencies.

On a good note, though, all the classes went well, kids were "getting it" as we worked in our new workbooks and played with equations on the board. Good questions from my kids, and a couple of hard to reach kids were attentive and I got to compliment them after class.

Still, now that report card grades are finalized, now we have start intervening with kids who score D or F. And I got my "improvement" scores from last year and my students were down more than the state average on their test scores. But it couldn't really dampen my good day.

Approaching normalcy

Computer is back, on time and working fine. Having more power doesn't affect anything...yet. Soon I hope to have a new(er) video card and that will hopefully show some differences. Maybe down the road a stick or two of RAM.

Friday (tomorrow) will be an interesting test. Our school has been fight-free since Day 1 this year, which most places wouldn't be an accomplishment, but the longest record had been 29 days. And that was during an incentive period where 40 days got you a visit from a pro basketball player. So, Friday is a no-uniform day, or as the administration calls it "dress down". Mostly it will be OK, but the kids tend to forget that wearing what they want doesn't include acting the way they might when wearing it out of school.

Changing Habits, and not

Let's start with the habits that are slowly changing.  At school I am much more organized.  There is actual filing going on, and I have discipline files sorted by homeroom.  Still not keeping up the way I should with parent phone calls...Also, trying and succeeding in keeping things from feeling personal.  The kids just don't have awareness of how their actions are interpreted, and unwilling to admit any wrongdoing.  Student by student, though, I am working on the honors class, which I think of as the horrors class.  Had a parent meeting today where the girl is slowly adjusting her attitude (but not totally).  Mom was very supportive.

On the physical front - those who know me may remember my affinity for Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper.  A 12 pack or two a week.  Now maybe a can a night.  I have a much stronger hankering for water.  I recall reading somewhere that one reason Americans are more weighty is because they interpret thirst as hunger.  So they eat instead of drink.  I think I am drinking a gallon a day, or thereabouts.  Which also means less hunger.  And my body is conditioned to expect food at regular times.  A piece of fruit before school starts.  A protein bar 4 hours later.  A snack when I get home.  Dinner, which I don't usually want much of.  Lots of water, maybe a small sweet snack after 7, but before 8.  I have found that eating too close to bedtime causes some nasty reflux...bile in the throat making you cough soon after falling asleep is not so good.

With the computer out for the past several days, too, I am reading more (finishing Eclipse, as my oldest calls it "the girly vampire book - why are you reading it, dad?"), watching more TV (Heroes last night, caught up on Sarah Conner today online, Fringe tonight, plus Supernatural courtesy of NetFlix) and spending more time just hanging with the family.  Now if I can balance that with a night or two away from my games once the computer is back and running, things might smooth out.

The exercise is keeping me warm all the time, plus the sense of satisfaction of having done something worthwhile.  The endorphins are not too shabby, either.  I sleep well, but with very vivid dreams.  Got to watch out for those, since they can keep me on edge for a day or so as scenes drift to the surface, triggered by who knows what.

The Lost Weekend

Alas, the saga of the computer.  With advice on ways to upgrade from people even more computer literate than I am, I removed a bunch of stuff I never use.  Including the devil - AOL.  Upon restarting the computer, I got the blue screen of death.  Do not proceed - we didn't start Windows because your computer will explode.  If this is the first time you are seeing this blue screen, try again.

Well, after the sixth time I realized it wasn't going to spontaneously heal itself.  So I ran a diagnostic.  Which took 4 hours.  And told me that one message block out of over several million was unreadable.

Good news is that there are at least 2 other computers here that can access the internet.  A friend from my game (world of warcraft, if I haven't mentioned it) told me the steps.  Except my Windows XP disc wouldn't boot up the repair utility.  Finally it did.  And the repair utility (after two more hours) fixed the fubarred block.

With a mind towards my graphics card update, I took the computer today to the local tech guys.  This is where I would have taken it if it was REALLY messed up, for them to retrieve whatever they could get off the hard drive.  Having them put in a new power supply unit (PSU for those of you into three letter acronyms, or TLAs).  Talking with the guy, at first he couldn't understand why I wanted it.  I explained about my graphics card, and then he mentioned his 1G card ran fine with his 420W.  Then I told him my PSU was 305W.  At that he filled out the paperwork and said "I think we can get a 450W in there."

So the computer is in the shop until tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on how busy they are.  By then a different in-game friend should have shipped me a shiny new graphics card that he has never used.

Oh, and at school it was picture day.  You can imagine how that was.

For the record, I hate how Memphis does traffic lights.  Unless you are heavy enough to trigger the sensor, your light will never turn green.  Treating it like a 4-way stop means that sometimes, like today, I am in the middle of an intersection when the main street goes green.  Lots of honking.  Selfish bastards.