Brrrr....

It seems we're dealing with the polar vortex again.  It's currently -6 here, windchill of -24.  It's going to get colder as the night goes on, and the windchill is supposed to be around -40 tomorrow.  My parents are supposed to be flying out at 7:25am to Tampa, FL (Hi, Suz!) so I'm praying their flight isn't cancelled.  Believe it or not, CPS cancelled school today, and already announced tomorrow is cancelled, too.  Between the two days this week and the two from the first polar vortex experience, the school year is going to extend into July!

I guess that's all I really have to say for now.  Well, except for......



I got a job.




No, no joke.  I'll be back to share the details when my teeth stop chattering, and my fingers aren't numb.

Ahhh...it's cooled off rather nicely...

I'm sure some of you have heard about the crazy weather we've been having here recently.  Lex snapped these pictures on Friday at my parents' house.  You know, while I was shoveling!!!  The little jerk...

He was fascinated with the icicles hanging off the garage.

This kind of weather always brings out the puppy in Buster.  It's like The Fountain of Youth for him. =)

This is what I woke up to on Sunday.  I didn't really have time to deal with it before church.  Plus, Magnum was in bed, sick, so I was on my own.

After church, I went straight to my parents' house and shoveled again.  It was really hard this time, as the weather was much more severe than it was on Friday.  Every time I moved a shovelful of snow, the wind would blow it right back in my face.  After finishing at my parents', I went home to do our driveway, only to find Magnum up and dressed, and heading out to do his parents' driveway.  I convinced him to let me go with him.  From there, we came home and did ours, as well as the neighbors.  Let me tell you, my back, shoulders and arms are really feeling it today.  It's ok, since I didn't get to the gym.  Although, I am seriously tempted to go to the gym solely for a massage.  I'm hurtin'!

Today, we've broken records for the cold we're experiencing.  The actual temperature is about -18,  with a windchill of about -41.  Our high, which happened right after midnight, was -3, which was a record-breaker.  Then, the "official" low, -16, was also a record-breaker. 

We knew this was coming, so many suburban schools decided last Friday that they were going to cancel school for today.  But, CPS said no, school will be in session.  Shocking. 

But, THEN, around 5pm yesterday, they changed their tune.  Apparently, the union president, a powerhouse names Karen Lewis, basically TOLD him, school must be closed!!  For the safety and well-being of the children, they need to stay home.  In this weather, it takes less than 10 minutes to get frost-bite.  You can't have kids walking to and from school, or waiting on bus stops.  I'm waiting to hear what they decide for tomorrow, as this wacky weather is going to still be around.

Oo, as I was typing this, they broke into the programming with a news conference about the weather.  School is cancelled for tomorrow!  I'm seriously shocked!  Too bad they're going to have to make up both of these days in June. =(  But, hey, I WON'T!!!  =)

This just in....

I just opened an email from The Chicago Teachers' Union. It was about this:


If you feel compelled to sign, that would be awesome!

Day 16

I knew my exit from CPS wasn't going to go smoothly. We got paid yesterday, and my check is short 3 days. After a series of phone calls, being put on hold for way too long, way too many times, and being transferred about 3 times, I finally think I know what happened. Unfortunately, no one I spoke to could really help me, they could only tell me who to try and contact. I shot of an email, so we'll see if she responds Monday. I have a feeling that my next check will also be screwed up for the same reason this last on was. Great. I'm already getting a headache thinking about having to deal with this for the next several weeks. :(

Day 6

Wednesday, June 6, 2012
What is something you'd like to jump into if you had more time/money?

I know I've mentioned it more than once, but if I had the money, I would open my own preschool/daycare.

Today was a big day for CPS teachers. I won't bore you with all the details here. If you're that interested, you could always Google it.

This was posted on the Chicago Teachers Union blog today. I loved it, and just had to share.

A Letter to CEO Brizard from a Teacher

06/06/2012

CEO Brizard,

Thank you for sharing your concerns about the upcoming CTU strike authorization vote. I think a teacher's perspective may help you better understand why we will overwhelmingly vote yes to the authorization this week.

Though you often tell me how much you respect me and how much you support me, Board policies and CPS contract proposals do neither. If I felt respected and supported, in actions not words, if the thousands of other CTU members felt respected and supported, we would be at a very different place in our relationship, wouldn't we.

Unfortunately, the fact that you feel that you and CPS respect and support teachers and staff only serves to highlight how massively disconnected CPS leadership and the Board of Education are from classroom teachers, career service personnel, and the students we serve every day.

When my CEO cannot be bothered to attend a single session in negotiations, a process for which dozens of teachers and career service employees have gladly volunteered, I do not feel respected or supported.

When selective enrollment schools serving 1% of CPS students receive 24% of TIF funding spent on schools and I work in a neighborhood school, I do not feel respected or supported.

When CPS contract proposals indicate that experience, education, and training are unimportant or even undesirable, I do not feel respected or supported.

When 4% of my pay is taken (for the rest of my career - not just for one year) even though the Board budgeted for it, I do not feel respected or supported.

When charter schools dump their least desirable and least successful students into my neighborhood school, I do not feel respected or supported.

When CPS attempts to mandate a scripted curricula that has nothing to do with the needs of my students, I do not feel respected or supported.

When CPS closes 100 schools since the start of my career with threats to close 100 more, I do not feel respected or supported.

When privatized, non-union charter schools receive a disproportionate share of CPS capital funds and I work in a neighborhood school, I do not feel respected or supported.

When entire swaths of the city of Chicago are left without access to a neighborhood school, I do not feel respected or supported.

When Board policy terminates or pushes out the door thousands of our most valuable and veteran teachers (I'll be one of those some day), I do not feel respected or supported.

When CPS completely ignores my Union's positive agenda and its vision for publicly funded public education (The Schools Chicago's Students Deserve), I do not feel respected or supported.

When CPS takes enormous pension holidays and then complains about later balloon payments required to make up for it, I do not feel respected or supported.

When the Board asks me to invest 15-20% more mandatory hours in exchange for 2% more pay, I do not feel respected or supported. (By the way, a recent U of I study found that Chicago teachers average about 58 hours of work per week.)

When students coming in to my high school have never had the opportunity to take a music class in elementary school, I do not feel respected or supported.

When my field trip request to a CPS sponsored event is rejected by CPS, I do not feel respected or supported. (Yes, this has actually happened.)

When I am paid inaccurately over and over and over again and invest hours and hours into getting it corrected, I do not feel respected or supported.

When CPS has offered teachers for years an embarrasingly meager 250 MB of online storage and a decades old communication and collaboration platform I do not feel respected or supported.

When I cannot access GradeBook or Impact for hours on end, or I wait 13 minutes for a computer to boot up, I do not feel respected or supported.

When wave after wave of unproven education reform initiatives du jour are foisted upon teachers, I do not feel respected or supported.

When the temperatures hit 100 degrees on the third floor of our building at the beginning and end of the school year and over the summer, I do not feel respected or supported.

When the district is so unstable it cannot even keep its most senior leaders in place much less retain outstanding teachers, I do not feel respected or supported.

When grades are due a week before school ends, or we spend days on end on high stakes exams, or when other large portions of learning time are wasted but CPS wants to extend the school day and year without improving it or funding it, I do not feel respected or supported.

When counselors and special education teachers are woefully overworked with caseloads far beyond those recommended by respective professional organizations, I do not feel respected or supported.

When the Board dictates without discussion decisions on important issues like a longer day, a longer year, the number of classes I teach, the number of students I teach, class sizes, narrow test-prep curricula, etc., I do not feel respected or supported.

I am sure other teachers and employees could add on to this short list and make it a long one, but for the sake of brevity I will stop here.

Thank you for your respect and support and for sharing your concerns, but I have no choice but to vote yes. Though I expect to be fired or have my school closed or turned around or privatized or transformed or whatever else CPS intends to do to neighborhood schools next, I am confident I will still be teaching in CPS long after you and your team have moved on to greener pastures.

Sincerely,

Eric Skalinder, NBCT

Kelly High School

Interesting read...

Just a teeny peek into the crap we deal with.

Why, oh why, did I have to check my email?

One of my besties just sent me a link to this article. VERY interesting, yet infuriating, reading.

Why so much disrespect toward teachers?

OK, I know...

...that by now, you're all probably sick of my complaining about our weather. I can hear you all the way over here. "Oh, ChiTown, shut the hell up already!! It's July!" And, I get that. However, if I lived in freakin' Miami, or the Bahamas, I wouldn't be complaining. (ok, yes, I would be cuz I HATE the heat) But, I live in CHICAGO. Yes, we're known for our hot, humid, oppressive summers. But, shit, it's been DAYS now of heat index readings in the triple freakin' digits. Enough, already!!

I went to lunch with my mom today, this is what her car said when we got to the restaurant at noon.
I purposely picked a parking spot under a tree, in the shade. But, at about 1:30 when we came out, it said this!!!Ugh! It's just ridiculous.

Since I'm in a bitching mood, let me tell you what an assbag our new mayor is. He's been screwing with teachers from the moment he was elected. He wants to completely revamp our entire education system, blah, blah, blah. I know I haven't been talking about it, but that's mostly cuz it pisses me off so much, I try not to think about it more than necessary. However, today's little announcement in the news was too good to not share. What a jerk!

I may have been a bit premature in my celebrating...

...the end of the school year. Although Friday was supposed to be our last day, we still had to work today, and then tomorrow. That's to make up for the 2 snow days we had in February.

Now, the kids already made up their 2 days. They made one up almost immediately in February. We were supposed to have professional development day on Lincoln's birthday, which meant the kids were supposed to be off, but they canceled that and made the kids come to school. Ok, that kinda makes sense. However, guess when the 2nd day was made up. Go 'head, guess. Um...yeah...it was last Wednesday!!!! Please, someone explain to me what instruction was being made up the day before school got out for the summer. You know what was accomplished that day? Well, let's see, they cleaned out their desks, they washed their desks and chairs, the helped me purge the room of tons of garbage, they organized the manipulatives, I think you get the idea. There was NO instruction taking place. Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either. All I know it that Wednesday was also supposed to be a professional development day. It was supposed to be the day for us to complete our records, and finish getting our rooms packed up. Instead, we had to babysit. AND, on top of all that, instead of being finished on Friday, we had to continue our school year into this week!

I think the whole thing is just ridiculous. First of all, we went for 12 years without using a snow day. Secondly, we supposedly have 5 snow days built into our calendar, so WTF?! Finally, what pisses me off the most is that, although they paid us for those 2 days, they paid us out of our banked summer money. I don't know if I've ever explained our pay system before (so I apologize if I already have) but basically they take money out of every check during the school year, then bank it (and, of course, earn interest on OUR money!!) to pay us during the summer. So, we ALREADY EARNED the money they paid us with. So, please, explain to me why we have to work 2 more days to 'earn' the money back that we ALREADY EARNED! I would have rather gone 2 days without pay over the summer.

Oh, and on top of Monday and Tuesday being make up days for us, New Principal decided that we need to work Wednesday and Thursday, too. Although she can't 'make' us work those days, she put right on our agenda that those days are "STRONGLY SUGGESTED." (Next to Monday and Tuesday it said "MANDATORY.") She made the statement during a meeting last week that those people who couldn't be bother to show up should basically look for another job because they obviously aren't committed to the Hell-Hole. So our already short 6 week summer break has now been cut to 5 weeks. Oh, AND, in that same meeting, she told us that she expects us to come in 1 week in July to work on planning for next school year. So, we're down to 4 weeks.

Now, trust me, I know some of you are thinking, "Quit yer bitchin'! You get FOUR weeks off!" (Well, some of you non-teachers are thinking that. My teacher buddies get it!) But, most of you know how unbelievably stressful this year has been for me. Well, actually, maybe you don't since I REALLY held back from bitching about it here. Regardless, you know that I really need some down time. I'm fairly certain that 4 weeks just isn't going to cut it.

I know this probably sounds ridiculous, but I still feel like I haven't recovered from not getting one single day off LAST summer, and going straight from one school, to summer school, to the next school year, all while trying to move 10 years of "stuff" from one classroom to another (right across the damn hall, by the way!!) I really needed this summer to rest and regroup.

If you're suddenly thinking, "What the hell, ChiTown, I thought you were quitting!?" you're going to have to come back tomorrow for the update. I meant to post about it over the weekend, but I was too busy trying to enjoy myself, and celebrate my awesome Daddy! Until next time...

Random crap...

...to make up for the fact that I'm such a screw up.

This post is LONG overdue. My sweet friend, Tiffany, sent me an awesome package a while back, and I had intended to share it with you all.

Look what was inside!!
Tiffany's mother-in-law has a hand-made soap business, and she and her hubby sent me a HUGE box of goodies! I can't believe their generosity.
I had to take some close-up photos so you could see what the various scents (or as my sister says - flavors!)



How cute are these 'fancy' soaps?

I wish there was some kind of "smell technology" that would allow you to smell these awesome soaps!! Tiffany had gifted me with a bar of this fantastic soap when I was a guest in her home last fall. Imagine my delight at receiving an entire box of these beauties. Thanks, Tiffany and Ben!!! (I'm sure if anyone is interesting in gifting their friends and/or family with these awesome soaps, Tiffany can hook you up. Click over to her place!)

Things at the Hell-Hole have been just awful lately. I've made a concerted effort to not come here and bitch every day, like I have in the past. Truthfully, that's really how this moved from being a "teacher blog" to just a "random ramblings of a crazy lady" blog. I didn't want to come here every single day and complain. I certainly didn't want to focus on all the negativity, or give it any more of my time and energy. I really just wanted to try and forget about it, and writing here became my escape.

That being said, let me just share a teeny bit of what's been going on here in ChiTown recently. Some of you may know that we had a new mayor take office yesterday. He's bringing in a new superintendent of schools and a new superintendent of police. Like I said, I don't want to use this place as a outlet to bitch, but let me just say, I know LOTS of unhappy teachers and police officers.

One of the things we just found out about yesterday is that there is going to big changes to the length of our school day and year. We were told that our school day is going to be increased by 2 hours, and our school year by 2 weeks, all without ONE CENT of an increase in our salary. Nice, right? There has also been a bill passed making it nearly impossible for us to strike, as we would need a 75% majority vote. Convenient how this was passed right before we were told about all the extra UNPAID time we're going to be expected to work. Some of my other friends who are teachers have told me that their union reps have already told them to prepare for a strike. Once we were told about all this added, UNPAID time, it didn't seem so impossible to get 75% of the group to vote to strike.

I can feel my blood pressure rising, and I think I should just stop now. Let me end on a positive note. There are only 19 days of school left for the kids. Woo hoo! The teachers have 21 days, but that's a post for another day. I'm trying not to stroke out tonight. :(

Blizzard of 2011

Ok, here are just a couple of crappy pictures, because my camera keeps dying on me. Plus, I can't get out my front door to take any good pictures!

This is what was happening last night, when I told you that snow was seeping under my back door.


Dorky Dog decided to wake me up around 2 am to go out again, and this is what the door looked like then. Thankfully, I was able to open it again after Stud forced it shut.
This is the snow drift that formed up against my garage door. You can see that by 2am, it was more than half-way up my door.
This is what the door looked like at 7am when I let Dorky Dog out again. It's about 3/4 of the way covered at this point. I hope I don't have to go anywhere anytime soon!! Crap, what if we have school tomorrow?!
This was the view from my kitchen window of what my neighbor's driveway and side of her house looks like.
This is her garage door covered in it's own drift. I don't know if you can see the huge drift between her yard and her other neighbor's yard. It's as high as the chain link fence that separates their yards. Try clicking on it for an enlarged view.I tried to get some video for you, but it's pretty crappy. It was way too snowy and the wind gusts were too strong to actually go outside, so I tried to take it from my kitchen window.

This was taken from my bedroom window. I don't think you can really see anything because it's so dark. I was trying to capture how strong the wind was blowing. We had wind gusts that hit 60 mph.

I wish I could have gotten my damn camera to turn on while it was thundering and lightening. THAT was quite a show!!

I know it's a snow day, but I think I'm going to go wake Stud up. It's already 10:30 here. That's plenty late to sleep in, don't you think? I have a feeling they may get another snow day tomorrow. They were sent home early yesterday, just like I had predicted. My poor baby sat at school for over 2 hours waiting to be picked up. The automated message I received on my phone said that they were being dismissed at 2pm, and that classes were canceled for Wednesday. They will be following a 'mass schedule' on Thursday (30 minute classes, with a full mass in the middle of the day, dismissal at 2pm) and then there is no school Friday because of a teacher institute day. So, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they just cancel tomorrow since it's a short day anyway.

Our weather is not going to get any better tomorrow. Once the snow stops, our temperatures are supposed to plunge. They're predicting temps of -5 to -20, which means windchill readings of -20 to -40. Ah, good times, good times.... I'll be really curious to see if we get another snow day tomorrow. I doubt it, but I'm still having a hard time believing we got TODAY as a snow day! It really is ridiculous to make those kids walk to school when it's below zero. So, send positive thoughts and prayers this way, if you don't mind! :)

Wish me luck, I'm off to wake a sleeping teenager!!

I'm gonna miss that little booger....

Remember my Little Stalker, DS? Oh, I'm just kidding! I think his crush is adorable. Actually, I'm afraid I may be losing some of my pull. After finishing my DIBELS, Reading 3D AND mClass math testing (WTH!? When are we supposed to do any TEACHING!?) I saw that DS scored off the charts on all 3 tests. It was really after I tested him in math that I was blown away by his abilities.

The math series that we use at the Hell-Hole (and most other CPS schools) SUCKS MAJOR DONKEY ASS, in my humble opinion. It prepares them for nothing. It basically has them playing games and singing songs all day. Now, don't get me wrong, you KNOW I'm all for singing songs. But, this particular program has no real substance, as far as I'm concerned. And, I see absolutely no correlation between what's done in Kdg. and what they need to be able to do in 1st. I knew that before I made the move to 1st.

OK, so what the hell does all this have to do with DS, you may ask. After testing him in math last week, I went to New Principal to ask about maybe moving him to 2nd grade. Sounds radical, I know, but believe me, he's just as ready as the kids who started 2nd grade this year, if not more so. His birthday just missed the cut-off, which here in Chicago is Sept. 1. His birthday is Sept. 5. Four stinkin' days!!

At first, New Principal said there was no way we could move him because of the birth date. So then I asked if he could go upstairs to the second grade class for reading. You might remember that he already did that last year, going across the hall to 1st grade for reading. Then, I figured, what the hell, let's see how far I can take this. I asked if he could also go for math. This is REALLY the area where he is light years ahead of the other children. (Just to simplify the scoring system, the children can fall into red, yellow or green, with red being the lowest, green the highest. DS is the ONLY child who scored green in all areas. As a matter of fact, only one other child scored green in ONE category out of the six that are tested. Yikes!)

Surprisingly, New Principal said yes. Great! I talked to my friend, Mrs. F. (who you may remember had a baby back in November. She just returned this week from maternity leave.) and she was more than happy to let DS come up to her class. We decided we would start this week. Monday morning, he came in with my class from the playground, but immediately asked about going upstairs. He was totally pumped for this new adventure. He went up to 2nd grade, and I never saw him again! He stayed for the whole day! As a matter of fact, Mrs. F's class has lunch at the same time that we do, so I just assumed he would come back and eat with us, but instead, he grabbed his tray and walked into the other lunchroom to eat with the 2nd graders. I gotta tell ya, I was a tiny bit hurt. Ridiculous, right?

Yesterday, I never even saw him!! The primary teachers had a morning meeting, which made us late for picking up our classes outside, so I didn't see him outside. I had to ask Mrs. F. later in the day if he was even at school! Today, I at least saw him on the playground this morning, but he went upstairs first thing, and never looked back. I think he likes it up there. Whatta you think?

I gotta tell you, the whole dynamic of my class has changed. Most of the other babies looked to him for what to do. They waited for him to answer first, read words first, say the date first, etc. And, I've lost my little secretary! He used to so many jobs for me, since it was one of the only ways to keep him busy. He collected the morning writing papers, stamping the incomplete papers with the "incomplete" stamper. He passed out supplies, set up centers, took messages, and so on. He practically took attendance for me!

I'll be curious to see which of the other babies step up and try just a little harder now that DS isn't there to do the "heavy lifting" anymore.

I miss my Little Stalker.... :(

I know I'm jinxing myself....

...by even writing about this, but as of 2:45 this afternoon, I only have 20 babies in my class. TWENTY!!! That's music to my ears. I wish I could have videotaped the office today, because you had to see it to believe it. There was a non-stop flow of people in and out ALL DAY!

Today was the first day of class for students at schools that are still on a "regular" schedule, as opposed to our year-round schedule. So, naturally, there were plenty of scumbag parents who have been bringing their kids to the Hell-Hole for FREE BABYSITTING for the past month. But, now, they are transferring them out faster than the office can handle the paper work. They are returning to their own neighborhood schools. And, they're pretty smart, because in less than 3 weeks, we'll be going on our fall intercession, but now their kids won't be off because those schools won't have that break. Pretty slick, huh?

Sadly, my little Diana Betsy Ross is one of those kids. When I went into the office to swipe out today, her mom was there filling out the paperwork for a transfer. She was dumb enough to tell me that she was transferring her to "a school that's closer." Well, duh!!! If you don't even live within our boundaries, I'd love to know how the hell you registered a month ago! Just last week, I spoke to New Principal about this mom because she was starting to work my nerves. Every single day, at about 2:30ish, the office would buzz my room to tell me either a)there was an early dismissal for Ms. Ross (which is so ridiculous, since we get out at 2:45!) or b)send Ms. Ross to the office at dismissal because her mom is running late. Every single day, without fail, I would get one of these two messages. Oh, and I forgot to mention that she brought her to school LATE every day, as well. 15-20 minutes late, for the record. At least I won't have to deal with that anymore.

Two more babies left while I was out last week. I did get a new boy today, while my class was at lunch, of course! Man, I HATE when the office does that!!! I know I've complained about this before, but why can't they tell them to come back the next day? Let the kid start fresh in the morning, instead of in the middle of the day, when they just get thrown into the routine. This poor kid came at the end of lunch, but luckily, he was able to eat. But, then, when I went back to pick the class up, he looked a little teary-eyed. As we walked down the hall to our room, he saw his mom still sitting outside the office (for who knows WHAT reason!) and immediately burst into tears. He then spent the next 30 minutes crying. He told me he had never been in school before, which makes sense. I'm going to have to look into that tomorrow. Poor baby.

Another one of my babies (who is the sister of the Beyonce I had two years ago!) has now missed 11 out of 20 days of school. And, the 9 days that she DID come, she never arrived before 9:30. Um, school starts at 9! I actually saw her oldest sister in the hall this afternoon, and asked where she was, to which her sister replied, "She's not here?" WTF?! I said, "What?! Don't you know whether or not you brought her to school this morning?!" Ugh! Seriously?! I think it's time to get the office involved with this one. Maybe someone should make a little home visit.

Overall, today was a relatively nice day. It definitely helped that I only had 15 babies to deal with all day. I had 5 out today, which is weird. I wonder if any of those are going to end up being transfer-outs. We did fun centers this morning, that were so nice because we only had 2 babies at each center. It was awesome! We also did some 'remodeling' with our homework folders. I may even post about it separately. I feel like I actually got a lot accomplished today. It's amazing how much you can do with 1/2 a class. tee hee!

Plus, I got to school really early today, since I had to drive Stud to school. Believe it or not, this was the first time I've driven him to school this year. His father has been driving him every morning, which has been REALLY nice. Especially since this year, Stud has an early-start schedule, which means he starts about 30 minutes earlier than usual. His first period class is chemistry, and that extra half hour is lab time. Unfortunately for me, his father will be out of town all week for work, which means I'll have to drive him all week, which means I have to leave 30-40 minutes earlier in the morning. It's been so nice not having to drop him off, because his school is the exact opposite direction from our house than the Hell-Hole. That means 15-20 minutes to get him there, then 15-20 minutes back to our house, THEN on to work. OK, I'm finished whining. I'm going to put on my big girl panties now, and deal with it. Or, as Stud's best friend said on the way home today - I'm going to build a bridge and get over it!

Despite dealing with such a heartbreaking loss this past week, I was able to get some rest this past weekend and I actually felt re-energized this morning. Friday (the wake) and Saturday (the funeral) were mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting. By Saturday night, I felt like I had been run over by a truck. And, my feet were swollen beyond belief. I finally arrived home around 8:30 that night, and vowed to stay horizontal until I had to go to work today. I was able to do just that on Sunday. I only got out of bed for about 30 minutes, only to spend that time in my hammock. I went right back to my bed after that. I read a stack of magazines, watched some mindless television, and just relaxed.

When I woke up Monday morning, my feet were almost completely back to normal. I had planned to do the exact same thing on Monday, but my mom insisted that we all come over for dinner, and I couldn't say no. I figured, since I had to get up and get dressed, I might as well run an errand or two. I needed to go to Michael's for something for school, and I hit my favorite dollar store. I then went home and made cheesy potatoes and pasta salad, and went to my parents'. It was a lovely evening, and I was home and back in bed at a decent hour.

When I woke up this morning, I felt great. I ended up being away from the Hell-Hole for a total of 6 days in a row, which is the longest break I've had since our spring break back in March. Good Lord, I needed that!! Thank you, Auntie. Now I'm looking even more forward to our fall intercession. I plan to do a whole bunch more of the nothing I've done the past two days. :)

Wow, I haven't rambled like this in quite a while. I apologize. Although, if you're still reading at this point, you have no one to blame but yourself!

I'm glad I'm not the only one...

...who can't believe the conditions we've been asked to work under. Granted, I got two days away from the Hell-Hole this week, but the other three days - holy shitoly!! I seriously thought I was going to pass out today, not to mention the fact that I felt nauseous the entire day. (Although, not ALL the nausea was due to the weather....)

This was in today's Chicago Sun Times. You bet your sweet ass that our illustrious leader, Ron Huberman, was sitting in his air-conditioned office all day today, while some of our classrooms registered 110 on our thermometers. It's cruel and unusual punishment, if you ask me. At least if the kids were at home, even if they don't have air-conditioners at home, they could have stripped down to cooler clothing, versus their restrictive uniforms. Or, they could have run around in the sprinkler or even thrown cups of water at each other, for Pete's sake! Most of Chicago's neighborhood parks have sprinklers that the kids could have been playing in, they could have gone to the library with their parents to cool off, or the mall, or any number of public places that have air-conditioning. Ugh!

OK, enough, it's over. I just hope next week is a little cooler. I've been sitting here watching the most awesome light show I've ever seen, as there is a huge storm rolling in right now. For the first 15 minutes, I didn't know what the hell the flashes were. I actually thought that someone had a fire burning, either next door or across the street. But, then I went outside to investigate, and saw the coolest lightning flashing in the distance. In the past few minutes, the thunder has started, and I'm seriously looking forward to this storm.

The wrong way to start a Friday...

This was NOT what I should have read at 6am, before getting ready for work:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/gyrobase/ron-huberman-cps-chicago-public-schools-office-salaries/Content?oid=1888273&showFullText=true

Way to go, CPS!

Reading this made me physically sick.

I'll be back soon...

...only one more day with the babies, then one day of professional development, until....

SPRING BREAK!!

Two glorious weeks away from the Hell-Hole!!! Maybe I can actually get back to posting daily. Wouldn't that be somethin'? The past couple of weeks have been pretty stressful at school, so by the time I get home, the last thing I can do is pull a post out of my mushy brain. We had a HUGE walk-through with the state yesterday, and then today, there were several visitors from CPS. New Principal went ape shit on the kids today at lunch. I'm still not sure what happened there. I'll probably have lots of stories for you by the weekend.

Why can't everyday be like today?

If you've been reading here for any length of time, you already know that Chicago Public Schools never, never, never, EVER have snow days. E-V-E-R!!! We are in the middle of quite a storm right now that started last night. The snow is supposed to continue until at least noon tomorrow, and they are predicting 12+ inches of snow.

You also know, if you've been reading for a while, that I am absolutely ape shit HAPPY about the snow!! I LOVE IT!! The only thing that pisses me off is when I have to drive on the same roads as the morons that suddenly forget how to drive the minute a snowflake appears in the sky! I mean, C'MON PEOPLE!! You freakin' live in CHICAGO!!!!!! Either learn how to drive in the snow, or stay in the damn house! JEEZ!!!

OK, it felt good getting that off my chest. Moving on...

Another reason I kinda dig snow days (get it? dig...tee hee!) is that lots of babies stay home on those days. Their parents call a personal snow day. Today I only had 16 little ones there. It was wonderful. AND, the best part is that AM, the biggest PITA I've had in quite some time, was one of the ones who stayed home. Thank you, Jesus!! I could have dealt with 35 babies without a problem with her not there!

Around 10:30, I had to go to the office for something, and one of the clerks asked me something about AM (this particular clerk had a BIG run-in with AM's mother last week, so now she's always asking me about her). I told her that AM didn't come today. As I was saying that, I realized that for the first time in a loonnggg time, I made it that far into the morning without being all tense and angry. Usually, by the time we clean up and head to the bathroom, then lunch, I'm just so ready for them to get the hell out of the room. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to explode if I have to be around them for one more minute. (And, sadly, AM is usually the main cause of this feeling. The past week or so, I've been resorting to sending her across the hall to Mrs. M.'s room, just so we can have some peace in our room. It's amazing how much more instruction gets accomplished when I don't have to spend so much time dealing with her disruptions.)

Then, during my extensive 15 minute lunch (ha! I live such a life of luxury, don't I?) I usually pull myself together. Plus, it really helps that we have a rest time after lunch. Just having the lights off, lullaby music playing, (mostly) quiet babies.... ah...it's heaven! It's during this rest time that I do my more formal and/or one-on-one assessments (like our favorite - DIBELS!).

Wait a minute, what was the point of all this? Oh, yeah, my GREAT day!! It was so nice to have such a small group. Plus, as an added bonus, it was a well-behaved group, for the most part. (There's one little darling who just came to me in the switch, who's gonna need a 'come to Jesus' talk real soon!) We even made a cute little project this afternoon after gym. I actually took pictures for you!! If I can get this goofy Blogger to let me upload them, I will share. Oh, and I also took some great pictures for you the other day during math centers. We were making craft stick patterns, and they just ran with it. I'm going to try and post them later.

I'm off to warm up some cream of potato soup for dinner. It's the perfect thing to have on a blustery, snowy night like this. Then, I think I'll raise the shades of my living room windows and then just sit and watch the snow. :)

Holy crap! I have the TV on for background noise, and the evening news just started. First thing they said - it has been snowing in Chicago for 17 hours now. We are expected to have "some rough hours ahead" with lots more snow.

And the Assbag of the Day Award goes to....

Ron Huberman, our CEO here in ChiTown. Check this out.

And yet, I can't get copies made cuz we don't have a copy machine that works. Hell, I can't even get PAPER!! We don't have enough books, we don't have working computers, oh, holy hell, I'm stopping this rant right here!!!!

No news...

...on BJ's condition today. I've placed several calls to friends, but no one has heard anything yet. Please continue to pray for her and her family.

Tomorrow is Report Card Pick-Up Day, which means the stress level is pretty elevated this week. When I left at 4:00, my report cards had STILL not been printed out! WTF? We're supposed to be giving report cards to parents TOMORROW, so it makes perfect sense to wait until this afternoon to try printing them out, right? Especially given that we were required to have all grades entered into the computer by November-freakin'-6th! I guess CPS couldn't figure out a way to print them any other day in the past two weeks.

We were also supposed to get a "packet" today with things like our sign-in sheet for parents and other papers for tomorrow. New Principal told us at the 8:30 staff meeting that we would be getting it at some point today. Again, when I left at 4:00, no packet! Whatever. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to get everything together when I get there, since none of my parents will be there when it starts. (little side note-New Principal was very excited about her double-chocolate brownies, but insisted that I put the tray out at the meeting to share with the staff.)

I completely forgot to share that Mrs. F. had her baby last week. Yay!! And, how completely apropos that Little Miss Sylvia Maria entered the world on Veteran's Day, given that both her parents are military and her daddy just recently came back from Afghanistan. What a good girl!! Seriously, her daddy was very stoked about that. :)

My friend, Mrs. J. (my next door neighbor) and I are going to Miss Sylvia tomorrow before work. The one nice thing about Report Card Pick-Up Day is that we don't start until 12:00. (On the flip side, that means we have to work til 6:15, which kinda sucks.) So, we're bringing Mommy and Baby some breakfast, and we're going to visit for a while before work. I'm very excited. It's been a long time since I've had the pleasure of being around a newborn. It will be a nice little reminder that life does, indeed, go on...