I'm not alone in the world. . .

Today I found out that one of my college roomies also loves the British spy show MI:5 (Spooks to those in the UK). I know this is silly, but it made me feel a little less alone in the world. I love this show. . . .REALLY LOVE IT, and I haven't had anyone to talk about it with. I think that I've felt that way about the past few years in general. I feel kind of disconnected. I think being 33 and single in the church leads to that a bit. I didn't think this is what my life would look like at this point. When my parents were my age they had 5 children and had been married for 10 years.

Don't worry, I'm not going to cry and moan here. In fact, I'm feeling fairly content about my life right now. I'm working on my master's degree and mulling over my next steps and what I want to do next, and I must say that I feel blessed to have the opportunities that I have. I get to make all of my decisions entirely based on what I want, I've been able to travel, and when I have a day off and want to sleep in, I can. That's all wonderful, but it also can leave a girl feeling kind of alone in the world...

Well, enough of my reflecting. I'm off to work on a project for my Science Fiction class!!

Snapped back into shape. . . .

My professor emailed me and told me that I could make up the portion of the midterm I had left out. So I did. I don't think it's fabulous, and had I read the test correctly I would have answered the question differently than I did, but I at least had the chance to finish.

Also, she said I was one of her stars. Sigh. I just love being called a star. It makes me feel all sparkly and smart. I once told my friend Greg, "I will never be the cutest, or the nicest, but might be the smartest." It's all I have people. Of course, being able to discuss the female archetypes in Faulkner's A Light in August have never made me irrestistible to men, and telling people that I think that Harry Potter is probably going to die at the end of book 7 'cause he's a Christ figure has never won me any friends. . . maybe I should've shot for cute and nice...........Whatayathink?

Stretched too Thin

Tonight I took the midterm in my Science Fiction class. I read the prompt, felt I understood and commenced to writing in a fury. I wrote and wrote and wrote and quoted the text and wrote and wrote and quoted some more, and then after nearly filling a blue book and writing for 1 hour and 15 minutes I turned it in. I felt like either it was brilliant or crap, but that I had put in real effort and understanding and did the best that I could do. Then I came home and tried to get rid of the pounding headache I've had for 3-4 days. My temporary roommate Amanda came home and I told her about the test and how much I'd written. She asked, "What was the question?" So. . . .I picked up the test and read the question, realizing with that sick twisty stomach dropping out of your body universe shifting nauseatic feeling that I had misread the end of the question and had therefore not completely answered the question. I emailed my professor, but have no idea how it's going to go. The thing is, this is TOTALLY and 100% my fault and if she doesn't let me finish the test I will totally understand, and that just sucks. I work so hard and am one of only 3 people who actually come to class prepared and discuss the stories, and the rest of those idiots get a better grade than me on the test in specifics and in the class in general I'm going to just hate myself forever and ever. So, yeah, I guess today my glass is more than half full of crap.



I think the big reason why this happened today is that I've been stretched too thin. I haven't really done anything but read my assignments and do work for school for this entire week and it finally caught up with me.

Oh yeah! That's why I became a teacher!

I'm currently sitting in my blissfully quiet classroom, giddy to be done with teaching high school kids for the year. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job to little bits and pieces, but the quiet moments in the classroom are really really wonderful.

It's been a good year, all told. I'm still struggling with my AVID kids, and wondering when they'll figure out that they don't need to make noise every second of every day or touch everyone within a 10 yard radius. Seriously. However, I've had some teachers tell me how much they've seen them grow this year, and I know that I've helped at least some of them. I had to send home 3 letters today telling kids and parents that they will not be a part of the program next year, and that was hard. But, I've learned, if you want a program to be successful, sometimes you have to do some pruning. I'm just glad that my administration is supportive of that.

I had a "OH YEAH! THIS IS WHY I BECAME A TEACHER!!" moment today that I need to share. For those of you who don't know, I teach at a technology magnet school, which means that I have a LOT of kids coming into my class who do not particularly like my subject. This year was no exception. I had one girl who's father is a math teacher at my school who told me at the beginning of the year that she really didn't like English all that much, but that she was a good student and wanted to be successful. Her father came up to me today and told me that she told him that for the first time in her life she likes English and that she's been reading books on her own...ON HER OWN! She even told him all of the books she wants to read this summer. I'm so excited about that. Literature has meant so much to me in my life that it just makes me tear up thinking about a kid discovering a love for it themselves! I know what you're all thinking, it's pretty hard to make me cry---Ha Ha!

First Post EVER!!

Hello everyone out there. . . .those that I've told about this, anyway. I am, with great trepidation and fear, venturing out into the world of blogs. I've been told by a few people that I should start one of these so that their friends could simply go to my blog and read my hilarious antics and musings without having to rely on the middle man. SO HERE YOU GO YOU LUCKY SO AND SO'S. Yes, I am an English teacher, but grammar isn't my forte (witty banter is. . .) so lay off the judging, and yes I do mean you.

I'm going to try to update at least once a week, but I don't make any promises. This is my last week of school and I'm enrolled in a Science Fiction class for my master's degree, so good luck to me. I'm really not much of a Sci-Fi person with the exception of Buffy, X-Files, and LOST (Is that Science Fiction?????) so I'm a strugglin through with a respectable amount of whining and stamping my foot on the order of Miss Piggy. Most of you are suddenly very happy to be living far, far away from me . . . aren't you?

With that cheery note, I'll sign off. Ta!