It's that time of year again. Yes, Homecoming is upon us. It's always a fun week of school filled with dress up days and coronation. Of course, since I teach in two different schools, I get to experience two different Homecoming weeks. Lucky me!

It was even better that on Monday of this week, which was dress up as weird as you can day, we had school pictures scheduled. I mean, what mother doesn't want to send out pictures of their precious child wearing mismatched clothing, spiked, twirled, and multi-colored hair, along with outrageous make-up? Let's just say that I voiced my displeasure of the choice to have school pictures the same week of Homecoming at our staff meeting last week, and many voices were added to it. Hopefully next year that will change!

I attended the big football game last night because I absolutely had to. My schools were playing each other... Dun, dun, dun! That never leads to a good outcome because one will inevitably lose! And for the record, I've never seen a tie when this happens, not in any sport. The game started with rain and the dash of the band kids to get their instruments covered. Luckily it stopped raining in about 5 minutes, or that would have been one miserable evening. I was undecided as to which side of the field I was going to sit on until the home team cheerleaders herded me to their side. Seeing as most are my students, and the good logic they had- when it's my other school's Homecoming I can sit on their side- I figured it would be best! I got a rousing mish-mash of Spanglish from the pep band from my students, most of whom have now had a good 4 weeks of it, which made me smile (and laugh because some of it was so absurd, but good for them to try, in public!). I also was able to catch up with some of my students who graduated last year. I always run into a few at the Homecoming game. Unfortunately the home team lost by 16 points, so I know that it won't be a good Monday at one of my schools.

Arrrrrgh, mateys! This upcoming Friday is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Well, I certainly can't not celebrate that! My pirate name is Princess Chantal Gale and my ship is Lady Hita Queen Of The Sea. How cool is that?

Get your own pirate name and ship here! Pirate Name Generator

It's been a longish week at school. I am still having the unfortunate problem of witchy girls in my 6th hour class. We've had a couple discussions about how it's not okay to whine, "Why do we have to learn this?" when the class is a college prep. elective. They all chose to be there, and I know that I have a decent reputation as a taskmaster. I imagine they chose to ignore the wise platitudes of their classmates and friends who have told them that I would make them work hard in class and that I don't let people slack off, or else they thought that since whining had gotten them out of doing things in other classes, I would be the same? I pity the poor students who have milque toast teachers like that!

On a happier front, I got my new desk chair today! I am fairly shocked that my requisition was approved because the school keeps claiming they have no money so we can't buy new textbooks and the like (so I want to know where it all goes!). My old chair was taken away this summer, and I've been using a student desk chair for the past few weeks. I was so excited to walk in this morning and see my new chair all put together for me even! It's the little things that make me happy. :)

Fridays are my weigh in days for Weight Watchers. That means I live in fear of Friday mornings, but not really. This is my second time around with Weight Watchers, and I'm really enjoying it. The first time I joined, I was living in my hometown where the meetings were held on Thursday evenings. I was did the program from February until I moved in July and then tried to do it all by myself because the meetings in this area are not in the town where I live nor are they convenient with my work schedule. Well, I lost a total of 33 pounds, and then I just couldn't do it by myself anymore. Without someone or something to be accountable to, I lost my motivation and gained 40 pounds. Well, the gain wasn't just from loss of motivation, I had one hell of a stressful year last year, and that certainly didn't help.

By the first week of July this year, I was so miserable feeling and so down on myself that I knew that I had to try again. I still can't make it to the meetings, so I reluctantly signed up for their Online program. I've tried a different online program before, E Diets, and that honestly and truly did not work at all for me, so I was very hesitant to spend the money. I am now just starting on my 8th week of the program, and I've lost 11.6 pounds! I have definitely gotten over my reservations of just doing the online program without the meetings. I am online constantly and having the Points Tracker there staring at me with everything I've eaten so far during the day is a great way to hold myself accountable. This time around I won't have a reason to quit the program, and I'm looking forward to reaching my goal!

I think one of the hardest things for me about the school year is sleep deprivation. I live for summer vacation where I can stay up as late as I want and sleep in as late as I want. When I don't need to set the alarm, I get between 10 and 12 hours of sleep a night and feel rested. During the school year I average between 7-8 hours a night and then feel like a zombie the next day. I am all for high schools that have pushed their start and end time forward because teenagers need more sleep. Well, some of us teachers do too, and I know that I would do a better job if I did get more sleep. But who wants to go to bed at 8pm when you've only gotten home from work at 5pm? Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday.

Here's a little clip that I showed in class today to my Spanish 1 students. It's a funny way to get across the idea that it really might come in handy to know another language.

It's only the second day of school, but I feel like I didn't have a summer vacation. Well, not that I didn't have a vacation in the way that I'm run-down feeling, but like that period of three months just didn't exist. I don't think it is necessarily a bad feeling because the faster I get into my school routine, the better it is for everyone involved. Perhaps I'm finally getting used to teaching here? This is only my third year here, but I've been teaching for 9 years. I think it helps that I actually know some of the students that are in my classes for the first time before they were my students.

I do miss knowing everyone, their families, and their situations before becoming their teacher. It made my job a lot easier. Yesterday I made a bigger deal out of a situation than I should have because I didn't have the background on a student. Students were filling out contact forms for me, mainly for use in finding chaperons, and he didn't put down anyone for parents/legal guardians. I insisted that he must put something down, and then joked that he should know his parents' names. Oops. It turns out that he's living with another family in town, not his parents. I don't know the why, but I do know that I need to be more careful when talking about peoples' families. I used to be in the loop about everything, which made it a million times easier. At least he didn't seem to be upset about it today, and I do take a bit of solace that even the school didn't know that he wasn't living with his parents. The secretary was wondering who could be living with Mr. and Mrs. X that had a certain last name after a phone call, and I had to inform her that it was my student. Hopefully things will get sorted out for this fellow!

I survived!

The first day of school can be just as anxiety producing for teachers as for students. All I could think about as I was trying to sleep last night was about how today would go. Would I have good students? More importantly, would I have nice students? Would I have enough desks to go around? And had my textbook order arrived? Oh, and just how darned hot would my classroom be?

Here's what I found out. My returning students are good and nice! My new students are rumored to be good, and they seem to be nice. I don't have enough desks in my 3rd hour class, and no, my textbook order did not arrive. Oh, and it was at least 80 degrees in my classroom. I truly thought I was going to melt.

I have a fairly large number of foreign exchange students this year. I have one from Colombia who will TA for me, one from a Scandinavian country that I've yet to figure out, one from Norway, and two from Brazil. I personally think the Brazilians are wasting their time in Spanish class, but I guess if they want to be there, so be it. I didn't have good luck with the Brazilian exchange student I had in Spanish 1 last year so I'm hoping this year will be better. Personality-wise I think the two I have this year are going to be much more likable people.

My good deed for the day was to rescue a poor little toad that had gotten in the school during the rush of students. He (or she) was hopping down the stairs headed for certain death, but I scooped him up and brought him outside. The rain we had this morning must have driven him out for a walk, and he got lost!

Overall, it was a pretty good day. I hope the next 177 go just as well!

All the cool kids are doing it, right? So I'm jumping on the bandwagon and starting a blog. I've toyed with doing this for the past couple of years since I enjoy journaling, but I never did quite seem to get around to it. Well, here I go!

So what are you in for? Hopefully some funny stories from school, my progress with Weight Watchers, and anything else that I think might be interesting.