Deconstructing Jen

i must be talking to myself

seriously. I must be talking to myself. Friday: class is wrapping up, students are putting their work away. everyone gets back to their seats. I say, "Okay guys, just a reminder, your final review packet is due Tuesday, your Optical Illusion project is due Tuesday and your FINAL is Tuesday. let me know if you need to take any supplies with you so you can finish up. Have a great weekend, see you Tuesday." (my classes don't meet everyday they meet every other day.)

I've said this everyday for TWO weeks, easy. maybe three.

the first thing I heard when my 7th graders walked into my room today:
student as they read the white board: "WHAT??? the final is TODAY????"
Me: "Uh yeah. I've said that everyday for the last 2 weeks."
student: "WHAT! My homeroom teacher said they were Thursday and Friday."
Me, annoyed now: "Hmm, that's a bummer. Maybe it would be best to listen to ME when I tell you when MY final is for MY class."

I'm sort of getting the feeling that when I talk the kids hear that garbled noise of the teacher on Charlie Brown and not a real voice.

exhausted

i am running out of steam. then end of the school year frieght train is nipping at my heals threatening to run me over. seriously. my beautiful, onery, baby boy (we'll call him Mario from now on) likes to go to bed early and get up early. he also likes to wake up and play in the middle of the night - we're going to have a long chat about that. my sweet, loving, 4 year old daughter (we'll call her Princess Peach from now on) likes to stay up late and sleep in. I am getting smashed in the middle. when school is out i'm going to sleep for a week. okay let's be honest, i'm not going to sleep for a week. i'm going to start staying up until midnight reading and beading and drawing and getting up at 6 with Mario. that's what I'm going to do.

why the name changes for the kiddos? well, Beth of I Should Be Folding Laundry, posted something that got me thinking. people should be able to choose if they want their real name posted, our kids are real people. at 4 and 1 the kiddos aren't really able to make an informed decision so I'm going to give them pen names until they are old enough to decide. goodness, if I have a blog that long it will be a miracle. sorry for the random mid-stream change of post direction.

Grammar - do you no it?

Grammar is important. I'm not the world's best proofreader so I know I slip up here and there but I think it's important to try to write correctly and use proper grammar. Web speak drives me nuts. Text messaging speak drives me even more nuts. Especially when the students in my class can't write correctly because they've spent most of their time learning how to text or IM rather than actually write and speak correctly.

So what's your score?

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

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Tolerance

I had an experience today that has me pondering tolerance and why it is that the people who demand others are tolerable of them tend to be unable to be tolerable of others. I'm not going into specifics of the incident but it just made me think.