Inflation is crazy

As you alllllll know I'm a dork and have weird things pop into my head. Well today I was wondering how much it cost to go first class in the early 1900s on a ship like Titanic. Well the answer is that the same ticket then would cost you $32Gs, but $400 in 2010. $400!! Damn, round trip couch airfare is more than that. It was $300 for our lil stateroom on Carnival. That would be cool...if the freaking ships stayed afloat.

btw- I think I pulled my hammy while interpretive dancing to "My Heart Will Go On" at the end of the movie. hahaha

Testing..1,2...1,2

Since this is going to be Madie's first trip to Hawaii (2 months and 3 days from now!!!) I'm planning on bringing my newly purchased Flip Camera on the trip b/c it's the size of a cell phone and the 2 hrs memory space is about as much as we'll need for each day... that's right, each day. I'll just shoot a bunch of lil clips, like us going to the airport, sitting on the plane, getting to the hotel, and maybe a tour of the "grounds" :D. Then all you have to do is plug the lil sucker into the usb port place them in your desired order and it makes a movie for you. We'll be there for 2 weeks so in addition to pictures and my dad's nice video camera we will have like a video diary. Anyway, I was procrastinating up in my room (what a shock!) and I decided to take some clips to see what it looks like with the sample of music they give you. So here you go....

"April Showers"

I've had moments, but...

This is bad. I've never felt so insecure and unsure about what I'm doing. I literally feel out of control of every aspect of my life. I can't control my kids, all I can do is take my meds to control my seizures, and little things like broken shoulder straps are seriously making my ball. I'm not PMSing, at least I shouldn't be for like a week. I have to pull it together. But I feel like I've been thrown into the lions' pit and even after 2 months I'm get mauled. And I know, I know... It's my first semester, but how the hell are you supposed to teach these kids when they don't listen and continuously ask for the guide teacher. It was so embarrassing when my supervisor got up, walked over to one of the boys and told them to be quiet. They were even rude to the principal when he came to talk to them about the CSTs so you tell me how I'm supposed to manage them when they don't even respect the f'ing principal? I was talking to him after class and I started to cry. I called my mom and started crying. My bag broke as I was walking on campus and I started crying. and finally I'm sitting here crying as I write. What if this isn't what I'm supposed to do? I know that next semester should be better, but I'm doubting my choice based on the current situation. I know certain people may be shocked b/c I like nice things, but I'd much rather help people on a first hand basis than work for the man so I've been thinking about other opps. My dad said I could probably get a job at south bay, but I don't want to quit! this isn't the real Alie!!! I guess this is just God shoving me into a situation where I am forced to be strong and lean on Him. Man this is hard.

Why did I even go there in my mind?

So I've been lucky enough this semester to end up having 2 ED (Emotionally Disturbed) students. In esence this means that they are kids with major behavioral problems. The one I've had all semester hasn't caused any problems in the class and I don't think he would ever do anything drastic to put the class in danger, but this new kid makes me nervous. He's been in my class for about a week and has come to class maybe 3 times. He sits in the back of the class with his head down and a big black hoody pulled over his head (I think you know were I'm going). He's eriely quiet and for some reason the horrible thought of him doing something crazy popped in my head. Obviously there's a slimmer than slim chance of him doing the unthinkable, but for some reason I couldn't get it out of my head. What would I do!? The class is not even in the main campus. It would take at least a few minutes to get security. The thought of him actually hitting someone and maybe then doing it to himself. I know I say my kids are brats, but the thought of them getting hurt would kill me inside. I would not know what to do. I'd be frozen. That Pearl Jam song "Jeremy" plays on repeat whenever I hear about a school shooting. All I can say to new secondary school teachers is, don't go there. don't think about it. and pray we will NEVER have to go through it...

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY!...

Every now and then I take a look to see what important events happened throughout history hoping to find something interesting and I totally hit the jack pot... We'll it would be the jack pot if I actually had technology in the classroom and youtube wasn't blocked :/. April 14th is the 98th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic and how funny would it be if I showed them the trailer? tehehehe. They'd be like, "Teacher, (half can't remember my name), WTH is this? The effects suck and arent those actors like REALLY old? Avatar is better." *at which time I slap them... haha. Kids these days. I actually feel really old when I think about it. These brats wouldn't remember the movie because they were 3!!! OMG, I'M SO OLD. HAHA. anyway, just wasting time. I guess I should try to be productive.


Hmmm... If I can't show the trailer, maybe I should do my interpretive dance to "My Heart Will Go On." I'm sure they wouldn't think I'm weird at all! OMG I'm losing my mind. Please help me!

Reprimanding a class is not fun...

I've been frustrated with these kids before, but I reached my limit and tore into them...not fun :/. I told them they needed to finish their worksheet for homework yesterday so we could discuss what mock trial we wanted to do, but of course I casually ask them if they finished the worksheet as they file in and these are the answers "I left it home." "I left it in my locker" "I lost it" "I thought we were going to finish today." That just set me off. These kids want respect and want to be treated like adults, but they act like children. That's exactly what I told them. Unfortunately I had to practically yell at them to get their attention. I told them it was irresponsible and disrespectful to come to class without your work when I told them it needed to be finished. I really want to teach them important info and try to make it interesting, but you can't do that if you don't do your work!!! I never acted this way towards my teachers. It never even crossed my mind. They get all pissy about the way they are treated, but they don't understand that in order to gain respect you have to give it. I tried to explain that it is important to grasp these key historical themes b/c they are going to be old enough to vote in the next presidential election and all I get is, "Why would I vote? I don't care." ARE YOU F'ING KIDDING ME! Additionally, they've got CSTs coming up and I straight told them, "If you can't focus and we can't get through the information I'll just list what you need to study and you can get ready without my help b/c you spent all class messing around." So we got down to the part where we assigned roles for the trial and I made them sign a contract saying that they will come prepared and act appropriately if they want to get their extra credit. I just can't take their bull anymore. I never thought I'd say this but, maybe I'll like middle school better :'(

I knew the day would come!

""

OK so it wasn't as bad as that^^^^, but I was laying on the couch and watched 6 sets of french doors shake, the lights sway, and water was lapping over the spa when I ran outside. The geologist said we could expect aftershocks for 72 hours. Oye... I hope we don't have one while I'm teaching because already have a hard time keeping them focused. So keep your seatbelts on friends!