Melting (Down) in da Bronx
I have to keep reminding myself that no matter how sticky and miserable 90 degrees feels, I still prefer it to ten below. I do. I swear. Right?
The Cure have an album entitled "Wild Mood Swings" - that seems to be a soundtrack for the week. Yesterday I totally freaked out at my last period class and made a number of sarcastic comments to students who have not done any work which probably should have been kept in my head and then hollered at the whole class about their work ethic and then informed many individuals that they'd better do the extra credit and then caught my breath, calmed myself down, taught a lesson, apologized for yelling at them, and ran out the door wishing for a beer but settling for a frappucino because....
I had to be back at school for our Awards Night, which was very nice - a little reception followed by handing out of awards for improvement, achievement, citizenship, perfect attendance, and our Scholars Awards - students who made 90 or higher all three marking periods in all major subjects (NOT an easy thing to accomplish!).
Left that and went to an improv show starring a couple of friends and friends-of-friends, and met up with a couple of people there, including a guy who is going to be in my Exploratorium program this summer. It was a fun show, and then we all went out for a drink and somehow I did not get home and in bed until nearly 1 am... oops.
Woke up at 5:45 and off to school to teach two periods then walk a class of kids a mile to a movie theater to watch The Prisoner of Azkaban. This movie theater always screws up when we take kids to movies there - once, they told us we could not buy tickets in advance, then sold out the entire show the day before, so when we all trooped over, we could not see the movie! Another time, they had labeled the theaters wrong, so we started watching the wrong movie and ended up missing the beginning of the movie we wanted to see. As a result, we had a voucher signed by a manager for 35 free tickets. We called yesterday to confirm that we could use the voucher, got a yes, showed up at the appointed time today only to be told we couldn't use that voucher until the manager who signed it came in, and oh, by the way, she's a little late... 45 minutes later, 15 minutes after Harry Potter started, several phone calls and much negotiation later, we finally got into the movie. There's really nothing more fun than spending 3/4 of an hour standing around with 25 kids lined up for a movie asking, "What if we miss it? The movie's already started!" Once we got in, we all enjoyed the movie - I actually enjoyed it MORE than I did the first time - and the kids have probably already forgotten about the snafu at the beginning, so it's all good. We adults have NOT forgotten, however, and we have the name and address of the manager's boss, and will be sending letters of complaint quite soon.
A number of students did turn in the extra credit - including, of course, one or two who already have grades in the 90s. I'm feeling a bit better about the grades, though, given that they had an opportunity to do an extra project, many took advantage of it, and the rest really have nothing to complain about.
Came home, took a nap, and am getting ready to go to a fancy photography party that I got an invitation to through J. & M. I need to get dressed up and put on my best "I like people and enjoy talking to complete strangers" attitude, but I must admit I'm having a wee bit of trouble doing that... I have an awesome dress that I got for $10 at the NYC Opera Thrift Store. My date is stuck in Long Island, unfortunately. Well... perhaps some high energy music and bopping around the living room will help!
The Cure have an album entitled "Wild Mood Swings" - that seems to be a soundtrack for the week. Yesterday I totally freaked out at my last period class and made a number of sarcastic comments to students who have not done any work which probably should have been kept in my head and then hollered at the whole class about their work ethic and then informed many individuals that they'd better do the extra credit and then caught my breath, calmed myself down, taught a lesson, apologized for yelling at them, and ran out the door wishing for a beer but settling for a frappucino because....
I had to be back at school for our Awards Night, which was very nice - a little reception followed by handing out of awards for improvement, achievement, citizenship, perfect attendance, and our Scholars Awards - students who made 90 or higher all three marking periods in all major subjects (NOT an easy thing to accomplish!).
Left that and went to an improv show starring a couple of friends and friends-of-friends, and met up with a couple of people there, including a guy who is going to be in my Exploratorium program this summer. It was a fun show, and then we all went out for a drink and somehow I did not get home and in bed until nearly 1 am... oops.
Woke up at 5:45 and off to school to teach two periods then walk a class of kids a mile to a movie theater to watch The Prisoner of Azkaban. This movie theater always screws up when we take kids to movies there - once, they told us we could not buy tickets in advance, then sold out the entire show the day before, so when we all trooped over, we could not see the movie! Another time, they had labeled the theaters wrong, so we started watching the wrong movie and ended up missing the beginning of the movie we wanted to see. As a result, we had a voucher signed by a manager for 35 free tickets. We called yesterday to confirm that we could use the voucher, got a yes, showed up at the appointed time today only to be told we couldn't use that voucher until the manager who signed it came in, and oh, by the way, she's a little late... 45 minutes later, 15 minutes after Harry Potter started, several phone calls and much negotiation later, we finally got into the movie. There's really nothing more fun than spending 3/4 of an hour standing around with 25 kids lined up for a movie asking, "What if we miss it? The movie's already started!" Once we got in, we all enjoyed the movie - I actually enjoyed it MORE than I did the first time - and the kids have probably already forgotten about the snafu at the beginning, so it's all good. We adults have NOT forgotten, however, and we have the name and address of the manager's boss, and will be sending letters of complaint quite soon.
A number of students did turn in the extra credit - including, of course, one or two who already have grades in the 90s. I'm feeling a bit better about the grades, though, given that they had an opportunity to do an extra project, many took advantage of it, and the rest really have nothing to complain about.
Came home, took a nap, and am getting ready to go to a fancy photography party that I got an invitation to through J. & M. I need to get dressed up and put on my best "I like people and enjoy talking to complete strangers" attitude, but I must admit I'm having a wee bit of trouble doing that... I have an awesome dress that I got for $10 at the NYC Opera Thrift Store. My date is stuck in Long Island, unfortunately. Well... perhaps some high energy music and bopping around the living room will help!
posted by ms. v. at 6:46 PM
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