We are the McFartington’s

Funding to schools has been cut in our area.  The latest cut comes in the form of 1/2 year of music and 1/2 year of art.  Basically the art teacher will work at two schools, one for the 1st half of the year, then switch.  Same with music.  I can not tell you how much this pisses me off, but I will give you just a few:

*The kids are missing out on a lot of wonderful lessons our art and music teacher provide
*Half of the art and music teachers in our county will now lose their job.  Unless, they have (or will get) another certification and become a classroom teacher.  Our art teacher is safe, she’s taught here for a long time (thankfully she’s awesome).  Our wonderful music teacher, on the other hand, has only taught for 3 years.  He is trying to get certified.  We may get a crappy music teacher instead.
*The regular classroom teachers are losing another few minutes of planning

Now for the best part…  Here is what our Superintendent said about athletic program cuts, “It would be tragic, but our primary mission is academics,”.  I think the art and music cuts are already tragic.   Also, there is a proposed way to bring in some more money, yet they want to spend it on “programs like middle school band, elementary school guidance counselors, and updates for technology in classrooms”.  I don’t think kids will be too interested in Middle school band if they haven’t had music in elementary schools.  I guess that’s why the counselors are going to be needed.

I am patiently waiting to find out what grade level I will be teaching next year.  After begging and offering bribes politely asking to get out of kindergarten, I am being moved.  The problem is that I don’t know where.  I was told to pack my room, but not to move it anywhere, and they would let me know where I’m going as soon as possible.  That was last week.  Don’t they know that really screws with my controlling, OCD, ADD personality?  As of last week I was in 1st grade, with the possibility to go to 4th (good thing they are so close in curriculum).  Anyway, part of what I was supposed to be waiting on is someone taking some test.  She should have the results.  I’ll be making the drive to school, just after I color my hair…

So, a couple weeks ago we take a trip to Orlando.  RB’s gifted teacher set up a trip at Epcot, so we decided to make a weekend out of it.  FT & Shorty spent the Saturday at Sea World, while RB & I went to Epcot.  The highlight was when the kids went on a “tour” type thing for about 2 hours and, since the number of chaperones was limited, I got to have a drink in Mexico with some of the other moms!

Anyway, we decided to take the kids to a touristy dinner.  We thought about Medieval Times or something, but it would have been over $200 for the 4 of us.  Instead, we ended up here.   The food was OK, although there was very little the boys would eat.  They wouldn’t even eat the desert, which was just cake.  The show was amusing and unlimited beer was included!  Unlimited makes bud light good! 

Anyway, at one point the actors start repeated saying “fork you”.  My boys thought this was hilarious and said fork you often for about a week.  Then they stopped.  Until today.   They sat in the car saying fork you over & over.  They are both spending the weekend with grandmothers, I may have some explaining to do on Sunday!

Today was the last day of school.  Hurray!  I’m really looking forward to summer break.  I think summer is designed to keep teachers from killing some of the kids.  Don’t get me wrong, I love each of my students (some more than others), but there are some that I will be quite glad to wave hi to & go to a classroom without them!

Anyway, I’ve asked to get out of kindergarten.  It’s been a fun job, but it is the neediest age group & it’s getting to me.  It seems my request has been heard.  I’m graduating from kindergarten.  It only took five years.   Now I just wish I knew where I’ll be next year!  All I know is that it will be somewhere between 1st and 4th.  Nothing like narrowing it down!

Happy Summer!

This one time, at our old house, I had our neighbor over.  We were sitting out front talking when all of sudden RB comes out & says, “Mommy, someone put something in your toilet.  It looks like a really small paper towel roll”.  To which I replied, through laughter, “Don’t worry honey, I’ll take care of it”.  Luckily the neighbor was female, and a friend.

Back in January I had a conference with Joe’s parents.  I told them their child was in danger of being retained (in kindergarten) and gave them a lot of stuff to help him at home.  Although Joe is not his real name, his real name is only three letters, and at that point he was finally able to write his first name.  He should have been close to writing his last name.  So, we signed some papers & discussed what needed to be done.  The parents have been working with him & he will go to 1st grade, but still can’t write his six-letter last name.

Today, I find out Joe’s mom has been to our guidance counselor to see about gifted testing.  WTF?  Are they serious?  I’ll admit the kid has a great vocabulary & know stuff other kids his age does know, but gifted is accelerated learning.  He is in my lowest (out of three) reading groups and the low math group.  He might even test into gifted, but he would not be able to keep up - he struggles in the regular class.

This is why I can deal with the students, but the parents drive me crazy!

For my two lovely readers, yeah you know who you are, I’ve been meaning to call.  I’ve actually been wanting to call, but the red stuff coming from my nose & the green stuff coming from my throat has stopped me from doing much.  Oh, don’t expect that call today either, my voice seems to have run away.  Kindergarten should be fun today! 

On a related note, Last night Shorty says, “kiss me”.  So I kissed him on the should (trying not to spread the dreaded ick).  Then he laughs & says, “ha ha, you spread germs”.  I asked if he wanted to get sick & he said yes, so he could stay home from school.  I had to explain that there were only SIX days left (not that I’m counting) & he probably wouldn’t get sick until school was over.  Ha ha.

FT wants this for Father’s Day/his b-day/our anniversary (next month).  How can I justify spending $279.99 for it?

I guess I shouldn’t blame Sarah, but if it wasn’t for this post I wouldn’t be getting up at 5am.  I read that & thought, “if Sarah can get up at 5am & exercise, so can I”.*  So that’s what I have been doing.  Actually, I’ve lost five lbs since I started (last Monday), so I should thank her (thanks Sarah). 

Every morning (10 days now) I get up at five, get dressed, and walk the 1.3 miles around the block.  I don’t have any cool elliptical machine, so I have to go outside…  Anyway, I take the dog because it is still dark & we don’t have any streetlights in our neighborhood (I started taking a small flashlight after I walked off the road & into someones lawn because I couldn’t see anything).  The problem with taking Toby is not just that he is a dog & has to pee several times, but his poor little legs are so stumpy that he has trouble keeping up if I go too fast!

The only downside is that I am tired by the end of the day (I guess I should go to bed before 11pm).  But, it has been nice to be up, showered, dressed & ready for work before I wake the boys up.  That’s eliminated a lot of rushing & yelling in the morning!  Today I actually cooked an egg for RB’s breakfast instead of making him get his own doughnut!

*Sorry Sarah, I’m not trying to be rude, it’s just that you may be the only person that likes to sleep as late as I do!

I guess I should actually post something, since 8 million people have actually stopped by since Sarah linked to me (that’s quite a bit more than the usual 2).  Here are my excuses:

1.  I’ve been too tired.  Sarah gets to take some of the blame for this, but I’ll get into that later.
2.  I’ve been too busy.  This is the first night this week that I have nothing to do.
3.  I was out of town for a few days.
4.  I’m lazy.

I’m sure I could think of more, but see #4.