Parent of the year?

I really can't understand why this was seen as acceptable by the adults who are involved with this child.

Saturday Quote: What I'm not buying

Oh, no she didn't

I have had some bold students in the past - students who go off on teachers, students who fight with cans in socks, students who cheat on tests, students who tell bold-faced lies.

But never have I had this.

Students are working well.  Quite well - they are prepping for a discussion that will happen the next class period.  A student asks to go to the bathroom.

No biggie.

I sign her pass and she goes.

She comes back and shortly after, the room starts to smell.

Strong smells.

I am wondering where specifically the smell is coming from, and see this student sitting in the back of the room hunched over.

I immediately know she is the culprit.

The smell is getting stronger, and I know that the smell will not go away before the end of the school day.

WTF?!

I have clearly told her on several prior occasions that I do not allow food in my room.  She has even been around when I eat lunch in the room and throw it away in a different trash can so the smell of the food does not emanate.  I have signs posted on two walls in the room saying there is no food.

Yet, this bold-assed mini-woman has not only brought food into my room, but she done gone to the teachers' lunch room, used the teachers' microwave and brought the one of the strongest smelling foods into my classroom.

For her sake, I am glad that my voice left me at lunch today, because I really wanted to go off on her and call her out.  For her sake, it was better that I could only walk over to my computer and type up a report of what she did, requesting detention.  After school, I called home and left a message for her mother, as well.

January/February Photo-a-Day

January prompts and February prompts given by Fat Mum Slim.

January 28 - Through

28. Walking through Williamsburg in Brooklyn I saw this building.  Kind of weird how it looks old on the bottom, but has all that metal, modern stuff on the top.

January 29 - Grown

29. Last week, in my photos, I showed the printer that I had just bought, but was printing all black.  Clearly my grown-ass was too tired when I was hooking it up, because I failed to notice this large orange thing on the toner that clearly said "REMOVE".  The boif took it off, and it is now working perfectly.

January 30 - Down

30. I wore this cute pair of earrings to school on this day.  One of them didn't have the little earring-holder-in-place-thing and I lost it either on the subway to work or on the walk to work after getting off the subway.  It was so cold that I had my scarf wrapped and the hood of my coat on, and one of those likely knocked it out of my ear.  It fell down, and it couldn't get up.

January 31 - Yourself

31. Field trip for some of the girls at school.  It was for a Kotex deal that helps empower girls by helping them feel more comfortable talking about their bodies and helps them learn the truth about different misconceptions.  School bus strike meant that there were no school buses to transport us to NYU.  The next option was a charter bus.  Issue was that the other charters were all used.  Next option was this.  A party bus.  Didn't know that would be the transportation until I stepped in and the driver explained.  I never pictured myself riding in one of these for a school trip - or having to regularly tell the girls not to touch or take photos next to the poles.  Got to see Khloe Kardashian at the event, too.

February

1 - Fork

1. I bought a ready made potato and steak frozen bag, then decided to try it on my own with fresh food.  So far, I can still make some improvements to make the potatoes a bit more crisp, but all in all, not a bad thing to pick up with my fork and eat.

2- Pattern

2. Many times, me and the boif crack each other up.  This day was no exception.  He took a patterned plastic bag from a store and made a pair of speedos out of them.  Hilarious!

3 - Something beginning with e

3. It is still too cold to function well outside in NYC.  I saw this lady wearing some earmuffs, and had to ask her about them.  She said they are called Earbags.  They fit around your ear so you don't have that band that comes with regular earmuffs.  I love them!

4 - Hope

4. This guy sings in the passageway between the L and 1/2/3 trains almost every day.  Every day, he is singing Beetles songs.  Every time I pass by he is singing one of three of the group's songs.  Most of the time it is "Help!"  I sometimes hope that he will sing a different song, but he always seems so happily out of tune, that I just leave him be.

Wordless Wednesday: I don't go crazy

Buses, chips, movies, and special cupcakes

Yesterday we were to take a group of middle schoolers on a field trip to visit a college in Queens.  Everything was ready - forms turned in, five dollars collected from each student, students who did not have forms or money already sent to a teacher's room to do school work that each teacher left for them to complete.

Perfect.  We were all posted up in the auditorium by 8:40.  The buses were to leave at 9:30.

We waited and waited and waited until about 9:20 and then the head of the field trip went to make a call to the bus company to be sure they were on the way.

There is a bus strike in NYC right now.

Until 9:25, we did not realize that the private drivers were acting as scabs for some of the school buses and would not be able to drive us on the chartered bus.

We had a dilemma and a few options:

1. take the kids on two subways and a bus, 
2. have the students stay at school and go to their regularly scheduled classes that they and the teachers had not planned for (most kids did not have any school materials with them), or
3. have the students sit in the auditorium and watch semi-educational-college-related movies the rest of the day.

We chose option 3.

I thought it would be fine since during the first film, the students were enthralled.  They even asked if the schools in the movie were real.  Some asked other college-related questions.  They were entertained, and quiet.  I enjoyed the movie myself.

Then we had lunch and then we offered the kids some snacks for the second movie.

The kids were not as peaceful during this movie.  I think several had seen it already, and they wanted to talk and gossip and cause some drama.

I wanted them to be quiet.

I didn't want them dropping their snacks on the floor, I didn't want them poking at each other and irking each other.

I just wanted peace.

I wish I could have offered them a different sort of snack, something I wish I could have cooked up for them to help the situation:

I hope the time does not come again soon when I have to, basically, babysit (mostly unstructured) a gang of middle schoolers.

December photo-a-day: Week 3

December photos taken during the third week of December based on prompts by Fat Mum Slim.

You can see my next installment on New Year's Eve!

December 17 - On the floor

17. Went to a sewing/art store in the Fashion District to pick up some fabric glue for the BF to fix his bag.  Saw all of this yarn, and decided that I want to make something.  Didn't buy any of it, but the idea that people can make things for themselves has always impressed me.  The BF took some sewing classes a few years back and can make clothes.  He can make actual clothes and pillows, and bags, and I don't even know what else!  Amazing!  I want to get in on that, too.

December 18 - Makes you feel merry

18. On the way back from the Tribeca Film Institute last week, I went through a train station I had not yet been through.  Throughout the station were these little creatures.  They were doing various things - some were sneaking in/out of the station, one was even taking off his head.  The two on the top were sharing a drink - they made me feel real merry inside.

December 19 - Something that begins with s (Sharing)

19. On my birthday, I was serenaded several times by students and teachers singing me happy birthday.  We took the kids to Washington Square Park for a field trip as part of the poetry week unit so the students could people watch and create stories about the people they saw and (some) talked with while there.  Before we left, the students sang very loudly to me - a bit embarrassing, but very enjoyable.  Also before we left, I experienced the bird-man.  Homey raised three or four pigeons and then set them free in the park.  Now whenever he goes to the park, they come up to him.  He shares food with them out of his own mouth.  And they have a merry old time.  Disgusting to me after my  encounters with birds, on several occasions, but, hey, to each their own.

December 20 - Weather

20. Even though the weather outside was frightful on this afternoon/evening with the cold, some people were still Occupying.  They had some Occupy Wall Street info on the side and were playing a very big game of chess in Union Square.

December 21 - Tree

21. Had to go back to Washington Square Park after Wednesday's visit.  Love the place.  Took this photo of the World Trade Center from the gap between the buildings across from the Arc de Triomphe-looking statue.  I like the way the sun shone through the tree.

December 22 - Decoration

22. This is one of the signs in one of the subways I ride.  Decoration for the holidays.  And for the drinkers.

December 23 - Joy is ___

23. Joy is going to Trader Joe's early on Sunday morning to beat the traffic, getting there, and it being mostly empty.  Joy is getting all of my groceries and not forgetting anything on my memorized list (forgot to charge phone overnight so didn't make checklist before I left).  Joy is not having to wait in the checkout line for more than three seconds.  Joy is seeing that it is ugly holiday sweater day for the workers, finding this man and him allowing me to photograph his sweatshirt full of Cabbage Patch Kid looking characters playing sports.  He said a friend mailed it to him out of the blue.

You can see my past photos from Week 1 and from Week 2.

December photo-a-day: Week 2

December photo challenge with prompts from Fat Mum Slim.

You can see my new pictures each Monday of December.

December 10 - Under

10. Uniqlo is my new favorite store.  Since I got rid of so many of my clothes before the move, I have restocked a few items with clothes from this store - tights, winter dresses, socks, skirt - all have a sort of Japanese feel and I love that they are kind of different than what I used to wear, yet still seem like me.  I stood under this tree as I adjusted my coat and scarf after leaving the store on this day on my way home from work - I even love to just browse.

December 11 - Sweet

11. I bought these at the drugstore.  I shouldn't have.  I am not really big on chocolate.  I know, I'm a woman and I don't live off of chocolate; sue me.  I shouldn't have bought these sweet things because I at almost the entire bag in about an hour.  My stomach started to hurt about an hour after that.  But they are still.  So.  Good.

December 12 - Hat

12. I didn't remember giving away my really cool pink winter hat from last season when I moved, but I did, and had to buy a new hat since I am outside a lot with my commutes.  I like that this one is orange. It stands out a bit in the blah colors of most winter hats.

December 13 - Lights

13. Christmas tree set up at Bryant Park next to the ice rink.  I love the blue colors!

December 14 - Green

14. Every Friday, teachers and faculty from my school go to Staples.  Staples being code for happy hour.  To say the usual place is a dive bar is speaking too highly of it.  The atmosphere just exudes college broke person's hangout.  The bathroom is so filthy that I would go to the bathroom before leaving school and then hope that I didn't have to use it during the drinking.  If I did, I usually chose to just take the 45 minute trip home rather than use the nasty bathroom that had some sort of liquid all over the floor, rarely had soap, and had stickers in the basin of the toilet. (Who put their hands in there to place it and what kind of adhesive sticks through all of the flushes?)  After a few bad experiences there this year, me and two others decided to go on a hunt for a similarly priced, cleaner place with a better bartender.  We found it and its name is a color of green.  It is so awesome, the bartender remembered my name (which isn't very common) after three hours of us being in there, and look at how clean the bathroom is.  I was so pleased with the place that I could not stop smiling.  My cheeks hurt by the end of the evening.

December 15 - Outdoors

15. On this Saturday there was Santa-Con.  It was a HUGE pub crawl for people dressed as Santa, or his elves, or reindeer, or anything remotely related to Christmas (I even saw a man in a Tigger costume - Winnie the Poo - with a Santa hat walking around.)  At first it was kind of entertaining, but then as I tried to walk and do my errands, it got more and more annoying as I kept seeing them outdoors blocking the road, reeking of alcohol and just being overly loud.

December 16 - Something I made

16. The BF is so easily pleased, and yet, so picky.  He loves meatballs, but he has not found any since his childhood that he likes.  I found these gems at Trader Joe's and he loves them with some sauce.  Simple Sunday dinner.  I had some bread from TJ's, but it tasted like a sponge and I couldn't serve it again.

You can see the photos I took during the first week of this month by clicking here.

Semi-wordless Wednesday: Fun with statues

Every time I go to Columbus Circle, I like to go into the mall and see this statue.  Each time, without fail, there is someone posing in some obscene way with the Big Guy and his big guy for a photo.  I don't know this guy, but felt I needed to show you the Big Guy.

December photo-a-day: Week 1

December Photo-a-Day Challenge.  I'll be posting all of my photos on Mondays this month.

December 1 - 8 o'clock

1. Nothing like getting up early on a weekend to get to Target before the crowds and the madness that is this Bronx Terminal massive complex of stores.  Seriously.  It was so peaceful at 8 o'clock.  I was in and out with the quickness and didn't have to worry about bumping in to anything but all of these carts that were jutting out of the outside of the store.  I guess they were moving them in from the parking lot and didn't have enough space for all of them.

December 2 - Peace

2. I am not the type of teacher who shies away from assigning essays because of the time it takes to grade them.  But, I am the type of teacher who starts to grade them and then realizes that I am using the old scoring guide and not the new and improved easier to understand one that I made the day before.  I am the type of teacher who then has to re-grade two classes worth of essays and transfer the scores onto the new scoring guide and the different guidelines on the new scoring guide.  I am also the teacher who enjoys the peace after the grading and watching Scandal.  I just started watching this show last week.  I liked it so much that I watched the entire first season on Netflix in two days and then signed up for Hulu Plus so I could watch the new season's episodes.  I am now caught up and am amazed by each the episodes each week.

December 3 - Something you held

3. It is official.  I will be traveling with students to Greece and Italy this summer for a school excursion.  Which means on Tuesday, I held my expired passport to be sent off for renewal.  Exciting!

December 4 - Black + white

4. I don't know if it has gotten better, or if I have adjusted, or if my nose sensors have been burned out by all the horrid smells, but the corridors of the L train connection from the 1/2/3 line don't seem to smell as bad. At least not in this long section where I took this black and white photo.  I am going to assume that I have burned all the cilia and can no longer smell as well with my nose.

December 5 - Looking up

5. View of the Empire State building from W. 34 Street and 7th Ave.  Pretty nice.  I wished the lights had been one of the various colors they sometimes decorate the building with, though.

December 6 - From where you live

6. Went to a workshop at the Teachers' College at Columbia U.  One of my coworkers has been taking grad classes there and knew how to get to the dining hall for lunch.  I don't remember dorm food having awesome tilapia and roasted potatoes, or cool looking furniture and chandeliers.  But it was nice.  She said some of her classmates who are teaching still stay in the dorms since they are taking classes there.  Must be nice to have some great food ready made for you all the time.

December 7 - Stars

7. Some days when I walk through areas of NYC, I wonder, "Is this really where I live?"  This is Columbus Circle, the lights are great!  They are like stars floating in the trees.  I haven't even made it to any of the big-time Christmas areas of the city, yet.  I'm sure they are even more beautiful.

December 8 - Someone you love

8. This is a bill board posted in the city.  I'm sure there are similar ones in other cities.  It makes me sad to think that you could divorce someone you love and not even get their signature to approve of the divorce.  I guess you go, get it done, and then go to your spouse and tell him/her that you are now divorced and the person can do nothing about it.  Sad.

December 9 - Out + about

9. On Sunday, I went to a Hannukah dinner - my first.  Food was good, but more importantly, I met up with some old high school classmates for the first time since high school.  Good times.  We are going to work to develop some sort of NYC get together of the many numbers of hs grads that live in the area.  This is a picture of graffiti I saw in Brooklyn while I was out and about on my way back to the subway last night.

November Photos - Week 4

November Photo-a-Day prompts taken from Fat Mum Slim.

November 21 - What you wore

21. I love rings.  I don't have enough of them.  this one is a favorite because it is kind of juvenile, kind of hippy-ish, kind of cute.  And the band is some type of elastic, so even if my fingers swell, it still fits comfortably.

November 22 - Grateful

22. I'm grateful to have not bought the 2 pieces of Reese's that add up to a pound.  Have any of you seen these??? They were massive.  I was in line and their were people behind me otherwise I would have gotten a better picture so you could see just how big they are.  Behind them is a new Snickers container that is so big it is called Slice n' Share.  One inch is a serving of that massive Snickers you are supposed to cut up, but I'm sure people eat on their own.  The Reese's - 1/6 of the package is one serving.  Good luck keeping your portions correct with these snacks!

November 23 - Black

23. These tights are so far from the normal black tights most women wear that I had to secretly photograph the girl wearing them as I stood waiting for the subway.

November 24 - Sound heard

24. I taught my adorable nephew to clap.  It is always amazing to me to see how hard simple things are for a small child to do.  Eventually he caught on.  His claps sound more like golf claps, but they are cute - as is his little laugh and his smile and his cute eyebrows that naturally look like the best threading job ever.  Good time spent with family and friends for Thanksgiving.  Very relaxing and very fun!

November 25 - Sky

25. It was great being home for the holiday, but also felt great to land back in NYC.  I was welcomed by this sign and the Queens (?) sky in the background.  Took a pre-sunrise flight from StL - don't think I will ever book a flight at that time again.  Got off the plane, took a two hour nap and then got back to work and to grocery shopping.

Look, I'm complaining

This year, I have been trying not to complain, and because of that, almost didn't follow Jana's prompt today, but I am complaining anyway.

Today's prompt for Stream of Consciousness Sunday was "I'm annoyed by..."

Today what has annoyed me:

• The woman on the bus from the airport who did not move her items from the chair next to her even as the bus became standing room only and elderly people got on the bus.  She just sat with her sunglasses and, each time someone new got on the bus, or moved closer, or was trying to look at her, she pulled something out of one of her bags and appeared to try not to make eye contact.  I wanted to tell her off and waited for a oncoming rider to tell her off or at least ask to sit in the seat.  Instead it was just a peaceful ride.
• I still need to do some planning for school tomorrow.  I kind of know what I'm doing, but I kind of don't.  I don't want to open my planner to see what I have planned.  The day is over half over and I don't know if I will have energy to do it later, but I don't feel like doing it now.
• I don't have food in the house.  I am trying to eat better, and not eat out/deliver as much.  Hard to do when there is no substantial food in the house and I don't have the energy or desire to go to the grocery store.
• The creaky floors in this apartment really bug.  I have never heard anything this loud.  If I am walking, I cannot have a conversation with the boo.  If one of us is saying something, the other person cannot be moving on the wood floor.  I need to get some kind of runners, or area rugs to see if that will damper the sound a bit.

Sunday Stream of Consciousness.



Five minutes of writing whatever is on your mind (or whatever addresses the prompt).

See more and link up your brain dump on Jana's Thinking Place.

Saturday Quote: We must begin the shift

In honor of election season and, really, life in general:

October Photos: Week 4

Last week of October Photo-A-Day Challenge with prompts brought to us all by Fat Mum Slim.

October 24 - Weather

24. On this cloudy weather day, I had a student pull out this book to read after taking a test in my class.  I've never read the book(s), but have heard that they are not-so-soft porn.  The student was in 8th grade.  She was, of course, bragging about the book to other students.  A few students in class told her that the book was not for their age, another student quickly took it out of her hands so she could find some scenes to read.  I took the book from her and told the student that I would hold on to the book until I could confirm with her parents that it was ok for her to read.  She said her father had given it to her to read, that it was ok for her to be reading the book.  Three days later, the parents came to the school and my cloudy thoughts about her and the book were brightened.  The mother had read the book and said it was NOT ok for the girl to read it.  The father said that he had not read it and just passed it on to the daughter after one of his cousins said it was a good book - glad he wants his daughter to be an avid reader, just hope this helps him preview the books before passing them on.  They were happy I did what I did, I was happy the father did not intentionally give his 12 year old daughter a sexually graphic book.

October 25 - People

25. I find it amazing that some people spend so much money on their pets.  I was in The Shake Shack and saw this on their menu - food for the dog.  You can get it for them to eat there, or get a bag o' bones goodies to go.  Amazing.  I didn't see anyone buying these items, but some one must, or else it would not be on the menu.

October 26 - Listening to

October 26 - Listening to

26. The school where I work has a connection with several businesses in the city.  One of them is the Rush Arts Gallery - a gallery that is connected with Russell Simmons and his brothers, including Run from Run DMC.  Students of ours are taking classes and making beautiful art pieces.  They met with some of us on Friday and we were able to listen to information about their current show, Word, and about what they can and want to do with our students and us, the teachers.  I love art.  I used to do some drawing and sketching when I was in middle and high school and wish I had time to get back into it.  The art was really inspiring.  So much so, that I took more than one picture for this day.  Each piece was connected to the concept of words.  The image of the girl and the ball was from an artist who is tri-lingual.  She picked images that represent words that sound the same in Spanish, Chinese, and English. The "step right up" style image is one that a woman made that is similar to the ones she made that can be seen on the way to Coney Island - this one is clearly much smaller than the ones she made for the carnival area.  This artist, Ms Roberts, was there during our time at the gallery and was even sketching one of my colleagues while we listened.  It was in her private notebook, so I don't know if she wanted us to realize that she was doing it, but one teacher sitting near her saw it and told us.  I gained a few ideas for projects I want to incorporate into my classes in the future to help meet the needs of my visual learners.

October 27 - Morning

27. There was a really great homemade donut shop right by my old place of work in StL.  It was so good; they also had great breakfast sandwiches.  It was so good that I had to put myself on an intentional fast from them after my pants started to not fit as well and I noticed that I was spending so much money on breakfast.  NYC has some decent breakfast places, but I had not seen a place with fresh donuts until this week - I see a lot of people with Dunkin Donuts but they are no good to me since they don't focus on donuts, more on the coffee they sell.  Nothing beats freshly made donuts.  This place is called Dough.  It had some huge donuts and really hit the spot.

October 28 - Looking back

28. As I walked on 7th Avenue in Harlem close to 137th Street on Sunday, I saw this huge line.  I had to look back and take a photo.  Turns out, it was a huge number of (mostly European) tourists waiting to step inside the Abyssinian Baptist Church on 138th Street.  The line was really long, and this picture really doesn't show the enormity of it.  I had to look up the church to find out why so many people line up each week to see the inside of the church.  Turns out is is a pretty big deal.  Please click here and read a bit about its history.  Looking back in history, there have been so many African American churches that have helped our society in so many ways, from the acceptance of unions, to the acceptance of public school education, to the use of medical insurance to ease the cost of care.

October 29 - Moon

29. Of course, with Sandy lurking over NYC all day, there was no way to see the moon.  With me stuck inside all day, I didn't even get to take photos of any kind of Halloween decoration moon.  Instead, I imagined the light of the moon as I sat in the bed (yep, still don't have living room furniture) and listened to the pounding of the wind against the window.  The wind was so strong (and windows so bad) that the wind was actually moving my curtains.  Kind of creepy.  Mental note to get something to insulate them before winter arrives.  They say the gusts were up to 70+mph and I believe it after hearing all of that noise and seeing the way the lone tree in front was bowing.

October 30 - Clothes

30. I was happy to venture into the outside after days of Sandy.  I put on my scarf, my raincoat (which is also serving as my winter coat since I don't have one - it's all about the layers), my new Payless boots (that I bought from a male checker who said that he had just returned them in exchange for the black pair - I can't hate on him, they are super comfortable) and my jeans and stepped out to Duane Reade to get some cold medicine.  Fortunately, it was only drizzling slightly, but was still super-windy.  I only went out long enough to get some snacks and meds from the drugstore and get a sandwich from a local shop then I got back into some yoga pants and a t-shirt and took some Nyquill (generic, of course) and slept for two hours.  Yes, in the middle of the day.  I feel sleep is the best solution when I am starting to feel sick.

October 31 - Whatever you please

31. For Halloween, it is normal for children to go from store to store and ask the owners for candy.  That is their trick-or-treating.  There was no school due to Sandy, so kids started earlier than normal - though we were scheduled to release kids around 11:30 or 1 (can't remember) so they could be home early before any violence or anything started.  I saw a lot of cute costumes and some crazy adult costumes.  I wanted to take pictures of them, but thought they might be offended.  Instead, I found this product in Duane Reade.  It was in the section that had a lot of products that were all in Spanish. This is hair gel.  I love that it says "Snott Gorila Gel" - and that the gorilla is having some issues with his nose.

You can see my previous October photos by clicking the week links.  Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3.

I am back in the habit of writing each day.  I have written all but 14 days so far this year.  The 14 days off were in August and September when I was in the midst of moving and getting adjusted to the new city.

I'm pretty proud.  I'll try and keep at it.

Only 60 more days and it will basically be a full year.  I may go 14 days into January to make up for the missed days.  Or I may take a year off from blogging like I had done prior to the start of this year.  JK.  I love the blogging buddies I have and don't think I can stay away for more than a few days, now.

We'll see what happens.