I'm finally gonna get paid right

On September 17 of last fall, I went to the Department of Education to get them to recognize my previous years of teaching experience.  I filled out forms, gave them resumes, wrote down references, and probably some more things that I can't remember since that was months ago.

They really don't want to give me the money that I am owed.  It took me forever for them to pay me the correct salary for my earned master's degree.

I'm finally gonna get paid correctly!!

Yesterday, I received the email message to the right from the DOE saying that they have FINALLY confirmed my records and that I am finally going to receive the correct salary.  Despite my 9 previous years of teaching, the DOE was paying me the same as a first year teacher.  I had actually forgotten that this had not gone through yet since it was six months ago.

It won't start for a few more pay periods, but once it does, I expect to finally be able to start saving money and to finally not feel like I felt my first year of teaching.  Well, not even then, because at that point, the little money that I was making seemed like a lot since I was going from virtually no income in college to a full time salary.

I am hoping that I get a big lumpsum amount with the first new paycheck to cover the back pay that they owe me from not getting the right salary since September.

Despite the fact that it is not really so, when I saw that email, the first thought that came to my head was  Dave Chapelle:

Saturday Quote: Encourage yourself

February Photo-a-Day: Week two & three

Two weeks worth of photos with prompts by Fat Mum Slim.

February 5 - Something you smelled

5. The amount of funk that some ballerinas produced in the studio prior to my fitness class was unbelievable! Even from the lobby, shown here, you could smell them when they opened the door. I thought ballet people were supposed to smell dainty and like flowers and candy.

February 6 - Soft

6. My first pairs of non-white/black socks ever.  I decided to go pretty bright.

February 7 - Your name

7. This sandwich had my name written all over it at lunchtime!!

February 8 - Something orange

8. I think this place might be selling the mannequins, but I'm not sure.  The orange coloring and the provocative poses always gets my attention, though.

February 9 - Guilty pleasure

9. Didn't really feel guilty eating these, but it was a pleasure.

February 10 - 3 o'clock

10. Snow did not fall as much in Manhattan as it did in Long Island, but it was enough to shut some people down from wanting to clear their cars.

February 11 - Entrance

11. Lost a pair on the way to work.  Replaced them with these peaceimages pieces that arrived in the mail on this day.  Love the!

January 12 - Where you ate lunch

12. I did not eat this for lunch but a student tried to sneak it into my classroom (freshly popped and aromas going all over the place) for her lunch.  I wrote more about it here.

February 13 - Walking

13. walking - I wrote this past week about how I may have caused a fire in the school.  Here is a picture of the front area where the fire happened.  I'm still trying to understand how the security people and the others in the front hallway did not contain the fire with the fire extinguisher right there (two doors from where the fire took place - as well as one in the room directly to the left of the fire location), or make some calls to people who could before it became to big and I had to stand outside for an hour with no coat and a thin-ass sweater before walking to another school who would be our safe-site.

14. love is - Sometimes love is something as simple as sharing a box of Nerds.

February 15 - Inside your fridge

15. Pretty bare until my Sunday (this week Tuesday since I didn't have to work) runs to Trader Joe's.

February 16 - Perfect

16. Great brunch with great people after a great workout.  Good times lasted well into the evening.

February 17 - In your hand

17. Friday at the end of the school day, I spilled some tea onto my laptop.  I started first aid on it that day and did surgery on it Saturday and Sunday by removing various keys and cleaning them several times.  I felt really technologically competent - especially after it still worked and all the keys went back on the correct spaces.

February 18 - Something you don't like

18. I was craving something sweet.  I couldn't think of what I wanted, so I bought these.  They are not tasty.  They are pretty disgusting.  Throughout the day, I ate three anyway.

Saturday Quote: How we grow

We do not grow absolutely, chronologically.  We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly.  We grow partially.  We are relative.  We are mature in one realm, childish in another.  The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present.  We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.
~ Anais Nin

You there, Friday!

In which I burn down a room

I have super powers.

I can make things happen, or foresee them happening.  Or something.

Basically, I think things, and then they take place not too long later.

I'm like Ms Cleo or something!!!

In the past few years, I have seen a miscarriage, some break ups, more than four pregnancies, and more occur after I think about them or have visions about them, or something.

Just this school year, I think I made the L train stop working.

The day prior, I was talking to some colleagues about how I missed our Post-Sandy cab rides together since I don't really see them during the day.

The next morning the trains did not work and we all had to take a cab to school.

Today may have been the biggest, most dangerous, most shocking vision, make-it-happen event of them all.

Right before lunch, I had two students come into my room to ask if they could leave their belongings in the room since they had my class right after lunch.

I was rolling my eyes hella hard at them.

So hard that they asked why I was rolling my eyes.  "I'm not rolling my eyes, I'm just looking at the wires and pipes up on the ceiling.  I'm thinking of the Shirtwaist fire lesson we had a week ago and how all of these wires and fire gadgets are kind of a result of that fire.  I'm wondering how they would really work in a fire in our school."

Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.

I let them leave their stuff in the room, and go off to lunch.

Less than twenty minutes into lunch the intercom goes on and the fire alarm goes off.  At first the teachers in the teacher lunch room think it is a drill.  Then we realize that no one in their right mind would call a fire drill during lunch time.

It was a real fire.

I didn't make a train stop or a friend have a baby.  I made a fire start in the school building!

We all rush outside.  I only had my lunch bag (chicken soup) and my $12 mug I had bought this morning and refilled thrice with peppermint tea (before 10 am) to ease my laryngitis.

We are outside.

Five fire trucks are outside.  Firepeople are pulling hoses into the front of the school.  They are taking in tools that look like chisels.  Returning outside to put on what look like oxygen tanks.

Another fire truck pulls up.

They are all inside and not really coming out for long.

We stay outside the school for about an hour.

I am freezing my sick ass off in my thin sweater and tights, though trying not to look too cold in front of the kids who are also jacketless so that they won't complain too much about being cold.  At this point I am realizing that we may not get back into the school.  I don't have anything I need on me - subway card, wallet, cell phone, keys to my place, laptop, coat.

I just want to be able to go in and get those things and for the kids to be able to get coats and their belongings.

Instead of that happening, we are finally sent to the nearest school.  There are three schools in my school's building and we are all shipped to another school's auditorium.

Let the madness begin.

We are by far the most well behaved school of the three, and this afternoon proved that.  I honestly could not even tell the teachers from the students at the other schools.  Not because they were young, but also because they all dress so casually.  There were no teachers from the other schools trying to make sure their students were behaving, sitting down, or just in the areas they were designated.  When I did see teachers address misbehaving students from those schools, it was the teacher quietly telling the kid what s/he should be doing three times and then walking away with the students still not having followed any of the directions.

Madness.

The school we were in was still in session.  They only had two bathrooms our three schools were allowed to use.  My school has at least 300 students.  Half of them just finished lunch and needed to wee.  I had just finished my fourth tea and needed to wee.  On a side note, when I finally did, I set a personal record for my longest pee - 24 seconds.

We started having the high school students call their parents to let them leave from our safe site.  Many of them made successful calls and were leaving.  Then we got word from the network that we were not to let any students leave.  Thanks for that late message.  Now we had a ton of kids angry that some of their friends got to leave and they can't.  We had parents pick their student up and get angry at the staff that their kid was leaving without a coat.  Yes, your kid is safe and made it out of a fire.  You are welcome.

Trying to make it one trip

I say we had them do this, but all the while, I cannot talk louder than a whisper.  I am normally a person with a pretty booming voice when I put my mind to it.  I have been able to communicate with people across packed arenas and they can recognize my voice out of the masses, I can get attention.

But today, I couldn't even talk to the parents when the kids put them on the phone to see if they could leave.  I couldn't tell kids to relax, to sit down, that, no they could not go to the bathroom.  I couldn't even tell all the great jokes that were coming to my head as I tried to keep my sanity.

We stayed in the auditorium for a really long, frustrating, almost made me not want to deal with children 3 hours and then were able to release for the day.

Teachers got to go back to the school, go into our advisory kids' lockers and get their belongings to bring outside for them.  I wanted to do it in one trip and ended up almost dropping everything.

On a bright side, I now know to use my powers for good and not for evil.

I also got home earlier than normal since I could not stay after school to do anything.