i am so sick

of this smarmy motherfucker
yanking his own dick
and talking about all the whoopdy doo fucking things he says he's done over his many many too many years, fucking retire already and move to one of your too many houses, unless you forgot where it is.
and i'm so fucking sick
of hearing his asinine retorts about what obama hasn't done or has stood up for
instead of what his own plan is
to fix this broken
fucked up
fuck this we're not 'entering a recession'
we're neck fucking deep in a national
depression.

the stock market is down
my friends are getting laid off
everything is getting more expensive
budgets everywhere are being cut

and i dont trust that face
to repair it.

a week in pictures

we harvested the rest of the tomatoes we'd planted at d's parent's house in bergen beach.










i volunteered at two different adoption events, one in white plains, and the other here in the slope. in two days we found homes for 10 dogs and 7 cats. and 4 birds. this is butta bean, a 5 year old american bulldog, who no joke, proudly wore these sunglasses all day long.



and this is the newest addition to our four-legged black and white family. world, meet joan jett:

grad school, part 2

my first go-around at grad school was primarily an exercise in cramming as much education as i could into two solid years of life. from 2004-2006 i somehow managed to plan lessons, write papers, complete lab reports, create activities, grade papers, teach classes, meet with mentors, design my own curriculum, teach an after school program, attend classes, study for exams, and occasionally get together with friends to get massively wasted and forget why i was doing all this. but oh yes, the free (well somewhat free) masters degree. my degree was subsidized through the new york city teaching fellows, which meant the city paid for half of my degree, the rest came out of my paycheck over two years, and i devoted myself to teaching in an inner city school for at least two years. the degree, which was not terribly difficult, more tedious, to earn, has not proven to be especially helpful towards what i specifically do. the teaching fellows generally seek high-need area teachers, including elementary, special ed, esl, bilingual, ela, math, and sciences. technology is not considered a high need area, though enough schools are seriously lacking an expert to manage and implement their equipment effectively.

and so, 150 lesson plans, a dozen ten page essays, 18 lab reports, 4 running records, 80 personal reflections, 25 journal entries, and a bout with shingles later, i graduated with this degree in childhood education, certifying me to legally teach a kindergarten through 6th grade class anywhere in new york state, and many other states who have reciprocal teaching license with new york, massachusetts excluded.

in the last 5 years i've never actually taught within my license area, except on the rare occasion that i've subbed for 5th grade classes when their teachers are in meetings. i've always taught 5th-8th grade technology, and while according to the laws of new york city, i can legally teach 1 year out of my license area, 2 is not legit, making this year a fuzzy area for me to be in, teaching 7 8th grade classes.

the michigan program i was accepted into is a pretty cool opportunity for me to become a legit tech teacher, and also expand my horizons at the same time. it's a 15 month, 36 credit masters in ed with a concentration in educational technology. it would start this may, with an online course, then a 3 week residency in geneva, another 4 courses online in the fall and spring, then back to geneva to graduate in july of 2010.

i'm not entirely sure what doors it will open for me in terms of career, but it sounds like the right direction to go in. i'm also pretty psyched to see geneva, though from what it seems like there isn't much time for sightseeing, mostly learning new apps, coding, and building websites.

i'm hugely nervous for the loans, but really excited for the content. and to meet other teacherly geeks like me.

and so no, i'm not relocating to flint, much to michael moore's possible dismay. i'll never even have to visit the campus as long as all goes according to plan. it may not be as glamorous as stanford or columbia teacher's college, but i think it's the right program for me.

i hope i get an early reading list. i've been craving some good educational literature.

michigan

i got in :D

when wednesday night feels like sunday

the procrastinating i did this past weekend was futile, in part because the hopes i had of making up the work on this sweet and fine new year were completely irrational. i've never been the kid to finish all my homework the first night of vacation so i have the whole week worry free. i'd rather give myself anxiety about it all week and do a shoddy job on the sunday night before we go back to school.

and so, my 7th graders have nothing to do tomorrow so we'll practice what we started monday, a hands on approach to determining the best search engine for the job.

this is the first year i'm feeling like my teaching years may be dwindling. i'm exhausted of the constant management. i enjoy the content, i enjoy the age bracket of my kids, but i do not enjoy the few problem children who make my job unpleasant. sure, there are tips and tricks to reel them back in and get them to participate and absorb. i just don't feel prepared to spend the energy on that part of my job this year. the summer built me up with hopes of pleasant, intrinsically motivated, well behaved kids. and i got a slightly rowdier than expected bunch. every day i check the mail, i wonder what will happen with michigan. it's become this lighthouse in dark waters, luring me to greener pastures. complete with little dad on my shoulder, whispering, "summers off, 8 and a quarter fixed rate, only 24 more years till retirement." and usually something happens in school the next day to dissuade me from staying. monday, it was fernando, intentionally but possibly unknowingly (he's just that type of kid) putting gum inside the cd rom drive, causing it to eject and close, eject and close, eject and close continuously, until i call to have the damn thing repaired. he denied any affiliation with the broken drive when asked, but when i compared the gum sample found in the drive with the gum sample he spit in my hand while i was questioning him, i found it to be the exact same flavor, the latter a bit more chewed. and it was surprisingly suspicious that the broken drive occurred at the workstation at which he was sitting the previous period. not to worry, apparently his mother will be in at 8am tomorrow morning. though from what i hear, it's been like pulling teeth to get her to come in to pick up his report cards at the end of each marking period. so i'm sure i'll be at school bright an early for nothing, but that's how it goes.

i'll be watching the debates tomorrow night, for better or worse. i won't run a line by line this time, but i'll probably participate in rachel's drinking game. that may be the only way to survive it. after a grueling email exchange with a particularly conservative family member, i think i may have had my fill of political banter for the week. i'm considering tomorrow night's debates a mood lightener, a comedy hour if you will.

i'm kind of feeling sick. it might be allergies though.