Besides, vacation is over, I'm back to work and I honestly don't see how much of anything has changed. It all looks exactly the same to me.
Here's this week's new bullets straight from the old routine:
*We had a staff meeting after school today.
*We are in the painful process of tearing down old policies and trying to build new ones.
*And when I say, "painful," I mean exactly that. Pain. A full dose of it.
*I've worked in a lot of schools and it always goes like this. I usually sit quietly and let the process play itself out.
*Today, I dared to engage in conversation with the school counselor who was sitting next to me and wondering aloud if we were ever going to be released from this Most Painful Of Meetings:
School Counselor: I am wondering if we are ever going to get out of this Most Painful Of Meetings.
Ms. Sheep: It doesn't matter. Nothing matters anymore. I have heard the words "trust circle" uttered three times now and that means only one thing.
SC: What's that?
MS: I have to kill myself.
SC: That seems kind of extreme...
MS: Perhaps, but I have no choice. I cannot live in a world where people say, "trust circle" in a serious way.
SC: I'm pretty sure they decided not to do that. We talked about it at the meetings you missed when you were sick, but I don't think it's going anywhere.
MS: I can't take that chance. They said "trust circle" three times. Anything you say three times can come true. And they said it so seriously! No one laughed at all!!
SC: I guess I can kind of see your point...
*I'm not going to really end it all over a circle.
*Oh, I meant it when I said it. Make no mistake about that! But I've had some time to think it over and it does seem a little extreme now that I'm away from the TC People.
*It suddenly got very, very cold up here in the Wilds Of Maine.
*It is seasonal. I shouldn't really be so surprised.
*But I was.
*As were the cats. They were very chilly last night. I was covered in cats come bedtime.
*COVERED!!!
*I didn't sleep very well.
*Until I finally figured out that I didn't really need the electric blanket anymore.
*Covered in cats. Cats are warmer than electric blankets.
*I was covered in fifty thousand cats.
*Or two. It was one of those...
*The Phuture Physicist (also known as The Giant Man Boy) had a baby yesterday.
*Not a real baby. A computerized one. All the 8th graders get one for two nights.
*Unless they agree to write a paper instead.
*The Phuture Physicist came stomping into the classroom wearing a tiny pink backpack and scowling.
*He got someone else to carry the baby.
*He was late to school today. Baby had a malfunction. Baby lost all sense of cuteness.
*Baby cried every fifteen minutes.
*All night long.
*Baby wouldn't shut down.
*When he finally staggered in to school today, he announced that his mother was turning in his baby.
*"And, just so you know, I'm writing the stupid paper!!!!"
*The Phuture Physicist believes that Baby was behaving in a highly illogical manner and was certainly out to get him. He also allowed that this could not possibly be a child of his.
*He isn't wrong...
*Short week due to the holiday. I like a four day week.
*But Giant Man Boys bearing pink backpacks and ranting against illogical computerized babies really makes it all worthwhile.
*I read quite a bit over vacation.
*The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses
wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I decided that I probably wasn't going to finish it.*Just one more chapter and then I'd call it a day.
*Well, maybe one more...
*Turned out to be pretty good, actually.
*When an author says, "You know what, this ain't Shakespeare. I'm just gonna find the right voice and write the heck out of it," things usually go rather well.
*And I think that the voice of the narrator is rather well done, with only a few (moderately) heavy-handed explanations of motivation slipping in.
*I spend my days with middle school boys. I know the author got it right.
*I also re-read A Hard Day's Knight (Nightside)
. I like that book. Plus I think a new one in the series is due out soon and I wanted to recall where I left off.*I would have sworn that I already read One Salt Sea: An October Daye Novel
.*I'd have sworn it on my life.
*And then I wouldn't have needed to threaten to end it all during the "Circles" discussion.
*I have not read it.
*Now I can say I've read half of it, though.
*I like that series. Why wasn't I checking more carefully?????
*And, in keeping with the routine, I am rather glad to be back in the car even if it means going to work.
*I get to catch up with my audiobook, Enchantment
.*Not everyone's favorite Orson Scott Card book. But I like it.
*Not the mainstream routine, but part of my current routine.
*It is good to have something to make going back to the grind a little easier.
So that was Wednesday. It seems a lot like all the other WNBPs, but it is the first of 2012. That is something worth keeping in the routine, I think. Happy New Year, Everyone! I hope that your next 365 is filled with a nice balance of the old and the new! (and maybe a giant boy bearing a pink backpack...)
SA
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9 comments:
This is a leap year. Number Guy was telling me so as I was typing to tell you that this is a leap year. May we please have 366 good days?
I bet that electronic baby wasn't malfunctioning at all. I think they deliberately set them to cry all night at least once, and with only two nights to work with, they set it to happen the first night, to make sure it happens before something else convinces the kid to write the paper instead.
Trust circle? What the heck is a trust circle?
You can't trust anyone who suggests a trust circle is a good idea. It makes me shudder just to think about it.
I was watching a show where the "baby" was a 5 lb sack of flour and someone's mom used it to make cookies. I always like hearing how that particular exercise goes.
Beth, I think it's one of those miserable invasion of personal space games that masquarades as a "team-building" exercise. I LOATHE them.
Now, personally, my anger is more icy cold than red hot (like ms sheepie), so I would plan guerrilla action rather than off myself. The intensity of the feeling in the same, though.
Phyllis
~_^
The real question is, will Giant Man Boy remember the annoying baby when he is in full-bore lust for some teenage girl? I wonder.
Trust circle is a new one to me, too. I suspect it will become passe and cliche before it reaches The Great North Woods Of Wisconsin.
That is the one highlight of being my own boss. No Trust Circles or whatever malarky they've dreamed up.
And thank you so much for the story of Phuture Physicist and his baby. Somehow his night made my day better.
I've been in those painful meetings, trying not to roll my eyes too visibly over whatever Trust Circle type bandaid is being proposed instead of honestly assessing and dealing with problems. It usually means I will have to do even more work with even less help while pretending to play along - grrr.
My kids had to do a similar baby-care exercise in middle school, but the baby was a 5 lb sack of flour (which had to survive its ordeal undamaged) and the kids were paired off as parents, which was often hilarious. The girls dressed the flour sacks up in cute baby clothes and bossed the heck out of their "spouses", which was most of the lesson the boys learned :-)
Did all the principals get together and decide they need some whacko teachers' meeting on this Wednesday? Did brought them coal? We had a meeting that left us all trying to figure out what happened to her meds, or perhaps she needs meds. We been working towards our school accreditation and the team has laid is out in the most direct and simple route for our us all and then the principal announces that we aren't doing enough documentation. That we should be documenting two activities a week! I thought one of the women in charge of staff development was going to chew off her tongue trying not to say what she really wanted to say. Finally the two-sides agreed to table it until they could work it out in a private meeting. Then the principal says, "Any questions?" Like we were going to start it all up again. One teacher later said it is too bad it wasn't video taped as no one would believe it otherwise. Glad we are not alone, although it seems like it. Helen
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