An apple for the teacher, Pineapple that is!

Dear friend,
I'm not sure exactly which day it is, but some day this week is Teacher Appreciation Day. The school I work at has expanded it to a week. Each day of the week has a different theme for suggested gifts. Today was fruit/snack day. I was given a form last week to fill out with my favorite stuff. I wrote down pineapple partly as a joke. I'm not sure I really love pineapple, I do know I like it OK, but they make me smile, all the time. So, it's pretty cool that I got one, and now I'll have to decide what to do with it. If you have any suggestions, tell me, 'k?

Otherwise, life kinda sucks at the moment. I have to be at work two weeks longer than I thought I did, we have no real plans for the "graduation" we're supposed to do for our students, the teacher I work with is driving me nuts, we got a new student who's trouble and will be getting another tomorrow, and I've been sick since Saturday, I haven't slept through the night for the last two nights, I can't talk because I lost my voice yesterday, and I don't know what I'm going to do for a job or money after this school year. Oh, and did I mention the mouse in the hallway in front of our classroom today? I kind of wish I had made a bigger deal of it and made the visiting prospective parents who were pretty much in each of the neighboring rooms notice it. Yeah, I hate this school that much. I didn't draw attention to it, though. I think it was about to die anyway. It's disturbing to think that I work in a place that has (apparently) vermin. I'd never send my child to this school, it just sucks.

Ahh, that rants done. It feels good to get that off my chest.

It always comes around back to you

Dear Friend,
I survived Valentine's Day. Spending that particular holiday with 3 and 4 year olds is pretty fun. They get a kick out of getting and giving Valentines to their class mates. They get more of a kick out of having a "party" at the end of the school day, right after the nap.
LOST that night was pretty good too. To have yet another random confession I kinda "heart" Daniel Faraday. I don't know why, at all. I just... do. I sort of consider him my trade-off for killing Charlie. I'm odd that way I guess. I'm interested in the mystery of this show again, and want desperately to know what happens to the people who are not part of the Oceanic 6. Especially after this latest episode where Kate has Aaron. That's just messed up.
Had news of the "crush at first sight". He's doing well, it would seem. Plus, he's not married. Yet. I didn't find a way to really ask if he was engaged without the person I was talking to getting suspicious/weirded out. Who knows, maybe the guy I was talking to was already suspicious/weirded out. At this point I don't care. It's just that I've had at least three dreams of the guy getting engaged and married and was curious. It's weird.
Had a different sort of dream this morning, involving my brother trying his darndest to get me and this other guy together. The dude was not my "type" though. He had light brown hair, but that's all I remember from the dream. I've actually had dreams about being with or marrying guys with light brown or even blond hair for years. I tend to go for dark haired guys, though. Odd.
Miss Psych.
Miss Chuck.
But I'm glad the Writer's Strike is over! Yippee!

Dear friend,
I've had a bad day. No really, it just plain sucked. I cried. Three seperate times. At work.
So, are you wondering what happened? Are you concerned for my sanity? Well, friend, I appreciate your concern. Let's just say that a growing problem got beyond control and I felt alone, helpless, frustrated and abandoned. Yeah, the day was that bad. If it happens again, I will probably quit my job.
Let's see, eh?

Where've you been?

Dear Friend,
There is a distinct lack of blogging in my sphere of late. Have the blogs you've frequented experienced a drop in updates, too? I hope not. For some reason my regularly checked blogs (written by "real people" not celebrities or religious groups) have been very quiet of late.
Perhaps my friends have been inundated with hectic schedules just as I have been. I've been, in a way, "upgraded" at my job. I now regularly teach the students in our class. Each day, we divide the 20 three year old children into 3 groups, according to skill level. While one group plays, under my supervision, the second group gets a review from me, whilst the third group gets a new lesson from the teacher in the next room. After the lessons, they all switch, until we've each had time with all of them. I think that system would work best if we had another teacher in the room. However the ideal system for three year old children would be to stay home with a parent, in my opinion. Since that is either not the option or the choice of these children's parents I, and the teacher, are there.
I don't really understand people who think children are inherently good. I've believed for awhile that children are really worse than adults in their habits of selfishness, deceit and just plain sinfulness. You have no need to teach a child to lie, they will discover the talent on their own. Mostly they lie to cover their own butts, but they can even lie just to be awful to someone. You don't need to teach a child about racism or either. It's easy to see how someone is either the same as or different from you. Often you need to teach a child that differences are OK, really. A good deal of what we in our classroom is teach children to say they are sorry to those they've hurt and then forgive those who have hurt them. We try to stop finger pointing.
It amazes me that our biggest "tattletales" are the children who have the hardest time listening to the rules themselves. I can't decide if they're trying to draw attention away from themselves or trying to justify themselves, thinking, "Well, at least I'm not doing that like they are." One of our girls will outright disobey you the moment you tell her to do something, but if you tell a different child to do something she'll repeat it to them as though she's the authority. A different child, a boy, seems incapable of sitting still or paying attention, yet he's the first one to say "Ooh, look what he's doing." He is also frequently heard saying "I'm gonna tell on you."
I can't stand to phrase "tell on". I don't think it makes sense, "tell" followed by "on". Children have been saying it for generations, I've even said it, I'm sure. I also abhor the tone of "Ooh" that all children make when they see someone doing what they shouldn't. They often repeat it and it drives me crazy. If I never need to hear it again it will be too soon.
I couldn't believe when one mother told me her son had flushed his older brother's video game memory card down the toilet. Three times! And broken some of the video games. What got to me most was that she seemed not to punish her son for these actions. You've got to be kidding me! If that had been my son there wouldn't have been a second memory card down the toilet, let alone a third.

I don't get people. Maybe I should work with animals. They make more sense. But, oh, as awful as they can be I do love kids.

I can't read that stuff

I hate "net speak" or whatever they call that stuff that people type that isn't realy words. I can take it in small doses, like "cuz" or LOL, but when it's the whole message I can't stand it. I personally don't see why they can't put out the miniscule effort of typing out real words. It seems to me that it takes more effort to come up with that stuff. I don't get it.

I suppose I'm a bit of a grammar freak. Not much of one, since I'm quite sure that I make some mistakes pretty often. Mistakes that would make a real grammar nut scream. I do, however, correct people on TV when they use "myself" in all the wrong places. That and when they use "I" when they should say "Me". I think last year at college, one of the speakers made such a mistake and I wrote in code all over my note page how he was wrong. I'm so glad my friend taught me that code, I'll probably use it for the rest of my life. It might come in handy, my mom has been using a code on her Christmas lists for as long as I can remember. That way we don't know what she's bought for us. I may do the same when I have kids.

Speaking of kids, my friends joke that my children will have larger vocabularies than all their friends. I admit, I do use larger than necessary words at times. I've actually stopped a little since I met them. Since I was a hopeless, friendless geek before I met them, I spent my time reading, and when you do that you pick up words that are slightly cumbersome for everyday use. But I do intend on having children who speak well. I think I'm a snob.

Found out a friend of mine likes Gamecube. I've got to get him to play some games with some other friends of mine. We three need another opponent at Smash Bros. and I think he'll fill in nicely. If only all our schedules work out.

But it won't happen today. Today is my recharge day. I've been going non-stop for a month. I'm not doing a dang thing today. All I'm doing this weekend is church tomorrow morning. I think I'm obsessed with our church. I hate missing sundays. I used to hate church. Really hate it. But then I went to Bible college (that was a shock for me, I'm not the "Bible College Type") and found the church we go to now. I really like it.

Wow, did I ever get off topic. From complaining about net speak to saying how much I love my church. Weird me...

Till next I write!