Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in spLishy's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, March 7th, 2007
10:43 pm	Parent conferences suck. Even when they all go well, just the week sucks. 8am-5pm, pretty much non stop of meetings, yuck. By 11am I am ready to call it quits. By 2am I am a zombie, and by 4 I am so grumpy, I need to just sit and listen, cause I am liable to say something i will regret. But, that is on a good day. I think what we do is great for students and families, but it is pretty awful for the teachers. We all know each other's speils by the end of the first day. I could tell you all about our biology curriculum if you wanted to know. Although, I have to say, it is fun to hear a severely LD student say he loves learning about DNA. And the algebra 1 class uses some weird sports formula to keep some of the guys interested. They use an athlete's statistics to predict how much money they made the team and what their career is worth. Anyway... better sleep to do more all day tomorrow. Ugh! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007
11:18 pm	Trying not to jinx myself It was turning out to be a tough school year before I broke up my 5 year relationship and my grandmother (step grandmother?) died. I am trying so hard not to say what else is going ot happen, but i am so superstitious, I have probably already doomed myself just thinking it. I don't know when i got so superstitious. I find myself knocking on fake laminate tables (our new school campus does not have anything that is made out of real wood anymore) on a daily basis, usually for something someone else has said, just to be on the safe side. So, I had a strange conversation with my mom and dad -not bio- (playing with new language, but everything screams, you're not as important as the bio dad). Somehow religion came up and my mom got mad at me for saying that if I had to choose, it would probably be something pagan. Now, my mom was brought up Lutheran and rejected her religion before I was born. One dad was Methodist, but rejected religion before I was born and the other dad was Jewish, and yes again, rejected his religion before we met. I did not grow up going to church, learning about God or the Bible or anything that mainstream America accepts as religion. Most of my experiences with church and church going people has not been exceptional, including being told in high school I was going to hell because I did a research report on how AIDS was affecting the gay community in Atlanta. Growing up my hippie parents took me on walks through the woods of rural VA and North Georgia mountains. A majority of my spirituality comes from nature, so it makes sense that if I had to choose a religion, I would gravitate to one prizing nature. My mom still doesn't go to church and is pretty down on many aspects of religion. I don't know why she got mad at me. Anyway... time to go meditate with my relaxation cards. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, January 6th, 2007
4:30 pm	this seems sleezy I went to a cocktail party for Planned Parenthood's Women in the Halls program this week. It was really fun and I met a ton of people. I went by myself and just walked up to everyone and introduced myself. (That is so damn hard!!!) But, I met a guy who knew someone I was talking to, and he said something sleezy like, its nice to see some new faces. Then a few minutes later someone came up to tell him by, and he totally bitched her out right in front of me. Apparently, she had used her personal email address when sending information about a Young Democrats event, and that is very taboo! (I guess?) While he was good looking, I thought it was so shitty to yell at this woman right in front of a stranger. Anyway... there were plenty of other people who were very cool. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 4th, 2007
12:05 am	another photo? hole 2 ARG! (Comment on this)
12:04 am	photos the hole in my wall stupid, old, infirm, piano movers suck! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007
11:36 pm	? Transfering some pictures to this computer so I can put more pictures in here. I finally broke down and upgraded my lj account. Oh, and this is kinda weird. A former student who I have been friendly with when she visits at school sent me an invite to join facebook. I was kind of wary, but my sister wanted me to, so I did. But the former student is friends with a lot of my current students, so it feels weird. But, LT said none of her friends tend to post things they would be embarrassed by me seeing, so she didn't think anyone would mind. Current Mood: hyper Current Music: new Tanya Donelly kicks ass (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 30th, 2006
4:35 pm	nesting Since Brian moved out and I have been moving furniture around and doing some redecorating, it is hard for me to just hang out at home without working on things. I have been going through every closet, drawer, box, etc. throwing out junk and moving non junk around. I've been piling up things to take to work. Moving rocks around the rooms. I want to get some kind of display thingy to put all of the rocks in one general area. And, although I like the idea that I keep my smaller rocks in a heavy duty nails and bolts tool box, it would be nice to have them in something easier to see into. I have various newer collections in a variety of baskets and containers. It would be nice to have it all together. I am also looking to kitten proof the condo, which since it has been a long time since I had cats, and those were outdoor cats, I am not really sure what I am looking for. I only have one plant and it wasn't on the list of poisonous plants to cats list I found on the internet. I am in the process of organizing my art stuff so there are no ribbons at easy access. And in general just looking for things that would not be good for kittens to get into. Current Mood: weird Current Music: michael franti and spearhead (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 28th, 2006
5:45 pm	trying icon When I first started on LJ I could not get my pictures to load as icons. But, now LJ has a croping tool they say will make the picture the size it needs to be. So, here I am trying it out. Let me know how you like my spanish moss. Current Music: ditty bops (Comment on this)
5:06 pm	kitty Well, the piano is gone after more nightmares! I have been thinking for a while about getting a kitten. Brian did not like cats, so I now that he isn't a consideration I am going to get one. I have been looking at the furkids website, but wondered how the adotion worked. Any advice or suggestions? How important is it to have two together for company? I think my condo is big enough for two, but I would rather just have one. But, it might be better to get siblings. And so many on the furkids website are from the same litter. How long does the adoption process take? What are they looking for? (I mean, could I be rejected?) Is it better to just go there and interact with them before picking? I hate to pick one just by the picture and description, then get there and not like him/her. Anyway... I'd like to take one home soon. Chee (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 23rd, 2006
8:01 pm	yikes okay, so I was wrong about starting up with live journal again. When I logged in for the last post lj asked me to change my password, which i promptly forgot. I ususally use the same three or four to make things easy, but somehow I didn't use any of those. So, tonight I finally when through the trouble of clicking the lost password button to reset and get a new password whew! So, the big news is that I broke up with Brian after Thanksgiving. I have been on hold for a long time hoping he would do something to make things happen, and it never did. He is a great guy, but I need someone who has the guts to be around my friends, not to mention family. I don't think my friends are particularly scary, but I know its more than that. I know a lot of people who have social anxiety issues and not everyone is getting help for it. But, I am not trying to make a life with them, they are just friends. There's a lot more to it than that, but it was the straw. The other big news is that the piano movers who were supposed to take the piano back to Brian dropped it on the stairs and put a hole through my wall (the piano is fine Thank Gods!!!) The hole is a circle about a foot in diameter! And the damn, smelly, wheezing, men still didn't get the damn thing out of the house! They were stuck on my stairs for 45 minutes waiting for their boss, who just said, we need another guy and they brought it back upstairs!!! They are coming back Tuesday. They said they would pay to have the wall fixed, but I think I am going to ask that they reduce their rate and use that money to fix it. I don't want to pay them a fee and then have to wait for them to give me money to fix the wall. But, I took a TON of pictures of all of the damage (the banisters for the stairs were damaged too.) Just to be on the safe side. I hate being alone when there are strangers at my house working, so if anyone is off work on Tuesday and wants to get up early to keep me company and intimidate these old men into not ripping me off, I'd appreciate it!!! So to add to the weirdness, five minutes after they left the comcast men came to put internet in my spare room and they were so nice (kind of hitting on me I think) that they even moved my desk for me. I normally would have said I was fine, but I was in such a bad mood from the piano movers, I said sure I'd like some help. While they were helping me the salvation army people came to pick up my junk I am thinning out. It was a weird day yesterday!!! But, anyway... I am off to the party at S and J's. Hope to see some of you there!!! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 16th, 2005
7:20 pm	bad news Wow, today was bad. Last night around 4:30 some students were playing football in the school parking lot. Something happened and one guy threw the ball and hit another guy. When he did it again the other guy broke the bottle of soda he was drinking from and cut the football guy in the arm. This is just crazy. All the high school teachers were gone, so the other guys there had to go to the main building to look for an adult. Luckily there were a couple boy scouts that new first aid and were able to stop the bleeding with a shirt. They called an ambulance and the police were involved. My principal called me around 10 and was still dealing with everything. The guy who was cut will be okay, there was no nerve damage, but he had to have plastic surgery to connect things back together (the cut went to the bone). They think he will be back at school in a couple days. The guy who flipped out will be expelled (obviously), and it makes me so sad! His parents did not disclose his emotional problems on his application, understandible since they wanted to get him into our school, but still irresponsible. The first few weeks of school he really isolated himself by just being a jerk. He's a little goth guy and was Mr. Negative to everyone. About a month into the school year we saw that he was cutting himself, pretty deep. When my principal met with his parents and talked to his doctor, it came out that he has had other problems in the past, possibly violence. We were told that he was having trouble with his medication and after a few days were told that the meds were changed and things got better. He really tried hard to keep from getting mad at other people. When he was in a bad mood, he tended to blame everyone around him (and verbally attack them) and not realize that it was his mood, not anything they were doing to him. While he really made a lot of progress, he still had occational bad days, when he would just scowl all day and snap at anyone who irritated him. I am really scared about what is going to happen to him. I really liked him (when he wasn't being a jerk). We listened to the same music, watched the same movies and he was really good at literary interpretation. He had a wicked sense of humor and sometimes would just giggle to himself about who knows what. I am really scared that he has more serious mental problems than just depression, like we thought. This is the second person we have had to expell this year because of emotional/mental problems that became hazardous to the safty of the school, and which were not disclosed to the school. Both boys were new this year, and it begs the question how do we screen for these problems in admissions. Right now there isn't a psychologist on the admissions committee. In fact, the only reason we have access to the school psychologist is because of the first emergency expulsion. The year before last the school dismissed the high school psychologist and did not replace him. Last year we were told that it would be okay becuase our temporary principal was a psychologist. So this year I started pushing for access to the psychologist who works for the lower school. I kept saying that because our students are at risk for anxiety and depression, and because so many of them are on a variety of medications, we needed to have someone at hand to discuss problems with. I was pretty much ignored. The principal has this idea that kids come to school to get away fromt their problems and don't want to deal with it at school. She thinks, understandablythat school is not the place for theay. However, we don't expect the psychologist to treat students long term. But, there are plenty of situations that happen at school that a psychologist should be involved in. Only because of the first emergency do we have access to the psychologist. Today I had her sit in on the class that the expelled boy was in. It is a ninth grade class and I knew they needed help processing what happened. They talked the whole hour. They asked so many questions - that I'm sure everyone wants to know. They knew he was unhappy, but can't understand why or how it could be so all consuming. The psychologist was so great at answering their questions and putting things into perspective and letting them know that all their feelings are okay. I have also been complaining that there is no consequence for students who don't leave campus when they are supposed to. During basketball season the high school boys are just let out at the end of practice, and they come back to the high school building and expect to be let in to hang out. I have been saying that they shouldn't be allowed to stay around, but no one did anything. Now the students are absolutly not allowed to stay after 3;30, but its too little too late. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 1st, 2004
7:36 pm	It's been so long since I posted! Yikes! It has been a crazy, yet very enjoyable semester. but, currently I am freaking out becaues I want to go to grad school, but I can't seem to get my shit together to finish a stupid 300-500 word essay on my career goals. The problem? There are so many things I want to do I can't make up my mind what to do first. I will probably go for a masters in literacy, which will help me in the immideate future working at Howard and give the option of private reading tutoring for more money. But, I really want to do research also. I have all these theories about learning and attention and my student population, that I would just love to test out and actually prove that I am right about connections between things like reading and attention (although as I say that it seems totally obvious, but you'd be surprised how no one at my school has thought of it yet). And the fact that out of 50 students in the high school, 9 are adopted! And I know in lower and middle school there are even more. We already know there is a connection between fetal alcohol syndrome and drug addicted mothers to babies' development and learning, but I would like to research the effect on adopted families to have children with learning problems. Does it make a difference if the adopting parents know in advance there will be problems? Do they actually have lower expectations for adacemic sucess because they do know there are learning problems. So you get the picture. It is all very exciting and extremely scarry!!!!! (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 2nd, 2004
10:17 pm	I went to a new psychiatrist today to get more wellbutrin. Some things I really liked, and some I am not sure about. Firstly, I met with a nurse who got all my info and why I was there and all. I liked her and she was pretty knowledgable about my worries. Then I met with the doc and surprisingly, she started off by giving info no one else has known about. She fully explained exactly why I had the reactions to Ritalin that I did. She said the weirdness with my depth perception were due to dry eyes. Something about the cornea not having enough liquid, so it wrinkles and distorts the image. There was something else about why my hearing sounded like I was underwater, but I didn't catch the whole thing. I was so amazed that no one else had ever heard of this, and she was very familiar with it. She said, while both are rare, she has seen them with a variety of psychotropic drugs. Then, she showed a definate worry about the past PMDD (it's been six months since it was a problem!!!) and said that she will take it more seriously than the previous doc and to tell her right away if I have any problems. Then! She wanted to know about my weight gain (15 lbs in a year). Wow! She was on top of everything! The only thing was that she didn't check my previous edu/psych eval to be sure I really have a lable for adhd. But, they had me do a checklist of symptoms, so maybe that is enough for them. Well, and the nurse asked me what were the main areas of adhd that i have. Oh well, that is pretty minor. anyway... yippie to new drugs. Although I don't want to start it again till Monday so i can drink my lttle heart out at Dragon con. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 1st, 2004
4:55 pm	Well, so Ch 11 didn't offer Brian what he was looking for. I think he is still going to take it, but he wants to tell them he will keep looking for something with more money. We had an arguement just now, and I am not sure why. I think I just got him riled up by saying that maybe he should go back and instead of saying he is going to keep looking, maybe he should go back with a counter offer and see if they would give him just a little more than what they offered. I don't know if this is a situation you can do that. But, he has been at chapter 11 for SEVEN years!!! You would think that, knowing he is already looking for something higher paying, they would try to give him enough to keep him there. I wouldn't think they would want to hire a manager and have that person leave because they aren't paying enough. But, I don't know anything. I do know the new owner is a cheap ass bastard and if he can get away with paying Brian just a smidgen more than what he is currently getting, he'll do it. I feel bad though, cause I don't think I have EVER made Brian as mad as I just made him, and I didn't mean to do it. I have been soooooo good at not pushing anything having to do with his job search. I have tried to give ideas, but not push if he doesn't take them. Hopefully he won't just go and tell them no out of being angry. I could see him doing that just being stubborn. Well, hopefully he won't stay mad at me too long. (Comment on this)
6:45 am	prosperity thoughts Brian was offered a managers position at another Ch11 yesterday. He finds out the wage increase today, so please help me think prosperity thoughts for him. While he is a little aprehensive about the change, he is excited about getting managerial experience for his resume. And, he really likes what he does at CH 11, (and is really good at it!) but really needs about double the pay he is getting now in order to start to pay school loans and help me with the mortgage. He and Greg still have plans to open a comics and games shop at some point, but unless one of them inherits a buttload of cash, it will be in the distant future. I am sad he is not going with me to Dragon Con again; I hate doing fun things when he can't spend the money. And, he won't let me buy him the ticket. He was annoyed with Greg for buying him a ticket to Souxie without asking, but I am really glad he is going with me to that!!! Anyway...think double 13!double 13!double 13! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 25th, 2004
10:21 pm	Hecate is back! So, my snake has been MIA since February and I had given up hope of her coming out from the bathroom sink. This summer I put her cage and heat lamp in the storage room. So Monday morning around 5 am I heard a crash somewhere in the apartment. I woke up, but didn't hear anything else, so went back to sleep. A half an hour later I heard another crash and woke Brian up. His curiosity got the best of him and we went out to see what was happening. On the book shelf a bunch of picture frames were knocked down. I looked up and there she was, just hanging out. She's pretty thin and dehydrated, but seems fine. She doesn't seem too agitated by being in a cage again, although it is a little hard to tell the emotional state of snakes. I am going to take her to the vet just to be on the safe side, and i have had to order more food. But, I am very happy she is safe and sound! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 14th, 2004
3:43 pm	dad's safe My dad called and they are all safe! He said the house has a lot of damage and the linai (spelling?) over the pool is completely gone. The phone lines are out, but his brother-in-law's cell phone was working. I have been worrying all day, so I am so glad no one was hurt and they are safe now. (Comment on this)
11:50 am	bizarre coincidence Okay, so you may remember I had a scary dream about my dad being in the hospital a week before I went to visit and I couldn't get a hold of him. But, it turned out they were just on vacation and everything was fine. Well, he called the other day and said that since hurricain Charlie was going to hit north of them, they were going to stay and ride it out. Damnit, if the hurricain didn't shift and hit them!!! Fort Myers, Punta Gorda, and Port Charlette (where my dad lives) are all over the news today for being hit the hardest!!! The phone lines are down, so I cant get through to see if they are okay and if their house is okay. I have left a couple messages on my step mom's cell, so hopefully they will call soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me. It would be very bizzare if I got that call from my step mom from my dream. (Not to mention the fact that I don't want my dad to be hurt) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 13th, 2004
7:16 pm	attention wreck Okay, so I had to change my appointment with the new shrink from today to three weeks from now. SHIT!!! Our preplanning time is considered critical days and you aren't allowed to take off. Our major high school pod was scheduled for right when I would have been going to the appt. So, I changed it. And I know I will be fine. My problems are so minor, I almost feel guilty complainging about them. And I know if I mention any of the things going on every one of you will say, well I do that too. But, just think about how often you do them? Is it every day? Once a week? Every now and then? Go to the new DSM and check out the checklist for ADHD and count how many symptoms you have (on a daily baisis, not just sometimes). I know I have to just take deep breaths and not the the different things add up, but I am starting to notice more and more problems while not on Wellbutrin. It has been four months and while I am glad that I took a vacation from it, I now remember exactly why I wanted medication. My hand eye coordination is definately affected by attention. My handwriting and being able to hold things is dropping badly. I am also having trouble keeping to a single thought. I keep thinking of things I need to do to prepare for the semester, but before I can grab paper to write them down, I am off on something else. I am keeping my digital recorder by me to solve that problem. I am also alternating not being able to stick to one thought, with hyperfocusing on things. I wrote a UBD unit for the Spanish teacher a little while ago. I find this kind of writing somewhat easey (especially since I have a list of enduring understandings I can plug into a template) so I wrote one as a sample that she can just plug other ideas into. Now, it is 7:30 on a friday night, I should not have been working on my own work, let alone helping someone else with theirs. And once school starts I am going to have to force myself to wait 10 seconds before reacting to anything. I am just not able to monitor what I say right now. Sometimes I haven't even finished the thought before it is out of my mouth. It is almost like I don't hear it in my head before I say it. When I can inhibit, if there is a comment, like a sarcastic or bitter, response to something, I usually hear it in my head and there is a pause where I decide whether the person there will appreciate it. But, not right now, I made a joke today about having to be careful to inhibit once kids come back, that I am afraid I would tell student X's mom to blow me. YIKES! But, I am sure once the kids are back, I will force myself to reign in. And, my mom suggested I call my GYN and ask if she will prescribe Wellbutrin. So, I may try, I doubt she will though. Anyway... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 7th, 2004
12:23 pm	so pissed After reading “Making the Grade: A special report on our public schools” AJC Sunday, August 1, 2004, I am absolutely flabbergasted by the direction our country is going in education. Standardized testing has its place, but does not give an accurate account of everything students learn. Especially considering that ESOL and special education students are expected to score the same as students who have been speaking English their whole lives and students with out special learning needs. I am so frustrated and angered by the emphasis on standardized testing right now. But, everyone asks, what alternative to we have to assess schools countrywide by the same standards. I have a vision of the Department of Education having to write plans using Understanding By Design*. And instead of a standardized test at the end complete with scan tron sheets, there would be a culminating project that the students of every school would complete using the six facets of understanding, and graded by a universal rubric. Or each school would present the UBD units they used and the work that the students completed showing their comprehension of the enduring understandings. Everyone is talking about No Child Left Behind and all of the standardized tests states are giving to show status and improvement. But, no one is talking about what is on these tests, who is writing them, are they relevant to what schools are teaching, is anyone even looking at what schools are teaching, and more importantly how schools are teaching the material? No Child Left Behind is giving artificial standards for standardized tests, but not giving any ideas for how to improve teaching and learning. Forcing schools to use Standardized tests to measure student progress, but not discussing how to improve teaching methods is ludicrous. No one is talking about the question: What skills do all students need to have in order to be good learners and thinkers? That should be more important than can you answer multiple-choice questions on a random test. UBD is the idea that instead of teachers deciding what text to use, then planning units based on the text, you decide what enduring understandings (universal concepts and skills) students need. Then you decide how you will assess comprehension of those ideas (like what kind of test, project, or evidence will show if they really got the concepts). Then and only then do you decide what texts and materials will help bring students to those concepts. The six facets of understanding are: explanation, interpretation, application, preparation, emapthy and self-knowledge. I wish the Deptartment of Ed would use UBD to assess schools and student progress. (Comment on this)