Christmas Break

Oh the joys of Christmas Break! I believe the teachers enjoy it just as much as (if not more than) the students!

We had exams Monday - Wednesday of last week, which were easy days for me. I had three classes taking exams on Monday but only one each of the other days. Unfortunately, I caught a cold right in the midst of that. Nothing like sitting in your room feeling miserable while you grade tests all day. Ugh.

But like I said, easy days. We went out to lunch the final day too, which was nice, and one of my teacher friends came over to work on a craft project/Christmas present and being the sick, I fell asleep while we were watching a movie!

But... None of this is why I decided to write a post tonight. It's time to tell another odd anecdote about my life as a young teacher in the small town in which I grew up...

I STILL have the cold I had during finals. Still. And so I decided to sleep in today. I woke up rather late and then decided to stay in bed and watch Netflix. At about 11 or 11:30, my doorbell rang. I got up to answer it. In my pajamas. My pink pajama pants with Christmas lights on them. And a dark green shirt from my uncle's pub. It was some high school kid offering to shovel my driveway! It was great, because I haven't yet bought a shovel for my new house, but seriously, I answered the door in my PJs! And my OLD glasses that are ugly and don't fit my face! (I left my good glasses at my parents' house after spending the night there Christmas Eve, oops!)

Anyway, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas, and enjoy the time you have off! As for me, I'll be enjoying one very long date with my couch and Netflix until January 2nd!

Reflections on Blogging

Blogging... I don't even know what to say about the experience. I'm a math teacher. Writing isn't really my thing and yet I do enjoy writing sometimes. I LOVE to read but I always HATED writing papers when I was in high school and college. It wasn't that I was bad at it, it's just not something I enjoy. I have a journal, but it's mostly full of notes I've taken at church and random tidbits about how things are going in my life, and the occasional ranting about things I'm really excited or really upset about. It's mostly just a way for me to get stuff out of my head and on to paper, so I can stop overanalyzing it.

But anyway... 

...I tend to get a bit off topic...

I think I mostly do this because I love stories. Obviously, as a public school teacher, I can't just tell the whole world about every bit of my day. Teaching has its highs and lows, and you live with the good and the bad. But here's the thing: I work with teenagers every day. If you don't spend much time around teenagers or it's been a while since you were a teenager, let me remind you of something... teenagers are a whole different breed of humans! And sometimes they just make life interesting. 

As I look back on my blog, I'm flooded with memories of the last year and I'm really glad I started this blog. If you want to know what inspired me to write it, you can read my first ever post, entitled Today I was told I should write a book.... A lot of my blog is just random musings about daily life of a teacher, and a lot about the struggles of my first year. But what I really enjoy is is telling funny stories. Like the day a student basically told me another teacher was "hott" or yesterday's post about lunch! I also wrote another one recently with 3 random stories all from that week. Some of the posts are actually serious reflections of my job and my life, but they might be boring, unless you're really interested in learning about the trials of the first year of teaching. 

Anyway, this post is kind of a little trick to get you to read my old posts. Sorry? :) 

Oh, and if you're interested in reading a really awesome blog about writing, read my roommate's blog.

3 Random Stories

I had a headache before lunch. My Algebra II class came in and I yelled, "SIT DOWN." That sure got them quiet. I do raise my voice on occasion, but I don't actually yell all that often. Then I said, "Well, at least I know one way to get you to shut up. I have a headache so you're going to get out your homework and be quiet." Or something like that.


So today a teacher came into the teacher's lounge at lunch. Told us about a situation with a student. One teacher was so shocked she spit out her McDonalds' Happy Meal Milk, while the teacher next to her spun around and nearly died laughing.

My roommate majored in English (as you know if you checked out the link I posted to her blog). I (obviously) majored in math. So this weekend we had an argument that only the two of us could have. We debated the spelling of a math word. Oh, and I won. Ha! (The word was "collinear" by the way.)

P.S. We started watching NUMB3RS on Netflix. You really should check it out if you've never seen it. I'm in love with Charlie. If you know a hot genius like that, send him my way. (lol)

The Things Teenagers Say...

I could probably write a book on crazy things teenagers say, like when they hear a rumor that I'm dating a coach, they come to class and ask me, "Are your favorite sports to watch soccer and tennis?" But that's nothing to what happened today.

We had a fire drill, and after a few minutes of standing outside, a male teacher summons everyone back in, saying, "We've got work to do!" Then the best thing ever happens. One of my female students says...

"That Mr. ----------, he is one good looking man!"

Me: "What?"
Her: "Nothing"
I laugh.
She says, "I didn't think you were listening!"

I love my job.

Even on boring test days that result in hectic afternoons.