The Pandora Files

1/8/12

Kary — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:23:46 +0000

I am so proud of my son, he graduated from college in two years with a degree in math, passed both teaching exams and now has his first teaching job at the school where I work. He will be teaching Alg 1 and Geometry. He starts Tuesday, which is the fourth day of the 2nd semester.

I am not ready for the 2nd semester, I am, but I am not. I am overjoyed that we are half way done with the year, but I have been sick a lot this year as well. I think it is the extra stress from one less conference period.

Cheerleading has been fun. I love it, I want to continue with it, I just really need to learn to become a better coach, I need to learn the cheers and things like that. I know the football cheers, but not the basketball cheers. I have a small team, only 7 girls, I lost one at the semester. My only problem seems to be that my girls have no respect for me or the team. My captain does not want to be there, she uses anything as an excuse not to be at a game. I overheard her say the other day to the other girls that she does not like me and only respects the 9th grade coach. She wants to goof off during practice, will not do anything I ask and is just disrespectful. I have told her if she is going to be that way then she should just resign. Her bad attitude rubs off on the others. I have spoken to the varsity and freshman coaches about it and they both say she should quit too. They say I have been doing a great job of handling the situation, but now it is time for our head football coach to step in as well. My girls as a whole have been horrible all year, I have 4 that always pass their classes, and of the 4, 2 do not show up for things, 2 that are always in trouble, 1 that cannot pass her classes. Not sure what to do anymore with them, I have benched them, ran them, exercised them, to no avail. Nothing works, they just do not care. I do not want to give up on them, but I think that is where I am. I am ready for the next set of cheerleaders. The freshmen that will be trying out for next year are awesome, they want to cheer, and they want to have fun, I am psyched about getting them. They will have there own problems I am sure, but at least they have respect.

Kary — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:54:36 +0000

We have one week left in the 2nd six weeks and the 3rd six weeks is only five weeks long. Things are moving fast. Christmas break will be here soon. So far I have managed to stay under the radar and I want to keep it that way. I am crossing my fingers I do not get called in to the principals office for my kids scores on the 1ts common assessement. The kids take the 2nd one in a week and a half, and hopefully they grow enough between the 1st and the 2nd one I do not get called in for it either. I just want to duck and cover, stay out of the adminstrations way. The STAAR test is going to be harder for the kids and the common assessements are easy, but the kids willnot study so they fail. They do not care and I am held accountable for it. Their parents do not care or the kids would study, I think it is wrong that I am held accountable and my job depends on things I cannot control. These kids could do it, they just do not care to, they have no ambition, no work ethic and no sense of the world beyond high school. It is so sad.

thoughts

Kary — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:59:32 +0000

I have been thinking for a long time that I want to write a book. When I was in elementary and Jr High school, I use to write stories all the time. I loved it and my friends loved to read them. Now I want to write again, but I don’t because I am afraid it will be badly written or just plain horrible. I guess I will jut have to get over my irrational fear and write.

4/3

Kary — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:11:26 +0000

This 4/3 schedule is killing me. I am so tired on my “long day” and even at the beginning of the day when I am not tired, I know it is going to happen, so I dread the day. I have to pace myself and that means I do not feel like I am giving it my all. This schedule makes me feel like a bad teacher. My one conference period is every other day and I am not getting things done, because by the time I get to my conference period I am too tired, and have to much to do, and I start lots of things and never get them finished. I have to much to do. They took 5 + hours away from my weekly conference time and gave me more work, another class of kids and more grading and planning. When am I supposed to get it all done? At home? taking away my family time? I all ready do extra and give my time and money, then you raise my insurance rate, take away a conference period, give me more kids, do not give me my yearly step raise and expect me to be happy? Yeah Right? I need help, I do not have enough time to plan, grade, make copies, get work to ISS, get all the special ed paperwork done, much less get enough rest, spend time with my family and be sane. I have seen seasoned teachers break down and cry becuase they are having trouble handling this new schedule. I think the school board needs to look at their decisions and I think we need a new SB. You want save money, then advertise on the school buses, get rid of the large amount of worthless people in the adm building who make more $$ than us lowly teachers. Stop taking it out on me and my kids, because when you hurt me you hurt my kids too.

School

Kary — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 23:40:17 +0000

So far school is going well. My students are better than last year, but with only one conference period I am very tired at the end of the day. I love being the jv cheer coach. I have eight girls and they are good. Last year was my worst year teaching, and this is so far is turning out much better.

summer

Kary — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:24:59 +0000

I took the JV Cheer Coach position. I met the girls on the 4th of July for the annual parade they do and I had fun. I am looking forward to being their coach. I have eight girls. I went over and over the pros and cons and it makes it so my extra class is now cheerleading and not another class. We our on AB block and have to teach 4/3 instead of 3/3, so I pick up cheer for 4th period, I have grades for this class, but not like I will with another History class. I get a stipend and 15 days of early report pay so that helps, and I was was told that since the position was not posted district wide that this year my teaching contract and my cheer contract are not tied together until the 2012-2013 school year, but I will have to reapply for it and reinterview for it if I want it. I have to prove I can learn how to be a Coach not a Sponsor. I think I can do that. I am so EXCITED!

Summer Time

Kary — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:12:38 +0000

My worse year of teaching finally ended. I have never been so happy to see my classes leave. I was apprehensive about it ending though, because the new school year will bring teaching a 4/3 instead of a 3/3. We lost about 15 teachers in our school, they were reassigned, and at least they were not RIf’T. I do not know what I am teaching next year and that is unusal, normally we know before we leave for the summer.
I have no clue what to work on, so I am going to focus on World Geography, even though that is not what I asked to teach. I want US History, World History or AP World or Pre AP World Geogrpahy. I also asked to move into the teachers room that retired down the other end of the hall from me. It is right across the hall from the computer lab, in the newer part of the school.
So I keep putting off working on my currikculum, and I have been reading instead. In the week since school as been out I have read four books allready. I have been swinmming with my kids and worked out once, but my legs were so sore for a week that I resorted to kicking in the pool the rest of the week.
I want to lose about 15 pounds, but that will not happen if I do not work out and I hate working out. The last week of work we had lots of thing to drain our bank account, so we are short on money for a while, the honda broke down, a bad storm with softball size hail hit and our roof, skylight, a window, our deck, patio, pool and pool equipment got pummeled and needs fixing. My son”s car also got hit hard. We have had to spend anything extra on that. But the pool is usuable. We are not getting any farther behind on the house payment and my husband continues to keep his job he hates. So we are holding steady. The mortgage company is taking it’s sweet time to decide if we can have any help. Since October and we are now in to mid June. I hate dealing with them on the phone. Sorry I am rambling. Well here is to the next school year and it will be better and I will get my butt in gear!

On The Bright Side

Kary — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:54:04 +0000

It is the 1st day of TAKS and it always seems like a wasted day after the test. The kids go to each class period for about 25 minutes. It is not enough time to get anything done. You can take roll and then try to start something, but by then the bell rings and class is over.

On the brighterside no teachers are being let go in my city. We do have about 17 teachers being reassigned to other schoool, but so far that is it. Also we got our waiver for the missed days of school, we have to make up 2 of them and work on June 4th, but that is okay. I am counting down the days until I can get rid of my 4th period, 27 days. But then next year I lose a conference period and have to work a 4/3 instead of a 3/3. YIKES. I am trying hard to wrap up the year and stay on the bright side of things.

Spring Break

Kary — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:54:31 +0000

This spring break, I cleaned house as we have eight people living in a 3 bedroom house, cleaned more house, cooked and cleaned more house and did tons of laundry. You cannot imagine the unending cycle of laundry. I played Fable III and when I tried to get on my school laptop it would not let me log in. I had to bring it in to the tech and it needed to be reimaged becuase my password and hers had become coroded. Fun stuff. Good thing I had backed up everything on my computer the Thrusday before spring break. So yesterday I spent with out my computer. Thanks god it was a B day, so I just had to do my plans for the sub from the Friday before spring break.

My kids

Kary — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:32:08 +0000

I try hard not to post anything that I would not say to someone to their face on my blog, I love my students like they were my own, yes, I get frustrated with them sometimes, just like I do with my own kids at home. I am sure there are days when I do not like them, but I still love each and every one of them for who they are and what they can do. They all have qualities that are great, they have lots of potential and I am here to help them reach for the stars and the shine. I teach kids and I teach them about the World. We look at different cultures and different countries, we learn together, we help each other reach for the stars, we encourage each other and hold hands when needed. I love what I do because I get to make a difference in kids lives. I show them respect and expect respect in return. I show them patience even when I am all out of patience. I love them faults and all. No one is perfect and I do not expect them to be. No one is mature all the time either and they are teenagers and I try to always remember that.