May 04, 2006

Excuse me while I fume and self destruct for a moment. I just found out that I have been assigned 3 Anatomy classes and 3 PHYSICAL SCIENCE CLASSES next year! Yep, after standing up in meeting after meeting this year and warning the administration that it would not be wise to switch the biology and physical science grade levels because we did not have enough physical science teachers and being told repeatedly that they had hired enough physical science teachers, they now shaft me and the students by taking me out of what I teach best and putting me in three physical science sections, which I truly despise teaching. Oh yes, I had a choice. They offered me a chance to teach all Biology IF I moved out to the crappy portables! These are the ones that are set up for 24 students and are crammed with 35 students. The lab portion of the portables are a laugh. I couldn't conduct elementary school labs in those pieces of trash, much less have meaningful Biology honors high school level labs. So I have the envious choice of teaching Biology in a cramped, horrible portable or staying in my room here and teaching a subject I have no interest in teaching.

Oh yes, did I mention that our little resident suck up teacher will be teaching all Biology Honors level classes next year? This is the girl who thinks a challenging Biology lab is having the students bake cookies! Of course she is best buddies with the administrators so that may explain a lot. After all, here at our school image is everything and this teacher sure makes our principal and assistant principals look wonderful. Who cares if she can't teach? That's what I love about our little corner of paradise here. Trying as hard as you can to teach the kids to think will never go unpunished. It's time to bend over, cuz here it comes again.

I am just sick and disgusted at this whole school. 26 years teaching my heart out and this is the respect I get. The administrators never listen to me when I try to present intelligent arguments about why separating the 9th grade is not a good idea, why portables are a less than optimal place to conduct labs, and why switching classes between grade levels may present materials and staffing problems. Their creed is that image is everything here and learning does not matter nearly as much as making them look good and supporting their insane ideas like lemmings. I suppose this is their way of paying me back for not blindly smiling and going along with their plans. If you are looking for a great job with the goal of making successful, intelligent students, stay away from the educational field.

You may now return to your regular routine as my rant is over. I hate the politics of this asinine profession.

Posted by at 02:56 PM | Comments (5)

April 26, 2006

Hi all,
It's been a looooong school year. The kids are not working much now. They have basically quit 4 weeks before the end of school. Unfortunately I don't have that luxury and I must trudge on toward the finish line. Today I sent one girl to the office for repeatedly stopping me in the middle of a lecture to ask to go to the restroom. I finally had to stop and ask her if it could wait until I finished. She said yes. It wasn't 15 seconds before she again asked if she could go to the restroom! She basically did this to disrupt the class and gain attention. I gave her the attention she merited by shipping her out. This was the child of a teacher at my school and she is 17 years old, old enough to act in a civil manner in class. That second period class has four malcontents in it who really couldn't care less about being there or learning. They will do anything to stop the class from learning. Little do they know that there is a ton of work awaiting them over the next week, more than enough to keep them occupied. I will instantly get rid of anyone in that class who does not cooperate fully. Sometimes you have to step down hard to gain control when students are antsy to get out for the summer.

The sunburn healed well and I have little trouble with the rosacea (knock on wood!). The surgical scar from the colon surgery still is partially open and leaking each day. I am definitely not going back to the surgeon since he has little interest in my case once his procedure was completed. He would just slap a bandage on it and tell me to wait until it healed. I really don't need that type of treatment at this point so I'm just going to hope that the wound will eventually close up on its own. I was hoping that I would be well by now but I guess it wasn't to be. Perhaps I can rest some at the beginning of summer vacation and give it a chance to close up completely. All the moving around in class that I do seems to really keep the wound from properly healing.

Tomorrow and Friday we have a lab on the brain. That should hold their interest, at least for a little while. One can always hope.

Posted by at 04:52 PM | Comments (3)

April 16, 2006

Well, I didn't totally cook my face with the sun but I came close. With 3 days rest and lots of chamomile and aloe much of the redness is gone. The forehead and nose are still pretty raw and dry, but I am in good enough shape to return to teaching tomorrow. I will need to take extra care in moisturizing tomorrow morning. The rosacea has made my face much more sensitive to sun these days. I should know better than to go out in the sun without sunscreen but occasionally I forget that I can't treat my face like I did when I was 15.

Posted by at 07:10 PM | Comments (2)

April 13, 2006

We took my visiting niece and her husband on a one hour cruise around Matansas Inlet. When I got home I realized I had forgotten to put on any sunscreen. Two hours later and my face is as dark red as a lobster. Part of this is sunburn and part is the associated flareup of the rosacea. It is not painful but it looks horrible now. I put chamomile cream on it and bathed it in chamomile extract. Hopefully it will heal some during the next couple of days, but I probably will have to stay home from the cat adoptions Saturday. I only hope I can get to looking somewhat like a human being by next Monday when I have to go back to school. I'll let you all know how it progresses.

Posted by at 08:18 PM | Comments (2)

April 12, 2006

Though I've been off on Spring break this week I still haven't fully recovered from the school year. My skin has pink blotches on the cheeks and forehead. This has been frustrating to deal with so far. Creams haven't done much to alleviate the redness. I'm going to start applying chamomile extract tonight and see if it helps to calm the skin.

I go back to my general practitioner tomorrow for a check on the cholesterol and general lipid levels. Saturday we have cat adoptions again for Goliath and Bebe's World. I will leave you with a photo of my wife Karen holding a kitten we found a good home for last weekend.

Posted by at 06:03 PM | Comments (4)