Teaching with Rosacea

A Genuine BOHICA day

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.

Rosacea better but surgery wound not healed

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.

Recovering from sunburn

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.

Sunburn - Boy, did I do it now!

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.

Chamomile extract for pink, blotchy skin

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.

I fired my intern

The title pretty much says it all. My senior intern, a person who looked to me as a mentor, has been acting increasingly irresponsible and lazy this term. He did not want to do any work in class. The last straw was when he left class without permission to carry a friend's guitar amplifier to her car. If he had been caught without a pass, I would have been the one chewed out. I ran into him wandering around campus after school and asked where he had gone. He told me the story and said that I had told him it was ok. Sure. I hated getting rid of him but I can't have him wandering around campus like that. Also, his lack of motivation was making him a liability when it came to setting up and conducting labs. Occasionally a teacher has to do things they really wish they did not have to do.

Splotchy skin

I woke up this morning to find that my skin was very 'splotchy' and uneven in color. It's not bad enough yet to pull out all of the stops medically but it's frustrating looking this way. No time to feel sorry for myself since the munchkins are headed into my first class even as I type this.

My guys were on Ellen!

Sir Francis the bunny and Tommy the cat were featured on the Ellen Degeneres show last week. Their photo was shown in a segment called "Unlikely Couples". Ellen made the remark that Tommy looked like he was thinking "Not tonight. I have a headache!"

Depression

It's been a long, tough week. A tooth cracked into two pieces so I went to the dentist. I've got a temporary crown that keeps falling out. They called yesterday and said that the impression they made was not adequate so I have to go back in Saturday for another try. The kids are cranky and tired at school. I'm sick of grading papers and listening to whiney students. My feet hurt. My gut still hurts from the colon surgery. Other than that, everything is great!

I need a vacation in the worst possible way.

Irresponsible students

For the past half year I have basically done everything to keep the school chess club running. I make and run off flyers to advertise the meetings, conduct chess lessons, and have even bought the chess sets, chess boards, and trophies for tournaments out of my own pocket. I don't mind the money so much but the time I put into this club is ridiculous. The club officers have done absolutely nothing to help keep the club going this year. So... I decided to put the burden upon the officers to do what they should be doing to operate the chess club. I held a meeting and explained my expectations to them. They agreed that they should handle the routine tasks I have been handling. The following week there was no announcement on the intercom for the club meeting. There were no flyers printed or put up for the meeting. When the day for the chess meeting came, the president came up and said "We are having the meeting today, right?" I told him that we were not meeting since there had been no announcement made by the officers to that effect. He became very upset and said that the class secretary had emailed "everyone" about the meeting. I had not received an email from her. I was stopped inthe hallway by a number of chess club members who wanted to know if there was a meeting so I'm pretty certain that they had not received an email from her. She had apparently emailed a handful of students about the meeting, believing this was adequate to announce the meeting. Considering the lack of information given out about the meeting, I cancelled it for this week. I posted a sign on the door saying that the meeting would not be held since it had not been adequately announced to the membership. The president told me that the vice president made rude remarks about me when he heard we were not having a meeting. This is funny since he has not been to a meeting the past three weeks.

I refuse to cover for these students any more. I will not continue to do all ot the tasks that the officers should be doing. Since they are apparently not willing to do the jobs they were elected for, I am cancelling the rest of the year's meeting, the spring tournament, and a simultaneous exhibition I had planned on giving. I have received no assistance in conducting the tournament or the simul. My role is supposed to be simply a faculty advisor. I was never supposed to do everything to keep the club going. I did not mind doing this in the beginning because the club needed a good start. With the election of officers and bylaws, my role should have been reduced to an advisor only. I am so upset with the lack of help these students have given me after I explained the situation that I want nothing else to do with this club. I heard that they are looking for a new sponsor now. I don't think they will find another sucker who is willing to do all of their jobs for them.

First Luvey Picture

Some interesting moments in a dull week

FCAT testing is not what I would call a fun couple of days. The only thing more boring than the students taking this test is me having to watch them take this test. Therefore I don't have much exciting news on the teaching front.

The rosacea is doing ok with just a little moisturizer and the Topral oral medicine.

The colon still hurts some but at least the leaking finally stopped. I'm still padding the incision since it cuts right across the belt line.

The cat adoptions went very well Saturday. The head honcho Lisa left my wife and I in charge. Another volunteer was supposed to come in to help but she never showed up so we were on our on through a very busy day of showing cats to prospective adoptees at Petco. We had a great day with 5 adoptions. The surprising news is that a white cat with blue eyes named Luvey was back again. She is a beautiful cat with the sweetest personality. It is a shame that most people want little kittens for adoption. She is 2 years old and is not a small cat so no one wanted her again this day. I decided then and there that if no one adopted her by 5 P.M. that I would take her home myself. This is exactly what happened and Luvey is now cat #8 in our crowded little house. She is slowly getting acclimated to the others and is in a room by herself for the time being. She went in for a dental cleaning, shots, and an exam. They found tapeworms so she was medicated for that. She is back home now and was given a clean bill of heath except for some gingivitis. She is on a short course of a antibiotic for this. The photo is the first picture we took of Luvey. The flash washed out her beautiful blue eye color but it still shows how cute she is.

Stress, stress, stressssss!

We are finishing the 1st 9 week period and things are chaotic here at school. Where to begin? Well, I came in today early for a meeting on FCAT, the state test that will determine whether each student will graduate or not. It's also used to grade the quality of each school. We have been an "A" school from our inception 6 years ago. No pressure there, huh?! So next week and a couple of days in March we get to waste time taking this ridiculous test.

In the midst of FCAT testing and the stress of expectations from it, we also have midterm exams next week, followed by grades. So Friday I come in early to set up the lab test, spend hours grading the tests, review for the midterm, stop and give the standardized FCAT test, go back to reviewing for the midterm, give the midterm and grade them, and then submit grade averages for all classes, and wrap up next week with going into the circulatory system of the cat. There is enough to do now that a person could go insane with the stress levels here. The kids are about as stressed out as I am. Too much, too much!!

Cold weather hits the rosacea again

I've been working with the kids all day in their muscle dissection and boy am I tired!

Last night the local temperature went below freezing. This morning the flushing is worse and my skin is thirsty for moisture. That's always how it is in the winter when we hit a patch of cold. There's not much to do except put on more moisturizer and try not to go from one temperature extreme to another too often.

Well, back to the cats. Their test on muscles and external anatomy is Wednesday and I want my future doctors to do well. After all, they may be working on me some day!

The meaning of life

As I get closer to that time I will retire and jump off of the hamster wheel of work I think about the impact I have had on others and the meaning of my existance after leaving teaching. I know I have motivated many students to choose a career in the sciences. There are a number of doctors, nurses, and science teachers out there today because of my efforts. I am proud of this accomplishment but concerned about my future value. What self worth will I have after handing over the teaching mantle to those with more youthful energy and zeal? I need to sit down in the near future and plan ahead for a means of giving value to my life after retirement. Animal rescue has always been a priority with me. I can see myself expanding that role when I have more free time on my hands. I only wish I had the financial means to accomplish what I would like to with animal adoption. All I have to offer is my time.