Brief Updates and a Pondering

Things have been slightly crazy. We're actually trying to finish up Issue 2, and I keep reminding myself that I wasn't intending to have this issue go out, since Issue 1 was late; I was going to punt Issue 2 to mid-October (after fall break). But it looks pretty good and I think we can do it.

I put the rest behind the cut because I didn't want to return to the blog with fists full of snark. Frustrations are lurking there - consider yourself warned!

Books

Read several good books lately - Naked Economics and Little Brother and The Poison Apples among them, a week or so ago. I've just recently finished Leaving Fishers and Sometimes the Magic Works, all from the public library. And I re-read Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast, from my own collection. There were others, but I don't particularly remember them... Oh, a good bit ago I read A Curse as Dark as Gold, from the school library. That was unexpectedly good.

Frustration mingled with petty vindictiveness

Our brilliant administration had decided that students should not be in charge of counting votes for senior superlatives and took that out of our hands (yey!) and said they'd do it (uh-oh). Predictably, the votes were NOT counted by the day the photographer had been scheduled to come by. Seniors are mad. I am happily letting them know they should talk to the admins.

And finally: Teh Suck.

This past week I had several kerfuffles, but the worst was that Tattletale bounced in at the start of Photo Retake Day and announced that Goth Girl had a razorblade stashed in one of her books and I should check it in class. I managed to thank her without rolling my eyes and told her to go let an appropriate authority figure know. Didn't even SEE Goth Girl that day as I had a sub so that I could stay in the auditorium with the photographer and try to figure out how to get the ninnies who never pay attention to ANYTHING to come by and get their photos made. And only those ninnies - not the ones whose photos we already have and just want to get out of class.

GR.

Anyway, so thought nothing about it until I was called to an AP's office and asked why I didn't report this. *facepalm* Had it not been photo day with several Issues already (we had advertised gym & photo dude set up in auditorium - ended up not being a big deal cuz nobody pays attention ANYWAY, plus we had a bunch of students who'd had their photos taken the first time but there was a camera issue and as a result the images somehow didn't get stored), MAYBE I would've called it in right away, as I got told I should've.

I was really upset about this at the time. I'm still troubled by it. I honestly think I'm a pretty good teacher. And I don't tend to have too much trouble with classroom management. But this concerns me - I'm not a good i-dotter-T-crosser. Never have been. However, it's something that I need to be good at, and I don't know how to get better at it.

Pondering for today: What supplies could you not live without?

I'm pretty frugal when it comes to supplies. Right now I'm annoyed that our start-of-year supply order got messed up and I didn't get the tape I wanted. I have my "backup roll" in the dispenser, but it's not nearly as nice, despite the fact that the backup is Scotch tape and the other is an off-brand. :P

Obviously, as we have a computerized grading program that stores our data on a network, I use my computer and internet connection fairly frequently.

I'm also an email junkie - I'd much rather communicate by email than just about any other way. It provides evidence of what was said, unlike face-to-face or telephone conversations, you have the ability to check and revise before sending, you can keep lots of messages in the same place without worrying about clutter, they're accessible from any computer with internet access, and the search feature lets you find specific messages easily, even when you're like me and you keep darn near EVERYTHING.

I feel awkward if I don't have writing tools with me. I'm not incredibly picky, though I prefer to avoid markers and crayons. ;)

And I'm incredibly stingy with my whiteboard markers. There's another class in my room during my planning period, and I'm sorry, but it ticks me off when my whiteboard markers disappear. I try not to let it bother me, because I realize that I'd be worse about it than any other teacher ever has been to me, but... gah!

I love our Journalism printer - a HP Color Laserjet 2600n. Everything looks so smooth and crisp and clear!

We also use the Canon digital point-and-shoot a lot. There's also a Nikon SLR, but it's going to be a WHILE before my staff is dedicated enough for me to decide it's worth my while to teach them how to use it. I will NOT let them use it for cutesy myspace-style candids. :P

And of course, there's my Regular Three: my keys, my wallet, and my cell phone. These are what I check my pockets for (if I remember) in the morning. Even so, if I realize that I'm not sure where something is, it's NBD. The Hunk and I drive to work together (his school is maaaybe a mile and a half away from mine, so he drops me off) and I can ask to have a janitor open the door to my room. If I don't have my wallet, I can't buy lunch, but missing one meal? again, NBD. And the cell phone - pf. If it's important, they'll leave voicemail. So long as the Hunk has his phone, I can use the school phone to call him. (It works the other way 'round, too.

What about you? What supplies are essential? important? useful?