Genny

Distracted

2004-08-06T21:47:57Z

I don't know how I managed it, but today I emptied half a bottle of laundry detergent in the living room. I was headed out to do my laundry, holding my laundry basket by its mostly broken handle and resting the weight of the basket on the edge of the couch when suddenly there was a huge crash and I realized that the basket was now on the floor and detergent was everywhere. Did I forget to hold on to the basket? I guess so. The mostly broken handle is still mostly broken, so I can't blame the mess on the basket. I'm not sure what happened because, clearly, I was no longer paying attention to my actions. I will tell you that rivers of detergent flowed down the wall, the shelf, the chair, the side of the couch, over the grill and into the thick sudsy lake that was once the entrance way. It took two thirsty bath towels and and a large pile of dirty laundry to soak up the mess. I've never done that before. I guess that's one more thing to do off the giant list of "things to do before I die".

I'm really upset today. Everyone has their reasons for doing things. Some people act strictly out of their own interests and others act out of favors to friends. Both are fine. It was never a secret which of my friend marched because they wanted to and which were there out as a personal favor. That's cool. Those who were marching as a favor, I really appreciated your work and time. That was a giant commitment and you must be a good friend to do such a thing, but you must understand that there really are people whose blood runs magenta and blue. Your anger at the organization for whatever reason, your feelings of being left out or shunned are not from these people. Yes, the drumline is doing well. We have some rough spots, no different from any other year; we have hats, necklaces, shorts, shirts and other types of gear that is no different from any other year. I'm truely sorry if you feel that we have taken anything that you misunderstood being unique from any part of your experience with the organization. I assure you that all of these things were around before you joined, before I joined, before Al's sister joined, and when the corps was born. The fact that you attributed their meaning to a set few people just emphasizes that you were there not because you bleed magenta and blue but for other reasons. Again I appreciate your time and effort given and I look forward to seeing you sometime in the future, but I think it would be best if we no longer speak of the organization.

genny127 @ 2004-07-18T22:18:00

2004-07-19T02:20:36Z

I love summer days where the rain falls on your skin like a giant sprinkler that reaches wherever you go.

Just thought I'd share that you.

genny127 @ 2003-12-26T19:53:00

2003-12-27T00:53:31Z

Al finally proposed!!!! He did it on Christmas Eve and the ring is beautiful!!! I'm a very happy girl!

genny127 @ 2003-12-20T08:48:00

2003-12-20T14:16:54Z

I love this time of year. I love the shopping, the lights, the decorations, the yummy goodies, the parties, but some people really go crazy. My mom is one of them. I understand that she is having some problems because my younger sister is leaving for Spain and will be there until July 27. This is her baby. I suppose what Mom's going through is empty nest syndrom, and I don't mean to put her down in any way for it. However, she is obsessing about things.

For example, my older sister is adopting a baby this spring. (The whole having one herself didn't work out. She tried twice, lost both kids and ended up in the hospital with a blood clot in her brain. Ahhh... fertility drugs.) Now the adopted baby, if everything goes well, will be here in the spring- like March/April, but Mom needs to plan the baby shower NOW. I've spent the better part of this week writting baby poems for the invitation, coming up with a theme, a gift, and a party favor. The shower is going to be the last weekend in Jan. (Does this seem a little early to be planning or even thinking about a shower??? Not to mention, it's rather difficult planning a shower when you can make no mention of "mommy", "pink or blue", or"boy or girl" because the birth mother is a 17 year old girl who is ready to give up her little boy, not a little girl, and until the child is 1 year old, she may change her mind at any time.) Toss in a little Parenting 101 for the childrens' parents who can't figure out why their child is failing my class, progress reports, gift wrapping, and 100 very excited children and it's been a busy week.
My kids are really cool. Sixth grade teachers still get gifts from the kids. My kids really know me this year. I got some good stuff including a 5lb. chocolate bar, three beanie baby kitties to sit on my computers in the room, and some fun socks, since I wear them every Friday. Good job guys!
Also highlighting this week, Dennis stopped by for dinner. It was cool to see the man behind the computer. Sure he's been staying up here a bit recently, but I'm usually sleeping when he gets here. I see him in the morning, when I'm scuffling around the apartment trying not to turn on many lights while getting ready for work. I also saw the last Lord of the Rings. I was really good- well worth being out past my bedtime.

Well, today is the Neilsen family Christmas. I'd better go get ready. Happy Holidays everyone!!!

School, school, school...

2003-11-22T14:58:41Z

This week- walked 11mi., twizzlers 1 lb. bag lasted until Thurs., 25 pgs. of HPOP (Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix)

It's been a while since I've posted, but I haven't done much other than school, school, and more school. The huge paper for my grad class is now 8 pages long and I have yet to bs. That should be fine. There is still an amazing amount of work to be done, but it was good that I took this class. I mean, I don't know that I've learned anything, but I have come to realize that maybe I'd rather go to cooking school than get my ph.d.
Work- school has been good too. My principal hates my guts right now and would love to make my life miserable, but since I'm all the way in the farthest corner of the sixth grade wing, it's inconvenient for him to make random passes to make sure that I'm circulating the room enough, or monitering the hall while I teach, or whatever it is he feels like complaining about that day. He's trying to set me up for taking back the directorship of the play, but since i have tenure, I can say no. (Yeah tenure!!!) To make his life a little more frustrating, the new superintendent walked in on me when I was teaching the percussion "group lesson". We had just run through the keyboard feature,"Away in the Manger", which is sounding pretty good right now. If the super is happy, the principal has much less power over me. I have 13 kids(or 26 parents) who are very happy with this program.
"No Child Left Behind" is really turing the school upside down. The act simply states that to teach in the middle schools of our country, you have to be specifically certified for the subject area you teach and the age of the child. Since I started out with every intention of teaching high school I am a certified teacher of English. My certification is such that as long as I only teach Language Arts, Reading, or English, I can teach any grade level. I got the K-12 certification to make job hunting easier. Until recently you could teach any subject in middle school or elementary school on one certification- Elementary. Now that has changed and teachers have 2 years to complete undergraduate majors in their subject field. Otherwise they are to be terminated, tenure or not. In addition, the state is keeping track of eighth grade teachers and the state exam scores of their students. If a teacher has three classes in a row with poor scores, they are to be terminated. In my district, our building goal is to have 85% of our students score in the top 3% of the state. The eighth grade teachers are afraid that our district will fire them if they do not reach this goal. To make matters worse we are being monitored by the state next week. This means that no tape can be on the walls, but student work must be displayed. Nothing may be on the top of shelves, under windows, or near a heating vent, closets must be organized neatly, and lesson plans for the year (so far) need to be written out and placed neatly in our plan books. (The school's policy of having us write the curriculum goal, the state curriculum number it corresponds to, and assessments are not enough.) Its a royal pain, but whatever.
In moments of stress, teachers do interesting things. I leave school fairly early, since I tend to work through my lunch. Because of this, my room has become the dumping ground or resource room for my wing. Last Friday I found a chocolate bar on my desk. It was later that I realized that two of my electrical socket covers were missing. Now I had to fill out the form for Frick and Frack to come replace the covers. I've also inherited some great resource books. I know they were given to me because someone needed more closet room, but that's cool. I have a ton of stuff in the trunk of my car. The room inspection is on Tues., so on Wed., my double period classes are going to help me put it back again.
There is also this mandatory computer training for all Lang. Arts and Math teachers this year. It's not something you can test out of either. I got put in the power point class. So far I have missed three days of teaching (which is a pain) to learn a program I know better than the instructor. (This is not to say I'm a guru, but I know how to read a help file.) I get pulled out three more times. Monday 12/8 is my next "class". I need to have prepared the lesson I am going to teach on 2/19 or 2/20 when this instructor will observe me using power point in my lesson.
I don't mind computer training. I applied for a grant for a scanner, laptop, and projection device for the classroom. I even completed it with my neighboring teammate, implying we'd share the equipment. I did not get the grant, but here is the training. Thanks so much. Ok, so that's frustrating, but not as much as trying to plan a lesson 2 months ahead of time. Middle school children change on the turn of a dime. What will interest them then??? What will I actually be teaching 2/19? Which class is he observing? My advanced class will be on Native American legends??? My regulars will be finishing the struggle with Sounder??? I've decided to create a free standing lesson reviewing the basic skills on the Terranova- the test that monitors my teaching abilities. I want to make it a Jeopardy game and if that's difficult, I guess my instructor will earn his money that day. I'm also going to have him arrange for the technology to be available for me the day he comes, so I don't have to worry about snow days, and oh-yeah- the fact that my school only has 3 of these set ups.

Frustrations aside, I do love my job. The kids are great.

genny127 @ 2003-11-01T11:44:00

2003-11-01T17:55:47Z

Last night as we were warming up the drumline a flock of people came over to watch us. This surprised both Al and I because aside from a few Bushwackers or close friends of our line members, no one checks us out. This is not to say that we're bad or our lines are bad. Usually we turn out a decent package aside from the unstated policy the middle school seems to have of putting sp.ed.s on drums. Surprisingly, the flock consisted of students from Par. Hills, the cross town rivals, who happen to also march in Cabs. Even more shocking was to hear a low, not quite settled voice say "Hello, Miss Trossello".

You may not understand why this could be strange for me. As Miss Trossello, I am the motherly individual who tells you that she doesn't care if your locker got jammed, the dog ate your homework, or that the boy next to you smells. I expect you to arrive to class on time, with your books for my class, and when I call on you to give an answer, don't even think of asking to go to the bathroom instead of trying to answer the question. My life revolves around grammatical problems, process writing, the parts of speech and, of course, young adolescent literature. I frequently wear heels and a skirt, and like all good middle school teachers, I crawl into my locker at the end of the day. Occasionally I may be spotted in the food store wearing pajama pants and buying cat food, but since all English teachers as spinsters with cats,it's expected. Outside of school I am a little different.

In addition, middle school students themselves are a rare breed. I don't often look back on that age with much fondness, for I was the shy, geek they called Skippy after the nerd on Family Ties, but I love teaching kids of this age. You see they change drastically in those three years.
As sixth graders, they need mothering. Remember when you locker was so hard to open that you needed to practice opening the combination after school hours because mean teachers like me didn't let you be late? Remember the first time you switched classes every period? Remember how cool you though eighth graders were?
Seventh graders are cool. Even though their arms are the wrong length for their body and they've grown a foot since they last went clothes shopping, they are cool. For many girls, it's the first time they get to wear make-up and/or heels. Bras also make an appearance, and boys notice them. They don't know what to do about it other than twitch, but they do that well. Perfume and cologne also make appearances this year. Teaching this age requires open windows and a great respect for how cool those kids are.

Sixth and seventh graders will talk to you in the hall. Sixth graders love you no matter what. Seventh graders return to the teachers they loved, but pass the others with s simple shy acknowledgment. Then comes eighth grade. Remember when you first knew more than your parents or any other adult? Remember when the girls all shrieked and giggled over nothing exciting at all and tears spontaneously sprung forth from the one who did not follow the lead of the others? Vile age!

Ok, so my former student was one of my seventh grade boys. He gave some teachers a run for their money, but he was always sweet with me. For Christmas he got a drum set and a bond was formed even though he insisted that marching bands were for suckers. He didn't have the best family situation and his art project, a clay pot made as his mom's Mother's Day gift, found its way into my keeping. I still have that pot on my desk. (Awww) As an eighth grader I got a distant nod occasionally as he passed me in the hall, but nothing more. I was hurt, but not understanding the nature of the eighth grade child, did not see that the nod was a huge way fo saying that I was still cool. You see, eighth graders don't acknowledge any adults they don't have to to get by.

Last year I was delighted to see him at a marching band competition and even though our exchange was simply him running over in his Par. Hills uniform to tell me that Par. High drumline stank made me happy. I was once again a member of the world, cool enough to be spoken to. Yesterday, as a sophmore, he not only went out of his way to say hello and check out my drumline, but we chatted for a while. Apparently my interest in marching band wore on him a bit because he blames me for the need to get into a drum corps. He's marching Cabs, which I told him made me sad for the obvious reasons, and he promised to say hello to me when he saw me this summer. (I told him that his clay pot was going to be upside down until he moves to another corps.) He laughed at me for saving it, but as he said goodbye, thanked me for doing just that. :)

It's so neat to see children grow and evolve into people. I wish more would come back to visit.