The Dryer is Innocent and Other Random Facts of My Day!

• The  refrigerator is a thief...especially when you have a young child!  Logan pushed his phone under the fridge on accident this afternoon.  I did what any mom would do and got on the floor with a flashlight.  I saw it...gleaming red...over half of the way under the massive appliance.  Of course it's not on the floor, though.  It's on some kind of plate that can never be reached!  I am now convinced that all those socks that go missing are really under the fridge.  THE DRYER IS INNOCENT!!!
• Adults are worse than children when it comes to following directions.
• It's truly depressing when strangers speak to you with pity in their voices after you tell them what you do.
• The most adorable thing ever is to watch your child dance.  Logan has started shaking his little tooshie! :)

Short but sweet...gotta go bathe the booger.

Frustration!

So, I know you were all on the edge of your seats to see if I could get through the massive amounts of papers I had to grade. Well, I have! All but a single project for my smallest class, I was planning on grading it tomorrow morning. (It's computer based and I don't have the program on my laptop.) Why am I frustrated, you ask? Because the geniuses that work for our online grading system put an unannounced maintenance weekend in place. That means, no grades for me until 6 am Monday! Now this is normally not a problem, but Logan is up by 6 am and I have a meeting which I will miss most of my planning period for. Oh, and grades are due at noon! FUN! Why would they have an unannounced weekend? Click the link on their 'We are down' page and it says maintenance for April 2011 is from the 22-25. Apparently, they just figured out that it was EASTER and they don't want to work on that weekend...you know, when they could actually have it from Thursday to Saturday and possibly bypass screwing over the teachers and students and still have a holiday. So, I head to my email and try to find out if there is anything that can be done. To my dismay, there is an email from NCAE (NC Assoc. of Educators) stating that, though it has not been approved, the motions are on the table in the General Assembly to cut the extra pay that teachers with Masters' Degrees and National Board Certification receive. Ummm, those both pertain to me, and that would be at least a 20% pay cut! I know I shouldn't worry until it's passed and that I should be thankful to have a job, but OMG!

At that point, I might as well leave the profession. I hope it doesn't come to that.

The life of a mother/teacher....

Who knew how difficult it would be to keep up with my grading with a little one? Ok, so, I'm not stupid. I totally realized that it would be a struggle, I guess I just never thought I would get so far behind. It probably doesn't help that I have 3 different courses that I teach daily, including one with no book and no true curriculum. At the moment, I am buried under the last paper of 3rd quarter...the Honors Anatomy Research Paper. As I read, in an attempt to dig myself out, I am amazed at the lack of writing skills in our youth today. Those of you who know me may wonder why I assign papers to begin with. "You're a science teacher. What does that have to do with writing?" I've heard this so many times...from parents, students, administrators, and fellow teachers. It doesn't even suprise me anymore. My simple response is, why wouldn't I write with my kids? So, as I spend the wee hours of the night and Logan's 2 hour afternoon naps grading papers this weekend, think of me and my fellow mother/teachers. Being a mother is hard enough without having to bring home work as well.