Yes Virginia, There is a Public Education System

I don't get on my soap box often. Well, at least I don't feel like I do. Today is one of those days.
I always think it's interesting when people complain to me about the public education system. They tell me how awful the teachers are and how their children are having a miserable time. Of course, this is interesting to me (and when I say "interesting" please realize I'm using my sarcastic voice) because I teach 5th grade in a public elementary school.
Let me say first that I love my job. I absolutely love it. Every day may not be trimmed in gold, but teaching isn't just an occupation to me. It's who I am, to some degree.
And yes, I know that not all teachers feel the same as I do. And yes, I know there are some teachers who deserve to be stuffed into bags and dropped into an obliging river. However, not all the problems in the public school system are the fault of the teachers.

Let me give you a glimpse of the public education system through my eyes. Every year, more and more responsibility is taken from parents and given to teachers. We have to keep track of whether a child's absences are excused or not. If they get a certain number, we're supposed to contact parents to tell them about the importance of getting their kids to school. If we don't do this, we can get in trouble. Our school can get in trouble with the state.
There is a large amount of information that we are required, by law, to teach. It's called the state core curriculum. It is expected that our students will master all concepts in the core by the end of the year. Every couple of years, they add things to the core, or change it completely.
The legislature of "No Child Left Behind" completely changed the face of education. The principle behind it would seem great: making sure every child is taught and doesn't fall through the cracks in the system. Sounds perfect, right? Unfortunately, in schools it translates as thus: If a child doesn't speak English fluently, or if they have a learning disability, or if they come from a family that doesn't put a priority on education, or if they've just given up, whatever the issues that their poor little souls have to deal with, they are expected to learn everything (in that awesome core curriculum) perfectly.
Isn't that possible, you might ask? Not really. I want all of my students to succeed. I want them to leave my class with all the knowledge they need in order to be successful in 6th grade. But kids don't learn at the same pace. I'm constantly trying to balance spending more time with struggling students, while not boring the students who mastered the concept within the first day of talking about it. There are some students that, even though we might spend a week on a subject, even if I work in small groups with them, even if I have a peer tutor work with them, or if I work one-on-one with them, they will still not retain any of the information. These students are not many, but they are there. I want them to succeed, but if they don't do as well as all the other kids on our end of the year testing, I'm considered a bad teacher.
And I internalize that.
So yeah, I love being a teacher. It is a tough job, where I feel the pressures of not only trying to educate every child regardless of their baggage, but the pressure of helping them become well-adjusted individuals with morals and a good work ethic. And yes, there are things within the system that are inconvenient for parents, but I feel the only reason it has become this way is because the government is constantly shifting more responsibility onto teachers. There are other options: charter schools, freedom schools, private schools, and home-schooling. Each choice comes with its own set of pro's and con's.
So, yes Virginia, there is a public education system. It might not be perfect, but we're trying.

Thus endeth the soap box.

The Organ is not a Sexy Instrument

So, I play the organ in our church occasionally. It's not my calling, I just am helping fill in until someone is assigned the job. But today, as I was sitting up on my organ perch, I was looking out over the congregation and trying to catch the eyes of various men, when I had a realization. The organ is just not a sexy instrument.
Think about it for a moment. When someone mentions an organ, you immediately think of some old lady wearing knee high stockings squinting up at the music while she stretches to reach the foot pedals with her orthopedic shoes. Even if you've never had an organ player in your church that looked like that, it's still the picture in your mind, isn't it. So, it hit me that guys do not find playing the organ sexy.
This caused me to think about various instruments and their sex appeal. Tell me what you think.


Sexy instruments:
Electric guitar, drums (as in a set), violin, vocals, french horn, xylophone, and sometimes the piano (depending on who's doing the playing).

Instruments that are the antithesis to sexy:
Organ, clarinet, baritone, tuba, kazoo, saxophone, oboe, bass drum, and bassoon.

Instruments that are asexual:
flute, cello, banjo, trumpet, trombone, triangle, cymbals, piccolo, and nose whistle.

Top Ten Signs that You are Too Big of a Twilight Fan

So, I'm a Twilight fan. I'll admit this. However, I feel that being a fan means being labeled as a fanatic (which there are several out there) and I do not believe I am one of "those" kind of girls.

Therefore, it is important that we define what is crossing the line. Here's a helpful guide.

10. You own/speak to a life sized cardboard cutout of a Twilight character.

9. You can quote whole passages by memory, and you insist on being costumed while you do so.

8. Any spoof of Twilight/New Moon is extremely offensive to you and causes you to write angry letters to obscure independent film makers.

7. You have ever compared Stephanie Meyer to the likes of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, or J.J. Abrams.

6. You went to the movies more than one and are over 35 years old.

5. You've created your own Twilight Role Playing Game.

4. You only date Robert Pattinson look-a-likes (pale, stick insects with bird's nest hair)

3. You quiz your kids nightly about Twilight book and movie trivia.

2. You write Twilight fan fiction (what if Edward dated Victoria?!)

1. You find gospel analogies within the pages of the Twilight saga.

By the way, if you want one of the greatest laughs of your life, watch Twilight with rifftrax

along with it.

My Favorite Valentine's Memory

In the past, Valentine's Day has been a bit of a bitter day for me, usually filled with an unhealthy dose of sarcasm. I'm proud to report that this year I felt this strange sense of contentment. Perhaps it was because I was surrounded by great gal pals (it's very easy to think of oneself as a strong, single woman when hanging around several strong, single women).
Though there were some fantastic events that helped as well.
First, Saturday afternoon my friends (Mallory, Julianne, Jenni, Christina, and Megan) and I went to see "Young Victoria" (which is a great love story, by the way). Afterwards we went to one of my favorite restaurants, Gloria's Little Italy. The sad thing was that Gloria's had replaced their regular menu with an exclusive Valentine's Day menu. The only option was to get a 5 course meal for $30. Not my style. We just got dessert, and this dashing, young violin player came over to us (there were only three other guests at the time). He asked if we had any requests, to which I promptly replied, "I Will Survive" (in a very tongue-in-cheek manner). Go figure, he actually played it for me. I had to hum the beginning for him, but he did the rest. Isn't that so cool?! He let us make a few more requests, but put his foot down when "Single Ladies" was mentioned. I left him a tip when we were done.
Yesterday, my friend McKay brought me several valentines. He is extremely gifted when it comes to using a computer, and has a tradition of creating valentines that incorporate his face into pop culture images. I've decided to post a few of my favorites. Anyway, catching up with him made my day, and the valentines were just icing on the cake.
I hope that everyone had a great Valentine's Day, whether it was spent with someone you love or on your own.

Dear Diary,

So, I've been sitting here for the last half hour, puttzing around on the computer and feeling very frustrated that I don't have a place to express myself completely. I mean, sure, there's Facebook (but about 30 of my former students are my "friends" on there). There's also Twitter (but my friends on there mostly all know each other, so there's no such thing as private venting). And then there's this blog (which who knows who in this world might be checking out at any time?!)
Moral of the story is that there are all these venues, and still no way to get out frustrations.
Then I realized, that's what diaries and journals are for.
That might sound completely ridiculous to you, because you probably write in your journal three times a day and even have a special room in your house for all your old journals. Such is not my case. I have a journal. It sits right next to my bed, a good holder for my tv and dvd remotes.
The extra sad thing about my journal is that I usually only write in it when something awful happens to me or someone I love. My nieces and nephews will glance through them after I die and think my life was crazy tragic, or something. Which is not the case, if you were wondering.
I just thinks it's interesting that as a culture, we have all this access to technology that is supposed to bring us closer together, and yet I feel much more isolated sitting here at my computer.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't a "woe is me" sort of post. It's mostly a "reflecting on life's situations" kind of post. Texting has replaced phone conversations with loved ones (which allow you to actually hear someone's voice) while instant messaging has replaced our need to have face to face communication with our friends. I won't lie, Facebook helps me keep "in touch" with several friends who I don't normally hear from. I would just rather get together more often.
Anyway, enough said. Venting over. Well, at least as much as I can do on here. Now, where did I put my pen?

I'm Not Josie Grossie Anymore!

Or maybe I am, just a little. . . still.
When I first saw the movie "Never Been Kissed" and the character of Josie Gellar in high school, I thought I was looking at a recording from my middle school years. I was Josie Grossie back then,with my hair hanging in clumps and my bangs covering my right eye.
I'm willing to admit this because I feel like I've come a long way since then.
At least I did until just recently. You see, I went to a masquerade ball this last weekend. It was a lot of fun last year (I blogged about it then) and I decided I wanted to find an amazing gown for this year's ball. I ordered it online to be custom built to my measurements. And I wanted it dark green.
When the dress arrived, it was not even close to dark green. In fact, this odd green/red combination was a bit hideous to me at first. Also, I had asked for cap sleeves, and got puffy ones instead. When I put it on, the first thing I thought was "Oh no, this is Josie Gellar's dress." I then had to look it up on the internet to make sure I was thinking about her dress correctly.
I was.

The ball was a ton of fun, mostly thanks to Andy who was such a gentleman despite my lack of ballroom dancing finesse. My friend, Ruth, had been taking pictures during the ball, and she showed me them afterwards when we all went to eat at IHOP.
From the angles she took the photos from (usually the front), I was horrified because I thought I looked like I was wearing an 80's prom dress.
Luckily, when I got back home and looked at my pictures of the evening, I was consoled. Though I still see similarities.














Moral of the story? Masquerades are fun and it's nice to grow up. At least a little.

Ok, Top Ten Things Dates Have Done to Tick Me Off!

So, my friend Carol had a brilliant idea. I've gone on enough dates to have some real doozies! Though I will admit, dating stories are the most interesting. I apologize if you are guilty of any of these heinous actions against me. Consider it payback! (Don't worry, I still love you!)
(Even though these will sound like I might have made them up, know that they are all legitimate!)

Top Ten Things Dates Have Done to Me (Resulting in Me Being Made Extremely Upset)

10. Ask me to go miniature golfing.

9. Order a crazy amount of food at the restaurant and then eat hardly any of it (when I was
paying for dinner) and then order dessert.

8. Ask me if I could ever love him (he was addicted to Porn, I found out later).

7. Ignore me the entire night, and spend it instead staring at his ex-girlfriend.

6. Show up looking like he had just dragged himself from a heap of dirty laundry.

5. Play country music to and from the date (the unforgivable sin!)

4. Try to get me to commit a misdemeanor (I didn't do it. Don't ask!)

3. Tell me how much he really liked one of my good friends and was thinking of asking her out.

2. Get upset at me for being late, even though I was picking him up (and I had apologized
profusely)

1. Leave the doorstep without kissing me like a mad-man.