Drill and Kill

I haven't yet mentioned my job on "this here blog" so I am thinking that tonight might be a good time to do so. I teach elementary school. I'm currently in my 7th year as a full-time teacher, teaching my 3rd different grade level. As much as I bitch about my job, I really do love my job... but boy, there is A LOT to bitch about in education and teaching these days.
In this state, there is testing, testing, testing... and if my students don't pass, they don't move on to the next grade. Well, there is a LITTLE more to it than that, but that is the long and short of it. I'm getting so irritated by the amount of pressure we feel, and the amount of pressure we're putting on these poor kids. 8 and 9 year olds worked into frenzies because of fear of not passing is ridiculous! And I find myself guilty of pressuring them too- I mean, who knows, in another year or 2 my paycheck could depend on how these kids do! I understand the idea of NCLB- making sure we have literate children and all, but the population I am teaching needs more than the 3 Rs to be successful. They're caught in that vicious cycle of popping out babies, moving from rental to rental, crime, and failing to support their child's education. EDUCATE families and parents PEOPLE! Maybe their children will have a chance of being a successful addition to society.

Ok, test stress is starting I guess. But I promised to mention a positive for the day each time I post. Little though it may be...tonight I picked a chicken carcass and didn't get the hee-bee gee-bees... :p

Make It Happy

Over the past few weeks, I have had more than one person tell me I seemed sad. One was referring to my first post, and one was someone who might not even know what a blog is! To the first: I suppose my first post was a bit down... 2010 was rough. To the other, she caught me at a time when a large amount of stress in my life had finally been lifted, and I was a bit overwhelmed by the release of stress (zombie-effect totally).

So I made a decision- whatever griping, bitching, moaning I do write about, I have to make a positive point about my day in every blog. Find SOMETHING little that either made me smile or brightened my day when I post. The positive for today? I realized that my week off between classes for my master's degree falls during my trip to NY in March; so I won't have to do any work while I am out of town! YAY!

In other new... I guess the cleanout of my father's house (SOLD, DONE, HURRAH!) gave my husband some motivation to start on ours. We inherited A LOT of stuff from his parents (we bought their house from them), most of which is GARBAGE. Also, he is a keeper and collector of stuff. But this past weekend, he spent a large amount of time cleaning the garage out (only about 1/4 done) and we took about 8 bags of trash to the road tonight, a desk, a bookcase, and about 300lbs of cardboard. Yay him! Hoping it keeps up so we can get the house renovations back on track and MAYBE have a place for a baby in a year or so.

Until next time- there is no snow in FL at this time, and I wore no coat today!