tomorrow, tomorrow

Tomorrow is the first day of Pre-K for the school year. I am determined that this is going to be a good year. I hope that there aren't a lot of behavior issues, and that I can keep my sanity with parents this year.

My Grandma is going to Bluefield tomorrow to have surgery. Really hoping that everything goes OK with it and that she gets to come home soon. Mom will be traveling with her. I hope they stay safe and the surgery goes well.

Grad school is going to be tough this semester. I've got a lot of work coming up soon. Hope to get some of it done so I can enjoy the upcoming long weekend.

bad press

I have gotten curious recently about other school systems around the country due to all of the negative press that our state received this past legislative session. Currently we are supposed to have 180 days of school, we begin school on or around August 25, and end school by June 7th. Elementary schools currently open the doors at 8:00 AM and class work begins by 8:30 AM and the final bell of the day doesn't ring until 3:30, we are supposed to have children "engaged" until 3:15. At 3:30 children who are parent pick-up are dismissed and then bus students are dismissed shortly after. Teachers here have been called lazy, money hungry, and pretty much anything in between by the public in the newspaper. WV is ranked 49th I believe in teacher salary. Hearing all of these things I automatically assumed that other areas around the country must be keeping their children in school for longer than 7 1/2 hours and going longer than 180 days since their school systems are so much better than WV's. Like I said I decided to do my own research. *Disclaimer all info was gathered from school board websites which may not have been updated this school year* :-)

My first search was Seattle. Elementary schools run from 9:00 - 3:00, I am going to assume that means children are working from 9:00 - 3:00 not that they show up at 9:00 for breakfast, because 9-3 is only a six hour school day, take away thirty minutes for lunch and it's down to 5 1/2 hours of engaged learning time. I searched other areas of Washington state and it's the same thing 9:00 start time and 3:00 dismissal. And of course Washington state starts their teachers out on the high end of $30,000. Next search was Phoenix, AZ close to the same time frame elementary began at 9 and ended around 3 or 3:15. Next was NYC schools which unfortunately I couldn't find a time listing for any of their schools, possibly for security reasons, I don't know. Next was Savannah, GA they too began at 9:00 but went until 3:45. However I figure that their doors open at 9:00 for children to began eating breakfast and classes don't actually begin until 9:30. Finally I searched Denver, CO simply because I have had people in the past tell me how good Colorado schools were. I couldn't find times but I did find that they only go to school 172 days...8 days less than poor ol' West Virginia students.

What's the point? The point is that I know in WV how hard children are getting pushed to succeed, and they should succeed but at what cost? Are we turning them off from learning because we keep them in schools for almost a full 8 hours and then send them home with an hour or two of homework each night? Are more and more great teachers going to leave our state because we are expected to do so much and get so little in return? Doesn't a 9 -3 shift sound good, WITH summers off on top of that? I'm going to try to find some drop out rates for these areas and look at more districts to see how long they are in school during the day and school year. I would imagine there is a correlation between the way children get pushed during school especially at a young age and how many actually finish high school.

So that this doesn't sound like I am whining let me say this, I love my job. I love teaching even on the really bad, hard days. I love to see my students succeed at something they said the day before they couldn't do. I also love my state and my school. I just worry that instead of instilling a love of learning in students we are actually turning them off by the expectations we place on them as young as Kindergarten.

rambling

Grad school is over with for the semester. Thank goodness. I am not going to be able to take any classes this summer because Marshall is trying to keep me there as long as they can. Max and I are going back to Savannah this summer. We were going to drive cross country but we really don't have the money and I know we have been to Savannah before but I loved it there. I hope that Max and I can retire to Savannah one day. I don't know what I will do with all that time off this summer.

We've had major flooding this weekend. Wyoming County got hit hard, some areas of Raleigh County were hit. My parents basement flooded and the pump broke on Saturday morning. Max helped Dad put the new pump in.

Can't wait for True Blood to come out on DVD. Is it silly for me to get HBO just for season 2?

responsibility

The last few days I have had a chance to really think about life and the direction that mine is taking. It started on Easter Sunday when a relative told me that she was pregnant. I'm happy for her, if this is what she wants. I just wonder when it is going to be my turn. That sounds silly...I'm the one who is making decisions as to when I have children. I'm ready, Max is ready, but life keeps getting in the way. I have always been older than my true age, I've always felt this responsibility to do the right thing. I've always been told if I did the right thing and went to school and got a degree that I would have a better life. Better by whose standards though? Right now I am so stressed out with grad school and work that I truly don't care if I go back to work the rest of the school year. I have never felt that way. I'm tired of being responsible. For example I would love to go out west this summer but this stupid box that I have placed around myself won't let me. It is too out of my comfort zone. I'm so sick of school, maybe not school necessarily but definitely Marshall. I want to quit but keep telling myself to do the "right" thing. If I can get through school then I can have a child. If my stress level was down I would be happier. When is it going to end? When am I going to let it end I guess is a better question?

insert something witty here

Still going to the YMCA but not at 5:00 AM. After a stomach virus, sinus infection, Max working ridiculous hours, and midterms I kind of got off schedule. I'm still going three evenings a week for aerobics classes and trying to get back in the habit of 5:00 AM but it's gotten hard to do. I'm making progress, most nights my body feels like it has been hit by a truck. The body image issues are creeping back in and I am starting to watch every single bite that goes in my mouth. When that happens I have to take a step back and readjust my mind set or I know what will happen, especially since I found myself in the diet pill aisle not too long ago. When that happened I had to remind myself of those fateful words, "Irreversible damage to your heart". I guess we really don't know what we are doing to ourselves at 16 do we?

I'm re-reading the Twilight series. The first time I sped through them because I accidentally found out what happened in the end and wanted to see how it happened. I'm taking my time this go around.

ugh

Sometimes song lyrics say more than I could ever say...

"And I fear, my fear is greater than my faith but I walk the missionary way"

Stupid, stupid fear of everything. Stupid, stupid panic attacks.



That is all.

phonemes, morphemes, and graphemes, oh my!

If you can't tell by the title, grad school is sucking the life out of me. I have this pull in me to go west and am jealous to see that Joshua is doing so. I've been sick for two weeks. I guess that is what I get for bragging that I hadn't been sick this school year. First a stomach virus, now a sinus infection. I have a feeling we are about to go to year round school and I'm not real sure how I feel about that. Teachers have been getting some extremely bad press this legislative session. It is always front page stuff. Honestly don't know what I will do if we do go to year round school, they won't increase our pay that's for sure. They are trying to pass a bill that allows the state to not pay teachers when school is cancelled due to a snow day, and also one to regulate how teachers dress. And they wonder why they can't keep teachers in state... Like I said I really don't know what I will do if they go to year round schooling. The pay won't make it worth staying I can work other jobs and make just as much or more and have less headache. I'm looking forward to spring break, after that it is all down hill.