Okay, so now that the school year has really started, I don't see myself blogging as often. This is good for my readers, as here ends the boring, "here's what I did today" format. I am going to try to at least update weekly, on when major things happen.
My school week finished up okay. I am starting to see which classes are going to be my problems this year. At least this year, only one of my 8th grade classes is a major problem. The other two (so far), are okay. The class I have on Day 3 though, is turning into a competition for who can be the most obnoxious. I am serious. There are several students who will do ANYTHING to get the rest of the class looking at them. I am not sure what to do about it either. Demerits don't seem to work, because I think they actually like getting demerits. Or, like to argue about why they shouldn't have gotten one. I have a new policy this year, I don't argue with students. Especially not during class. I had one student, who protested a warning that I gave him. This warning eventually led to a demerit. He felt as though he shouldn't have received the warning, because he wasn't the one that did it (made a loud, grunting noise during the listening lesson--mainly to get people to look at him, and pinned it on the GIRL sitting next to him, despite the fact that it was a male voice). He argued about the warning, which caused another warning, and then eventually a demerit. At the end of class, I filled out the form and handed to him. He protested, and I just didn't say anything. He then went to the OFFICE to complaint about the demerit I gave him, they of course, laughed at him (not really), but told him he had to work it out with me. He came back 10 minutes after dismissal, in tears. I explained to him that I don't argue with students, and that he would not have the demerit now if he hadn't argued. But since he was crying (an 8th grade boy, mind you), I decided to hear his side of the story. He convinced me that it was not him, and that he didn't know who it was. He seemed pretty sincere, so I explained to him that next time he has an issue with a warning, demerit, etc., he cannot argue it in class, and has to calmly tell me his side of the story AFTER class.
Then, later in the week, I had another kid act up, 7th grader this time. This kid I have no idea what to do with, because he doesn't care, at all. Doesn't care if he gets a demerit, fails, etc. And therefore, sees no motivation not to act up in class. I am going to talk to his other teachers to see what they are doing.
On a good note, I have a TON of 4th graders signed up for band. Up to 39 at this point (16 of them are flutes... AHHHH!) This will be my second beginning band at this school, and I've learned some lessons from mistakes I made last year. I start lessons with them next week, and then we have our first rehearsal the following week.
I also worked out with Rita and Betty, the two teachers I share the ActivBoard with, how we will share it. I suggested that we keep it for a whole six-day cycle, since it is a pain to set-up/tear-down. It also works better this way for planning, since I do my plans by cycle. They both agreed with this. Betty says she not anywhere near ready to use it, because she is not sure how she is going to use it yet. Rita isn't planning on using it until she does her next unit, which isn't until after Halloween. That means, until then, the board is mine! I re-arranged my room on Friday to get it to fit, and I used it with one of my classes. It will take some practice till I get good at using it. I have some difficulty writing on it--it seems that actual chalk/ink is much more reliable than the digital version. I have to write some plans this weekend, and am going to incorporate the use of the board. I love technology.
This past Tuesday, September 26 was our "dating" Anniversary. It was 7 years ago on the bus-ride home from the Allentown Collegiate Band Festival, that I sat next the Meg, and got up the guts to hold her hand--and then things became official! Meg and I reminisced, but were both too busy and tired to do anything special on Tuesday. However, this weekend's activities were a pretty good way to celebrate 7 years...
Yesterday, we went to LVC Homecoming. It was the first time we had been on campus since 2003, when we went to Homecoming. We couldn't go the past two years, because of marching band. Another perk of not doing marching band, is that we can actually do stuff on the weekends in the fall.
Being back on campus was really neat. Not a whole lot had changed. I thought at first it would be weird to be back, like we didn't fit in or something, but it felt very natural, like it was home or something. Well, it WAS home for four years of our lives. We met up with Brenda, who we knew was going. I was really afraid we would be the only ones there that we went to school with. We ended up meeting up with a bunch of other people that we knew from college. The only odd thing was that the kids who were freshmen when we were seniors graduated in May, meaning that there is no way we would know any of the students. But, running into so many old friends made it feel like we were back in college.
We got there a little later than planned, due to a backup at the PA turnpike toll plaza from all of the weirdos going to the Renaissance Faire. I really wanted to get there in time to see the band march-down and pregame show. There were all kinds of little traditions and rituals involved in both of these, and I wanted to see if they still did them. Well, we ended up missing both, but I learned from watching the game, that the band still does all of the same fun things it did when we were there, like the "From Coast to Coast..." cheer, and the trumpet line sneaking behind the visitors stand and playing a fanfare.
We stopped at the college center for a potty break, and then headed across the pedestrian bridge to the football stadium. We met up with Brenda, and then chilled under the tents they had set up until half-time. Neither of us are football people, so we didn't really care all that much about the game. We watched the half time show, which was amazing, and then skipped the rest of the game to tour the campus. They have new student lounge in what used to be the gym (a new gym was added to the sports complex). They are also reconstructing the science building, so we checked that out. Next, we stopped by Blair, the music building, to visit some places where we had spent a lot of time in the past: the band room, the choir room, the stage in Lutz hall, the practice hallways, the instrument storage room, etc. We also checked out the new student center they built on the east side of the campus, as well as our old dorm rooms (the outside of them, anyway). We headed back to the stadium, because after the game, there was FREE FOOD for alumni. We met up with Shawn and Christina there. Shawn was a great friend of ours from college, and I haven't seen him in years. He teaches down in Virginia now, so I didn't expect to see him here. So it was great to catch up with him again. After a while, we all decided that it was time to go home. Meg and I made a decision that we are definitely coming back next year, which will be really neat, because we will be bringing Baby D along. So, we said our 'till next year' good-byes to everyone.
On the way home, we stopped at the Golden Corral, a restaurant in Lebanon, for dinner. This place has a great buffet, and we left being able to barely move. We got home around 9 o'clock, and gave Max some TLC, since we were gone all day (my mom did stop over to feed him), and then went to bed.
I have pictures too, which I will put in a separate post.
Today is a day of school work, and then the usual Sunday night dinner at my parents. Tomorrow we have OFF because of Yom Kippur, and then a 4 day week of school.
