Hope. Change.

Wow...  I cannot believe just how happy I am about this school year.  After last school year's mess, it is nice to see someone like my assistant principal take charge and give the students (and teachers) what they need so that learning can happen.  It is amazing to me that the hallways are empty, and that when a student fails all his classes and refuses to go to summer school... they have to repeat the grade.

And when the little things are working out, we get to see each other in different lights.  I have some AMAZING co-workers.  I always knew this about the ones I spent a lot of time with, but there are definitely some that I need to spend more time with.

This year is going to be awesome.  I can just feel it!  I am under the supervision of some wonderful people.  I am going to advise the National Honor Society at my school (hopefully).  And I might be going to DC this year... Interestingly enough, I have been to the capital of China twice... and to DC -- ZERO times.  Sad.  But hopefully that changes.  I am also planning on going to Turkey and possibly Peru this year.  FUN!

Yes, I still blog.

It's the same excuse, I haven't blogged in a long time because I was busy.  This summer, as most of you know, I was a CMA (yet again).  This summer was much better for several reasons.  The first was because I knew what I was doing, I had a better picture of what the job was going to be like.  Unfortunately, this summer there were new challenges in the form of a co-worker.  Throughout the summer she would set up barriers and stopped my CMs from teaching.  She had reasons, that I did not agree with, but respected.  I liked my CMs a lot, mostly because they kept me entertained and they had nice souls.  

New Goals of Far Off Lands

Hey everyone, I haven't written in a while. China was great, as you know from those pictures from my previous blog. At the latest staff meeting we were told of the trips for next year. I cannot wait or choose for that matter, so I might not. I have it pretty set in my mind that I am going to Egypt, Turkey, and Peru next year. I know that sounds extravagant, and dare I say a bit irresponsible, but I didn't travel during college and now that I have a career in teaching, I feel justified to do so. I have no kids and I am in good health (knock on wood).

Everything has been normal and I wonder if I am being challenged in my job, but for the most part I am happy with what I am doing in life. I know a lot of people are having troubles with what is happening (or not happening) at my school, but I am taking it in and not letting it get me down. Mr. Ma has his own corner of the sandbox and does well enough to not be bothered. I am lucky in that regard, but many other teachers are not. I wish so many good things for my school, but my ability to effect large scale change is limited.

One example of the strange conditions in which I work; there is no paper for photocopies. If you need to photocopy during the day, you must provide your own paper. One can put in an order for photocopies and hope they come in the next few days, but I teach fewer than 50 kids in the day, so it seems foolish to do so. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Shameless plug... please go to my grant for materials and donate for my class. Donate as much or as little as you want, or if you could pass along the link, that would be great! (http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=169104)

Just somethings on my mind...

I recently went to China with my school, it was a blast. The pictures are on the facebook...

I saw an episode of the Colbert Report and John Legend was on it!!! Who'd ever think something like that would ever happen. Here is the resulting duet...


I also read an interesting article about paying teachers like professionals in the New York Times.

Fun Video

Now that the New York State English Language Arts exam is over for my middle school students, I can get back to real teaching. The world is normal. I had an extra good time at happy hour with the staff yesterday. My students are not doing so well in the homework department, but they have a week to turn it around, and if I know my students (and I'd like to believe I do), they will turn it around. I have been drawing again, with more purpose, and that is exciting. I am taking the analogy that my place of work is like Wonderland to the next step and drawing those ideas. I have embedded some fun music for you folks out there. I hope you enjoy.

Looking Forward to Laundry

There are so many reasons to love my new neighborhood. I am paying less rent, I have a larger apartment, I have access to three trains... But the best reason there has been so far is laundry on Sunday. Weird, I know. This normally annoying chore, has been livened up with some special little friends I have made. FIrst, there is Luis. He is nine years old, and deaf. Finally, I have someone to practice ASL with! Saying this child is high in spirit is an understatement. The funny thing about our first interaction is that his mother only speaks Spanish. Danielle would speak to the mom in Spanish. I would speak to Danielle in English. I would sign with Luis and whatever I didn't know, the mom would tell to Danielle in Spanish, which she would translate into English. (Follow that?) The other great part of laundry is Taylour and his family. This little one is five years old. I help him with homework, and give him some ASL vocabulary. His mom and grandmother are the nicest people, ever. The other week, Caroline (Taylour's mother) told me that if I ever need to do laundry but have no money, I should come anyway because she will take care of me because "Carey, you're my people!" :) The grandmother is really funny. The week before break, she asked me why I never bring hangers. I told her that I always forget. The week I came back, she had a bag of wire hangers and told me, "Happy Christmas."

Kickin' it old school.

It has been a long time since I have written in my blog. I went home to MN for my winter break, and got back to NYC on the 29th. It was a nice trip, but too short. Everyone seems to want me to get married and move back home. That all sounds nice and good, in theory, but so did a little thing called Communism. Now, I don't think that marriage and MN are Communists, but what I am saying is that it isn't for me yet. I am loving NYC. I am not leaving (yet).

For your eyes... HUMAN TETRIS!