This is my life

It's 7:02 pm. I just walked in the door from a long afternoon/evening of planning tomorrow's lesson and grading stacks and stacks of papers. Upon walking in the door, I immediately let the dog out, went upstairs, opened a can of black beans for dinner, and now I'm blogging. I'm hoping to head out to the gym tonight, and maybe buy some lightbulbs so I don't have to take a shower in the dark again tomorrow morning, but otherwise, this is my life.

The current stress is the field trip. I'm taking 75 kids to see Center Stage's production of Death and the Maiden on Thursday morning. The tickets cost $15/each, and I had to put it all on my credit card to ensure the show wouldn't be sold out. Now is the time to book the buses, and I priced them all last week, and finally found a company that, for $340, would take us to the play, then take us to the Inner Harbor to eat lunch at HarborCourt, and then back to school. They faxed me the bill today - it's $680. I called the place, and it's actually $340/a bus. That's going to increase the per-student cost to go to this field trip to $25. And all that money is channeling through me in coins and crumbly dollar bills and personal checks from parents made out to me. I hate dealing with money and I really just need a personal assistant for all this. I'm pretty sure I'll end up getting screwed out of a hundred dollars or so. I can just feel it. I hope it's worth it!

The good thing is that, lately, I'm having a lot of good moments with students. I've taught these kids for two months now, and am really starting to get to know a lot of them well. I know that Darryl needs to sit right in front of me to do his work, but, when he does that, he's able to produce great stuff. I've learned that Robyn is all bark and not bite; she seems like she has an attitude, but she really cares a lot about her learning and is a conscientious student. I have discovered that Cam's horrible handwriting does not hide his thoughtful ideas; I have realized that I really taught Anthony well last year because now, teaching him again, he's heads and shoulders ahead of the rest of the class. I know that I can make fun of Cheyene when she asks a silly question by saying, "Don't be a D.A." and she will know that I mean "Dumb Ass" but I will feign ignorance and say I meant "District Attorney" because she was arguing, and she will laugh and laugh. I've realized the boy in 8th period with the cornrows might be one of the most brilliant kids I've ever taught, with a love for language and trying new words that I wish all my kids had - his classmates call him "Mr. Dictionary." I'm learned that Jasmyn with the eyes doesn't just seem smart because she has intelligent eyes, but she actually is; she says some of the most perceptive, evocative things in class so my initial stereotype of her as intelligent was well deserved.

So, yes, I'm getting to know these kids. I wish 3rd period was a little nicer (every time I even pause to breathe, they take that as an opportunity to start running their mouths) and that 8th period was a little less whiny, and that all the classes were smaller, but it's turning out to be a pretty good year.

Mental note: The first two paragraphs of this post are depressing as hell, so I made it a point to try to cheer myself up by remembering the good parts of school, and did so. Now I feel revived. Hmmm. I should do that more often.