I have a dilemma.

Every morning, the principal makes announcements in home room and then has everyone stand and do the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. I have always generally refused to participate in this ritual. I think it's weird to pledge my allegiance to a flag and say "under god" and all that. It isn't that I don't love my country-- I just don't like the words to the pledge.

However, since my kids are asked to do it, I feel weird about not doing it. So, every morning I stand (in the back of the room) and let my right hand hover awkwardly somewhere near my throat and mumble. I think that some kid is eventually going to ask me why I'm not really saying the pledge and I am not sure how to answer that. I don't want to start any weird arguments with my administration about patriotism or anything.

I haven't blogged enough about how wonderful it is to live alone. Last night I cooked dinner, ate it, did some planning, and folded laundry-- all in the nude. What a wonderful world. I may never wear clothes to dine again.

Yesterday a maintenance man came and fixed my toilet because it kept running. I arrived home after my harrowing drive in hurricane winds and driving rain to find my front door open. After my little heart attack, I realized it was a man fixing stuff in my apartment. When he had gone I was struck by the awful and powerful body odor that lingered after him. It was so unnerving that he was physically gone, but I could smell his stench everywhere. I burned incense and said a prayer to the goddess.

That is all my news fit to print.  ¶ 11:06 AM

  Wow.

My kids this year are so much higher than my kids last year...not in the drug sense-- they are a lot less high in that regard. I mean in the reading and writing regard.

I had no idea that all eighth graders were not, in fact, incapable of forming a complete sentence. I really believed that all kids that age (except for one or two waspy teens in private school somewhere in Maine or New Hampshire, maybe) would simply refuse to do homework.

Not true. It really really matters where you work. I stumbled into a good district. These kids don't have a lot of money, but the school culture is intense. Parents are really involved. Teachers spend real time doing planning and not whining about it. The administration trusts its teachers. The teachers are willing to work with the administration. Wow.

When I give my students homework, they groan good-naturedly and take out their planners to write it down. When they get upset about something in class, maybe they make a little noise and need a talking to, but mostly they do what they need to do. I am blown away. Blown away and so happy I could spit. It makes me want to just settle right down in Graham, North Carolina. Except not really. But now I know what to look for in a school when I go where I do want to settle.

In other news, today I called in "tropical storm bonnie" at the bookstore. It was raining so hard and the wind was so awful, I didn't know if I could make it to work. So I decided to take a much needed rest and read young adult books in bed. Heavenly.

North Caroliners-- mark your calendars! Next Karaoke date at Bub O'Malleys: August 19! Don't miss out!
  ¶ 7:16 PM

  I decided that I would try this thing where I would keep my part-time job at the bookstore/cafe while teaching.

Last night, after I had taught all day and was bent over scrubbing the floor of the cafe, I thought I might reconsider.

However, today I feel better about it. Being a teacher with a brand new apartment that costs more than any place I have ever lived, I can use the money. I sure was tired last night, though. The upside to all of the working is that today, because I only have to teach (only!), I feel like I am on a vacation! No bookstore! YIppee!

The kids are starting to test me. The girl whose neck I should be stepping on had to be put into "reflection corner" (where they sit facing the wall writing an essay by answering questions like 'How did my behavior get me facing the wall? What could I have done differently?'). She had been a pain in the rear all morning. But when I read her essay, she wrote, "My goal this year is to change my attitude, to stop talking back to the teacher, and to be better than last year." Sounds good to me.

The other student I had to send to reflection (thank goodness my room has four corners!) wasn't quite so contrite. He wrote, "I am here because I said I told Mrs. K (another teacher) off, you stupid mama jama."

Now, it has been months since I have been called a "mama jama"...I kind of missed it. The funny thing is, when I turned him in, he kept saying, "I didn't call her that!", even though I had the paper he had written it down on. In his own handwriting. With his name at the top. Ah, children.

But I feel fine about all that. The great thing about year two is that you haven't just seen something before-- you have seen it eight million times before. This kind of behavior is nothing to me, now. Short of actual violence, it is hard to get my hackles up. It's nice.

I am ready for the weekend, though. Ready, ready, ready.

  ¶ 2:36 PM

  The first day of school is so scary. But it isn't even the kids that scare me. They scare me later. The first day of school I hold all of this anxiety about the schedule and feeling like lunch is going to pass and I will have forgotten to take my kids. Or thinking that I am going to be done with my lesson and realize that I have another hour to go.

But I survived. And I stayed (pretty much) on schedule. I did forget to pass some things out, but then learned that the world doesn't explode when that happens.

The second year is soooooo much better than the first. So any new teachers out there-- hold on. I am just so much calmer this year. When a student started break dancing in the middle of learning about rules and procedures, it didn't come as a shock. I just sort of sighed and and stared at him for a moment and then very calmly asked, "Are you having some kind of attack? Do you need me to call for help?" Everyone laughed, including him, and he sat down. I think last year I would have frantically looked at my consequence ladder and tried to remember where he was at on it and freaked out.

I also have one of those students who is LOUD. She is as loud as she can be and is trying to be intimidating. She is bugging me, but today I mostly let it go except for an occasional nod in her direction while whispering very mysteriously, "Okay. Okay. I'm gettin' it. I'm gettin' it." At one point she said, "What that mean?" and I replied, "Oh, you'll see. Yep. You sure will."
I think I freaked her out-- which was the point. When I talked to a veteran teacher about this student, she advised, "Just step on her neck right away. Step on her neck." Just a figure of speech (i think), but I thought it was funny.

I am now exhausted. And I am going to make seating charts, go to the gym, have dinner, lie in the bath, and sleep hard. I like being a teacher today.
  ¶ 5:47 PM