Two reasons to love cable:

1. When I turned on the t.v. yesterday, the first thing I heard was, "So, where were you when you were struck by lightning the first time?"

2. When I turned on the t.v. this morning, Discovery Health had a show on called "Trash Can Full of Skin".

No joke.
  ¶ 1:02 PM

  The first part of the morning was a little hairy. The kids seemed nervous and The Dragon Lady was going way too fast for them. She was also showing them things that were not exactly necessary for what they were doing, like how to change the color of their fonts and how to save things in different folders and whatnot. The kids began to twist about and whisper. The Dragon Lady became a little annoyed. Eventually she started shouting, "You have to LISTEN and LOOK UP HERE AT ME!! If you don't LISTEN and LOOK UP HERE AT ME you will have to LEAVE!"

The flaw in this is that they cannot simultaneously listen, look up there at her, and also do what she wants them to do on their computers at the same time. So they fidgeted. They became anxious. They gave up a little. It was painful to watch. I am a control freak when it comes to my kids. I hate watching other people do things with them that I can see is not working.

Finally, though, her lesson ended and the kids were left to create their own PowerPoint. I was so amazed at their skill in doing this. I was also really amazed by their creativity. They are creating presentations about societies they have created (tied in to The Lord of the Flies) as an advertisement to convince others to move there. They can do things with the computer that I have only dreamed of! I love to see things they are good at. And they are engaged! Engaged! Every teacher’s favorite word.

I am having my cable installed tonight…and my Internet! So exciting! I just hope the snow doesn’t delay it again.
  ¶ 7:40 AM

  This week I have the dubious pleasure of taking my kids to the computer lab. I really wish that "fun" activities were fun for the teacher as well as the student. I have grown to hate field trips, electives, and yes, pep rallies. They are only an opportunity for the children to commit random acts of weirdness or violence.

To top this off, the computer teacher is not so fondly referred to as "The Dragon Lady" here at my school. She is, probably, the meanest teacher here. She has really good intentions. She loves technology and really believes that kids need it. She stays late devising PowerPoint presentations to die for—the kind that relate to all the state standards and have links up the wazoo.

Only problem is—she hates kids. She hates talking, whispering, dirty hands on her keyboards, beeping computer sounds that she deems unnecessary, when they move out of their seat, when they wiggle in their seat, when they don’t remember how to cut or paste, when one kid asks the same question another kid just asked—essentially she hates everything that kids do.

She does not understand that only two of my students can sit for more than three minutes without making a sound or moving around. My one student who has Turret’s Syndrome (I am 99% sure) certainly cannot meet her standards. He beeps, bleats, and yells out "What What??" every minute or two. He stands up, spins in a circle, and yells "What What??" at least once a class period. These are things the Dragon Lady cannot stand.

She screams, "What are you doing? Get out of my lab! Get out!" and then she yells at the teacher. I have been able to control my classes, mostly, and I avoid the lab, so she hasn’t yelled at me, yet. But today may be my day. I am not looking forward to it.
  ¶ 7:43 AM