Tag: blogging

A question

On By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching9 Comments

Who was the best teacher you ever had?  Tell me about him or her in comments.  Define “teacher” as widely as you like, from preschool to your Ph.D advisor.

Suddenly I’m bright and breezy

On By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching3 Comments

True colors are beginning to pop, as I had a couple of kids end up with their first steps toward an office referral today, but both were in my afternoon class, meaning that my morning remains stubbornly angelic.  They all beat me to the classroom this morning (this will be a regular thing, as my morning duty means that I follow the last group of kids upstairs) and they were all in one quiet line outside my classroom when I got there.  I don’t know what to do with them.  They’re too good, and I’ve never said that about a class before.

Also had my first lice check today.  The girl wanted me to look through her hair, an opportunity I declined, but at least she was honest enough to admit it had been an issue in the past.  The nurse was unable to find anything and diagnosed her with mild psoriasis, which I assume she prefers to the lice.  I spent most of my afternoon sitting with my paraprofessional and figuring out IEPs so that I can stop breaking the law every afternoon, which so far has been happening just about every day so far.

I need to have all of their names down cold by tomorrow.  I’ve got my homeroom 90% locked, at least when they’re in the room with me, but because of how our schedule works right now I have an extra hour with them every day which makes it a lot easier.  So far I don’t have a lot of specific stories but I’m sure those are coming.  Pretty soon I need to get back on the horse about the books, both of which have been languishing for several weeks. I’d like to have Searching for Malumba out in October, which means it needs to be ready to go within a month or so.  (And, dammit! I had a subtitle for it last night and it’s gone.  I knew I should have written it down.)

The book sale is still live; Skylights and The Sanctum of the Sphere are both $2.99 at Amazon until tonight or tomorrow sometime.  Go grab ’em if you haven’t yet.

So, this weekend…

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy11 Comments

698791520751101256My cat died, my wife probably broke at least one toe (again!,) I spent a couple of minutes shouting at my mother-in-law at my son’s birthday party and exiled myself to my bedroom to angrily fold clothes until they left, and I massively oversalted my grits somehow, making them inedible.

Granted, one of those sounds like a way less big deal than the others, but goddammit I was in serious psychological need of some god damn comfort food and managing to screw it up in such an unprecedented and inexplicable way really did not help.

Screw this weekend, is what I’m saying here.  I want a mulligan.

I also have no lesson planning done for next week– mostly because I can’t convince myself that I actually really do have to do it– and I can’t watch FTWD tonight.

And I didn’t win a Hugo.

Bah.

But hey, at least I sort of got a blog post up today.

#Weekendcoffeeshare: things are looking up

On By Luther M. SilerIn Stories12 Comments

coffee2

If we were having coffee, you might notice that I was eyeing the cup rather warily.  I haven’t touched coffee in a week (note here that this is not a metaphor, but represents a thing that is actually happening as I’m typing this) and I’m hoping that this cup isn’t going to trigger the shakes and shivers like my last cup did, because if it does the next post really is going to have to be called Weekend Milk Share.

(Drinks 1/3 of cup, initially feels fine)

Anyway, I took my blood pressure last night with my new blood pressure cuff, which is a thing that I have now, and it was firmly in the “prehypertensive” range, which isn’t necessarily good but is hella improved over the holy shit you’re gonna die range of a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve lost nine pounds in August, too.  So… getting better.

Sooner or later we’d get around to talking about school.  The first week went well.  Too 

And then– right there, that exact second, as I’m about to post something positive for once, in a month that has been almost nothing but stress and negativity and bullshit since the second it started, my wife’s elderly cat tumbles off of the arm of the chair we’re both sitting in onto the floor in a massive seizure.

It’s about two and a half hours later.  He’s gone.

Fuck you, August.  Fuck.  You.

On minor milestones

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy3 Comments

Pebbles_smallMy son started preschool today.  I understand at some point he shit himself; for as much as they’re charging I don’t feel bad about them having to change a diaper or two.  Or, like, underwear, I guess; he doesn’t wear diapers anymore, but saying that sounds better

That same son turns four on Sunday.  I bought him an awesome Transformer toy that turned out to be much more shoddily made than I would have expected, but he appears to love the hell out of it.

I also bought myself a toy tonight, only when I buy my son a “toy” it’s a cool Transformer, and I want to play with it as much as he does, and when I buy myself a “toy” nowadays it’s a god damn blood pressure cuff and I use it to make sure I’m not dying.

Yay.  Adulthood.

(My novels are still on sale!  Buying one will cheer me up.)

In which that went better than I hoped

On By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching4 Comments

I won’t be in my classroom tomorrow.  I’m assisting (where “assisting” means “taking primary responsibility for,” because if I do it it’s going to be done right) on a major project in the office, and they’re putting a sub in my room so that I can get everything done.  I have told the boss he is providing me with doughnuts and orange juice and lunch.  He did not argue.

True fact: after spending all summer trying my damnedest to stay out of the classroom, I’m now officially pissed that I’m getting pulled out of the classroom.  Because clearly I am never happy.  Three days in, I’m still over the moon with my homeroom girls, and my afternoon class ain’t half bad either, although there are a few of ’em in there that I know I’m going to end up tangling with and there are a lot of special ed kids who are going to end up challenging in an entirely different way.  Some of them are the same kids.  I like my para, too.  I’ve always had good luck with my paraprofessionals; that streak is apparently continuing this year.

My main goal this weekend needs to be to find some way to get at least a little ahead on next week.  Given that I’m working Saturday night and we’re hosting a birthday party for our son on Sunday, that seems a trifle unlikely.  But I remain optimistic.  I’d also like to– God forbid– get some writing done that isn’t blog-related.

How’s your week going, y’all?

Wow

On By Luther M. SilerIn Blogwanking7 Comments

Sometime last night I picked up my 8500th follower. Now if I can just get 20% of them to come look at the site at the same time…

A brief first day report

On By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching3 Comments

Odd fact: when going through previous posts for posts about teaching to possibly include in Searching for Malumba, I discovered something interesting:  I have not talked about the first day of school on most of the first days of school since I’ve been blogging.

Possibly because I get home and I am too tired to qualify as a living thing.  So, the short version: my homeroom girls are nice.  Scary nice.  Like, “I don’t believe you, and we’ll see what I think of you in a week” nice.  My afternoon kids… well, let’s just say that class is still in flux, because that’s where my special education kids are going to end up and we’ve not finalized class lists yet.  “In flux” sounds like a fair way to put it.

So… what is that?  Cautiously optimistic?  I’ll go with cautiously optimistic.