Little bits of Friday

• I'm still in love with all my students. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm no longer teaching "Corrective Reading," a scripted-instruction reading program I headed for the past five year. It was really dragging me down. Could be a whole post in that.

• I've been teaching an extra class this year, and finally made it to today, payday. My extra $900 was missing. Payroll is blaming personnel, personnel is blaming our principal, and I'm out of luck. Have to wait another entire month to get pay I've already earned.

• Mid-quarter report cards arrived home today. They were sent out yesterday. I try to call home before the progress report gets there, but was late. I was on the phone today with at least eight parents.

• Speaking of phone calls, what's the deal? I think out of the eight, only one person actually picked up the phone when it rang. All the others went to voice mail or machines. Then, four parents actually called me back within a few minutes. Which wouldn't be so bad, except I would be on the phone with another parent, so my voice mail would pick it up, then I'd have to retrieve it (which at my school is a circuitous, and time wasting route), only to get the darn voice mail again. Am I that out of it that I answer my phone?

• The school board met last Tuesday, and approving my Fulbright Teacher Exchange application was not on the agenda. The approval must go in by the 16th of October or I'm finished before I started. The school board is only meeting one more time before that deadline.

• Even though the students sent in a Scholastic order less than two weeks ago, I have another order ready to go... for over 400 dollars! Who are these kids with so much money? I've been teaching for ten years now, and have never had this large an order. Wow. Readers. I'm smiling. And I certainly don't mind the bonus points.

• We're trying out the Holt On-Line testing this year. I'm the one going in first. Two days in a computer lab. So much can go wrong. We're scheduled for a week from Monday.

• I'm not going to get much work done this weekend. Driving inland to where my sister lives for a family get together. It was 94 degrees there today. ugh.