July 21, 2003

Countdown to A Legacy

The past week or so has been ab-so-freakin-lutely amazing. Beyond imagining – or so I would have thought.

Back when I was 16-ish I was starting to do some serious thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I remember it like it was only 25 or 30 years ago… DId I say years? I MEANT MONTHS, of course! I don’t recall what I wanted to be…but I was damn sure that the one thing I wanted NO part of was being a school teacher. BOTH my parents were teachers – and the “family business” had no redeeming qualitites that I could see!

Flash forward to 1991…and, for the first time, I tossed the idea of being a teacher around in my mind. Then I wrote it off as merely a sympathetic reaction to my environment…rural Tennessee where the only “acceptable” jobs for women were school teacher or hair dresser or stay-at-home mom.

Flash forward again to 1999: the first time that I signed up to be a substitute teacher. But then I got the amazing-job-in-Atlanta carrot dangled before me and I was off!

So here we are in 2003. I have substituted for a few weeks and am now employed as a bona fide middle school teacher….in my father’s school, teaching my mother’s subject area. To give you an appreciation for just how odd that is….this is the 10th largest school district in the ENTIRE U S of A. It’s not like there are only 3 middle schools here…

And so it begins – finally. The day after being hired, I dutifully went down to be processed. When the receptionist told me that I needed ‘processing’, I informed her that she made me feel like bologna. You know – processed meat!! I was joking – but it wasn’t so far from the truth!

I got there BEFORE the office opened at 8:30 a.m. and I left AFTER the office closed at 5:00 p.m. It was insane! Most of that time I was sitting waiting for somebody to direct me to the next set of chairs to sit in. The only ‘break’ in my day came when I found out I had to have a physical and ran out to the nearest walk-in clinic to get one. The upshot of THAT little experience was that my blood pressure was a little high and I would need to go see a “real” doctor (theire words, not mine). And – oh yes – I am overweight. I am (according to the handy pocket-wheel chart) a 3rd degree overweight person. Hey! I was feeling pretty darn good about that until she explained that it wasn’t like tae kwon do where you earn belts….a 3rd degree fattie is apparently not equivalent in status to a thrid degree black belt. Sheeee-it. Who made these stupid rules anyway? Arbitrary, arbitrary, arbitrary! All they really want to know with this stupid physical is whether I can prop myself up in front of a class of screaming demon-spawn or not.

Having survived being processed, I am now undergoing a week of “induction”. Surprisingly, I am getting some excellent ideas, information and input, although somebody must have called ahead to let them know I am a 3rd degree tubbie, cause today’s mavelous lunch was 1/2 Cup lettuce with 1/2 slice of ham and a dusting of grated cheese. Sorry excuse for a meal aside – I have been able to meet and talk to some experienced, enthusiastic and competent educators…that are restoring my faith in teaching as a whole.

On the other hand…I spoke with the Family & Consumer Sciences Supervisor via phone today. I didn’t get hired in time for the curriculum training. Oops. So I need her input. Well la-di-da – just imagine how tickled I am to learn that the teaching of Family & Cons Sci is now done completely on the computer. She’ll show me about that because, really, she doesn’t want any of that hands on stuff that they had been doing in that classroom going on any more! WTF?????????

Let’s see – Home Ec without cooking, sewing or any fun whatsoever. Just crowd around the computers. THere are only 8 in my classroom…and I don’t even know if they all work yet! Does this sound appealing to anyone out there? SIGH.

Maybe I misunderstood her. I was, after all, on a cell phone. We should get together next week…and then I’ll get the REAL low-down. After that, I will probably have my ass firmly planted in my principal’s office asking him if this computer curriculum is what he had in mind when he told me he wanted these kids to learn real-life skills and cooking….

And the beat goes on.

I’m so pleased to hear that you got the job!!!!! YAY YOU! None of that hands on stuff????Computers???? I imagine that your class will be one where the kids learn more and have more fun doing it too!

Things change. Computers are here to stay. Might as well accept computerized classes and somehow turn teaching with them into a fun thing.

OH lord! This is the stuff of a very funny sitcom. Maybe you can sell your story to a TV producer? LOL! Seriously, I wish you best of luck in your new job. I know you’ll be a great teacher! *with a wide grin & big hugs*

And so it begins. I’m so excited for you, and I sure we’ll have some very interesting entries. LOL I can’t wait. Great big hugs

That’s great! Should be fun. I am going into education, and right now I dunno if that’s where I should go, however it’s hard because I think my parents will kill me if I change my mind. I know I don’t want to be a musical performer, but I really like to write music…not like lyrics, but actual notes…and I really love studying music. The problem is that I am gonna have to stop and get a job

Ha ha! “screaming demon-spawn”!

Many congratulations …but I am very disturbed to know that there are no olive trees in Tennessee? I wanna be in my sunny Tennessee! Even without the olives…Thanks for the many sunny note! Alexias

Oh the stories you’re gonna tell…~:D

Ooops…the above was pre-coffee me. ~:) ArtImp, nsi

I never thought I’d need to say something like this, but maybe it’s time to get back to some basics in school? Computers can be used a lot, but how will it show you how to sew and cook? Keep us posted? Oh yea, you’ll keep us posted. *LOL* Btw… I can’t follow a pattern to save my soul. Any chance you’ll do a satellite class?

Cool, cooking and stuff on computers, maybe they will have lessons about how to eat at the computer and not get the keyboard and mouse all full of food, I could use that one! LOL And I’m sure the processing had nothing to do with your blood pressure being a little high. Mine is a little high too! 🙂

Processed . . . induction . . . It sounds like the Kommunist Youth Kamp! This entry reminds me of the very first entry I ever read in your diary, the one where you were talking about getting Chickie signed up for her new school in FL. That entry still sticks in my mind as one of the funniest I have ever read by any diarist anywhere in FOD or OD. Can I start making fun of your cooking, yet?

I am so glad for you …you will be back to full strength in a moment…huggs you warmly lovely lady

How else can one learn? I mean. . .hands on was always the best way.

Yrs ago the psych lab at my alma mater was converted to computer simulations; my former prof (now retired) blew a gasket because the experiments really needed to be hands-on. With both my parents having been teachers, I can identify! (Mom taught HS English in the inner city; dad taught private piano/organ/accordion lessons.) PS: My mom went to the grade school where her mom taught!

PPS: And 2 of my mother’s colleagues transferred to the high school where I went, while I was there. And my paternal grandmother (dead by the time I was born) and maternal grandmother’s sister were teachers. Good luck with all the processing and the rest of the bologna….

HOORAY for getting the job!!! i KNEW you could!!! *big hugs* three middle schools? *blinks* we have… ummmm… one.

16 in my classroom and we are almost out the door! Alexias

and SW carries on the tradition! you go girl! hehe.. can’t wait to hear more. funny, how it is sometimes our past haunts us. i was with daughter last week and she made a statement. horrified, she looked at me and said, “omg, i sound just like my mother” LOL.. priceless ~

How strange and wonderful that the familiar that you were so opposed against is the thing that will give you joy now. A Home Ec. teacher….COOL!

JIPPI, HOOORRRRRAAAAAAY, for DEAR SUNSHINY WOLF (((((((LOVE U)))))))

What ever it is – you will teach them well and also give them some basic guidelines on living well. I know you’ll do great. I bet you’ll be their favourite teacher and bringing them all home with you. “Move over Chickie’s friends”. 😉

Hands on is the fun part of all that cr*p. And you–father’s school, mother’s course–you’ve turned into BOTH your parents? Well done! With a grin…

so do you direct them to the recipie pages of free open diarists that put up yummy things to eat like cheshire mynx, or torin’s delightful accounts of the faire jemstar made, er, wait, that might get them in trouble because they’d be READING! shock! reading and especially the DND entries. Hmm well how about having them construct diet for allergic frog who now doesn’t know WHAT to eat. 🙂

if these kids don’t learn to make decent food they are going to be stuck in the high transfatty acid, high sugar, being told they are diabetic at 26 or 30 due to the crud in the processed food. I reads labels and run because it’s so hard to find truely “Good” for you foods that are not adulterated (oo can you say that in middle school? 🙂 )

i can’t believe you had to sit around all day waiting and that you managed to get a doc’s visit in one day!!! oh my, i had to do that of course too, but i went and got my TB stick (do middle school teachers need that or just us element? i did in FL) and they don’t test the kids for TB just the element. teachers and pay for the test and exam, *sigh*. GOOD LUCK with all that paperwork and red tape!

wow, you can get computers with a hob on top? a sewing machine attached to the side? An oven under the monitor? Wow, I’m trading this one on for one of those!

Congrats on the job…looking forward to some interesting tales…LOL Smiles,