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So. I'm trying to be faithful about daily yoga again. Striving for B'Bear-worthy weight-loss, Niobe-like calm. Just. Trying. To. Breathe. This is all extremely difficult when you have the basic disposition of a hamster on speed. My poor brain is jumping everywhere. Maybe I need more hypnotic music. (What? No more loud angry gee-tar bangin' on my way home?) Maybe less caffeine...although I only have one cup of joe each morning, then water, water, all day long. Perhaps it would help if I did not spend my day with space monkey 8th graders. Hmmmmm. I am happy to report that only three of my 110 monkeys are failing English. I average 9 or 10 each year. I spent part of my afternoon consoling four friends from a different core team. They were, literally, in tears over their failure rate, a whopping 35%. It's hard to watch veteran teachers cry in frustration, especially when one of them is a 6'7" retired Navy commander. I offered them some consolation; all of the kids who are doing badly are doing it across the board, in multiple subjects, which seems to indicate a problem with the kids, not the individual teachers.These poor folks also got all of the 9 kids I failed last year in their bunch. In my core, there are four repeaters; in theirs, there are 20, and they are all failing again!We all want to know why, as this is really an unprecedented number of failures. Our 8th grade assistant principal, who is a terrific guy, is gathering data on all these kids, to see what they have in common.He's also going to meet with some of their parents, to make it clear that he expects some action to be taken at home. Anyway, Diaryland is keeping me sane. Distract the hamster girl. Entertain the gerbil-woman. Make her breathe s-l-o-w-l-y. (Hey, Blooeye! What happened to your Guestbook?) On the Headbone:King of New York, from Newsies, the movie that would make a perfect double-feature foil for Gangs of New York. Yes, I AM a sick, twisted rodent, thank you. |
 
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gerrrrbil grrl