Election Hangover

Today I am suffering the election hangover. I was up at 3:45 to get ready to work the election, plus staying up to see the results trickling in equals being exhausted the next day. Everyone who asked me how it was today, that is the response I gave: "I'm exhausted." I truly am. But like I mentioned yesterday, it was a great thing to have the opportunity to be a part of, and I am looking forward to filling my civic duty again in 4 years, or two, if they should need me then.

Civic Duty

As you all SHOULD know, today is Election Day. And all of you who are eligible, SHOULD have voted. What you may not be aware of is the fact that I served as an Election Judge today.

This is a new experience for me, and I have to confess that I was a little freaked out after I took the training class, but once you get there and get rolling, it's really not so bad. You kind of find a groove and it works for you. I was a Roster Judge (R-Z). I kept passing the page with my in-laws names on it, and I kept thinking it was my name...silly rabbit. I don't vote in that precinct.

Around lunch time, the Head Election Judge dismissed us two by two to grab some lunch during a lull. (The school that we were working in provided lunch for us.) And while we were going to get lunch, the Challenger for our site, came with us. She put her arms around Kristen (the girl I was sitting beside) and me, and said that she was glad to see young people volunteering. She also added that she hopes we do it again.

I mentioned that fact to one of the guys I was sitting by and he asked me if I noticed in the training video that all the workers were older, retired folks. I didn't even notice. But after the Challenger said that, I realzed that Kristen, Suzanne and I were the youngest three there, except for the high school volunteers.

I had a good time. It felt good to be part of national decision making process. It was nice to have a couple people thank me. I thought that they were thanking me for helping them, and they were really thanking me for volunteering. That made me feel good. I would recommend that experience to anyone. It's your civic duty.

Amanda's sense of humor

My BFF Amanda has some interesting names for some of the restaurants that we have taken her to when she has come to visit. I was thinking about this yesterday when we went out for lunch. We didn't go anywhere that she has ever been, at least not that I remember, but it still made me think of her inventive names for the following restaurants.

1. Genghis Grill : Amanda's name: Ghenghis Khan

2. Panera: She calls it: Pandora's Box

3. UGH, there is one more, but I can't remember what it is! Amanda help. Please remind me what your interesting name for the 3rd place is. Was it East Meet West? Or LeAnn Chin? Maybe neither. I can't remember.

First time to the store?

So today we did the usual Sunday grocery store trip. And for some strange reason when we got to the check out line, there was a girl in front of us, who decided that she had to go to the bathroom before she paid. So we had to wait there until she came back? Really?!? Isn't there some kind of button you can push that will let you put that order on hold and move on?!? There was when I worked in a G. store back in GF.

So after about 3-5 minutes, she finally came back and then she paid for her stuff, which was all rung up by this point, and then she pulls her cart to the end, but doesn't feel compelled to get it out of the way. So, she leaves it sitting there at the end while Sonny waits at the other bagging section to put the bags in the cart.

Seriously? Has this girl never been to the store before? I don't get how you could not get it...at all... But it didn't help with my crabbiness factor for today.

Speaking of Bad Parenting

This entry is related to the last entry (SAW 5), and is dedicated to everyone I know that works in education.

Today was a horrible day. I have two classes back-to-back of kids who refuse to care and it makes me not care. You want to be shitheads in my class? Fine. Be shitheads, but you're going to the office. Get out of my room.

The first group is three sixth graders. One of them is a good girl. She does what she is supposed to. She is quiet. She is respectful. She is a little odd, but not obviously so. I like her. The other two kids? Well, they went to the same elementary and they seem to think that they run the show. One of them was trying to tell me that her friend's mom got a teacher fired. She said this because I had told them that they would not be rewarded with a fun activity on Friday if they didn't do work today. So I turn to her and ask if she was threatening me. And then told her that if she was, she would need to explain that to the principal because that was not allowed. She got mad and all 6th grade attitude with me. I don't care.

The other student, a boy, was imitating everything I said. Real mature. He asked if I was ever in a good mood. And seeing as I was having one of my 'wits ends days' I replied, "Yes. But not when you guys are here." I continued to tell them that I couldn't believe the way they were acting for being 6th graders. I have never met such a disrespectful group of students ever in my life. (That's not totally true...there were three shitheads when I worked on the north side of the metro...but they were 8th graders...technicality.)

So the bell finally rings for their class and the next group comes in. Not looking a whole lot better. It's the boy from the first classes brother, and two other boys.

Now like the other group, this group has one worker and two that piss away the entire class period doing absolutely nothing. This is nothing new. These two tend to spend every homework day doing absolutely nothing. But today was different. I was in a bad mood from the class before, and the brother was picking on the other two boys saying everything was stupid. Telling them to "make me" when they would ask him to stop, or not do something. One of the other boys was pretty worked up when the first boy took one of his things, used it and threw it away. I was done. I sent him to the office, stating simply to the principal's secretary, "Attitude".

After that hour, I needed to debrief. I went to the child study secretary who laughed as she said that she didn't know how we dealt with some of the behaviors that we get in our classes. But having thought about it now since the end of the day, I have realized the problem is three-fold.

1. The class sizes (for my room) are so small that the students don't think that classroom etiquette rules apply...I don't even know if they think any rules apply. That's not totally true. The rules apply to everyone else, but not to them.

2. Special Education is a double-edged sword. Some of the students have this learned helplessness and refuse to do anything on their own. Why should they? If they don't get it done, someone will sit down with them to do it? Why have internal motivation?

3. Lack of External motivation. I believe that the kids that are disrespectful in the classroom are not being motivated by anyone at home to do a good job at school. I can't really believe that the parents would encourage this behavior. Take for example the girl that was talking about getting a teacher fired. On what grounds? Not letting you sing and scream in class and actually making you do something? Sorry. Nobody told me when I was in college that my main job as an educator was to let you piss around for 13-18 years and then give you a diploma. My bad.

After today, I wish that we could go into meetings and be truthful with parents. Instead of saying that they child is delightful, I wish we could be honest and say, "Your child is a disrespectful brat." That might stun some parents into doing their job. Lying and telling them that we love their child makes them think that they are doing a good job of raising their children, when in fact, they aren't.

I know, some kids can't help it. But they have a label that covers that (EBD). Unfortunately for the kids I am speaking of today, none of them have that luxury.

SAW 5

So on Friday night, Sonny and I went out for dinner before heading to the theater to see Saw 5. I know, I know. But it's become a tradition. We have gone to see every single one (with the exception of the first one) together.

Anyway, that is not the remarkable part of the story. So we go to the theater and pay and get a Sprite and go sit down and are waiting through the commercials (remember when there weren't commercials at movies?) and we see this family come in. That's right, I said family. There were, three or four adults and two small children: one about 3 or so, and one in 1st or 2nd grade. Seriously.

Now I can't get over this. And in fact I have a hard time focusing on the movie because of these small children at the horror flick. I was certain that once the movie started, the family would realize that it went in the wrong door and actually meant to be next door at Beverly Hills Chihuahua, a more family friendly flick (I would guess), but no. They stayed through the whole thing.

Throughout the movie, I kept waiting for some crying from the kids. But I heard no peeps. At the end of the movie, I turned to look back and the smaller child was sound asleep, and as we were leaving, the older girl was carrying on a normal conversation as if she had just watched some Disney movie. I couldn't believe it.

Then I got pissed. Working in the educational environment, it seems that everything we do, as educators, is wrong. But if, as parents, you choose to piss your responsibility to do a good job raising your children away, then far be it from me to say anything. I was so mad. I texted my sister and she couldn't believe they were there. She texted back, "Can you say therapy?" No kidding. I am still mad even five days removed from the situation.

No Diggity. No Doubt.

For the last few days, I have been doing my best to listen to the actual radio instead of CDs. I am trying to not succumb to being old quite yet...

So anyway, today on my drive home, I was flipping through the radio channels and I hit the button for the top 40 station that I have programmed. I smirk to myself because they are playing Blackstreet's No Diggity. That song came out when I was in early college...that makes the song like 11-12 years old. And I was happy because I knew it. I jammed along and then when Pink's new one followed, I flipped to another station...that's enough trying to be young for today.