LMRC

thank god i'm on medication

these first 2 weeks back at work have been extremely trying for most in my department due to the assinine BD aka BitchDog

actually one day last week i woke up in a cranky mood and couldnt figure out what the deal was until that evening I noticed that my Lexapro for the day before was still in its slot



mystery solved; i was going thru the early stages of withdrawal

anyway
BD had asked me to go with her to a meeting about Inclusion the last day of summer vacation, which i did; after which i asked if we would be starting this at our school and was told "we dont have enough information to start now; let's plan on studying it more with the idea of implementing the program NEXT year"

fine
until a week after school starts she tells me we're gonna jump in feet first and do it after all; no training, no going look at schools that are doing it, no nothing

omfg

in case you are wondering wtf i'm talking about, Inclusion means that we will not pull the special needs students out of the regular setting at all; instead we will go into the regular class and work not just with the special needs students but with whoever needs us

studies do show that this works, but---hello!!!!!!!!, some training is NECESSARY

what we(regular and special teachers) are going to do is be coteachers in the classroom
problems with this include 1)changing students classes as we cant be in every classroom so one class per grade level will have to be the inclusion class 2) not enough special teachers for even that 3) childrens' IEPs have to be changed to reflect this and (fuckshitdamn) the state is monitoring us this year (September) and i foresee many citations due to this, paperworkwise
3) we are doing Quality, another program, which in a Quality school, all stakeholders are supposed to be part of the decision making process AND satisfied with the outcome, which is not the case with this 4)supervisors and others warn that we are starting to fast, to try it with just one grade and build each year

but BD is like a dog with a bone; once she grabs hold of something she will not let go

also. she has decided that i will only do inclusion in the mornings; in the afternoons i will do READ 180, which was piloted at our school last year and seems to bring up test scores of low performing students; but again i get no training---setting me up for failure

i cant find a link for Quality, but here's one for READ 180 http://teacher.scholastic.com/read180/

i have been repeatedly asked how i can be so calm amidst all the craziness and i keep saying "i'm on medication" lol; people say i am a walking advertisement for lexapro

i will start inclusion next week, but have only met with 2 of my 16 students on my roster (btw, this is the fewest students i have ever started out the year with)(i will only actually be doing inclusion with 4th grade, the rest of my students will be serviced by oy other special teachers--we each have a grade(or 2) that we will work with, but the kids stay on our rosters--another problem--how to track their progress) i dont have enough info to start READ 180 yet; the teacher that got 2 months training on it last year will give me an hour's training---good thing i'm abnormally wonderful at my job and a quick study and awfully intelligent(and have great self-esteem, but i'm on medication)

and a quick YEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAA cuz keith made an appearance at jazzy's and it just made my MONTH

i am downloading SP2
estimated time to download and install is 4 hours 56 minutes
omfg

btw, i think i know where chrisco has been hiding
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/08/26/canada.beer.heist.reut/index.html

hey bitches and mos
i bet you thought i was too exhausted from my return to the world of work to write
well, you would be correctomundo on that one
but, also, the olympics have been taking up much of my free time and will continue to do so
if you are wondering about a running total of medals you can check the link below for a medal tracker
as of this moment the USA has 50 medals, 20 of which are gold
if you miss me, come visit, i'll fix you a plate and if you're male, we can smooch

SI.com - Olympics - Medal Tracker - Total

i need a husband
one that not only can keep my happy in bed, but one who can fix things dammit
has anyone ever heard of a harmonic balancer?
well i sure never the fuck had (till now)
but i did meet a nicelooking man who owns the local Kwik Kar and even tho all the repairs cost a fortune, he took pity on me and they performed a lot of the work without charging me for labor or markup of the cost of the parts; they also did a free a/c charge and my next oil change is free; greg also told me he would hold my check if i didnt have the funds; even if he was ugly, dont you think just that deserves a blowjob?????i gave him dante's number, teehee

anyway, life sucks even more, because monday is the first day of school
more on that later
i miss everyone!!!!!!
it's a damn shame that the whole summer is over, and i only got to chittychat once or twice the whole time
all i wanted to do 24/7 was sleep
i stopped taking my zyrtec the other day to see how bad my allergies would flare up and it hasnt been too bad and the plus side is that i'm not constantly sleepy
the combination of the zyrtec and the lexapro is just too much, as they both cause drowsiness
anyone wanna smooch???

today was my visit to the otolaryngologist
these things(doctor visits) never seem to go as i expect
here i think i am gonna be told that tubes are in my ears' futures
but, i was wrong
no fluid in them thar ears
the ear drums look fine
had my hearing checked too
everything was within normal parameters

shit

you know when something is frelling wrong but there arent any answers, it really sucks
doc williams is the best otolaryngologist in town, so i trust him
he thinks my problem may be twofold
intermittent fluid inears/possible infections, BUT mostly.....
TMJ syndrome
he put his fingers below my ears where the mandibular joint is and had me swallow and it hurt
this along with the fact that advil and aleve seem to help, but not tylenol, AND the fact that my jaw isnt exactly aligned right, plus my admitting that i do habitually grind my teeth leads him to this conclusion
the pain is actually in the jaw but i feel it in my ears

so
his suggestions when i have these flareups(HUH???its been hurting for 6 months dude) eat a soft diet, take the aleve/advil, avoid clenching/grinding(yeah, right) , heating pad for 20-30 minutes per side; also talk to dentist about a splint---i am already scheduled for an appt on the 24th, so i'll discuss it with my dentist then

anyone else have this problem?

No wonder I havent heard from MQ in a while!!!!

CNN.com - Cuddling new craze for New York's singles - Aug 9, 2004

and as a Taurean, I abhor change
my best buddies at work are all transferring to other schools
many people say that change is good; change sucks

today my bestest friend at work found out she got the transfer she requested and that makes seven that I know of that will not be back, among them 3 that really upset me; maybe I should have requested a transfer too

on my hall I am the only person returning!!!

the entire 5th grade will be new teachers, and I don't just mean new to our school, I mean 1st year teachers!! it should be interesting......

today I bought a compact refrigerator and a microwave for my classroom; I am so tired of cleaning up after other people, now I only have to clean up after myself; the final straw was when I opened the refrigerator in the lounge nearest me(our school has 3) and there were roaches nesting in the (rotting) rubber seal around the door!!!!ewwwwwww! even with a new seal on the door, I could never ever put my lunch in there again!

I am still not finished getting my room ready; hopefully i'll finish tomorrow!!!! I bought all new stuff for the bulletin boards and walls; it should look faboo once i'm done!