sigh...just finished 6th period...time to vent and recollect myself. the first 7 hours of the day are so hectic, by the time 6th period ends i can't do much more than just sit and zone out. i just finished talking to one of my translators (i have translators for my ESL class that come in once a week) and he just told me what happened to one of my students, Rafael. he always seemed to be a trouble maker, never doing any work, horrible scores on tests. other teachers always complained about him. even i had almost given up hope..i was constantly holding him after school or suspending him. but i think was slowly getting thru to him. i mean, there were ups and downs, times when i would try to call his house to let his mother know how proud i was of his improvement, and then there were times when he'd have to leave my room during his temper tantrums. but the past few weeks have been pretty smooth with him. he's been sitting and doing his work everyday, and he's been respectful. things that other teachers were shocked to find out about. then i find out today that the reason he hasn't been coming to school the past week was cuz he left home. he just gave up on things and now works full time. right when it seemed like i was getting thru to him. and this really hurts b/c he seemed like one of the few kids i was getting to in that class. all that work, seems like it was all for nothing. there were times i looked into his eyes, and i'd feel so proud of him..but now i can't even talk to him.
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k...my crazy colleague just visited me. she's crazy cuz she's still here teaching along with me. like i said before, i don't know how i'm still alive and working now. her too. it's been so helpful not only to have someone to work with, but someone to gripe with and someone to just talk and listen to. in some ways we're so different, but we both put our hearts out for those morons (it's a love hate relationship). the more you care the more you get hurt i guess. anyways, it's 4 now, and i got a couple hours more work that i want to take care of.
Wednesday, February 05, 2003
man, i'm horrible with this journal thing. so it took me over a month cuz i'm a comlete moron to find the publish button. then i start writing my second entry and when i'm almost done, i click on someone's link, and i lose all the information. anyways...this semester for me has already been so much better than last. i'm still only getting about 5 hours of sleep a night, but at least now half the times it's cuz i'm talking with a friend or going out, as opposed to making up stupid worksheets for my kids.
anyways, life is good. i'm starting martial arts again. went to a jujitsu seminar last saturday with chris peterson and elaine chao, then a special counterthrow lesson put on by the MAN dr. minh. he only bonked me on the head 10 times too (just his friendly way of telling me to use it). and then today i was able to go to both hankido workouts, although we're mostly just conditioning. course, i really need it..i still can't even jog around the lake. but hey, i gotta start somewhere right?
so my new year's resolutions this year was to get back in touch with some of my old friends. over the years i've made quite a few, but i've been so bad at keeping in touch with so many of them. i've always been so busy at school and with my extra curriculars and i just always took them for granted. talking to friends once every 3 months seemed the norm for me. of course, not having a phone that worked in my apartment kinda made it worse..but still. and now that i've completely dropped wushu (what a story that'd make...but i'd get carpul tunnel syndrome typing that out) i have so much more time to just relax and enjoy life. i'm still hecka busy, but at least now i'm not stressed every single moment of my life.
things at home are a bit different too. lionel has kind of moved out...kind of annoyed at him that he never really tells the entire story. i found out from tony that he was planning on moving out 2 months ago, but he didn't even tell me till last week. eugene is still eugene....and ann..oh man..who'd a thought she'd be the messiest one in the house? of course, that doesn't count my room which i'm constantly cleaning. course, my rate of cleaning is always slower than the rate at which i mess it up....at least i can still see most of my floor.
shoot...it's 10:30 and i'd better get back to making my worksheets for school. it's hard to be creative. i basically have to make my entire curriculum from scratch...i wish we had more collaboration among the other biology teachers, but they all seem to hate each other. the only one i really work with is this crazy 40 year old. course, if it weren't for her, i wouldn't be teaching right now. came so close to cracking. hell, i did crack, just not enough to put me in the hospital. anyways, i hope all of you who are reading this can forgive me for not contacting you sooner. but hey, give me another couple of months. or maybe even the summer, and i'll make it up to ya =)
