Better...

Yeah, it went well today. All that sweating about fourth period, and it turned out ok. I didn't lose my cool, was real clear about expectations and everybody performed for me. Got alot done. AND I got a sweet blog reply from one of my kids parents Now that I know parents may be reading this, I suppose I should, er, perhaps alter content. Did I say the F word on this page? No? Whew!

Tuesday, Toesday...

Man, I'm sitting here at school wondering WTF I'm going to do with fourth period. It's the beginning of the semester and it's coming apart at the seams already. I guess I'm going to start calling parents. The discipline part of this job has always been the hardest for me. I don't like to have to yell or call home. I guess the best way to look at it would be as an opportunity to improve on classroom management, but the way I'm feeling at the moment is far from optimistic about the whole thing. The saving grace is that I have been blessed with a wonderful group of beginners second period and at least Chris is in both classes, so I know that we can at least monitor progress and make sure things are being built correctly. Hopefully I'll have more success today.

Why am I doing this....

It was that kind of day. I didn't rest enough over the weekend and Monday hit me like a truck. Fourth period was horrible. I lost it. Guess I'll just try to do better tomorrow.

The weekend is what? Over?

Not enough downtime this week and the weekend was no different. Had an improv show last night and went on a ride to Greensboro today, after which, I promptly passed out for two hours. Guess I'm tired. Is it Summer yet?

Favorite improv line last night:

Austin: "You are in a room with an anti-gravity switch, but the switch is off."
Bret: "So were just in a room? Thanks for that terrific location".

Next Scene:

Bret: "You are in a room that could be filled with crazy monkeys, but it's not. (pause) And never will be."

Tech Theater Class Riverside HS

Backspace ~ FLOAT ~

This is great!

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y...NIGHT

Holy crap, what a week. Department meetings, Duke class, Ukulele jam, Football game, PTSA Open House, random drug search. Wha!!!!

Monday: Horribly uncomfortable department meeting in which petty grievances and unabashed selfishness were on display.
Result: Anger

Tuesday: Residual anger peppered with a goodly amount of creeping dread about my Duke class, which went ok.
Result: Relief and exhaustion.

Wednesday: Progress reports uploaded to server and alot of running around before the Ukulele Jam.
Result: Annoyance and further exhaustion.

Thursday: PTSA Open House featuring a mix of some nice and some loopy parents. As always, more work than it is worth.
Result: What's my name again?

Friday: Peer observation of my class followed immediately by a random drug and weapons search featuring a nice dog and metal detectors. Took tickets for the football game at night. We won. Barely.
Result: Blah, blah de blah. Look at the funny monkey! I like shoes. Search me! Search me! I'm the crazy one. Nice doggie.

Saturday: Sitting here in a towel, sucking my thumb and conserving my energy for my comedy show tonight. Might change my oil this afternoon.
Result: Too early to tell. Nice doggie.

Little girl puppet

Giant puppets are RAD! And creepy.

Nike - Chalk

Dukie....

Tonight is the first night of the last class I will teach at Duke for awhile. I'm taking a hiatus and concentrating on my high school kids. It's hard to give it up, but life simplification is needed.

Billy Idol gets it...

I'm having a difficult time with people. It seems that no amount of diplomacy or compromise can keep them from eviscerating my, already tenuous, grasp on a sense of self worth. It's not even that they are being especially mean spirited, well, one of them is. It's just that I'm tired of people not getting IT and, by extension, not getting ME. It's a really lonely feeling. Whiney, whiney, whine, whine. No, forget that. That paragraph sounds weak and stupid. Forget you ever read it.

End of an era...phase?

Just got back from Swing Out New Hampshire, a gig we have done for 8 years and like very much. It was enjoyable this time too, but it felt different. I've made a shift in my life's purpose and crossed some invisible line that I don't think I can go back over somehow. I teach High School. That's what I do. That's what I am now, and I didn't quite realize how much it meant to me until I went and did the thing that used to mean so much to me. Dancing. I still love to dance and teach dance, but it seems much less important than it used to. Somehow it's harder to care whether people with enough disposable income and time off to spend a week in the woods in New Hampshire are doing an 8 count Swing Out correctly. I mean, good for them. It's not their fault. Just a perspective thing, you know. I've got kids who are struggling with addiction, abuse, eating disorders and a littany of other horrors. It's life and death, literally. If I disappear from the dance scene or move to the periphery, a few might notice and maybe even be saddened by the loss, but if I left High School, some of my kids would lose the only peron who has ever given a shit about them in their entire lives. I feel the scales tipping.