the bad, the ugly, and the good

Hello to all who've been waiting with baited breath for the next update (i.e. Mom). (Hi Mom!) Highlights of the past several weeks include:

• two week-long summer vacations, one in Yosemite and one at home in Northern California


• implementing a time management program to assist with day-to-day scheduling and punctuality


• finishing up the 05-06 school year


• starting up the 06-07 school year (a whole week later)


• helping Dina Titus become the Democratic nominee for the NV gobernatorial race
  
• meeting/getting excited about a new assistant principal


• and (certainly not least), not feeling like a total wanker at the onset of my very second year teaching. Generally speaking, this would seem to be significantly easier the second time around.

So far...

If anyone is interested in hearing math songs that I've written, please go here: http://web.mac.com/thoberg.

Alternatively, go here: http://www.garageband.com/artist/mathemcees.

Hope you enjoy it.

I just got an email addressed to many people asking us to make our websites much more vague as to our work affiliations. So I've gone through and vague-ified it a little. Sorry for caving in to Big Brother.

Quick! Go view my Chevy commercial before they take it down! Trust me, it's worth your while.

Special Ed acronyms are out of control. Here's an example of a real life email* I got this morning:

Subject: PLS W/B!!!

The OT and PT and I are all confused about the new kid's IEP. Unfortunately, one of the kinders grabbed it and stuck it into the typewriter, and, to make a long story short, now we don't know which letters are supposed to go where. First, placement: Is this a child with SLD, ASD, TBI, MR, CP, D, D/B, DCD, DAS, or merely DD? What does the D&E say? The BIP? What's this kid's DON? DI? DS? We could always call the DDD or DDC. Important: Have they been given the label of DNR?

Since you're the SET on the ISP team, you need to tell the SEIF that the GET, OT, PT, SLP and entire ECT are worried about the implications of NCLB, IDEA, FAPE, the IASA and the ADA, and how they pertain to this KID. We don't want any trouble from the OCR or OSEP (let alone the CCSD SSSD!).

TY,

DJ
RR IA

---
*not really.

It's one thing to be unprepared but to have slept well.

It's one thing to have slept poorly in order to be fully prepared.

But it's quite another thing to have slept poorly AND be unprepared.

It's like, if you're tired but you're fully covered, it doesn't really matter that you're tired. But if you're NOT covered, and you're tired ANYWAY, then that's ALL KINDS OF BAD, because then you can't even cope with getting your $&!+ together in order to even fix the damage.

Make sense? Good. Thank goodness for bedtime.

At lunch time, this second grade kid saw my polo shirt and, looking at me incredulously, asked the all-too-familiar question, "Why are you wearing a pink shirt?"

Here it comes, I thought. Still, wanting to do my part to debunk the rather absurd gender/color stereotype, I offered my stock response: "Because I like pink and besides--I look good in this shirt."

To which he grinned and one-upped me: "I like hot pink."

Made my day.