One of my students died yesterday morning. I figured it would be easier if I just come right out and say it instead of hedging around it. It is not. His name was Brent, he was 14 years old, he was smart and goofy and funny, and he died from the impact of flying over his 4-wheeler when he applied the front brakes instead of the back brakes and hitting a brick mailbox head-on. The crazy, ironic thing is...he was wearing his helmet. Just goes to show that you really never know.
I found out while at a party with some friends, and at first I thought it was some cruel joke. It is incredibly hard for the brain to wrap itself around the idea that someone so vibrant, so full of life, with such a bright future ahead of him is suddenly gone. It wasn't a joke. In the space of one hour, I received 2 phone calls, 1 text message, and an official email from my principal. The world had indeed turned upside down.
Today was unarguably the worst day I have ever spent as a teacher. I have never heard the 8th grade hall so silent. We were all in complete shock. My 1st period students just stared into space with this eerily blank look in their eyes, horribly reminding me of pictures of Hurricane Katrina survivors. I debated for about 2 minutes on whether or not to try and have a normal day or let them grieve. The grief won. Once we as teachers decided to surrender to the sadness, all there was to see were pockets of students clinging to each other, either sharing stories of Brent and his antics to help relieve the silence or crying together, praying that they would wake up from the nightmare. I sat next to one of his best friends for about 30 minutes, not talking, not trying to make him *feel better* - just sitting. Somehow it comforted us both.
It was in that 30 minutes on the hallway floor with Cole that made me realize how unprepared I was for this situation. I thought back on my alternative certification classes that I took the summer before I became a teacher, wracking my brain for any remembrance of advice or protocol for the death of a student. There was nothing. In case that I had just missed out on the preparation since I am not actually an education major, I casually asked around, talking with teachers that I know have a degree in education to see if they were taught anything about this subject. You would think that this subject would at least be an appendix in an education textbook, seeing as how there are school shootings, teen suicides, and accidental deaths happening every day. There was nothing.
I have no idea what the rest of the week will bring. I do know that, come Saturday, we will be burying one of my students. Just the thought has tears rolling down my cheeks.
I am unprepared.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
My Job is Secure.
That's right, folks. It's that lovely time of year again, TAKS season. Or, as we in the profession like to call it, hell. It's been especially time-consuming and anxiety-ridden this year, as this 8th grade class is the first class required to pass the reading and math tests before moving on to high school. Ah, No Child Left Behind. How I loathe thee.
Since the SSI (Student Success Initiative, otherwise known as the reason they have to pass the tests) has moved up to the 8th grade and they have to pass those two tests, the state moved up the testing days of reading and math in order to administer retakes to those students who cannot pass the test the first time around. Usually our tests are about the 3rd week in April. This year the reading test was March 5th and our math test was on April 8th. Yes, let's force the students to pass the test, even though some of them are simply not capable of on-level work, and let's give them less time in which to learn the material that they must to learn in order to pass said test. Brilliant. But I digress.
As I mentioned, we had our test on April 8th, and amazingly enough, the state did a quick 8 day turnaround on our scores. Our school's passing percentage was 87%, which I was disappointed in at first, this being the lowest percentage we've had since I started teaching in this school. However, we were told to examine our own students, take out those scores that did not count towards our percentages, and recalculate our passing rate for our own students. I hear you saying, "Why are there students that don't count?" Good question. There are students constantly moving in and out of school districts according to the will and whim of their parents, and the state didn't feel it was fair for a teacher to be responsible for the student's score if they had not been teaching them for the entire year. For once, the state got something right. They instituted "SnapShot Day", which usually occurs in late October. On that day, every student enrolled at the school will count against your scores for TAKS. If a student moves in after that date, they don't count for you, they count for their old school. And vice versa, for any students that move out of our school after that day. I had two students move in after that day, so I got to remove their scores from my list. There are also students who do not take the "real" TAKS, they take an accommodated version according to their skill level, and that test does not count for this year, since it's a brand-new test and the state lets the first year of a new test slide. Remove four more students from my count. After alllllll of that, my scores report as follows:
79 total students (I know, those of you that teach are staring in disbelief. Cheerleading can be fabulous.)
76 passing students (96%)
3 failing students (4%)
36 commended students (46%, only missed 5 or less questions)
8 perfect scores
I still have a job, even if it is one whose performance evals are based on the scores of a test over which I have no control whatsoever. But that's a rant for another day. For today, it's enough to know this is my best percentage yet. Hallelujah.
Since the SSI (Student Success Initiative, otherwise known as the reason they have to pass the tests) has moved up to the 8th grade and they have to pass those two tests, the state moved up the testing days of reading and math in order to administer retakes to those students who cannot pass the test the first time around. Usually our tests are about the 3rd week in April. This year the reading test was March 5th and our math test was on April 8th. Yes, let's force the students to pass the test, even though some of them are simply not capable of on-level work, and let's give them less time in which to learn the material that they must to learn in order to pass said test. Brilliant. But I digress.
As I mentioned, we had our test on April 8th, and amazingly enough, the state did a quick 8 day turnaround on our scores. Our school's passing percentage was 87%, which I was disappointed in at first, this being the lowest percentage we've had since I started teaching in this school. However, we were told to examine our own students, take out those scores that did not count towards our percentages, and recalculate our passing rate for our own students. I hear you saying, "Why are there students that don't count?" Good question. There are students constantly moving in and out of school districts according to the will and whim of their parents, and the state didn't feel it was fair for a teacher to be responsible for the student's score if they had not been teaching them for the entire year. For once, the state got something right. They instituted "SnapShot Day", which usually occurs in late October. On that day, every student enrolled at the school will count against your scores for TAKS. If a student moves in after that date, they don't count for you, they count for their old school. And vice versa, for any students that move out of our school after that day. I had two students move in after that day, so I got to remove their scores from my list. There are also students who do not take the "real" TAKS, they take an accommodated version according to their skill level, and that test does not count for this year, since it's a brand-new test and the state lets the first year of a new test slide. Remove four more students from my count. After alllllll of that, my scores report as follows:
79 total students (I know, those of you that teach are staring in disbelief. Cheerleading can be fabulous.)
76 passing students (96%)
3 failing students (4%)
36 commended students (46%, only missed 5 or less questions)
8 perfect scores
I still have a job, even if it is one whose performance evals are based on the scores of a test over which I have no control whatsoever. But that's a rant for another day. For today, it's enough to know this is my best percentage yet. Hallelujah.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Pssst
I changed my blog name back. I decided that I like it, and Becky was right. Song lyrics be damned. ;)
Holy Hail Storm Batman.
I have been through hail. I almost was killed by hail in 2002, as I have mentioned. I, however, have NEVER seen what I saw tonight.
There was a humongous band of storms marching from west to east across North Texas tonight. I started watching the news around 6ish, saw tornados directly over where my parents live, freaked out just slightly, but I returned to normal when my mom called and said not only did they only get lots of rain, the worst of the storm was headed directly east, which would mean it would miss my house by a few miles. Lindsey rejoiced.
I continued watching news coverage, interspersed with snippets of Scrubs (I missed The Office because of this storm, dangit) for the rest of the evening. I noticed that the band of storms had grown toward the south, and a particularly scary shade of red was bearing down on Mansfield, my neck of the woods. The weatherman said it was no big deal, just rain and maybe some pea-sized hail. Nothing to worry about.
I've heard somewhere that meteorologists have the best job since they can be wrong all the time and still get a paycheck.
It started about 9 pm. All was quiet...and then came the rain. It came out of nowhere, and all of a sudden there were sheets of water falling from the sky. The wind was blowing so hard that it was raining sideways, literally. Thank goodness that I live on the northeast corner of my building and the storm came in from the west. I was sheltered, for the most part. I sat on my balcony for a few minutes to watch the rain. The outside lights on my apt. buildings blew, so it was a little strange to watch in the dark. I felt ok about it though, cause my apt. was right there, lights glowing cheerfully. I went back inside to call my mother and tell her all was well on my side of the world. And that's when I realized that the sheeting rain was just a preview of what was to come.
I was on the phone with my mother when it started hailing. And hailing. And hailing some more. I live on the top floor of my building, and I really seriously thought that the roof was going to cave it at one point. It was so loud that I couldn't hear my mother talking to me on the phone. I considered heading toward my closet, the innermost point in my house (although, being on the top floor, would it really make a difference if I tried to hide?) but I was too fascinated by the extreme amount of hail being currently dumped on my corner of the metroplex. I said goodbye to my mom and spent the rest of the storm at my balcony door, peeking through a crack at the world gone mad. After about five minutes it subsided, and I risked a trip actually out onto my balcony. I couldn't believe my eyes. There was hail EVERYWHERE. It looked as if it had snowed. It was pea-sized, all right. The meteorologist just failed to mention that the pea-sized hail would amass together to form giant ice floes 3 inches deep that are dangerous to walk on, let alone drive through. Good call, David Finfrock. Good call.
I went down, took the below-seen pictures, then retired back up to my balcony and watched everyone else crawl out of their rabbit-holes to marvel at this phenomenon. I actually just got finished watching two girls and three knight-in-shining-armor guys SHOVEL one of the girl's cars out of the HAIL she had gotten herself stuck in. Welcome to spring time in North Texas.
The view of the carport outside my building minutes after the storm. Thank goodness I had the foresight to park my car underneath. It might have been 6 pm and sunny at the time, but I went with my gut.
Giant hail ice floes. Ironically, the same one that said girl gets stuck in about 10 minutes after I take the pic. Hee.
There was a humongous band of storms marching from west to east across North Texas tonight. I started watching the news around 6ish, saw tornados directly over where my parents live, freaked out just slightly, but I returned to normal when my mom called and said not only did they only get lots of rain, the worst of the storm was headed directly east, which would mean it would miss my house by a few miles. Lindsey rejoiced.
I continued watching news coverage, interspersed with snippets of Scrubs (I missed The Office because of this storm, dangit) for the rest of the evening. I noticed that the band of storms had grown toward the south, and a particularly scary shade of red was bearing down on Mansfield, my neck of the woods. The weatherman said it was no big deal, just rain and maybe some pea-sized hail. Nothing to worry about.
I've heard somewhere that meteorologists have the best job since they can be wrong all the time and still get a paycheck.
It started about 9 pm. All was quiet...and then came the rain. It came out of nowhere, and all of a sudden there were sheets of water falling from the sky. The wind was blowing so hard that it was raining sideways, literally. Thank goodness that I live on the northeast corner of my building and the storm came in from the west. I was sheltered, for the most part. I sat on my balcony for a few minutes to watch the rain. The outside lights on my apt. buildings blew, so it was a little strange to watch in the dark. I felt ok about it though, cause my apt. was right there, lights glowing cheerfully. I went back inside to call my mother and tell her all was well on my side of the world. And that's when I realized that the sheeting rain was just a preview of what was to come.
I was on the phone with my mother when it started hailing. And hailing. And hailing some more. I live on the top floor of my building, and I really seriously thought that the roof was going to cave it at one point. It was so loud that I couldn't hear my mother talking to me on the phone. I considered heading toward my closet, the innermost point in my house (although, being on the top floor, would it really make a difference if I tried to hide?) but I was too fascinated by the extreme amount of hail being currently dumped on my corner of the metroplex. I said goodbye to my mom and spent the rest of the storm at my balcony door, peeking through a crack at the world gone mad. After about five minutes it subsided, and I risked a trip actually out onto my balcony. I couldn't believe my eyes. There was hail EVERYWHERE. It looked as if it had snowed. It was pea-sized, all right. The meteorologist just failed to mention that the pea-sized hail would amass together to form giant ice floes 3 inches deep that are dangerous to walk on, let alone drive through. Good call, David Finfrock. Good call.
I went down, took the below-seen pictures, then retired back up to my balcony and watched everyone else crawl out of their rabbit-holes to marvel at this phenomenon. I actually just got finished watching two girls and three knight-in-shining-armor guys SHOVEL one of the girl's cars out of the HAIL she had gotten herself stuck in. Welcome to spring time in North Texas.
The view of the carport outside my building minutes after the storm. Thank goodness I had the foresight to park my car underneath. It might have been 6 pm and sunny at the time, but I went with my gut.
Giant hail ice floes. Ironically, the same one that said girl gets stuck in about 10 minutes after I take the pic. Hee.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Le Sigh.
I screwed up at work today. This doesn't happen very often. If you don't believe me, look up at the name of my blog. But when I do make a mistake, it's often huge, colossal, gigantic. Enter today.
We had our annual cheerleading banquet in March, with all of the usual costs and whatnot. Reserving a room at a pricey country club, DJ, decorations....you know, the essentials. One of our parents generously took care of all of the costs and sent me the bill so we could just write one check instead of ten. I'm in charge of the money for cheerleading, and I've been worried for awhile about the balance of our funds. We had to borrow money from the PTV (Parent-Teacher Volunteers, for those not familiar with school-speak) in order to pay our competition fees in January, and we were down to owing them slightly more than $800. We should have had plenty of money from the tickets we sold for banquet to cover the costs of that event, plus we do a daily fundraiser to generate the money to pay our debts. That's right, ladies and gentlemen: we sell beef jerky and water in our classes. You would not BELIEVE how much money we make off of this. It's like the children are starved at home, with the way they pack away the jerky.
Anyway...long story short, I hadn't paid the DJ yet for banquet. I was worried we wouldn't have the money, so I kept putting it off. We know the DJ personally (he is related to one of our cheerleaders), so I just set it aside with the understanding that we'd get to it as soon as we paid back PTV. Yeah, wrong choice. He called the administration office today. For those of you that haven't been in school for a while, the admin. office is like the White House to a school district. You speak in hushed tones while inside, always on the lookout for someone *important* to walk by. And you NEVER want them to know that you messed up. Sigh.
The DJ called admin., thinking it was a problem on their end. The administrative assistant in payroll called MY administrative assistant and got mad at her, thinking that she had lost the check request somewhere along the way. Granted, this has happened before with our AA, so it wasn't completely off-base for the admin. office to assume this, but they were wrong this time. It wasn't her fault, since she never received the check request from yours truly. My AA calls me, frantically trying to figure out if she has indeed misplaced it. I considered for approximately 3 seconds being a horrible person and letting the blame fall on her shoulders, but fortunately my mother raised a child with a very loud conscience. I told her that it was my fault and explained my reasoning. She was extremely understanding, I came down to her office, and we fixed the problem. The DJ is getting his check ASAP, and the cheerleading fund will not be depleted of all funds. So all is well. Sort of. I keep dwelling on it, wondering if this all could have been avoided if I had just gone to our AA and explained the situation, blah blah blah. I just hate making mistakes. I know that no one likes to make them, but I'm especially hard on myself, more than anyone else.
Sigh. I'll try for perfection again tomorrow.
We had our annual cheerleading banquet in March, with all of the usual costs and whatnot. Reserving a room at a pricey country club, DJ, decorations....you know, the essentials. One of our parents generously took care of all of the costs and sent me the bill so we could just write one check instead of ten. I'm in charge of the money for cheerleading, and I've been worried for awhile about the balance of our funds. We had to borrow money from the PTV (Parent-Teacher Volunteers, for those not familiar with school-speak) in order to pay our competition fees in January, and we were down to owing them slightly more than $800. We should have had plenty of money from the tickets we sold for banquet to cover the costs of that event, plus we do a daily fundraiser to generate the money to pay our debts. That's right, ladies and gentlemen: we sell beef jerky and water in our classes. You would not BELIEVE how much money we make off of this. It's like the children are starved at home, with the way they pack away the jerky.
Anyway...long story short, I hadn't paid the DJ yet for banquet. I was worried we wouldn't have the money, so I kept putting it off. We know the DJ personally (he is related to one of our cheerleaders), so I just set it aside with the understanding that we'd get to it as soon as we paid back PTV. Yeah, wrong choice. He called the administration office today. For those of you that haven't been in school for a while, the admin. office is like the White House to a school district. You speak in hushed tones while inside, always on the lookout for someone *important* to walk by. And you NEVER want them to know that you messed up. Sigh.
The DJ called admin., thinking it was a problem on their end. The administrative assistant in payroll called MY administrative assistant and got mad at her, thinking that she had lost the check request somewhere along the way. Granted, this has happened before with our AA, so it wasn't completely off-base for the admin. office to assume this, but they were wrong this time. It wasn't her fault, since she never received the check request from yours truly. My AA calls me, frantically trying to figure out if she has indeed misplaced it. I considered for approximately 3 seconds being a horrible person and letting the blame fall on her shoulders, but fortunately my mother raised a child with a very loud conscience. I told her that it was my fault and explained my reasoning. She was extremely understanding, I came down to her office, and we fixed the problem. The DJ is getting his check ASAP, and the cheerleading fund will not be depleted of all funds. So all is well. Sort of. I keep dwelling on it, wondering if this all could have been avoided if I had just gone to our AA and explained the situation, blah blah blah. I just hate making mistakes. I know that no one likes to make them, but I'm especially hard on myself, more than anyone else.
Sigh. I'll try for perfection again tomorrow.
Friday, April 11, 2008
If only all days were like this one...
Life would be pretty sweet. After all of the stress and havoc that always accompanies TAKS season, I took a well-deserved day off today. I was in bed by 10 last night, feeling like a rebel since I didn't set my alarm. I "slept in" until about 9 am, which might not seem like too late to some of you, but when you normally wake up around 5, 9 feels like noon. My agenda for the day consisted solely of getting my loans together for grad. school and taking it easy. I trotted off to the bank around 10:30, took care of my financial situation, reminded myself that I won't have any extra money for about the next 4 years, and ended my excursion by treating myself to Freebird's for lunch. I took a 2-hour nap after lunch (you know, having expended so much energy in the morning) then went and walked in the park for about an hour. It was pretty much a fantastic day. This is what it must feel like to not work AND have money to spend. Oh, to be one of the two people in the world that are in that position.
I was actually really glad to not be at school today, aside from the obvious reasons, since there were some things going down today that are really going to make some people mad, and I didn't want to be around to hear it. My school is going through major renovations this summer, and my principal revealed the master plan for the building today. I received an advanced copy of the plan yesterday afternoon since I was going MIA today. Basically, she is moving everyone around and changing everyone's teams, and some people are going to go into shock having to work with new people. In case you are unaware, schools at the present time have their teachers work in "teams", made up of 4 or 5 core-subject teachers that all have the same students. It's really a good idea, so that the teachers all have the same students and can back each other up during parent conferences, and it works really well for cross-subject planning and all that great stuff. For the past 3 years, our teams have all been the same, and it seems to be working well. All of us get along well, our test scores are going up, and no big conflicts have come up to my knowledge. My principal has decided that, since we're switching rooms anyway, we might as well switch teams. So next year I'll be working with a different English and Science teacher than I have been, although I'll continue to be working with the same History teacher. It saddens me to move away from the team that I know, but I'm really ok with the change. The teachers that are coming onto my team are great, and we get along well together, so it's not that big of a deal to me. The only thing that gives me pause is that we're moving, which is hard anyway, and we have to work with new teachers. But I'll handle it. Oh, but others are going to lose it. I hope my principal is prepared. Perhaps she took today off as well.
This weekend I am headed down to my grandparents' house for perhaps the shortest trip in the history of weekend trips. My grandparents' 55th wedding anniversary is tomorrow, and my parents and I are headed down to celebrate. My mother, however, has an interview in the morning for a teaching award through her school, so we can't leave til mid-morning. We'll get there around 2ish, hang out with my family, stay Saturday night, then get up really early Sunday morning and head back here. Keep us in your thoughts, cause it's really long trip for less than 24 hours of visitation. Have a good one!
I was actually really glad to not be at school today, aside from the obvious reasons, since there were some things going down today that are really going to make some people mad, and I didn't want to be around to hear it. My school is going through major renovations this summer, and my principal revealed the master plan for the building today. I received an advanced copy of the plan yesterday afternoon since I was going MIA today. Basically, she is moving everyone around and changing everyone's teams, and some people are going to go into shock having to work with new people. In case you are unaware, schools at the present time have their teachers work in "teams", made up of 4 or 5 core-subject teachers that all have the same students. It's really a good idea, so that the teachers all have the same students and can back each other up during parent conferences, and it works really well for cross-subject planning and all that great stuff. For the past 3 years, our teams have all been the same, and it seems to be working well. All of us get along well, our test scores are going up, and no big conflicts have come up to my knowledge. My principal has decided that, since we're switching rooms anyway, we might as well switch teams. So next year I'll be working with a different English and Science teacher than I have been, although I'll continue to be working with the same History teacher. It saddens me to move away from the team that I know, but I'm really ok with the change. The teachers that are coming onto my team are great, and we get along well together, so it's not that big of a deal to me. The only thing that gives me pause is that we're moving, which is hard anyway, and we have to work with new teachers. But I'll handle it. Oh, but others are going to lose it. I hope my principal is prepared. Perhaps she took today off as well.
This weekend I am headed down to my grandparents' house for perhaps the shortest trip in the history of weekend trips. My grandparents' 55th wedding anniversary is tomorrow, and my parents and I are headed down to celebrate. My mother, however, has an interview in the morning for a teaching award through her school, so we can't leave til mid-morning. We'll get there around 2ish, hang out with my family, stay Saturday night, then get up really early Sunday morning and head back here. Keep us in your thoughts, cause it's really long trip for less than 24 hours of visitation. Have a good one!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Hello World...Again
So here I am. I've blogged before, and I miss it. Plus I've decided I've grown up from the baby blog I had before, attached to another, no-need-to-be-mentioned webpage, and I wanted to have something of my very own. Here goes.
I had a FABULOUS day. The 8th grade math TAKS test for the entire state was yesterday, and I feel like I've had a 1000 lb., double-spaced, stapled-together weight taken off my shoulders. My students say they did well. We shall see, in about two weeks in fact. Regardless, it is done. We spent the day today watching "October Sky", a funny yet surpisingly sober look at taking math into the real world. The rest of the school year should pass by in a blur of educational movies, Excel spreadsheet projects, field trips, and anxious glances towards the calendar, calculating exactly how many instructional days we have left. I can't wait!
My night has been spent glued to the tv, as there are impending storms on the horizon (literally, not metaphorically) and yours truly gets a little fearful when the atmosphere becomes turbulent. Let's just say I had a bad experience with softball-sized hail, a '94 Accord, and 2 am panic. Left me with some pretty deep scars that tend to surface in times of bad weather. Springtime in North Texas can be a hotbed of tornadic activity, with all of the accompanying rain, wind, and hail, and it keeps me running to the Weather Channel every five minutes. Thankfully, everything seems to be passing to the north, but I will not rest peacefully until the storms are at least 5 counties away.
In other news - things, they are a-changing in my life right now. I've decided that I do not want to stay in the classroom in a teaching capacity for the rest of my life. I can see the handwriting on the wall, and as bad and messed up as things are right now in public schools, I don't really see anything getting better any time soon. Therefore, in January, I made the decision to go back to school. I want to stay in the school atmosphere, since I love the little monkeys, for reasons unknown to me, so I have decided to become a counselor. I will be utilizing my sociology degree, as well as my unending need to help people, for the low price of one graduate degree and four more years of my life devoted to school. I am actually really excited about it, though. I am attending Tarleton State University, and before you start shouting about gas prices and driving two hours to Stephenville, never fear. There is a brand-new Tarleton campus springing up in Fort Worth, a measly 25 minutes from my house, and it will supply me with the exact degree that I desire. So my summer has already filled up with the starting of classes, not to mention the professional development required of me by my school each summer, as well as a proposed trip to Seattle to visit my very best lady.
Life is about to get interesting, my friends.
I had a FABULOUS day. The 8th grade math TAKS test for the entire state was yesterday, and I feel like I've had a 1000 lb., double-spaced, stapled-together weight taken off my shoulders. My students say they did well. We shall see, in about two weeks in fact. Regardless, it is done. We spent the day today watching "October Sky", a funny yet surpisingly sober look at taking math into the real world. The rest of the school year should pass by in a blur of educational movies, Excel spreadsheet projects, field trips, and anxious glances towards the calendar, calculating exactly how many instructional days we have left. I can't wait!
My night has been spent glued to the tv, as there are impending storms on the horizon (literally, not metaphorically) and yours truly gets a little fearful when the atmosphere becomes turbulent. Let's just say I had a bad experience with softball-sized hail, a '94 Accord, and 2 am panic. Left me with some pretty deep scars that tend to surface in times of bad weather. Springtime in North Texas can be a hotbed of tornadic activity, with all of the accompanying rain, wind, and hail, and it keeps me running to the Weather Channel every five minutes. Thankfully, everything seems to be passing to the north, but I will not rest peacefully until the storms are at least 5 counties away.
In other news - things, they are a-changing in my life right now. I've decided that I do not want to stay in the classroom in a teaching capacity for the rest of my life. I can see the handwriting on the wall, and as bad and messed up as things are right now in public schools, I don't really see anything getting better any time soon. Therefore, in January, I made the decision to go back to school. I want to stay in the school atmosphere, since I love the little monkeys, for reasons unknown to me, so I have decided to become a counselor. I will be utilizing my sociology degree, as well as my unending need to help people, for the low price of one graduate degree and four more years of my life devoted to school. I am actually really excited about it, though. I am attending Tarleton State University, and before you start shouting about gas prices and driving two hours to Stephenville, never fear. There is a brand-new Tarleton campus springing up in Fort Worth, a measly 25 minutes from my house, and it will supply me with the exact degree that I desire. So my summer has already filled up with the starting of classes, not to mention the professional development required of me by my school each summer, as well as a proposed trip to Seattle to visit my very best lady.
Life is about to get interesting, my friends.
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