A tale of two shitty cities

For  a little background knowledge check this out……    http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/29/massachusetts.bullying.suicide/index.html?hpt=T1

Now I can not stand bullying, I was tortured for way to long at that crap fest shit-hole of a school I went to as a child.  In hind sight, with education, I realize that lots of stuff I use to blame myself for was due to some bum fuck teachers that should have been but to pasture long before I walked through their doors.  Now I ended my bullying the traditional caveman way, I walked up to the biggest ugliest stupidest bully of the grade mouthed off enough to get him to punch me in the head three times then I laughed in his face.  Then later when he wanted to get revenge for his trip to the office I kicked him in the jewels then did my best to shove my knee threw his face.  Was that the right thing to do?  To this day I still say hell yes, the subsequent tracking down of certain people that also bullied me and either assaulting them or planning and orchestrating their public embarrassment was probably not but I was in middle school, devious, and somewhat sociopathic.

Now that I am a (substitute) teacher their are few ways to truly get me to be angry and unforgiving bullying is the best way to get me to boot you out of class and give you a referral in the damningly descriptive way that only a writer can.  So when I hear stories like this I honestly want to see everyone of these children to be strung up as cowards and criminals, people that would torture a person to death and not even have the stones to get their hands bloody.

After I calm down I remember this quote from one of my favorite books of all time.

“I told you that ‘juvenile delinquent’ is a contradiction in terms. ‘Delinquent’ means ‘failing in duty.’ But duty is an adult virtue—indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot be a ‘juvenile delinquent.’ But for every juvenile criminal there are always one or more adult delinquents—people of mature years who either do not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail.”

We are such a shock and awe, knee jerk nation.  We see the actions that they make and assume that this children are vicious animals, but to follow with the metaphor would you blame a puppy that attacks you on the puppy or the owners that were neglecting them?  We don’t expect parents to have morals or a sense of duty so they neglect their children then we punish the children severely when they act out in horrible ways.  Ehh I could write more but Meg is in class… Just something to think about I supose, do we honestly believe child can be adults then why do we deny them the rights and responsibilities of adulthood while feeling fine about handing them the judgments and punishments that should be reserved for adults?

Semi rant…

This country wasn’t built on slavery, religion, racisim, taxes, or freedom. It was built off a choice. More then anything our founding fathers chose: to work together with, to trust people that they didn’t entirly believe in and didn’t agree with. They made a choice and now we have a country. But we live in a time when people listen to others but only hear the words they want to hear. This may be remembered as the age of fanaticism, when you were either with us or against us. In politics, in life, in religion, but we have a choice! We can work with the people that will not hear, we can meet them half way, not sacrifice in our principals but search and find the common ground. Yes this will be hard but democracy is not suppose to be easy.

Holy Crap! I Have a Blog??

Well, needless to say, it has been a while. I thought that since I actually have a minute and really shouldn’t be doing anymore work on a Friday evening, I should post something. At the moment, I am anxious to see Anthony,  since I literally haven’t seen him since this morning at 7:00 AM (it is 8:43 PM and he should arrive in a few hours from delivering).

So how are we doing? Busy, overworked, but in general, happy. I have to tell you though, I spent the last few minutes looking back at old pictures…high school, middle school, college, and so on, and they really make you think about the present. I love teaching my students, but I sometimes forget what it’s like to be in their positions. I forget how rough middle school is, but after an always entertaining team meeting this morning, I realized, once again, that it is political struggles within the school systems that I dislike…the old bats that need to figure out why they become teachers in the first place… those same individuals who should really consider taking advantage of the early retirement incentive plans the school district is offering because, I have to tell you, being around some of these teachers is depressing. I feel like they all need to take a field trip to the movies to see “The Blind Side,” and that maybe, just maybe, they can begin to feel some compassion for these kids. A few weeks ago, I found myself bursting out into tears because of something I cannot control on my own, but as a community, the school should be dealing with. A foster kid that does not know what it means to belong, in any sense of the word, because he has been shipped from one foster home to the next, and for some reason, teachers think he is suppose to give a rat’s ass about a homework assignment! Here’s a kid that comes into my room just to talk because he needs someone to listen. Not saying I’m perfect, and there are so many things I would change if I could, but these teachers need to look at what’s in front of them.

Anthony and I had our one year anniversary a while ago. Well, in August. Unfortunately, we had a rough summer, financially, even with the two of us working full time, and I couldn’t get him a gift right away. But, about two months ago, I was finally able to buy him something I had been saving for, a little Acer laptop. Granted, I was a bit surprised that he wanted a computer that small, but I was glad to be able to get it for him. He is one of the most generous and giving people I know, and really deserved it.

So work has been busy, as I was saying. Primarily, I service kids through push-in support in the general education classes. Most of my day is spent running from classroom to classroom to meet minutes mandated by student IEPs. It’s my third year at this school, and I thought it was suppose to get easier. Unfortunately, it has been just the opposite. Obviously, the money is not why I got into this position. The kids’ success means much more to me. I just think there are times when inclusion doesn’t work. Even as I modify work for 7th and 8th graders, plus have three classes of my own to teach, there are those kids that constantly fail because they are in a class that is above them, and there’s nothing worse than seeing them give up. So, after ranting and raving with the high school special education teacher who is also seeing these problems, we decided we needed to meet with the CSE chair person who is also the Director of Student Services. After endless conversations with the man, I think we are at least beginning to head in the right direction. He has agreed with us that program changes need to be made. So, it looks like I will finally be able to teach a 12:1:1 English class for kids that really need instruction on decoding and reading skills.

I am still getting through my grad classes. I have a final on Tuesday, and then I am done for the semester. Thank God for that because this was a horrible one. Aside from teaching, staying after with kids until 4 or 4:30 in the evening, and going to this class twice a week, I also had to tutor a student, diagnose a reading problem, and conduct lessons two hours per week. Since the superintendent of the school is an administrator from hell who is concerned about nothing but state funds and “grade inflation,” he did not give me permission to leave when the students do so that I could get to my class at 4. Oh, and by the way, the schedule stated the class would begin at 5, and the tutoring sessions would begin at 4. Since I got permission from the Department head to complete the sessions at my own district, I thought there would be no conflicts, right? WRONG. Because the teacher of this class wants to get out of his responsibilities before 7 PM, he decided that before tutoring began, he would have the class meet at 4. Huh, funny how he just decided this on his own without consulting us about it. Also amusing, since you have to be certified to be in this program, most of us are teachers, and would obviously have job commitments that would conflict with this time. Well, I always have the option of leaving a nasty course evaluation I guess, what good that will do. Anyway, so my superintendent decided I would not be allowed to leave a 3:00 twice per week, despite the fact that I am with kids off the clock at least three times a week because I genuinely want them to succeed. Unfortunately, administration never sees these things. They only see what they want to see…numbers. So, it was quite a conundrum you might say. Here I am, required by New York State to get a Master’s Degree. At the same time, my school district pays me a whopping 47$ per credit hour in tuition reimbursements (At first, I thought it was 74$ dollars per credit hour that would be in the form of a stipend until I saw my first paycheck and realized I has reversed it and…they had added it to my salary, so it was lost in taxes. I pretty much saw none of it.) Oh well, maybe a pack of gum?? So, I have to get the degree anyway, I have to pay for it myself, so I want a degree that is going to matter. Of course, I have to go for the most difficult one. In the end, though, I will be a certified reading specialist, and I will be able to service my students better, and it’s about them, not power mongers in charge. So, the whole semester, I was forced to sneak out the back of the building at 3 (my school principal gave my permission in secret and said he would take the blame if I was caught) to go to the class all the way in East Rochester (from My Wonderful Employer, this is over an hour drive) all to get there 15 minutes late, day after day. It is what it is though, and if the teacher is a dick, then so be it. I have dealt with shit before, I can do it again. Classes usually ended with me driving 30 minutes back to my apartment, all for me to get to say two words to my husband before doing two more hours of prep work for the next school day. One more day!

So I have been going on and on, but I have to tell ya, it feels good to get it out there. No wonder Anthony likes to write so much. I got him a leather journal to write in. He seems to like it. I thought it would stimulate his creativity. I really am impressed with his writing abilities, even if he doesn’t think so.

That’s all for tonight, folks.

The summer that never was

Holy lack of updates Batman!

Yeah so we suck at this whole blogging thing!  But luckily I really REALLLLLLLY don’t want to do the dishes.

So whats new with us?  Well my Beautiful wife is still teaching at Her Wonderful Employer(over-worked and under-paid IMHO) and taking Grad courses.  I am desperately trying to get a subbing job.  I just found out that I will have to wait untill the 28th to get board approval from Livonia (GRRRR).  I also got hired as a sub in Geneseo and Bloomfield so I should have steady employment soon.

Speaking of employment Bristol Valley Homes can lob my knob!  What is Bristol Valley Homes?  Well it’s the contracting business that I was working for over the summer to which I was breaking my back from some rather decent money.  That is untill my boss stopped paying me.  I was hesitant when after a month of work out of the blue my boss switched to paying us a week offset.  Nothing like finding out on Monday your not getting paid on Friday.  Then suddenly the checks couldn’t be cashed until Saturday (not a real big deal).  But then the checks stopped coming.  So I went two weeks without getting paid then I said bunk this school is starting up soon and I want to spend time with Meg before summer is over and said that I got a job and had to quit to do that.  Yes it was a half truth (but it was a legit job I just didn’t get it).  So about  4 weeks since I quit and 7 weeks since my last paycheck and my boss owes me for half a months work.  And when I ask about it I get some sob story about how it isn’t his fault and things are worse for him blah blah blah next thing I know I have a heavy or sharp object in my hands and am looking for my keys.  Unfortunately logic sets in and I just let of a Powderly level string of curses.

(as we speak I got a txt saying he’s trying to get the money to pay “us”)  ASS-Hat!

What else?  Well this summer was quite a roller coaster ride.  We had some really good times and some really bad times.  The good part is we got to spend a VERY fun weekend at Cedar Point and spend a very awe-inspiring day at Stony Brook.

I’m gonna bug Meg to do an entry on Cedar Point because I think she would do a much better job.  But Stony Brook if you haven’t been is awesome!  It’s like Letchworth’s VIP room.  Smaller yes but just as majestic and shit-ton less people.  I think we spent 3 or 4 hours walking the trail and saw maybe 10 people total?  We have some great pictures that I will try to get Meg to link to the Blog.  The part I loved best was just seeing the lines of time in the rock face.  It’s so hard to imagine that much time!  Generations are a blink of an eye to mother nature and change is a slow and steady juggernaut that hits without you knowing it happened till it’s moved past you.

What else happened this summer?  OHHHH Meg FINALLY learned how to play Euchre!  And not that I’m saying I told you so but she does seem to like playing it.  Of course the trump is still confusing to her sometimes and as the perfectionist that she is it drives her nuts when she throws down a card that isn’t the card that she thought it was.  But to be able to sit around a  table with family and play 3 or 4 games of Euchre while BS-ing and snacking reminds me of all the times back at my Grams when the family was in town.
Speaking of family we had the fun of hosting my cousins Tim and Dan for a bit as they were stopping through.  Needless to say a good time was had and many a beer was drank.  Of course I did get a look from my wife asking why I can stay up till all hours of the night when my family is in but whine like a baby when I can’t be to bed by 10:30 any other time.  I made the effort of spending a few more late nights with the wife after that.  And needless to say the Yahtzee Movie and Smallville marathons were all very very fun

Well I have rambled for long enough so long that my battery is about to die.  Now off to vanquish those dirty dishes before delivering tonight.  Hopefully I’ll work a half so I can take Meg to the new matt Damon movie which looks funny as shit.

Somebody saaaaaavvvvvve me

Ok so I don’t really need saving…. but as I am sitting here nursing a sore back I’m watching some Smallville on DVD (basically waiting for Rescue Me to start or Meg to come home).  In this time I have reflected on next seasons Smallville that may be it’s last.

First if you are not a fan of Smallville your a tool or an Aldrich it is one of my favorite shows and I was very happy with last season.  Now I will be far and admit that season 8 was mostly wasted potential… the who SuperGirl thing was so half-assed that is might as well be ethiopian.   But the Doomsday arc of this season was great… reinvented the character then tied it up by the end of the season to be in line with the comics…..  Almost all that happend in the Death of Superman could still happen after Smallville.

Anyways back to my point…. Here are my list of things that should be done on Smallville to make this season so kick ass that it makes it to a 10th season

1. It’s time to bring back Perry White… he needs to take his place as the might behind the Daily Planet…. and he can be used as a great tool for those Clark and Lois moments that Meg loves

2. Chlopulse-  With Smallville taking a more adult and gritty tone lately I think that having the ever amusing Kyle Gallner on the show more would be a great idea.  He could be the middle guy for the battle royal of how to be a superhero that is still going on between Clark and Oliver.  He could also be an excellent love interest for Chloe… now that the jimmy is dead and gone I could see her eventually drifting his way… and with her role as watchtower we could actually showcase the dynamics of being superheros and being in a relationship.  Finally we could see the comming of age story… have Bart have to save Chloe (and give clark a break) sacrifice maturity hardship….all that good stuff.

3.Lets get some villian team ups!  I believe they are bringing Zod back for a arc next season lets see some teaming up going on… Bring back  Brainiac or have a alliance of Meteor freaks that cause trouble for a 4 or 5 episode arc.

4. More Lois… why would you send someone with her assets on a trip through spacetime….

5.More teamups!  It can’t be that hard now to have the Red and Blue team up with a side kick every couple of episodes.  Lets see the rest of the Justice League and lets get some powers back to John Jones…. I want me some Martian Manhunter…..

6. Hire me  as a writer for the show… I would kick so much ass that Smallville would be getting Idol like ratings!

Whats up with us?

So real quick I have three movies that everyone must see.

1. Paul Blart!  IDK what it was about this movie but I LOVED it.  I could not stop laughing… It was like the best parody of Die Hard.  Meg was not as impressed but I totally was.
2. UP….Best pixar movie yet nuff said
3. Stop-loss…I had always wanted to see this and I am glad that I did.  I think it did a very good job of capturing the whole mess of the situation.

What are we up too?  Well I have been hounding for jobs even thou my quest has been hampered by my own procrastination and the pokey-ness of a former boss to write my final letter of recommendation.  I have been trying to sub but have not heard crap from anyone…. So after searching for a job for three weeks to no avail I took a job as a roofers helper kinda thing.  Hard work but it is paying the bills….or will be when I get caught up.  When I told my father (not gonna lie I WAS searching for the “good job for sucking it up and doing what you need to and being a man speech” expressed his worry by doubting my abiltiy to look for a job and telling me that I am so clumsy that I will fall and kill myself in a week.  Thanks Dad!  He did also say I could never learn how to drive standard….

Anywho while I’m doing all of that Meg has been doing her Grad school thing and patentially waiting for me to get a job so we can focus on getting her threw grad school while I start sharing the finacial burden….she can write more about that later if she feels like it.

Last but least we have been dipping into more adult waters.  We have been searching and talking about buying a house.  Yes I know we have no money  but we spend over $500 on rent that is money that we just flush every month.  So we have been looking for deals (I love me some forclosed house!) after talking to a relator earlier today we have  a good idea of where we need to go but it is kinda hard.  We are limited in area as to where to live.  Meg needs to stay close to her job (hopefully tenured next year) and we want to stay close enough to our parents so that they can have close relationships with our kids when we finally start breeding.
So that is us in a nutshell….not a glamorous post but it gets the job done

I’M DONE!!!!!!! (mostly)

So after many long years and late nights I am done with it all!!!!  Today was my last day at East Ridge student teaching.  I am going to miss my seniors!!  And they better all graduate or I will drive up there and kick there butts!  So I don’t have much else to say at the moment trying to see whats going on tonight/ tomorrow to celebrate.    Update:  Going out tomorrow having night in tonight.

It’s 6am and I’ve been up for almost 3 hours because I’ve already gotten 7 hours or sleep OR Maturity- the process of growing up for the young and foolish

Yes I honestly went to bed at 8:30 last night *:#)!  [8:30 in caps ]

Anyways we are moving on with the wedding on this weeks agenda: Cakes and Flowers (YEY and WTF)

After being unproductive last week I made a bunch of cake testing times for last night and today and we plan on stopping by florists on the down time.

Work is work and school is school

I met with my SBE (School Based Educator[try to keep up with the acronyms]) on Thursday and she was just down right amazing weird witty and generally an awesome person.  She will be getting a student teacher (from Fisher) a bit before I will be in the class and she is all about having a three-way co-teaching extravaganza.  I’ll definatly have to get a heads up on the unit they are on and do some cramming because it will be 10th grade so it’s Global stuff which isn’t my forte.  Two last comments 1)she does mostly projects (so me).  2)when she was walking me out she said hi to a half dozen kids by name(also me).  She said something about how she just doesn’t want me sitting in her class watching but she wants to me be involved with the kids (something I really need to work on )   It will definatly be a change from my past experiences since Apollo is the size of Marion Jr Sr and East is over double the size!

Work was really full-filling this week, can’t really say but know that it was good!   On something that I can talk about I found it was funny how people see things differently the behavior specialist on my team is mad chill so when we talk about work we generally get off topic and end up talking forever, I alway feel like I am talking her ear off.  Anyways today I sent her an email today cause I was looking for fun school appropiate websites and it would be easier for her to send them back in an email rather then write them down and I have to put them in.   Blah blah blah we were talking and she implied that it was because she talks my ear off.  IDK just amusing.  Anyways I need to get cracking on stuff ’round so I shall talk to y’all later!

Thank you dead presidents

Soooooo long time no post. We have been crazzzzy busy!!! But the wedding is moving along nicely!

-Bridesmaids dresses from david Bridal

-Tuxes from Mens wharehouse (I’m getting my tails ) [The fathers get to both be Johnny Cash:-P]

So over this break we want to get the cake thing figured out and find a florist, get the chairs lined up (ha ha), and touch base with all our people (hopefully over drinks or something equally fun)

We recently had our first and last aniversery, the next one that we have will be in 2009 on 8/24/8 anyways we both exchanged presents a bit early I got Meg a Logitech Ipod speaker-sterio thing and she totally trumped that and got me a philips 1000watt suround sound unit with progressive scan DVD . Then when our actual aniversery came around 2/14 she was having a horrible day so I told alittle white lie saying I was running late and went to Geneseo and got her 3 carnations, a heart box of chocolate, and two new pairs of shoes. Then we settled in for a real dinner, I cooked steak and potatoes and we had some fresh bread. The only thing lacking was some dessert but we devoured the candy so it all ended well

Last night we were at a party at my Aunts house (they had a Daytona 500 party) it was a great time, I ended up talking with my Aunt and playing with my cousin (the Runt) so much that I only so 4 laps of the Race! My uncle was happy because A) he was watching Nascar on his new big screen (42″ is the ideal size for the Ventura clan I guess!) and B) his guy covered the spread Chu Ching$$.

So on to other stuff, work is going alright for the both of us, we were both far more stressed then we let on to be so it’s good to have the time off (people don’t relise how taxing it can be working with kids all them time[the breaks aren't just for the kids!]). After break is over I will be meeting with my mentor to figure out when I am doing my observation hours (I have to do 50 hours of observation at East High working in a 9-10th grade social studies classroom) I’m excited about it I will have to take a leave of absence at Apollo to do that which is kinda scary cause 1) it’s the first time I’ve taken off since I got the job and 2) things are kinda rocky with my student at the moment but what can you do?

Well I’m gonna go eat my lunch, if Meg has more to say she is just going to have to add it herself!

Until next month

The wedding so far

What we know:

Date: 8/24/8

Maids of Honor: Manda and Megan

Best Man: Randy

Bridesmaids: Cassie and Amanda

Groomsman: Wilson, Aland, & Tim

DJ- Austin

Photography- MLE

Flower Girl: Rebekah Grace Powderly

Just one thousand more things to go