Bad me. Haven't posted in a while. Guess there hasn't been much to talk about lately. Or maybe I've been too tired to turn on the computer. Yup, I've been just plain tired. Hopefully, with us being off track, I can rest up a bit. Today was a quiet day...can't even remember one of those. Today's frontloading training was great. Kind of a review for me. I had the training a couple of weeks ago at the principals' meeting. Good stuff. I'm a bit disappointed that not everyone is showing up for the training. In the end, it's the kids that miss out. Sad. I'll have to provide some "make up" training sessions during our regular staff development for those who haven't been attending the frontloading training. Anyway, I'm looking forward to tomorrow's training.

Tonight I'm super happy because my computer is working properly again (it was slow and possessed) AND I get to sleep in tomorrow. Woo Hoo!

This morning I was listening to one of my favorite radio shows, The Young Turks. It's on AM 1150 from 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM (yup, I'm an early riser). It's a great show. At the end of this morning's show the hosts talked about the things that they were not thankful for. I thought how blasphemous - how could anyone put down Thanksgiving? Remember in school we always wrote stories and drew pictures depicting all the wonderful things we were thankful for? Can you imagine if we had our kids write stories and letters about the things they were not thankful for? I'm actually a little curious what they would write. I kind of have an idea...one of the kids (hmmm, I think it was a kid) wrote "Fuck Mr. Garcia" on one of the toilet paper dispensers in the boys' main building restroom. We have such great writers at our school, succinct and to the point. No wasted verbage. Lucy Calkins would be so proud!

So in the spirit of blaspheming Thanksgiving, tonight I'll share with you a few things that I am NOT thankful for.

I am NOT thankful that I have to go to four hour principal meetings. I am NOT thankful for all dozens of reports and forms I have to complete. I am NOT thankful for having to meet with crazy parents who have petty complaints. I am NOT thankful for having to deal with out of control kids. I am NOT thankful for the amount of money our school has - we deserve and need more! I am NOT thankful for having to read and respond to over 60 emails a day. I could go on and on, but I won't. I think you get the picture. Wow, so much to be NOT thankful for! Thankfully, there's a lot more to be thankful for than to be NOT thankful for (on most days).

Happy Thanksgiving to you and the ones you love!

So I'm sure everyone at work is talking about whether the guy from Saved by the Bell or the football player will win Dancing with the Stars. I've decided to stay neutral on this topic since I've only seen the show a couple of times. From what I've seen, they are both pretty good dancers.

So who wants to hear about my day? Well, I'm going to tell you any way. Marathon principals' meeting lasting four hours. I popped in to the Columbia training. Thanks so much to the teachers who let the participants observe writing in their rooms!!! I appreciate it!!! Upper grade training is tomorrow. I'm going to try to spend the morning at the training. Although, from what I saw yesterday, it was mostly a review of basic writing workshop. I think we're a little bit beyond that. I had a chance to talk to the trainer a little bit. I actually recognized her from one of Lucy Calkins' DVDs. She modeled a couple of great lessons on the DVD. She's an excellent writing teacher! I think I actually showed the DVD lessons a while back. I'm sure I'll show them again at our January writing Buy Back.

Some days I wish I could just teach writing all day or drive the Truancy Center van. **sigh** But then I wouldn't get to have all of these fantastic conversations with parents, I wouldn't get to create all my wonderful reports, I wouldn't be able to attend these great marathon principals' meetings, and I wouldn't know what to do with myself on Saturdays!!!

If I were teaching writing all day, I probably wouldn't have received this letter, check it out...

Dear Mr. Garcia,

Hi. I am in the 3rd grade. My teacher is Ms. D--y. When I just went to your library, I gotted the book about hamsters. Today I read a lot about it. Did you know that hamsters can live up to 2 years to 4 years? It also said that hamsters eat strawberrys. When I saw it, I showed my mom and she took me to the grocery shop, I saw strawberrys! My mom bought them and when we went back home I got my hamster and fed it strawberrys. I looked at my hamsters face and she was smiling.

My hamster and I want to thank you. You are a really kind man. E---y N--v and J------r L----z love their books so much. J------r read her book, than me, after E---y. Mr. Garcia we really love our books so much!

P.S. Hi!

Sincerely,
C------a M--g

Make good choices!

Ok, isn't that the greatest!!! I LOVE our kids!!!! All I did was let her borrow my books. I'm officially a recovered grump!!!! :)

Parent Complaint of the Day: So today an angry parent called asking why I told her kid she should drink her milk and to not take milk or juice if she wasn't going to drink it. I guess I'm just a very mean man, who doesn't want kids to waste food. Shame on me! What am I thinking? I must be traumatizing these poor children. No wonder they all run away from me when they see me. I thought it was my new cologne. Still jealous?

What would you say to the parent?
a) I'm so sorry about the misunderstanding. We're trying to teach the kids to not waste food. Could you do me a favor, and make sure your child only takes milk or juice if she's going to drink it. Thank you so much for sharing your concern with me.
b) Why the f*&k are you wasting my time with this silly ass concern. Tell your kid to not waste food. **click**
c) I have no idea what you're talking about mam. I think it was someone else who yelled at your kid. It was probably the vice principal. He's extremely mean and short tempered. Let me transfer you to him right now.

Last week was such a nightmare! Key Results, Principals' Leadership Institute (where I sort of said something very inappropriate...so what else is new?), Principals' Professional Development Meeting (four hours long - teachers should be very happy your staff development sessions only last one hour), and Principal for a Day (thank goodness I didn't say anything stupid). I'm hoping the upcoming week will be a little calmer...I think it will be. I didn't do any school work on Friday - honest. I ran a bunch of errands that I don't have time to take care of during the week. One of my Friday stops was to the Torrance Barnes and Noble (my fave). Parking was a nightmare, as always. I bought a couple mags (The New Yorker and Los Angeles - I probably should just subscribe). I also bought Barack Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope. I haven't read a pleasure book in a long time. I think it's time to start reading again. So, before bed, I'm going to read for at least 30 minutes. Maybe even more! I'm loving this book. On page 25, the Illinois Senator writes, "And we will need to remind ourselves, despite all our differences, just how much we share: common hopes, common dreams, a bond that will not break." Smart words. The Senator is talking about the American people, but he could also be talking about us - teachers and staff. We do have common hopes and dreams for the kids we teach. That's why we became teachers in the first place, to make the world a better place and to give kids hope. We want our kids to succeed, to live good lives, and to make the world a better place. No matter how long the days (and weekends) are, no matter how many angry parents I have to deal with, no matter how many piles of paper I have to move around, I will always remember why I became a teacher in the first place - to make sure kids believe in hope and dreams.

Hi, my name is ed (e for short) and I'm a grump. They (not sure who they is...I guess smart people) say the first step of recovery is realizing you have a problem. First step taken. So to begin my trip down the road to recovery, I decided to not exercise tonight, but instead watch the election coverage **reveals a huge toothy smile** and eat sugar free oatmeal cookies (six of them, ok maybe eight). I think my problem is that I'm not getting enough carbs...especially the carbs that come packaged as oatmeal cookies and muffins.

So I just finished looking at everyone's blogs. VERY impressive! Wow, I work with some really smart, talented, and reflective people. Chic alors!

Lately I've been a total grump. I guess I'm just tired. Little things are starting to bug me. It's going to be a very busy week. **sigh**

Today we had our biweekly Pizza Patio Party. For those of you who don't know what that is, let me 'splain. Kids get Wizard Stars for making good choices. When they have ten Wizard Stars they turn them into the office and are invited to have a pizza lunch at the outside benches with me and the VP. It's a nightmare, but a great reinforcer of good behavior. The kids also get a button that says "I'm a Wizard Star!" Good deal for the kids. So get this. After our staff development meeting, I go back to my office to move piles of paper around (that's what I usually do after 4:00). I notice there's a message on my voice mail. Immediately I think bad news - just a hunch. So I listen to the message. It's from an angry parent who is mad at me because I didn't give her kid a piece of pizza at the Pizza Patio Party. She wants me to call her immediately. So I call the parent. She's angry. She asks me how come I didn't give her kid a piece of pizza. (What I want to say is "Well mam, it's because she's a little shit who disrespects her teacher and I'm shocked she was able to get ten Wizard Stars. She must have conterfeited them or stole them." - but I didn't.) I tell her we served almost a hundred kids pizza today and that sometimes we mistakenly miss a kid or two, but usually the kid will say "excuse me, you forgot to give me pizza." I explained to the mother that I'm not a bad man who doesn't give kids pizza that they've earned. I further explained that if her kid had said something I certainly would have given her pizza. Of course I apologized and told the mom that I would invite the kid to the next Patio Party. Can you f$%king believe this???? I probably shouldn't be writing about this, but it really pissed me off. AND GET THIS...this morning at a speech IEP for a private school kid, the parent was telling me how she didn't want her kid to go to our school because we are one of the lowest schools in the district...oh yeah...that's what she said. I could feel the steam coming out of my ears. Needless to say, I public schooled the mom on how well we are doing and that WE ARE NOT one of the lowest schools in the district! Just another one of my typical days. I know you're jealous!

Today was pretty calm considering it was the day after Halloween. Yesterday, I warned the kids to not bring candy to school today. I tried tricking them into giving me some of their candy. At lunch time I went up to some of the kids and asked them if I could have some of their candy. I even told them "please, I'm really hungry!" Only one kid fell for it. He handed me a dum dum sucker. How appropriate. The rest of the kids said, "you told us not to bring candy" or "I'll bring you some tomorrow." How cute is that! We have the best kids!