12/26/07: Personal Grief

It has been a while since I wrote. I need to unload something from my chest. I went to a holiday party last weekend and a friend offered us a limo ride there/back so that we would not drink and drive. The evening before, I had seen our babysitter's mother at a party and mentioned that the limo would be bringing her daughter home and, when the mother said that her daughter hadn't been in a limo before, I specifically said, "Oh, then maybe I will arrange to take her for a ride!". So the mother had been told and I thought it was cleared.

When the girl came over and we were getting ready to leave for the party, I promised the babysitter and my 9 year old a ride in the car when I took the babysitter home.

Holiday party was fun but very little food. I had six wines and apparently was intoxicated, although my husband didn't seem to notice. I took the kids for the limo ride around town to see the lights and decorations. Then, for some reason, we stopped at a restaurant that is also a pub for a total of two minutes (verified by limo driver and my son). I remember peeking in the windows and looking at all of the people. Then we came home.

The mother couldn't find her daughter and went apeshit. She came to our house, tried to wake up my husband who didn't know where we were (in the limo) despite the fact that the limo was IN THE DRIVEWAY when she came to the house. She walked right past it, entered my house, went upstairs, tried to wake my husband who was "comatosed" (her words).

When she grabbed her daughter out of the limo and went home, the girl said that she was crying in the limo (no), begging to go home (no), and that I dragged her by the arm into the bar, sat the at bar, tried to order a drink, sat a table, then left.

I confess that, from the depths of my soul, I do not remember ever entering that restaurant which does have a bar. I do know that we were out of the limo and we did look in the windows of the restaurant at the lights and decorations. I do recall her laughing with my son who also said this was true AS DID THE LIMO DRIVER. The mother is insisting that isn't true and her daughter is not a liar. My son said that he saw us peek in the windows and did not see us enter the establishment. The limo driver said that we might have when he turned the limo around but it was about 2 minutes that we were out of the car.

The mother is threatening to call the authorities, take my children away from me, etc. I have known this woman for 14 years. She's best friends with my sister and has been a psuedo-family member. I had apologized to her, her husband, and the daughter. I have gone to the church to seek spiritual guidance from the priest and deacon. I have arranged to go to counselling starting tomorrow. What the hell else does she want from me? And who is she to judge me as a parent ("You need parental counselling! I fear for the safety of your children!") when she lives in a dirty house and is quite the partier herself. I've seen her completely inebriated in front of her children on more than one occasion.

All my life I have been a wild child. Everyone who knows me is aware of this. I ran away with the circus, lived in Argentina, lived in Alaska, traveled the world, lived with the Amish, studied the homeless. I have always been a party girl but I can also control it when I want to or even when I don't want to. I run a charity (out of my own pocket) to help poor people. I've gone to do mission work in remote locations. Now, because of this, I feel complete despair and hopelessness. I have thought about harming myself but I wouldn't do that to my children. My depression is completely back...I haven't eatten in almost 7 days (before this incident, mind you) and have lost 11 pounds. My stomach is in such a knot that I can't think straight.

To add insult to injury, the mother and father say their daughter is TRAUMATIZED and may need counselling. Yet, on Christmas morning, when I was at my sister's house and my car was parked right out front, not once but TWICE did the girl come to the door. How TRAUMATIZED can she be if she knows that her "tormentor" is in the house and she comes over two times? And the mother, who flatly informed me that I shall never have contact with her daughter again, knew we were there and still sent her over to give my neice a present THEN return to ask for onions. She must have been really, really, really upset, eh? Couldn't wait until we left at 11 to do that? The mother knew that, every year, we go to my sister's house for breakfast in Christmas. Guess the girl's trauma isn't so bad...?

My niece is her friend and her reaction was "Oh please, she always overreacts to everything."

My intention was do something fun for the kids. Something Christmasy. It backfired and I have apologized. Now this woman's reaction (including telling me that her husband wanted to kill one of us on the night this happened) has tramatized me. I can't eat, can't sleep, can't focus. I keep crying and throwing up. I think she is evil, an evil, evil woman who professes to be the best Catholic on the planet. I doubt she will sue because of the friendship with my sister but...who knows? Does she has a case? Did I break any laws? Was it such a horrible, terrible thing? Even the head priest of HER church said "Great intentions but inappropriate timing. Not a biggie, though." If I have agreed to do everything the mother asks (apologize in writing to the daughter, seek counselling, never drink again...), can she still sue? Can you sue without asking for retribution first?

The shock of this is too much for me. How can I get over this?

I love the fact that she thinks I'm an alcoholic and need to get alcohol help when she, herself, drinks more than frequently and in front of her children. And, as far as bad parenting, my kids live life large...just like me. Her children live in a dirty house with piles of dirty laundry all over the place and unmade beds. Her 14 year old son plays sniper games on XBox (nice Catholic game, eh?). She feeds them crap, deep fried food and rich deserts. Her children never play outside but sit inside, watching tv all summer long and after school. That's great parenting, isn't it?

Who is she to judge me? Who the hell is she to DEMAND these things????? I am who I am and I don't hide anything. I don't pretend to be perfect.

Am I wrong is despising her or is it just a defense mechanism?

07/11/07: Summer Mania

I hate summer. I used to love summer but now I hate summer. At the risk of sounding like a Negative Nancy, let me repeat: I hate summer.

The kids are driving me crazy. They are so fuckin' loud. They cannot play quietly. They cannot shut up. They are just so fuckin' loud.

If I have to repeat myself one more time, I'm going to commit myself to a psych ward:

"No food in the playroom."
"No balls in the house."
"Pick up your K-Rap-A."
"Brush your teeth."
"QUIETTTT!"
"Get outta my face!"

Yes, I have resorted to telling them to get out of my face...usually when I'm trying to pee or shower and they are screaming for me. People think I have five kids...there are usually extras hanging around. One calls me her half-mom. But I only have two. And they scream, yell, torment my soul.

Oh, I love them...but I love them better in September when they are at school.

06/29/07: Bong Hits 4 Jesus

What the hell is this whole pile of crap about? Some retard stands across the street from a school holding a sign that reads "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" and then SUES the school because the principal confiscates the sign? And the world erupts in protest over our First Amendment rights?

Give me a friggin' break!

Maybe that's part of the problem. What was the purpose of that sign? What was he trying to prove? Where the hell were his parents? The kid is promoting drugs with Jesus and, regardless of your religious affiliation across from a school, that is simply waving the red flag in front of the bull...no good coming out of the situation.

Why aren't the parents punishing the kid? Why are people outraged? Frankly, I'm outraged by the OUTRAGE. That is the most ignorant lawsuit. The family should be counter-sued for stupidity...

06/28/07: Stupent Alert...

OK, so this chick in my Sales Management class is singing the blues because she's an A student and she earned a C- in my class. Her writing was worse than my 4th graders and she couldn't string two thoughts together if her life depended on it. In fact, one paper was so poorly written that I had to read it three times to recognize it AS a paper!

This time, I hunted down her two previous professors to find out the story as to why she received As. One comments that her writing stunk. My response? Then why did you give her an A?

"Oh, I didn't...I gave her an A-."

What the hell is that? An A- for an adult learner who doesn't use commas, uses Google search engine results as sources, and doesn't include page numbers (forget about the actual assignment!)? It's not the students who are lame...it's the friggin' instructors who fear being fired for giving the students...cough cough...the CUSTOMER the grade earned.

05/15/07: Computer Games and Kids

I'm so sick and tired of the mass of computer games on the Internet and listening to my kids beg/plead/promise the world for a subscription to them. Forget the fact that my neighbor's kid stole my 5 year old's Webkinz code and I'm having a helluva time getting it back. The world is too much stimulation with absolutely no loyalty.

Daughter MUST have Club Penguin one day...then is into Dragon Fables the next. Son is a Premier Member of Runescape at the tune of $6 a month (!!! that's $72 a year!!!) then cries when I cut him off. The withdrawal is too much and I almost give in but, when I realize that he only logged in twice a month...that got rather expensive and I stood my ground.

I swear it's because the TV provides 24x7x1000 channel stimulation to these kids. Gone are the days of waiting for Saturday morning cartoons or weekly kid programs on Sunday night. It's a world of instant gratification...

02/01/07: Horse

Bought a horse. Don't ask. Call it a mid-life crisis but, despite the fact that I'm turning 38 this month, I had no choice...it was love. If I had the horse before children...heck, before marriage...I'd have no offspring or wedding ring, let me tell you. :0 Husband freaked out but too bad. I work for a living and I enjoy my time with the horse. Who cares if the laundry isn't done?

12/06: Happy Stupent

For those of you who think I'm a total meanie, I just wanted to let everyone know that my stupent who was MIA for five weeks is off the hook. I let her slide and told her I'd give her an incomplete and let her re-take the course (without paying) and change her grade in the spring.

Merry Christmas!
(See? I do have a heart!)

12/05: Crazy Family

I will digress from academia to speak about my family who are, apparently, as crazy as my instructors and students. Christmas is coming and I struggled to buy all presents pre-Thanksgiving so that I could enjoy the holidays. Both grandparents are trying to snag all of my gifts for my kids and have depleted my inventory. Next, my own sibling called me to complain that she cut open a package with a gift for my son and ruined it. When I laughed and said, "Wow, glad that's YOUR problem!" she replied with "It IS YOUR problem...it's a gift for your kid!"

What the friggity-frig is up with that???? She's as bas my stupents who don't take responsibility for crapola when the chips are down and they realize that they aren't earning a passing a grade!

11/29/06: My Instupendents

My instupendents refers to the fact that the faculty that I hire are retarded. One of them went so far as to tell as student IN WRITING that "they should have earned an F and were lucky to get the C that I gave you." What the hell are they thinking? As an admin, I can tell you that my first thought is..."If the student earned a F, why did you give them a C, fool?" Isn't this the problem with all of academia? Instructors give students the grades that they DON'T deserver which makes the students think that their minimum is the requirement for the A? We are our own worst enemies...and the students who think that they are winning by "earning" these grades...they are the ultimate losers.

09/04/06: Jalapeno'd!

The bad news is that I made it to Rate My Professor. The good news is that I got jalapeno'd! My ratings stink for the most part (except for the jalapeno person and someone else who thought I rocked). The ironic thing is that I can almost pick out the students who trashed me. One claimed that I didn't return any of my emails (yes, darling, because you were emailing the WRONG ADDRESS!) and another that I sucked because she should have earned an A- but I gave her a B+ (yes, dear one, because you didn't PARTICIPATE in the online class!).

*sigh*

Does anyone take those ratings seriously?

09/01: "I'm so confused..."

Email from Stupent:

I am having some difficulty with this week's journal entry. The question does not coincide with the chapters to me. So therefore i answered the question the best way I knew how but I do not have two pages. I am confused because each entry should be two pages and single spaced, according to the syllabus. Please contact me when you can. I have been short on a couple of the other journal entries. I do not want this to affect my grade.

Reply from Instructor:

Hi Student,

You wrote "I am confused because each entry should be two pages and single spaced, according to the syllabus." But you don't tell me what is confusing about that. It seems fairly clear to me. Let me know what is actually confusing you about that and I will be happy to clarify.

Signed,
Professor

08/19: Evaluations

I know that I haven't written in a while. With summer and kids, it has been hard. But I just received my spring 2006 evaluations and I'm so disgusted that I had to write.

Two classes. One loved me. The other hated me (and the class). On the surface, who cares what they think of me. Frankly, the class that hated me was the energy vampire class that just sucked the life out of me and made my life miserable for 14 weeks. Here were comments:

"This classes was so stupid. It felt like we were back in 3rd grade!" OK, granted...professional communication is not typically a favorite class but, to be truthful, they all needed it because they used poor grammar, couldn't write a ransom note if they had to (forget about a business memo), and had crummy attitudes.

"Instructor brought children to class two times. Very unprofessional for an professional communication class." This one ticked me off. How short-sighted. I suppose it would have been more professional to cancel the class? What message does that send from a professional communication perspective? I bet they wouldn't have complained over that one.

Do they think I enjoyed dragging the 8 year old to campus with me (who, btw, was very well behaved and quiet)? Do they think he enjoyed it? As for the second incident, it was the last class with presentations. Yes, it sucked dragging a 4 year old (who was basically good...for a 4 year old) but it was either cancel the class with no opportunity for a make-up session and that wouldn't be fair to the final presenters who went the week before since this group would have gotten off without doing the presentation. Nor was it fair to cancel class and all of their hard work (ha ha) was for naught.

I read the evaluations and cursed them with the hopes that they have sickly children and get canned from a job for having to take sick days then think back on this evaluation that they wrote...criticizing me for caring enough to torture my own children in order to follow through on my professional commitment. But that just shows how narrow-minded these spoiled little kids (not even adults) are!

I really hated teaching at that school. I bailed out on my contract to teach there this year. It was refreshing when I had to inform the department chair...the same woman who politely "reprimmanded" me for giving my stupents too much work because the stupents were complaining that I was hard (!! isn' that the point of college...? it if was easy, the degree would be worth nothing...oh wait, isn't that's what happening now with undergraduate degrees anyway?)

For the record, my new contract at a different school has been fabulous, rewarding, and completely different. The students are dedicated...ironically, mostly from Canada...and take it seriously. Of course, there are the few stupents tossed in there but, for the most part, I'm back where I belong and enjoying teaching again.

04/23: Classic Denial

You'll love this email I received from a student this week:

Professor,

I have tried unsuccessfully several times to contact you regarding the online class. I have not been able to pull it up on Blackboard and I have tried to get help but they are telling me that I am not enrolled. But then I went to go see the Blackboard tech person and she said that I am enrolled, so I am really frustrated and confused and I have not been able to see any of the assignments and I could not get a phone number for you and I stopped by your old office but they said that you no longer have one on campus. if you could get back to me that would be great. I graduate in May and I need this class and I am extremely worried. I would be willing to do anything to pass this class I am not sure what happened to my blackboard account. Thank you, L. H.

Here was my response to her:


Hi L,

It has been quite a while since I heard from you and, unfortunately, I don't know what to tell you. How were you trying to contact me? This is the first email that I have received from you in months. My cellphone didn't ring, either (which was posted online in the classroom from day one). If you contacted your study buddy, that person never contacted me. However, that was the very first assignment in the course and you didn't complete that (at least not as far as I am aware...the other students posted their study-buddy online as I requested but I don't see any postings from you on this assignment).

I could have easily resolved your concerns if you had contacted me. During Spring break, I removed you from the online course. You had not participated or logged into the class in months. You did not submit even one assignments and I had no contact from you. In fact, the last record of your presence in Blackboard was on February 1st. If you had, indeed, been trying to get into the classroom or accessing it, what did the help desk tell you? Certainly they would have seen that you were not even listed? If you had emailed or contacted me, I would have put you back into the course.

I don't know what to tell you about graduation. But, clearly an online class requires an online presence. I made that very clear in the beginning of the course. Since I last heard from you on or about February 1st and it is now mid-April, I feel no obligation to give you an incomplete or pass you for the course. I know that isn't the answer you want to hear, but you will need to discuss this with your advisor. I'm cc'ing the department chair on this email as I had contacted her via email on 2/15 that you had logged into the class but not participated or submitted assignments. I advised the chair at that time that you were not going to pass the class since you were not participating or submitting work on time and she was notifying your advisor. Perhaps the chair will other advice for you. Best of luck and I'm sorry that you waited until mid-April to contact me.

Professor

04/13: One month?

I cannot believe I haven't written for an entire month! Things have calmed down and there is a light at the end of the horizon. Only three weeks left and, in the meantime, my one online course ended. Yippee! I'm almost done AND...drum roll...I'm taking next semester off. Well, off from face-to-face teaching. The school thinks differently and put me on the schedule even though they never asked me to teach! That's a good sign but I did have to tell them that I wasn't going to do it.

My online class had an interesting character in it. She wanted an A. That was the bottom line. Not that she wanted to EARN an A, she just wanted it. She spent hours on the phone with her advisor about why she deserved an A. She ended up earning an A- and she was furious. She was also mad at me because I didn't respond to her in a timely fashion during the week I was at the funeral for my father-in-law (even though I told them that I wouldn't be responding, I was going to a funeral, and we had a SECOND instructor that she didn't contact!).

I love my stupents...

BTW, I had an amazing student in this class. She was a dream student who went the extra mile and really put in 150%. She earned an A and raised the benchmark for the rest of the class. It was an amazing experience to finally have a really, really good student again. Ahhhhh...the joy of teaching when the students want to work for their grades, not just get them handed to them.

03/15: Ideas of March

Yes, March is always my month of ideas and I used the Ides of March to re-evaluate my resolutions and see what I can do to make life easier. With spring on the horizon, this is the perfect time to reflect and make changes.

I surveyed my Prof Comm class and half of them hate it. Not necessarily me (I hope) but the book is too simple and the material to basic. So, while they are on spring break, I reassessed and decided that I'm going to let THEM run the class (under my watch, of course). They are working on their simulation and I'm having them do weekly presentations which they must apply to real world situations. I told them that the more creative they are, the higher the grade. Let's see how that flies.

I'm not sure with to do with my Advertising class.

Market Research was easy. There are only five surviving students and it's online so I have them going out and doing research. I gave them steps along the way and they simply post their experiences. Simple. That reminds me that I have to post their midterm today.

The problem class is this stupid Leadership class I'm teaching. The students are AWESOME but I'm co-teaching it with this person who has never taught before. Let's use the name Bob. Bob is panicking and constantly emailing me. When I walk into the office, he bombards me with questions even though I teach outside of work, not during work time. Bob doesn't post responses to the students' postings but is always online. I have no idea what the hell Bob is doing! However, on Tuesday when I walked into the office, Bob actually reprimmanded me in front of peers because I didn't respond to his email on Friday (which was actually Saturday afternoon and, sorry, I didn't do work this weekend). I was really pissed.

Here I am, doing 80% or more of the work, putting up with a teaching neophyte and...here's the beauty...I'M PAYING THE COLLEGE TO DO IT! That's right. Bob's getting $2K and I'm PAYING $800 b/c I need this course to complete my MBA. We had worked out a deal where I would co-teach it for the grade (I wrote the darn course, for crying out loud).

I'm just biting my tongue and biding my time. Since I manage the schedule of who teaches what, guess who ain't teaching any more online courses? That would be Bob...

BTW, back to the Ideas of March...I've been finding killer content to include in my online courses. Some of these publishers have some really awesome material. It's exciting to think how advanced these courses can be. Now, if we could only fight grade inflation to motivate students to try harder...

02/25: Jerky Intellects

So, it's after the funeral and I'm chatting with some of my husband's cousins. One is a really nice guy who got his PhD and now teaches out west somewhere in a tenure-track position. It's a big deal for him. The other is this beady-eyed only child moron intellect who could not communicate his way out of a paper bag unless it had the instructions based upon the Rosetta Stone code scribbled on the inside. I never really liked this guy because I suspect he's a fraud. A big fat fraud that isn't as smart as he thinks he is.

The nice cousin and I were talking about classes and teaching. Really nice guy. The other one...well, he just talks to hear himself and forget what YOU have to say.

As they are leaving, my husband makes a comment to nice guy, "Great see you, buddy or should we say, Professor?"

I proudldy chimed in "He has a PhD! It should be Doctor!"

Social moron guy mumbles, "Well, actually, in academia, a professor is more impressive than a doctorate."

I looked at this guy as if he had three heads. What the hell is he talking about? I'm a f'ing professor and I don't have my doctorate. I once got lashed out at by the Vice President b/c someone teasingly called me Dr. Blahblahblah (and I had nothing to do with it).

What pisses me off is that the moron cousin obviously is so stupid that he doesn't even realize that he's stupid. But he also thinks that I'M stupid just because I exist. He doesn't even bother to find out what I do or don't know.

Later on, we all sat around the table b.s.ing and my two sister-in-laws were commenting how smart this guy is and how he's on a different plain. My husband (bless him!) made a few comments back that he's not really that smart just because he specializes in one niche and he doesn't know how to communicate with people unless it's about that niche. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE! I really wanted to slap those people who allowed this jerky "intellect" into bullying them into feeling stupid. I was proud of my husband for actually saying that to my one sister-in-law. Of course, he was half drunk and when I tried to talk to him later about it, he passed out so I didn't get to have an in-depth discussion.

Why do people who think they are so smart get off by trying to make other people feel stupid? That bothers me. I consider myself fairly intelligent (hell, I graduated college when I was 20 and had my masters by 22!). But I don't glory in dumb-ifying other people. In fact, I'm intrigued more by with other people have to say than what I think I know. Maybe I'm onto something. Maybe I'm smarter because I don't want to talk but to listen. It's the talkers who only care about spreading their own knowledge without acquiring more since they think they know everything. In fact, I get mad when my husband pushes me into debates on topics that I know a lot about (such as religion or politics in Middle East...personal knowledge pursuits of mine). My mother does this, too, when I'm with her best friend's husband drinks too much and starts spewing off ridiculous Scripture. I'll play a little bit if he's being really obnoxious because I'm fairly well-versed on both Old and New Testament. But I actually try to keep that a secret. No one else cares. They have their own opinions, and about topics like religion and politics, they usually don't want to hear mine.

Long rant...sorry. But that guy ticked me off. Give the PhD the credit and accoldates. That's hard work. And to pretend that being called "professor" is better than being called "doctor"? COME ON! That was a ridiculously stupid thing for this supposedly 'genius' to say.

[Of course, I now risk exposing my own ignorance when twenty people comment that I'm wrong but, if so, I will apologize to Chip the Dip Cousin. ]

02/24: Funerals and Classes

So my father-in-law passed away last week and we are currently attending the funeral. It's amazing because two weeks prior to that, my best friend's mother decided to kill herself in a very dramatically choreographed "event" in New York City (no further details out of respect to my friend). I have become the student that I hate...the one who has a gazillion people die during the semester. Oh yes, and toss in a blizzard. So I basically have missed a month of teaching. I am the "blow off" instructor this semester.

I did return to the classroom last week and it was surreal. There is one student in my first class who reminds me of my childhood "Nellie Olson". This chick could be her twin. I hated this girl. I remember getting into a kicking match in 4th grade on the playground. I delighted when she was sent home for being too "dirty" to attend class (which is weird b/c her parents were rather prominent). She disappeared for a while and returned a few years later only to steal my boyfriend in high school. He was a druggie loser but hey, at the time, he was cool. Now I have her twin sitting in my class staring at me with big brown eyes. And she has become my "academic role reversal" nemesis. She actually is helping me because I'm so distracted with death and trauma and heart-sick friends and family. It sucks. I feel like such a loser. I forgot to post assignments on Blackboard. I wrote the wrong dates for something else. This chick is reminding me and guiding me through the process. It makes me feel like crap.

But the good news is that my shitty online market research class has finally taken a turn for the better. We're down to five solid students and I have a rhythm going. I feel much better about it. Lets see how Monday goes when my kooky buddy steps up to the plate to run my classes for me.

02/13: ARGH...my kids!

They are driving me nuts! We're snowed in and, while I normally wouldn't mind, I've had a rough few weeks. My best friend's mother committed suicide last week, my husband has been traveling like a lunatic, and the latest tragedy is his father being rushed to the ER and it's not looking good. Add 20+ inches of snow and being trapped with two rammy kids and I become rather cranky.

Now, I recognize that this seems to be a theme in my life/blog but I'm really a nice person. Usually nice, anyway. Just not during January/February/March. I hate the cold, hate the kids being stuck indoors, hate the constant noise of computer games or the telvision and I despretely miss my gardens.

I've given up the battle with my kids over the Game Cube, computer games, and television. I'm going to chalk these months up as complete lost causes with little to no contribution to spatial brain development for the three year old and similar intelligent design over the 7 year old. I'm a loser mother right now and I just have to suck it up because my work load and lack of physical presence by their dad is hindering me from being Ma Ingalls to these kids right now. I suppose they'll turn out OK...

Of course, we're trapped today and my husband is battling the airports to get to his dad and I have the munchkins plus I seem to be acquiring more throughout the day. I just wrote this long post for the blog and the doorbell ringt where I lose one munchkin but gained another. As I answer the door and turn back to the computer, my son is gleefully sitting there with his buddy. WHAT???!!! They erased my entire posting AND the new kid is hungry b/c his mom didn't feed him lunch. ARGGGH! I just shut the damn kitchen and cleaned up. I'm not a short order cook.

All I want to do is get caught up on grading papers and class prep and paint the family room. Is that too much to ask? I cannot even get to the paint store to buy the paint.

02/08: Corrupt Faculty Member

I'm really ticked off today. I just found out that one of the "pet" faculty members at my school has been sending bills to the college for tutoring his own students. This really angers me and I cannot believe that the dean is not terminating this guy. Can you imagine? That's your JOB to teach these students...you don't get paid extra because you are doing such a crappy job in the classroom that the students need a tutor! If I don't explain something properly or if my student needs help, I help that student. I spend the time to help the student understand the concepts or assignments. Can you imagine charging the school $20/hour for this? It's not like he received permission or referred the students to the tutoring center. He just did it on his own.

What a crock of crap! It makes me so angry because I go above and beyond the call of duty for my students (at least those that make an attempt). I keep hearing about budgets and money then I hear this???? I'm really angry...

02/02: Going Crazy Already

I'm overwhelmed already! One of my classes is going EXCEPTIONAL, one is so-so, and one stinks. It's my fault this time around and I take the blame. I have too much going on. I never should have accepted the third course (stinky one) but the instructor was deployed to Iraq. I felt it was my patriotic duty to step up to the plate and cover for him. Now I'm going bananas trying to get caught up and organized. Of course, two children under the age of 8 make that impossible. HELP!!!!