Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Dear Substitute Teacher...

...Can you please just NOT be a freakin' moron?!?!? All you have to do is 1 show up - on time is best. 2- take attendance 3- write the assignment on the board and hand it out. 4- watch thee students and make them be quiet. Oh and not let anyone die.

I know - it has to be a crappy thankless difficult job. Kids will push the limits. But gosh do they ever get some lameo people in there. If they paid more than 25 bucks a day, maybe someonw literate would apply. They just want a warm body and unfortuanately they get little else than that.

Stupid Stuff Subs Have Done
One man flirted with the girls and said they were pretty and called them "baby" and touched their hair.

One man had my assignments I left and just told the class I left nothing and turned on the TV. The classes watched trash talk shows all day.

Some subs take attendance and leave me a note like, "Three students were absent." Well, great could ya tell me which ones?!?!?

One lady never ever stood up in the classroom. She always sat in the back and all she'd say was "siddown!!"

One subbed in an ESL classroom and they were talking about immigration and the sub said she didn't think foreigners should come to the US and get all this free stuff.

Two subs I have seen were always falling asleep in class. Sleep? In a room full of teenagers? Really?

One lady walked in the room and when some kids who were talking amongst themselves started laughing and the lady instantly thought they were laughing at her and she went off on them yelling about being human and respectful. Ohhh kaaaaaay...

One man called me at home to ask where the work was. I said in the folder on the desk. He said there were 4 packets of papers and did I only have 4 students. I said no I didn't have time to staple them together and each kid got one of each. He still didn't get it.

One guy went through the regular teacher's grade book and found a place in the back where she had written her computer user name and password.  He logged on to have computer access that day. The computer people saw she had logged on yet was absent and then they figured out it was the sub.  Who got in trouble? The regular teacher. Why? He was the one snooping through her stuff.

One man wrote passes for the kids (who told him they were on the polo team) to leave to go out to the stables to feed the ponies.  The school had no stables, ponies or freakin' polo team.

This got me this week:  A kid fell down and got a mild concussion when his head hit the floor and the sub didn't notice. And then the sub did not let the kid go to the nurse when the kid asked to go.

Come on people - we need better subs. Let's pay them more - train them more - get dependable thinking adults in there. 

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Pollen is Evil

I know it isn't really evil.  I DID take Bio 101 and see "The Bee Movie" (learning more from the latter).  I remember it being bad in the South. It was bad in the North, too. It is HORRIBLE this year - first spring spent in the South since 2001. I swear it myst be the El Nino weather causing everything to bloom at once, or something. I'm talking every day wiping tons of yellow gunk of the table on the deck.  My car is unrecognizable it has so much pollen on it (cannot wait to move in a month to our new home with a garage!)

The Pollen Peple send a daily e-mail about the Pollen levels in your zip code.  The very first day it hit High, I got this weird itchy rash all on my back. I am a 9 on a scale of 10 for allergies.  Claritin worked for 10 years. Then I tried allegra, clarinex, everything - and now take Xyzal and use Verimist.  Somedays it doesn't work all day - I have to take a Benedryl to stop scratching my nose.

Can we allergy sufferers unite and appeal to garden centers and nurseries all over the USA to NOT sell any more oak, maple or alder trees?  Can scientists research adn find the least allergenic trees and recommend them? 

I have this new house with few trees and I'd like to plant something - what will not produce tons of airborne pollen? Anyone? Buhler? Buhler?