ACK!!

So I am sure most of us have been in a class and thought "why the heck do I have to know this??" I know I have been, but dealt with it and moved on. You realize, especially in high school, that you learn things that do not feel applicable to you and your life. Especially in life. And you want to know what? Some of those things really are NOT applicable to you and your life. Can anyone tell me when you are really going to use the quadratic formula? Anyone? I mean really. Sure I can still sing it to myself... -b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus 4ac over 2a. Whatever. Have I used it since then? Nope. Okay but what about surface area? Volume? Area? Heck yeah you use them. If I want to figure out how much paint to buy to paint a room, I need to know how to figure out surface area. If I want to fill something up and find out how much I can fit in there, that is volume. So yes, you use those things, correct? Unless you are my high school students are would rather waste the money that they do not have and will not make by just buying a bunch of paint, or run to Home Depot a billion times for paint.

You try to teach these kids and realize that you have to do things in a way that they can relate to. There are many teachers out there who use rap to teach different math terms to their kids. There is part of me who loves this idea, "Hey I can get them to learn it using something they like!" Then there is another part of me that says, "What the heck, why do I have to subject myself to something I hate in order for them to learn it? If they want to learn it, they need to apply themselves more." However, there is the problem. They do NOT want to learn it. They do not CARE if they learn it. Why should they? What is in it for them? What is the point? What good is it going to do them?

How do you inspire a bunch of kids to want MORE out of their life than they see around them? I cannot imagine being happy working at Burger King for the rest of my life, or living off of minimum wage. No I am not a snob, but hey you know what? I LIKE driving my truck. I like going out to dinner every now and then. I LIKE not living paycheck to paycheck. I plan on being able to retire at a decent age and having retirement set aside. It frustrates/irritates/saddens me that these kids are totally cool not having goals or aspirations. They feel that they are entitled to certain things, but do not take advantage or responsibility of the things that are rights. How can you have a free education shoved in your face and ignore it? It isn't like I loved high school, but I went and did my best. Am I ever going to use the calculus I learned? Probably not, but you know what, I like having that knowledge in my brain. I like knowing why when I jump on a trampoline the airplane over my head sounds different. (Thank you Mr. Flaherty senior year Physics!) Here I am 23 years old and putting myself thousands of dollars in debt to get an education. Yes, I complain about homework and how I will be in school FOREVER (and I will be), but at the same time I LOVE learning new things. There are days where I want to throw certain textbooks in the fireplace and yell "BURN BABY BURN!!" while I enjoy the bonfire that results..., yet I love gaining new knowledge. Am I the most intelligent person on Earth? No, just sitting around some of my cousins is dang good proof of that!! :) I will admit that I probably do not always reach my full potential, but I at least have some desire to improve myself and to get an education.

I have a billion more things running through my head right now, but I also have a billion more things that I need to get done today.

The Weirdest Kids on the Earth....

I swear, I have THE weirdest kids on this planet. Honestly. I love them all, but they are crazy. I decided that I really need to keep a record of the things that happen around here. Not only are the kids crazy, but we are too. Today, the first day back after Fall Break, was insane. I had moments in the junior high room where I just got soo depressed about the things that they do not know. (Did you know that Gettysburg is a disease??) Only a couple of them really could tell me ANYTHING about the Civil War. All I got from them was that it was fought between the South and the West? or East? or North? Or maybe it was West side against East side.... And it was fought because of slavery. Okay, that I was expecting. In today's world, everyone is taught that the Civil War was fought because of slavery. Welllll no not really. Yes, slavery was an underlying cause, but that is not why it happened. However, that will be another blog... ;)

Not only did they not know about Gettysburg and the Civil War, but there is a sad lack of any sort of awareness. Most of them had never even heard about "Remember The Titans" let alone seen it. I decided we need to watch it next semester when we talk about Civil Rights. Only two of them had seen "Amazing Grace". I told them I would give extra credit if they watched it at home and wrote about it. I doubt any of them will, but at least I tried! There are so many good movies that could honestly do some good for them! Yes I am a bit of a movie person, but hey a little entertainment never hurt anyone! (Apparently I REALLY like exclamation points...)

Oh and we had a mini lesson in junior high history about how long decade, score, century, and millenium each are...Of course only one kid had ever heard of a score and knew what speech it is in. "Four score and seven years ago..." Which makes me think of "Four s'mores and seven root beers ago..." Are you out there Alyssa?? :)

Perhaps one of the reason the kids are the weirdest kids is because they have the weirdest teachers on earth... This morning in morning meeting Joey was giving one of the girls a hard time as it is her birthday tomorrow and she didn't want anyone to know. He told her we would get the Chippendale dancers to come in for her. I started laughing and pointed to he and Michael and said, "Yeah Chip n' Dale." So Michael put his hands up and started swinging his hips which was followed by Joey doing the same. Of course by this time I was just cracking up. I don't think most of the kids caught it, but it was hilarious. Then Michael said that we weren't supposed to tell about his night job. Yeah these are the guys I work with.

Not only do we harass the kids but we harass each other. My co-workers in the high school decided that I was the popular girl in high school. HAHAHA. Yeah. Right. Joey was teasing me and said he has been thinking about taking me out on a date so all of his buddies would think he hooked up with "some young, hot thing". I don't think his wife would like that very much... He then went on to tell me that his buddies are already talking about me.... Yes how would you like to go from being over-weight in high school to suddenly being a high school teacher and having the kids say you are the hot sexy teacher. It is weird and totally hilarious.

Ohh okay so today's craziness with my high school kids. So we were giving one of the boys a hard time as he and his family went to Disneyland over break and he wasn't terribly excited about it. We asked him if he had a good time and he sort of shrugged and said sure. We asked if he got to hug Mickey and he said that they didn't see him. We asked about Minnie and he asked, "Who?" "You don't know who Minnie Mouse is?? You know Mickey's girlfriend??" "No." "Well did you see anyone, Goofy, Pluto??" "Well, I think I saw the dog." .... "Matthew you should be banned from Disneyland. You aren't even allowed to enter through the gates." I think I saw the dog. Seriously? Then later, when all the kids were back inside, Joey, Jeanette, and I were talking about it to each other from across the room. Mathew said something about Snow White and we teased him about how he know Snow White, but "just the dog..." Well Ambsey heard us talking about Snow White and "the dog" and pipes up, "What are you talking about Snoopy about??" Yeah Snoopy. Gotta love these kids.

Anyways, there is a brief glimpse of my crazy, crazy kids! Oh yeah, the picture at the top is one of our high school kids, wrapped up in duct tape.

Trying New Things

So last week I broke out of my comfort zone and tried something new. Amazing, I know. I know several people who have started doing zumba and loved it. I had been looking into taking a class, as they have a couple here in Snowflake/Taylor. So last Tuesday I decided I would take the plunge and do it. I looked up the address of where it was held at and about a quarter 'til 8 got in my truck and headed towards the end of Snowflake. When I got into my truck I got this nervous feeling. "What if I make a total idiot of myself????" Okay that was really the only thought going through my head, but it was repeated over and over and over... When I pulled into the parking lot I wondered if I was in the right place, until I saw the earlier class inside the windows. Then I sat in my truck and wondered if I should go in....

Eventually Jackie pulled up and I went in shortly after she did. At 8:15 it started. Holy. Cow. It was sooo much fun!!! True, my hips do not typically shake and shimmy (seeing as how my left hip pops in and out of place), but it was a blast. I had a hard time with "Keep your toes pointed forward!" FORWARD??? IN??? WHAT!!!?!?!? My toes do not point forward or in! They point OUT. Try starting dance at 3 years old and then at 23 have someone you are not supposed to turn those toes out. Ha. Yeah, doesn't work so well for me. So my toes remained pointing out. After an hour of dancing, getting some of the moves easily, and totally messing others up, I was sweaty and felt great. The next day my arms were sore. Yeah, my arms, weird huh?

Anyways, it was great fun, and good for me to try something new. My next step is to go to the Singles Ward up here on Sunday... I have never been big on the Singles Ward thing, but I decided to give the Snowflake one a try. I am kind of feeling the need to have SOME sort of interaction with people my own age. Who would have thought?? :)