friday was less better but not too bad

Oh well. At least nobody cried. Especially me. I didn't cry. But I want to cry now. But that's just because I feel it is unjust to deny me a megaphone. (see below)

We have A/B scheduling. So on A days, the kids have one elective, on B days the kids have a different elective, but it's the same period. So they go to Choir on A, Art on B. Or PE on B days, Art on A days. It isn't as confusing as OWF was. On OWF they had something on Odd Mondays, plus Wednesdays and Fridays, and then there was something else for Tues Thurs, which I think was TTR but I'm not sure... I never understood it.

So my A day 8th period 8th graders are a big bunch, nobody's that bad on their own, but several of the boys are just about to bust & turn inside out with all the energy they have, and then there are the ones with caseworkers, etc. nevermind it's 33 kids or something, and I only really have 32 seats. And there is a newly appointed Energy Czar, (as in, they didn't run the air all summer and saved so much money he's now bragging about how MidAmerican called to see if something was wrong with the meter at one of the high schools.) so the entire building is about 4 degrees warmer than a comfortable temperature in a room full of hormonal, warm, breathing bodies when its 90 degrees outside. Mind you, we didn't have air in most of the classes in my high school, and teachers would buy their own window units, but not all of them, and I don't ever remember getting out because the heat was too hot, and I grew up in North Louisiana. There were fans. We did okay. But that's not the point! It's hot, I'm sticky, they're all over the place,  I can keep them seated generally, but they all want "help" ... loosely translated they want me to do it for them... and if I go help one, I'm not fully focused on the rest of them. Some of them think they know how to do it, so they jump ahead. So then they need to erase. To really show someone perspective drawing, you need both hands, both eyes, a mouth, a ruler, a pencil and some big paper. And Focus. You have to focus because there's a precise way to work. I'm trying to make them do it for themselves, and what I'm getting is a room full of, "I can't so I'm going to sit here waiting."

I am so sick of perfectionism I could barf.

There wasn't too bad of a riot, but lots of boys were up out of their desks wandering around.

Megaphone: I asked the technology department for a RedCat device, which is a big speaker at the back of the room, with a mic. you wear around your neck, because my voice is nearly gone by 7th period. It hurts. Seriously, I am about to quit talking and just teach with gestures. Tech emailed back & told me I need a note from my doctor, and then they mentioned they cost like $1000+ dollars and some sort of procedure. (I don't want a new one, don't they have a half-ass one sitting around somewhere??? ) In other words, no, and it makes me want to cry just to think about it. All the elementary schools have them in just about every classroom, every classroom with new acoustic tile, areas with carpeting, and one group of the same kids all day long who know their teacher and exactly all the rules.  But art classrooms have nothing. Other teachers have document cams, smartboards. I'm lucky to have a projector that hooks up to the computer and a pull-down screen. I've been using a giant heat-oven overhead projector to teach perspective, and it works great but it's like a sauna. Maybe that is why I'm so hot and sticky. And mute.

In other news, the little dog is still scared of the dishwasher. Just one day, suddenly she decided the dishwasher is from hell, and about climbed the walls. I realized something was wrong because she was hyperventilating and standing up on the windowsill trying to get out. So now we have to schedule our dishwasher around times when we can be in another room with the dogs. I have them up on the bed with me right this very minute and her nose and both paws are touching my leg. We used to sleep with the dogs till we realized we were dying from sleep deprivation, and our white sheets and blankets always had little dots of dog snot or somebody's grassy paws or bloody toenail or whatever. Now we don't even want them up because we always have clean sheets and I never wash the dogs. Logan sometimes washes them, but I sort of worry they'll accidentally drown when he does it. Tonight I have a quilt on the bed over my white sheets so I can wash the dishes. My cat is way happier now that the dogs sleep together in their own bed in the kitchen. Unless the dishdevil is on.

I'm making bone broth in the slow cooker.

I went to see the PA the other day and the new guy took my blood and jabbed a hole in my blood vessel big enough to install one of those ships you'd ordinarily put in a bottle. I have a spectacular bruise. It started out a black bud but it is blossoming into a temporary petunia tattoo.  She tested my TSH, Free T4, (but it's like she doesn't even know about Free T3, or they can't do it? I told the guy, anybody can get that tested themselves using a lab you can find on the interwebs.) Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D. The guy with the needle said almost everybody they test for Vitamin D is deficient.  I wonder what that even means. What are the symptoms? I told them I need my thyroid meds raised just a teensy bit.

This is a detail from the collage I'm making. Logan wants his own giraffe, so since I have to make a demo example anyway for a project the TAG class will do, I am doing a giraffe. I'm still working on the eye. I have some perfecting to do, so it's still a work in progress.

Also, I have to share this pollen, I think it is amazing. The flowers in my back yard make me so happy.

 these little white flowers are tinier than the tip of your fingernail. I like the bug in the picture but Johnnie said it looks like a booger or something. It wasn't exactly a bee, but not really a fly. For sure not a booger.

Last but not least, Mr. C.