Good Golly, Ms. Molly!

This may be a record for me on this old blog. It's a bit dusty, yes? Well, gentleman #3 and I did date for a brief little while. Things got pretty serious fairly quickly. And, as many things do when they develop quickly, once I was able to catch up to what was really happening around me, I realized this was not the relationship for me. I hope he finds what he wants, unfortunately, that was not me. So, I am still on the hunt for my Betty (as in Betty Crocker Brownie - you can credit Lisa with that one!)

School started almost four weeks ago and it's so crazy to think that! We're slowly coming out of the honeymoon phase and starting to show our true colors to each other. My 8th period somehow managed to get me to teach for almost 45 minutes using a ridiculous southern accent. Okay, let's be honest, it didn't take too much convincing. I'm surprised by how well they actually listened. My 3rd and 7th periods are a trial. I am doing my best to be kind yet firm. It's hard when you just want to knock their heads together.

Creative writing has been fun, but I think the novelty is wearing off for some of them and they're ready to be done with it. Unfortunately for them, they still have half a year of the class before they're done with me. It's a mixed grade class, so it's given me a chance to get to know students that aren't in 9th grade. I've been with the 9th graders since I started and they were in 7th grade. Each year I've changed what grade I teach. I think, I hope, I've settled on 9th grade. I'm really enjoying it. For the most part, I love my students and haven't had any serious dust-ups.

I've gotten some wonderful feedback from admins and district level folks that have popped into our school for various reasons. It balances out how horrible I feel after I leave my ESL class. The class itself isn't the most interesting or engaging but it covers a myriad of strategies for English Language Learners in my classroom. Considering how the vast majority of my students fall into this category on some level, these are strategies I should be using. Suffice to say, I need to do better.

In other random tidbits...

• One of my students insists I look like UFC Fighter Miesha Tate. If you're like me and had no idea who she is, here's a visual. Other than the fact that we're both women and have long hair, I don't see it. (And yes, that is super red carpet in my classroom)

• Lisa came for a quick weekend visit. Yay! I love it when Lisa comes. We saw Austenland and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Both were a lot of fun in completely different ways. I read Austenland after I had my surgery in 2007-ish (?). I don't remember it being as funny. It also doesn't hurt that this manly hunk of beauty plays one of the heroes. Go see it!
  
• I'm so happy that it's finally cooling down a bit! No A/C 90+ weather and no windows/outside doors, makes for a very hot, hot, hot classroom!