Junior High mentality with High School hormones.

Every school I've taught at the kids have accused me of having a thing for one (or more) of the female teachers on the staff. My first school it was the Spanish teacher, 10 years my junior. My second school it was Paperback Writer. My third school it was either the English teacher that came over from my second school the same year or the History teacher right next door. These were all junior high schools, so I thought it was a junior high thing. Not so much. I moved to the high school right around the corner from the jr high I was teaching at, so now three years later, I have a bunch of the same students I had there, back when they were in 7th grade. They are now Sophmores, and they are still asking me if I'm dating Ms. History Teacher. Ahh, but the plot thickens. This year a history teacher from Paperback Writer's school transferred over to my high school. (It's hard keeping track of all this without the school names, huh? Sorry). Her classroom is right next door to mine, and since we were friends back at the old school, I drop by often to see how she's doing in the new environment. Despite the fact that she is the same age as my oldest niece, the kids are convinced that we have something going. I walk out of her classroom one afternoon and there is a bunch of the boys hanging out at their locker right near by. (Anyone who has met her will know why the boys hang out by her room). They give me this all knowing look, and one of them says something, though I can't remember what. So I look at them and say "Yeah, you're just jealous." Junior High they would have turned red and denied the whole thing. High School they just looked a little humble and agreed. On another day a group of boys and girls were advising me on where I should take her on our date. One girl suggested I take her to the Mayan*, because (and I quote) "You'll have your food and she'll see them guys in Speedos." Um, thanks.

.

And finally, the most romantic thing I've ever heard in the halls of a public school : "If I were s sponge, I'd soak you up." I think I'll sell that one to Hallmark.

* The Mayan is a restaurant that has an indoor diving pool, and part of the entertainment includes music, dancing and guys diving into the pool.

Computer Based Testing Uber Alles

What a day! We had a test run of the new Computer Based CRT (end of year) Testing today, and it was an incredibly successful failure. The State changed companies this year, switching to a completely online testing system. Our district person over testing foresaw problems with having the entire state attempting to access the same site at the same time, and talked the State into having a state-wide test of the system. So, today at 9:30 in the morning, every school in the state was supposed to do a test run of the system. Don't know if everyone was on or not, but either way the system crashed. I couldn't even get the kids through the first part of the first test. Since we had expected problems, I had prepped the students for it, and they were incredibly good during the whole thing. After I explained to them that even I was getting kicked out of the system and that they couldn't do anything anyway until I was back in, they just talked for the 20 minutes I was fighting my own login. As I said in the report below, if this had been during the real test, right now instead of writing this very post I'd be up in a padded room wearing a wrap-around jacket.

Here's my entry on the report of the system:

We had problems from the very beginning. I had a couple student's who were not allowed to put in the whole user name - it cut them off at 7 characters.

One recurring error we got was a box with "Network Error" in red. I got:

1@9:35, 5@9:55 and 2@10:05.

I had students kicked out: 2@9:55 and 2@10:00.

Between about 9:40 and 9:55, I didn't log any problems because the proctor (me) kept getting kicked off the system. I got stuck in a loop where the error "Failure (901) connecting to website" would come up, it would give me the option "click to return to login" and then lock up. I'd close the browser and start all over again, just to get the same error. I went through 4 cycles before it logged in correctly - then the student issues started again.

I gave up when, at 10:10 half the class was having trouble even getting the CRT login to work and the 14 students who had it working all at once got this error "Your proctor has stopped the test due to network errors."

The only other thing I can add is that I'm glad this was only a trial run - if it had been the real thing I would have had a stroke. Good thing someone thought of trying this before the real thing - she deserves the next week off.

Choices, choices, choices.

I've been coveting this car since it first showed up on ksl.com about a month ago. It looks a lot like Old Blue, and in fact it is. Same year, same body style, same engine and drivetrain. The only difference is that Old Blue is an LTD and this is a Galaxie. What does that mean? Well, the LTD is just an upscale version of the Galaxie, it's the exact same car except for trim - LTD's have hidden headlights, fake wood inside and usually a vinyl top. That's it. Well, today I officially decided against buying the car. See, it was a choice - add another car to my collection or get new windows for my bedroom and a new back door. Home Depot won this round. I just spent $603.43 on three 24" x 24" windows, a solid wood door and a heavy duty storm door, all for the back of the house. Another car or the house? I think I made the prudent choice. Demmit!

Tribune Poll >> Cell Phone Ban OK.

There is finally a bill up at the State Legislature that would deal with the problem of phoning/texting while driving, and according to the Salt Lake Tribune this morning, I'm not the only one that thinks it's about time. When asked "Would you support or oppose legislation restricting cell phone use while driving?", 80% of Utahns support the restricting of cell phone use in cars (with a 4.5% margin of error; Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc, Washington D.C.) You should all know my personal opinion by now - I hope the bill passes, even though the article admitted that it has a small chance. Once again showing that the Utah State Legislature truly represents it's constituents.

Bring it on....

I woke up this morning and had to use a machete to get to the car the air was so thick.  For the last couple of days the news has been telling me that we've had the worst air in the country.  And the LTD's have been sitting ignored in the garage.

.

So this afternoon when a student told me that it was raining heavily outside, all I could think was "thank God" and "I hope it's enough to clear out this gunk."  Well, it did a so-so job of clearing out the valley, but bigger storms are headed our way.  And I couldn't be happier.  Bring it on.

(I didn't take the picture, I got it off the internet)