everyone needs a hobby.

It's a miracle!

And the not the Virgin Mary on a grilled cheese variety.  I left my wallet on the front seat of my car last night and when I when I went out to get it, it was still there!  This almost makes me have faith in humanity!

Meme of Five

I stole this from American Family.

What were your doing five years ago?

Graduating from college, moving into a gorgeous new apartment with two girls that would turn out to be the worst roommate choices ever, starting my first grown up job (as an adoption social worker), breaking things off for good with an on again/off again boyfriend, buying a new car, and otherwise embarking on frightening grown up things.  Oddly, I felt less lost then than I do now.

What are five things are your to do list today?

Shower.

finish at least one module of a never ending on line training

get a pedicure

put of writing lesson plans until the last possible moment

Google ideas for a foot tattoo

What are five snacks that you enjoy?

I can only pick five?  I am major snacker.   I think that I prefer snacks to actual meals. I'm not sure that I can declare any favorites, so I'm listing the first 5 that come to mind.  String Cheese, goldfish crackers, crunchy Cheeto's, those crackers with little seeds on them,  soft chocolate chip cookies

What are five things that you would do if you were a billionaire?

Have lots of babies and stay home with them,  buy a house with a big backyard that is close to Lake Michigan, Buy my little brother a house, get a tattoo on my wrist since I wouldn't have to worry about covering it at work, hire my hairstylists to work for me full time and blow my hair out every morning

Where are five places that you have lived?

In a town known for it's corn, over a Greek restaurant, in an all girls dorm, in one of the 10 most diverse neighborhoods in the country,  in the town where Frank Lloyd Wright's studio was

What are five jobs you have had?

teacher, social worker, nanny, resident assistant, ice cream scooper

What are five of your bad habits?

leaving my shoes all over the house, not showering when I get home from the gym, using the F word gratuitously, not proof reading things,  consuming large amounts of caffeine

flailing

As you may have guessed by my not so recent last post, I left my job at public school and started working at a private school.  While my new school is so much better than my last, I am still not happy at work.  I'm thinking that this isn't so much because of where I teach, but teaching in general.  I'm discovering that I  much prefer to work with kids one on one than in a classroom.  While it is possible use my special education degree and work with children one one one, I feel that I have to stay at my new job for at least a year, to avoid looking like a lunatic who can't hold a job.  After all, I can't just change jobs every time one doesn't live up to my expectations or isn't exactly what I want to be doing.  So I think that it's time for a plan.  Perhaps that way, I'll stop making decisions based on what I think I want in short term (which keep turning out to be the wrong decisions in the long term).  Here are the things that I want in my life in the next 18 months:

1. A Baby

2.  to quit teaching (either to be a stay at home mom or to do something other than teaching that fits into the kind of family life that I want to have)

3. to purchase and grow my own aerobics classes. 

So here is what I am going to do in the meantime:

1. stop spending money I don't need to spend so that my husband and I can save more money (Goodbye cleaning ladies.  you will be greatly missed). 

2. Thoroughly RESEARCH developmental therapy while completing all the required online training

3. Find a DT to supervise my 240 practice hours needed for my DT credential 

4. Get my DT credential

5. Stop complaning about my current teaching job and give it my all until I can quit

6. add a Saturday morning class to the classes that I am planning to take over.

arrivederci, sayonara, Good Riddance

What my letter of resignation to Chicago Public Schools actually said:

Dear Principal X,

This letter is to serve as notification of my resignation from Chicago Public Schools, position number XXXX65.  My final day of employment shall be March 3, 2008.

Sincerely,

Shannon O'Shea

What I really meant:

Dear Principal X,

Traditionally, in a resignation letter one thanks one's employer for all the the great experience, however, I will not be doing any of that, as I find you to be one of the most incompetent administrators I've come across.  In fact, you are a prime example of why so many young teachers leave teaching after working on Chicago's south side for a year.  In case you are a curious, the fact that I am the fourth teacher to resign from your school this school year has nothing to do with the children and everything to do with your paranoid and malicious approach to leadership.  Your obsessive focus on which of your teachers are talking to each other and what they are saying serves only as proof of your incompetence, not their lack of loyalty as you accuse.

Never have I been happier to make a change in employment.  It is all that I can do not to cartwheel down the hallways singing "ding dong the witch is dead" at the top of my lungs.  I am not certain which I am happier to be rid of, your shrill angry voice or that horrible home girl act you put on during staff meetings.  Seriously, we've all caught on the fact that you are, without a doubt, batshitcrazy, and you can't cloak that just by throwing around a little slang.

I wish for you only what you deserve, which most likely, is unpleasant. I wish for the sake of your remaining staff and students that karma acts swiftly and involves school board action.

Good Riddence,

Shannon O'Shea

How big of a jerk would I be if I told him to take a cab?

Sometimes being married is better than at other times.  Other times could be, for instance, when one's spouse asks one to cancel one's hair appointment to drive spouse to the doctor because spouse has a badly sprained ankle.  This wouldn't be annoying had one not taken the previous day off of work to drive spouse to the doctor when spouse decided a doctor visit was not necessary and refused to rest the ankle, instead hobbling around the marital home. 

get your grubby hands off my...

tattoo.

I have a tattoo on my back.  Like most tattooed folks, I am happy to show it when asked politely and in the appropriate context.  Last night was not one of those times.  While I was at the gym teaching aerobics, my tramp stamp made a an appearance as I leaned over to adjust a microphone cord.  Then this happened:

Chick in my class- "Hey, How come I didn't know you had a tattoo?  What do you have written on your back?"

me (still leaned over, fixing cord)- "nothing, it's a Picasso sketch."

Chick (walking over and pulling up my shirt to look at my back)- "That's really cool!"

me (stunned that an adult woman just lifted my shirt up without my blessing)- "uh, thanks."

I don't wanna work, I just wanna bang on my drums all day

Parting is such sweet sorrow- oh wait, no it isn't. 

I gave my notice at work today and it was all I could do not to go skipping down the hallway.  I admit that it was torture telling my students' parents that I'm leaving.  That was like breaking up with 32 boyfriends all in one day.  I am emotionally spent and vacillate between glee (goodbye batshitcrazy boss) and sadness (sorry to leave y'all 3 months before the school year and abandon my "commitment" to public school).

Interestingly, no less than five of my parents asked me what was happening at my school that made me want to leave "because if you're leaving there must be something happening here that isn't good".  Unsatisfied with my semi-diplomatic answer of "I was presented with an opportunity that is a much better philosophical fit and has more room for me to grow" they each wanted to know if I would tell them the real story after my final day at work.  One parent has already put her son on the wait list at the private school that I will teaching at.  Admittedly these things are making me feel good, but I still feel guilty about leaving before the end of the year.  And I am deeply saddened that poor leadership is sinking my little school.   A school that had so much promise- phenomenal teaching staff, involved parents, motivated kids.  The school is staffed (mostly) with amazingly dedicated, innovative, well educated teachers. At the beginning of the year we each poured our souls into teaching, arriving at least an hour early and leaving several hours after school ended.  We applied for and received more than 2 grants per teacher.  We have multiple teaching award winners and those that are nationally board certified. It's tragic (and I mean no hyperbole, I really find this tragic) that our collective talents aren't able to blossom because of the ways our administration systematically tears us down. It's a sad day when every  one of those amazing and formerly dedicated teachers that I told about my resignation commented how lucky I am to be leaving.    

This is taking too long

Argh, so tired of waiting for the polls to close.  I NEED to know who won Super Tuesday.  Admittedly, the suspense is making this so much more interesting than it was in 2004 but I am not known for my stellar ability to wait patiently. 

Gee, I wonder why my school distict was sued for violating IDEA.

This year I share my classroom with a general education co-teacher in what is supposed to be a blended classroom model.  In theory, this model provides the best the setting for early childhood education, for both children with special needs and their typically developing peers.  In practice, this model doesn't always work and perhaps this little scenario from yesterday may provide all the explanation needed as to why:

co teacher (frustrated with computer program she is using while the children are playing in learning centers around her)- "This program is so retarded! I just erased everything!"

Me- "what?!?  You cannot use that word in this classroom,  EVER AGAIN.  Do you have any idea what you just said?"

Co teacher- "It's just an expression, it's really not a big a deal.  I certainly didn't mean anything by it."

Me- "I don't care what you meant by it, You can't say that.  I don't EVER want to hear that use of that word in this room again."

co teacher- rolls eyes at me

Perhaps I could have attempted to make this a teachable moment and used the "opportunity" to explain why using the word retarded in this way in any context, let alone a in a context where there are children with special needs, is unacceptable.  Perhaps I could have explained to her that the children in classroom look up to their teachers and that her actions are shaping their little belief systems and teaching them what society expects of their behavior at school, But I didn't do either of those things.  Mostly because I was so appalled by the situation that I was unable to convey anything except disgust. This is a woman who sought out a job teaching pre-k in a blended classroom and she should already know why saying things like this are harmful to the psyches all children.  When one chooses to work in a setting with special needs children one takes on the responsibility of not being a ableist.  I think that this situation is all the more despicable because I believe that she truly doesn't understand the ramifications using "an expression."  To me, using the words and not understanding the impact is worse than using the words and being fully aware of the impact.  The very idea that an someone who is supposed to be an educator fails to see the ramifications  of using such an "expression" makes me livid.  Gee, do you think that if I started using "expressions" that  use derogatory words that apply to her she would find them to be "not a big deal?"

This made me laugh out loud.