three days down, 186 to go

i have successfully made it through my first three days of school. i went through my syllabus and classroom rules, etc, and by the end of it, i'm pretty sure all my classes thought iwas the she-bitch from hell, which made me happier than it probably should have... after that we did an activity with the poem "Desiderata," which is a really positive-type of message. i was afraid all the students would be too cool for it and would boo boo all over it, but it went over fairly well for the most part. it bombed pretty hard with my sixth period class, which is my remedial class, so i guess we'll be working on poetry quite a bit in there. i think it's a pretty straightforward poem, but most of them jsut didn't get it. i'm a little concerned about that, because it means we have a lot of work to do to get them ready for their proficiency exam. i'm doing practice exams in all my classes for the next two days, which means that i'll have two days to plan and do some grading, but then i'll have a whole bunch of essays to grade over my three-day weekend. interestingly enough, that doesn't really make me want to jump for joy.

i'm hoping i can get down to the strip or freemont this weekend since i don't have school on monday. there are a couple of other new teachers at my school, and i might see if they want to go with me. they've both been down there, but hopefully they'll want to go again. the less exciting part is that they're both guys and one is married while the other has a girlfriend here in vegas, so it would be third-wheelville for sarah. if anyone is free this weekend and would like to fly to vegas and see me, i wouldn't shoot the idea down. i'm wanting to join a church pretty soon to meet some other people there.

i've already made $.75 in my swear jar. here's the thing that just cracks me up: when they swear and i tell them to give me a quarter, they do it. no arguments, no questions asked, no surprise or distain. they just reach in their pocket and give it up. or they ask the person next to them. and when i see their phones (which are verboten in my classroom) and ask for them, they just give it to me. in chicago i had the same method for dealing with those two problems and it was always a battle to get a cell phone or a quarter. these kids obey so well. they've definately been brainwashed.

my department chair has a sign hanging on his dry-erase board with a picture of christopher walken that says "christopher walken for president." anyone who knows me very well knows that i think christopher walken is the scariest man alive (followed by jack nicholson at a close second) and the thought of christopher walken as president could possibly give me night terrors. HE'S TERRIFYING.

my eighth period class thinks i am hysterical. they laugh at every lame joke i come up with. it could be that they're just a really easy crowd to please. or it could be that by the time i get to their lesson, i've done it seven times before that and my jokes are really solid. i think we all know that the former reason is more likely.

there are three girls in my seventh period who laugh at me. this doesn't upset me, because i can buy alcohol and get into casinos, and they are basically on the fast track to waking up next to a stranger after a frat party their first week of college, but they annoying thing is that they hold up their binders and laugh behind them like that stops the sound. i really just want to look at them one day and say, " you realize that i can still hear you right? i don't care if you think i'm stupid? and you all have the exact same haircut and wardrobe? seriously, if you're going to laugh at me, wait until after class and do it in the hallway so it doesn't interrupt my class." of course, if they complain to their parents, that might get me in trouble...

it's supposed to cool off this weekend and get down to 96 degrees by labor day.

anyone know what happens on labor day??? the CSI week-long marathon begins! that's right my friends, for the whole week after labor day, spike tv shows nothing but CSI for seven days. it is a great country we live in.

dishwashers are the best thing ever invented.

bright lights, big headache

so friday night i went to the first football game of the season for the palo verde panthers (which they won) and here are some things that i found strange: first of all, the cheerleaders all stood on these little platform things for their cheers. at first i thought that the PV cheerleaders just had an ego issue and wanted to be taller; but then i saw that the other team's cheerleaders had them too. the game was...well honestly i didn't watch any of the game, but i did talk to another new teacher from Michigan named Shawn and his wife Gwen, who was really nice. the football field at my school is on a hill, so it's higher than the school. after the game, we decided to go up on top of the press box to see what kind of view was offered. well, we got up there and the view was AMAZING!! we could see all the way to the strip, and since the entire city is in a valley, we could see pretty much all of it. i wish i had taken my camera with me, because it was absolutely gorgeous. we stayed up there for a while, talking, and then another teacher, who also coaches cross country had someone turn all the stadum lights off and we could see even more. i'm running out of adjectives, but it was brilliant. i could have stayed up there for another three hours just staring.

today was my first day of school. i was worried that i wouldn't sleep well last night, and i actually slept great, which was nice, though confusing. today went alright. since it was the first day of school, i knew i had a lot of administrative things to do, and i only saw each period for 30 minutes because we're usually on a block schedule, but today we saw all our classes. i thougtht the other stuff would take most of the period, and then i would spend a few minutes talking to them and then send them on their merry way. lucky for me (sarcasm) the first day stuff only took about 10 minutes, so i had to fill 20 minutes of each of my classes. in the classes that actually would talk to me and ask questions, that was fine, but there were a few where they just sat and stared at me, making me feel very foolish.

it got up to 111 degrees yesterday. just in case you were wondering.

so, now i have quite the large headache, which dr. sarah decided to remedy with ice cream, seeing as it IS the miracle drug. i guess that's about it. i know i should write more, but my head hurts and i really should work on some stuff for school tomorrow (just a few things--i'm mostly prepared, honest). right now i'm just hoping that the stuff i sent to the copy center last week will be done by tomorrow, or i'll have another 30 minutes to fill (which is slightly less than fun). i kind of need to think of something else to have as a back up plan for tomorrow in case we get done sooner than i expect. any suggestions? maybe i'll just have them write a 10 page paper on the social implications of gender roles in the movie Napoleon Dynamite. if i'm lucky they won't even know what that means...

i teach in stepford

so i decided that i would get a blog, mostly because it's easier to update this once every few days then try to email everyone in my life and keep them updated on "my exciting life in Las Vegas."

Here is a list of oh-so-exciting things i've done this week:
1. learned to crochet
2. started crocheting a scarf
3. watched A LOT of alias reruns (before i got cable or internet)
4. watched a five-hour documentary on the history of hip hop in America on vh1
5. typed out 49 pages of stupid facts for a bulletin board at school
6. found pictures to go with said fun facts
7. fended off at least three nervous breakdowns about the fact that school starts on monday
8. read the employee handbook for my school
9. created seating charts for my classes
oh yes my friends, i do live life in the fast lane.

but seriously, school starts on monday and i'm terrified. before i left today i stopped to say goodbye to my department chair, who asked if i was ready for monday. i replied negatively, which he thought was appropriate. here's the extra fun part: i don't actually have my lesson plans done for next week!! I know what i'm going to do with my students, but i have to actually sit and write it out and put objectives with it and figure out which passages i'm going to use for my pretest and then make copies of it and then make a key and then type it all out. plus, i need to sketch out the first quarter so i know how much time to spend on everything. those of you who know me really well will understand that creating this blog and post are really a creative way to put off doing any work.

i've been in vegas two weeks now. my apartment is starting to get messy (must clean tomorrow), i still have not been to the strip (i figure i have several months to get there) and it's currently 104 degrees outside. it's supposed to be 106 on monday. but it's a dry heat. i like my apartment pretty well, though i wouldn't mind some nicer carpet. for all of you who are wondering if i've met any guys, i have, but most of them are married or have girlfriends. dammit. never fear though--wayne newton is still single.

my school is really nice, and it the area in which it's located (summerlin) really does remind me of stepford. if i start wearing lots of dresses a la mrs. cleaver, someone come out here and rescue me. the nice thing about the school is that it's one of the best in the state, in all areas--sports, band, choir, theatre, art, journalism, academics. the bad thing is that there's a loto f pressure to keep it that way. i volunteered to be the advisor for key club, which includes a trip to six flags magic mountain in november. i've arleady started having panic attacks about that idea--what if someone gets lost? injured? high? luckily, i get paid for the advising, which makes it a little better. everyone keeps telling me how much work it is, but i'm like "so what? what else am i going to do on the weekends besides sit in my apartment and watch old movies in tbs? its not like i have a husband or kids to think about, and for a while at least, i don't have many friends in this area to hang out with! i might as well do that stuff!!
so, that's that. i live in vegas. in the morning on the way to work, i watch the sun rise over the mountains. on the way home in the afternoon, i look at the hotels on the strip (and think about how hot it is). enough time wasted! must go work on lesson plans.

**huzzah! the temperature has dropped to 102 degrees!! where is my parka?