Quilly | November 30, 2006
This weeeeeek will go down in the history of my life as one of the longest on record. Disaster precipated disaster. I have never been given so many new tasks with so little direction in such a small amount of time.
Monday I was given paperwork at 8 o’clock in the morning which needed [...]
Quilly | November 30, 2006
Our school staffs about 68 people. Eleven of them are men. The men and women have the exact same amount of bathrooms on our campus. Some of the women grumble that it makes no sense. Others of us take a different course.
There are two single stall bathrooms in the teacher’s lounge [...]
Quilly | November 29, 2006
My car door was tagged. The mark was on the passenger side, so I may not have spotted it right away. It was made with a brown marker — probably a Sharpie. It was the sign of a local gang.
The discovery left me feeling doubly violated — someone vandalized my property, but [...]
Quilly | November 28, 2006
Jake just couldn’t keep it together. He got in a fight in reading class (name calling, eraser throwing) and received a citation. He repeated the performance during writng period and received yet another citation – and lunch detention from me.
At lunch time Jake informed me that he had also gotten in trouble in [...]
Quilly | November 26, 2006
The Saturday after Thanksgiving we always have a talent show at Sidewalk Sunday School. The kids show off for each other and we feed them Pizza and soda. The only way you can have an 11 a.m. delivery of seven large pizzas is if you place the order the night before. The [...]
Quilly | November 25, 2006
When I was very young I sat at the feet of one of my father’s friends and I listened to him tell adventures of his life lived around the world. That day I said a prayer. I asked God to give me an adventure-filled life, and make me an awesome storyteller. I have [...]
Quilly | November 24, 2006
Last fall I was in desperate need of a new wardrobe, so I took a summer job at an upscale women’s clothing store, and traded my paychecks for clothes. Despite teaching full-time and my extra-curricular job as the school’s writing coordinator, I kept the part-time job through Christmas.
Even with my 40% discount, the clothes [...]
Quilly | November 22, 2006
I was asked to participate in a roast for Dr. John. To tell the truth I don’t really know how to proceed. How does one roast such an incredibly nice man? What could I possibly say to poke fun at such an upstanding citizen of not just one community, but three?
To the [...]
Quilly | November 22, 2006
Testing again today — we started the monthly Math Benchmarks. Mona raised her hand. I have been working with her one-on-one in math and the other day she had a break-through in understanding the relationship between multiplication and division. Still, tests are hard for her and they sap her confidence, so my [...]
Quilly | November 21, 2006
Monday we had a “party” in my classroom. I do it after every round of parent-teacher conferences. In my neighborhood by the time students reach 5th grade, their parents stop showing up for school events. Persuasion is needed to get them there.
I usually persuade the students to drag their parents in by [...]
Quilly | November 20, 2006
For your laughing pleasure, another glimpse at the trials and tribulations of my teen years:
“Come quick.”
“Lenny’s hurt.”
“… fell off the slide.”
“… poked a stick in his eye.”
For the rest of the story, pop over to: The Grownups Wanted Us Dead.
Quilly | November 19, 2006
Today you must live without me. It is okay. You will be fine. I promise. Your regularly scheduled programming will return tomorrow.
Quilly | November 18, 2006
Once upon a time, when schools were much less regimented than they are now, folks entering my 5th grade classroom often found themselves momentarily confused — apparently, to hear it described, the phenomenon was rather like one of those dreams where you open the door to one place, yet enter another.
It was the beginning of [...]
Quilly | November 18, 2006
Wanna play? It’s simple. Copy, paste and if you’ve done it, bold it. Here are just a few of the things I have done in my life — proof I am actually quite boring:
01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins (ok, they were in captivity, but it was cool…)
03. [...]
Quilly | November 16, 2006
My students had a very huge amount of work to get done in a very short time. Because of this they were writing furiously and quietly for almost 40 minutes. They were all hunched over their desks making no noise save pencil scratching and an occassional sniffle. I decided they needed a [...]
Susan — Stony River Farm :.
O’Ceallaigh & The Quill
