"Rain On The Scarecrow, Blood On The Plow"

So the first day back after a three-day weekend is always kind of rough. The students are a little more wound-up than usual, it's not very easy to get anything taught, and you basically spend the day fighting them for their attention.

Add to this an assembly that threw off the entire day's schedule (meaning we only had thirty minutes each for 2nd through 7th periods and over an hour total with first period), a new student-teacher/co-teacher in the history classes, and no structured lesson plans...folks, I was ready to quit today, let me tell you.

Which is sad, 'cause I've got so many good and fun things planned for these classes. It turns out the student-teacher won't be totally taking over everything. We're apparently supposed to work as a team, trading off duties and working cooperatively to create the lessons and manage the classroom. How well that will work in practice, I don't yet know. I know I will be doing the lesson planning for at least the rest of the week (already got it figured out, too), and possibly on into next week. I still really don't want to give up the US/VA History class. I'll gladly let her take the lead in the Civics class. Hell, she can have it for all I care. They were little demons this morning, and I think they might've scared the new student-teacher more than a little. It's probably for the best that she won't be there tomorrow because of the class she's taking that meets every Wednesday (wow, though, that's really poor scheduling on someone's part).

I had phone trouble all evening. This happened last week, too: when I came out of my education class, my phone said "analog roaming." Actually, it didn't say anything, 'cause it was dead. Which is odd, since I'd had close to a full charge not three or four hours earlier. It did this to me last Tuesday, too. I have this suspicion that there's some sort of bizarre electrical interference where the school that I'm taking my class is, and that it just does something weird to my phone. Calls from my brothers (who're both programmed into my phone) were coming up as "unavailable." Anytime I wanted to answer the phone or make a call, it would ask me if I would accept the roaming fee first (I decided not to answer or make any calls until this all cleared up as a result. I'm not getting saddled with a fee when I'm in my freakin' calling area. Hell, I was still in my area code, even. That's just absurd).

Anyway, long story short, I'm going to the Sprint Store tomorrow to ask them what the deal is. I might end up with a new phone in the deal...which'll make me sad, in a way. I like my current phone, with its Crooked Halo motif on the back. Who else has that on their phone, y'know?

~chuck

Song of the Moment: John Mellencamp, "Farewell, Angelina"