I must be tired.

We went to the Union to watch some music, Ben Kweller. Pretty good. But I was so tired, I fell asleep during the songs! Oh, I feel bad, but it is kinda funny. So, I told Shann I was tired, he said he'd catch a ride with Nette and Chris, so I came home. In the parking lot, I saw Charity! I gave her my number and may do something with her sometime. We'll see.

Off to bed and quieter sleeping.

Photobucket is ticking me off. It is not showing my pictures...and I've used my Flickr uploads up...argh. I wish I could figure out how to add my blog to Shannon's hello account...

Not to mention our stupid smoke detector's battery is dying...beep....................beep............argh.

Today...

Today was fine. I just realized, I only have 1 Friday left to teach! Next Friday I teach, then we have no school, then we go on a field trip, then school is over! Cool beans.

I came home early today. So now I have to make sure I get stuff done. Not so much fun.

Sugoi!

This was on some website Shanno plays with. It takes random pictures and this one from Azumanga Diaoh was there. Hopefully it's moving b/c if it is, its cool!

They be some good times.

Well, I was hungry and Shannon was hungry and Chipotle is always good. So we get there and I'm eating on my Carnitas burrito (fab!) and then I hear the familar and joyous sound of Lemon Jelly. Sweet. I was having a grand ol' time and then we noticed one more wonderous thing. The paper under my delicious burrito was filled the sounds of Chipotle and among the list was Lemon Jelly. Wonderful. :)

19 Days.

I can't believe I'm counting them down. That seems so shallow of me. But I am so tired! Even when I sleep alot, I am still tired. It is hard to have desire to do much besides eat. Speaking of eat, I want to to go Shakes today. And I think we will. Ah yeah, frozen custard. With my recent custard experiences, I am really diggin' the stuff.

Today went fine. Tomorrow I give quizzes, should go well.

20 Days!

to teach that is. Even less actually because one day is a half day with 7th only, one day is a field trip, one day is a trip to the park, an RC auction, and another is a day of nothing with kids gone to Worlds of Fun. So, I only really have 15 days. Not too bad. I can make it (I hope!)

Mizuno Sensei and Me

Mizuno Sensei and Me, originally uploaded by mathninja.

Here is my Japanese teacher of 2.5 years. (She is in the green kimono). That is her daughter with her. I don't remember her name, M-something.

Mizuno Sensei is great. She gave me a hug and everything. I figured I'd see her and I was gonna say "Ohisashiburidesu. Ogenki desuka?" But I didn't, should have, but didn't. sigh..next year.

Fits in the Pocket

Fits in the Pocket, originally uploaded by mathninja.

Wow. Remember how I said we bought Shann cargo pants? Well, he put stuff in the pockets.

Here is a not non-comprehensive list...

• my watch
• our alarm clock (in case the watch didn't work)
• Grunty doll
• the Olympus camera
• the Cannon camera
• a 32 mb Compact Flash card
• glue stick
• my pencil pouch
• a disposable tape dispenser
• a stapler
• desk-top tape dispenser (in case the first one ran out)
• his hair brush
• my hair brush
• a scientific calculator
• a graphing calculator
• and more!

Brass Quintet

Brass Quintet, originally uploaded by mathninja.

This is Jayme and her brass quintet. They did very good. She plays the tuba and sits in the middle :) That makes for a happy sister. They played very well, and Jay's whole concert was good.

The Bucket

The Bucket, originally uploaded by mathninja.

Jayme fell on the 17th of April and cracked her ribs. This is the type of bucket that cracked them. Ouch.

Let's get Productive!

Today has been a good day. Yesterday was fun too. See Shannon's Blog for much more info with pics even.

I woke up around 12:30-1. Much later than I usually do. But glad I did. Got up, had some tea (Wild Blueberry) very tasty. Then I worked on tomorrow's lesson. I let the 7th graders pick the next topic, they had four to choose from and they chose "graphing." I want them to be able to plot points easily in any quadrant and to be able to read a graph. So tomorrow we will play my very own Battle ship game. Fun times.

Then I worked on my game for my K-State class. It is based off of Chutes-n-Ladders, but adapted for Janet Helms' Racial Identity Model. Good times again. My group and I give our presentation on Tuesday.

So, on to laundry and the finishing of the work. Shannon is playing frisbee golf with Aaron and Chris, while Jenette fishes.

O.G. <--silly name

Last night I came home from a long (not so fun) day and work and then found out I was going to Phantom of the Opera at 7:00 for Jenette's birthday. Okay.

So Shann and I went to Cox and finished a platea of BBQ Nacho's (oh so good!). Then we hurried off to the movie theater. They have this nice enterance now. A mix between inside and outside, oddly wall-papered outside walls and holey ply-wood. Kinda spiffy. Then we watched the movie. I didn't really like it. Well, its more the story I don't like. Christine is crazy and selfish and I don't like how she gets her way. Not very fair I think. And there is this scene that is like Flashdance! O.G. (Opera Ghost) and Christine are going through the hidden tunnels and the music is kinda cool, but it is all retro and funny. There were a couple of things like that throughout the movie. And you could tell they were lip-singing (for some reason, my head is trying to tell me that should be lip-syncing, but I don't believe it), kinda funny too. Anyways. Like Shannon, I am glad I watched it. It was my first encounter with the story and the music was very fun at times.

Well, we've got the NFL Draft at 11, the Japanese Festival at 12, and a Koyote game at 7. I also have a lot of work to put inbetween those places and to fill Sunday with. So...I'm off.

Pants!

Hello. Today we went to the mall for Shannon! He got pants. And they have big pockets. He can put a lot of stuff in them. It is fun.

Oh, school is draining. Some days just take so long and really amount to just about nothing. It's sad. So, I'm off to think of something better to do for these guys.

Oh Day.

Making my own lesson plans is getting old! I like working with the other 7th grade teachers and I would also like a curriculum that supplies its own useful texts! Sheesh. If any of my readers are adopting a mathematics curriculum, do not get University of Chicago Mathematics Project. Not only is it old (so you probably won't even consider it) it is bad! Real bad. Oh, in two years we will have a new one. But in two years I may be gone.

I wandered around the mall for almost an hour in search of a white shirt. It had to be cheap, had to fit, and had to be school-appropraite. No luck. Depressing. However I did find groovy green pants! But they were 39.50 and I'm cheap and didn't buy them. Sad.

My Week begins (on Wednesday)

It feels weird. Knowing I have to teach today. Haven't taught since last Friday, even though there has been school since then. Monday was inservice and I was gone yesterday. Hopefully today goes well and I am not to stressed out after classes!

Yesterday was good. Jayme played really well, bruised ribs and all. We had Sheridan's Frozen Custard, really good. And ate at Fusa in the mall. Pretty good too. I would tell you more about what happened, but I have to head off to Memory's and then off to school.

And she's off!

Well, I'm off to Wichita. Jayme has her junior recital today so I took off work and am gonna go there. For some reason, I feel I am really going to miss Shannon today :( I'll see him as much (if not more) as I do on a usually Tuesday. But maybe it's because I'm going farther away.

Well, I best be going. See you later with reports of the music.

A question I pose to thee

What is the difference between a nerd and a dork?

Controlled Burning?

On the way back from school on Friday, Memory and I noticed an extrodinary amount of smoke. They have been doing a lot of controlled burning lately, this past week. But this seemed more than nessecary. We looked closer and saw what we thought was a burning tree. Now, by the time I had the camera out, you couldn't really tell anymore, but that big blob of smokey tree, is on fire or at least used to be. Not so controlled now was it.

Happy Wedding Tara!

Ah...nice to relax and sleep. I slept a 3 hour nap yesterday, went to bed at 11:30 and woke up at 9. Like I said, nice to sleep. I have inservice on Monday and Tuesday is Jayme's Junior recital so I'll be in Wichita.

Today (now even!) is Shannon's cousin Tara's wedding. We did not go. It is in Colorado Srings (maybe 10 hours away) on a weekend during the school year...not fun. It was supposed to be in the summer, but circumstances moved it forward to April 16th. Too bad we can't go now. :(

On to grading and possible painting..?

Postive Dude and Negadogg

Come on.  Negadogg?  How could he not be your fave?

Math Stick Man

More than anything, this guy has a clever name.  Not to mention he does well.

Pi Man

I think the artist is heavily involved in video games. Pi Man has 900,000 completion points and such super powers as "Pie in da face" and "Pi Beam." yess.

Pimpmathtistion

I don't think they know what a pimp is. A Black kid drew this. Nice pic.

Math Monkey

For one of my warm-ups, I had students draw their favorite math super hero. Granted that I know I am the most awesome (and about 3 kids drew me), here are some of their other heros.

Bloody Head

That is the best salad! I love Strawberry Spinach Salad! Yum, yum on.

Today went rather well. 7th took a quiz (that they could have done good on) and 8th worked on their cartoons for the last day in class. Maybe I will take a pic of the good ones and show them off on my...blog. But that'll have to wait till Wednesday.

I may not have any good stories from today. But Memory did. She went on a field trip with her team today and one of the kids was looking for fossils by the water. It has been raining a lot lately and the ground is still kinda muddy and wet. What happened was, the girl slipped in the mud and fell into the water, competely drenching her. Resulting in a thoroughly wet 7th grader. :D heehee

The other thing, not quite as funny. The students went and played in the playground. One boy tried to get off the killer..I mean merry-go-round and somehow hit his head. He was brought back to the hospital and had to get stitches! Eek! And Memory said the field trip went fine. That is a pretty loose definition of fine.

Friday...err...Thursday...uhh...

Craziness abounds.

Having a "half-day" Monday made Tuesday feel like Monday. Then for some reason, today felt like Friday. Thank goodness tomorow is Friday, or I would not make it through the week.

The 8th graders have been enlarging various comic pictures. It's quite fun. They are doing a good job too. The first day was loud, and frustrating, but now that they understand, they are doing fine.

So, today we went to Wal-mart and I got a box for my sweaters. When we came home, Shannon went to put some TP in the RR (haa haa...game night...) but we were out! We just got home and missed it! Boo! Boo.

Besides that. Fine day, looking forward to the weekend.

My British Outcome

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Conservative

Your actual outcome:

Labour -4
	Conservative 35
Liberal Democrat -31
	UK Independence Party 45
Green -2

You should vote: UK Independence Party

UKIP's primary focus is on Europe, where the party is strongly against joining both the EU constitution and the Euro. UKIP is also firmly in favour of limiting immigration. The party does not take a clear line on some other policy issues, but supports scrapping university tuition fees; it is strongly against income tax rises and favour reducing fuel duty.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

This Day

Today I basically had a half-day. We graded all the Performance Assessments in about 4 hours, and then did some text-book review, and then went home. Sweet.

I did some grading, some logic-puzzling, and we had Puffy's left-overs. Yum.

Only 31 Days of school left for me. I have to remember to ask off the 19th, that way I can go to the midnight show of Star Wars! Hee hee!

Wooooooo!

We are watching some crazy Korean show (the joys of campus cable). It is odd. Almost funny, but just more confusing and strage. If you've never noticed, you can tell if the show you are watching is Korean if you hear them cheer..."Wooooooo!" It is so distinctive yet hard to replicate. Korean goodness I guess.

Is this for real?

While eating some Chocolate Malt Chip Call Hall ice cream at Dara's last night, we happened upon this truck. (Actually, it just pulled in to the spot and a lady got out and bought a pack of Natural Light beer and then got back in and drove off.) Crazy. So is it real?

We (Shannon, Mom, Maria, Nick, Jenette, Chris, and I) were thinking of it. They have meetings and are like, "How can we boost business? It's been kinda dead lately." So after some brainstorming, they come up with some ideas.

• Take down safety signs from construction sites.
• Make prank phone calls to deranged people, such as "Your wife is cheating on you."

But that's all I can remember. So, if you have some ideas, let me know.

Anyways, it was funny. Our other idea was police drive behind them and when someone writes down the phone number from the truck, the police would keep an eye out for what that person may do.

Pre-Gift 6

Shannon's 6th gift was actually given to him after his 7th gift, but that's okay. You still get the idea.

Pre-Gift 7

Pre-Gift 7, originally uploaded by mathninja.

Shannon's 7th Gift came before his 6th (or 9th) gift.

Post-Gift 6 and 7

So here are Shannon's last two gifts from me. He kinda knew they were coming, but fun none-the-less. It's a Canon Powershot A95 and a 128mB compact flash card. Very fun. The camera is really good.

JCMS KCA Results

Been a while since I posted something "wordy." And as usual, my thoughts are based on my job.

First off, having a job may take up all my weekdays. I am at school from 7:30 to 5:00 usually, which means driving makes it from 7 to 5:30. That's a long day. 10.5 hours. Then when I get home, I am still thinking about it all the time. I feel bad, every time we go somewhere, I have stuff to say, but it is always about teaching. Sorry if I bore you or get repetitive. It is my life. *sigh*

So, state testing ended yesterday. I have 44 students, 42 of which finished. So that kinda stinks. If less then 95% o the school students test, you are automatically a school in improvement.

Kansas middle schools had to have 60.1% of thier 7th grade mathematics students score proficient or above (48% or above) to meet AYP. JCMS had about 72%. So that we made fine. But, the problem comes that each subgroup has to pass also. Subgroups are predetermined groupings of students based on race, SES status, and SPED. 30 students or more in any category (except 40 for SPED) and you have a subgroup. At JCMS, the white subgroup passed, the SPED subgroup passed (so far, not all scores are in), the Low SES subgroup (free and reduced lunch) passed, but our last subgroup, the Blacks, did not. Only 49.6% has passed. Way low.

So here is my problem with NCLB. It puts the blame for JCMS not meeting AYP on our Black kids. Not fair. Talk about discrimination. I hate the fact that throughout the whole year I was told to watch the "Black" students. Try to make sure they are learning. Adapt your activities and learning styles to the "Black" students. And now...Its the "Black" students fault we didn't make it. They didn't do good enough. I hate that. We are putting the blame for the school's problems on the fact that a group of students who can't change their ethnicity do poorly on state tests. I don't know how to fix the problem (obviously or we would have had them pass). But I do know I don't like it.

The Consequences

Definition:

"Consequences for Title I schools that fail to make AYP:

* Failure to meet AYP for two consecutive years: students must be offered a choice of transferring to other public schools.
* Failure to meet AYP for three consecutive years: students must be offered the above and supplemental educational services, including private tutoring.
* Failure to meet AYP for four consecutive years: students must be offered the above and the school must undergo outside corrective actions, which may include replacing staff or implementing a new curriculum.
* Failure to meet AYP for five consecutive years: students must be offered the above and the school must undergo restructuring, including possible governance changes."

Junction City Middle School has been on the "Schools in Improvement LIst" for the past two years, and will stay for this year (more than likely). So now, possibly entering our fourth year of not meeting AYP, JCMS faces some ugly times.

AFT - Hot Topics - NCLB - Adequate Yearly Progress

AFT - Hot Topics - NCLB - Adequate Yearly Progress:

"AYP is about meeting fixed achievement targets, not judging whether a school has made progress with its students."

How true. How true. And that is why low SES schools and high-diversity schools struggle. They are typically the schools in Kansas to not meet AYP. Not because there is no progress, but because there is not enough "progress."

Pre-Gift 5

Pre-Gift 5, originally uploaded by mathninja.

The contemplation of the gift. Wonder what could be in this DVD shaped box...hmm...

Post-Gift 5

Post-Gift 5, originally uploaded by mathninja.

This is the sequel to one of Shannon's favorite Miyazaki movie. It took me forever to find at Wal-mart. I knew they had it, I just had a hard time locating it.

Pre-Gift 4

4_07_05 001, originally uploaded by mathninja.

Today's gift came in...style? It was delivered while Shannon was gone and then wrapped in speed-fashion.

Post-Gift 4

4_07_05 003, originally uploaded by mathninja.

This Bain Mattox CD was purchased on-line and sent to Jenette and Chris' house (thanks again guys). No more crappy streamed music for us!

Sub-Zero and Wolf, Corporate Companions and Kitchen Soul Mates

Sub-Zero and Wolf, Corporate Companions and Kitchen Soul Mates

This a really fun place to buy all your refrigeration and cooking needs. They have groovy drawers for refrigerators, freezers, and yes, even ovens. Sweet.

Pre-Gift 3

PinkStump 004
Originally uploaded by mathninja.

Ever faithful with the blurry photos, comes in gift number three...

Post-Gift 3

PinkStump 005
Originally uploaded by mathninja.

...Peach Torani Syrup!

Pink Tree

PinkStump 001
Originally uploaded by mathninja.

Today, we found our newly removed tree stump in pink. Rather attractive coloring if I may.

Sad

I had my pencil pouch stolen today. :( I'm sad.

Pre-Gift 2

Gift2 Pre
Originally uploaded by mathninja.

And for day two of the gifts...

(Shannon's glasses had funky glare, so I smudged them out...looks kinda strage still. But my point is, his eyes usually aren't that crooked (how DO you spell that word...))

Post-Gift 2

Gift 2 Post
Originally uploaded by mathninja.

...a Tea Repuplic Camomile Lemon Travelers Tin! Yay!

Day in Review

Started the car-pool. That went fine. Memory in a nice person. We talked about some stuff. Not much going.

Dr. Miller (my principal) came and observed today! Eek! But the lesson went well.

State testing is okay. Not great, but okay.

BW3, lost that stupid final question again, -10,501 points this time. Argh.

Oh, the point thing, much harder to count when your talking to someone, and our car is much louder than I had realized on the interstate...crazy.

Pre-Gift 1

Gift1Before
Originally uploaded by mathninja.

Blogging these backwards so you scroll and see the un-opened and then the opened gift.

In honor of "Week-of-Birthday," I presented Shannon with his first gift.




:)

Post-Gift 1

Gift1After
Originally uploaded by mathninja.

Viola, IceBreakers Tangarine Dual-pack.









:)

Dire Wolves

Dire Wolves
Originally uploaded by mathninja.

These look a lot better in the picture than I thought they would have. 2 of my 8 Dire Wolves. They are purple inked and look kinda cool, me thinks.

Ghoul

Ghoul
Originally uploaded by mathninja.

Here is my first completed ghoul. I have 11 more to go! Woo hoo. He looked really crappy to start with, now he just looks gross.

Chaos Knights

Chaos Knights
Originally uploaded by mathninja.

Check 'em out! I finished my (small) unit of Chaos Knights! Now I may have a better chance of beating Shannon and his High Elves.