Random Tid Bits

1. I survived yet another busy midterm week: Grades are in, projects are accounted for, everyone earned their grades, they are all passing, except one that's dropping.
   
   I do have a non motivated student in my Design and Layout class. I kind of chewed him out when he presented. I told him that it's his job to get motivated. He can do that by working in what he likes to do. He sketches fun images a lot. I said, "Work those into your projects!" The other students backed me up. It was overall positive.
   
   I have a group of 3 students in first year that clown around too much. Sometimes I wish I could say, "Ok you sit here, and you over there." It's not elementary, so what shall I do? No one that's serious wants to hear them horsing around. They are spending way too much on their education to piss it away. I'm torn on how to handle this - always.
   
   I do have to hang a big project, and will hopefully do that on Monday. 


2. Our window sills are totally full of tomatoes. It got cold enough that it snowed in Omaha today. Nothing stuck. Travis pulled off all the tomatoes last night. Otherwise they'd be useless, with a freeze. It's like we skipped fall all together.
   
   
   
   
   
   I called in for pizza last night. It's been awhile, since I've had off from cooking something. I didn't escape the work. Tomatoes were waiting to be processed. I made a mess in the process, so I had to scrub the floor afterwards.


3. Things are about to get super hectic! This weekend my one and only niece Kailey is getting married, Isaak has two soccer games (one is a makeup game). Travis goes out of town to pick up some sculptures and his Mom is having surgery Monday and Tuesday. I have a Program Advisory Meeting on Tuesday after work. I leave work early on Wednesday to go to Mica's conferences across town. Thursday Isaak gets braces, we have Isaak's conferences, and I'm getting allergy shots. All the rest of this month is nuts like that. 


4. I had to confront the boss man with a not so nice email. I was going to confront him face to face, but the meeting we were supposed to have never happened. He wanted me to teach 4 classes next semester. The class he wanted me to take on is Web. Not something I feel like I'm qualified to teach. He wanted my co-worker to help me. I was supposed to be quiet, and not tell my co-worker. He doesn't take change well. He sits right by me. I brought up many points. The biggest one was that I dislike how employees are put against each other. I mentioned that we all have our assets. Without me things wouldn't be as creative as they are, without my co-worker things wouldn't work as well as they do, and so on. I still have the busy schedule of three classes, but that's much better than four! My college teachers always taught only one course. They'd teach it a few times, but it was a repeat. 


5. Isaak's gecko Sunny is always wiggly when he’s first held, but two nights ago he calmed down. I fed him when Isaak was doing his homework. He did seem to know food was coming his way. He got off his rock, and walked towards the front of his tank. His food just sat there. Isaak came in a few hours later, picked up his worms with a tweezer, and he ate it right up. Maybe he just knows I’m not his master. Isaak’s a good father to his gecko Sunny.

Random Tid Bits

1. This is the last day of midterms! YAY!


2. I have a job shadow that I have my 3rd year students do on one of my class periods. One girl wasn't in 3 1/2 class days, and the job shadow was on class day 7. I noticed there were some fishy things with her packet. I called to check up on her, and she never went. The whole thing was a lie. The packet is fairly thick. I have the packet worth 100 points, just going worth 100 points, and a thank you letter that they've done another 100 points. I had to write her up. Now she has to make up her job shadow over spring break, and I will only give her 1/2 the points.
   
   Another girl confessed she didn't do the job shadow at all. I gave her the opportunity to make it up as well, with 50% off. I told her that appreciate her telling me the truth.
   
   I hate being lied to! What's something you hate?


3. I found this on facebook. I think it's true. 





4. One teacher gets a lot more help than others around my work. On days like midterms and finals I want to scream at him. Sometimes he complains at how busy he is. He has no idea! We're not supposed to play favorites with students, but somehow it's ok for staff to have favorites. I think not! 


5. We'll be at the Henry Doorly Zoo this weekend. Mica's presenting his Science Fair Project there, since he won his middle school competition. I hope he does well. He's a good kid overall.
   
   I helped bump up his board with adding a 3D salad and a few 3D doughnuts. 

Random Tid Bits

1. One of my students totally missed her midterm exam last Friday. She's not a student that is doing well. She's legally blind, and struggles because of it, and other reasons. A few other students said, "I think she went to Kansas City for their Comic Con." Sure enough one of them brought their computer up for me to see pictures of her having a hay day at the Comic Con. She didn't even ask me if she could take her test early. I just wonder why anyone would skip a major class test to hang out elsewhere? Sometimes I just have to roll my eyes, and keep on going with a smile on my face. 


2. Isaak lost one of his jackets. I searched his drawers, his closet and his coat rack for it. He of course had no idea where it was. Where was it at? In the lost and found at school. I'm glad we found it.
   
   Were/are your kids careless about where their toys, library books and clothes are at? I'm hoping this changes. Isaak's only 5. When I can't find something I search high and low for it.


3. Daddy and I are officially on a Paleo diet. Basically it's eating lean meats, nuts, seeds, and loads of green leafy veggies. After the first week we can add in eggs, and other veggies. After the 2nd week we can add in fruit. I lost 5 pounds in 2 days. Then I gained 2 pounds back. Besides the weight loss, I'm hoping it helps me with my allergies. The struggles I had was knowing what to eat to absorb the antibiotics I'm taking.  I ended up eating 1 cup of Skinny Pop Gluten Free Popcorn. We're also getting up at 5:30 AM to exercise for 1/2 an hour. That's hell when you are sick. I picked to try this out on my student's spring break because I didn't know how often I was going to go to the bathroom. Really I don't go anymore than normal. I'm used to drinking a lot. I should have waited until I felt better. On the other end of things I'm not craving anything because I haven't felt like eating anything. I can't smell, so that's good when you're starting a diet.


4. I'm so addicted to this game Brick Burst by Lego. It's a lot like Tetrus, but Legos. I thought my kids would get into it. I'm more addicted then they are.





5. Isaak loves his wrist bands. I loved the company Knuckleheads, and sadly they closed their doors. I got Isaak's coveralls from them to. Now they are too short. :( He got them in his stocking this year.

Random Tid Bits

1. This week has been crazy busy! It's midterm time at my school. Thank goodness the tests can be given over the network. I have a lot less to grade compared to last semester. Still many art students wait to the last minute to turn things in.
   
   I had to laugh last week. One of my students complained a few weeks ago that my class is too much work. I said, "Tell me about it! I have to grade it all." I went on to say that we've tried having the class set up differently, and this way works best. Then last week he did all the classes work in 1 day. I looked at him and said, "Really? It's so much work that you can do 7 weeks of classwork in 1 day?" He smiled and said, "It's just the way I roll." I'm still shaking my head over that one.


2. The kids are off for their spring break this week to. Did I happen to mention Daddy went down to working part time. He's no longer working Mondays and Tuesdays. It helps when the boys are off of school. He looses his own working time though. He went part time because he wants to step up his freelance work. 


3. I've been shredding papers like a mad woman.
   
   I just have so many papers. Many of which I do not need to keep. I'm so surprised I haven't jammed up our paper shredder this time around. I have 4 bags of shredded paper. Gee whiz!





4. Isaak went to hang out with a friend Friday night. They took him to see Mr. Peabody in 3D. Mica had a friend over on Sunday. I kept saying, "It's not fair. Mica always gets to do fun things, and I can't." Really? I remember when Mica went through that stage. I wasn't too fond of it then. I'm not too fond of Isaak going through it either. I never get to do anything fun! I'm bored! Life is way too exciting for that kind of talk.


5. Our area hit big time news again. We're popular this year - not in a good way. Miss Teen Nebraska went to take out her garbage, and never came back. She wasn't wearing appropriate shoes, she didn't have her purse, money, or cell phone on her. There was no sign of a kidnapping. The police thought she had ran away because she had left without telling someone before. My thoughts are, it's better to be safe than sorry. Her parents used social media to spread the word to find her daughter. Because it was so public the FBI got involved. Through her computer they somehow found out she was in Indiana with a boy. It makes me sad that someone would so unhappy to leave their home like this. A long time ago there was a case of a high school boy taking out the trash, and never coming home. We're talking - never! His mom started a nonprofit organization called Project Jason, to help families with missing children.

Anyhow people jumped the gun, they wanted her Miss Teen Nebraska title removed, many think her family messed up for going public about her disappearance, and are saying that the parents must be messed up. The police are holding her in a protective home because she is threatening to run again. While I agree that there may be some family problems, how are we (outsiders) to know what's going on? She could have, had a lot of pressure having a toddler brother that has a rare eating disorder (a protein deficiency), traveling for her oldest brother's martial arts, school, and all the other things she had to do with community service. That's just it, no one knows. I hate that people assume that they know a whole lot about the unknown. They may be right about her family, but they may be wrong to.  

If one of your loved ones went missing, the police didn't seem helpful, would you go to social media for help? I know I'd go all out to find one of my boys if they left my home, and I had no clue where they were at. I love them.

Random Tid Bits

1. Midterms are over! YAY! 
2. Daddy had a talk about how Mica has to stop blaming others for not getting his way. Mica was mad that Daddy when he told him to brush his teeth. While he was in the bathroom, he missed the ending of Curious George. Mica got mad, and turned to Dad to say, "See you made me miss my show!" Daddy turned the TV off. Isaak was pretty annoyed, and gave Mica a look. After Mica cooled down, Daddy gave him a lecture. Later on when I was told this I said, "It sounds like how a lot of my student's act."
3. My student's didn't do so hot on Wednesday's assignment. I was super excited about the assignment. You can imagine how I felt when I was grading them in disappointment. I think they rushed it just to get out of the building. They can leave after their written exam. I had two options: 1. Give them crappy grades, and hang up work I knew was not hang up worthy. 2. Force them to rework it in my Friday class. I picked number 2. I'm so glad I did. I think a lot of them learned something today. Not only do they know I want them to push themselves, they also know how to see details, contrast and colors better!
   
   The Assignment: I took the posters below, and cut them up into 30 rectangles. One is of Toadstool park, and the other is Crawford, Nebraska. I the photos this summer on our trip. I added Mario Brothers to the images to each of them. All of the student got one little rectangle. They didn't know what the image was of. They also got different techniques to do on them.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Flighty people need more to do. My assistant is a great guy, but he is so all over the place. If I ask him to do something he says, "Ok!", but is then on his computer doing something totally different. I've found that if I give him a lot to do, he functions better. The dynamics of different people is so interesting.
5. My sister has been waiting all day on MRI results for my nephew Emerson. They were supposed to get them last night, and call this morning. Doctor's offices and health insurance is so needed, but really suck at times. They are looking to see if he has fluid on his brain. I guess that happens with his eye sight issues, but also swelling of the brain/head happens to. His head looks fine, and hasn't changed. We don't think there is anything to worry about. It would be nice to know the results though!

Random Tid Bits

1. I go out of my way to get to where I need to go; these days. Yep there is construction to and from work. It's so annoying. I am happy that in general it doesn't take me too long to get to places around here. It's not like we live in LA. It's taking twice as long to get to and from work now a days. Many people including me have decided to go down the next main street, which makes that congested as well.
2. Mica told me last night that he wanted all the boys in jiu-jitsu to call him, "Mikey". Isaak started it. I call Isaak, "Zeek" and "Zeeky". Now Isaak calls Mica, "Mikey". Mica likes it because Michelangelo from Teenage Mutant Turtles goes by that nickname. Do I let this nickname go? On one hand it just seems strange to have him being called something that isn't his name. On the other hand Zeek isn't Isaak's name. How do you feel about nicknames?
3. Mica's super excited because he was asked to help a new kid in school, feel welcomed. His teacher put the new kid's desk right next to Mica's. Mica loves that he's Asian. I don't know why. I guess it's because there are very little Asians in his school. He's honored that his teacher asked him to help this new kid. I'm honored that he's honored. :)
4. Mica was also excited that he gets to go to a special class yesterday. It's for the (how do I say it?) brighter kids in the class. Isaak was sad. Isaak said, "I want to be one of the smartest kids in my class!" Isaak of course is in Kindergarten. They don't even know where kids fall in anything just yet. We needed to explain to Mica that it's great to be excited, but not to brag. I was the opposite in school. I was going to special classes, but it was because I was slow.
5. Midterms are in two weeks - EKKK! It seems like we just started classes!

Midterms

I've been wanting to post lately, but I've been so busy. Last week I took nearly 1/2 a day off to go on a pizza tour with Isaak's preschool class. This week is midterms at where I teach. I have a stack of illustrations to grade, another stack of papers to grade, and exams to finish writing.

Two things annoy me about midterms and finals time: 1) The Education Director keeps wanting to add points into the exam. I know it's college, but I have them for computer art classes. To me their work is what matters; their tests should be a side note. Here I am adding questions to their exams. 2) I get students that tell me they have appointments every year on Friday. That's the day I have my class. They want to take the test early. When one student does that, others want to follow. Of course I'm a bit*# if I don't say, "Yes." For some reason it's only 1st year that asks to take an exam before it's time. I hate giving exams out early because there's a possibility that they can talk about the exam to others in the classroom. At least this semester they have computers; that means I can give them a test on a program that randomizes the questions, and I don't have to hand grade a stack bigger than a phone book!

I have a student this semester that keeps crying on me. It's nothing I have personally done. I really truly think something is wrong with him. He's a bright 19 year old. He gets really emotional when students are loud around him. Noise isn't a problem when I have class on Tuesday; it is a problem on Friday. Everyone is rearing to go on Friday. They so want the week to be over with. I've watched the student in concern nearly blow up because he was trying to concentrate, while a girl was tapping her pen against the table. I really don't think the girl was meaning to be annoying. She didn't even realize she was bothering anyone. I saw the boy student's face get all red; like he was going to freak out. I quickly tried to ease the situation before it got out of hand. I said, "Whoever is tapping, could you please stop? I'm trying to grade up here." She was apologizing. I knew she didn't mean to annoy anyone. I was just trying to prevent the boy student from having a melt down. Instead of asking the girl himself nicely to stop, he'd blow up. Well many things like that have happened. I notice he taps his own desk when he's aggravated, his face turns red, he cries and he asks really random off topic questions in class. Questions that barely relate to what I'm going over. Nothing is in his chart from his previous history. I just feel for him. Much of me thinks he has Aspergers Syndrome. I'm not a councilor; I'm not even supposed to council the students. Our school is too small to have a councilor. I moved his desk; like he's a little kid. Now he sits in a quieter part of the room. Part of me has sympathy for him; another part of me wants to be real, and treat him like anyone else. He'll be in the work force in a few years. If I hold his hand, am I doing him any favors? Uggg!

He's not the only student with issues this semester. I could go on. I have an adult student that is one of the more needy ones in the class. He wants an A on everything, but doesn't want to spend the time to get an A. I have a student who's boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend; then held a knife up to her. Another student who's house burnt down to the ground. Seriously there were just ashes left. :( At lease his whole family is ok. It's been a rough year.

Midterms Are Done!

I'm so happy! Today is the end of midterms! You know what's even better? I have 98% of my grading DONE! That hardly happens. My whole week has been devoted to grading. Everyone is doing fairly well in two of my classes. The other one, I'd like for their scores to be higher. I have to decide if I want to add points to EVERYONE'S midterms in that class, or not. That's a decision for Monday. They generally don't do as well in that class because:

A) It's on Friday. Many take off to go home for random reasons.
B) On the exam I ask a lot of dates and name questions. Artists and facts like that generally don't do well together. It's an illustration course so I ask about stock art, copyright information, the history of illustration and talk about illustrator's themselves. I'd talk about techniques, but I have a class first semester called Art Media Techniques.
C) The Education Director thought I should have the midterm and final exams weighted more. I never had tests in my hands on classes when I was in school. I also didn't have lectures either. I weighted the exam more. Now it's hurting them more. What's a teacher to do?

I'm not a fan of scaling exams. I believe that if I'm going to add points, they should get added across the board. That means if a student did really well, good for them! I don't want to discourage their efforts! They deserve extra if everyone else gets extra. 

I only had a few non-interested students this semester. That's pretty good considering each class size is around 50 students! I can't believe how many students on average change their minds for a major. Here they can't. It's illustration, design, web, advertising period. If they decide not to go into that type of art, we've pretty much lost them.

Last night Daddy and I got to go out. We went to the The Creative Institute. It's a newish nonprofit organization that's geared towards helping artists in the area. We got to talk to other artists about what we think they should incorporate on their website. It was pretty fun. I liked being able to have adult conversation without little voices jumping in.

Midterms

It's midterm week at the school I teach at. I don't think the students realize this, but I hate tests to! I have mountains of paper tests besides me. I'm pretty sure I killed a tree or two. :( Next semester the students will all have MacBook Pro's. That means all their tests can be given via Star Quiz through the network. I will have no grading to do. The program Star Quiz will do it for me. :) But right now I have to settle for paper tests. A 100 question test + 57 students x 2 classes = ? I just don't even care to figure out the easy answer. That's how brain dead I feel right now.

Today I listened to PowerPoint presentations all day. It wasn't too bad. This is the first time I've given the assignment my 3rd year students turned in today. They had to create a graphic standard manual. Basically a manual for a large company explaining how their logo should be used and how it shouldn't be used. They had to create the logo, an environmental graphic, stationery, the color usage of the logo, font usage, a fake letter from the president and how not to use the logo. Many misspelled stationery. They spelled it stationary. I hate our language sometimes!

I realize with teaching our son's how to talk and how to write how the English language is confusing.

Speaking of sons, Mica got another award at school. This time it's for following safety guidelines. He has another possibility of eating lunch with the principle. I'm going to end this post with some pour English: Our boy done good! ;)