Feeling the Love Again!

Ah......

The school year has ended. And as I left the graduation ceremony Friday morning, I skipped down the steps, thrilled to be out at last! I have a lovely new job and I never have to work with those mean, nasty people ever ever again!

Now, as thrilled as I am to leave that building, my students there were lovely and I will miss them terribly. At the graduation ceremony, they gave me this lovely bouquet of flowers, and we all cried as we hugged each other, and I congratulated them. Parents, who I'd gotten to know over the last four years, came up to me and thanked me and took pictures of me with their kids. It was a wonderful, very happy day.

And now I have a full summer ahead of me to read and rest and relax. Ahhhh.....

They just don't like you, kid.

That was the advice I got from a friend of mine today when I was talking about my job. I was trying to puzzle out what exactly the reasoning would be behind my bosses setting up an environment that made me hate going to work. I was pointing out all the reasons why people would be lucky to have me in their employment and trying to comprehend why I now have TWO negative letters in my file after 5 years of glowing reviews and a spotless reputation.

I know it doesn't sound like the most encouraging advice, but it is freeing in a way. They don't like me. Ok. And I said to my friend, "But everybody likes me." Certainly, my bosses always have. And he asked if I honestly expected to go through life batting 100%. Well... yes.

I'm tenured, so there's not a whole lot they can do about not liking me. They can put nasty little memos in my mailbox. They can be snarky with me. But that's about it. I'm leaving in June. I'd leave before the Spring term, but there are kids that would be without a math teacher for half a year, and I don't want to do that. And we discussed passive-aggressive, mildly amusing things to do in retaliation, but that's not really my style.

I have 5 1/2 more months to go. About 110 more days.

A Rocky Start

I recognize that 2008 is only 6 days old, but I'm not wild about it so far.

In the late afternoon on the 2nd, the radiator stopped working. The boiler in my apartment building died. Of course, we didn't know it was dead. With the radiator working, our apartment is generally about 90 degrees. When we awoke the morning of the 3rd, it was about 65 degrees inside and about 13 outside. And there was no hot water.

The Tummy was not happy. He grumbled about us living in the 'hood while he ate his oatmeal.

I called our landlord when I got to work and left a message saying, "I just wanted to make sure that you knew that we had no heat or hot water this morning. Please call me back." I was cranky with my students, because the temperature in my classroom goes from about 55 degrees to about 110 degrees and back to about 55 by the end of the day. When my landlord called me back, she was all apologies. She very sweetly explained that she had been working all day to fix the problem and found out that she needed to replace the boiler. It would take a few days.

The Tummy suggested we not renew our lease at the end of the month. He does not like not being able to rely on heat and hot water.

Our landlord stopped by later in the evening and gave us a small portable electric heater. It was a very nice gesture, and it did a very nice job heating the square foot of space on all sides of it. The rest of the apartment got steadily colder. I baked snickerdoodles so that I had an excuse to turn the oven on.

The Tummy and I slept in sweats and slippers with 2 quilts and a down comforter on top of us. We cuddled.

Friday morning, it was colder in the apartment. I heated water on the stove to bathe and wash my hair. I grumbled all the way to school. I learned that I become quite grumpy when I can't get warm. I argued with the dean about bathroom passes.

Saturday, the apartment was colder.

The Tummy got up around 9:00 and I stayed in bed under the pile of blankets. Around 10:00, he got back in, because he said it was too cold to stay up. I didn't want to stay in the cold all day, but I felt so gross from not being able to take a real shower for 3 days that I didn't want to go out in public. (And before anybody suggests a cold shower, I'd like to point out that our cold water was about 33 degrees.) So I spent the day in sweats and slippers and a jacket, under an afghan, too cold to do anything but read and watch tv.

Around 7pm, we heard a hiss. The radiator had come back on! WE SURVIVED!!! Tonight, I'm actually sitting comfortably in a t-shirt! Hooray for heat!

Why teachers cry on Sundays and Holidays...

I don't hate my job.

I have to keep saying that aloud to myself. It's true, but it's easy to forget. I don't know any teachers who sleep well on Sunday nights. I don't know any teachers who sleep for pretty much all of Labor Day weekend. And for those of us who go back to work tomorrow... well...

I don't hate my job. I don't hate my job. I don't hate my job.

Once I am in my classroom with my students, it will be easy to remember. I enjoy teenagers. They're fun. I enjoy teaching math. It's fun. The New York City Department of Education... well... they're less fun.

I fully expect to walk into work tomorrow and find a memo in my mailbox that suggests that I make sure that I re-do my bulletin board before the end of the week, because the current bulletin board is from last year. Now, for those of you that are remembering little posters with kittens that said, "Hang In There" on the bulletin boards, that's unacceptable. Every bulletin board needs to have student work on it. (But it should be interesting... they're not really interested in worksheets of math problems) And the work should be graded according to a rubric which also needs to be posted. And it needs to have the name of the class and the name of the teacher and it should be "visually interesting".

That's no problem. I recognize that someone in an office somewhere has decided that updated bulletin boards help students learn. I'm sure that that's true. I'm sure I should focus on the bulletin board instead of on undiagnosed learning disabilities, troubled home lives, pressure to join gangs, spotty educational histories or inconsistent attendance. And I will attempt to do an assignment with my students that can be handed in by Thursday, so that I can grade it late into the night and get to school early on Friday to post it on my bulletin board.

Just a couple of itty-bitty hitches. First, I'm not going to have many students tomorrow. Whenever we have a week that starts on Wednesday, the students and their parents consider it optional. Second, I will probably be asked to cover a class tomorrow for a teacher who is not back from vacation yet. This will make photocopying an assignment.... tricky. Third, our photocopier will not be working tomorrow morning, and probably neither will the printer in the teachers' lounge. They weren't working when we left for break, and I doubt that they've gotten them fixed since.

So.... let me sum up. I need to have a project which can be completed in under an hour, that demonstrates mathematical ability and is visually interesting and can be assigned without giving kids a copy of anything written. I also need a rubric for the project that takes me less than a minute to complete so that I can grade 90 of them (assuming all the kids do the work) preferably in under 2 hours. It would be great, by the way, if the project pertained to sketching sine and cosine curves or solving systems of linear equations, because Regents exams are coming up January 22, and my students aren't ready for them.

I don't hate my job.

Happy New Year!

Ok. I get it. It's not yet 2008. Technically, I'm two days early. But I'm a little bit OCD, and I have trouble starting New Year's Resolutions in the middle of the week. So, today I went back on Weight Watchers. Today, I cleaned the kitchen and went grocery shopping. And today, I'm posting in this here blog. The holidays were certainly fun, but I'm ready to get back to the real world and live better.

Among my resolutions this year is cooking at least 4 nights a week. (Living in Brooklyn makes it really tempting to not EVER cook.) And while I was in Michigan over the break, my sister M, who has a FABULOUS food blog here, kept telling me that I should start writing in my blog more and I should do food too! So, ok. I figure this will help me stay on track with the cooking and the weight loss.

So, without further ado.... the fish.



I'll admit it. I'm not really a fish person. The Tummy, however, really is. He can't get enough of it. The man loves his seafood and actually complains if we don't regularly have fish.


Now, a small aside before we get to the recipe: when I was growing up, I HATED fish. Part of this, it must be admitted, was because my mother seriously messes up cooking fish. I don't intend any disrespect here. There are lots of other things she makes quite well, but she does much better with things that take longer to cook. So fish was just not her thing. I am constantly suprised by fish recipes that are edible. I don't even expect them to be yummy.


That being said, HOLY COW WAS THIS YUMMY! It is Fish with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, Feta and Black Olives. And it comes from, get this, my 500 Best Healthy Recipes cookbook! It is a New Year's Eve Eve MIRACLE! A healthy, yummy fish recipe! And not even that tricky to throw together. It's got some stuff in it that I don't always keep in the cupboard, but it's so good, I may have to start. I served the fish with a half cup of basmati rice, steamed asparagus and salad. This got an "MMMMM" and "Is there any more?" from the Tummy. I used Tilapia, but I think you could use cheaper fish and it would still be good. With the tilapia, it was delicious. The whole plate (including rice) is only 6 points on WW. The fish is only 4.

Fish with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, Feta and Black Olives

1.5 lbs fish fillets
1 oz feta cheese, crumbled
2 Tbsp chopped black olives

Sauce
1/4 cup well-packed, chopped sun-dried tomatoes *
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
1.5 Tbsp olive oil
1.5 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp toasted pine nuts
1 tsp minced garlic
1/3 cup chicken stock


1. Sauce: Put tomatoes, basil, oil, Parmesan, pine nuts and garlic in food processor. Process until finely chopped. Then, with the machine running, gradually add the stock until the mixture is smooth.


2. Put fish in single layer in greased baking dish. Spread the sauce over the fish. Sprinkle with feta and chopped olives. Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes per inch.


* Use dry sun-dried tomatoes. Soak them in boiling water about 15 minutes before chopping.

Great Movie!

I went to the movies today. One of the coolest parts of my job is when I get to go to free stuff that I want to go to but wouldn't spend the money on because I chaperone. I've seen shows at Lincoln Center through this great program Open Stages and museums like the Intrepid and an exhibit on slavery at the New York Historical Society, but I think I like the movies best. We saw Hotel Rwanda when it came out and today we went and saw Kite Runner. Now, I know that most people would not consider going on a subway with fifty 15-17 year-olds to the movies fun, but it is.

The cool thing about it is that we take them to movies they wouldn't see. They're subtitled. They have human rights themes. They're long. But my students get movies. When we take them to see plays, it's different. Movies are what they're used to. And it's really cool to take them somewhere that they like to go, like the movies and show them ideas that they're not used to. And they were totally into it today. We laughed, we cried, we ate popcorn. And my students cheered when the main character stood up to his father-in-law about the class system in Afghanistan. And they're ready to go back to school tomorrow and learn more and read more and do more.

I love it when they get stuff.

To Begin with...

I'm gonna do it. I'm going to actually start blogging. I don't know if I've just gotten carried away with admiration for my big sister's fabulous food blog (Shazam in the Kitchen) or because my procrastination has reached new levels, but here I go...

I had an amazing group of kids suprise the heck out of me today. I coach a police athletic league team of 12 - 16 year old girls. It's a learning league, so it's filled with girls who are not on their school basketball teams. We practice and play a game once a week. There are ten girls on the team and everybody gets equal playing time and it's fun. My team wears gold uniforms so we call ourselves THE SHOCK (like Detroit's WNBA team).So I only had six girls show up today. Then my center fouled out in the third quarter and all the others had to play the rest of the game with no subs. They played their butts off. They were smart and aggressive and hustled their little patooties up and down the court. The game went into overtime and we WON!
16-15. It was so cool.

I was going to post this new recipe I tried, but it just wasn't that good, so instead, I figure I'll recommend this book I just finished. It's non-fiction, which is unusual for me, but really interesting and a pretty quick read. It's called Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, by Atul Gawande. I learned a bunch about eradicating polio and cystic fibrosis.

Three more teaching days until Thanksgiving break! Must go grade.