School:
Did I mention that this school year has been completely ridiculous with regards to student behavior? Two issues are currently driving me bonkers--
1. Our district county policy was amended this year to allow students SEVEN tardies PER quarter PER teacher. In other words, a student can be late to my class seven times EACH quarter before I am allowed to write a referral. In addition, since we have 7 periods a day, a student can be late TWENTY-EIGHT times total each quarter with no major repercussions. What the hell? Seriously? What message is this sending to our kids? What employer in the world allows a person to be late SEVEN times without major consequences? UNREAL!
2. There was another HUGE fight and near 'code yellow' status yesterday. The short version--a student was running through the hallways, broke a glass cabinet in a science classroom, hit 2 students, 1 teacher, and 1 police officer before being arrested. What the heck is happening at my school? It's like the inmates are running the asylum. Administration alleges they will be "cracking down" starting today....we'll see if change occurs. With only 14 school days left, I think it is too little, too late. Sighs.
Books:
(I HAVE been managing to read lots! It keeps me sane and helps me "escape" from the chaos at work!) :)
Invisible Id: Written by my hubby! He finally allowed me to read an entire novel from cover to cover. Such a great read! I hope, hope, hope he gets agent representation one of these days...
The Kingdom Keepers Series by Ridley Pearson. These cool books take place at Disney World! I received the 4th book "Power Play" for my birthday, so re-read the first 3 before delving into the newest book. Great book for younger readers! Premise is about teenagers who are recorded to be hologram tour guides at the Disney Parks. Turns out they can swap places with their holograms while sleeping. Disney villains from Disney film lore are trying to take over the parks.... I don't want to do any plot spoilers so will stop there. :)
Juliet by Anne Fortier LOVED this book! Premise: After her aunt dies, a woman follows her will on a treasure hunt of sorts...and ends up exploring Italy when she learns she is related to the "real" Juliet, upon whom Shakespeare based his play. Part romance; part Da Vinci code-ish in her clue seeking; part "Water for Elephants" in the chapters switching between past and present. Wonderful read!
The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide by Stephenie Meyer. Another birthday gift which I read cover-to-cover. Fun read for any "Twilight" series fan. My favorite part was reading Meyer's descriptions of her writing process and her thoughts/ideas for the background history of her characters. I will say that the encyclopedia-type format made this a book I couldn't read in long intervals...I read bits and pieces between reading other books.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett. LOVED this book!!!! It is about racism in the 1960's. The neat part is it describes African American woman who worked as maids/nannies for white families. Talks about how they grow to love the children they care for and the children in turn love them...only to grow up and be expected to hire black folks as the laborers in their own households. Beautifully shares the perspective of 2 different maids and one white woman who tries to take a stand for equality.
What have you been reading? Anything you've really enjoyed that you recommend?
1 day ago
6 comments:
I am actually reading "Great Expectations" right now!!! I got a Kindle for my Mother's Day present this year (woohoo!), and that book is one of the free downloads on Amazon...never read it in school and thought I should try to read some of the classics. :)
That is an insane amount of tardies. I do not miss the lack of discipline and consistency with being in the classroom.
Books: I finished the following in the past month: "Something Borrowed," and "Something Blue," and "The Island." I am a fan of reading lighthearted, summery books this time of year.
The Kingdom Keeper series sounds so cool and I LOVED Juliet too.
Just could not get into The Help. In fact, it was a rarity because I started it and didn't finish it.
You need to, have to, absolutely MUST read The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon. Truly an amazing book.
I can totally see how frustrating the tardy policy is - WOW, those kids have it good. We got 1 and on the 2nd we were on "report." I don't think that sets a good standard at all. And the fighting stuff is not cool. I can't imagine cracking down now will do much, unless they do it good and maybe it will scare them enough to remember it thru the summer, LOL!
I am so jealous of your reading, I really need to make that a priority. And yeah for Hubs letting you read his novel - that's awesome. I just saw that they were making The Help into a movie...should be a good one.
I just checked out Radical by David Platt from the library. I have heard great things about him so I thought I would give it a try. Now I'm just hoping I will actually finish it, again - reading really needs to be more of a priority for me, LOL!
So, a student can be 28 times late and there won't be any referral on him. If I were a student, I would love this as 'sweet'.
I was so excited to read about your description of the first book. Hope your hubby gets an agent soon!
The last book I read was Gurcharan Das's "The Difficulty of Being Good : On the Subtle Art of Dharma". I was so excited to read it, but the book did not live up to my expectations. I found its first chapter brilliant though.
Congrats to your hubby for finishing! I hope he's able to get his book noticed by and agent and then a publisher. Did you see StirrupQueen's series on getting a book published? Check out her right lower sidebar for the different parts of the series.
I'm in disbelief at the 7 tardies policy. Why have any limit at all??
Post a Comment