Slackers R Us

So a week passed and I barely blogged. Maaannn…:whip: What is the matter with me? SOL testing, gang. Aptly named, I might add. One week of throwing my teaching schedule into the proverbial toilet. I’ve seen my 3rd period class twice in the entire week. I had my 4th period class for an hour and forty minutes today. There might be some of this going on during the weekend…:drunk:

To make the week even better, I’m dealing with Crazy Dad Who Lies on Behalf of His Son. I e-mailed to explain that Slacker Boy hadn’t handed in his essay. Dad flipped out and proceeded to inform me that it was ALL MY FAULT. You see, the school computer didn’t find a file on the boy’s disk and he couldn’t print it. Errr….yeah. Like it’s my responsibility to print the boy’s essay out for him? I pointed out that I hadn’t even seen a pencil rough-draft (that was due the previous week), and I can’t grade what I haven’t seen. I said I would accept it late with a 30 point late penalty (10 points off for each day it was late–it was over a week late at this point).

Dad flipped again and said that his son would NOT have a late penalty because our computers couldn’t open the file and he DEMANDED an immediate conference. :hissyfit: Yes, folks. I really love to attend the conferences that are out to skewer the teacher. Nope. I pointed out that there are four weeks left, plenty of time to raise the grade, starting by handing in the late essay. I’m sure there will be a happy love note waiting for me on Monday morning. :love:

So it’s been quite the week. On the bright side, I am making fantastic progress on the new book. I’m going back into the manuscript to develop the hero’s character growth a little better. I can’t seem to do that until I’ve written half the book. I’m hoping this will cut down on revisions later. My self-imposed deadline is the end of August, but if I don’t do anything crazy, maybe I’ll have a final draft sooner. I have a bad tendency to write everything the wrong way and then go in with a machete later to fix it.

Anyway, thank goodness it’s the weekend! :wave: For those of you with children getting out of school, I am so jealous. I have another month of teaching.

Random observation–in the tv show LOST, what in the world are they doing with Walt’s character? Did you notice that he’s aged and grown up incredibly fast? Whoa…I wonder if they have different “tribes” around the island. And what the heck is this vaccine for?