Talk Amongst Yourselves*

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets. - Edward Abbey" [yea, I got it off of the Toshiba start page--I'm TIRED!!]
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Sometimes you get so depressed that you can't "blog" your way out of it. But I'm pulling out. ("Shake it off! Shake it off!" said crazy-like-a-fox Bela Karolyi....)

Ouch! My ankle really hurts....but I have an Olympic Gold Medal, so, s'all good!
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Also making it hard to blog is the super slowness of my computer.
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Today I'm just going to try to chop wood,* make bread, haul sticks. Also blog. A little.
In the meantime, two favors:
1) Keep commenting--your comments are about 15 times more articulate than the posts, but I can't seem to respond to them [except in other posts] (thanks for that, Google!).
Basically, we regard commenters as guest bloggers.
2) Please refer a friend to this site. Do NOT e-mail about it on your work computer. You know, the Big Brother thing. But we need to see that more people are reading this, or we may have to regard this project as defunct.
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BOY do I hate it when bloggers make extended comments meant only for a few people. That being said: LMG--you know you are in the Pantheon of friends, perhaps the Queen of the Pantheon...nay, you are the wife of Chronos, the progenetrix, the elder stateswoman. However "Cal" has a special place in the palace because he will e-mail me 17 times a day about bathroom fixtures. You two are tied, almost like some weird Greek god that is, like, conjoined, or twinned (Artemis/Apollo)... (okay, enough with the awkward mythological analogies).
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*Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift a stone, and you will find me there. - Gospel of Thomas, v. 77, apocryphal/Gnostic?

*"Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water." — Zen Buddhist Proverb

*My house is dirty; therefore I will clean it. - Me

Reader: mentally insert here a video clip of "Maggie Jacobs" from "Extras" (portrayed by the same girl who plays the English girl on "Ugly Betty") cleaning her house up after being berated by the Ricky Gervais character....








*If you don't know from whence this quotation, then you are way too young or way too cool--probably both-- to read this blog!

Koolaide spill on aisle five!!

http://k6educators.about.com/cs/helpforteachers/a/avoidburnout.htm

Hmmm...interesting.

"Ask for Help
"Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
"Don't Play the Teacher at Home
"Take Time for Yourself
"Remember Why You Teach - Look past all of the annoyances and hassles, both big and small, and remember why you became a teacher in the first place. I left a job in Human Resources at a Fortune 500 company to become a teacher. Some days, I do question my sanity."


Look past all the annoyances...big and small? No. That's what we refuse to do anymore....


Why do NONE of the "combat teacher burnout" suggestions include:

• demand more money
• get uppity
• act up
• teach to the contract
• get another job
• enact work stoppages and slowdowns
• live extremely frugally, invest wisely, and ASAP, bail
• make like a professional and get paid for the work you do
• don't work for for free-PLEASE EVERYONE STOP WORKING FOR FREE

To be fair, she vaguely alludes to all of these things:


"Parents, school volunteers, friends, and students can be a valuable time-saving resource in your classroom, but only if you take the time to ask them. With a little planning and time invested up front, you can set up routine times and duties for the people available around you."

Translation - don't do crap for which you are not paid, except--DON'T ASK YOUR FRIENDS!! Are you crazy? Why should your FRIENDS help you disguise the fact the schools are underfunded in supplies, time, personnel, equipment?

Time to practice your new mantra: "HELL, NO."


"Do you stage a Broadway-style dramatic production each year for yourself more than anyone else?"

I don't know where she teaches, but where my colleague Deirdre teaches, if she does NOT stage a "Broadway-style dramatic production"....she's FIRED."