Friday, Mar. 14, 2003
End of the week recap, posted at 9:41 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Ladies & Gentlemen, you are now reading the journal of a teacher being recommended for tenure. The Asst. Principal, Lady MacBeth, told me that I'm a good teacher and she hopes I'm at the school for a long time. So, yay for me.Friday could not have come more quickly. I'm thinking about going to bed at around 11 tonight and getting a night of good rest. This has been one of longest weeks ever. I hate it (hate it, hate it, hate it) when teachers refer to their job as a battle or that they're on the "front lines," but today during 7th period I felt like that way. It's a rare feeling, but I felt like I kept having to find ammunition to fire at them to keep them occupied. I then ran out of things to do by 3:00, and had fifteen minutes to fill. We played a quick competition of easily confused words (affect/effect, capital/capitol, compliment/complement). Now all my students know about my dumb, "Oh! It's a building" mnemonic device. The week ended mercifully and I felt drained in every way. And I still had to interview a prospective teacher candidate for next year and get to baseball practice.
Talk to Her was strange and wonderful. It's still sticking with me and figuring out its theme is beautiful distress.
This is my funniest story of the week:
The situation: My students offering sentences for yesterday's Word of the Day, malevolent.
Jaleesa: "50 Cent writes many songs that malovalently criticize Ja Rule."
Me: Good Sentence
Jaleesa: 50 Cent is a rapper, Mr. Epiphany.
Me: (Sardonic Grin and goofy eyebrow raise) I know who 50 Cents is, Jaleesa. (Because I do. Kinda like him, too.)
The class erupts in a combination of laughs and comments like, "Mr. Epiphany, how you known about 50 Cent?" I'm pretty proud of myself, then...
Jaleesa: Uh, Mr. Epiphany. It's 50 Cent. Not 50 Cents, like you've got change in your pocket jingling around or something. 50 Cent. (cackle cackle laugh)
Yup, she got me.
And, now for a little Friday Five action:
1. Do you like talking on the phone? Why or why not?
I go in stages. Usually, I prefer some other form of communication. But I like late night phone calls or lazy Saturday afternoon in my car phone calls.
2. Who is the last person you talked to on the phone?
Teri. The phone cut off in the produce section at the grocery store, though. Yup, I'm one of those people who sometimes finds himself talking on the phone in the grocery store.
3. About how many telephones do you have at home?
Two. The cell and the house phone. I rarely answer the home phone, because it usually is bill collectors or solicitors. I screen my calls with my answering machine and prefer talking on my cell phone. Of course, it sucks when it gets turned off, though.
4. Have you encountered anyone who has really bad phone manners? What happened?
I think it's partly a cultural thing, but I'm still shocked when I call a parent of a student and they hang up without saying goodbye. There will just be an "alright then" or an "okay," and then a click. In addition, my old roommate Mike had the worst phone manners. I received many a complaint from friends about rude message gathering.
5. Would you rather pick up the phone and call someone or write them an e-mail or a letter? Why or why not?
It depends on the mood, I guess. I generally prefer e-mail and enjoy letters, but don't remember the last time I sent a letter to a friend and many of my friends are not on e-mail on weekends and my weeks are often too busy to return many e-mails. So I go in stages. I love talking on the phone in my terms. Lately, I have been big on making sure it's on my terms - screening calls, not answering it during one of the three TV shows I regularly watch every week (if you're keeping track, they're 24, Six Feet Under, and the Ed/West Wing double feature), etc.