2 posts tagged “finances”

So things are coming down to the wire for me in terms of student teaching this semester. I have to jump thru so many useless hoops that i feel like a trained poodle. One of the last obstacles to getting this all set up is completing an incomplete i received in my Methods class.

If anyone wants to know if there is a crisis in American secondary education, i'm here to answer that question with a resounding "Yes!" There has not been a single education class that i have taken that has not made me want to pound my forehead into a brick wall until i bled. I took a curriculum class a couple of semesters back where the entire semester was utilized by the professor to teach us that there is no objective definition for the word "curriculum." That class made me want to light myself on fire, although i managed not to get an incomplete in that one.

My methods class was very hard to handle because it was sooooo frustrating. It was tied in with a pre-practicum where i had to teach five lessons and be in a classroom at least one day a week. Everything i was learning from my practical experience mocked everything that i had to do for my Methods class -- and so did the teachers at the High School. To a man/woman, every one of them pulled me aside and told me that if they would have had to go thru the bullshit i was going thru they never would have become teachers. I ran out of motivation to do this work for my Methods class very quickly.

So here i am, behind the 8 ball again because i did not grit my teeth and discipline myself to do all this busy work that will in no way pan out into anything of practical value or use. I probably won't be blogging very much this week as a result, but i will try to read the blogs produced from my neighborhood. I have to produce a unit of ten lesson plans covering the American Civil War, write out all the assessment materials, do a calendar, write five reflection papers from five of the lessons i taught last year, and to finish off the last three lessons from the reflection paper assignment.

To put this all in context, my TV just died (it was a great TV for the ten years we had it, thanks Mike), i'm behind in almost every bill by at least two months, my GSL defaulted and i have to come up with the money to "rehabilitate" it, i will be working part time so 1/2 of my paycheck will be gone while at the same time, because of the default, there will be no new student aid for yours truly, and The Wife has a habit of picking up parking tickets at the meters in NoHo and on Campus. Oh, and to top it off i'm a passive/aggressive lazy ass. Fuck me gentley with a chain saw, right?

Glory, glory, glory.

So I have been way to busy to post very much lately. My car was too rusty to pass inspection, so i had to bring it into a "body shop" a local boy has in his -- get this -- tobacco barn. My local and honest beyond belief mechanic referred him, as he could get my car ready for inspection cheap. Damn, i hope so.

Last week i wrote out a tithe check. That was the same check that caused our account to  be overdrawn. This is the third attempt to write out a tithe check and the third time when, despite having $ in the bank, i've been overdrawn. The Church that i attend doesn't even take offering during the service, i grew up knowing its a good thing to be generous. It isn't like  they church is asking, "Show me the money!" Tithing = giving, and i don't think tithing is required. It is a good idea and generosity can only be drummed into selfish people by discipline. So, here i go.

Although i grew up Pentecostal, i rarely credit spiritual warfare with the strange stuff that happens in life. I am a Christian, and i do believe in the supernatural. However, this spiritual warfare concept is a very nice excuse for intellectually lazy or manipulative people to avoid responsibility for their own actions. However, i'm beginning to think that there might be something behind this whole tithing thing, and i don't see angels and demons under every rock or behind every couch. Whatever it is that is happening, this week has been insane. Most of my week has been scrambling to scape up enough money to actually be in the black at the bank. Thankfully, Friday is payday.

I have also been wincing every time the Red Sox has played on their West Coast road trip. After taking 2 outta three in Seattle, where they never win, they are on the brink of being swept in LA. We are only 51/2 up on the fucking Yankees now, although we still posses the best record in MLB and the largest divisional lead in baseball. Lets just say that i can't wait till college football and the opening of the Cornhusker's season. I can get back to rooting for winners for a change...

I called out of work today, i need to get a whole lotta work done this afternoon. I need to get about twenty lesson plans done, yesterday. Sigh....