My life is boring

As I've said before, my life isn't very interesting. I've been trying to figure out what to write about, but I haven't come up with much. I know my sister likes regular postings, but.... I entitled this "My Life is Boring"--which is a bit of a misnomer--I never get bored myself, there is always something going on, something I'm doing, etc... But I realize that the things that keep me busy are not always things that are interesting to read about, and in turn are most likely boring for you!

For the past week and 1/2 I've been teaching summer school. Summer school continues for another week and 1/2. I've got a mix of 4th graders through high school aged kids...some have had me for a teacher before, and for some this is a new experience. I've got a few that I'm having a hard time with--I expect kids to work, and try to do things on their own...but for some of these kids it has been bred out of them! Instead of teaching them how to do things on their own, their teachers hand them the answers. This is much easier on the teacher--less time consuming,less work, etc...but does not help the child in the end. When the kid shows up in my classroom then for summer school, it is a rude awakening. After relying on an adult for so long, my classroom is a different experience. I've got one kid who came with work sent by the teacher (this child will be entering the 7th grade in a few weeks)...we were supposed to conquer division in 3 weeks--the kid can't even count by 2s. So, I finally told the kid that we wouldn't even bother with the division problems, that there were other things we need to concentrate on first. We've been working on counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, and yesterday we worked on 3s. We're slowly making our way through the multiplication facts. I'm trying to make it as interesting as possible, showing him little tricks for memorization, listening to School House Rock (3 is the Magic Number), making things tactile... Some of them don't have tricks though, so he'll just have to memorize them. If you had a special way of learning your multiplication facts, please let me know. I'll certainly try to pass it along!

I spent the afternoon out with some friends...one of them has a huge pool at her house, so we spent the afternoon lounging around in the water and trying to avoid the splashes of her two young children. We had a good time--most of us are teaching summer school together--and there is always tons of good gossip! Most interesting is the fact that the local school district has finally settled their teacher negotiations. My salary is the average of all 5 districts in Marion county, so we've been waiting to see what we might get for an increase this year. Insurance policies are also changing, so we're all hopeful it will be beneficial and cover the increases in insurance premiums.

That's all for now... Hope you are all doing well!