Thursday Oh Thursday!!

School 1.0

I have come to the conclusion that my Spanish professor is an irrefutable doofus! He teaches from Power Point which is, in my opinion, the least effective way to teach on a daily basis - not to mention to teach a foreign language. He lacks compassion in every way possible whether it is in his comments/feedback on graded papers or if it involves his students' situations (i.e. a student had a fire destroy her apartment building and he required 3 forms of documentation before he would grant an extension on a paper for her!). Anyway, I'm glad that I won't have to take another class with him as Fall semester I will be taking the last class I need to complete my work for my Spanish minor.


Home

For the past two days the neighborhood Dennis the Menace has been going strong with his shananigans. This kid is 6 and is in a unique family situation in that his grandparents are doing most of the raising and Lord only knows where mommy and daddy are. Anyway, this kid is a handful - so much so that grandma sends him out into the neighborhood unsupervised just so she can have a break. That's never good.

Today I caught him spray painting someone's security sign in someone else's side yard. Upon further investigation, I found that he also spray painted the retaining wall and divider fence in the same yard he painted the sign. The guy that lives there is way too nice to ever do anything about it, but this is something I felt grandma should know. When I went to inform her of what he had done, he picked up the sprinkler in the front yard a sprayed me and Abby with it. What did she do? NOTHING!!! She then informed me that she doesn't know what to do with him; that she can't control him. Ummm....this is my problem how?

I told her that I wasn't going to discuss things any further with her if she was going to allow him to do spray me and Abby while I was trying to talk to her and she had the nerve to say that she didn't allow it. I pointed out the fact that the entire front of my clothes was wet but she still denied it saying that he was washing her car. With a lawn sprinkler? As if!!!! Then she said that everyone is always making things up about her grandson. I told her that I tried to do the right thing by informing her, but that it got me absolutely nowhere. So now she knows that the next time it happens, someone with much more authority than I will be called. I mean, come on lady, he spray painted someone's fence. That's vandalism.

There goes the neighborhood. Literally. They have cycled through many next door neighbors. No doubt because of his antics.

School 2.0 Much better than the first

On a brighter note, at school today I had the privilege of seeing the infamous New York Times Bestseller Ron Clark speak at school today. This is a teacher that has some exciting ideas and methods for the classroom. He's a dynamic speaker dancing and flailing about, climbing on tables, and just his facial expressions give you no choice but to pay attention. He's so inspiring. I picked up a copy of his two books: The Essential 55 and The Essential 11: Qualities Teachers and Parents Use to Motivate, Inspire, and Educate Children. This man has been featured on Rosie's show (when she had her own), Oprah, and even has a movie based on his story starring Matthew Perry. I was able to speak with him briefly while he autographed my books and just that brief encounter was enough for me to feel that he is on my side and wants me personally to succeed in the field.

He's opening a school in South Atlanta in the fall called The Ron Clark Academy. This school is for low Socioeconomic Status students between grades 5 and 8 and boasts a staff comprised of all award-winning teachers and also the President Emeritus of Kennesaw State University. Mr. Clark himself will even be in a classroom there in the Fall. Now those are some lucky students!

Anyway, that's my day. It had it's ups...it had it's downs but overall it was okay.

P.S. Abby has been pulling up more and more lately. In fact, Stefan found her standing in her crib yesterday. This marks the beginning of a new stage in baby proofing. Wish us luck!!!