Finished socks, school may finish me

I finished my Opal yarn socks last night, and didn't wear them today because of the rain. Maybe tomorrow - my feet are cold. When I got bored waiting in the grocery line, I pulled out my green socks, that I hope to have done by St. Patrick's Day (Probably won't happen). I got a couple of rounds knitted before I finally made it to the front of the line. No one looked at me strangely, so I may have to remember to keep a project in my purse.
I'm still ranting and raving about the testing mania that permeates our schools. Today we had a meeting to look at new test booklets, to discuss testing, to learn how to generate automatic quizzes to be sure our students are ready for the tests. We had a teacher pipe up about all the things she is doing already to teach to the test. I love computers and being able to just run stuff off at the drop of a hat, but the testing is nuts. You can't stop and wait if the children don't understand something. There are deadlines to meet. There is no such thing as teaching to mastery - I don't believe mastery even exists any more.
I really hope this trend will go away, or at least be changed considerably, because there is no way these children are learning what they need to know. Of course, that only bothers the teachers. Most of the kids don't care at all.

Ahhhh - the weekend

I'd forgotten how nice weekends can be after a week with nutty children. But the kids in the class can't hold a candle to the office, which loses paperwork it asks for, and to the fools who designed and implemented NCLB. Many long years ago, when I was in school, we were told "Don't teach to the test." You know, just do you best, work as hard as you can to be sure the children in the class learn the content, then the test will take care of itself. Now, with funding tied to test scores, we not only teach TO the test, we spend our entire day teaching the test itself. It's insane, the kids hate it, the teachers hate it, and the idiot who thought this was a good idea should be forced to spend at least a semester in the classroom trying to LIVE with what they have created.
I'm just glad to have some time to knit and read this weekend. I am trying to finish a pair of Opal yarn socks so I can wear them on Monday, and I started my first attempt at socks on two circular needles. I have less than an inch done, but so far, I much prefer my five DPNs. I guess it's all in what you get used to, and I'm going to give this one pair a shot and see how it goes. There's always someone who wants a couple of sets of Addi Turbo 24" needles, size two, if I decide it's not worth the effort.
By the way, I'm living and working in the south, and thank all the gods of wind and weather, the tornadoes of earlier this week missed my area.

I'm back...

Life does get in the way of my writing here, but rather than start a new blog, thought I'd pick up with the old one.

Things have been interesting since returning to the classroom. My rose-colored glasses are now quite skewed. I wanted to teach, I wanted to share a love of books and writing. No one told me that the kids simply did not care, would not care, and there was not a damn thing I could do to make them care.

First week of school one of the little twits decided it would be fun to start a fire in the bathroom, so he brought a lighter to school and started in with the paper towels. Welcome to school, Mrs. Teacher.

Then one of my little darlings decided that it would be fun to drive off in a school bus and head for the big town to the north. He did it - and drove the blasted bus through three towns, evading state cops, police in three towns and three sets of sheriffs' deputies.

And I'm trying to teach them reading and math??? I'm awfully dull compared to real life.

I've had to force myself to take some of my life back. When I started, I was getting to work by 6:30 a.m. and if I left before 6:30 p.m., it was a good day. At some point, I decided that there had to be some way I could have at least a bit of my life, so I decided to force myself out daily...and it really was a forced effort. But there has to be life beyond school.

I am going to start getting to the gym again, and I've already started knitting again. I missed it. Right now I'm working on the second in a pair of socks in an Opal Rain Forest yarn, and I'm close to turning the heel. I've also started the Great American Aran Afghan, which I may finish in this lifetime, considering how hard it is and how little time I have to knit.

Eventually, I will figure out how to put the picture where I want it, but that is a picture of the block I'm working on that I found on the net. When I finish my block, I'll replace the picture. Hope it looks as good as that one.