What happens...if I don't grade anything...ever

Very, very sleepy during Saturday Potluck. I was out. Cold.

Well, it's Wednesday - or rather Thursday now seeing as it's past midnight. I spent 5 hours today grading getting ready to finish midterm reports which go out tomorrow. So. Many. Papers. It's nauseating. If I became a teacher, as a profession, I would probably hire 100 graders. I wish I didn't have to assign any homework, ever. If I ever teach College courses I'm going to be one of those horrible teachers who has the entire grade based upon 4 exams. It's easier that way - yeah, it sucks for you, but I don't care. Haha. But no, because I'm merciful, I assign dinky little assignments due every single day! It's so tedious. I know, all you teachers are rolling your eyes. But I don't have any graders, and I have over 80 students in three different subjects. Grading is probably the worst thing in the entire world!!! The second worst thing would be getting up at 6:30AM in the morning.

You see, I have a confession. I'm a chronic class skipper. Throughout my 5 years of College, I skipped a lot of classes. Many, many classes in fact. Last Spring Quarter at Walla Walla I was taking a general 200 level Microbiology Class. Not that it's an easy class, by any means, but...I'm a science major, and this was definitely..."below me", especially considering I took it my senior year. Monday was quiz day. So guess what! Monday was the one day I actually went to class. So, for a 10-11 week quarter...I'm pretty sure I attended class about 15 times. It worked out wonderful. Yes, I got an A. I know I'm generalizing, but ... in general I think it's a homeschooler thing. Sure, there are those crazy overachieving homeschoolers that do everything perfect and make us lazy homeschoolers look really bad. But - I'm just not used to going to class every day for hours and hours! I've never, ever done that. I've never sat in a desk at school for more than 1 hour. I can't fathom it. It's disgusting. Teaching has exposed me to this horror. And, above all of this - it isn't any better if you're the teacher!!! It's actually worse. You can't zone out, 1/2 nap, or doodle on your pages. You have to be 100% (okay, sometimes 70%) engaged and focused on everything going on in your classroom - and with every single student. It's a new thing for me. So, getting up in the morning for "school" and being there until 4pm...yeah, that's weird. I can't believe you guys did that all through your childhood. That... sucks. I could barely attend 1 hour lectures every day throughout college. Oh- and a reminder - yes, I am still fairly smart and intelligent. Somehow I managed.


This is a picture of Stacey and I. Post-Grocery shopping. You see, going out into town in the back of a truck is always kind of a gamble. If it rains, too bad. Also, I'm wearing a typical Pohnpeian skirt in this photo. By typical I mean - the type of skirt worn by almost every single female on this island the majority of the time. I'm trying to fit in. The whole, blond white girl doesn't help much though.



This past week has actually been quite fun. World History is covering Ancient Greece, and American History is about to get into the Revolutionary War. Geography is still stuck talking about climates, pressures, and landforms...I like it, but they're all bored. My students are hilarious though. I am falling in love with some of them so much - the more you get to know them the more enjoyable it is to teach them! Ever since one day I asked my kids to get me food from the caf since I missed lunch, they all have been trying to bargain with me. "Miss, I will get you a juice!! How many extra credit points?", and I usually respond..."Get me one, and I'll decide later!" These past three weeks of sub work for Computer III has been so fun. I taught the kids how to play Mafia during days when the power was out. They all love it so much - they ask for it all the time. I feel bad for the new teacher...hah. They walk in every day and ask "Miss- Mafia today? Mafia? I want to be murderer this time Miss!!" We played this week once, and one of the students was the Doctor. I told him to "wake up" and he did, but because I wasn't looking at him at the time, he exclaimed "Miss, I'm over here" (which, in doing so, exposed his role to all the other 'sleeping' players) and once he realized what he did the entire class erupted in laughter and he took forever to realize his mistake. Today, my computer students all took a typing test. I told them, if they beat my typing score I'd give them ONE MILLION extra credit points. The highest score was 56 WPM. So, after wards they all pestered me to let them watch me take a test. I, being excellently skilled in so many things, scored a 98 WPM. They all gasped and ran out of the lab exclaiming how crazy I was.

Tomorrow is my first day back on my normal schedule. It's going to be so weird. Also, a challenge. I haven't taught them for a while...and I don't know where they are at, or what level of understanding they're at. It will be a bit of a struggle, but I am glad to be back teaching them one of my favorite subjects.


Today. After grading in my dungeon, aka, Room 3, for about 4 hours. I went home to a delicious meal of pasta with tomato sauce. I was home for about an hour. My roommates, never told me that I had gotten a package and it was waiting for me in my room!!! Today was such a long day....and I have been waiting for a few packages for weeks now...so when I walked into my room and saw that box on my bed I nearly cried tears of joy. It was so comforting to finally have something, something packaged from home with love sent thousands of miles especially for me. Mom sent me chocolate (which had melted, and then cooled...but still tasted so amazing), brown pasta (healthiness!), maple syrup, and some other goodies. Although the bag of advil spilled throughout the box and I spent 10 minutes sorting pills from packing material....it was still the best thing to happen all day. If you've ever been away, completely isolated from all things familiar....then you now how absolutely amazing it is to get something from home.

(and yes, this is an emotional plea for you to send me stuff)

I promise, you will get something in return!