that vision thang

My hubby just informed me that the Philadelphia Book Bank, housed in the former Roberto Clemente Middle School at 5th and Luzerne, is no more.

This SUCKS. While I agree the building itself probably should have been condemned years ago (wires hanging out of the ceiling, non-functioning lights so entire rooms were dark, absolute lack of climate control, and being able to see the workings of the elevator through holes in the elevator wall), I wish the Philadelphia School District could donate another space to them. It was an incredible resource for all of Philadelphia- as long as you were a resident of the city, you could go take free books, although it was mostly used by teachers- and an outstanding example of volunteerism- there were no paid employees.

I got a ton of books there over my eight year career, as a new teacher at new/poor charter schools, for no more than a signature and a flash of a school ID. This is a terrible shame, and I can't believe I didn't hear about it before it happened. I would have been there to scoop up all the foreign language tapes and dictionaries and National Geographic magazines and LPs. Because the Book Bank had everything, even some times full sets of brand new textbooks.

It will be missed. I hope it gets re-established.

Current Mood: sad

Apologies- this has been sitting in the "For My Eyes Only" setting for weeks, and I simply forgot to make it public to post it. Life is hectic- students are in- time is precious. Hopefully, I will steal a bit of time here and there to update, but gone is the age of three-times-a-week updates.


Ah, summer. One of the advantages to being a teacher *** is having a few weeks where the real world largely does not dictate what you do, and when you do it. Multiple that by the unreality of entertaining preschoolers and toddlers for weeks on end and playing for hours on the Internet and afternoon naps and you can understand where my mind currently is.

That time of rest officially ended last week when I went back to school for teacher orientation.

Things still feel a little unreal, though. Orientation was amazingly painless (I don't sit well for hours while people talk at me, and the school is particularly frigid in the late summer, requiring sweaters as thick as parkas.) I spoke in front of over one hundred faculty memebers without turning bright red, stuttering, or having a panic attack. I met some new people I think I will get along with, and I reconnected with old friends (already scheming together- we covered newly married colleagues' doors with wedding decorations and wrapped the door closed with crepe paper.)

I had been going in for the week before, nominally to work on my room (as a pack rat, it is annoying to have to pack everything up once a year for the floors to be waxed- it takes two days to pack and a week to undo the damage) but really to enjoy the silence of being absolutely by myself while the little critters were in daycare. It's a Zen sort of moment.

I teach three subjects this year, by choice- Latin, Asian Cultures, and Civics. So I needed to re-arrange the room a bit to accommodate a new set of textbooks and another subject bulletin board. A new subject meant that I could justify buying stuff for my room! After seven years of teaching, coming from a pack rat family, and emptying out a few inherited houses, I have quite the collection of stuff in my room, even after switching subjects and schools and jettisoning butt-loads of crap. (For example, at my last school, I had a collection of board games- at least twenty- in my room that I had to give away when I left because I just didn't have room for them at home.) I am the only teacher in my school, for instance, that has a large metal storage cabinet (the school's) and three metal filing cabinets (my own) in their room. AND HAS THEM FILLED.

So, I needed another small book shelf, some stylish decorations (I tend to buy dollar store), new art supplies (amazing how hard kids are on markers and glue sticks in two years...), etc. This is the truly fun part of school. I love setting my room up, coming up with new ways of arranging and projects and lessons, before the actual students wreck everything and aggravate me. This is the time of year when you are still idealistic and not tired, and probably the most creative. When you are compiling resources and ideas and have time to truly think. And when I can justify hours on the Internet!

Although this blog is primarily for fan-fiction, I have thrown a little bit of everything in here over this fun summer, and my time for the next few weeks really will have to be school-focused, until the kids come in and I beat them down in to the proper way of doing things (mine.) So- teachers out there- I am going to share my teaching stuff here, and I hope somebody can find something useful in here.

WEB SITES

Current Mood: rejuvenated