Losing My Mind, Part 2

Okay, Here's My Deal:

I just read through my blog and discovered that I had already mentioned the voices. Okay, so, well, now you know I know that I did that and we can all just move along now...nothing to see here, folks!!

Tonsillectomy Recovery: Day 12

Okay, Here's My Deal:

You know that post a while back about the nector of the medicinal gods? Yeah, it comes with a price...

Hearing Voices--That's right, since my surgery, not only have I had weird dreams (see post called Giant Furry Frogs Named Chester) but I have been hearing voices. RELAX!! Not the kind that tell me to chop my family to bits or torch the town...but barely audible murmurings that sound like people trying to have a conversation. I just can't make out any of the words. This happens mostly at night when I am almost asleep or just fallen asleep. The other night, I woke up from a nightmare (no more cute furry frogs, my friend, but outright scary and frightening nightmares!) and swore I heard my son screaming and crying and when I ran to his room, I found him soundly sleeping.

Anyway, these things should be subsiding soon as I have backed off the pain meds and am trying to get my body readjusted to the drug-free lifestyle. I had a difficult time getting to sleep last night and I never really got into a deep sleep. My body just can't seem to remember how to do it on its own yet.

Losing My Mind?

Okay, Here's My Deal...

I have lost a post. It was here a day or two ago and now POOF. Gone.

I liked the post. It was on my NOT getting old...39 is not old.

I listed several reasons on WHY I was in fact getting old.

I can't possibly recapture the original thoughts, but here is a summary of some of the things I mentioned. Of course, I won't remember them all because, well, dare I say it, I am getting old.

• Most of my students were not even born when I remember good TV. Like Taxi. There was a funny story that went with this.
• I used to be the new kid on the block on my staff...now I am teaching with 2 people who were my students. Also, once people in my building retire this June, there will only be 3 people who are more senior than me and who have been there since I started.
• The music I loved in college...not to mentioned high school...is now on classic or retro stations.
• I am teaching a student whose mother I had as a student...mind oyu, she was in my first class and wasa high school junior who got pregnant with the boy I have now in class as an 8th grader. Actually, I had him as a sixth grader, too. Guess that does not help my case against being old, does it?
• I would sit in amazement at Mary my fisrt few years of teaching. She had been there so long that she knew who was related to who and had kids of former students...now I am filling Mary's shoes.

So, there you have it...most of it anyway. Hopefully this won't get lost, too.

Giant Furry Frogs Named Chester

Okay, Here's My Deal...

Could be that I have been a liquid diet since my tonisllectomy.
Could be that I am getting too much sleep.
Could be the narcotic oxycodone I have been taking for pain around the clock since the 10th.

Any one of those reasons could explain Chester, the giant, furry frog that lives with my parents and brother & sister-in-law in their street level downtwon NY apartment with all windows and no curtains. Chester is so big, my 30 pound toddler could ride him.

Yeah, that is what I dreamed about the other night. I am also hearing voices that wake me up at night and I swear I hear children laughing in the other room during the day when I am napping.

It's got to be the drugs.

Nector of the medicinal gods

Okay, Here's My Deal...

Vicodin...liquid crack...nector of the medicinal gods...the ideal drug after a tonsillectomy!

They came out on Friday, this is Sunday and I don't miss them. I count myself lucky so far in my recovery...doesn't hurt much more than my worst sore throat did before the surgery. I know I may still be in the honeymoon stage, but for now I am doing okay...that may also be the vicodin talking as I just took my latest dose. A steady diet of popsicles, grape gatorade, ice water, mint tea and assorted broths has helped as well. I have had a few soft foods: chicken and stars, grits, poached eggs, but I thik liquid is going to be my staple for another day or two. Oh, and the warm salt and baking soda gargle is helpful. Just a couple downsides that I see:

• residual itching from the anesthesia...that can stop anytime now
• peeing like a racehorse from the liquid diet, especially when waking from a vicodin-induced dream...is wearing a path in the floor
• feeling my swollen uvula on my tongue; that is not as naughty as it sounds...get your mind out of the gutter--it is the little punching bag thingy in your throat!!

Well, that is all for now...the vicodin has kicked in pretty good now and I need to lay down.

CRAP

Okay, Here's My Deal...

NCLB...AYP...ITBS...SINA...CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For the educational acronym challenged, here are the translations:

No Child Left Behind...the federally legislated education act...without federal funding...Requiring ALL schools to reach their

Annual Yearly Progress...which is what the federal government mandates ALL students WILL achieve on standardized tests...regardless of ability or disability, economic status, willingness to learn, family support, attendance, etc. My school gives the

Iowa Tests of Basic Skills...to our students. Last year, the subgroup of sixth grade special education students (about 20 kids out of 550) failed to meet their AYP as outlined in the NCLB on the ITBS reading comprehension test...which led to us being on the "watch list" for this year...which means that if we don't meet the AYP again this year we will be a

School In Need of assistance...next year...which means a state education official comes in and takes over out professional development and dictates to us what our curriculum will be and how we will teach...which no one wants to happen and leads to the

Creation of Real Administrative Pressure on staff to get the job done no matter what it takes. We are being told to do anything short of teaching to the test to get kids to do well on the tests. Special education teachers have been told, "Your kids WILL be proficient and meet their AYP, no exceptions. To "help" their kids and "take pressure off of them (the kids)" they have been told basically they will test all of the kids one on one and that means they will not attend their regular mainstream classes regularly for almost 3 weeks so that the special teachers and associates and volunteers from the community can give them the attention they need and they are excused from doing any of the homework that they miss for the time they are not in class...three weeks of missed academic work so that they can pass ONE test?!?!?!?!

Yeah, that is educationally sound.