For the first time, my class has necessitated a new seating chart on the second weekend. Actually, I should have made one after the first week, but I ended up fighting a migraine all weekend--a circumstance that led me to stop caring that I had incessant talkers sitting next to each other. By Tuesday morning, the last shreds of the migraine had been defeated, leaving me with the ability to once again care about the proximity of said talkers, so my procrastination helpfully kicked in. The thing is, making seating charts is one of the things on my "most dislike about teaching" list. It's right up there with obnoxious helicopter parents. I know--you'd expect it to be more like grading tests or dealing with one of the button-pushing kids who hates learning. Nope. Definitely seating charts. Making a seating chart is really a game of strategy. Anyone who has ever played chess with me knows that strategy and I aren't the most comfortable team-mates. Yes, we acknowledge each other's existence and even the helpfulness of us both being on the same team, but really we understand very little of each other's contributions at the team meetings. It's an awkward and stilted relationship that neither strategy nor I has had much success turning into a working friendship. Thus, it's not difficult for me to find numerous reasons to put off seating chart creation. This whole seating chart ordeal is made a bit more difficult by the fact that most of my students have been in the same classes since kindergarten, so just when you think you’ve found a way to keep the ones you expect to talk away from each other, you discover pairs of talkers you weren’t anticipating. It’s always this ongoing process. I think I’ve done all right with this set of charts, but I still have one student I need to move even after all my careful planning. And I live with the dread that I’ll be doing this again in a few weeks. I’m crossing my fingers that this will be a particularly affective set of seating arrangements that I’ll be able to use for at least four more weeks. I suppose we shall see.

I feel a bit like this year has had a slightly messy start. I’m not exactly sure why that is. For the first time, I started the year with four weeks of completed lesson plans and four more weeks of mostly completed plans. I’m not sure if it’s the added writing assignments that I’ve worked into every day of Language, or if it’s that the enrichment class schedule seems particular disjointed to me. At any rate, I feel I haven’t quite gotten the smoothness of routine that I would like. “Yay! Hurricane!” isn’t so much of a help, either. Though I’d not really like to miss the extra days, I’m rather hoping for the rest of the week off to get a fresh start next Tuesday, rather than struggling through tomorrow/Friday in the wake of unexpected days off. I guess we’ll see. Heh, I may not even be able to post this until next week, so the past two sentences may be completely irrelevant by the time I have access to internet. Awesome. haha. And now my battery icon is flashing red. What a way to start the year! (Oh hey look--en edit: So, thankfully, school was cancelled today and tomorrow, since we didn't get power back until this evening and were helpfully flooded into our yard. Huzzah! But at least the a/c is back on. It was getting awfully humidified in here. haha

P.S. One thing: I am so terribly embarrassed to say that if any of my remaining and sporadic dear readers has left comments on any of my past blog posts, they are no longer in existence. I managed to delete them all somehow, even though I was reasonably sure I had set the comment filter to "unpublished" comments. So there's that. Second thing: If you would like to catch up on Darrell's trip to Sri Lanka, here are his posts--
Old and New

In the Neighborhood

Beginning at the End

Meeting a Sponsored Child

A Tale of Two Fathers

A Cup of Cold Water

I would encourage even my non-religious readers to take a glance. World Vision is refreshingly non-obtrusive, working for the physical well-being of communities as a whole--a breath of fresh air from the in-your-face tactics of many religious organizations working in developing nations.

This guest post comes to you courtesy of Darrell Dow, who writes over at stufffundieslike.com

Want to take a trip with me to an exotic place halfway around the world? On August 23rd I'll be leaving for the exotic island nation of Sri Lanka with a group of World Vision Bloggers and I'd love for you to come with us! Each day this bunch of talented writers, bloggers, and storytellers will be telling the story of Sri Lanka and how sponsoring children through World Vision changes lives there.

The greatest part of this trip is that you don't have to leave your desk. I'll be happy to deal with all the shots, passports, airports, jet lag and language barriers -- all you have to do is tag along by visiting my blog at StuffFundiesLike.com. In the meantime feel free to check out my World Vision page and learn all about how child sponsorship works.

Last time, we dealt with several of Paine’s arguments for separation from England, most notably those dealing with the nature of America’s strength as a colony, and whether or not she owes that to the crown. In this post, we’ll deal with his address on the matter of the parental nature of England toward the colonies.

Those of you who have been following, know that I’ve been working through a summary of and response to the main ideas in Paine’s most mentioned work. Having complete the first two sections, it’s now time to examine Paine’s examination of the contemporary state of American political affairs. He has spent the previous segment analyzing the reasons why the very institution of monarchy is flawed and, in his view, against the very will and desires of God. The next logical step in his analysis is to examine the effects the British monarchy has had on the American colonies.

Last time, I stopped just as Paine had finished demonstrating the development of a representative government by using the example of a hypothetical colony. He finished by noting specifically that frequent interaction between the citizenry and the representatives/government “... will establish a common interest with every part of the community, they will mutually and naturally support each other, and on this...depends the STRENGTH OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE HAPPINESS OF THE GOVERNED.” I noted that Paine is adamant (he even uses all caps!) about what causes this desire result of strength and happiness--it is mutual and natural support. This, of course, is generally at odds with the idea prevalent in some circles (on both sides of the aisle, it is true) that government should be distrusted. Paine’s remarks would lead one to believe he would find this a very unhealthy idea for a citizen to hold.

Not long ago, I embarked upon a reading of Common Sense by Thomas Paine. I was spurred on to read it because of the way it had gained ascendance of mention among the Tea Party and their respective, more right of right legislative counterparts. So I suppose you could chalk it up to wanting to see what all the fuss was about. And also, it is a staple piece of Early American literature, one that was pivotal in the lead-up to the Revolution. That would make it a worthwhile read at any rate. I had been meaning to extend my reading of American lit. Why not start with Paine?

Have you ever found yourself in the throes of a decision you didn’t know how to make? Where one choice is simple and direct and the consequences are easy to see, and the other choice is more like jumping off a cliff and hoping there’s a nice deep body of water underneath? I’ve got one of those right now. At least, it feels that way. And I hate it. The thing is that since last summer, England has owned a large portion of my heart. A big enough one that I’ve been surreptitiously applying for secondary English teaching positions for the past few months. I haven’t gotten a job, though, and now I’m down to a week (a gracious week given my incredibly gracious principal) to make a life-altering decision. I’m still holding out for that call or email that says, “Hey, come on over--we have a position just for you!” If I don’t, then I’m a bit stuck. Without a job offer, I’m left with the simple, direct choice--turn in my signed contract, work at Victory for another year, look for a teaching position for the 2012-2013 school year while saving the monies--and the cliff-diving choice--go to England anyway on the small fundage I have, get a temp job(s) while looking for a teaching position over there hoping that I get something so that I can qualify for a visa before my six months of “tourism” is up. And the thing is, I just don’t know what to do. I guess when it comes down to it, I like safe choices. I like things I can count on. I like the security of knowing I have something to go to rather than going to find something. And I’m afraid that if I go, it won’t work out and I’ll be jobless in two countries and regretting every minute of it. Perhaps being impulsive and risk-taking is just another word for foolhardy. But on the other hand, I’m haunted by the thought that staying another year is cowardly, that something will happen and I’ll never get to England, that I’ll regret it. Maybe doing the responsible thing is just another way of saying boring and cowardly. I guess either way, I fear regretting the decision I’ve made. This whole thing would be so much simpler if I get a surprise job (!) in the next week.

At any rate, all that venting just shows my serious dislike of making decisions. At least ones like this where the outcome of my choices are a bit more permanent. Would it be completely irresponsible of me to base my decision on a Magic 8 ball?

...I would choose to paint. My art would be about animals. They would be all different animals. I would choose this art because I like to paint animals.