Kids, Parents and Demerits

Four and a half years of college...BS degree in Elementary Ed...with a minor in English...Elementary teaching certificate...English as a Second Language endorsement...21 years experience teaching mostly Reading/Language Arts/Writing, and a parent of one of my students has the gaul to tell me that I must have went to college to learn how to write demerits because I do it so well. A second time she writes...that all I must have done is study how to write demerits.

Now let's not address the issue that her son had been told many, many, many times to turn around and stop talking over several weeks. I finally had had enough of him disrupting the class by turning around and talking that I did give him a demerit. I usually try to give the students a few chances to change their behavior before I take action. This time he was turned around one too many times and talking one too many times.

Again, let's not address the issue that her son was wasting time by drawing instead of working on his writing benchmark test (which is a mini-TAKS test). Again, he was told many, many, many times to get busy...not to mention that he had to take three days to complete the stupid thing when it should've only been a two day test. (Now, to interject here, the actual TAKS test is only a one day test. I was only giving the mini-test to both my classes in one day, so that meant that they had a half a day each day to complete it. I only have each class for a half a day.)

So, I write her a letter back stating that I need to address both of her gratuitous comments (you like the word? I bet she had to get a dictionary to learn what it meant), and tell her that even though she doesn't like him getting demerits for disrupting the class he will continue to get them as they are warranted (like that word?), and according the student handbook blah blah blah.

I never heard a word from her. He came up to me to tell me that his dad was getting out of jail and they had to go to Huntsville (jail? how bout prison) to get him. He said his mom has to talk to immigration to see if he can stay here when he gets out. WHOLLY SHIT are you thinking what I'm thinking? Two days ago he came in all teary eyed, and I asked him if he was ok. He told me that his dad did get out of jail, but he was deported back to Mexico. He doesn't know how to speak spanish nor does he understand it...mom doesn't speak spanish either.

Does anyone else besides me see a problem?

Cost Cutting?

I'm taking Jenn's post about cost cutting...Spin Cycle topic. I posted about this before...I titled it You (I) might be a redneck if... Well, to start off the car engine blew, the truck's clutch burned up, our cell phones got turned off, we moved our double-wide home onto 5 acres with my mother in another double-wide home, have a 1974 motor home that hasn't run in over 3 years parked in the front yard being used as a storage facility, and I could go on and on.

But that is not what this about...it's about cutting cost. To replace the car we bought another one for $250.00 plus tax/title/license plus a water pump. We called someone that buys vehicles running or not. He came and got the dead car, gave us $100, and towed it off for free, so the one we bought actually cost us $150. Yeah a car that has fewer miles than the one that cratered. To fix the clutch...we asked a good friend if he knew of anyone who did clutches and he had a friend who would do it for just the cost of the clutch $300. Mom is still living next to us, and that seems to be working out ok because she does the cooking and we're not eating out AT ALL (so saving that money). She buys the groceries, and will not take any money from me or let me pay for them. We are using that money we are saving on groceries and eating out to get the phones turned back on. We're also saving money on a having to not rent or buy a storage building by using the motor home for storage.

So yes, cutting costs is hard to do. But every little bit helps. How often do you get to buy a car for $150? Now is that cutting cost or what?

My Little Tanner

I'm so upset I could literally shoot someone right now. The neighbor two doors down stopped me in the road to tell me my Tanner got attacked by a pack of dogs from across the street from them. He told me his wife heard their dogs (in a fence) carrying on, and her horse making a commotion, and looked out and saw a pit bull with what she thought was a rabbit or a small cat. But as they got closer it wasn't...it was my 2 year old Chihuahua Tanner. This is the second fight he has been in. The first one costs us around $400 in vet bills. The second one cost him his life, and the loss of my sweet little man.

So needless to say, if I see those dogs they are dead. Everyone in the neighborhood have lost many dogs, a show rabbit, a show goat, many cats, and house pets. They have tried to attack another neighbor's yearlings they raise and sell. So I guess I'm going to be the one to get rid of these killers.

Movin on up

Dara tested for her next belt in Karate...an orange belt. The order is white, orange, green, red, blue, brown, and black. She's offically now an orange belt. She's pretty good at it too. All the students have a nickname, and you guessed it her's is Cowgirl.

Dara's 2nd race since Oct. 25

There have been 2 NBHA's for this new year. The first one was at Cleburne Indoor arena. This is usually her favorite arena. She took it very slow and easy...can you blame her? That was the first time she has been around the barrels since her accident. She got a no time in the youth, and did a 20 something in the open...not too bad I guess. This past Sat. was another one. This time it was at Rendon. She had never run there since they redid the arena. She had a pretty good youth run. She won 3rd in the 3D...$17...that was only 2.5 seconds off. She didn't win any money in the open...again she was 2.8 seconds off in that one. Not too bad for second time since her jaw breaking accident. She's never been that close to the winning time...yea! Now if she would quite being so timid going to the first. She is getting off her butt to ride...she forgets when she's in the middle of a run. Now if I can get her to get off her butt after she's left the barrel...she could pick up that 2 seconds...wishful thinking on my part. A person can always wish.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=51526962

Jennifer here's her run at Rendon. I don't know how to put that little box since I'm coping from a my space site. The my space page is the karate academy she goes to. What do you think? She's still pretty timid. Copper looks like he wants to try for her. You'd have been very proud of her the other day. She went and saddled him, and went to the pasture to ride. I looked out and saw her practicing...we don't have barrels so she was using the poles. I went out there to see what was going on and how he was working for her, and she told me that she has to keep his nose tipped to the inside and his body rounded...use her inside leg to push him off the barrel...OMG!!! I think she's finally figured out how his body is supposed to be positioned...Jill would be so proud of her also since Dara was having a hard time doing this when we had the money to go to her.