Ah, insomnia...

Nothing's happening. I wish I had more to report, but that's about the gist of it. Unless there's a rush to fill positions in a few weeks, I have heard nothing new. And by this point, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be getting the whopping $64 a week in unemployment.

I *do* have an interview on Friday to be a tutor at the local community college. It's a 2 hour group interview to be a part-time tutor. They want to be able to "asses your problem solving skills". Because apparently having a teaching degree isn't proof enough that I can take a problem and solve it... which is the basis of fucking teaching.

I keep telling myself to stay positive... it's getting harder and harder.


EDIT- I got the job. They must love me.

As if it's not bad enough...

My sister has been unemployed since February. She just got yet another rejection after an interview she thought went well.

"You're qualified enough, but I don't feel that we got to know you well enough in the half hour interview and are concerned that your personality may not mesh with the staff."

SO CALL HER IN FOR ANOTHER, LONGER INTERVIEW, DOUCHEBAGS!!!

I hate hearing her cry...

CPS

Well, the largest city in a 150 mile radius just announced their school district is cutting 1,000 jobs. There goes THAT plan. I'm getting desperate, and it's only June 10th. We are -$65 in checking and alas, there was no substantial check in the mail from some distant, recently deceased relative.

Haven't I paid into this shit since I was 17?

Unemployment= $64 a week. That is, as long as they don't deny the claim on the basis that I'm a teacher and school's out for the summer.

So as long as I can keep my expenses under $150 a month, I'm all set....

Bitersweet..... but not really.

Though Friday was the last day of school, and subsequently my "last" day of work, going in today to finish up some grading was really just a matter of not doing it on Friday so I could get paid for one more day (hey, $100 is $100....). I'm sad now; not because I'm going to miss teaching there or because I've made so many friends and bonded with so many of the other teachers in the office, but because I will miss being able to buy shit. Like groceries. And rent.

I have one more paycheck coming my way. I have to wait two weeks before I get it because the district pays subs once a month. Part of me wants to take that money and blow it on a tattoo because that will make me feel better. Then I remember that I have an entire summer of NOTHING ahead of me and that money would be better put towards other things. Like groceries. Or rent...


Tomorrow I file for unemployment for the first time in my life. Wish me luck.

And his mother had a doctorate in English.

"I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book's autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life." ~Kanye West



No wonder my students are illiterate.

Officially unemployed. Woo Hoo?

Today was my last day as a long term sub. Well, technically I have to go in on Monday to post grades, and I could have done it today, but if I go in I get paid for the day.

I gave the vocab final to my first hour class. They were appalled that I couldn't help them. And by "help", they meant "tell the definition of the vocabulary words". And this was AFTER I gave the little fuckers breakfast (of course, when I mentioned the possibility to breakfast to them last week, they started demanding doughnuts and pancakes. Like I'm getting up to make them fucking pancakes. Have some generic Pop-Tarts and consider yourselves lucky).

Monica, my *favorite* in the class (who missed 11 days in a row three weeks ago and never made up the work) was especially pissed that she had to do the work on her own. She handed me her 160 point test with about 15 points worth of work done after only 20 minutes and announced that she was done. Now, we have 90 minutes for finals. There was no way in hell I was going to let her sit there and be a distraction for 70 minutes, so I handed it back to her. She rolls her eyes and whips out her definition cards with every intention of cheating. I quashed that pretty quick, so she sits and starts whining that she needs someone to read the test to her (yes, this IS a reading class). Because these students have IEPs, they can opt for someone to read the test to them. However, for finals, they have to either talk to me ahead of time or pre-arrange to have someone read to them. She was perfectly capable of reading the damn test. She just wanted to wander t he halls, which is a HUGE no-no during finals. We can't even let them go to the bathroom. So when I told her that *I* would read it to her, she threw a fit. And I told her her options were that either I read it to her or she reads it herself. Which went over swimmingly.

In reality, what Monica wanted was for me to give her the answers. There was no way in hell I was going to give her the answers; not after I've spent the last week drilling review into their skulls. What does she expect when she misses the Thursday and Friday before a long weekend and already has poor retention and comprehension skills?

One of the vocab words was "enormous". They had to give specific examples of things that are enormous. One in particular was "A Country". She gives the name of our town... "Is Anytown a country?" I stared at her for a second. "No, honey. Anytown is a city." "What about Illinois? Is Illinois a country?" This completely baffled me ("baffle" was also a vocab word, BTW) because she gave "Texas" as an example of an enormous state... Yet she could not recognise Illinois as a state. So I said, "No. Illinois is a state." To which she replied, "I donno no stupid countries. If all you wanna country, then y'all needs to tell me a country to put." So I asked her, "What country do you live in?" and she answered with "I don't know". So I calmly tried again. "Monica, what country are we in right now?"

" I. DON'T. KNOW."

She knew she was boned. She finally recognized that she missed too much school and she was frustrated and trying to save face and doing whatever she could to keep from going down in an epic fail. Part of me also wants to believe that this was all test anxiety. That deep down, she really knows that Illinois is a state and that we live in America. But I really can't be sure...