HTML Success

I finished my two webpages. The final product hasn't been approved by the professor yet, but initial feedback seems positive. I don't know if I'll ever get them to a place where you all can view them. Apparently, the IT department at Mizzou isn't sure that I'm really enrolled, no matter what the Registrar's Office and my professors tell them. As a result, their server refuses to recognize my password on the Bengal server, so I'm unable to access my server space. Oh, well. At least I'm registered with the Registrar's Office, the professors know I'm in class, and the Bursar's Office definitely knows I'm enrolled, so overall, all is well! I'm just glad this assignment is over. On to the next assignment/hurdle!

There are Days I Hate My Job.....

and today is definitely one of those days. Why do I hate my job today? Well, to make a long story short, one of my students threatened to kill me and another teacher today. Why does he want us dead? The other teacher told him to get to work on an assignment instead of harassing a classmate. He wants me dead because I told him to quit poking the girl next to him with a sharp pencil. I don't know, I have this thing about students keeping their hands to themselves and respecting others' "phone booth" of personal space. Also, I have a problem with a student poking another student with a sharp object. Call me crazy!

I did the right thing and reported the threat. What does this get me? A whole bunch of paperwork and the chance to "process" with the student. I have enough paperwork with my regular job and with the homework for my library science classes. Quite frankly, the only "processing" I want to do with this student involves my foot being firmly planted in his nether region! How about someone else "processes" him. I really don't have the need to sit and listen to some lame excuse/apology from this student that everyone knows he really doesn't mean. That's the new thing this year at our school. When a student does something wrong, they have to fill out a think sheet about what they did until they are ready to process with the teacher. Here's an idea, put him in in school suspension until he "gets it" that harassing a female classmate, poking another one with a sharp object with the intent to break the skin and make her hurt so he can laugh, and threatening to kill teachers is unacceptable behavior that will not be tolerated in school. But that might damage his self-esteem. Forget the good students he constantly harasses on a daily basis and what effect he has on their self-esteem. By the way, he targets female classmates and teachers. So, that's why I hate my job. Today, it has sucked.

A Dilemma

Okay, I'm looking for suggestions here. Anyone and everyone feel free to chime in. As you all know, I agreed to teach 7th grade PSR classes at my church. I'm responsible for covering morality (Beatitudes, Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments, Social Justice, etc.) and Jesus in the New Testament. We've had two classes and let me put it this way without seeming sacreligous- I'm not sure these kids would be impressed if Jesus was teaching the class. They just SIT THERE! It's like they're waiting to be entertained. I've been scouring the Faith First website for ways to make the lessons more interesting, but no matter what I try from cooperative learning, artistic projects, role play, you name it, all I get is either A: "This is so boring, I'm only here because my mom/dad is making me come so I can get confirmed next year, I can't...(fill in the blank with draw, act, pretend, etc.)B: blank stares, or C: no response at all. Now granted, there are two students who are consistently responding and appear to be interested in what's going on and what we're covering, but two students does not a successful class make. I'm digging into my bag of teaching tricks now and trying to figure out ways to adapt it to the subject matter and nothing seems to be working. To say I'm frustrated is an understatement. I'm a big believer that you get out of faith what you're willing to put into it. I also believe that these kids need a good base because the things I hear them talking about in the halls before class shock me. I think they think I'm deaf and can't hear what they're saying in the hall. What they don't realize is that I've been a school teacher for 10 years and eavesdropping on students is a particular speciality of mine. How else am I going to know what's going on? So any thoughts and ideas on what I could do to get them involved would be greatly appreciated. I'd like them to meet me half way at least. Would food work? Maybe feeding them would help. As you can tell, I'm starting to get desperate. We're not supposed to have food, but I've got to do something. In any case, if you have no suggestions, at least say a prayer for us. I borrowed a phrase from Star Trek when I stopped to pray last night after class at church, "I'm giving it all she's got Captain." and like the Enterprise, I'm not sure how much more I, or the students, can take.

That Wasn't So Bad

Well, I survived Saturday class and even surprised myself by how successful the day turned out to be. I created three basic, very basic, pages that had several tables, images, links, and lists on them. I have to make them more elaborate in order to get all of the points for my assignment. When I get all of that finished, I'll post a link on the blog so you can laugh at my kindergarten pages! I now have a snazzy little book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to HTML and Blogs. Hopefully, I'll learn some tricks that will jazz this page up a bit and help me make the grade.

Reality Sets In

Tomorrow is HTML D-Day. Wish me luck and pray really hard since I still have no idea what I'm doing! Added to the reality of having to do something totally out of my league tomorrow, I received a lovely e-mail from MU Direct this evening. After welcoming me to the program, it launched into this depressing paragraph about how proud I should be for continuing my education, how they realize this is a trying time for me, and how as an ADULT LEARNER I have special needs! I was momentarily confused for a moment, "Adult Learner? Special needs?" and then I had a rare moment of clarity, "Holy crap, I'm the Adult Learner with special needs!!!!!" I'm finding it a little disconcerting that I'm now classified as an adult learner, that apparently being an adult learner means that I am now also classified as special needs, and that I really don't feel much older than I did my first go-round in college! When I read it to my mom, she cracked up and said, "Welcome to my world!"

Hmmm

I have just spent my entire Labor Day holiday reading about designing a web page. What have I learned? Not a whole lot. I compare it to trying to figure out Latin. It's not like Greek because I can recognize the letters. However, the words created from those letters, while they may look like something I do have a clue about, are impossible to make sense of. Start laughing because I have to be able to do this by Saturday. I think this is going to be the most difficult class I have ever taken in my life!