TGIF!!! And I really mean it! What a week! I didn't think it would ever be Friday. Things at school are finally calming down and returning to normal. The news report went fine - the guy definitely had an agenda and wanted me to talk more about how traumatic death is for teenagers. I answered his question, but spent a long time talking about what a great kid Charles was. Yeah, none of the personal stuff made it on the program - just the cliched bit about kids dealing with mortality. Annoying, but not that bad. Everyone thought I did a nice job.

Yesterday after school, about a hundred of us participated in this memorial walk from the school down to the river (about a mile). Charles's family was there and it was really nice. Kids placed flowers, candles and notes by the cross they erected on the bank. The kids put this together and did such a nice job of it - it was good for the healing process. Things seemed a lot more "normal" at school today. The official memorial service is Sunday morning.

Outside of that, life is moving on at a fairly steady pace. I went to pick up my utensil holder I painted at the pottery place and it's okay. The speckled paint didn't turn out like I thought it would, but I have something cute to put my dish brushes in. Prom is tomorrow night and I'm looking forward to that because it's alway so much fun. I love seeing the kids get dressed up.

My friend, Tony, sold me a bunch of ground beef for really cheap today. His father-in-law has a cow butchered for them every year and they had leftovers. Tony says it's awesome meat, so we're going to bust out the grill tonight and have some burgers. It's a beautiful night to do it. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Fortunately, today wasn't as bad as I expected. Most of the kids are calming down. Charles's friends are still shaken up, but the majority of kids have gotten over the shock and are getting back to normal.

Our local news station wanted to do a segment on Charles's life and so they came to the school today. A couple of his close friends were interviewed and my principal asked me to speak to the reporters (I'm developing quite a niche for being the spokesperson). The bit will air tonight, but I'm almost afraid to watch it. I HATE reporters. Especially small-town ones. I figure if I'm being interviewed by Barbara Walters and she copps an attitude, she's earned it. I've had to deal with too many of these nobody folks from BFE evening news or newspapers who fashion themselves hot-shots. These guys were so fake. I was so irritated with them that I didn't get the least bit emotional while talking about Charles. Probably a good thing, but I'm sure I'll come across as an ice queen when they air it. Anyway, I hope they do a good job with this segment tonight. Charles deserves it.

My ideal weekend went to horribly tragic so fast, I feel like I'm still spinning. Last night, I got a call from a parent letting me know that two of our teenagers were swimming in the river near a dam (the kids do it all the time around here) and got caught in the current. One got pulled out, the other didn't. They couldn't find the other boy, Charles. I taught both these boys last year and adore them - they're just really nice kids. Charles even stopped by my room after school on Friday to say hi since we hadn't talked in a while - we'd said hi in the halls but hadn't really talked. We chatted for about 10 minutes, he gave me a hug and was gone...

School was really terrible today since no one knew any more about Charles's whereabouts. I stopped by the river on my way in where a lot of folks were keeping vigil, but I couldn't stay long. The school was so quiet today... Despite all our hopes, I just learned they found his body just a couple of hours ago. 16 years old. Bright, ambitious, interesting and truly a great person. What a loss. Tomorrow will really be hell.

What an amazing weekend! Brad had drill so I kept myself busy with all sorts of activities. Yesterday, my friend Amanda and I met for lunch at my favorite downtown bakery (they have the best sandwiches!) and then went to the brand-new paint your own pottery place. It just opened last weekend and I'm thrilled it's here (my pocketbook probably isn't, though). It's within walking distance and it's more reasonably priced than the ones I've been to when I go home to Dallas. Amanda had never done it before and she's hooked! So much fun! I'll have to post a picture of my kitchen utensil holder when it comes back from the kiln.

A met up with an older colleague, who is delightful, for dinner at this dive way out in the country. One of the janitors at our school owns it and is a fantastic chef! We had this awesome prime rib dinner for $7! Dives are the best!

Today, I've been catching up on housework, which is icky but I've just realized I got a good workout - my legs are killing me! I made brownies from scratch, though, so I'm sure I'll manage to replace any calories I burned today.... I did get a chance to walk around downtown and enjoy the beautiful spring day. I read the paper and drank iced tea out on my front porch - I felt like a Norman Rockwell painting. We're having an unusually beautiful spring this year and I'm trying to enjoy every minute.

So, spring break was so much fun. It was great to see my parents and we had a fabulous time playing around town. We went to see the movie "Thank You For Smoking" - stinkin' hilarious! I love satire and this was amazing. We also saw Richard III at the Shakespeare theater I've mentioned before. It's such a treat to go to shows there. It's the only replica of his Blackfriar's Playhouse in the world. They're in the process of building a Globe Theatre as well, which would be the second replica - the first being in London. It's a high class place - Dame Judi Dench is even on the board.

Back to the grind this week, though. I did find out I didn't get the fellowship to Japan. Nor did I get the Asian studies conference in Colorado. Nor did I get the Disney teaching award. None of these is the end of the world, it just sucked to get three rejection letters in a week (although I really wanted to go to Japan.) :( Guess I'll have some free time this summer...

Brad has drill this weekend and I have plans with girlfriends so I'll have more to report later. Have a great weekend everyone!

So, everything is finally over with the student teacher. It was a train wreck and I spent what seemed like all week in meetings either with her or about her, but it's all over. By the way, did you know that Scotland and Wales are the same place? Funny, I'd never heard that before I talked to this chick. Anyway, she finished all her hours on Friday and she's gone, AND I'm on spring break!!!!!!

I'm so glad it's spring break - it was a long wait, but I'm thrilled it's here! After church on Sunday, I drove to visit Mary Beth in Kentucky. We're having a blast - shopping, scrapbooking, cooking, and watching movies. However, my stupid car got towed from her stupid apartment complex. Grr.... I haven't lived in an apartment in so long, I forgot they can be Nazis about parking. Oh well, it was a pain, but I'm not letting it ruin my trip - I love hanging out with my sister. I have to go home tomorrow, which is a bummer, but my folks are flying in to visit for the rest of the week in Virginia. Yay! We're going to have so much fun!

I love spring!

Wow. I have actually met someone who is dumber than my coffee table. She's my student teacher. Yep. This woman will have a college degree next month and will enter the teaching world in the fall. I plan to do everything in my power to stop such a travesty from occurring. Here's what happened today:

She's preparing a lesson on the crusades to give to my class tomorrow. She showed me her powerpoint today and it was terrible! She got so much stuff wrong, out of order and each slide was a huge block paragraph of info I later discovered she just cut and pasted off the internet. But, since she's new at this I was willing to be patient and talk her through a proper presentation style (even though she should have known better). Things were going along okay when the train wreck occurred. She had a sentence in her ppt she didn't understand - something about the Muslims holding Jerusalem after the crusades until the 20th century. She asked if the Christians finally got the city back and I replied that no, the Jews held Jerusalem now. She then said, "well Jews are Christians, right?" After very nearly swallowing my tongue, I calmly (yet twitchingly) replied, no, Jews are Jews and Jerusalem is a city in Israel - a Jewish nation since 1948. She took all this in as though she'd never heard it before. When I mentioned that the fact that the Jews coming in in 1948 upset the Muslims so much that it has led to intense violence in the Middle East, she stared at me with astonishment as though I just told her I'd cured cancer! I almost throttled her on the spot. I don't allow my FRESHMEN to walk out of my room without knowing this stuff. How does someone get to near-college graduation (with a history degree, no less) without knowing this stuff? And she's not some bimbo coed. She's in her mid 40s and served in the army for 15 years. No friggin' excuse.

Oh - and her idea of doing historical research for the crusades was to watch the movie, Kingdom of Heaven. An entertaining movie, I'll give you, but it's completely unacceptable as historical research at an adult level. She needs to read a stinkin' book! Her advisor is coming to observe her and we've already spoken about what a wreck this woman is. I warned her advisor she doesn't know her content at all and she's got no sense of the world around her. The advisor wasn't the least bit surprised and has been having tons of trouble with her all semester. Tomorrow should be interesting.

On the upside, it was a beautiful day today. I love spring! :)

Yesterday was so much fun! My Academic Team had their final competition of the year at the NBC Studios in Washington, DC! It's a show called, "It's Academic," and it's been around for a really long time. It was a great experience. We lost, but it was only because of speed. The questions were INSANELY easy. Here's a good gauge: I knew 95% of the answers, where on a regular district competition night, I know maybe 60%. The show is designed so that the kids won't look stupid, so only three questions were answered incorrectly the whole show - it just came down to speed. I could see my kids buzzing, but they were a split second behind the school that won. Oh, well. It was really fun to be there and it was a much classier do than the other quiz show we go to at the local PBS station.

After the show, we walked across the street to the Japanese embassy to look at the beautiful cherry blossoms - it was the first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC, so we got a small taste before we have to head back. It was kind of sad the season is over because this has been an amazing year. I really adore these kids!