unknown number

1996.01.23 13.16

Missed the sub office phone call today when they used a phone number I'd never seen before on my Pager ID program. I thought about forwarding just their phone calls to my cell phone, but it turns out the Selective Call Forwarding service would end up costing me $60 !?! I spent the day upgrading my Pager ID program to allow myself to schedule timed dialing, among other things. This way I can schedule my computer to un-forward my land phone (to my cell phone) after 7:15 A.M. Blah.

goodbye pager

1996.01.22 12.00

The cellular has finally begun to pay for itself today. Got the call to work at Truitt Junior high today while en route taking my dad to work. The only bad thing about answering a cellular call is that whoever is calling you doesn't consider how much it costs you to talk. Sure, 25 cents a minute may sound cheap, but the conservative cell phone user (i.e. me) will often find themselves grinding teeth when asked to do any of the following during the course of the call:

''Could you hold on a minute?''
''Would you mind if I answer the door real quick?''
''Is that something burning?''
''Hang on while I check to see what's on T.V.''
''Do you want to talk to my dog?''
''Check out what they're saying on the radio, man...''
''I have the hiccups. Lemme hold my breath...''
''Can you call someone 3-way for me?'' (note: three-way is not usually offered by most cell phone providers)
''Can you hear my heartbeat?'' (or is that from a song?)

Okay, today in Mr. Tittle's (don't laugh) 8th grade Science class, we are doing a Busy Work packet. I loathed these back in my day. These are fun if you've got no ambition to teach students. I've found that science teachers don't seem to trust subs to do any real teaching. However, I've also found that most subs are orks that must've taken 12 years to graduate from college. I, on the other hand, only took 7.5 years. Or was it 6.5? Hmmm... I usually tell people it took me 6 years to graduate -- what with my impressive double majors and unacknowledged minor (Chemistry) causing the extra length.

I'm babbling. I found out the other day that Ms. Slob would *LOVE* to have me in her class sub'ing again. Right! Next time I'm going to bring an agar plate and streak out the molds growing in her oldest cup of coffee. It may take me some time to figure out which one is the oldest as the last time I was there I found at least 9 different paper cups with varying degrees of gross stuff growing inside. I am definitely a biologist.

The new Tori Amos comes out tomorrow and last night's Lunar Rotation on 107.5 featured three of her new songs. She's into the harpsichord now and that's good. I'm going ot try to match Richard Noble's front row perfrmance in Atlanta but I don't have a ticketmaster terminal in my bedroom. You see, Richard works at a Sound Warehouse so getting the tickets was a breeze for him. I wonder how that would be possible? Gotta look into that right after I break into the Chronicle's mainframe. Too bad I never wrote down the phone number. I guess I'm definitely a phreak, too. Look it up.

First period was dead silent. Third period is loud but it seems they're making more progress toward doing the book work in the packet. I just heard, ''I got 47!'' and ''I got a 44!'' followed immediately by ''Woah!''

Listened to disc one of the Beatles Anthology during lunch and enjoyed it. The only amenity in here is a CD player and a handful of CDs. Good students also count, I suppose. I wonder where all the classrooms with hot tubs are?

Some kid just walked up to me and said, ''I want ot go to Content Mastery, please.'' I asked why and the kid replies, ''They do all your work for you.'' I said okay. This turns out to be true because when he came back, sure enough, his work was done.

I was in Content Mastery for 6th period and was surprised by how small a room it was. Two hispanic kids came in with a map worksheet. It wasn't that they didn't know what they were doing, but they didn't even bother to ''not understand'' the worksheet. They just wanted cues to get the answers. How is this beneficial, exactly? Apathy toward learning isn't aided my mindless assistance. Geez.

students overheard

1996.01.18 8.45

''Have you seen GRUMPIER OLD MEN?''

''Yeah.''

''Well, you know that one old guy?''

''Yeah?''

freebies

1996.01.17 13.25

The huge mass of students playing cards in the back is gone this time around in Ms. Dickson's Activity Period. Normal banter now prevails. Sports talk fills the air thanks to the newspaper I swiped from the History Department. You've got to know where all the freebies are on campus. Free coffee, free newspapers, and... well, I'm sure there's other free stuff somewhere. Free phone calls. Free post-it notes.

I dropped by Miss Slob's room this morning. Seeing the lights were on in the room, I knocked three times with confidence. Nothing. I spoke up and said, “This is not a student at the door.” Nothing. I then recalled that a student had knocked on her door yesterday during first period (her conference period) and she ignored them. I was in the room with her briefly before she took most of her students away for some debate field trip thing. "Oh, they'll go away" was her reply. Man, she is freakin' WEIRD. I left, pissed at being ignored. Dammit.

slobs gone wild

1996.01.16 8.43

At Jersey Village High School this morning. This has *got* to be the messiest classroom I have ever set foot in. I spent almost the entire first conference period cleaning up just the corner where Ms. Stoker keeps her dress... err... her desk. Why did I say dress? My mind is on how freakin' dirty it is in here. I got some toner on my dress shirt but it padded off. Yuck. I'm not that clean or neat, but I have to have some semblance of order to function properly.

The students in this RTV (radio and television) class are a pretty lazy lookin' bunch. I'm debating where to enforce the reading of The History of NBC packet or just let it go due to the chaos that is this room. At least she's a department chair and has two periods off. Another plus is that 3rd period will be in the library.

Man, I'd kill for a wet paper towel right about now. Go figure.

the substitute

1996.01.04 8.00

Okay... so the year ended and I only got to Act III in my DS9 episode's rough draft outline!? I can see it, it's just taking the time to translate it to TV spec script which is difficult. I'm too lazy. I resolve to be less writer-lazy.

Today I'm Debbie Hill, History Department Chair of Langham Creek High School's History department. I've got a phone in this classroom, a first for a non-choir or music type related class. Toni Seeger, my old French teacher from the 1984-1985 sophomore year at Jersey Village High School, *was* working here until just last year. Thought I'd be able to track her down while I was here, but unfortunately I missed her. Ms. Collins might be another teacher from back in the day. I'll find out. The 4th period class is so far the most interesting – a K class, of course. My 5th period planning time might be taken away by the A/P office – not sure yet. Whee.