Paul's Infrequently Updated Blog

Now we are in Middletown, New York, Irene’s hometown and where I lived for 2 years after moving to the United States. We wanted to spend a few days here because this is where Irene’s family lives and we had to say farewell before leaving for Nebraska. Also, it was my mother-in-law’s birthday yesterday so, naturally, we had to spend some time here.

Unfortunately, as we drove from Poughkeepsie to Middletown, we found that my three goldfish were starting to die from lack of oxygen in their little moving tank. There is just no way they will survive moving all the way to Nebraska. So the fish are going to stay with Irene’s mother who has bought an aquarium for them. I have set up the aquarium and they should be fine. One of Irene’s mother’s friends has said she will take the fish and pay for the aquarium once she herself has moved house later this year. I am very sad to leave the fish behind, but the alternative would have been to watch them die on the trip to Nebraska. At least this way they will be okay.

If I had known this was going to be a problem I would not have shipped all my aquarium equipment on the moving truck. The chances are that, once we settle in Scottsbluff, I will not get any fish for awhile. I suppose that if I do decide to get fish again, then, at least, I have everything I need to get started again.

Tomorrow we will leave Middletown for Scottsbluff. We expect we will get there on August 1st which will be my 37th birthday. This time we will pull over and spend the night in the hotel to make sure we get a good night’s sleep and to avoid what happened last month.

Today, the movers arrived to take all our things and load them on the truck for the trip to Scottsbluff. We spent the last few weeks packing, although we really started packing back in January. Since getting back from Scottsbluff, we have had the big push to get everything packed. We also took advantage of the situation to go though a lot of things and get rid of what we don’t use or want. We sold our bookcases and spare bed. We also got rid of the dining room table, which we could not sell but gave to one of the guys who moved our possessions.

In addition, we also sold our Treadmill to one of the people my mother-in-law works with. I am glad to be rid of a lot of this stuff. We have too much clutter and it has become such a pain. Another reason to get rid of things is that, when you move long distance, the movers charge by weight, so the more things you have the more it will cost. The cost of our move is coming to more than $4200, less an I expected, but still expensive.

So, now all the stuff is gone and we have just a few things in the townhouse. The main thing is the computer, which is still here and what I am using to type this blog right now. We can watch movies on the computer and, of course, the Internet. We will be able to do those things after we arrive in Scottsbluff on the 1st, which will be great because our TV is on the moving truck. We are leaving this place on the 27th to spend a few days with my mother-in-law. then we are heading out got Nebraska.

Tonight and tomorrow we are going to sleep on the floor before leaving. It’s not really that bad. When I was in Army ROTC in 1998, I had to spend a night in the forest and slept on the muddy forest floor, so compared to that, this is pretty much five star living.

The only problem I have had with packing was that, earlier in the month, I hit my foot on a box and dislocated my right little toe. It still hurts a lot and I am wondering if it will get better. There is not much you can do with a little toe except not injure it anymore and wait for it to heal, which is what I am doing. I just hope it will hurry up and get better.

We just got back from Nebraska as you may know and I am happy to say that we are all set to move to Scottsbluff, NE at the end of this month. We drove from Poughkeepsie (New York), to Scottsbluff in order to find a place to live, see what the area was like, and also visit the school where I got my new job. From what I saw I was pretty impressed with both the school district and the area and we manged to find a nice townhouse in the north end of Scottsbluff for less than half the rent we are paying in New York. The big plus is that it has a swimming pool and seems to be in a very nice area. I must admit that I am very excited to be moving. I won’t miss Pougkeepsie at all.

The only things that sucked about the trip was that on the way there Irene fell asleep at the wheel while driving and, although she woke up and no damage or injuries occurred, I think from now on we need to spend a night in a hotel. It will cost money but its much better than being killed or injured. The other bad thing that occurred was that on the way back the windshield of our car got a crack in it on the driver’s side. Right now, it is about 6 inches across and not a big deal but the windshield will have to be replaced at some point. We have decided that we will wait until we have moved to get it sorted out.

I have finally had my last day at Arlington High School and just got back from Nebraska. The last day of school was on June 22nd and I have to say I was not sorry to leave. Having also just spent the last week in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, I am looking forward to our big move at the end of July.

The end of my time at Arlington went very well. The last week and a half of school was dominated by the Regents Exams. These went very well for my classes. For my Global Studies II students, I had an 83% pass rate, which was pretty good considering the students I had to deal with this year. Every one of the students who I predicted would fail, failed the state Regents Exam and almost all failed my class as well.

To be honest, I do not feel sorry for a lot of those kids. Many of them were disruptive, annoying, little punks who wasted my time as well as their own. Most of the kids who passed deserved to pass and I am happy for them. There was one student who had worked hard all year and ended up on the borderline between pass and fail. The good thing was that I was able to find the points she needed to pass, so I was happy for her. She was so worried about failing, but, after all the work she put in, she deserved to pass.

The one thing that bothered me in the last week was that several teachers in my department did not get good pass rates in their classes. One teacher, who has been at the school for the last seven years, and who is a excellent teacher, had a bad pass rate in his U.S. History classes. He was losing sleep about it and stressing out because of how the administration might react. Honestly, this is one of the reasons I am leaving this district. If your students get poor grades, then the teacher is the one to blame. It does not matter if you had poor students or even a class of special needs kids. They DEMAND that you get them through the Regents Exam and have a passing rate at least in the mid-eighties.

If this does not happen, you get yelled at by the department Coordinator and threatened with your job. They also go on about your reputation and how it will suffer because your students have poor grades. What I think was really going on is that the school administration was really concerned about its reputation and boosting its ranking in the U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Schools” annual review.

So, if there is ever a problem or issue, then the administration finds some one (usually teachers) to blame. I personally find the school and the district very unprofessional in this regard and find it amazing that the Principal recently won a major award based on the great job he was doing at the school. I guess those who gave him the award did not visit the school or speak to any of the teachers because, if they did, then I don’t think he would have that award.

My penultimate day at Arlington was spent gathering all my things and clearing out my desk. As I was doing this, one of my fellow teachers in the Social Studies Department came to my room to present me with a $30 gift card to Borders bookstore. I thought this was a very nice gesture. The little note that came with it said from all your colleagues in the Social Studies Department, but I cannot help but think that is not totally true. There were several people in the department I did not know very well and some a did not feel comfortable around me, but it was still nice to get the gift card.

After I was given the card, the teacher talked to me about some of the things that were going on at Arlington, most of it not good, including the situation with the football coaches who had all just been fired because last season the team had a 3-8 record. It was typical that they would be fired months after the season ended. Worse is that many of the coaches depend on the extra 5-10k a year that a coaching job is worth. Many of them depended on that money to support their families. Again, someone else gets the blame and the administration does what it can to save its reputation.

The last day at Arlington consisted of the usual, which means waiting around for three hours until we get an announcement to go to the last faulty meeting of the year. I did not pay attention to most of it but I did listen when the Principal announced the retirements and the people who were leaving. I was surprised by a few names because I did not expect them to leave, but saw them as lifers at the school. All I can say is good for them

After the meeting, my three years at Arlington High School were over and I went to the mail room to pick up my final checks, said my goodbyes, and then it was off to Scottsbluff, Nebraska!

Tuesday was my last ever day of classes at Arlington and I feel happy that it is over. I am very happy that I don’t have to teach 5th period (9th graders), or 8th period (10th graders). These were the two worst classes I have ever had to teach and it was sad that my last ever lesson at Arlington should be with that 8th period bunch of yobs. I try not to think bad of students, but some of them truly were little punks who had no respect.

Several of them were on probation and, at the start of the year, one of them even had an ankle bracelet to track his movements as he had just been released from Juvenile Detention. I can say right now that many of them have not passed the Global History Regents because they did nothing all year. Of course, if they do not pass the Regents they cannot graduate. I feel I did everything I could to help these kids and, since most of them will have passed, I feel vindicated in the methods I used to teach them.

The Global History Regents was actually yesterday and we spent most of today at the school grading essays. The kids write two essays and, after a while reading them, it gets tedious and boring. At least they are done now and all I have to do is put together their multiple choice scores with their essay scores and short answers. Looking at the exams I think most of the kids have done quite well but we will see.