What I have learned so far at school....

As a Substitute Teacher...
I have learned how difficult a job the teachers have when dealing with these kids...Especially the kids in Junior High...Each child comes from a different family and different set of circumstance..they are going through puberty and learning a whole new set of rules... trying to fit in and everything is changing all at once. We think of the kids and know how hard it is, because we remember, or at least we think we do...We don't really, because before we know it, that part of our life is a million miles away and we are trying to learn a whole new set of rules.
But the Teachers are there on the front lines everyday. They have to keep order for these kids when everything about their lives are anything but order.
And then for each child, there is another side of them depending on what set of kids they are with that day. They see the child in the same setting with the same players everyday.
As a Substitute, I see these kids with different groups and depending where they are and who they are with, they are different.
They are trying so hard just to fit in, to be what their parents want them to be, what their teachers want them to be....They just want to be...
Also the difference between the 7th grade and 8th grade is big...And I have watched them from the beginning of 7th grade until now the beginning of the 2nd semester....Some of these girls are growing up and I don't mean just in appearance, but their attitude and their confidence. You can see that some of them have went through the puberty stuff already and are on the other side...and you can see those that are trying. I see girls like myself, afraid to look up because we are afraid some people may be looking at us..And then there are those that can't get enough people to look at them..and then the ones in between.
Then you see the ones in 8th grade that look like they are already in the 12th...and you know what I mean. You can see the ones that have grown up way to fast or at least have more knowledge than they should have.
I wish I had discovered a long time ago that this is something I love to do. I think to myself that I can fit in here and teach and then I realize that I am not smart enough to do that. I do not have the book smarts for it...I didn't go to school and pay my dues. I have been through the school of life.
Well I need to go to bed and so off I go....

Good Morning or Goodnight

Depending on what your view is, it is either way too early or way too late.
Here I am sitting here writing in my blog on a computer that belongs to our friend.
He has a laptop that he got the virus from heck on and brought it down here to us to wipe out and reinstall...and he just keeps leaving it here, and I thought it would be great if I could just try it out and see if I would really enjoy a laptop or not. Right now I think I would. I am going to ask him if I can bring it to our next Star Meeting as I am the Secretary and it would probably be alot easier for me to type the minutes rather than write them. I can type pretty darn fast. I wouldn't have to use correct spelling as I could aslways go back and correct that. But if it is already on my computer, I probably would get our minutes done really fast and then Fred might not fire me as secretary. Not that I get paid to do this, but that is cool..Heck it is not a real job.
My real job is substituting at school. I love that.

If I could take a typing test, I think I could type about 50 wpm.
That isn't too bad. My trouble is with my eyes. They dry out and then I am in big trouble when I have to blink. The same thing happens when I am trying to play the piano. When I blink, I lose my place. I am not very good at playing the piano, but I can play a little. I love it.
That was the best gift I ever ever got...
Well I know that this blog is more about rambling than anything else. Maybe tomorrow or later today I can come back and write some good stuff. I would love to write a book, but I have no talent in that area either...
Have a great day...
Talk to you all later...
Cindy

Our New President and Politics

I just want to say first I am a Republican. I think I have spoken about that before, but I will say it again. Am I a rich person...no I'd say I am not even a rich middle class person, more toward the other end I think.
So shouldn't I be a Democrat? I don't know..I don't think so. I think I am one of those that believe that we should work hard for what we have...And if there are those a lot richer than us, oh well...we do not owe everyone a piece of the pie especially if they haven't helped bake it.
But I do think we should help those that need help. Should the richest people in America pay so that all of us can have? No...
Maybe I want my cake and the frosting and lick the bowl and eat the cake too...if you know what I mean.
But I am a Republican as I am more conservative in my way of thinking..For the first time I just saw a clip of Uncle Ray tells the news...And I have to say it laughs at all of us and explains things pretty well.
However...laughing and jokes and oh mys aside, We have a new President. He is not a Republican, but I wish he were. I would have voted for him.
I see what he wants to do...I hear how he wants to do it, and it soundssssssssss real good.
I just don't know how we are going to pay for it.
And the media and the so called experts throw all this stuff out there for us and I imagine about 75% of us don't have a clue. I am not a politician, I don't have a clue about National Security, how the CIA or SS or FBI is run. I don't know about spy's or none of this...But I have to sleep at night and so we, like our fathers before us vote into office the people we think can best protect us. And like our fathers before us we don't know what makes the world tick...We go to work, we pay our bills, some of us vote and we go home and expect to wake up the next morning and do it all again...So when President elect??? Why do we say that...President Obama tells us he is picking Leon Panetta to head the CIA, I haven't any special qualifications or knowledge that tells me if he is the right person for the job....And most of my friends and relatives are the same.
I wonder what percentage of Americans are really qualified to have a real sense of knowing if this man is the right one.
I have a lot of questions for our new President, but I know that I will not be the one asking him? Heck if I get a signed form letter from him, that is as close to him as I will ever get. Short of writing my congressman or senator, and actually getting a real word to them, He will not hear my voice. Or know my opinion.
Do I think torturing prisoners is right???? Well certainly terrorist should not have the same rights as a person who steals bread for his family to eat. Terrorist should have no rights. There only purpose on this earth is to terrify and destroy my life and that of my family and country.
And this goes for the home made terrorist as well as the foreign ones..This also goes for the gangs that go after innocent people.
So when the Presidential Candidate says...Those days are over, and we won't be torturing prisoners, will the President say the same, or when the intelligence comes to him with photos of children with their heads blown off, will he think the same way. If it was his daughter's, do you think he would feel the same.
I know I am getting way off topic here, and I know that articulation is not my strong point..darn it... but I just want to say that I know I don't have all the information to make the decisions that a President has to make. And I know that I don't know all that I need to know when our leaders make those hard decisions. The ones that are not popular with the people. I also know that real life is not a tv show...and that some of the stuff we see is way overboard and some of it is not as ugly as real life.
I am glad I don't have to make the hard decisions...but I hope that my leaders will have the strength and the wisdom to make those decisions for me...and that tonight when I go to sleep, I can expect to wake up in the same warm, safe bed I was in the night before...Unless of Course God comes back...What a Glorious day that will be!!!! But for now we have to pray that God will give our leaders direction and pray that he is not too pissssssssed at us for all the Hell we have brought on ourselves...

I wish for just now, the press would shut up...and just report the news and not tell us why they think that what they are reporting should be different. You know what I mean??? I don't mean that I have anything against the reporters, I do have a problem with the networks trying to tell us what we should believe... The reporters report what they know, and then we get expert opinions from all these people who are not even part of the decision making anymore. Heck it could be the son of the housekeeper of the last senator's secretary's spouse...
And they ask for their opinion...
Okay I am off of my soap box now...How I wish I could be on the View with the ladies one day...
I have a lot to say...

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!! I say that like I mean it and I really do want everyone to have a very Happy New Year, so why does this time always give me the blues...Every year. It doesn't matter if things are super, which they are not, but it never fails to put me into the blues.
I know that people get that depression from not getting enough sunlight, but this is so much more.
I can remember in grade school being depressed every new year. It is like I am mourning the loss of time. I try and think why I get so down, I just don't know..Of course when I was growing up and we had great traditions..from the tree to Christmas eve and Christmas morning. And those traditions grew as I got older and had a family of my own...But when I was a kid, my dad drank really alot..and there were lots of fights between him and my mom about his drinking.
Then, the fact that he was a carpentar and my Dad's work was off in the winter time, which meant that money was tight and there were fights about that. I guess it was just not a real cheery time around our house. Oh of course Christmas was magical, but I guess I felt the anger and tension between my parents. Maybe that is why I get so depressed. But you know the new year should be a chance to start over and change things and be new again, but it just seems to me that I was always mourning the loss of time. I love clocks and I like to collect them. I think of it as getting more time. I want real clocks though..not battery operated ones...but seems like that is all you can afford to buy now as the "real" clocks are so expensive.
I think alot of time the reason I do not want to go to bed is because it is like wasting my time. And sleeping late is also a waste of time. I really have a hard time staying in bed because of the pain also. This morning I just wanted to sleep, but I had to get up...I am way too young to feel this damn old...
Well I guess this is just the same old rambling that I always do.
Hope you all have a great New Year and maybe by the time February rolls in, I will be much better...