december 13, 2001. "Declare a snow day!" "Does anyone know the multiplication tables?!" "People! Calm down! They can smell fear..." The photocopier machine broke down this morning, and it was just like the Simpson's episode when Lisa steals all of the teacher's editions. I almost started to panic, until I realized that I could just write things on the board for them to copy down. Which I did. It took a frigging long time (time that I'd rather spend on learning) but I suppose the skill of drawing a 4 x 9 geography comparison chart might even be of greater future use than the knowledge of the prairie levels that goes in it. I just hope that it's fixed tomorrow. I'm administering two different tests to the same class tomorrow in order to correctly assess two very different learning capabilities, and the whole point is that everyone thinks that they're all doing the same test. I think that they might catch on to the ruse if I have two different tests on the board. Today my teacher told me a story to improve my morale. Apparently, on her first day of student teaching, she was sent home for wearing a short skirt (it only went to her knees). Her dean went to bat for her, and the press attended her return to the school. Point? It ain't so bad doing what I'm doing & living through what I have to live through. Actually, my morale has been on the upswing. I was quite tired today, which is quite the bummer when you're teaching 3 English classes & 2 Social Studies classes. But I got through it, and was rewarded with a very enlivening yoga class that included reflexology, chanting, and standing on my hands (which surprised the hell out of me!) Sigh. My Thursdays nights rock because I'm always so mellow afterwards. I love me some yoga. this time 4 years ago: we can only do the Hustle so many times before it loses it's flavour