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It's so hot. 100's all week, and that's not including the heat index of up to 110 or 115. Attendance at school has been low this week probably because of the heat. Most of the students ride the bus, no way I'd be waiting outside on a city bus that may or may not be air conditioned.... I worked the front desk all day. Pisses me off cuz when I'm asked to watch the desk I don't take my half hour break, even though I never REALLY take the half hour break but rather I eat my lunch while grading papers and whatnot. But when I'm at the desk I can't really leave it at all. But I'm still required to take a half hour break if I work more than 6 hours. Essentially I get dicked out of a half hour every day. Not that I get paid for ANY of the hours I work....
My spanish has improved somewhat. I can clearly say "Call back at teh end of August for the registration date in September." And I can say it so well that they go on to ask me all sorts of questions I sort of understand but have no idea how to answer. "Sorry, I have exhausted my knowledge of spanish...". Sharpstown (the mall I work in) has had free vaccines going on all week. There's hundreds of kids running around. Every so often we'll hear a gut-wrenching scream from one of the kids cuz the store front they're using for the shots is almost exactly below us and there's a balcony all the way around so the noise carries. Sometimes it bothers me. It's been a hot, stressful week in general. My students have their post-tests next week. They determine whether or not the student moves up a level. The level I teach is uper ABE and it's a very rough level. The people in my class generally are there to get a GED but didn't test into that level so they are all frustrated and feel bad about themselves. I have about 10 who are borderline ready to move up but if they bomb the test the they won't be able to. I've been giving them extra work, (which means extra work for me) in the areas that they did poorly on the test the last time. They take the sam etest every time, not the EXACT same, but same types of questions. So for every one of those students who's border line I had to dig out their old tests, analyze them to see what the passed and what they need help in, then find materials for independant study that cover what they need help in... and of course most of them need help in different areas... then I have to catalogue what I give them cuz some of it could cover some of the curriculum benchmarks/standards I need to keep track of for each student. Educating adults really got tough with this new curriculum. Every student has their own levels, and you have to teach according to their levels. I have levels D-G, and though most fall into the E and F middle, those outliers still need work at their level. So it's like doing individual lesson plans for 25 individuals. I managed to break them into groups with only minimal bitching from a few students who got stuck with Sherrie for 2 or 3 subjects. Sherrie is the woman I teach with that the class hates. So in making groups I had to take thier personal levels into account and also make sure I didn't dick any of them over by sticking them with Sherrie for all three subjects. Tricky tricky.
Anyway, I'm thinking of taking a nap, though after doing so yesterday I couldn't fall asleep until after 2am. I'm thinking fo going to the women's NA meeting tonight so I can't bitch abotu Eric. But then I'd have to listen to 20 other crackheads bitch about their relationships and I don't think it's worth listening about 20 idiot men just to be able to vent about the 1 I live with.... Head is aching, brain is turning into pate due to the heat....

Always remember to quit while you're ahead.

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