Carbon Copy

NOLA through the Fish-eye

The day we moved to our new apartment, I got the arduous task of distracting Peter by taking him for a walk. I also took my fish-eye camera and snapped a few photos of the area. Here are some that I liked:

Graceland

I've never been a huge Elvis fan, but when I saw the pictures from Erica's tour of Graceland last March, it totally captured my fancy. I really wanted to see it for myself. Memphis is about 6 hours from New Orleans, but it was only 3 hours from Jackson, MS. We figured we'd never be that close again and since not much was going on during the evacuation, we made a day trip to visit the King.

As I Am

A week or so ago, I spied an Alicia Keys cd on the math teacher's desk. I asked her at lunch if I could borrow it to play for my students while they did some creative writing. Confession: I've actually never listened to Alicia Keys. Don't act so surprised. Where would I have heard her? Seriously. I don't listen to the radio. I don't know anyone that really listens to Alicia Keys. At least, not when their with me. I just knew that many of my students liked her, so imagine my surprise when I put the music on and realized that it was good! And here I am on a Saturday listening to it by my own choice. Here's my favorite:

No One

Anyone have any other good recommendations for music my students might like to listen to that's not Lil Wayne?

Evacuation

I finally got the Internet connected and my laptop working. Even though Gustav was almost three weeks ago now, and I should really be planning for tomorrow, I figured I would reacquaint myself with my blog and finally post about evacuating.

Par for the Course

Lockdown for three hours today. Turns out, a student had a gun. The weird thing is, it didn't even phase me. Of course someone would have a gun, despite the metal detectors. Of course, he would slip it into a girl's purse. Of course, we'd be in lockdown with the same students for 3 hours today while the police and administration went from room to room searching for it. Of course, the students would be arrested and led off campus in handcuffs.

And of course, I'd let my students jump rope during the last half hour of lockdown. Double Dutch. They were really amazing.

MIA

Sorry I've been MIA for the last little while. The Internet hasn't been hooked up since we've moved to our new place, so all I can get is a faint little signal in one particular corner of the house. Just enough to look up lesson plans and check my email. Not enough to upload pictures. It was supposed to be hooked up today, but apparently the technician didn't notice the doorbell, so no one heard him, and now they tell us we have to wait another week. Bummer.

Suffice it to say, it's been a challenging week. It's going to continue to be challenging, and every day/night I have to recommit myself. Right now, I'm going from school break to school break. Only 13 more school days until Fall Break. I can do that.

I really do have some great pictures from evacuation and our sidetrip to Graceland that I want to post. Just as soon as we get the Internet.

And We're Back... For Now

Gustav has come and gone, but Ike is around the corner. Is it terrible that I'm hoping it will follow the same course as Gustav? Just close enough for a mandatory evacuation, but distant enough that only two window panes break in our apartment. It's safer than the hurricane I face daily at school.

I have pictures from our evacuation, which turned out to be more of a mini-vacation with a sidetrip to Graceland in Memphis. But for now, I have to face reality and prepare for class tomorrow. If I get my wish, I'll have plenty of time for blog-writing during our next evacuation.

Intermission

Probably won't have Internet for a while because of moving and evacuating for the storm, so any updates will be done via twitter.

The good news: school is canceled until at least next Thursday. It was weird to close up my classroom today not knowing if I'll be returning. I had just spent so much time putting it all together and today I had my students raise all the books off the ground, put the computers up on some shelves, and I had to wrap up the Promethean board in preparation. It felt like the last day of school. Many of my kids had already evacuated and a lot of teachers/staff are already talking about not coming back. I guess we'll see, though. For now, the focus is moving.

Expecting Gustav

I've been watching and waiting all night for them to cancel classes tomorrow, but no luck. I mean, if the threat of a hurricane doesn't at least get you out of your job, what good is it?

Jokes (even only half-jokes) aside, it felt eerie this morning driving to work and not know whether or not we'd be evacuating soon. When I left my classroom tonight, I wondered if I would be returning. There's a palpable electricity in the air about Gustav. It's all my students want to talk about. Two of them showed up early this morning and I conversed with them about their experiences during Katrina. No one, except those of us who didn't live through Katrina, are taking any chances with Gustav. As for us, we're holding off a bit. We're supposed to move this weekend, so we're hoping to get situated before we take off and leave everything to the looters.

Fight!

A fight broke out in my classroom today. Fists swinging, desks getting moved aside, people yelling and yes, someone screamed "Fight!" and other students rushed in to witness. I was in shock and called for security while the AP and some girl students helped split the boys up. They were expelled, and I'm sorry to say that my first thought was "At least that's two less I have to worry about."

Sorry for the lack of posts, emails, and phone calls. Hopefully things will get into more of a routine and I'll actually be able to find time for myself. Or at least clear off my bed so I'm not sleeping on the sofa anymore.