A Message From God???

Let's see, today is Wednesday, so it was on Monday...
Monday I was sitting in math class, interpreting a lesson on complementary angles and supplementary angles, when one of the freakiest things I've ever seen happen happened (yes, I know I just repeated the word "happen," read the sentence aloud and it will make sense). Well, first of all, we're in a classroom that overlooks the street. So, we hear this loud BOOM and the lights go out. We looked out the window, and I saw a utility pole across the street swaying back and forth, but we didn't see a car or anything, so we figured that it could not have been an accident that caused the power failure. Of course, the entire class followed the teacher, the other interpreter in the room and me to the window and they have their faces pressed up against the glass, trying to see what happened, even though there really wasn't anything to see. Yet. Because then we saw a utility pole on our side of the street go nuts. There was a blue light, which I describe as similar to the burning bush effect in The Ten Commandments, totally unreal-looking, yet still happening. So, this blue light is coming from the wires on the utility pole; it flashed for about three seconds and then a huge explosion of sparks went off with another loud BOOM. By this time the kids are freaking out: "We're going to get to go home early!" "Ohmygosh! What was that?!" "The school's going to blow up!" "Do we still have to do our lesson if we don't have electricity?" You can imagine a classful of middle school students in the midst of the excitement outside. Because, let's not forget to mention the school security guard, the school police officer, the principal, numerous members of the janitorial staff, and a couple of lunch ladies, who ran outside to see what was going on. The power is trying to come back on, it flickers a few times, and then somehow it comes back on for good. We still can't see for sure what happened. We were thinking that since there was no actual car accident in sight that perhaps there had been a huge power surge or something. The kids slowly got back to their seats and we continued on learning that complementary angles add up to 90 degrees and supplementary angles add up to 180. Eventually, by the end of the day, we learned that a delivery truck (a semi) for the grocery store across the street had snagged the power line and pulled it down. The utility pole was broken off and power lines were snaking across the street. Part of the road was closed down and it was a mess getting the kids dismissed in a safe manner (although, we probably wouldn't have missed a few of them, had they been silly enough to approach the downed lines).
Seeing the wires light up and spark was seriously one of the craziest, weirdest, unbelievable things I have ever physically witnessed.

Deaf World Order

I interpreted for the soccer team tonight. *Sigh* If only they would win some games...they work so hard in practice but when it comes to the games, it's like they're scared to get physical and go after the ball.

Anyway, while we were waiting for the JV team to finish up their game, the kid I interpret for outlined his plan for the future...the future where Deaf people rule the world. It was actually quite interesting. He had all of these social classes figured out, with Deaf people at the top, followed by hard of hearing people, and hearing people at the bottom.

It's all over but the Timtex

So, I've been working on a sewing project the past couple of evenings, and I'm almost done, so I'm pretty excited. I just have to press it, insert the interfacing, and do a final stitch around the perimeter. I'll see if I can get some pictures up when I'm all done. Although, I'm sure my pictures will be nothing compared to my sister's. Check out her uber-crafty blog at thesnicklefritzes.blogspot.com. She's got a lot of cool stuff posted.

Okay, so it's been a week, cut me some slack

Yes, this is my third post of the day. But, I hadn't posted in a week, so I have lots to say. I just emailed a link to my blog to Ma and Pa, and I realized that my last entries were mostly just complaints about the HI teacher. I do have positive things going on in my life, too. Like, Saturday, I went to the KSU football game and watched them totally stomp Delaware State. Looking at a home team winning scoreboard while at Dix Stadium is a little weird. I don't think I ever experienced that when I was a student in the marching band. But, it was Delaware State, so it should be expected that Kent win.
I ran into a couple of good friends from the marching band, too, so that was cool. I didn't get to spend much time talking to them after the game, though, because Mike and I had friends coming over to the apartment and we had to hurry home and finish cleaning. That was cool, too, because we haven't had too many people come over and hang out at our place.

SimCom Insanity

I can't believe I forgot my True Story of the day.
True Story: I was interpreting in third period "study skills" and the HI teacher was rather ridiculously trying to sign for herself. I say "rather ridiculously" because it is a well-known fact that it is IMPOSSIBLE to sign and speak at the same time. It really is. I liken it to speaking German and writing Spanish at the same time. You can't do it, right? Well, in much the same way, you cannot speak coherent English and sign coherent American Sign Language at the same time. You can't even speak fluid English and sign correct Signed English at the same time. It's impractical, unfeasible, and just not possible. You will either speak proper English and drop signs or you will speak broken English and sign correctly. Either way, you get massive miscues and ungrammatical and nonsensical utterances in both languages.
So, the HI teacher is speaking to the kids in "study skills" while attempting to sign simultaneously. Let's not forget that I am an interpreter in the classroom, who is there to provide interpreting services. So, I can see one of the students turning his head as though he were in attendance at Wimbledon, trying to decided at whom he should be looking. Finally, this student raises his hand and signs, to the teacher, "I don't understand what you are signing." I, of course, being a good interpreter, adhered to the Code of Ethics, and voiced this in the manner in which it was spoken (in this case, signed), which means that I had to supress the exasperation that I was feeling on the inside. Still waiting to see if the teacher will get a clue.

The Greatest Day the World Has Ever Known

Hmm, it's been a week, so it must be time to update the world as to my latest shenanigans.
Last week our lead interpreter at school had a meeting with our special education coordinator and the SST (don't ask, I don't know what that stands for), basically, our bosses downtown. I don't know what all was on their agenda, but I sent an email to the lead terp with a list of "concerns" concerning the HI teacher at the middle school. Naturally, I presented the concerns in a diplomatic way. I'm hoping this means that the powers that be downtown are now aware that they placed someone in the TOD position who was not properly prepared. Why would you hire someone and then not train them on the use of audiological equipment or how to use interpreters, etc.? Of course, they may now be aware, but that does not mean that they will remedy.
Of course, last week also saw the 27th commemoration of The Greatest Day the World Has Ever Known. If you're in doubt over the validity of claiming September 11, 1980 to be The Greatest Day the World Has Ever Known, ask yourself, "Was my life better before September 11, 1980 or after?" Seriously, I can guarantee your life has improved since that day.

Hmm, anything cool happen at school today? Of course not, I'm doomed to work in a middle school. And we all know that there is NOTHING cool about middle school. Hmm, speaking of middle school, The Backstreet Boys just started playing on my Yahoo! radio station. How did that happen? I don't remember selecting the teeny-bopper station.
One of the interpreters was out today and we all had to cover for her. That was not fun. Although I did totally love going into third period "Study Skills" and telling the HI teacher that I couldn't interpret for her that period. YES, THE DISTRICT-HIRED TEACHER OF THE DEAF USES A SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETER IN HER OWN CLASSROOM. The look on her face was priceless. Can someone please explain the logic in hiring a woman to be the HI teacher when she has no experience teaching deaf students? She hasn't signed for years. And believe me, I went through three years of the same deaf ed. program where she earned her degree, so I know who her professors were, and I know what the teaching philosophy was. This woman is not one of the first people I would pick to put in a classroom with deaf students. In fact, any person reading this post could probably do a better job of working with these deaf students than the current HI teacher does, and yes, that includes you, Bosco, reading over your mother's shoulder. At least Bosco would have the sense to refrain from using the term "deaf, dumb, and blind" in front of the students.

Bedtime

Now that I have a blog, I keep meaning to post more to it, but I'm getting pretty tired tonight, so I don't think I will take the time to type much. I have to work at my ridiculous Hallmark job tomorrow, unfortunately. I'm getting pretty sick of that job; I don't think I'll be there much longer.
Here's a good one for all of you. True Story: A girl in social studies class asked (on Thursday), "Why would people go hunting and kill animals when they could just go to the store and buy their food there?" Let's take into consideration the fact that we are currently discussing the land bridge and the peoples of prehistoric America. Then, let's take into consideration the fact that if you're buying meat at a supermarket, it had to have been killed by someone at some point along the line.
Goodnight.

When You're in the Dungeon...

do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT pick up a duck.

MySpace + Ancient Rome = HUH?

Oh, school. Is it May yet?
Seriously. Is it? Because I'm not sure that I can handle going through middle school again this year. Last year was alright. I was in seventh grade and it was cool. Okay, not cool, because it was seventh grade, but cool as in, "I'm okay with this." I'm not so sure about this year. I just don't remember having that much DRAMA and STUPIDITY in my life at that age.
True Story: We were discussing the Roman Empire and their amazing network of roads and their ability to carry messages from one corner of the empire to the other in a matter of days. The point was being made that the Ancient Romans did not have electricity, and therefore, no telephones, television, or Internet. One girl actually asked how the ANCIENT ROMANS would access their MySpace pages if there was no electricity. One would think that having been told that there was no electricity would then lead one to the knowledge that there was no such thing as MySpace. Not true of the middle school students in Akron.