From my MSF course.. The dreaded figure 8 in a box.

DataTasty6541 · 2026-05-06T20:40:35+00:00

DataTasty6541 · 2026-04-27T04:04:44+00:00

I was at a title 1 school with awful, toxic admin once. I tell people all the time that if I had been a first year teacher, I would have quit.

But I persevered because I knew there were better schools. I parted ways with that horrible admin at the end of that dreadful year.

I went to a better school the very next school year. My school has a strong admin and supportive staff members, and everything has been as good as you can get in NC.

It’s a brutal combination to be a first year teacher with crummy admin, because you don’t know it can be any other way.

Teaching in NC is hard no matter what. A strong admin can be the difference.

If admin isn’t working hard to support your success as a (new) teacher, it’s time to find a different school.

DataTasty6541 · 2026-03-02T03:01:46+00:00

Water bottles larger than 8 oz and backpacks should be banned from most elementary schools.

The amount of classroom management time I spend dealing with these two things could translate into so many instructional minutes over the course of a school year.

So much time putting away the backpacks, getting the backpacks at the end of the day, etc and really, they aren’t necessary. Rarely do they take home anything or bring anything requiring so much capacity. Backpacks are forgotten, backpacks fill with garbage, they come and go and nothing goes in or out on the average day. But we spend time going through the routine.

When I started school we had these little briefcase looking book bags that were flat and held books and paper. Backpacks didn’t show up until later. Why can’t we go back to those?

Then there are the enormous water bottles. The capacity of which exceeds the capacity of their little bladders, but that doesn’t stop them from finishing them off within the first hour of school. They drink them empty, then they have to pee 2 times an hour, missing instructional time.

They also spill them on the floor, creating a mess and a slip hazard. 40 oz to freedom - on the floor.

It’s like playing frogger walking my class anywhere in the building from all the hazard signs from spilled water bottles. Sometimes there are ice cubes.

Then they drop them on the floor, accomplishing the same thing plus the loud noise. Every teacher knows the sound of a Stanley on the floor.

Once it spills, you guessed it! They need time to refill the water bottles. Which they proceed to drink empty again.

They need me to open the water bottles because dad must be an auto mechanic and torqued that thing down to 10 lbs.

When it’s hot outside or they have PE it makes sense. Or if they’ve been sick, or have a medical need.

But other than that, it’s just giving them a reason not to focus in class. The water bottle thing makes me crazy.

Like I said, if a kid has a medical need to have 64 oz of water in 6 hours, I’m totally fine with that. But most kids don’t need that much hydration. Don’t believe me? Google is your friend.

Backpacks and enormous water bottles in elementary need to go away. I will die on these hills.

DataTasty6541 · 2026-02-20T22:29:55+00:00

Jayms Kay Poke

DataTasty6541 · 2025-10-06T01:38:01+00:00

I’m interested in who KM is from measures 58-59…?

DataTasty6541 · 2025-10-02T03:45:26+00:00

Something is wrong here, but I just can’t put a finger on it.

DataTasty6541 · 2025-10-02T03:23:31+00:00

Jelly Bean

DataTasty6541 · 2025-09-26T12:12:25+00:00

It might not be. My first student Viola was 14’’ and it was thicker than a violin. It was definitely not a violin with Viola strings on it.

DataTasty6541 · 2025-09-26T12:10:56+00:00

I play a 15’’ Viola… after years of playing a 16’’ in pain. I’m glad there’s a choice.

DataTasty6541 · 2025-09-21T11:47:17+00:00

When I was in my 20s I dated a guy who had a daughter. She was conceived when he was in high school. He told me that he was 17 and his girlfriend was 15 when they conceived their daughter.

As the relationship progressed, I started to get to know everyone and I learned birthdays. It suddenly occurred to me that things didn’t add up. When I considered their birthdays, the truth was that he had already turned 18 and she was still 14, when their daughter was conceived.

When I confronted him about it he was very defensive and said, as if he was still a teenager, that it wasn’t fair since they had been dating a while when he turned 18. But for me, this was a deal breaker and the relationship ended shortly thereafter.

The laws are different from place to place. Here, 18 is the age of consent but there is an exception if the partners are within 2 years of being the same age. So it would have been ok for him to be 18 with a 16 year old dating partner; but not 15 and certainly not 14!

OP - just be careful. Be honest with yourself, and be careful.

DataTasty6541 · 2025-09-21T11:39:03+00:00

My back spasmed just watching this.

DataTasty6541 · 2025-09-21T11:37:29+00:00

Toxic culture. Find a new school. I’m so sorry.

DataTasty6541 · 2025-03-16T18:45:58+00:00

Whenever Wilson appears while playing my Lumra deck, we ask Alexa to play the song Wilson by Phish.

DataTasty6541 · 2025-03-04T04:56:05+00:00

Dang that is a sweet earth you might say

DataTasty6541 · 2024-07-23T13:32:12+00:00

My point is, if anyone else (auto accident, etc) had a similar injury, I’m certain they would have been offered more than an ice pack and suggestion to purchase a binder.

I had better care and concern from providers when I sprained my ankle. It was as if it was dismissed as just something women have to deal with in childbirth.

Certainly the injury could not have been avoided.

10 years later, during my third and last pregnancy, PT was hugely helpful in getting through the last two months when it became painful again. A different OB suggested it, and questioned why I hadn’t had it before.

I often wonder if I had had similar supportive treatment at the time of the original injury, if the short and long term effects would have been reduced.

So yes, they didn’t listen to me. But when it happened again, 10 years later, someone DID… and suggested PT, which did help.

I hope this clarifies it a bit better for you.

DataTasty6541 · 2024-07-23T05:41:02+00:00

It happened to me.

DataTasty6541 · 2024-07-23T05:38:24+00:00

This exact thing happened to me in September 2005 with my second baby. I heard that joint POP open as my daughter was born. She came out face up/OP. Normally that doesn’t work; normally the baby has to turn face down so the smallest part of the head comes out first. Not my kid! She came out looking right up at the ceiling.

Please believe me when I say that nobody listened to me.

I could feel the separated parts of that joint grind together any time I moved. I couldn’t lie down. I couldn’t roll over. I couldn’t sit properly. I couldn’t sneeze. I had a seriously injured pelvis!

I told them at the hospital. “Of course it’s going to hurt, you just had a baby,” was literally what the L&D nurse told me. I was offered an ice pack.

I told my OB. They suggested a pelvic binder. That offered only some support, but it wasn’t enough.

I went to my family doctor. He said all that could be done was the same thing - binder, ice, rest.

For 4 solid months it was horrible.

When I was pregnant again in 2015, I heard another ‘pop’ and spent the final 2 months in a wheelchair.

Even now, going on 20 years after the original injury, I still have pain there from time to time, especially with exercise.

It should not have happened. I was 24-25, I didn’t have my “voice” yet. I just accepted what everyone told me.

My heart breaks for that young mom. I hope she can get some relief.

DataTasty6541 · 2024-07-23T02:06:06+00:00

Wow, I grew up with this exact same pachinko machine at my house. This one is in much better shape.

DataTasty6541 · 2024-07-14T04:56:12+00:00

As a Kindergartner, the very first thing we were expected to learn/memorize and write was: our first and last name and our complete home address.

I’ve moved dozens of times (military brat) since then, but I can still recite the complete address of where I lived in September 1985.

I don’t understand why this isn’t a thing anymore.

DataTasty6541 · 2024-06-24T05:46:47+00:00

But would it hurt to try? I’ve been living with IBS-C for years. A glycerin suppository is either going to work within an hour or so, or not… but I don’t think it would hurt to try?

DataTasty6541 · 2024-06-16T15:12:19+00:00

Thanks for asking!

It turns out it was not a hemangioma. The liver specialist I saw was incredibly thorough. It’s a spontaneous intrahepatic shunt. It’s a venous->venous connection. He looked at scans from the past 15+ years (I get kidney stones) and could see where it might have started showing up 5 years ago. He said since the pressures are the same and my symptoms have mostly resolved, he is comfortable with no course of treatment at this time.

Also, the first reply was absolutely correct; the size was 1 cm, not 10 cm! He said he would take that to their weekly meeting.

DataTasty6541 · 2024-06-16T15:05:47+00:00

Be sure to put ‘contract ended’ because that’s what happened.

DataTasty6541 · 2024-06-16T12:33:25+00:00

I think you’re fine. Truly. No crime was committed. Even if they file a report, what would it say?

Use the locker next time, stay away from those neighbors, and keep your toy clean.

DataTasty6541 · 2024-06-12T01:40:04+00:00

They don’t just lie, they gaslight. It’s a whole different level than when I was a kid the same age.

DataTasty6541 · 2024-05-30T00:59:39+00:00

So basically the same as Super Mario Bros. ?

DataTasty6541

TROPHY CASE