My good intentions with regard to blogging more have, once again, fallen by the wayside.  During the school year I'm too stressed to blog and during the summer I'm too relaxed to blog.  Still, I really want to make the effort.  I think I need to make this less about my frustrations with BCPSS and more about my urban existence.  That may make it less emotionally charged and, therefore, more appealing to me.

For many years I've wanted to move back to bucolic upstate NY.  First I wanted to be closer to my mother, but she died last year.  Then I wanted to be closer to by best friend, but she died this year.  Perhaps I should look into moving near Rush Limbaugh...  Anyway, I have made up my mind to stay in Baltimore for a little longer.  I even did something that may be insane.  I put a contract on a house in Reservoir Hill!  I'll be trading 576sf in Pigtown for 3600sf in Res. Hill.  I'd rather the house be here in Pigtown, but houses that size are scarce down here and come with a price tag that is beyond this teacher's limit.  It's a short sale, so it isn't fully ratified and won't be for about 2-3 months.  The settlement date has been set for mid-December.  I don't think it will hit me until it's fully ratified, so I'm kind of in denial right now.  That hasn't kept me from uploading photos to Sherwin Williams' site and trying on colors, though.  I've been purging my personal papers for the past year, so not much to do there.  Since I'll have so much more room I won't need to get rid of much, but I do have a lot of things I don't need to be toting to my new house.  It would make sense for me to start getting rid of those things while I have the summer off, but as I said, it's not quite real for me yet.  Maybe I'll go down in the basement and get some of my old cans of paint and any toxic chemicals I might have and take them to the city's drop off place tomorrow.  Yeah, I can manage that.

It has been a very long time!

Like most people who start a blog, I had every intention of keeping it up. I truly believed it would be a cathartic process that would help me as I slog through the murky waters of BCPSS. WRONG! Now I'm sitting here trying to convince myself that I really will post something regularly now that I've found my way back here. I won't, though. All I can promise myself is that I will finish this post.

So, where am I? Still teaching in BCPSS. Still at an alternative school. Less happy and less hopeful that I've ever been. The corporate de-formers and the Arne Duncan Ed. Dept. are making it difficult to do what I, as a teacher, feel is best for my students. I no longer want to be complicit in the mis-education of children. Also, I am finding that the stress of doing what I do is taking its toll on my health. I refuse to continue to put myself at risk any longer. I will take early retirement and head out the door before the calendar year is through. I'm not sure where I'll go or what I'll do, but it will not be in Baltimore and it will not be in a classroom. I would much rather clean toilets at Ralph Wilson Stadium than continue to teach under these circumstances.

There. I have posted. I will add more later. Just not sure what "later" means.