Not as much progress as I’d  hoped for on The Girls Nobody Wanted to Date, but it’s better than nothing. I really wanted to hit 50,000 words this weekend, but only added a little over 2k. Funny thing about this book, considering the title, but several of my female students want to be included in it.

The past several days have been interesting in one regard. My oldest daughter had oral surgery as part of her orthodontic treatment with the braces. They gave her some pretty powerful pain medication, so for a while there she was constantly stoned out of her mind, which was pretty funny. But, of course, nothing I want to see continued. She’s doing much better now.

My AP classes are working through a complete AP exam. It’s the multiple choice section from 2004 and essay prompts 2 and 3 from 2007. We’d already done Question 1, so I had to find something else. Anyway, I graded Question 2 today. There is this one girl who just consistently excels at the essays. Her essay for this question is one of the best I’ve read. I think it’s better than the high-score sample from the teacher’s workbook I have. She’s an amazing writer.

Last week I got my first real taste of the unpleasant part of being department chairman. I won’t go into detail about it, but will just say I made a recommendation to the principal based on my observation and opinion and was told my recommendation would be ignored because one of my teachers threw a tantrum. I also caught a guy going through backpacks an stealing an iPod (despite being a repeat offender, he only got three days suspension), and I was cussed out by a student with an undeserved sense of entitlement. Yes, it was quite a week.

I got an e-mail today from the school’s athletic director, who does the weekly list of student ineligible for activities. Over 49 percent of our student body is failing at least one class. The joys of an inner-city school.

Concerning today’s subject line, it’s meant for a certain reader and I think he’ll know who he is.