Maybe the Last

      I have mentioned before, youth dolls are very tricky. They are very hard to use right out of the box and need a lot of things done to make them into a good rider doll. And even after they are finished there really is no telling if they will fit in whatever saddle you have for them. The absolute best fit I have is a doll that was built to fit a particular saddle. Everything else is kind of a crap-shoot whether or not it comes together. That, and the amount of extra time youth dolls take, are just a couple of reasons I don't like making them. This one really may be the last. I do have one I was working on remaking for myself. At this point it has basically turned into just making a completely new doll. We'll have to see if I ever get around to finishing her. 

      My smallest saddle is out for repair, and I don't have any time these days, so I decided to just plop this little girl on her horse bareback. She rides very well, even without a saddle. That's an important thing for a rider doll. This doll fought me the whole way, but I got her done, packed, and off to her new home. 

     Yesterday was another weird day. I feel like I say that a lot. I have been in education for 6 years and have definitely had some weird days, but I feel like this school year has maybe been the weirdest. That is even taking into account remote learning. There, I said it. The kids, even the older ones, just seem to want everything done for them. Literally FOR them. They won't get up to get a pencil from the cup on my desk if they need to borrow one. They want me to bring them one. I spent over an hour going through the gradebook and making lists of makeup work today. Since it was MCAS day, and the schedule was weird (and I knew a bunch of kids would skip school) I decided to give all the classes a make up day. Term ends on the 31st. I made the lists... and very few of the students did a thing. They didn't want to get up and get their folders, and if they did and something wasn't in there they just gave up. One said none of the work was in there (when I looked in the folder at least 5 of the missing assignments were there), another played with all the fidget toys in the basket on my desk and expected the para to go through the folder and find things. And some of these same kids seem surprised if they are not doing well. They say that they had 110% with the old teacher. No, they were not making it up. I grade on all sorts of things, including effort. If you put in no effort, you get a lower grade. If you are in class and do nothing for weeks at a time, you get a really low effort grade, and that can't be made up. But I also don't give a lot of quizzes and they are only 30% if the grade. Everyone is allowed and encouraged to use their notes for every assignment in a unit AND the quizzes. I have given them every opportunity to do well, many of them are just choosing not to. Because I won't just give them the answers (even though having the notes RIGHT THERE is giving them the answers). I also won't give them piles of extra credit that give them grades that shouldn't be a thing. I'm tired. 

     Anyway, it's almost the weekend. I need to take a half day Friday because Travis has a half day. Monday is PD, but not one I have to go to, so I get Monday off, and Tuesday is my birthday, which I have requested off this year, for my mental health. I am almost never out, I really hope I get my day.