I am documenting the habits of my teacher. Some background information is necessary, I believe.

It would be all too easy to document the habits of my cat. Or the cat that lives next door. Or one of the cats that lives outside. Possibly even the raccoon that we see regularly in our neighbor's backyard. But I wanted something that would take a little more skill in observing. And I wanted to continue to stretch with each task I undertake. It's much more difficult to unobtrusively observe my teacher than it is to observe my cat.

Also, the school that I'm in is a little odd in its environs. It's a four-story building with NO WINDOWS. Not a single one. There's a little room up on the roof that has windows, but that's the break room. The vast majority of the time, we are 400 people in a four-story building where we can see nothing of outside. We never know what the weather is like. During the Hollywood fires last month we had no idea that the hill just a few miles from us was burning until the end of the day. Consequently, the interaction between people becomes very intimate. It's the feeling that we're completely insular from the world around us. We have also recently had a major shift in power at my school. There are only 12 teachers at the school and the President just changed. It was not due to a vote, it was due to the last President didn't do his job well and the company that owns the school ousted him and hired a new guy. It's a study in itself to watch the 12 teachers jockeying for favor from the new boss.

So:
Subject: White female. Single. 40 years of age. Exhibits a generally outgoing personality. Quick to anger, but just as quick to forgive.

6/13/07: Subject was very talkative today. Unusual for her to take as much class time speaking about her personal life as she did. Has been talking about dating quite a bit lately and has (after a great many first dates) achieved a second date to happen this weekend. Will probably get an update on that beginning of next week.

Subject managed to "accidentally" take a stopwatch belonging to another teacher. This is not a teacher that shares an office or any classroom with subject. It is a teacher that subject has spoken of being "a fuddy-duddy." Don't know if there's any connection.

Also spoke frequently today about how much drinking she's going to do during our break between quarters. That break will be happening from the 22nd of June through the 29th of June.

6/14/07: Subject arrived early today. Spent five minutes in office yelling at the slowness of the teachers' shared computer.

Spoke to subject today about study. Asked if I could take a picture of her. By focusing on the fact that I'm studying her because she affects my environment, she agreed. She seemed concerned about being on the web. I assured her that her name will not be used.

Many students left school early today. Subject seemed to take it personally. Spoke as if they were insulting her by not being there. New president of college looked in on our class. Subject didn't seem to notice.

6/18/07: Subject once again arrived early. Seemed to be in a good mood. Most of the first hour with her was taken up in learning about her third (previously I erroneously said this would be second) date. It evidently went well. They attended a local sporting event and the home team won.

Since this is the last week before our vacation, subject is offering extra credit work. It's not required and is just her being nice.

6/19/07: No observations made today as I was ill and unable to visit subject.

6/20/07: Subject today was in a good mood. All of the teachers at the school are getting as antsy as the students. Tomorrow's our last day and then we have a week off. Subject seemed nervous about people coming to class tomorrow. Once again, her reaction to students not coming seems to be almost personal in nature. Tomorrow will be the last day of observation.

6/21/07: Had last day of class for the quarter. Subject ended up singing "Sister Christian" in her office at the top of her lungs. Myself and another teacher were present, singing backup. She was definitely ready to be done. When I was taking her picture, she asked other teachers to be in the picture by telling them that I was doing internet porn and wanted their picture. Once again, spoke of getting drunk during the break.

Conclusions: I chose to tell her about the observation because otherwise, there was no viable way for me to get a photograph. Also, I've realized that there's not much in here about the insularity of the school. To be honest, I don't think there's enough space on the entire website for me to get into how weird it makes people to have no windows in their workspace.

Thank you for reading.