TGTIF

That's Thank God Tomorrow Is Friday.
I won't go into it much (I'm still not sure how much is too much when I am writing about my kids on here) but let's just say today involved four students getting write-ups (discipline reports), trying to get my kids to concentrate on reading while a firetruck and ambulance were parked outside our school with the lights on (NOT related to my students!), and all-day panic worrying about the possible threat of rainy-day-recess. Don't even ask if I've had time to grade ANYTHING. AndI'm now going to bed. Arg matey.

Just Another Manic Monday

The weekend was completely uneventful and I loved it! I slept for most of Saturday as I was recovering from being sick and on Sunday we had the mom-and-dad-and-brother-and-pregnant-sister-in-law over for homemade pizza. They brought the ultrasound picture (so cute-he was sucking his thumb!) and we took the dogs to the dog park. Poor Rex-he thinks he's a big dog (he's not-only about 30 pounds and very much a puppy at 8 months old) and he always tries to play with the big dogs, like Huskies. They hate his puppiness and growl at him while he tries to make out. What can I say? He's a lover.

I taught another half day today and you wouldn't believe the awesome mood I am in right now! I think it helps it was the morning and the kids were half asleep since it is Monday. I swear no one puts their kids to bed on Sunday nights before midnight. . . they are zombies! I finally imatated them, laying on my overhead projector like they do on their desktops and they laughted and sat up straight. For five minutes. All in all it was a good morning with only 2 kids getting to the "consequence" level of the traffic light behavior management system in the classroom. and had to stay in for a few minutes at recess to talk about changes they needed to make in their behavior. I had a dentist appointment this afternoon and got a filling in 10 minutes-the shortest filling I've ever had-with one nice big shot of Novacaine. I told the dentist I was nervous since I hadn't had a filling in two years and he was super reassuring that everything would be fine. And of course I got a milkshake after, it's tradition. Okay, I was in Seattle too so I went shopping downtown! I bought some brown Danskos (super cute!) and a few cute tops at Gap.

On the way to the dentist I saw the weirdest thing ever. A man on a motorcycle traveling in the opposite direction somehow swerved and FLEW off his bike onto the road! He went "thunk" when he hit the pavement. EWWWWWWWWWW! He was going about 40 mph and STOOD UP after he crashed! I think if he hadn't been wearing his helmet, well, it wouldn't have ended so good. He was pretty beat up but he said he was okay. Someone else said he should go to the hospital and when I left they were going to call 911. So scary! I am just glad he is okay. Just puts things into perspective, you know? I'm over here whining about getting a filling and this guy's life just flashed before his eyes!

Right now the Husband is on the phone with Comcast (I'm sure they've red-flagged our account by now with the amount of times he's called and complained) telling them they are retarded because the amount we pay for cable just went up and with high speed internet we're suppose to pay around $80 a month. Um. . .yeah. . . NO. He's telling them he's upset because new customers get all the good deals and the longtime customers pay a ridiculous amount of money for crappy cable channels. They seriously hate us. I think I just heard him cancel our cable service. Goodbye Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends-the best cartoon ever made, goodbye sluty teenagers on Laguna Beach, goobye tough-love bounty hunter Dog, goodbye the same TBS/USA movie that repeats six times on Saturdays, goodbye House Hunters which has always ticked me off because they never tell how much the houses cost, goodbye Ashton and Punked. Ah I lead a sad, sad life.


PS The real reason I'm ticked cable's so expensive? We got it for free in our apartment for a year after we called to cancel it and they never actually cut our channels. Are we bad people? Maybe. But we're poor teachers too and I think we should get cable for free. Okay now I'm just a brat. A lazy, cable-watching brat. Gotta go-I'm sure there's some dumb show I'm missing right now on a channel higher than 13.

Pity Party:Table For One Please

Why oh why am I posting at 10:30am on a weekday? Well because yesterday was a day from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks. I was working in the morning before the kids got there and I noticed a tooth in the back of my mouth was really super duper sharp. A filling broke! I don't know how or when it broke but I think it must have been yesterday morning sometime. Then my throat started to REALLY hurt and by the end of the day my voice was going. The next great joy? Open House was last night! I called to make a dentist appointment and typed sub plans in a hurry while I was still trying to set up for all the parents that were coming. I raced home to let the dog out and give him dinner and got back to school just in time. An hour later, I had met 19 out of my 27 kids' families and I literally could not talk. I went to pick up The Husband but he was still in the middle of HIS Open House! We finally drove home around 8:00 and stopped to pick up Thera-Flu and tissues. I went home and passed out only to have to get up at 5:20am to get to my 7:00am dentist apointment. The best part? My dentist was 40 minutes late! All he did was smooth out the rough part of the broken filling and tell me I need a crown. And my appointment is in December. December? That's in three months?!
Enough said. I'm leaving to go to school and teach for the afternoon.

Innie or Outie?

My class has their good days and their bad days. Yesterday was a great day and today was. . . well, not such a great day. It was picture day. The kids showed up in their best clothes (well, clean clothes) and their hair in braids and/or slicked back. We walked to the gym for our group picture and the chaos began. Of course the photographers were running behind schedule which meant 27 eight-year-olds had to wait. Do you know what happens when you tell 27 third graders to stand, silent, in height order, in the hallway, waiting for their class pictures? Well I do. They get out of their height order line, talk, and get super impatient. They don't really understand how to wait for much-I blame television and video games but what do I know?-so I told them if they were good they could go to the Book Fair after pictures were taken. Bribery? Yes, and I am willing to admit it too. Our class picture was looking good until one student SHOUTED out "I don't want to get my picture taken! Pictures suck!" Of course, most of the kids began to laugh and the picture turned out kind of silly. Whatever, no one was bleeding. Do I sound like a lame disciplinarian? I actually think I'm quite skilled but then again, I believe the eight-year-olds when they say I'm the best teacher in the world. Don't worry I don't get too full of myself-I had one student tell me today, "I am seriously mad at you." I told him I was so happy he used an "I" message and expressed how he felt. He later apologized and helped me pick up my papers when I dropped them on the floor.
Open House is Thursday night and I'm hoping to get the kids to finish their self-portraits finished tomorrow so we'll have something to hang on the bulletin board in the hallway. I also have a poetry idea I want to try tomorrow-wish me luck! So far we've been struggling with capitalizing the first word in a sentence. . . .I think they will make great gains this year, I really do.
Oh and the subject line? Yes folks, I actually get asked shit like that every day. Yesterday the question was, "Teacher (some of them actually call me that), do you have an innie or an outie?" I just laughed out loud, and said, "This is why I love being a teacher. I have an innie."

It's a. . . . . . . . . . . .

BOY!

Boy or Girl?

The big ultrasound is tomorrow! I'm pretty sure it's all I'll think about all day at school. A neice or a nephew. . . I think it's a girl but of course I could be totally wrong. My sil sort of thinks it's a boy because "that's all we have" in *our* familes. We'll find out in 24 hours as long as the little bean cooperates.

Vroom Vroom

Check out www.penny-arcade.com to see the cutest kid ever! Our friends Mike and Kara had a 1st birthday party for their son, Gabe, on Sunday so Mike posted a picture online. The party was fun, we bought him a retro rocket and a Bruce Lee t-shirt. Good times were had by all, but particularly by the birthday boy!

Finally

A good day.
Here's hoping there are more in the future.

I started a cardio yoga class last night-kicked my butt royally-which wouldn't be that bad but when we went for our nightly walk with Rex we ran into another teacher from the Husband's middle school. He was out walking with his wife and their dog (a border collie/whippet mix-so cute!) so we decided to walk together. We arrived back home two hours and four miles later. . . my legs were screaming in pain last night but I'm not all that sore today surprisingly enough. We walked all the way from our house down to the marina where the dogs munched on shells. Gross.

I'm just so happy I had a good day! I feel like my life was substantiually different today. I am just praying it is not a rare occurance.

Latest number (what's the obsession with numbers? I'm not sure):
26: The # of kids I started school with today
27: The # of kids I ended school with today
436: The # of times I was asked, "Can I go to the bathroom?" today
4: The # of times students asked me if they could go to the nurse today
7: The # of emails I got today about ONE meeting. . . necessary? Not really
30: The # of copies I make of EVERY paper because someone ALWAYS loses one or can't find it in their desk
1: The # of times our copier shut down in the middle of a my copy job
23: The # of minutes I had to eat lunch today
5: The # of different bus lines I have in my room
2: The # of sets of cousins in my room
1: The # of lunch boxes lost today
1: The # of kids that recieved a warning slip today
4 or 5: The # of moments I thought I actually got through to one of my "tough" kids today

*I was reading "What Teacher's Can't Do" (a cute picture book about how teacher's "can't" to so many things, like add 2 and 2, or spell CAT, since they always have to ask the students) to my class today and we got to the second to last page that said, "No one can figure out why there are so many things teachers can't do. Maybe it's because they are so busy doing the one thing they do the best. . ." (Of course it said, "Teach you" on the last page) The kids started to guess what the last page would say and my favorite response was, "Get papers." ??? What? I "get papers?" What an exciting life I lead.*

When it Rains, it Pours. . .

I don't really have words to explain my Friday. I would probably use words that I'm not really interested in saying on here. I'm not entirely sure how much I can post on here (don't want to get "dooced") so I'll just give a quick rundown.

A student was very challenging yesterday, talking back and acting very disrespectful and disruptive. The student was also leaving the room without permimssion and wandering around the room, acting rude to other students. Unfortunately, our principal was out of the building for the day. Needless to say, a "regular education" classroom may not be the best placement for this student. I just kept imagining the 24 other students going home and telling their families they couldn't do their independent reading because one of their classmates was pounding on the computer keyboard (off-limits) and saying "I hate all of you" to them.

Some numbers. . .
8:00pm: The time I fell asleep on the couch last night
11: The number of hours I slept last night
4,735: The number of times I wanted to SCREAM out loud yesterday
Over 15,000: The number of steps I took yesterday
14: The number of roses the Husband got me yesterday because my day sucked

You'll never guess where I'm going today. School. I'm going because every single one of my students deserves a prepared teacher on Monday morning and considering I did no planning yesterday due to the intenseness, I am heading in this morning. Meaning Saturday. See, you have to be crazy to do this job. I guess I am.

1st Day of Third Grade

My day started long before the first school bell with five families coming to meet me while I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off preparing for the first day of school. I tried to be as friendly and inviting as I could without screaming, "DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I HAVE TO DO TO BE PREPARED FOR YOUR CHILD TODAY? MEET ME AT 8:40 WHEN SCHOOL STARTS PLEASE! DO YOU KNOW I ONLY HAD A WEEK TO PREPARE A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR YOUR OFFSPRING AND I WORKED 11 UNPAID HOURS YESTERDAY TO BE READY FOR THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL?" Please note that I did not atually say any of those things.
This afternoon I watched the last bus leave school 45 MINUTES AFTER THE LAST BELL. The drama was unbelieveable-which I guess was suppose to be expected since we were in a different building and had over 150 new kids and 15 new staff members. Buses were overcrowded, parents hadn't told kids if they were suppose to get a ride home or ride the bus, and all us teachers were trying to hold it all together.
My students are an interesting bunch and I'm looking forward to getting to know them even more as the year goes on. I saw my students from last year today in the hall and felt a pang of emotion that I was not expecting to have. I still think of them as "my" students I guess. Sometimes I am just blown away by how significant my job really is. I teach children. I introduce them to things they have never heard of or experienced. And as much as I teach them, they also teach me. I love it! And I'm exhuasted. I'm going to bed.

Ouch

Yesterday I was at school getting ready for 11 hours and walked almost 17,000 steps. ARG!

15798

That's how many steps I took today.
Enough said.

A Teacher's Stress

I haven't posted in days because things have been crazy here. If I wasn't in meetings in the past week, I was in my classroom unpacking boxes. I only have a few left, mostly full of books. I've been thinking of posting pictures on here when I am all done. I have a huge room but I'm still having a hard time setting everything up. I finally got my class list and I have 25 kiddos so far. Big change over last year's 18! Honestly, six kids make a huge difference in a classroom. Some of my students have the most awesome names! Not sure if I can post them on here though. . .
We went school-clothes shopping today. Yep, even teachers go to Old Navy. The Husband and I both bought a few pairs of pants and some shirts to wear to work. I also bought a pedometer and in the past four hours I've taken 3534 steps! I'm interested in seeing how many I take on a regular work day, which will be WEDNESDAY! We just had the family (the Husband's mother, father, brother, and sister-in-law) over for dinner. It was the BIL and SIL's 11th anniversary yesterday so we celebrated together. I can't believe SIL is almost halfway done (almost 18 weeks) with her pregnancy! She looks so cute and her baby belly is becoming more round.
Tomorrow I am planning to go into school for the day. I need to (not necessarily in this order or all in one day):
*Put up paper and borders on two bulliten boards.
*Finish sorting and organizing the classroom library.
*Clean/organize my desk area.
*Hang up posters and the cursive alphabet.
*Set up the students' desks in pairs and put out nametags.
*Organize materials (markers, crayons, scissors).
*Plan Wednesday/Thursday/Friday's lessons.
*More things I can't remember right now.
Yikes!

My dad called today and he is doing okay. He said he really appreciated hearing my message last night. I told my principal today about my grandpa and she was incredibly supportive. We cleaned the house and did laundry after work today in anticipation of my best friend coming to visit tomorrow. She said she can't wait to get out of the Phoenix heat! We also took Rex to a new dog park tonight. He had a great time chasing a little Cocker Spaniel and a large Alaska Malamute. Good times were had by all.
PS Classroom update: OHMYGOD I'M NEVER GOING TO BE READY FOR THE KIDS ON WEDNESDAY!

Puffy Eyes

Yep, I've got em'. Puffy eyes that is. Last night I had a mini-meltdown. I was fine until I called my Mom to get the # for my Dad's hotel in California and she asked if I was okay since I sounded weird. Of course I started crying. She said it was okay and wasn't I thankful for all the times we went down to California to visit my Grandpa and Grandma at Christmas time? I said yes and she told me to call my Dad. I didn't want to call him when I was crying because I didn't even know what to say to him. My Grandpa was 84 and had lung cancer but he still went pretty quickly. He was admitted to the hospital last Tuesday and died a week later. I know all I have to say to my Dad is I am sorry and I'm thinking about him and the rest of his family. That's pretty much what I left on the message I left at the hotel. I just hope he's okay.