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."