We got up early this morning and when I say we, I really mean Ang who was up and at um at 5:20 am. I know, that's ridiculously early. But we start teaching, with real live kids, at 7:12 am and it's hard to get ready to do that with only 10 minutes prep so we went to school about 6 am. And then Ang decided she really wasn't feeling well so we took a little field trip to the ER via Urgent Care.
Yep, another round of a little game I like to call sit and wait and pray they figure things out quickly. But today went well and I was so proud of Ang for trusting her gut (and her head) and knowing she wasn't overreacting and needed to go to the doctor. She called both her primary care doc and her neurologist, neither of whom would see her (booked, whatever! boy do I miss Dr. Earl and the good old days where you'd call and they'd say, "Come in now," even if it was 5 pm).
She'd been feeling dizzy and had blurred vision and knew she needed to rule out some serious neurological issues and they finally did. There was a CAT scan involved and IV drugs and antibiotics and after all was said and done, turns out the sinus infection she had early in the month never went away and got way worse and her sinuses are almost completely blocked. Thus, the horrible pain when exercising or doing lots of other things.
So she's getting fixed up with the right meds and it only took 6 hours which isn't bad for the ER in my experience. And Yuma Regional Medical Center gets props in my book for customer service as well. I didn't have any cash on me - like I was literally counting dimes to pull some together. And I went to the coffee shop near the ER and of course, it was closed. So I finally got some pretzels (love debiting one whole dollar!) from the gift shop and a can of diet pepsi from the machine but I was still hungry yet not wanting to stray too far from Ang. And then these women arrived pushing a cart of sandwiches and juice. FREE FOOD! It was so great. By then it was 6:30 or so and lunch was long gone (on Wednesdays, early release at school, our lunch is at 10:45 which is ridiculously early). And the food wasn't just for patients, it was for families. At first I was hesitant, I mean it was a sandwich like you get out of the vending machines but then I said screw it, poured on the mustard and ate and it was GOOD. So that was a blessing. We went to Walgreen's after (Ang will blog on that I am sure, they forgot to include a prescription in her bag and we have to go back tomorrow - ugh!) and got home after 9 pm. Another long day. But a happy ending. Ang is not in mortal danger, I didn't have to run home for a scarf to cover her head (she kept asking me to promise to get her a scarf if they had to shave her head, yes yes, we've been watching too much House), and she's sleeping off the morphine soundly now. All's well that ends well....G'night!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
I love water!
It's true, I do. I love an ice cold drink of it when I am super thirsty. I love being in a swimming pool (although it's summer here in Yuma which means we can't go in our pool, we have to wait for it to cool down in the fall). And I love to bathe in it. I'm serious people.
I go back and forth on baths. I like relaxing in them and lately I have been shaving while in the bathtub (my arthritis is making it uncomfortable to stand on the side of the shower stall - and yes, worried family and friends, I am going to call a doctor this week, I promise!). But it's weird, whenever I am super tired, the kind of tired I get that comes along with tension in my head, not really a headache but again, an uncomfortable feeling, the only thing that helps is a long, HOT, shower. The kind that steams up the bathroom, leaves my neck and upper body red from the heat of the scalding water. I love standing under the stream, washing my hair and just generally, feeling very clean.
I am guessing I am not alone in this liking of H2O. But it's just what I am thinking about right now. I just got out of the bath and I need to dry my hair so I can go study integers and multiplying fractions. Yes, middle school math, apparently all that is required to do well on the quantitative part of the GRE. Wish my luck, math was never my strong suit!
Then it'll be a little ice cream and another episode of the new season of House which came out on DVD today (God bless Netflix shipping new releases before their release date!). It was a long day and I am once again, as always, pooped. I tested today, and got some down time to grade papers because I had a sub in my room but I paid a price for that down time. After school I spent two hours calling parents about kids' names who were left by my sub. So no kids, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Never. Don't eat it, it may be poisoned!
I go back and forth on baths. I like relaxing in them and lately I have been shaving while in the bathtub (my arthritis is making it uncomfortable to stand on the side of the shower stall - and yes, worried family and friends, I am going to call a doctor this week, I promise!). But it's weird, whenever I am super tired, the kind of tired I get that comes along with tension in my head, not really a headache but again, an uncomfortable feeling, the only thing that helps is a long, HOT, shower. The kind that steams up the bathroom, leaves my neck and upper body red from the heat of the scalding water. I love standing under the stream, washing my hair and just generally, feeling very clean.
I am guessing I am not alone in this liking of H2O. But it's just what I am thinking about right now. I just got out of the bath and I need to dry my hair so I can go study integers and multiplying fractions. Yes, middle school math, apparently all that is required to do well on the quantitative part of the GRE. Wish my luck, math was never my strong suit!
Then it'll be a little ice cream and another episode of the new season of House which came out on DVD today (God bless Netflix shipping new releases before their release date!). It was a long day and I am once again, as always, pooped. I tested today, and got some down time to grade papers because I had a sub in my room but I paid a price for that down time. After school I spent two hours calling parents about kids' names who were left by my sub. So no kids, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Never. Don't eat it, it may be poisoned!
Friday, August 17, 2007
For them and for no other reason
Today was a very long day to top off a very long week. Yesterday was capped off with Back-To-School night, basically an open house where families follow their kids' schedules for an abbreviated 10 minutes per class period. By the time we got home it had been almost 14 hours since I'd seen my house. And after what happened then, it could have been 14 more.
Since residing in the desert for over a year now I've seen my share of cockroaches. They're ugly, fast, and freak me out less and less. I'd yet to kill one but I'd seen the scurry away in the copy room at school when I turned on the lights. I knew they crawled up drains and came searching water and food. Then this week I had the well-know black widow spider incident (sidebar: Yuma Pest Control was in my classroom at 4pm today, telling me all about the nasty looking spiders and spraying for them, let's all say a prayer it works!). And then last night I had the cockroach incident.
We got home and ate a snack before falling asleep in front of the tv. At 10:15 I woke up with a start and knew I needed to take out my contacts and brush my teeth and go to bed. So we head to the bathroom and I sit down on the toliet and Ang starts to freak out a little. I am still so asleep I can't understand why and then I see it - a giant cockroach. I am not exaggerating. It's got to be six inches long. So I freak. And we go get running shoes on under our nightgowns and I grab my steel-toe shoe to kill it with and Ang, to her credit, chases after it. But it's fast. And then it STARTS TO FLY. Yes, it flies. I did not know cockroaches could fly. Today I find out that we have the super duper kind of roaches called Sewer Cockroaches that are huge and fly and come up through the drains in search of food. Fantastic. Really, this is great news.
Eventually we get it into the hall and I stand on it. I am afraid that it won't die because I've heard it's hard to kill them so I instruct Ang to get a container to capture it with. But I press down with the many pounds I have, all of them into that foot and praise God literally, he crunches and dies. (I had to step over that spot on the carpet this morning, seriously.) Needless to say, no one slept well in our house last night.
Thus, morning comes way to early and we get to school and it's a rough start. I have a nasty row (I like to pretend to sound British, it's so cool!) with a co-worker who chews me out in the hall and then have both the principal and the vice-prinicpal visit me within an hour to make sure I am okay and to let me know everything will be fine (my chewing out was not called for and an apology, such as it was, was made). But through it all, the exteremely long day, the crazy schedule of taking my kids outside to another room to be tested today, teaching them how to monitor their own progress (something now required of us and the kids in all subjects), and all the crazy adult stuff going on, it was the kids who got me through.
They were all smiles and good mornings and hellos and calling on me to popcorn read when they could have picked any other child in the room. They were telling me about books their reading and begging to take the spelling test today when they came in late. They were troopers who were quiet in the halls and the testing room. They were respectful when applauding their peers for being helpers of the week. They volunteered in droves to help serve lunch in the cafeteria next week as part of our new drive to encourage community service.
On child in particular touched my heart today. He's a quiet child who's always got a book and is very attentive to his work. Today he returned the second Harry Potter book and when I asked him if he enjoyed it he replied, "Oh yeah, I've read it a ton of times before. But my copy's all messed up and I just wanted to read a brand-new copy." I loved that! LOVED IT! That I have a brand-new book for him to read and that he's reading his so much it's all messed up.
So today was all about them. One class in particular rocked today because I knew they were tired and they could tell I was and I made the decision to read our class novel Tangerine first instead of last to give us all a little reprieve. Well we were all so into it, as I haven't read the book before and their class is furthest ahead, that we just kept reading the whole period. And I didn't see or hear a single kid not into the book. It was great.
So I'm going to sleep now, hopefully for a very long time. Ms. Knapp is exhausted. But happy too.
Since residing in the desert for over a year now I've seen my share of cockroaches. They're ugly, fast, and freak me out less and less. I'd yet to kill one but I'd seen the scurry away in the copy room at school when I turned on the lights. I knew they crawled up drains and came searching water and food. Then this week I had the well-know black widow spider incident (sidebar: Yuma Pest Control was in my classroom at 4pm today, telling me all about the nasty looking spiders and spraying for them, let's all say a prayer it works!). And then last night I had the cockroach incident.
We got home and ate a snack before falling asleep in front of the tv. At 10:15 I woke up with a start and knew I needed to take out my contacts and brush my teeth and go to bed. So we head to the bathroom and I sit down on the toliet and Ang starts to freak out a little. I am still so asleep I can't understand why and then I see it - a giant cockroach. I am not exaggerating. It's got to be six inches long. So I freak. And we go get running shoes on under our nightgowns and I grab my steel-toe shoe to kill it with and Ang, to her credit, chases after it. But it's fast. And then it STARTS TO FLY. Yes, it flies. I did not know cockroaches could fly. Today I find out that we have the super duper kind of roaches called Sewer Cockroaches that are huge and fly and come up through the drains in search of food. Fantastic. Really, this is great news.
Eventually we get it into the hall and I stand on it. I am afraid that it won't die because I've heard it's hard to kill them so I instruct Ang to get a container to capture it with. But I press down with the many pounds I have, all of them into that foot and praise God literally, he crunches and dies. (I had to step over that spot on the carpet this morning, seriously.) Needless to say, no one slept well in our house last night.
Thus, morning comes way to early and we get to school and it's a rough start. I have a nasty row (I like to pretend to sound British, it's so cool!) with a co-worker who chews me out in the hall and then have both the principal and the vice-prinicpal visit me within an hour to make sure I am okay and to let me know everything will be fine (my chewing out was not called for and an apology, such as it was, was made). But through it all, the exteremely long day, the crazy schedule of taking my kids outside to another room to be tested today, teaching them how to monitor their own progress (something now required of us and the kids in all subjects), and all the crazy adult stuff going on, it was the kids who got me through.
They were all smiles and good mornings and hellos and calling on me to popcorn read when they could have picked any other child in the room. They were telling me about books their reading and begging to take the spelling test today when they came in late. They were troopers who were quiet in the halls and the testing room. They were respectful when applauding their peers for being helpers of the week. They volunteered in droves to help serve lunch in the cafeteria next week as part of our new drive to encourage community service.
On child in particular touched my heart today. He's a quiet child who's always got a book and is very attentive to his work. Today he returned the second Harry Potter book and when I asked him if he enjoyed it he replied, "Oh yeah, I've read it a ton of times before. But my copy's all messed up and I just wanted to read a brand-new copy." I loved that! LOVED IT! That I have a brand-new book for him to read and that he's reading his so much it's all messed up.
So today was all about them. One class in particular rocked today because I knew they were tired and they could tell I was and I made the decision to read our class novel Tangerine first instead of last to give us all a little reprieve. Well we were all so into it, as I haven't read the book before and their class is furthest ahead, that we just kept reading the whole period. And I didn't see or hear a single kid not into the book. It was great.
So I'm going to sleep now, hopefully for a very long time. Ms. Knapp is exhausted. But happy too.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
All I can think of is those spiders from Harry Potter...
So today was a fine day, we had art day in class. My kids wrote poems about their first week of school and then got to illustrate them with colored pencils, crayons, and clippings from magazines. There was talking, laughter, learning, and some music. A good day. I didn't have any meetings, even better. Then after school Ang and I worked in her room a while then moved down to mine to work. That's when things went bad.
We are rearranging a bit, we have 2 consumables for each child this year (a writing handbook and a reading handbook), a journal, and a portfolio - all things that need to be kept in the room. So I decided to make little areas for each of my 3 classes. I decided to put 1st hour in the farthest corner of the room by the window. Ang moved the 3 empty milk crates that had been sitting there waiting to be filled. As she did she says, "Hey, look at this cool spider web" then proceeds to scream, drop the milk crate, jump up ON TOP of one of my desks and walk across the desks to the back of the room. She's yelling for her shoes that she'd just taken off (by now we've been working over 10 hours) and I am looking at her bewildered. This behavior seems just puerile (rock on! that's one of the 36 new words I've learned in the last 3 days from my GRE prep program I've put myself on - by the way, it means childish).
But she's still screaming and I take her the shoes and then look in the crate. And there it is, an ugly black spider, which I know she hates, but I freak out too because it's also orange. So I back away and follow Ang from the room. She runs down the hall to Leslie's room to hide and I am sent to find the "boys" (aka janitors). They are no where to be found. So I go to my boss's office and ask her to call them to my room on the radio. She smiles and does saying, "Spider rescue to room 109". Here's the funny part. Two of the boys heard her correctly and opted not to come, I knew they wouldn't unless forced too. They hate spiders as much as we do. But a minute later I hear keys jingling down the hall and I see Bill running with a fire extinguisher. I say, "What are you going to stomp on it with that?" and he says, "No, I heard they needed fire and rescue in room 109!" Gotta love miscommunication.
So he goes in the room and I follow him and I look in the crate and the spiders gone and I'm like, fantastic! great! super! But wait, no there it is, in another corner of the crate. And Bill looks in and puts his arm toward me and says, "Move back." So I do, to the doorway across the room. He says it's a baby Black Widow Spider. And I freak out. Silently of course, but I still freak out. And leave the room. He goes to get the ant spray the school supplies them with (why in the world we don't have raid I don't know, no one can explain it to me) and goes in to kill it.
So apparently these spiders are becoming a noisome (another GRE word - meaning nasty) nusiance in our school. They caught 7 of them in our conference room last week and one wouldn't die. It looked like it was rearing on it's hind legs and coming toward the ant spray, according to Bill. This did not make me feel ANY better. And the boys were surprised the spiders had gotten to this side of the building, far away from the fields.
So yeah, I've seen my first, and God-willing (I am seriously praying for this) my last, black widow. Rumor has it they fight each other and don't travel in packs, which is good news for my classroom but I figure if it's a baby, there's got to be a mama somewhere. So I will be on the lookout from here on out. Also, I am never going barefoot in school again (something I did a lot in my carpeted room), I'm going to start wearing my steel-toed Doc Marten shoes, I'm going to buy myself a can of Raid for my closet, and I have to check everything I touch now. Or just not touch things where they might hide.
So yeah, that's Yuma for ya. Not only do we have six inch cockroaches, we've got black widows. And it's even too freaking hot to go swimming. What could be better?!?!?!
We are rearranging a bit, we have 2 consumables for each child this year (a writing handbook and a reading handbook), a journal, and a portfolio - all things that need to be kept in the room. So I decided to make little areas for each of my 3 classes. I decided to put 1st hour in the farthest corner of the room by the window. Ang moved the 3 empty milk crates that had been sitting there waiting to be filled. As she did she says, "Hey, look at this cool spider web" then proceeds to scream, drop the milk crate, jump up ON TOP of one of my desks and walk across the desks to the back of the room. She's yelling for her shoes that she'd just taken off (by now we've been working over 10 hours) and I am looking at her bewildered. This behavior seems just puerile (rock on! that's one of the 36 new words I've learned in the last 3 days from my GRE prep program I've put myself on - by the way, it means childish).
But she's still screaming and I take her the shoes and then look in the crate. And there it is, an ugly black spider, which I know she hates, but I freak out too because it's also orange. So I back away and follow Ang from the room. She runs down the hall to Leslie's room to hide and I am sent to find the "boys" (aka janitors). They are no where to be found. So I go to my boss's office and ask her to call them to my room on the radio. She smiles and does saying, "Spider rescue to room 109". Here's the funny part. Two of the boys heard her correctly and opted not to come, I knew they wouldn't unless forced too. They hate spiders as much as we do. But a minute later I hear keys jingling down the hall and I see Bill running with a fire extinguisher. I say, "What are you going to stomp on it with that?" and he says, "No, I heard they needed fire and rescue in room 109!" Gotta love miscommunication.
So he goes in the room and I follow him and I look in the crate and the spiders gone and I'm like, fantastic! great! super! But wait, no there it is, in another corner of the crate. And Bill looks in and puts his arm toward me and says, "Move back." So I do, to the doorway across the room. He says it's a baby Black Widow Spider. And I freak out. Silently of course, but I still freak out. And leave the room. He goes to get the ant spray the school supplies them with (why in the world we don't have raid I don't know, no one can explain it to me) and goes in to kill it.
So apparently these spiders are becoming a noisome (another GRE word - meaning nasty) nusiance in our school. They caught 7 of them in our conference room last week and one wouldn't die. It looked like it was rearing on it's hind legs and coming toward the ant spray, according to Bill. This did not make me feel ANY better. And the boys were surprised the spiders had gotten to this side of the building, far away from the fields.
So yeah, I've seen my first, and God-willing (I am seriously praying for this) my last, black widow. Rumor has it they fight each other and don't travel in packs, which is good news for my classroom but I figure if it's a baby, there's got to be a mama somewhere. So I will be on the lookout from here on out. Also, I am never going barefoot in school again (something I did a lot in my carpeted room), I'm going to start wearing my steel-toed Doc Marten shoes, I'm going to buy myself a can of Raid for my closet, and I have to check everything I touch now. Or just not touch things where they might hide.
So yeah, that's Yuma for ya. Not only do we have six inch cockroaches, we've got black widows. And it's even too freaking hot to go swimming. What could be better?!?!?!
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Puking Pastilles
You know in Harry Potter how the Weasley Twins manufacture and sell puking pastilles that get students out of class by bringing on sudden vomiting? I think one of my students got his hands on some this afternoon.
My class was working quietly, taking the reading pretest and all of a sudden one of my kids is at the trash can throwing up. It was fantastic. I wasn't quite sure what to do at first because he just kept throwing up. So I sent him to the nurse but of course because he's only been at our school four days, he didn't know where the nurse was so I had to explain that. And then I called the nurse to let her know he was coming down and I didn't know his name, I had to look him up on the seating chart. It was great. Then I called down to the office to get a janitor and the secretary was like, let me make sure I've got it right, "Wet cleanup on aisle 109?" Yeah, it was great.
So that was my excitement today. Other than that things went well. My kids have their first spelling test tomorrow and I have a lot of papers to grade and lesson plans to make this weekend so Saturday I'll be back at school but I know it'll get better soon. Also, on a really exciting note: I've had eight kids check out books from me this week. I don't think I had eight kids borrow books from me all last year. I sent home with them three Harry Potters, Charlotte's Web, Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and many others. I'm excited - they like to read! Woo Hoo!
Also, I took a three hour nap today when I got home and now I'm going to head to bed. It's been a busy week!
My class was working quietly, taking the reading pretest and all of a sudden one of my kids is at the trash can throwing up. It was fantastic. I wasn't quite sure what to do at first because he just kept throwing up. So I sent him to the nurse but of course because he's only been at our school four days, he didn't know where the nurse was so I had to explain that. And then I called the nurse to let her know he was coming down and I didn't know his name, I had to look him up on the seating chart. It was great. Then I called down to the office to get a janitor and the secretary was like, let me make sure I've got it right, "Wet cleanup on aisle 109?" Yeah, it was great.
So that was my excitement today. Other than that things went well. My kids have their first spelling test tomorrow and I have a lot of papers to grade and lesson plans to make this weekend so Saturday I'll be back at school but I know it'll get better soon. Also, on a really exciting note: I've had eight kids check out books from me this week. I don't think I had eight kids borrow books from me all last year. I sent home with them three Harry Potters, Charlotte's Web, Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and many others. I'm excited - they like to read! Woo Hoo!
Also, I took a three hour nap today when I got home and now I'm going to head to bed. It's been a busy week!
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
The amazing flying temporary crown
Yes, yes, that's right. Today I went in for my root canal and in the process, my temporary crown went flying into ANOTHER room! The dentist looked surprised and had an assistant go get it. I don't even know if they washed it off. Whatever. It was not a fun way to spend an afternoon. In fact, I had to have double doses of Novocaine while in the chair. Nothin' like feeling the drilling, as if the sound of it isn't bad enough.
But there was an upside to my visit this afternoon. I got to the dentist office and found out the receptionist, who's super sweet and always gets me in and lets me pay later after she calls to check on my insurance and stuff, had forgotten to schedule me in. So after some worry and work on her part, the office decided to stay late and do my root canal at five which I was happy for. A) because I needed it done, it hurts and B)I am getting my permanent crown on Monday. I had to wait an hour and decided there wasn't enough time to go home so I sat down to read some magazines and it was really great. I was reading my daily devotional calendar this morning (from my lovely friend Leslie!) and it was about waiting and using the time God creates for us to wait in to the best possible use. I decided that God wanted me to wait today, most likely so I could just breathe and relax after another long day at school. And that I did. I read some People magazines and then kept falling asleep in the chair while having the root canal. (Note: This is not a good idea. The doctor kept asking, very nicely to please open my mouth wider because the more I felt sleepy, the more it closed....).
So all in all, an okay day. A solid C for average. The downside is Ang has a bad sinus infection but she went to UrgentCare and got some drugs so hopefully that will help. And tomorrow's Wednesday which is our first short day with the kids who go home at one and then we have meetings until three-thirty. Yippee!
But there was an upside to my visit this afternoon. I got to the dentist office and found out the receptionist, who's super sweet and always gets me in and lets me pay later after she calls to check on my insurance and stuff, had forgotten to schedule me in. So after some worry and work on her part, the office decided to stay late and do my root canal at five which I was happy for. A) because I needed it done, it hurts and B)I am getting my permanent crown on Monday. I had to wait an hour and decided there wasn't enough time to go home so I sat down to read some magazines and it was really great. I was reading my daily devotional calendar this morning (from my lovely friend Leslie!) and it was about waiting and using the time God creates for us to wait in to the best possible use. I decided that God wanted me to wait today, most likely so I could just breathe and relax after another long day at school. And that I did. I read some People magazines and then kept falling asleep in the chair while having the root canal. (Note: This is not a good idea. The doctor kept asking, very nicely to please open my mouth wider because the more I felt sleepy, the more it closed....).
So all in all, an okay day. A solid C for average. The downside is Ang has a bad sinus infection but she went to UrgentCare and got some drugs so hopefully that will help. And tomorrow's Wednesday which is our first short day with the kids who go home at one and then we have meetings until three-thirty. Yippee!
Monday, August 06, 2007
Brave
Today I had my kids create a person crest to introduce themselves to one another. And of course, being the good teacher I try to be, I created my own and explained it all to them. One of the spaces asked you to fill in descriptions of yourself and I put the word brave among others. I explained to the kids that I think I am brave for being a 7th grade teacher and in turn, I think they are brave for coming to 7th grade ready to learn. I am not sure if this affected them at all but it got me thinking. For me, this is pretty brave. When I graduated college I never imagined in a million years I'd be teaching 90 preteens to read and write. I continually amaze myself, and not that I am all that or anything but just at where I am now. I wonder sometimes how I got here.
It was a good day, a 10 hour day, but a good day nonetheless. I met a lot of kids, remember none of their names, and even got through their first spelling list. I made some jokes, taught them what the word sarcasm means, and helped them find their classes. What made my day was one girl who came up to me on a break to tell me that she thinks I am an awesome teacher. Mind you, today was the first day of school. She went on and on about how we like to do the same things (from the crest) and how she can't wait to read the book I'm writing. She was so earnest and excited it was sweet.
And our kids were all in a uniform-look today. They had to have plain colored shirts with colors or crew necks; khaki, navy or blue jean pants and be tucked in. It was great - they all looked so good. I think I'd like to teach in a school with real uniforms, like Hogwarts!
There were snafus and there will be all week but all in all it was a good first day. Tomorrow my kids will get lockers and more lectures, they'll do some writing and we'll read "A Bad Case of Stripes" about fears and how they eat you up inside. And to top it all off, Ms. Knapp gets a root canal tomorrow afternoon - woohoo (no really, I am excited! Maybe then the pain of this abscessed tooth will subside!).
It was a good day, a 10 hour day, but a good day nonetheless. I met a lot of kids, remember none of their names, and even got through their first spelling list. I made some jokes, taught them what the word sarcasm means, and helped them find their classes. What made my day was one girl who came up to me on a break to tell me that she thinks I am an awesome teacher. Mind you, today was the first day of school. She went on and on about how we like to do the same things (from the crest) and how she can't wait to read the book I'm writing. She was so earnest and excited it was sweet.
And our kids were all in a uniform-look today. They had to have plain colored shirts with colors or crew necks; khaki, navy or blue jean pants and be tucked in. It was great - they all looked so good. I think I'd like to teach in a school with real uniforms, like Hogwarts!
There were snafus and there will be all week but all in all it was a good first day. Tomorrow my kids will get lockers and more lectures, they'll do some writing and we'll read "A Bad Case of Stripes" about fears and how they eat you up inside. And to top it all off, Ms. Knapp gets a root canal tomorrow afternoon - woohoo (no really, I am excited! Maybe then the pain of this abscessed tooth will subside!).
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Ready or not
Tomorrow is the first day of school and I feel ready. I am sure by tomorrow morning I will be nervous but I think I am as prepared as I possibly can be. The books are on the desk, notes written on the chalk boards, seat charts ready to be filled in, new little faces to meet. Ang and I worked from 3:30pm until 12am last night at school. We wrote lesson plans, created examples, defined 3 weeks worth of spelling words, made bulletin boards, and copied. Between us, we made over 4000 copies last night. That's a lot of copying. And the copier only threw up twice, during which we found copies that must have been made last year. Fan-freakin'-tastic.
Other than that, not much has been going on this week. Today I slept in until after 10 and then read for a while, catching up on the news. Now I am doing laundry and pretty soon I'll make mexican chicken lasagna which will serve as lunch for the entire week. I think it'll be a long week but a good one, I'm confident I am prepared and I think the kids will do well. I think it's having this expectation that will help us all!
Other than that, not much has been going on this week. Today I slept in until after 10 and then read for a while, catching up on the news. Now I am doing laundry and pretty soon I'll make mexican chicken lasagna which will serve as lunch for the entire week. I think it'll be a long week but a good one, I'm confident I am prepared and I think the kids will do well. I think it's having this expectation that will help us all!
Friday, August 03, 2007
38 hours
That's how many hours we've worked in the past 3 days: 38. Yeah, it's been a long half of a week. But it feels better today then it did yesterday. Today was open house and orientation. I met about 15 of my students who all seem very polite and very afraid. One boy actually said to me, "There are no words to describe how I feel." Too funny.
Tomorrow there are lesson plans to write, copies to make, and plans to make. It'll be good, it feels good. I am excited. Now I need to go to bed. And I am trying not to beat myself up. I only exercised on Wednesday, not yesterday or today, hopefully tomorrow. And I haven't written in 2 days but I will not give up! I can't. Today I saw a quote that really got to me:
Success is not final. Failure is not fatal.
So even though I've failed on the writing and working out side of life for 2 days, I will not give up. There's always tomorrow!
Tomorrow there are lesson plans to write, copies to make, and plans to make. It'll be good, it feels good. I am excited. Now I need to go to bed. And I am trying not to beat myself up. I only exercised on Wednesday, not yesterday or today, hopefully tomorrow. And I haven't written in 2 days but I will not give up! I can't. Today I saw a quote that really got to me:
Success is not final. Failure is not fatal.
So even though I've failed on the writing and working out side of life for 2 days, I will not give up. There's always tomorrow!
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