We have four days to Spring Break. One of my students migh not make it if they all keep on going like they have today. It started off this morning with my students reading some books from my classroom library I have for them. They threw the books all over the floor, the shelves and tables. That's what they considered cleaning up. I was not amused. In fact, I was downright bitchy today. I was so peeved that they don't take care of anything that I took every book that was put away incorrectly and threw it on the floor in a pile. I then made each student come up and put the books away PROPERLY one-by-one. That little project took twenty minutes.

               Then they went outside to try and dig up the snail we burried and held a funeral for last week. They wanted to see if he had resurrected like Jesus. I had to shoo them away.

                Then they were being just rowdy and loud during Memory and I had enough. I had my aide Maria go get the janitor to go knock on the back wall of my classroom to bring back "The School Ghost". The janitor came and this time he banged loudly on the back wall. I made my eyes open wide and put on this look of being sort of scared. All the boys (the big sissies) dove under their tables in fear. Kim sat there with me. I said, "Oh my goodness, the school ghost is back because he's heard you've been making bad choices today". I then said, "I've never seen him that mad before. That scares me". We pulled all the boys out from under the table. Needless to say, everyone worked quietly for the next hour so the school ghost would go away.

 

 

                      Friday is the day that every teacher looks forward to because it means that the day after is Saturday and no school. We are usually in good moods and hopefully that mood becomes contagious with the students as well. I guess my mood wasn't all that fantastic but I was making the best of it. I'm just exhausted. Nothing a diet coke or a cup of coffee couldn't remedy. My students however are in the middle of some major PMS-every last one of them except for Kalep.

                      It started off this morning with them still going on about Gary the snail. Geesh, if they are having trouble with a snail passing away, there is no way I'm going to get a classroom pet now. We'd have to spend rest of the school year in daily therapy if the pet died. I decided to have them write a super story about Gary and illustrate it with a picture. I was hoping that talking this issue through might help everyone involved. It seems though that half of the class is harboring ill feelings towards Mrs. Patty because they think she killed the snail.

                     I then decided to play their favorite game in hopes of settling everyone down. Bingo is like a drug to this group. I got the game out and things started to go ok. Then Kim gets up and needs to use the bathroom in the middle of the game. She did this yesterday three times and we were so concerned she was having "stomach problems" that we called her mom and her mom picked her up from school. We called her mom again and she said that Kim was perfectly fine when she got home. Hmmmm....then it dawned on all of us that Kim was faking being sick to get out of playing Bingo because she doesn't like to do her colors and shapes. When Kim came back into the room, I got on her about it and for lying. I told her that the gig was up and I knew what was going on. I told her no more and that we would help her if she needed it. However, I wanted her to try first. This brought tears to her eyes because she had been called out on her behavior. I felt so bad for having to go there with her. I gave her hug and told her I wasn't mad at her. I just didn't like the lying. We got her some tissues and got her back under control. We played another round of Bingo and I manipulated it so Kim won. I wanted her to call off the shapes and colors which is what she has been trying to avoid. She ended up needing a little bit of help but once she was done, she was beaming. I told her to go get a prize which made her happy. Ahhhh...another crisis averted or so I thought. Then Adrian started to cry because he didn't have Bingo.  I rigged the next game so he won. Finally...the crying had stopped. Meanwhile three of his classmates tried to cheat and say they had Bingo too when in fact they didn't when I made them call off the shapes and colors they had. All of this before the first recess even hit.

                  Two o'clock has to get here soon. I don't know how much more drama I can stand today. 

 

 

 

 

               I was walking from the teacher's lounge yesterday after having lunch and was headed towards my classroom. I was going to catch up on emails and get things together for the afternoon. As I approached my building, I noticed my entire class hunched together on the ground. They were looking at something and I couldn't figure what it was from where I was at. I called out to my aide Maria and she yelled back that my class was looking at a snail. I rolled my eyes and kept going. I thought to myself I was going to have at least one of them come up and tell me that they had found Gary ( the snail)  from Spongebob Squarepants. And sure enough, my entire class came in from lunch claiming they had all found Gary. I didn't give it much thought after that but someone killed Gary before the day was out.  I had noticed this when the students were getting ready to go home on the bus. I sort of steered them away from that direction in fear that if the death had been discovered, I would have needed to call in a grief counselor for the drama that would have ensued.

               Today I was back in my classroom during lunch and forgotten about the tragedy yesterday when Mrs. Jackie came in. She told me that I was needed out there to do some therapy because the dead snail had been discovered and my students were claiming that Mrs. Patty had murdered them. I grabbed a couple of shovels and walked out with Mrs. Jackie. Isaac ran up to me first to report the death. Then came Ricky accusing Mrs. Patty of murder. He wanted justice and vengence for the death. Then the rest of my class showed up very aggitated over the squashed snail.  I said, "I think we need to have a funeral" and scooped up the snail. I took him over to the tree by our classroom where I dug a hole. I then said to my students, "I think we should say some nice things about Gary before we bury him". They all agreed. I then said, "Thank you for being such a good snail and for being so fast. You brought us happiness and we hope we will see you someday in heaven". I couldn't even look at my students at that point because I was trying so hard to keep a straight face.  Pedro said sadly, "Go home Gary....go home". That seemed to satisfy everyone involved and I pushed the dirt over the snail to bury it. Pedro helped pack down the ground. Everyone was ok after that and they let Mrs. Patty off the hook for murder. 

 

 

 

                    I was working with my migrant Kindergarten students today helping them create Shamrock necklaces for St. Patrick's Day. My marital status came up again and was much discussed by this select group of four students who had some sage advice for me. This is a transcription of the discussion:

 

 

Manuel: You need to find a guy whose head is going to explode because he's so smart.

 

Elias: You need a guy that is rich and good-looking.

 

 

Ricardo: Ugly people don't take baths. That's why nobody likes them.

 

 

Elias: You find guys outside. You can find them at Walmart and Foodmax too.

 

 

Ricardo: He gives you money.

 

Manuel: He gives you food too.

 

Elias: He gives you flowers and a chocolates in a heart-shaped box.

 

 

Rocio-He hits you. He can also marry you without loving you.  My sister has a bad one.

 

Manuel-Don't get a guy with lots of tatoos and picks his boogers cause that's nasty.

 

 

Ricardo-You put on a pretty dress.

 

Elias- You go up to him and tell him your name and say, "You're going to marry me".

 

 

Manuel- You slap him in the face.

 

Rocio-You kick his butt and call the police. Besides that, guys are just going to take your money and buy beer.

 

 

 

 

          Ricky has been in one of his moods again. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear he has PMS. The last two days he has had the nerve to sass me and not just a little-a full out sass. Then again if you looked at him cross-eyed (as they say) he'd fall apart and start crying.

         We have been working on some shamrock necklaces for St. Patrick's day. This required some fine motor skill work to assemble them. Everyone did fine but Ricky was frustrated. He was upset that other people were finishing before he was. It's not like I can slow other people down for him so I tried to coach him through his frustration. I saw that we were about to run into recess time and half the class wasn't done yet. I told the students that were working on their necklaces to go ahead and just leave them on the table. They could finish them after recess. This pissed Ricky off as well. I have no idea why. I'm sure if the wind blew the wrong way it would just set him off. It was one of those days. He stood in line crying as we were getting ready to go outside. Finally I said, "Hey guys, is there crying in Room 1"? Isaiah A. pipes up, "There's no crying in Room 1 and if there is, you can just get out". I had to bite my tongue because the last part of that statement was all his own.

            Boy do I have some news for you! This time it is good news too. I have been laying low again here preparing for this big teachers' job fair I went to today. I was hoping to get hired back on by the district I left. The only reason I left in the first place was because they were paying $10K less a year than the evil district I'm with now. Unfortunately, as a single woman, money is an issue. I love teaching but I'm not working for free.

     While I waited in line to go in to the fair, I had looked up which room the district I wanted to talk to was going to be. I had forgotten all about my evil district until I walked into the room. I swear I couldn't have scripted this any better but the first table I ran into was the evil district! There stood the Superintendent, Vice-Superintendent, HR and someone else (probably my psychotic boss-I wasn't paying attention). They saw me. I smiled at them and just walked right on by with a little attitude and went right up to my old school district's table. That felt so good! My old school district was a little shocked to see me. At first I think they thought I was just coming over to say hello. It wasn't until I pulled out my resume that they realized I wanted to apply for a position. Basically there wasn't even an interview. It was more like, "You still want to work with the younger ones" and  "Do you want to work this summer"? Of course, I said yes to both. My old division chair was standing there and she asked, "So, how are things going over there (meaning the evil district)"? I just smiled and said, "Interesting". Trust me, that was all I needed to say. 

    I'm also in talks at the moment to teach adjunct for a private four-year university in town. That would allow me to teach graduate level classes in Special Education to people who want to be Special Ed teachers. (God help them) Things are finally looking up again after such a difficult past six weeks.

       I feel very vindicated.