The blog continues at a new site. If you wish to read it, please email me and I will give you directions to it.

 

 

 

                         Bear with me over the next week or so as I move this blog to another spot. I will let everyone know once the transfer is complete.

 

 

               I hope everyone is having a lovely Spring Break if you are on one like me.  It's official. I am going back to my old district so I am quite pleased about that. It's a little less money but if this means no more crap like I've been dealing with then the money I am not making is worth it. My new problem is which class to teach. I've been offered two different positions. One would be doing a full blown autism class and the other would be teaching a moderate/severe Kindergarten class.  Talk about trying to pick the lesser of two evils! I joke but seriously both spots take a lot of patience. Even though I do work with special needs, I've never thought about myself in terms of being patient. I think the words "tenacious" or "fortitude" might describe me better. Of course the word "insane" pops in there as well.  I don't think my personality is all that suited for autism to be honest. The amount of repitition and structure stifles creativity in me. See everyone back in Room 1 on Tuesday.

 

 

                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.

 

 

           Let me lighten the mood around here with a story about my students. There hasn't been a whole lot to tell here the past week or so because everyone is sick. Whatever it was, it went like lightening through my class.  We've had high fevers, bad coughs and my personal favorite, projectile mucus. They were dropping like flies.

          Meanwhile, those who had stronger immune systems stayed on to play (wait for it...wait for it..) Bingo. Pedro is offically addicted and feels he must ask me everyday at least six times if we are going to play. I'm a little worried about him because he's like a crack addict about the game. I've had to explain to him and show him on the calendar that we only play on days that start with the letter "T".  He says ok and then asks me a half hour later if we are going to play. It is at that point I stop and just look at him with this expression on my face which can only read like, "Please tell me you did not ask me that question because I'm just seconds away from banging my head to a bloody pulp against this wall here".  He usually figures out my expression and says, "Opps...sorry B". (My class now feels just calling me B instead of Miss. B is ok)

          We happened to be playing yesterday and Mrs. Jackie was sitting in between Ricky and Pedro playing along with her own card. It came to pass that she actually got Bingo first but she push her card away from her on the table to help out Ricky. Ricky ended up winning Bingo for that round which completely pissed off everyone else for some reason. (Ok, it was the third time in four games he won but he was just lucky) Mrs. Jackie had her back towards Pedro as she helped Ricky read off his Bingo card to me to check to make sure he wasn't cheating. While she was helping, Pedro took her card and switched it out with hers. He was savvy enough to cover all the spaces to make it look like her card with the markers on it. He then sat there quietly until Ricky was done and then said, "Hey B. . . . one more". I looked at him and was thinking I didn't remember him having Bingo. Then Mrs. Jackie discovered what he did. Before she could say anything, I got onto her because she's famous for giving the kids her card when it Bingos so they can get the prize. Pedro had the nerve to sit there and blame it all on Mrs. Jackie. He said, "It's Mrs. Jackie's fault". Then Mrs. Jackie told me this time she didn't give her card to Pedro and he had actually took it to pass it off as his. Oh man! Pedro did not hear the end of that for about ten minutes and we pretty much reminded him all day that there is no cheating in Room 1. I do have to say I am fairly impressed at the level of manipulation it took to try and pull that one over on me and Mrs. Jackie. And they say my kids are special....lol.

 

 

 

                   I'm sorry to everyone that reads me regularly. I've had to keep a low profile for awhile given the utter bullshit which has taken place at my job. I cannot elaborate all that much until I have employment for next year but I have resigned my position with my school district. I will finish out my contract but I will not be working for the district I am now for the upcoming year. In a nutshell, I was forced out due to some underhanded and illegal things. I could have fought for my job through the courts but after much consideration, I don't want to work for a district that doesn't give a damn about children with special needs other than the fact they represent dollars to them. This is a small district I'm in and quite frankly when the Superintendent and Vice Superintendent decline to go to a workshop on Special Education because "they have no interest in it", that says it all to me. My students get enough people who think they are worth nothing in the world, they shouldn't have to get that from their school too. My only consolation in everything this small minded district has put me through is this: "What goes around, comes around". Threefold too :)

                My only regret in all of this is that my students lose out once again. I feel really bad. I fought for them every step of the way and that's exactly what got me into trouble. Silly me for expecting administrators to be professionals. Silly me for expecting the law to be followed. Silly me to expect adequate training and staffing. I can leave at least knowing I did everything I could to do what was right, fair and just for my students. I can go to sleep at night knowing that I would do it all again the same way because someone has to speak for them. My reward may not come here upon this earth but hopefully someone above will take note. Now I start the process all over looking for work. This is very stressful to me but I have to do it. Keep your fingers crossed I land somewhere better than where I am now.

 

 

 

                 Death is a fascinating concept to kids. Ricky is obssessed with it at the moment as he keeps asking me if my cat is still dead every few hours. I can't remember how we got on the subject. I think he overheard me telling one of my aides what had happened and I ended up explaining to my entire class about my cat. This started a game of 20 questions about the cat and if he's still dead. They haven't gotten that idea of permanence yet. I'm half tempted to bring in the ashes of my cat after he has been cremated to share but I'm afraid they would all want to play with them plus we'd all need group therapy.

 

                Not to be outdone, my niece Kiki comes to up to me at my parent's house on Monday and says, "Hey Auntie T., did you know Petey is dead"? My other niece Mariah is sitting on the couch dying of embarrassment.  She's 12. Kiki is 6. I say to Kiki, "Yes, I know. I was there with him when he died". Kiki screws up her face and then says to me, "Well did you take any pictures of him dying"? Mariah at this point yells at Kiki to shut up. I tell her it's ok. She's six. I say to Kiki, "No hon...I was crying too hard to take pictures". She says, "Oh" and runs off to go torture my mom's cats.

 

 

 

 

            Kalep is still protesting love. He stayed home today from school pretending to be sick. Mrs. Jackie decided we should call him up to wish him a Happy Valentine's Day just to rub it in. His mom put him on the phone and he was trying to play it off like it didn't phase him we were calling.

 

          Isaac was struck with the sentiment of the day and came in with his Valentine's day cards and extra heart stickers. He proceeded to decorate everyone that walked in the door. Then he decorated all of the chairs with stickers as well.

 

         Luis came in with his backpack and I asked him if he had his Valentines with him. He said he did. However, when he went off for Speech, I checked his backpack and found no cards. I had the suspicion that he didn't have any. That made me feel bad. However, I also have always had extra Valentines on had every year since I started teaching so nobody is ever without. I quickly made up the cards for everyone and put them into his backpack. When the time came for everyone to exchange cards or goodies they brought, I asked Luis to go get his backpack. He seemed a little hesitant at first and I knew why. He opened his backpack and stood there for several minutes just looking into the bag stunned. He was so amazed he had Valentines to give. He got a big grin on his face and handed the cards with little treats out to his friends. Knowing I made him happy was my gift on Valentine's day. It's the little things like that which make it all worth it.

     I wanted to thank everyone who left comments, called or sent emails to me about my cat. It was much appreciated on such a difficult day. Top off a horrible weekend, I was told in an email by the guy I just went out with last week that there, “aren’t enough things in the total package” about me. Nice huh. I think that has to be one of the meanest things I’ve heard in a long time. I was already down due to the death of my cat. That comment was uncalled for and actually made me cry. My colleague from Kenya put it this way. He said in his unique way, “Girl, you should get down on your knees and thank God for saving you from that fool”. Amen to that brother.

 

 

 

             I am a bad teacher today. I have been impatient. I have been short with the kids. I haven't found them funny. My dread over what I had to do today after school was fueling this mood. I should have taken the day off. I feel guilty now that I didn't. Instead I thought if I could keep busy I would stop thinking about having to put my cat down and other issues in my personal life. Unfortunately, things that normally don't bother me or annoy me greatly were just magnified. I'm sure my students thought I was a bitch-on-wheels today. They were probably right. I'll have to make it up to them on Tuesday. (We are off Monday yay!)

 

            I rushed out of school to go pick up my cat to take him to the vet. I cried the whole way home. It's a wonder I didn't get into a wreck. When I got to my parent's house, I knew I had made the right choice because the cat was sitting on the bed looking very incohesive. This was not the same cat I have known and loved for the past 17.5 years. I picked him up gingerly and put him into the cat carrier. I took him out to my car and got ready to go. My cat looked up at me with these big sad eyes and I immediately felt so guilty. I turned off the radio and just drove in silence with the cat. I talked to him as we went thanking him for being such a good friend and companion all these years. I asked him to forgive me for what I had to do. The staff at my vet's office were so good to the both of us when we arrived. They did everything they could to make this process as painless as they could for the cat and for me. Petey died in my arms and I will be forever grateful that I was there when he took his last breath. It doesn't erase the pain in my heart but I know he is not suffering anymore. Right now I just feel empty.

 

 

         As I was mentioning in my earlier blog, I spent this afternoon in a conference with another teacher and her university advisor since she is an Intern at the moment. I happen to be her coach. I went through the same process when I became a teacher so I am happy to help another educator in my field any time. I went in the day before and watched her conduct a lesson with her class. She teaches the LH class (Learning Handicap) class which is a step above what I teach. Students in her class have IQ's somewhere between 60-80. I was in awe how all her students knew their sounds, letters, blends and other elements of reading. Two of my former students from last year, Lorenzo and Raymond, are now in that class. I'm always so thrilled when I can move students out of my class into to hers because I know they have made great gains.  I could have cried tears of joy when I saw Raymond and Lorenzo reading. It makes me feel better because I know these two kids might actually make it someday.

       Being in that classroom was a great eye opener for me. I felt a little envious of this teacher because she was actually teaching some academics. It's not like I don't. It's just that my group is not going to be at that level.

       I walked into my room after just seeing that fabulous academic display in the other class and saw Adrian hanging upside down out of his seat, Issac running around, Kebyn torturing someone and copus amounts of a runny nose going down another student's face. I thought to myself that my record was finally shattered. After six years of moving at least one student up (which is unheard of in the world of Moderate/Severe), there will be nobody moving up this year. We can barely form a straight line as it is without someone hitting someone and two people tattling about it.

 

 

            I think I'm going to start boycotting this whole Student of the Month nonsense we have at my school every month. Every time I pick one of my students to get this honor, it is the kiss of death. They immediately become the most obnoxious child in the class hands down. This month's pick was no exception. I decided to pick Adrian because he's really done well learning his letters and sounds since he has return from Christmas break. He's stopped his dying act during transitions too so I thought I should reward him for doing well. My mistake! He has been the biggest pill. He has pestered his classmates to death. He's been in Time Out. He's been taking his time coming in from recess. He's wet his pants. He's fallen out of his chair and given me ugly looks when asked to keep both feet on the floor. You'd think he would learn after giving himself the half shiner awhile back.

            Today was the award assembly. He threw such a fit over the fact he didn't want to get out of chair. Normally I can barely get him to stay in the chair. He completely missed the whole ceremony including ice cream and punch. I happened to be in another teacher's room at the moment having a conference with her and the university advisor assigned to her since I am am her Intern Coach. My aides reported to me what Adrian had done and I was disgusted with him. I went up to him and said, "I heard you missed out on the ice cream". He perked up and looked around like I had some. I said, "How sad you didn't want to be Student of the Month". To which one of my other charming students replied, "Well that was just stupid".

 

 

                   Part of being a teacher is having the ability to leave your personal troubles at the door before you come into the classroom. Some days that is easier said then done. I'm having one of those weeks. It started off yesterday with having to make the appointment to put my dear cat Petey to sleep. He is 17.5 years old and his kidneys are shutting down. I'm having such a hard time dealing with this because this cat has been with me through every major event in my adult life. He's been through a marriage, a divorce, numerous graduations for various degrees, all the bad dates and small career triumphs. He's never cared how much I weighed or how ugly I looked when I woke up in the morning. He's never judged me, only loved me. Being single all these years and having no children of my own, he's the closest thing I'll ever have as far as a family. He's given me unconditional love which is more than I can say for some of the humans I know.  Now I am faced with the dreaded task of saying goodbye and I am rubbish at goodbyes. I wear my heart on my sleeve and I just feel so wounded...so utterly wounded that Life has taken away one of the only good things I have. I could always count on that cat to cheer me up when someone had said something hurtful. I know he's suffering so I must do the humane thing for him. I just wish I didn't feel like a little piece of me was dying with him.  My only consolation is the hope there really is a heaven and someday hopefully I shall see him again. Meanwhile I must find a way to put on a brave face for my students so that they won't know I'm grieving for numerous reasons. That is the trick. How can one carry on and still be human at the same time? I just feel so terribly sad and I don't know how get past it to be the professional I know I am. Friday afternoon, after class is the time when I must say goodbye. How can I even teach that day? I know some people would only say it just a cat. For me, Petey was more than a cat. He was my family.

                    

 

 

             Today I had my students write a super story about what love is. For those of you that don't know, "super story" is an activity I created to help my students who are all English language learners use thier prior knowledge to help craft a story. Each student gives me a word, a phrase or even a sentence to add to the story. This is today's story:

 

                         What Love Means

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             Today I was using food to teach math. I like doing this because it's something my students can relate to plus food for them is highly motivating. I was using Fruit Loops today to teach colors, sorting, patterning and fine motor skills. Our fine motor skills in my classroom are deplorable so any chance I can get to improve them I'll take. After the kids had sorted and done some patterning with their Fruit Loops, I had them string them on a string to make a necklace. Trust me when I say that was the highlight of their day. I was stringing along to give a visual reference to what they were supposed to be doing. I happened to be sitting next to Ricky who was in a very chatty mood. He noticed my string of Fruit Loops was rather long and said. "Miss. B. . . .  your necklace is growing". This comment set in motion a chain reaction of general silliness. Kalep said, "Miss. B is a cookie farmer". I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. I decided to be silly too and said, "I'm not a cookie farmer today". This makes everyone laugh. I don't get it but it must be Special Ed humor. Samuel then pipes up and says, " Miss B. is growing huevos." Now this could mean eggs in Spanish or it could  be the slang for balls/testicles in Spanish as well. I almost fall off my chair. I then say, "Huevos? You mean bigger than the ones I have now"? Samuel laughs and says, "You can walk around naked". I have to raise an eyebrow at him for that comment which has everyone laughing again. Isaiah A. then quips, "If you walk around naked Miss.B. . . everyone will laugh at you". Oh Snap! He did not just say that to me. Unfortunately he did and is probably right as well. He then says, "You could ride naked on a white horse". That's when I stopped the conversation because it was just getting a bit too surreal for me. It also proves I am a goddess to the eight and under crowd. How I wish that were true of men my own age. Meanwhile Luis knocked his Fruit Loops off the table twice already. He knocks the whole pile off for third time which has now annoyed Pedro. Pedro looks at Luis and says, "Shit Luis...you did it again".

 

 

              I really would like to thank MSN for featuring my blog again. I held this honor a while back and it's nice to see the blog is still being read.

 

             Kid's perceptions of the world are interesting. Mine all think that I live in my classroom. Why not? I'm there before they arrive every day and I'm there after they leave. They haven't made the connection that I actually leave and go home. This perception also applies to any kind of body functions I might have. Just as you never see anyone on a soap opera say, "I've got to take a pee", you never see teachers use the bathroom either. We quitely hurry away to the teacher's lounge on recess and lunch most days.  Fortunately for me, there is a staff bathroom right across the way from my classroom inside the Kindergarten wing. There are just times when I cannot wait until recess. This is usually when I've had too much coffee or diet coke to start of the day. Today was one of those days. I said quietly to one of my aides that I was going to slip out to use the bathroom and would be right back. As I started to leave about six of my students asked me where I was going. I quietly said I was going to use the bathroom and would return. All of a sudden, Kevin says quizzically, " Bathroom....Miss. B...you use the bathroom"? Apparently he must have been under the impression I had a bladder of steal.  I said, "Yes...I'm going to the bathroom". Walked out the door and did my thing. I returned shortly to my room where I was met by another round of questions by Kevin. He said, " You go bathroom Miss. B"? I looked at him and said, "Yes, even teachers need to go or they will wet their pants". This brought out howls of laughter from my entire class.

 

 

 

                I'm the post office yesterday after school in the small town where I work because I love the fact the line is always short there. It actually makes being in the post office pleasant. I'm standing in a line of all of two people when I hear these voices outside. They are loud and obnoxious. I think to myself they sound pretty familiar but I must be hallucinating from being worn out from having such rowdy students. Then all of a sudden the door to the post office is flung open with great gusto and there stands my student Pedro. He yells, "Hey Miss. B", which causes everyone to stare at me. I say to him, "Pedro, this is the post office...shhhhh". Then he disappears as fast as he came. Within seconds the door is flung open again and there is his brother who is also my student. He yells, "Hey B"! I say the same thing again, "This is the post office...shhhhh"! I was throughly embarrassed waiting my turn in line. No matter where I go, I cannot escape! 

 

 

               Lately after lunch I go and change my clothes so I can do PE with my kids. This usually consists of a long sleeved t-shirt, tennis shoes and running tights of some kind. I had come back from changing my clothes which prompted my students to all ask me if I had changed. It's questions like that which drive me insane especially when my students know the answer. They just like to talk.  I walked over to my desk and took out my inhaler. My asthma is getting the best of me at the moment with the cold air we've been having here so I took a couple of pre-emptive puffs to keep from having a full blown attack after running in the cold. My kids were all fascinated by this and I had to explain what I was doing and what it was for. Somehow without even thinking, I mentioned that asthma is serious enough to make people die if they don't take care of themselves. Isaiah sat there thinking for a moment and then piped up with, "Miss. B. . . . if you die, can we get a new teacher"? I looked at him with a raised eyebrow and said, "Yes... the next one will be bigger and meaner".

 

 

            Today we had another sighting of my famous or rather infamous school ghost that I created as a running gag three years ago. My students this year fully believe in it's existence which amuses me to no end. I'm quite sure this gag has permanently sealed my spot in teacher purgatory when I die. My kids were being just awful today. Fortunately for me, the custodian was outside our building cleaning the AC/Heating filters. He was making some noise which the kids heard. Their eyes got big as saucers and I piped up, "Hmmm...the school ghost is back. He's heard you guys were not behaving this morning". Everyone started to get a little nervous once I made that proclamation. The custodian heard me say that and played along. He made up a spooky voice and said through the airshaft, "I hear someone is being bad". This sent several of my kids shrieking. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. Then he went to clean out the airshaft with some compressed air. This sent all of my boys diving under the table in a panic. Kim, my only girl, sat there looking at all of them with a look on her face which could only be intrepreted as 'Boys are so dumb'. I walked over to her and said, "So much for them being 'mas macho' eh. Tu eres mas macho". She laughed.  I had to coax the rest them out from under the table.

 

 

 

             January 29th will always be a day burned into my memory for it is the day I first started teaching six years ago. As those of you who have read my blog over the past two years know, it has been quite a rollercoaster ride with a lot craziness in between. I never wanted to be a teacher. In fact, I did everything I possibly could do to avoid teaching. Somehow though, I'm right where I'm supposed to be and after I finally surrendered to the idea of teaching, I've never regretted it. Yes, there have been times I wanted to quit. (Usually every four months or so) That has always been because of administration and not the kids. I'm sure that will never change especially now that I've been labelled as a non-team player in my latest evaluation. Gee ya think? I'm sorry but I don't play on a team where the people are idiots. Besides that , the team stabbed me in the back with an illegal suspension. The team is lucky I didn't sue their ass which I pointed out during my evaluation. When asked if I thought the district I worked for could ever make me happy I replied, "I'm still waiting". It could be I'll be looking for a new job by summer. Sometimes my forthright nature does not help me :)

             As for my students, they are the reason I'm still getting up before dawn to teach. Most days they infuse me with their sense of humor and the funny things they do. It is an addiction really because I cannot seem to get enough of this. Some days I do leave class with a massive headache from banging my head against my desk in frustration or I drive home in silence due to hearing my name said a thousand times. However, I always find great joy with their achievements and look upon each one of them as my own children.

           This year has been a year of expansion for me in now I am teaching in all areas. I've taught regular Kindergarten in our migrant program. I'm currently tutoring Gen Ed kids from grades 3-12 in the evenings, teaching migrant Kindergarten classes again on Saturday and also teaching ESL classes out at one of our local community college too. I've been a bit busy to say the least. However, I think this experience has made me a better teacher overall and it always confirms how much I love my special needs students in the end. So here is to the start of a seventh year in the classroom. May it be less turbulent than last year and may the funny stories keep on coming. Maybe I might be a team player eventually. Nah.