After school today, I grabbed my gear and raced out of the building so I could make it to LMK's soccer game this afternoon. The first one I've been to all year! Of course, I think I left some book order money at school. At least, I hope it's at school. Otherwise, I've lost it and that's just a whole kettle of fish I'm not ready to open right now. I'll worry myself an ulcer this weekend and find it first thing Monday.
LMK's game was pretty darn good. The guys played well and even though they only tied, it was a great game to watch. Yaaaaay, team. That being said, LMK has had quite a week. When I met him after the game, we immediately got into a conversation about soccer, his job, and his department head (**cough, cough** jack ass **cough, cough**). My usually observant husband never asked me about my day. So dear blogging world, you get to hear about it instead.
One of my kiddos has been diagnosed with OCD. I'm not surprised at all. This student walks around with his arms up so that he doesn't have to touch anything, washes his hands constantly, and won't eat his lunch if he thinks someone looked at it crossways. They put him on a medication and all I can do is hope it makes a difference for the best. His mom doesn't know just how closely I've dealt with mental illness. I'm grateful I can be his teacher. Just another reason I had to get through LMK's illness. Maybe I can help this student.
My new student is proving to be quite the behavior problem. Yesterday, I sent home detention slips with him and another young thug-in-training (do the abbreviation.....ahahahaha, ok, moving on) because they were caught where they aren't allowed when they were to be at breakfast plus some other misbehavior here and there. I threatened them with loss of recess until I got the forms back and both showed up today. I no more than saw those than the principal came to get them, again.
Evidently, they've been "stealing" food in the cafeteria. I use the word stealing loosely because the aides have been allowing them to eat whatever food is left on the trays that are "pushed to the middle of the table". They're putting the kabosh on the food free for all, but the principal investigated further. My two darlings basically told her they're just hungry. Lunch isn't all that impressive - a protein and 2 pieces of fruit/sides. It's all to common in this country. One goes home to ramen noodles shared with two teenage brothers and the other doesn't have much either. Since our lunch is very late, we've been allowing the students to bring snack.
Well, now we have to have snack for the entire class. The principal made the comparison of inviting someone to your home, eating, and not letting them have any. I can understand that, but here's the problem.
Just where do I draw the line at providing for these kids?
I already provide notebooks, composition books, pencils, crayons, markers, science supplies, books, etc, etc, etc for the students who need them. It's a common teacher lament, I know. Now I'm supposed to get enough snack for the class, too?
Luckily, the principal is aware of the financial strain that causes and is looking into ways to supplement the snack, which I appreciate. Half of me feels sorry for these children. That's all they are afterall, children. I never had to sit through school and be hungry. They shouldn't have to either. No child should have to be hungry.
That being said, they are in trouble constantly. Constantly. Every class, the teacher is telling me how they were misbehaving. They don't do it in my class because I've come down on them. Hard. I'm even pulling out the "I'm so disappointed in you" speech. So I spend my day vacillating between wanting to strangle them and wanting to bring them home and "save" them from this horrible life.
In other news, I finally got a smart board in my room. It's not mine, I'm using one of the one's the school has for teacher's to checkout. I love it! How did I ever teach without this thing? How will I teach when they take it back? It's the bestest toy - EVER! There is so much I want to do with it. I'm already doing my morning journal on the Smart Board. The kids love to come up and correct sentences on it. Today, I found a spelling game where the kid's can click and drag computer magnets. I love technology.
Add to that new teacher responsibilities, house responsibilities, LMK's school responsibilities, and family responsibilities and I'm just zonked. No wonder so many teachers quit in the first three years!
Hand in hand with all the "bad" things about teaching are the good things. I like to think I'm pretty strict with my students regarding behavior. I expect them to be leaders in the school and make good choices. Nine out of ten of them live up to that. Then there are the kids who live to please you. The silliness. The laughter and the learning. The hugs - except from Touchy Feely Kid, I don't want to have my boobs nuzzled like my colleague. Eek. Teaching is the hardest, longest, best job I've ever had. I just can't wait to feel like I'm doing it well, not just acting like a teacher.
Thanks for reading through all this, if you're still here, I needed to share it with someone. Have a great weekend!
In lieu of a real post, I leave you this picture of a sign in Chicago. It has not been doctored in any way.
Heh. Twin swears she is going to print it out and put it on the door to her bedroom.
Ahahahaha.
I needed a laugh today.
Well, after almost 60 hours spent at school this week I am finally home! Tuesday was Open House until 8. Wednesday was staff development until 5. Thursday was new teacher stuff. Add meetings every day during my supposed break and I'm sick and tired of school.
I stayed until 6 tonight to get my lesson plans done. I'm very excited about them. They're my best ones yet. They won't make it until next Friday, but darn it, I hope one of the administrators comes in to observe me on Monday (I've gotten informal observations every week so far). I'm ready, dag nabbit!
Highlights of the week:
Had my first fight Tuesday. One of my kids got punched in the face by one of the other new 4th grade teacher's kids. Suspensions all around and the parents of my kid are pressing charges. Good for them!
As I was leaving tonight at six o'clock I ran into the new 1st grade teacher. "Oh, I figured I was the only one here." I commented. Then New 3rd Grade Teacher walked in. Soon after New Music Teacher arrived. Yep, the new people were the only ones left at school - and no wonder with all the meetings we've had this week. Sheesh.
I've got a grade full of five finger bandits. I caught three of them stealing candy from me on Tuesday. Want to know what makes Mrs. cuss like a sailor? Stealing. LMK will attest that I dropped a lot of F-bombs that evening. Today, someone stole another student's snack. They're gonna push me too far and then be in a world of hurt.
One of the other 4th grade teachers leaves as soon as the bell rings and takes nothing home with her. What am I doing wrong!?
I still feel like I'm floundering. I guess that's how I'm supposed to feel. New Fourth Grade Teacher feels the same way only she's got a cold, too. She's really down. It's no wonder so many teachers quit in the first 3 years. Good gravy.
I'm kind of annoyed because the two new teachers have the low reading group and then we have the opposite grouping for math. Sounds fair, right? Wrong. Our reading textbook is too hard for our kids. So we're having to dig up resources just to fill our 45 minutes of reading and spelling. Yes, you read that right, 45 minutes. Good luck getting anything accomplished in that amount of time. Even if we had the low math kids, we'd still have a textbook to use. Right now, my kids are doing a book study (which means I'm sure they'll fail their first quarter district test) and the other teacher is just trying to get her kids to read. I'm sorry, it just seems like we got the short end of the stick.
How was YOUR week?
Second week of school is almost done and I'm still ok. I must be doing something wrong because I don't seem to be struggling as much as the other new fourth grade teacher.
I love my kids. They're wonderful. LMK and I spent the evening yesterday in the ER. One of his players was injured and needed medical attention. (We're afraid its a torn ACL, but we're hoping and praying its not. Please keep him in your thoughts.) So I mentioned to my kids that we were out late because one of Mr.'s soccer kids got hurt. I explained that his family lives in another country so we went to the hospital with him like his mom and dad would have if they were here. Pretty soon, I have kids coming up to me asking for paper. "What do you need paper for?" I asked.
"We want to make Mr.'s player a get well card."
Can we just stop a minute so I can gush about my kids?
They came up with this on their own! I'm so proud of them.. The cards are hilarious by the way.
Student #1: "What's his favorite color? Is it pink? Pink's my favorite color so I think I'll use that."
Me: "I'm sure he loves pink. Your card looks great."
Student #2: "What color is his hair?"
Me: "Red."
Student #2: "Does he have an earring?"
Me: "Uh no, they're not allowed to have earrings at his school."
Student #3: "What's his favorite animal?"
Me: "Ummmm, I don't know. Why don't you draw your favorite animal and ask him his?"
The only bad thing about the day was when I tried to share their wonderfulness with my team. LMK's injured player is from a middle eastern country, no, not that one, the other one. I was telling them how we had to take him to the ER since his ACL might be torn and Team Leader, trying to be funny says, "Wow, I'm surprised they didn't shoot him."
Everyone thought that was just sooooooooooo funny.
I'm sorry. I didn't find it funny. I still don't. This kid is 17 years old and just because of where he was born he's a bad person? Seriously!? He's a good kid. He's polite, well-mannered, and a hard worker. He made a point to tell me "they grow up to be bad people." ARE YOU SERIOUS!? Call me naive, but he's in this country trying to get an education so that he can have a better life. Doesn't that count for anything?
As I told LMK, this player is my official favorite. He's also the player I yelled at a few weeks ago because he was pushing and he's better than that. He and I have a bond.
How can people be so ignorant? It makes me really sad. Really. Really. Sad.
I made it through my first week of teaching.
Holy hell.
Bullets are a must!
- The first day went well. In fourth grade, most of the kids are still excited about being back in school. If you're nice to them, they'll love you. I also showed them my All About Mrs. movie, which they loved. Some of my kids have seen it 6 times and still ask to see it again. I call that a success. They really just love seeing the pictures of the cats, but I'll take it.
- I have a student that goes to the beach every year the first week of school. Mom asked me for homework a week before school started. I didn't have the heart to tell her I was taking things hour by hour and planning the second week of school, uh, not gonna happen. The first day of school she arrives early and asks if I have her daughter's homework ready. Uh, no. Just trying to make it through the day. "Well, we're leaving on Friday!" Yeah, yeah, yeah I'll get something to you. I got homework around Wednesday night, it'll just have to work. Good enough for government work.
- Another student suffers from a medical condition that makes him throw up randomly. Uh, I don't do throwing up. Luckily, there haven't been any problems...yet.
- Same student's parent asked that I refrain from giving him candy. Fine. I can understand that, especially with a kid with ADHD. HOWEVER! Every day, he has brought a different kind of candy from home. What the hell!? I can't give him a jolly rancher, but he can bring a container of Warheads with him? He's also the only one bucking the water bottle rule. My kids can have a water bottle with water in it. I told them, no powdered drink mixes for the water. Just water. First day, he brings Gatorade. I told him it has to be just water. "Okay, Mrs." he replied. The next day, he brings fitness water. Flavored fitness water. For the love of Pete, water. W-A-T-E-R.
- We've already got a problem parent. The kicker? She's another teacher in my school! Our team decided as a "goal" 4th graders have to know their multiplication tables. Since it's a 3rd grade standard, we figured that's fair. We are going to give timed multiplication tests at least once a week. To "pass" you have to get at least a 90% three times. If you don't know your times tables, you can't get an A. I think that's fair. Thoughts? She went to the administration about it. Too bad it was the administration's idea. Heh.
- For the first week we had to eat lunch with our children. Oy.. Vey. The kids love it, but really, I'd like a few moments to myself. They're going to be sad next week when Mrs. leaves them in the lunchroom and goes to put her head down on her desk.
- Friday just about killed me. I think I've mentioned my 0 tolerance of heat, right? Well, I get to school on Friday and the air conditioning in the fourth grade wing isn't working. WHAT!? They call the repair guy and I figure we'll just deal. I've got a fan, we'll survive. By lunch we were melting. I finally felt the air kick at 2:30. The kids leave at 3. Did I mention the bank clock said it was 108° today? I told the office I was seriously considering getting the personal air conditioners I saw at T.arget. I'd just take it with me wherever I went.
- Don't tell the other teacher's on my team, but I think I got the best classes. How do I know? Well, yesterday I had the team leader's class for science. Oh. my. goodness. It was bedlam! He has all the inclusion kids in his class and it was...in a word, bedlam. The special ed teacher was there as a co-teacher to help and that's the only reason I made it through the class. He's talking about having to teach another class during the afternoon. I told him after school, "Please, please don't leave me alone with these children. PLEASE!" He laughed. When is a good time to tell him, I'M NOT KIDDING!
- My homeroom is great. Sure, they get squirrelly. They're 9! However, they listen and they're kind. I'll plan four different subjects, just let me keep my own kids! After team leader's kids yesterday afternoon I love my homeroom!
- I was talking to Mo Mom about the bedlam in my room yesterday and she laughed and said, "Oh, it's like a class full of Wild Childs" (Wild Child is another nickname for her middle daughter). I told her she needed to go hug that little girl and tell her how wonderful she is because I would take a class of Wild Childs over this class, any day.
at least win the fight. Let me tell you about our weekend.
LMK's parents came down this weekend so we could go to LMK's first game as a head coach. Yes, it was a scrimmage tournament, but they really wanted to be there to support him and I wouldn't have to drive 2 hours into PA by myself.
Saturday morning we drove to PA. I forgot my camera - damnit and we missed the turn and had to ask some upstanding citizen for directions. (He was skeery.) I should have known the day was doomed at that point.
When we finally found the campus, I was impressed. It was beautiful! Most of the facilities were new, or like new. They were amazing. We finally found the soccer fields and parked. We found a nice place to sit and watched the second half of LMK's first game. It wasn't great, but there were a lot of good things happening. About halfway through the second half of his game, I started to wonder about the referee. He wasn't in official referee uniform and he basically called a foul every time someone went down. But in the time LMK has been a coach, I've learned bad refs are the rule, not the exception. I did get a little more suspicious when he was calling the opposing team by name.
After that game, we walked up to the upper field where LMK's remaining three games were to be played. At the start of the second game, I realized there were no offical (licensed) referees. Parents and coaches were reffing the games. LMK's second game went well. He put his JV kids in and they were fantastic! They were better than the varsity kids from the previous game. It was a great game to watch.
The third game started ok, but quickly escalated. While none of the refs had control over the game, this guy was a joke. A player on the other team started pushing and shoving with one of LMK's seniors. Senior Guy had enough and, as my father in law says, "mugged" him. He grabbed him around the waist and they were scuffling. The ref was busy telling Bobby, his player, to knock it off. No cards were issued because no one had any! The game resumed and the other player started in on Senior Guy again. They were pushing and shoving down the sideline with the ball when the teacher in me took over.
"Senior Guy," I shouted, "knock it off, you're better than that!" They stopped pushing and as Senior Guy walked back he looked up at me. Oops. Well, LMK did say I could cheer at the games and as much time as I spend with these kids I think of them as my own. Besides, he was better than that. LMK's kids have class and I expect them to act like it.
At half time, my in-laws were hungry so we left to find some lunch. Halfway through dinner, my cell phone rings. It's LMK and he sounds really upset. Long story short, in the second half one of the opposing team's players pulled one of LMK's kids down and another player started punching him. Three more of the opposing team started in to "help" their teammate beat up one of LMK's kids when his "enforcer" came in and took out all five guys. LMK's kids are starting to get off the bench to go help their teammate when LMK shouts, "FREEZE!" He said everyone on the field and on the bench froze - including the opposing team.
The opposing team's coach starts to play for the fans, saying, "Coach, if you can't control your players I'm taking my kids off the field." An idiot on LMK's team starts to talk back, but LMK told him to shut up. At that point, LMK pulled his kids not only from the game, but from the tournament. The last team they were to play had 5 injured players due to lack of referees and they weren't going to keep injuring kids either.
LMK yelled at his players and then told them to get ready to go home. LMK hates to be the bad guy, but fighting cannot and will not be tolerated. As they were leaving, they find out the AD at the school is an alumni of LMK's school. Craaaaaaaaaaaaap. LMK got a phone call on the way home from the President of the school. Luckily, the School's kids didn't start the fight, didn't throw any punches, and listened to LMK. It was really the best possible outcome for a bad situation. LMK said the bus was incredibly quiet on the ride home.
When they got home, I went up to meet LMK and help him unload equipment. While he went to check on one of his players who may have needed a trip to the emergency room I stood outside and talked with one of his stalkers. As we're talking one of his players comes out. He came over to me and said, "Coach is pissed."
"Yeah," I replied, "Coach is pretty pissed." (He's really not, but he wants them to think he is. He doesn't want this kind of thing happening again.)
"He started talking after the game, and he just kept ratcheting up. And then, he was yelling! Coach doesn't yell. I've had him in class. He never yells. Coach is really mad."
Negatives
- No referees
- Players involved in a fight
- Level of play needs work
- LMK's players didn't start the fight and didn't throw any punches.
- LMK's players stood up for their teammates. They acted like a team.
- No one got hurt.
- The team listened to LMK when he told them to "FREEZE!"
- JVs had a GREAT game.
- The team is genuinely upset that they disappointed Coach. To me, that means they respect him. This is good.
We are the Hokies. We will prevail. We are Virginia Tech.
We're thinking Thanksgiving.
How was YOUR weekend?