Longest Short-Week Ever...

This week I had Monday off for President's Day; in the "adult-world" this is great! One day off and only four to go! A short week! But in a middle school, a day off means four days of crazy kids, especially since the weather has been warming up. The kids have already started acting like it's time for spring break (which is only 41 days, 11 hours and 39 minutes away as I type!). I don't think it helps that I now have a student teacher to boot. He is doing the best that he can, but I will never supervise another. Having him in my room is one of the most challenging things I have ever done as a teacher. My classroom is my sacred little world, and I hate giving up control to someone else - especially when I feel they aren't up to par (yet). The past two days I have attempted to regain some control of my room by cleaning it; I am not kidding either. I purged, organized, dusted and scrubbed until it looked beautiful (or as nice as it can look given that I am in a trailer).

My bare classroom on the first day of school

Thursday was my craziest day. During planning I had to purchase pencils and glue sticks for the kids - I can't believe how expensive glue sticks are. $11 for 18 sticks now, but during the "back-to-school" sales they are like 10 for $1! Unreal. While I was at Target I noticed that the brand new Publix was having its grand opening - which meant a brand new coin-counting machine - which meant I could finally be rid of the remaining Pennies for Patients money that has been in the back of my car giving me poor gas mileage! I grabbed a cart and put both buckets in to push up the hill to the entrance of the store. But it was so windy and the cart was so heavy that it spun out in 360s until crashing into my car. That must have been a sight! I opted to carry them in one at a time and deposited $426 worth of change. Can you believe I have been driving around with that in my car? Of course it was so heavy that even if someone wanted to steal it they'd have to figure out a way to lift it first! I am thrilled to be done with this fundraising campaign. And I have told myself yet again that I WILL NOT DO THIS NEXT YEAR. (And this time I mean it!)

After school on Thursday I had soccer intramurals and then had to contact the parents of 7 naughty little 7th graders. On my way to the classroom I heard, "thump, thump, thump" and turned just in time to see a little bitty 6th grader falling head first down the cement stairs. I've only ever seen that in movies - it was incredible. I thought he was dead, or maybe had broken his neck, because he just lay there completely still for a moment. I ran over to help and eventually got him to sit up. His head was bleeding, his hand was bleeding and God knows what else was hurting on the little guy. He was trying to be tough but I could tell he was really hurt. I held out my hand and he grabbed it and eventually we walked together up another set of stairs to a co-workers classroom. My co-worker got him some ice and bandages and called his dad to come get him while I got our AP to come outside. I found out Friday that his name is Raynaldo and that he tripped while running down the stairs so excited to be going on a field trip to watch our local high school's first soccer match. The ESOL teachers had organized a pizza party and transportation to the game... earlier in the day he wasn't feeling well and another teacher told him to go home, but he stayed in school because he didn't want to miss the field trip - and instead he busted his head and had to miss out anyway. Poor guy. I saw him late Friday afternoon and he thanked me for helping him. He was all smiles. Thank God.

I have renamed Raynaldo, "Humpty Dumpty"

In about 11 hours Tyler will be here to spend the first part of his winter break with me. I am so excited to see him I can hardly stand it! I have only a few things to do today to occupy my time before his flight gets in at 9:15PM... but I am trying to keep busy to make the time pass quickly! After I pick him up we are going to the Sun Dial Bar, on the 73rd floor of the Westin in downtown Atlanta. I have always wanted to go there but have never had an excuse. The restaurant/bar does a complete revolution of the Atlanta skyline every 60 minutes. It's supposed to be a clear night tonight so it should be a spectacular view.

While Ty is here we plan to hike Springer Mountain (the start of the Appalachian Trail), drive down to Andersonville (former Civil War prison camp), eat at Pitty Pat's Porch, and (Tyler doesn't know this yet) get my FBI fingerprints done for my Vermont Teaching License. I got approved last week for a 7-year license teaching middle and secondary social studies... all I have left to do is submit my fingerprints and another $160. Yeah! I am also bringing Tyler to school to meet my incredible co-workers and some of my kids... I only get 3 personal days and am using the last two on Monday and Tuesday while he is here, but I have to work Wednesday and Thursday. My kids have been asking me to bring him in for show-and-tell for quite some time. I think it would cause a big distraction if he actually came to class (especially for my student teacher) so I think I'll just bring him outside during break. (Since we are studying the Civil War I really wanted him to dress up in his uniform and come lecture the class... but I don't think he loved that idea!) Anyway, I'll definitely post pictures from his trip!

This is a picture our friend Chad took of us on the last night of "Nerd Camp" last summer... I've talked about that seminar so much in class that now my 8th graders want to go to "Nerd Camp" too!