Pinch, Punch, the 1st of the Month!

Ya'll remember that from your elementary days? Yes, yes, I've reverted back to the silliness of third grade simply because I'm surrounded by them on a daily basis. Although I do have to say that the full grown adult in me came out in full force this week as I tried to get my unruly bunch of 8-year olds to settle down and listen. I don't remember my teachers ever having to really raise their voices or watch their hair turn white as they tried to get us to be on-task. Sure there was always that handful, but man, nothing like today's kids! We have been in school a full month now and I expect the kiddies to follow a certain routine. For example, one of the techniques I use to get their attention is to ring my bell. When I ring it, everyone has to freeze and stop talking no matter what they are doing. I have them face me, give them the necessary instructions, and voila, they're supposed to follow the given directions. Supposedly. Eh....let's just say that it has not been a good week at all.

Talk To The Hand!

Because I don't want to get into the full details of this incident that I had recently with a parent, let me just summarize it all in a nutshell. This one nitpicky parent, who has been complaining since day one, yelled at me in front of my class. She had the audacity to point fingers in my face and tell me that I was NOT doing this and/or doing that in the classroom. She had the nerve to twist my words around and made it seem like I am not doing my job. And to make it even worse, her timing could not have been worse because she decided to spout off at me at 8:25am, five minutes before I start my day. Since she was on a roll and since I did not see an end to it all, I had to raise MY voice at her, in front of the kids AND some other parents in the classroom, and basically do the whole "talk to the hand" bit. I told her that she was welcome to sit in my classroom to observe what I do or take it up with the principal if she pleased, but I simply did not have the time to deal with her in that manner at that moment. I tell you, as much as I tried to keep my cool for the kids' sake, my whole day was practically ruined. Talk about not starting the day on the right foot! Ugh...just one of the many "benefits" of being a teacher in today's world.

Besides the drama of uncooperative parents AND students, my body has taken a beating physically. At the end of the day, I'm dead tired! During the day, all the adrenaline to teach, assess, supervise, discipline, interact, etc, pumps through my body, but as I am driving those less-than-5-minutes back home, my body slows down considerably. I park the car, walk up the steps, open the gate, go down the stairs to my room and once my head hits the pillow, it's lights out for me! At 4-5pm, it's not unusual to take short naps to get reenergized, but with MnM, there is no such thing as a short nap! Whenever I take a nap, I end up waking up 7-8 hours later! Short naps and/or power naps are impossible for me. And when I do take my famous 7-8 hour naps, that usually means skipping out on piles of papers to correct. So figure the 3 days this week that I napped after school and multiply that by the piles of papers I have yet to correct, well, I ain't that best in math, but I'll you right now, it's a major sh*tload.

In any case, I just wanted to wish ya'll a Happy 1st of October! I know that it's been a while, but don't fret faithful readers (all 3 of you!), I am still alive!

Birthday Shout-Outs

*Just wanted to send some birthday love to Mister J AND to my mama-in-law down in San Diego. Also wanted to send a belated shout out to Sweet Sixteener, Lina, and to
my fellow 80's buff lil' bro back in Minnesota, Franco, who celebrated his 20th last Saturday. Sorry dude...try as you'd like to be a cool Generation X-er like us, nothing beats being an original! LOL! Love and hugs to you all!

*Hubby...the flowers were beautiful! Just a few more days...