Business Partners

My little Johnny is visiting his grandparents for a couple of days, so I had high hopes that today would be a better day than usual. No such luck. Boy were these babies chatty! I'm pooped.

Some of my boys have found a new hobby of digging deep holes in the gravel on the playground to find clay. They take Ziploc bags outside and collect pretty large chunks of clay - for what purpose, I have no idea. Today Nathan told me all about how he and Everett are starting a business that revolves around what they might find buried in the playground: "clay, fossils, gold." As it stands, I get a cut. If they find gold, they'll give it to me, but not if they find a dinosaur fossil. Nathan will use that to make a dinosaur model that will then be put in the museum. Obviously.

Also, this happened last Friday and I liked it: 

Everett: "When I grow up I want to be a settler - that's what a lot of people call pioneers." 

Red Neck Monsters

I did not hate my job today. In fact, I liked it! See? Maybe there is hope for me after all.

It helped that it was a Friday, we had study buddies, and there was an assembly - leaving very little time for actual teaching. (Less teaching time = less frustration that they're not listening while I'm teaching.)

It also helped that the following things happened: 

Nathan somehow cut his gums or something, and kept complaining and needing water. While he was getting a drink out in the hall, he ran into another teacher and told her that his gums were "falling out." And he said, "If they do, I'm going to give them to the tooth fairy. She wants everything that comes out of your mouth." 

My favorite little crier Kendal seems to be losing her emotional stability more each day. I had been talking all week about how today was going to be the first day of Fall. Well, I looked it up and turns out it's tomorrow, so I informed my class of this at morning meeting. And then Kendal burst into tears and said, "I'm going to miss my birthday!" Her birthday is next Saturday (same as me!), and during the Fall, and she somehow thought that maybe fall wasn't happening and so neither was her birthday?? I honestly wasn't understanding or following at all.  

At the very end of the day she also had a full on meltdown because her name wasn't pulled out of the coupon box to win a prize from the treasure chest. She literally threw herself face-down on the floor sobbing, and stayed there for a few minutes. I can't help but find it kind of hilarious.

During our time with study buddies, Anna came up to me and asked, "Are red necks real?" I laughed, obviously, and said that they were. She said, "The boys said they're real and that they turn into monsters!" I had no response to that. 

Let's Get Real

Okay, I'm going to be real for a minute.

I'm over it. I feel like I am living in this mindset of counting down the days until I'm done with first grade. But I really don't want to try and rush my way through a year of my life - what a truly terrible way to live! And I don't want to be a complainer or a Debby Downer or an unhappy person, but I really do not love my job this year. I need a major attitude adjustment or something. I just don't know how to get there.

The new Mumford album, which was given to me today, is certainly helping.

Here's something cute, blah blah blah:

Everyday, when we do our morning meeting, we go through the alphabet practicing our sounds. At the end they go, "Z. Zebra. Zzzzzzz." The kids always buzz on that last one and I sometimes refer to them as little bees. Well, today Jake was leading our morning meeting because he is our star student of the week. Kids loooooove pretending they're the teacher and leading any part of our day. Jake is this precious blond boy with a faux hawk who is pretty cool and sure of himself. And at the end of our alphabet today, he said, "Alright my little bees, what's our word of the day?" So that was cute.

The Best and The Worst

Today was both the best day and the worst day, and it all revolves around Johnny.

Johnny wasn't here today. Which made it honestly so much better of a day, behavior wise. I feel terrible saying that, but the kids were so much quieter and more on task. We actually got through our lessons, and it felt like a really successful day. 

The reason Johnny wasn't here was because his parents were not at all happy with the note I sent home yesterday, which explained that Johnny needed to write me a letter of apology for his disruptive behavior. I really don't want to go into detail, but I spent my lunch break in a meeting with them, my principal, and our school counselor. I was absolutely blindsided by the meeting, and it wasn't the most fun. Thank God - seriously - for my school counselor and my principal who were incredibly supportive to me. Also thank God I didn't cry. Dealing with parents can often be the very worst/most difficult part of this job.

That's all I'm going to say because it's 6:21pm and I'm getting ready for bed. Yep. 

Picture Day

Isn't it a thing that baby animals are cute for an actual evolutionary reason? Like because their cuteness saves them from being eaten or abandoned by their parents or something?

Well, let's just say it was a good thing it was picture day.

The kids looked adorable - the girls all had their hair done and were wearing their favorite dresses, and the boys all wore polo shirts and button-ups. Nathan wore a vest, and Johnny wore a dress shirt, tie, and sports coat. The girls kept complimenting the boys on looking so "handsome." Too! Cute! 

Their behavior today, though - not so cute. I was seriously at my wit's end. I swear I only make it through about half of the lessons I plan because I waste so much time just trying to manage/control/re-direct them. At the end of the day, I had my students think through their behavior all day and give themselves a score - 10 being perfect, 0 being the absolute worst. Most of the kids did a pretty good and honest job on scoring themselves. I looked at Everett, though, who had already gotten into the 'red,' needs to write an apology note to me tonight, lost recess time, and had several 'talking-to's, and he was happily holding up ten fingers. This kid really isn't getting it.

Also, here is an example of just how needy these babies are: Presley brought in cutie oranges as a birthday treat, and Johnny told me at least five different times that his orange was chewy. I finally said, "Johnny! You keep telling me that. What do you want me to say to you?" Johnny: "Well, what should I do? Like suck the juice out of it? Or what?" 

And I'll close with something cute, so that I might actually be willing to wake up and go to work tomorrow. I was giving Zoe, whose great-grandmother passed away this week, some extra love and attention, and called her my little bug. Kendal (my favorite) heard me, looked concerned, and very seriously asked, "Am I still your little bug too??" 

Dry Your Tears, Honey Child

There were a lot of tears again today. My sweet little Zoe came in with puffy eyes - turns out her great-grandmother passed away over the weekend. Zoe was having a really hard time with it, poor sweetie. I gave her a big long hug this morning and let her cry into my stomach for awhile. Afterwards, Presley came up and said that her dad's grandparents died yesterday too. I honestly don't believe her, but I had to treat it as true - because what if? So I gave Presley some of the attention she was looking for too. I never really know exactly what to do with kids who lie about weird things.

Kendal also cried because she couldn't find her notebook. Twice.

Also: My ever so special Johnny asked if he could go to the bathroom - I said yes and he said, "Thanks, Honey Child!"

What am I going to do with this kid?

Field Day!

I'm not sure that I could have made it through a regular day today. With it being the day after having a sub, a Friday, and Field Day, the kids were beyond crazy. We had such a rough morning meeting that we had to spend 3 minutes with the lights off, heads down on the table, thinking about the choices we'd made that day. I really would have been happy to just leave the lights off in silence all day...

In the afternoon we went out for Field Day, which was absolute chaos at points. I put the kids into five teams before we started because we were asked to. Well the second event was only built for four teams, so they all got mixed up, and then were never able to recover after that. At each and every event, they forgot who was on their team, or where they were supposed to be. How do you forget who you were just jumping on a piece of carpet with five minutes ago?? Sometimes it is seriously like herding cats.

Good thing we got popsicles at the end.