Checked out, checked in!

Today was an early release day, which means that kids went home at 12:25 and we teachers spent the afternoon in meetings. 

My morning: quick but hectic and full of way too many tears! They were totally falling apart. 

My afternoon: incredibly boring. I was sleepy and totally checked out and daydreaming about my weekend. 

Now: I'm at the airport on my way to Seattle!!! I didn't bring a bit of work with me and won't even think about it until Tuesday morning.

Seattle here I come!!!!!! 

Wonderful!

This morning I went into my teammate's room to borrow a book, and as I was walking out one of her little girls literally yelled, "You look wonderful!" at me. With a beginning like that, how could today not be a great day?

And it sure was. While my elderly substitute teacher taught my class (how?), I pulled students out to do their math screener tests. It went fairly quickly and didn't feel as terribly repetitive as our reading test for some reason. 

At lunch time my brother Joshua came to visit me with a special birthday lunch (Snarfs!), gift, and singing Justin Beiber card. It really was so nice and thoughtful and fun!

Then, at the end of the day, Nathan came to visit me in the hallway where I was working. He said, "I have to tell you something weird. Something awkward. There was this thing in my house and it was invisible and picking up my car." We then established that it was a toy car, not his parents' car, and that a "ghost" was picking it up. I was not timid in showing my skepticism, to which Nathan replied, "Some people don't believe in ghosts because they haven't seen them. But I have seen all of them a lot of times." After we talked about this for a few minutes, he continued to go on, "Always remember that I usually do good things, but when I do a bad thing it's because a ghost was telling me to do it. Always remember." Don't worry, I don't feel concerned that he's actually schizophrenic or anything. After all of this, and many "always remember"s (to which I replied "never forget"), Nathan said, "Oh! And one more thing," and then gave me a hug. Precious angel.

Whatever

I'm honestly pretty overwhelmed right now. I had to write sub plans this afternoon for tomorrow because I'll be testing the kids again all day. Writing sub plans and still having to go to work is the worst. But here's what's not the worst - writing sub plans for Monday and getting to spend the day in Seattle! I leave for my favorite city on Friday afternoon, and I am seriously counting down the minutes. Unfortunately, I have a whole lot to do before then, followed by parent-teacher conferences next week, so I'm a little stressed. Yipes.

Today was fine, I guess. I mean they never really stopped talking. Whatever.

I wrote last week about how Kendal threw herself on the floor sobbing because her name didn't get pulled for the treasure chest at the end of the day. Well, today it didn't happen again. And luckily there were no tears, but she did just stand there angrily saying over and over, "I am the s-word." I didn't really get it, but I also didn't really want to ask what she meant. Poor baby.

Zoo Day!!

Today we took our first field trip of the year and it was delightful! After a quick morning meeting, we got on the bus and headed to the Denver Zoo. Once we arrived all of the kids quickly set off with their parent chaperones, leaving my teammates and me completely free to enjoy the day. We got some Starbucks and strolled around the zoo, saw all of the animals and the new elephant exhibit, had a leisurely and delicious lunch, headed back to school, sent the kids off to specials, and called it a day. Ahhh... If only every day were such a breeze. 

On the bus ride home, I sat next to Presley who said this: "When I was a baby, not that much stuff was invented. It was the olden days. There wasn't that much color." 

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.