"Maestra, my mom and I are worried about you."

This is the phrase my day started with yesterday. One of my lovelies came up to me and said that to me before the morning bell rang. My stomach dropped a little bit and I thought, "How in the world does gossip get around in this town when I don't even live here?!"

She looked at me with a mock-serious look on her face and said, "Well, tomorrow is crazy sock day and we are concerned because you wear mismatched socks EVERYDAY! What are you going to do tomorrow??? Suggestion...I think you should wear MATCHING socks tomorrow." (What bright little goobers I have :))

I told my pricipal about this conversation and she said, "Don't you dare wear matching socks tomorrow! I've been telling people about you and your mismatched socks. I think the reasons you do it are quite entertaining!" As she was saying this the assistant principal walked up and said, "Yeah! I am thinking that you have the right idea! I might do it too!"

What a trendsetter I am! :) Just kidding.

Note: The reason I don't wear matching socks is because I HATE having to match my socks when they come out of the dryer. It is SO much easier to throw them all into one (wicked cute polka-dot!) bin and just grab two in the morning. Plus, how annoying is it when one of your favorite socks gets a hole in it and you have to throw them both away?! Now, I never have to do that and I never have to worry about losing the mates to my socks!

"It's a Twister Auntie Em!"

Whew! Yesterday was interesting. We have had a slew of storms out here with raging winds. Yesterday, before school, a message was sent out saying that we were under a tornado watch until 11:00 am and to review procedures in case of a warning. Well...at 10:50 we had to "man our stations". The spot for my classroom is the boys bathroom on the first floor. Oh my. My students don't understand that PEOPLE PEE ON THE FLOOR AND DON'T ALWAYS MAKE IT IN THE URINAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were putting their faces on the floor, on the urinal, and hanging onto the edge of the urinal. I really wanted to spray them down with Lysol after that, but figured that would be frowned upon. :)

TGIFB! (Thank Goodness It's Fall Break!)

I am in total need of this fall break. I spent today at school because I was already in Goshen to get my hair done (which hasn't happened since before school started on August 13th.). As I explained to people who asked WHY I was going into school on my (much needed) break, my corner threw up and I needed to clean up the mess. This is why...

I have made it through my first parent/student/teacher conferences. WHEW!! It was very interesting. Thursday was amazing and went super smoothly. Tuesday, however, was busier, fuller, and had most of my "We need to talk" students. The one I was freaked about the most went super smooth.

I am surprised at how having my own classroom has affected my sleep this year. Last year I would have been the first one to tell you about how I could fall asleep, not remember any of my dreams and stay that way for 15 hours or so. U G H!!!!! Not this year. Since the day school started I have been sleeping HORRIBLY. I have no trouble falling asleep, but it's the hallucinations and sleep walking that are driving me nuts!!!!! I have at least 2-3 dreams A NIGHT that consist of me dreaming about something about school. I have been getting out of bed, walking around my room, searching for things that aren't there and getting dressed. I thought it was simply the stress of teaching, but it has been happening for OVER 10 WEEKS! I thought it was "normal" but it turns out, it's not. I went for my annual doctor's appointment today and he said that if this continues he wants me to see a sleep specialist. Who...ME?!?!?! You've got to be kidding me! I am the person who can sleep for 18 hours at a time and can fall asleep at a moments notice. I'm a bit weirded out.

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but it was time for conferences. Those of you who teach can understand completely.

I Heart Them

Ok. Today, my poor students were feeling very much like I was yesterday. I think I had 3 or 4 students cry and I didn't even give them anything to cry about! When I came back from PD this morning it was time for chess. My students were very excited about it, but I could tell that everyone was a bit stressed. I could hear an undercurrent of bickering in the room and some of the kids had taken to yelling at their partners. Oy.

Sooooo...we made it through chess (thank God) and went to lunch. I made it through lunch (thank God...seriously) and went out for recess where another one of my students was crying. Lordy Lordy. So, after recess we had community time. It was much needed. I told my kids to just start telling me all of the feelings that they had had this week. They said things like sad, angry/mad, jealous, stressed, nervous, happy, tired...etc. I asked them to give reasons they felt that way and more than half of them said that they were sick of having guest teachers. I feel their pain. Today marked their third guest teacher in four days. Poor babies.

It was very sad and sobering to hear them talk about their feelings. One little girl said that she was sad because she missed her dad because he doesn't live at home anymore. As she is saying this and getting even sadder, the little Hispanic boy beside her leans over, rubs her shoulder gently and says, "That's hard. My dad doesn't live at home either. I'm sorry." OMG! What a great, gentle and loving bunch of students I have. We have put a few more bricks into the foundation of our community today.

I heart them.

Prettier not Shi**ier

My new mantra for my classroom is, "I need to do fewer things prettier instead of more things shi**ier." My mom said that my meltdowns are right on schedule. Meltdown #1; August 13, 2010. Meltdown #2; October 5, 2010.

The subject today was, "I'm sick of feeling like my best isn't good enough." The analogy that I used today was, "I feel like I am hovering above a treadmill and just when I think it is ok to put my feet down and jump on, someone changes the speed and I'm lost again." I drove home from school in order to get to a doctors appointment, but had to go to a home visit first. Therefore, I was running about 10-15 minutes late. So, I tried to be the nice person and call ahead but when I did they told me that if I wasn't going to get there by ______ time that I needed to reschedule. I had to reschedule. That wasn't the problem. The problem is that I have PLENTY to do at school that I could have stayed and worked on instead of coming home.

I guess that was a blessing in disguise. I had a gut-wrenching, mascara-ruining, almost-dad-waking meltdown in my mom's kitchen which has lead to a night of nothing. I am going to put the sub plans that I have not done yet (for tomorrow) out of my mind and quit life for the evening. If only my school corporation had voted balanced calendar into effect...I could have been looking forward to a three week break starting on Friday. Do you smell what I am stepping in????

I am signing off now and spending the rest of the night creating...with this...Photo courtesy of Herrschners.com
Wonder who I'm going to make a scarf for this time.......?