Tears...

I swear...I have cried WAY too much today.

There have been tears of frustration, tears of joy and tears of sadness.

I'm not an emotional roller coaster or anything...or maybe I am.

Tears of Frustration

I started the morning with a 2-hour delay.

Not a problem in my book...

I spent the time discussing report card grades (Friday's the end of the 3rd quarter already!!) with my team.

While doing so, I had yet another crushing moment where I remembered that WAY TOO MANY of my nuggets can't read where they need to.

My class has more total than the other two combined.

We all use the same curriculum, I have been doing interventions with my nuggets before we were required to, they have been performing well on their phonics tests......

Ugh.

It makes me feel like I'm not doing something right, even though I am working my tushie off.

So, cue the tears of frustration.

Tears of Joy

I had one nugget who wasn't here when we did the SRI (Scholastic Reading Inventory - it assigns a lexile score for reading) so she went with a teacher to do the test.

She was gone for a while, which I noticed, but didn't think much of.

This nugget has worried me this year because she has some trouble processing and retelling information.

We have taken this test 3 other times this year and she has gotten a 0 each time.

When she walked back into the room with the teacher I could tell something was up.

She looked like the cat that ate the canary.

Her cheeks were flushed and she couldn't stop smiling.

I walked over and said, "You look like you have something to tell me..."

She broke out into the BIGGEST smile and said, "I went from a 0 to a 479!"

A 479!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I screamed...not a little squeal, but an all out freak-fest.

And then...

I started crying.

Man, I'm a dweeb!

I just couldn't help myself.

She was so proud of herself.

(BTW...the range for a nugget to be considered "on grade-level" at the end of second grade is 450-650, which means that she is reading well enough to be successful in third grade!)

The other nuggets were flat-out amazed.

I had to explain to them that they were good tears.

...and then they talked about it all day.

"Remember the time you cried?"

Yes, yes I do.

Tears of Sadness

So, you'd think that I would learn my lesson and realize that I'm a bit over-tired and over-emotional today.

Nope.

I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.

I started out watching the Bourne Ultimatum but then switched to The Guardian.

I love The Guardian, but it makes me cry every time.

I watched it for LITERALLY 10 minutes and cried.

Gah!

I give up.

I'm watching Pitch Perfect.

I need some giggle in my world.

This video made me giggle.

These are the teachers at the middle school in my corporation doing a "Cupid Shuffle" flash mob to relax their nuggets before beginning ISTEP.

My mom is the pretty lady on the left with short, grey-ish hair in the red shirt.

Love to see teachers making their nuggets laugh by being dorky.

How was your day?

Mrs. B