The horror!

Thursday started off as a hellacious day. Then I was lulled into a false sense of security.

Wednesday a couple of kids had a complete meltdown in my room. Basically they were as fed up with their classmates as I was. One student became so frustrated while waiting for her classmates to quiet down so that she could tell them how horribly they were acting, she ended up in tears. Another student then told the rest of the class, "Some of us are here to learn. If you're not interested in learning, then why bother showing up?" I told you my students were bright. I then explained to the class that it is a good thing that I have a strong ego. Otherwise I would go home each day in tears. I also told them that every day when people ask me about my day, I am honest. The sad thing is that no matter how badly the students act, I still like them. Yes, I told them this. I started to see some improvement then but we still had a lot of ground to cover.

Today's class opened with a team building activity. It was a good day at school. Well, if you disregard the three students who ended up in tears throughout the day. The first was because I sent her off to "Siberia." She just doesn't play well with others. It just didn't seem fair to allow her to sit with others when she was making their lives a living hell. I gave her some tissue and basically told her to suck it up.

The next tears came from one of my Latino students. He wanted to work with his buddy instead of his table group. I told him that we had had this conversation way too many times and got him some tissue. I then pointed out that his group, and many of his classmates, did not like working with him because he either wanted to play around or to insult his classmates. One of the girls in his group stepped up and offered to help him. When I checked back ten minutes later, he was working and smiling.

The final tears came from a student who thought that she couldn't do the math work. She was a little off but not that much. Before I got to her desk, she had answered some of the questions but had chosen to erase her answers. The answers she had erased were right. I gave her some tissue and a little ego stroking. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a pro at handing out the tissue. Of course, in the past I taught middle school so there was a lot less tissue going around. Well, at least not in my presence.

Before lunch, I complemented the class on their ability to stay on task. With the way they had been acting a few days ago, I would never have been able to fully deal with the meltdowns. If things had not turned around today, I may have had a meltdown.

Tonight was "Back to School Night." Per usual, I was nervous. One of my friends, a fourth grade teacher, asked if I was nervous beforehand. I said, "Of course. I have just learned over the years to not show my nervousness." You never know which parents/guardians will show up. Fortunately, the aunt of the kid in "Siberia" showed up. All day long the kid had been telling me that she was going to tell her aunt about what I had done to her. I told her to go right ahead. After I met the aunt, I learned that the girl had not said anything to her aunt. I now have added the aunt's number to my directory on my cellphone. I love meeting parents/guardians who are on the same page with me.

Now the true horror begins though. I got home and discovered that I am out of toilet paper! I usually stockpile the stuff. How did this happen? I know what I will be doing over this weekend. Not tomorrow though. Because tomorrow is "Teachers gone wild" night. Yep, that's right. I'm heading out with the ladies tomorrow night. (There is this one male teacher. He teaches kindergarten. We should ask him to go out with us because we've all agreed he's kind of hot. Oh. But that might be sexual harrassment. Oops.) So if you're in the Bay and you read this blog regularly, you'll know where to find us.