jet lag..........

And I thought I was impervious.  With a touch of smugness, I even proclaimed to Wayne, who gets disoriented after daylight savings (!), that jet lag never really gets to me.  But look who's sleeping like a rock and who is up blogging in the wee hours of the morning.  And this is NOT part of my usual up-with-the-birds routine.  It's 5:48am, and I haven't slept a wink.

Tomorrow/Today is a big day too... I'm visiting Steph and Steve and Noelle with Angela in the morning, driving out to SF with her and stopping off at the outlets first, then hanging out with Colleen, then Natalie in Fremont, then Jessie, Debbie, and Karen in the evening for dinner... then driving home.

I apologize to my friends if I am a zombie tomorrow/today.



(look at this cute zombie I found.)

(almost) famous.

Look who's the first to pop up in Google images when you type in "right to bear arms costume"??

Wayne's also featured in someone else's blog post about last minute costume ideas!

Too funny!!

Christmas spirit

everyone's getting with the Christmas spirit! even Indee!... sort of.

I love Christmas!

We picked out a tree today, Wayne hung lights outside, and we're streaming Christmas music galore from Pandora! It's Christmastime!!!

Can you find it? If you look closely at our tree, you'll see Lucy's contribution of her stuffed squirrel.

7th Period Late-Breaking News

A kid lit a wad of paper on fire with a lighter today. on fire!! I called for security and admin support who came and searched backpacks and bodies, but they didn't find the lighter (darn!), but they did find a knife in one kid's bag.

sigh... Thank goodness tomorrow is a holiday!

dodging the draft

during a discussion about a poem on a civil war...

student: Mrs. To, why do people fight if they don't want to?
me: Sometimes, they have no choice... Like during WWII, if you were of a certain age and were healthy, you were DRAFTED into the war.
student: Were you drafted in WWII?
me: WWII??? ..... no, I didn't fight in WWII. ...I stayed back and took care of the wounded soldiers in the hospitals.

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Our baby is two today! My, they grow so fast...

We had planned for a fun outing to the dog park, but alas, Mother Nature has rained on Lucy's parade. :( We'll make it up to you, though, Goose... how about some chicken broth with your kibble?

two years ago...

herding cats

I love that piece of imagery--herding cats. That's exactly how it is in 7th period every day, down to the fact that I don't like cats. But today, the kitties/kiddies weren't so bad. Full of energy as usual, but I played off their energy. I also set up a chair in the front of the room that was my "time-out" chair, though I didn't call it that. I sent students there for 5 minutes when they were talking out of turn... Time-outs work--even with 9th graders! Today, my kids were on-task, did all their questions, participated by RAISING THEIR HANDS, and discussed THEME!

One student whom I was having a REALLY hard time with has been coming after school the last two days to make up missing work. He's such a good kid, and I had a good time talking with him about wrestling and playing the drums. In the course of two days, he's brought his grade up from an F to a C!

Am I getting better at herding cats??? ... No, it's probably more because 8 students were absent, 3 of which are Trouble, bringing my class count to a manageable 26. Still, it was a good day in 7th period. I'll take it!

"Mrs. Toes"

For a class that I don't like, I sure think and talk about 7th period a lot! I know that I need to stop letting ONE class dictate how I feel towards teaching as a whole, so I am making an effort to focus on the positives that God has graced me with so far.

One such praise is one of my EL students who calls me "Mrs. Toes." I don't know if its the language thing or if she's being funny, so I just leave it. She is the sweetest little thing and is my unofficial TA. She continually asks if I need help and has come after school several times to help me with all sorts of odds and ends. After one especially hard day a few weeks ago, I left her in the room with a stack of student-drawn posters and a box of pushpins and hastily left to speak with other teachers and admin about a particularly peevish incident that occurred in 7th period. Even after speaking with admin, I still had my knickers all in a knot and was muttering under my breath as I made my way back to my classroom... but when I opened the door, I was greeted with the most welcoming site. All my posters were beautifully hung with obvious care, and there sat my student, in one of the desks in the middle of my room, quietly doing her homework while she waited for me to come back. When I thanked her for her hard work, all she said was, "You're welcome, Mrs. Toes... Do you know how to do math?" And so we did some algebra together, and though she didn't know it, I just wanted to scoop her up and hug her and take her home with me, because she was the balm that I needed for my blistery day.

I thank God for moments of reprieve like this. I know that if God allowed this job for me, then He'll also take me through it, even if I emerge with a few battle scars.

my class from hell

That would be my 7th period.

First, it was the throwing of paper. Wads of paper, paper airplanes, little paper pellets... thrown on the floor, thrown across the room, thrown at other students. I had to threaten with referrals before they stopped--more or less.

Then, there was the whistling. Because if they couldn't throw things, then maybe they could disrupt the class in a more inconspicuous way, like whistling! I also had a couple of days when someone brought party poppers and popped them, sprinkling confetti and streamers all over--in the middle of a test! Then there was the barking, and always, the incessant talking...

And now, it's the pine cones. I've been left a pine cone on my desk the last two days--strange, but innocuous. But today, when I had finally gotten everyone quiet and focused on their tests, a pine cone was launched across the floor, hitting the cabinet, and causing everyone, of course, to scream and shout and speculate about wild squirrels, etc. I, however, paid it no heed and acted like it was the most normal thing to have a large pine cone skate across the classroom floor.  Because that's what they want from me--a reaction. And I wasn't going to give it to them. Without a reaction, the disruption quickly died down, and the pine cone was left on the floor, unable to cause anymore harm.

But it's never-ending. As soon as I quell one misbehavior, another surfaces... it's like those whack-a-moles... only i wish i could actually whack some of these moles I have as students.

I wonder (dread?)... what will tomorrow bring?