In the bleak midwinter

Yesterday a student came back from WIN time with a box that was some kind of project he had worked on there.  He asked, "What do I do with this?"

I said, "You can put it on the counter."

He paused a moment, distracted by something.  Then he said, "What should I put on the counter?"

I didn't even know what to say.

We've been trying (not succeeding) at figuring out area of irregular shapes.

This was one student's quiz:

We got this email from the office:

There was a report made today in the office during lunch that XXX and XXX were drawing pictures of XXX and XXX holding hands.

XXX let me know that she doesn' t like it and that it is annoying. 

She said that XXX drew a picture of an air quote "I love you" character as XXX.

XXX drew the picture of XXX and XXX holding hands.

I asked XXX where the picture was and he said he thinks he threw it away. I asked why the drawing was created and he said that he wanted to make XXX happy. I asked XXX why he wanted to make XXX happy he replied so that she wouldn't be sad.

The office is turning this over to your team.

Such a fun age....

The energy at school among students is accelerating at the same rate energy is flagging among teachers.

I was gathering up my things to go home and the sky was low and gray and I still had a frustrating pile on my desk of things that needed doing, but I was going home anyway.

The sky reflected my mood.

I talked to my parents to check in on my mom and my dad asked me how many more days I had school until Christmas break and I said, "Until Friday."

He said, "That's a lot of days!  You can't quit now."

Rats.

I was told yesterday that I need to keep my classroom door locked at all times.  If a student needs to go to the bathroom or get a drink or go anywhere, when they come back, they're going to have to knock and be let inside.  That feels like such an enormous pain!  There are going to be so many extra interruptions!

Another teacher said, "These are the times we are living in."

And then there was a school shooting yesterday to put an exclamation point on that for emphasis.

It felt very much like bleak midwinter.

Despite the bleak feeling day, the house was warm and I told Alexa to turn on the Christmas lights.  I know I have many many things to be grateful for.  I am grateful for Christmas songs that are beautiful and also give me comfort and hope and reminders of what it all means.   Even bleak midwinters have an uplifting message.  Here's the last stanza, by Christina Rossetti:

I will keep trying to give my heart.