Grateful Friday

 It was a very intense and out of the ordinary and hard week.  

And I survived it!

We were all dragging around there last night and ready to be DONE.  Today is a teacher work day and it will be nice to keep my nose to the grindstone.  If I do half of my very ambitious list, I will be happy about it.

The third grade passed over 1000 lessons on iReady in the month of January, so we watched the movie Wonder yesterday afternoon.  It is rated PG, so we messaged parents to let them know and tell them we would provide an alternative if they wished.  As far as I know, every parent was OK with it.

The part that made it PG, is that the teenage sister kisses her teenage boyfriend.

The third graders died.  Picture 80 children squirming and writhing and squealing and covering their faces.  Actually the whole thing was kind of like watching a pot of boiling water.  We all spread out in Alissa's room and no one sat still.  At least ten kids were popping up at any given time.  One of my students walked over to me and handed me her tooth that she'd just pulled out.  I just took it in my hand (what else was I going to do?) and the BYU teachers died about that.

I guess when you've been a mother + a teacher of third graders for a while a random tooth isn't going to faze you.

She went and washed her hands and then came back and wanted her tooth again.  

It was another night of parent teacher conferences.  One of my English learners came with his mom.  We communicated pretty well, but not perfectly.  One thing I did understand was that she brought me an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.  A few days earlier, my students were talking about their favorite foods and they asked me mine.

I had said ice cream, so my student had his mom bring me an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen!

It was unexpected and unnecessary to bring a gift, but also very kind.  I took it to the faculty room freezer in between conferences.

I continue to be grateful for that place and this life.  Even on my hard and long weeks, I'm grateful to be working at a cause we believe in along with my friends. I'm grateful to be the teacher who ties shoes and confiscates stuffed animals during math and gets handed a tooth every once in a while.  You never know what is going to happen and I wouldn't have it any other way.