Grateful Friday

 I'm grateful it is Friday.  I'm grateful that it is today and not yesterday.  Yesterday was a DAY.

We had a lockdown drill which made everyone skittish.  It doesn't matter if it is just a drill, it's kind of scary.

We had inside recess because of the snow.  

While all the extra principals were in there watching me (and there were 8 of them, because Alissa had sick kids and wasn't there), one of my students discovered a tiny sticker on the new whiteboard easels I bought recently and which are really hard to erase.  The sticker said that there was a protective film you should remove before use.  So then everyone completely lost interest in the lesson and started peeling away the protective film.

At least they erase better now.

A girl gave herself a haircut in the 3-4th girls' bathroom.  I don't know who it was, but she cut off a lot of hair.  I went to tell the office and they said, "We know."

I said, "OK, because I didn't know what to do about that.  They didn't cover that in college."

They didn't cover a lot of things in college....

We did have afternoon recess outside and yours truly had duty and if you think they could stay out of puddles, you would be wrong.  Some fifth grade boys were picking on some third graders so I traipsed through the snow to talk to them (we were at the puddles on the blacktop, slushy snow on the grass phase of things).  They pretended like they didn't know what I was talking about so I said, "So the third graders came up to me and completely lied?"

Well...

I said, "Be nice, especially to younger kids.  Use your strength for good."

They said OK.

It is a big deal that snowballs are forbidden.  The kids that were wrapping a baseball in snow and then throwing it weren't really living the spirit of the law...

Some girls came up to me complaining about another girl yelling at them.  I got to the bottom of it and it turns out the yeller was mad because the other three wouldn't believe her that 2 was a digit "and we learned that in 2nd grade!"

I told them to stay away from each other.

After we got back in from recess, a fight broke out between boys and a book was thrown.  

Nerves were frayed.

About five kids told me they needed to call home because their shoes and socks and pants were wet.

We had a conversation about cause and effect.  "What happens if you step in puddles?"

"You get wet."

"Yep.  You know that, but you did it anyway, so don't ask to call home."

After school I was making copies and there were a gaggle of teachers and Matt in the work room making copies.  I asked if Bertha (one of the copiers) was free and Matt said something cheeky about how I couldn't use it.  I said, "I have not had a great day, so don't mess with me. Also thanks for the Swig."

He laughed and said, "Yes, today was bananas."

But hey, 100% survival rate is still holding.

I'm grateful for that.

I'm also grateful for my activity day boys.  They are so sweet and a calm little oasis after a day with 27 wild ones.

Here's another thing to be grateful for:

The news is depressing me and I hate feeling helpless about it all.  The other day I sent an email to the Utah attorney general.  I didn't know that it would make any difference, but I knew I would feel better doing something.

And guess what?

I am part of "public pushback!"

I'll just keep pushing!