Weird day

Tuesday I had a headache all day.  I went to the chiropractor after school and it was one of the times where he was astounded by how messed up my neck was--my hip too.  I still had a headache.

We went to Culver's for dinner because it was Bonneville night there.  It is always a lot of fun.  The place is packed with Bonneville families.  My students who I'd just seen a few hours earlier and they weren't at all thrilled about it were over the moon to see me at Culver's.  I don't know.  Teachers outside the school are way more exciting than teachers inside the school.

My head still hurt and I didn't feel like eating much.

I had a hard time sleeping because my head hurt so much.  At 2:00 AM, I wrote some marginally coherent sub plans for the morning.  I decided that my headache would be gone by the afternoon.

I finally slept and woke up around 7:30.  My headache was gone but so was my energy.  I was completely sapped.  I decided to go tidy up the house a bit but I never did.  I just was empty.  

I wasn't hungry but I made a peanut butter and jam sandwich and took it with me to school.  When I let my students in from lunch recess, one of them said, "Finally! You're back."

They have zero sympathy for teachers missing a day of school.  They take it as a personal affront.

I felt a lot better, but it was clear to me that I was still a little foggy when I passed out papers and kept missing students.  "Teacher!  You forgot me!"

When they went to art class, I was finally hungry and I ate my sandwich.  The day was over really quickly (a half day will do that) and then I had a School Community Council meeting of which I am a reluctant member.

When that was over, there were definitely things I could have done around my classroom, but I went home and took a nap.

Don't underestimate the power of a nap at 5:00 PM.  Conventional wisdom would say it isn't a good time to nap, but they would say 2:00 AM is a bad time to write sub plans so conventional wisdom...well, it's not  wrong.

Adam is in Chicago and I had a dinner date with Janelle at Chubby's.  It was so good to see her!  I miss her.  We caught up on all the things and we planned a party.  We decided that we are going to have a teacher friend party every time grades are due.  That will remind us.  We got out our calendars and wrote a  guest list.  It was the most normal time in the 24 hours.

Retraction

My friend Erin commented on yesterday's post that I was "an inspirational teacher."

While that was kind, I am in no way trying to toot my own horn with these posts about the travails and delights of third grade.

Not at all.

Because that would make me a big fraud.

Some days I barely hold it together.

Yesterday I woke up with a headache which cuts my patience in about half.  I struggle to be consistent with all the behavior charts and situations.

I would really love it if one of my students would just be absent.  Often.

Also, I am not sure the mealworms are still alive.

Teacher life

Randomly during math, one student said to another, "I am older than you.  You know that, right?"

The other student solemnly said, "Yes.  I know."

We had a presenter come from Thanksgiving Point who gave us a lesson about life cycles.  She was having them draw and label the life cycles of a mealworm and one of them called out when she commented on how they die like every living thing does eventually, "Are they resurrected?"

She ignored that question like it never happened.

Another student asked how they reproduce.  She said, "They just do."

She made me a terrarium for mealworms to eventually turn into beetles.  She planted grass seeds inside.  She said as long as I keep the grass trimmed, the beetles won't be able to escape into the classroom.

So guess who is going to be really vigilant about grass maintenance?

I had one student distraught because his soccer ball was missing and had been since Friday afternoon.  I was in my IEP meeting so I hadn't known about the missing ball.  I said, "Maybe you left it outside?" He insisted he hadn't.  And he is super conscientious so I believe him.

Another student came late and he was carrying the ball.  I gave him a hero's welcome and said it was so awesome that he'd found the missing ball.

I knew, he knew, we all knew that he had taken the ball, but I still acted like he had done a great thing in returning it.

I trust that kid about as far and I could throw him, but hopefully it was good for him to feel like he'd done a good thing.  

In the afternoon we were reading a story in my small group and we came across the word abuelita.  I had one of my Spanish speakers come to the table and I asked him to explain the word.  I know what it means, but I always want to showcase the awesomeness that is the bilingual kids.  He told everyone it meant grandmother.  

Later a student was stumbling over the word in the story and I prompted them and said, "Remember, it means grandmother."

My Spanish speaker was watching from his desk and he gave me a thumbs up and an encouraging smile.

They wear me out and delight me in equal measure.

I'm also so impressed over and over by the good people I work with.  The third grade team had a loooooong meeting after school and after it was over, Hollie, who is the facilitator asked, "Can I ask you something unrelated to school?"

We said sure.  She ministers to a 36 year old woman whose husband is dying of cancer.  She said, "What can I do?'

We gave her ideas from take the 2nd grader to play at the park to tell her you are stopping at the store and what can you get her?  I showed a book for kids about grief that is really good.  We talked about our experiences and what helped and she wrote down notes.

What a good lady she is!

As sisters in Zion, we all work together and I'm grateful that I can be shoulder to shoulder with some of the best.

Weekend

It was a lot.

Friday was a lot.  It started by me being a little late to work because I couldn't turn left on State Street because of construction.  How could they do this to me?!?  I went to Geneva Road and made tracks and didn't get a speeding ticket.

My computer has been struggling and needed updating and the cookies and cache cleared and none of us know how to do that.  Ask an elementary teacher about phonemic awareness and she'll talk your ear off.  Ask about cookies and cache and she'll tell you that she knows how to eat cookies and that is about all.

I finally got it figured out.

I had students fighting at recess.  As in, one of them was laid out flat, crying.  I took them both to the office.  I talked to one of them about how much bigger and stronger he is than the other kids and how he needs to be gentle.

It's a conversation I used to have with Mark regarding the triplets.

Another student was knocked over playing soccer and he refused to get up because his mom said that if his back hurts he shouldn't move.  I called his bluff and a few seconds later he hopped up and kept playing soccer.

I had an IEP during my prep and the new school psychologist was there.  It was my first real interaction with him and it was not great.  Camie got our bottles of water and put them on the conference table for us because she is just really nice like that and this guy said, "I refuse to drink anything out of a single use plastic bottle."

Then he left for his office and returned with his sticker festooned water bottle.  He didn't take one drink out of it, it was just there so he could demonstrate his moral superiority to all of us.

A simple no thanks would have sufficed, buddy.

Matt escorted one of my students to his mom's car after school because he had threatened to beat up another student after school (and I was still in the IEP meeting).  It wasn't even a student who had been fighting at recess.

And my class is easier than last year.

Saturday morning I was vacuuming classrooms at the church because it was our turn to help clean it.  I came up with a murder mystery movie plot involving someone finding a murdered corpse in a church classroom on a Saturday morning while they were vacuuming.

I just didn't want you to think that that was unproductive time for me.

We did all the things and ate a charcuterie dinner on the deck in the sunshine.  Then we watched Junior Bake Off which we may or may not prefer to the Great British Baking Show.  It is a tie.

We thought about Raelyn, whose birthday was Thursday and Linn, who died 14 years ago Saturday.  They are two people we love and who we will feel the impact of forever.

Now that Clarissa is in the Tabernacle Choir, I've started watching Music and the Spoken Word on Sunday mornings.  I usually paint my nails during it.  I love it.  It leaves me feeling uplifted and love seeing glimpses of Clarissa.

We had Clarissa and Mark for dinner and then Mark left to go to a stake devotional (!) and the rest of us took a walk.  Clarissa and I rarely meet to walk anymore since she works in Sandy.  It's nice we can at least walk on Sunday.

Grateful Friday

It was kind of a tough week at school, but I'm grateful for all the support I get.

Some classrooms shifted and the school counselor is my neighbor now.  She checks in with me on the days that she is there and you could do a lot worse than have a school counselor checking in with you.  I don't know if kindergarten teachers or school counselors are the kindest humans around, but they are both really nice to talk to.

I have had the principal come and pull a student out of my classroom (at my request) twice in as many days.  He shows up with a smile on his face like pulling a third grader out of class is the best thing he could be doing with his time.

The assistant principal used to be the school psychologist, so she is a great resource.

Miriam and I both have some challenging students right now who are flexing their naughty capacity.  It helps to have each other to draw ideas from.

Basically there will always always be struggles around there, but it also feels like there will always be support.

And the kids are pretty funny too.

Yesterday at lunch recess, some of the girls orchestrated a wedding.  The boys came in grousing that it was "a sham" and "wasted half the recess."

Half of the kids came tattling to me about the wedding.

I don't know.  Are pretend weddings against the rules?  Because my friend Marie and I planned quite a fancy one at recess when we were in first grade.

Guests!

Last night Anna and QE came over for the evening!  Braeden is doing a few days of intense exams so the Carlsons flew them to Utah for the week.  They were generous to share with us and we were so happy about it!

QE smiled through the window at me when we answered the door, then she lunged for my arms.  Could anything be better?!?  She lunged from me to Adam and we both were as happy as we could be.  She ran right for the toys and books.  She found The Wheels on the Bus and brought it to me.  I read it a few times to her last night and at the exact same spot she closed the book and hopped down from my lap.  She only likes the first half of the book apparently.   It was amazing to see how she's grown up and changed just since July.  She is saying a lot more words and makes funny faces which remind us a lot of Braeden.  She remembered her best activity when she was here before.  She would go to the freezer and say, "Ice!" and pull on the handle until I opened it and gave her a cube.  She carried it around until she got too cold, then she'd hand it to Anna.  

Honestly, she could do anything and we would be entertained.

We FaceTimed with Braeden, but she didn't give him the time of day.  She was far too busy playing with dishes and pretending to eat plastic food.  After dinner, we went outside.  She loves the deck and ran from side to side saying, "Oh, wow!."

Mark took her on the trampoline and she was a FAN.  She'd start to get a little stressed out and go to her mom, then she'd say, "Again!" and reach for Mark.

Adam was taking a video of her and she got away and started running down the little hill toward the trampoline.  The most impressive part of the video was the trajectory that Anna took anticipating the whole thing and scooping her up just in time.

She's got Mom Powers!

As much as we loved seeing QE, it was great to spend a little time with Anna too.  We love that girl and are so grateful that she and Braeden are married.  My heart swells with love for their whole family.

Wow

Last night when I got home I told Adam I felt like I'd been through something.

It was parent engagement night, which we have because we are a Title 1 school.  Matt needed volunteer teachers to help.  They would get paid a small stipend.  I didn't sign up, because 8-9 hours at that place is usually enough for me.

Then Matt emailed that he needed more people and I reasoned that the parent engagement nights later in the school year are going to be a lot more involved and if I volunteered this time, I would have goodwill stored up and wouldn't have to sign up later.

Matt sent this email.

He wasn't wrong.  It did feel like I was maybe in the Hunger Games and fighting for survival.  It was crazy.

The gym had chairs set up but more and more families kept coming and the other teachers and I frantically set up more and more chairs.  Then I tried to corral two toddlers who were being really wild, but didn't speak any English so my efforts were ignored by them and their mother.  I told two boys to get off the top of the chair rack where they had climbed.  Their parents were sitting right next to them and had to be aware that their boys were six feet in the air on top of a wheeled chair rack, but they didn't seem to care.

Sometimes meeting the parents explains an awful lot.

After the presentation in the gym, my job was to go to the library.  I had pages of stickers and bags full of some literacy and math games.  One for each family.  I needed to stick the sticker onto the bag after they told me their last name.  They wanted to keep track so that the families who hadn't attended could get their games later.  On each sticker was the youngest member in each family and that student's teacher's name.  Not all the families have the same last name and I kept getting confused alphabetically with the teachers names and sometimes I couldn't understand the Spanish speakers so well and it was intense.  I also had to give them this packet of explanation for the games and I forgot to give the packet to the first several families.  I told Noemi, the assistant principal, that I was going to get fired.

After that, we served pizza to everyone.  I was dealing paper plates onto a table as fast as I could and Matt was slapping a piece of pizza on each one and people came along and grabbed the pizza just as fast.

It was dizzying, but we survived it.    

When I took the bins of leftover games to the office, Noemi told me I wouldn't get fired because I had returned them so nicely.  So there's that.  I helped take down some chairs and my last job was to help heave the empty pizza boxes into the dumpster.

The good news was that I went home with a box of pizza and we didn't have to make dinner.

Another good piece of news is that my dad is healing pretty well.  I talked to both my parents last night and they were in good spirits and doing well.  Cancer, broken bones, they take it in stride!  My mom is uniquely prepared by her life of tackling challenges with gusto and a refusal to accept defeat.  

She emailed an update to everyone and she is taking care of the chickens while my dad heals.  She said they got four eggs and have five chickens so they have a slacker.

The slacker will never be my mom!