Wild sky, sweet kids

 I would say it is all bonding us together.

In the workroom yesterday after school, we were making copies and waiting our turn for the copiers and grousing with the 4th grade teachers.

We had another (false) fire alarm.  We didn't evacuate, because we figured it was false, and I think this is how "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" started.

Still no air moving.

It was in the 60s outside so I kept my door propped open, which is a big no no, but come at me.

There was lightning and a huge clap of thunder during afternoon recess so they all ran inside in a panic.

Then we talked about it (because the trauma!).  The same student who wondered what to do if the sidewalk was on fire the day before, wondered what to do if the school was on fire and there was lightning outside.

I suggested in that scenario, to go outside and lie down flat because lightning strikes the highest thing.  Let's just hope those two events don't happen at the same time....

After all of our airing of grievances, Alissa said what we all feel:  I just want to teach.

We'll get there eventually, hopefully.

Everything isn't gloom and doom.  My class is such a good little class.  I don't know that I've ever bonded with a group so quickly.  They are funny and bright and none of them irk me (which is kind of amazing).  What is even more amazing is that every single parent has signed up for parent teacher conferences and that has NEVER happened.  If they all actually come, I may throw a parade.

I hope the rain continues.  I hope it turns to snow.  I hope the heat works better than the AC.  There's nothing wrong with hope.

BIG day

 It was a big time in 3rd grade yesterday.

For one thing, we had an unexpected fire alarm.  No fire, just the sprinkler system malfunctioned and it set off the alarm.  We evacuated and the children freaked out.

Is it a real fire?

Why didn't you tell us this was happening?

Why didn't you let us bring out backpacks?!?  What if they had burned?

I explained that you can replace backpacks, but not third graders.

One student said, "What if your family is broke and you can't get a new backpack?"

I said we would help you.

Then they asked questions about every scenario: what if I was in the bathroom?  what if the pavement was on fire and we couldn't leave? what if both doors were on fire and we couldn't leave?

On and on and on. 

I did my best to answer everything (including but not limited to the flammable properties of sidewalks).

Then the internet didn't work all afternoon.  The AC still doesn't work.  We were really just doing our best.

I decided to abandon small groups and read them Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.  It was written in 1939 and they were riveted.  Good books hold up and that is all.  In Beezus and Ramona (written in 1955 and it absolutely holds up), Ramona is obsessed with a steam shovel book, so we decided to be Ramona and read it.

So that was all the extenuating circumstances.  The Big Deal was that we started both multiplication and cursive on the same day.

During math, a boy tentatively raised his hand and said, "But I don't know how to do multiplication...."

I promised him he would.

Another student said, "I don't think I'm ready for this."

Some of them were rubbing their hands together in excitement.  It was go time.

We dipped our toes in and I had some students struggling to understand the very concept of equal groups and one boy say that 6 x 7 was 42.

Oh boy.  There is always a gulf.

We did cursive at the end of the day.  "But I can't do cursive."  "I don't think I am ready."  "I might be able to write it, but I'll never be able to read it."

I said, "Then you're going to the dungeon."

That always makes them laugh and smile, because we all know there is no dungeon.  I said, "We will keep practicing!  Don't worry!"  I told them if you could learn cursive immediately, they wouldn't need to come to third grade and their mom could just show them in an afternoon and they would get it.  They started to act a little more courageous.

And I'm proud of them.  It was a big day and we got through it!

Weekend

I was talking to Adam about a school thing and he said, "What do you mean when you say fluency?"

When you get all entrenched in a thing, you use words that everyone who is also entrenched with you knows and understands.  So you start thinking everyone just knows what you're talking about.

(By the way, when I talk about literacy fluency, I am talking about the accuracy, speed, expression and smoothness all coming together to help with comprehension.)

Teachers may say rate for speed and prosody for expression, but that is what we're talking about.

My dad used to send me to Big A Auto Parts when I was in high school sometimes (which was my nightmare) and tell me to get something and if they didn't have it exactly how I was expecting, I was completely lost at sea.  I was not even a little bit entrenched in that world.

My dad started to just call them and tell them exactly what he needed.  So when my sisters or I went, we just had to track down who our dad had talked to.  It was still kind of horrible, but better.

Anyway.

Olivia asked what an underground dress up day was and I think that falls in this category--things you forget everyone doesn't know.  So let me explain.

An underground dress up day is when the teachers dress up in some way that we don't announce or explain to the students in any way.  We do it purely for our own enjoyment.  This year, different teams came up with different ideas and we will do one a month.  Are we full grown adults with actual lives and responsibilities?  Yes.  This is a little bright spot though, because teaching can be hard.  

Friday was a hard day at school.  There was a thunderstorm in the morning that lasted about an hour, which is unusual.  I don't think I've ever been in a thunderstorm that long.  There was lightning and thunder and hail and rain.  And it was hot and muggy in my classroom so I propped open the door.  Hail got on the floor inside and the kids were completely buzzed up by everything so I had to close the door.  Then I had to close the blinds, because, "Yes, I know.  Weather.  But let's do math."

We are learning about weather in science right now, so we did talk about the weather.  We discussed the clouds, the storm, which way it was moving, etc.

But then, math.  Math.  Please.

It was a lot.

During library, they announced that they were testing the fire alarms, so don't evacuate, but they would be going off.

That freaks them all the way out, but why not add to the crazy?!?

In the afternoon we celebrated a student's birthday.  Their parent had sent goodie bags: candy and pop its and those sticky hands that stick to the wall when you fling them.  So they were all flinging the hands at each other and it was complete chaos.  I declared everything had to go into backpacks and we tried to salvage the day in the 80 degree room with my depleted patience.

I had recess duty.  It started raining lightly and I popped open my umbrella and determined that I didn't want to go back inside with sweaty children for indoor recess. Also, I love my team enough that I wanted them to have 15 minutes of a break.  I decided that until a student came and complained to me about the rain, we would keep having recess.  A girl came up finally and said, "I'm getting wet."  We had two more minutes of recess so I invited her to stand under my umbrella.  She did for a few seconds and then ran off to play.

We made it to the end of the day and my team went to work in the office again because we were miserable.

In other news, we had a good weekend.  I was happy Adam came home on Friday.  He flew into Provo and stopped off at my school on his way home from the airport.  (It was my lunch break.) He had brought me a piece of chocolate cake from Portillo's.  

Believe me when I tell you it was the singular upside in my school day.

The rest of the weekend was good.  I was glad to be with Adam.  Along with Mark, we did some yard clean up in the morning on Saturday.  We needed to cut out some dead branches and errant plants.  I really wanted to prune something with our electric hedge trimmer because using that thing is my love language.  Everything mostly needs to be pruned in the late winter/early spring.  Rats.  We have a dwarf dogwood bush in the front that was growing over the sidewalk.  I trimmed it and it looks pretty bad because now there is this bald spot on no leaves where I trimmed.  I said, "Oh no."

Mark asked me what was wrong.  Adam said, "Your mom just really wanted to trim something."

My dad called, so I stopped to talk to him, which also saved the rest of our bushes from my enthusiasm.

We went to a convert baptism in our ward and it was so happy.  I loved being there.

The rest of the day was just typical Saturday stuff, but I was glad Adam was there all day long.

I am embracing autumn.  I bought pumpkin body butter and hand cream, an apple candle, pumpkin spice almonds and pretzels and GF pumpkin pancake mix at Trader Joe's.  I'm here for all of it.

On Sunday, we practiced for the primary program.  Our small little primary has about 12 children there every week, but it is most often not all the same 12.  It makes it really hard to teach them the songs.  Yesterday, I brought the posters I had made when I realized they don't know the songs.  Sam, who is my partner led the singing and I held up the posters.  I had bought flip charts from Etsy for each of the songs and glued them to the posters.  I did two out of order, because of course I did.  I held up one poster quickly because it was the next verse, and it was upside down.  At least it lightens the mood?

As soon as Adam got home from church, we packed up a picnic and headed to Salt Lake City.  We met Emma at Liberty Park and ate.  We brought sandwiches and salads and grapes and chips and Emma brought some GF cookies she had baked and it was a feast.  The weather was sublime in the mid 70s and it was a beautiful day.  I took Adam to the airport and Emma and Mark went back to her apartment.  The plan was for me to join them, with a potentially harrowing parallel parking situation.  I have successfully avoided parallel parking for most of my life.  Emma had said she would come outside and park for me if I needed her to, but I ended up being able to just pull in which was a relief.  

I enjoyed being in Emma's lovely little apartment.  I love the many ways she has made it her own.  We played a cut throat game of Phase 10. After I threatened Christmas presents, Mark started cheating for me.  I still didn't win.

I am ready for another week of school in the muggy swamp.   I only have three days this week because I have my immunotherapy on Thursday and I am staying home Friday as well.  I hope it will give them time to figure it out at the school, but I am not holding my breath.

Grateful Friday

I love how much my students love good books I read them and also good stories we read together.  Yesterday we read "Yoon and the Jade Bracelet."  It is about a girl who is tricked out of her new jade bracelet by an older girl at school.  My students were shocked and horrified and indignant.  Yoon was able to act wisely and get the bracelet back.  I thought it was a good moment for a life lesson, so I said, "If you were Yoon, what would you do the next day?"

All the hands shot up and I listened to everyone.  Some of them were vindictive and told me the revenge they would exact.  Some of them said they would leave the bracelet home.  One boy said, "I would be friends with the kids who stood up for me if I were Yoon."

Bingo.  I told him I agreed.

I loved seeing all their wheels turning as they were processing the story.  It feels electric when everyone is engaged like that.

Also, at school I think I have enough "what a day" experiences that it is just what a life.  It isn't a phase.

The school went from being extra cold, to extra hot.  And it has been humid (for here) the past few days.  At least before (like before the HVAC was replaced) when it was hot, at least air was moving.

Now it is just stagnant, hot, muggy air.

I don't know where they found the clowns that are working on our school, but I wonder if anyone kept the receipt so we can return them to their circus?

It is hard for all of us to maintain our equanimity.  My team and I collaborated in Matt's office after school, because the office is always a perfect temperature, which isn't great for morale....

Matt was at a meeting, but it was fun to be in his office because lots of people stopped by to ask him a question and stayed to chat.  Nicole (the assistant principal) came in and said, "This is fun," and sat down to visit.  A secretary came in to tell us a wacky tale.  

I told Miriam that she needed to be ready during parent teacher conferences because the parent of this particular student is a little creepy.  Alissa said the code word could be "papaya" and if I yelled, "papaya!" Miriam had to come running.  Nicole said to send her an invite to the conference and she would stay the whole time. (Strength in numbers!) Then she sent us all home about 15 minutes early, because it is hard to be happy in 80 degree stuffy rooms all day.

That place tries my patience regularly, but I am also ever grateful to work there.  I like those guys.

We had underground dress up day yesterday and we all wore crowns for no good reason.

Our students ask us questions all day anyway, so why not have one of the questions be, "But why are you wearing a crown?!?"

Yesterday, Braeden called.  He said that QE wondered, "What Nana was up to."  We chatted awhile and I talked to QE.  She excitedly told me about the night before when Papa FaceTimed her from Disneyland.  (He has been in Anaheim this week.) I asked her a little about her life and when they had to go, I heard her little voice say, "I love you Nana!"

How can I love one little person that much and her little brother that much too?  It staggers the mind.  But when she says, "I love you?"  It kills me.  More love than I can hold.

Besides that, I'm grateful Adam is home today and we have a weekend at home!

Baby steps

 There's a lot to manage in any one life.  I wouldn't say I have things managed, or even all that close to it.

I am trying to take my photographs in hand.  Iron out the nonsense.

I got a bunch of pictures from my mom and I have sorted them by date.  Then I needed to decide how to organize them.  I initially thought that I would digitize everything, including all my other pictures, and make Snapfish books because they don't take up as much space.  

Emma was aghast.  She said, "Are you out of space?" Well, no.  But I just want it all uniform and to make sense.

Emma said she wanted photos.

So I did the big photo sort.  I called her and said, "OK, you're going to be the one to deal with all of this someday...."  I have six photo albums that are more or less in good chronological order.  I don't want to disrupt that.  But I have these two photo albums.  Here is one:

Basically, it is pictures I found after I had completed the other albums and I didn't want to rearrange everything.

Then there's this gem:

The title of the photo album is trying to manage expectations, because it is a hot mess.  There is zero order to the photos.

Emma and I came up with the plan to have two chronologies going because I don't want to mess with the original six.  It's like the large plates and the small plates.

I am taking everything out of the chaotic albums.

I am going to write the date (approximately) and label who is in the pictures and put them in some semblance of order.  Happily the project has no due date.

Also, happily I get to look at all the pictures.

This picture of Adam (from when we lived in Connecticut) stopped me in my tracks because there is the World Trade Center.

This picture reminded me of that time I cut bones out of contact paper and stuck them to a black sweatsuit for Braeden for Halloween.  I remember it was such a pain!  (But look how cute those tiny, slightly blurry, kids are!)

So if you need me, I'll be staring at pictures, trying to discern when and who.... (I'm going to get Emma to help me on Sundays when she is over.)

Mothering

It isn't for the faint of heart.  I've known that since 1997.

As a teacher I interact with a lot of mothers.  Or try to.  I have a student whose mother is proving impossible for me to communicate with.  I've tried everything I can think of.  She doesn't speak English and I'm not sure her literacy level, so you can see the trouble.  Also, this same student's dad was deported recently so I really don't know their day to day.

I can only assume she is doing her best.  

I had a mother message me last week about the mistreatment of her student.  I could feel the frustration and sadness and anger in her message.  I felt a little trepidation about reaching out to the mother of the other student, because "your child has been mean" is not always well received.

The other mother rose to the occasion with flying colors.  She told me that she was sorry and her student would apologize and they would definitely follow up.

When parents choose to partner with teachers, it is a good thing and makes all the difference.

In some ways I think it is easier to mother adult children, while in other ways it is also way (way) harder.  You can't step in and take over.

Well, sometimes you can.

Mark has had a lot of trouble getting one of his several prescriptions filled.  It was out of stock, then they lost his prescription, then he had his doctor resubmit the prescription, then they said they were out of stock again.

I called the pharmacy during my lunchtime.

I brought all the mama bear energy I have honed over the last 29 years.  I was polite, but also not going to give up and I think we all realized that.

They told me they could get the prescription.  I said, "He's coming right now."  I called Mark and he soon texted me this.

 

I learned it from my own mom.  There comes a point when you just have to.

There are fewer and fewer times that I can/need to insert myself.

For those times, I'll stay ready.

Migraine, party of one

 Yesterday was day two of a headache that felt worse as time passed.  It was one of those days when I count the hours until I can lie down.  (In 12 hours I can lie down.  Now, in 11 1/2 hours I can lie down.)

Not great.  I mustered all my "It's this day, not me, that's bound to go away" energy.  I was going to make it.

Then, in the morning, one of the office ladies brought me a new student.  Zero warning.  A new student takes a lot of cheerfulness and pep.  I had neither, but I had a brand new student who looked terrified and it was up to me to make her feel welcome.  Happily, after my initial, "I'm Mrs. Davis and I am so glad you're here.  Here's a desk and hang your backpack there," one of my girls stepped in and gave her a friendship bracelet and said, "I can tell we're going to be friends!"

I love kids so much.

We got through the day with students helping to explain all the things to the new student and me white knuckling through it all.  Right before lunch, my headache was really awful.  I felt nauseous.  After taking my class to the lunchroom, I went in my classroom and turned off the lights and then the power went off.  I thought if we couldn't have school, it would be about the best thing to happen to me.

The power came back on before my students were back from lunch.  (There is still a lot of construction going on and I think that is why we lost power. ) 

The power went off later in the afternoon, but only for a few minutes.  

It really was that sort of a day.  

Kim and I walked after a long hiatus and I think that was helpful.  My headache felt more manageable as the evening continued.  I slept a lot last night and that was what I needed most.

So far no headache has killed me.

I like my odds.