Good Things

This is a good week. There are bad things, there always are but today I will tell you the good things

1. We had the golf party for our little city champions and it was fun, we golfed, ate pizza, took pictures and hung out.

2. We had a long weekend and got to do lots of things without feeling super rushed all the time.

3. My shoulder is still feeling good (knock on wood)

4. My purchase order was approved to buy the team championship shirts and the guy is designing really cool ones for us!

5. I didn't have to write and behavior referrals today

6. Only 16 more days until we fly home!!!!!!

7. I am content, not frustrated or angry or headachy just content. and happy being so.

Sadness

Anyone who works with children will tell you the same thing: it is bittersweet

This like all my other jobs have been is difficult. It is an ongoing mess of misbehavior, stress, upper management mismanagement exhaustion and fun. That's right I said fun. We wouldn't do it if deep down it didn't give us a sense of joy we couldn't get anywhere else. Oh we complain, you should hear the teachers lounge on Fridays! But let someone outside of our profession say something about our kids and watch how fast we come to their defense. We are protective mother bears - they are our babies for better or for worse.

The year is almost over and like every job I have ever had I am getting sad. It is hard to get so attached to these little ones and then have to watch them grow up and leave you. I have finally gotten to a place where I don't cry thank goodness. I remember my first day care job, you would have thought someone had died and I hated that job!

This has been a tough year. I have had intervention all year and they have drained me. I have asked not to teach intervention next year. I need some time off. They are so needy and dependent on me for everything, I am not only their teacher but their counselor and their cheerleader and sometimes their mother. It has been a year and I have been looking forward to the end. But this morning it hit me as it aways does that I will miss them terribly and that I love my job for better or for worse!

We Win!!!

Today I got the biggest trophy ever! Okay, I didn't get it, the golf team did and it probably isn't the biggest one ever. But it is big! We are very excited we won the city championship and took first and second in the individual places also!

The kids have really worked hard and practiced a lot more than the other teams to get as far as they did. I am really proud of the effort they put in. We had a lot of parent support this year too which is really helpful.

Only 14 days left and 15 until we fly home yaaaaaa!!!!

The Switch

One day last week I called a student over to my desk and asked him to read me something. What I had was something written in Spanish that I had taken from another student and I wanted to know what it said. He gives me this confused look and says "I don't know". I said, "OK, no big deal. I just wanted to know what it said because I can't read the Spanish" He shook his head and said "Oh, it's in Spanish, let me see" and he read it to me and explained it to me perfectly. I laughed and said do you have a switch?

It's so true though, most of my kids are bilingual and I have never spent much time thinking that it may be confusing for them. But it's true. They have to tell themselves which language to think in and speak in. To me it looks so easy for them but the more I think about it the more I think it must be difficult at times.

On a happy note - My shoulder didn't hurt one time this week thanks to yoga. I went to get a massage on Saturday and had nothing to complain about so I got an overall massage. Arcy said there was no inflammation in my back for the first time on almost 2 years! Such good news! Yoga seems to be the cure for right now at least.

19 Days

That's how many days are left of school and we here at the middle school couldn't be happier. I still have not signed my contract - I have until the 2nd of June, a full 30 days after I got it. They keep sending these e-mails asking that we turn them in. I think they are fearing the worst - that we will all walk out on the last day and not come back. I will sign mine and I will come back for one more year because I said I would and I am too poor to move right now.

I will keep hoping that next year will be better and in lots of ways it will. I will have one more year under my belt and be that much better of a teacher. It will give me time to figure out where I want to go next and to really research some districts. There is so much that is different between districts. It is weird because the federal government expects so much but the accountability really isn't there across districts.

Anyone, the point is I am looking forward to summer break and a new start in the fall!

A long time!

I know it has been a long time, sorry, time has really flown these past few weeks! Here are the highlights:

1. Jamee had Olivia who is beautiful and healthy!
2. Grandpa is finally starting treatment and getting out of the house a bit more
3. Two good friends have arrived home safe from Iraq
4. My students are fidgety and ready to be done for the summer, as am I
5. We bought plane tickets for summer break and get to be in Michigan for 23 days!!!!!!
6. I took my first online class, unofficially through Sarah, it was hard!
7. I found a new neurologist here in Yuma and he is very knowledgeable which is fantastic!
8. I have been continuing with Yoga and I really enjoy it - especially the dead bug pose:-)
9. My friend Shannon is moving to Tuscon and that makes me sad:-(
10. I had to break up a bloody fight and got blood on my pants, which got me thinking about going to self-defense school
11. It is HOT in Yuma now, summer has arrived!


That's what I have been up to, what about you? I will post more frequently now that things are winding down.

Shock and Awe

Monday was an exciting day in my room. One of my students almost killed them self and tried to kill the rest of us. Two of them, a boy and a girl, came up with a fantastic idea to put a gum wrapper in the electrical socket and see what would happen. What happened was a big burst of light came out and almost started a fire, there was a loud noise that brought other teachers running and my kids screaming and Daniel got a shock that knocked him out of a chair.

This was very scary but I had my calm teacher persona on and seemed very unrattled on the outside, inside it took me 2 hours to get my heart rate back down. Thank God no one was injured and nothing was damaged. Daniel learned a big lesson and now his mother is coming to school with him to make sure he is making sure he is behaving.


Today was another exciting chapter in my book as a student brought a joint to school and concealed it in her makeup case. Some students ratted her out and I tipped the police officer who searched her and found it. She was subsequently arrested and taken to juvenile hall where whe will be held until her parents pick her up. I won't be seeing her for a while that's for sure!