I Think We May Have a Problem

This is what one of my students brought back to school today. It is his social studies book. He has been without it for the past two days. I told him that he needed to bring it back on Wednesday or he was talking to the principal about why he couldn't bring his book back to school. Well now I see why he couldn't.

It literally has been ripped out of the binding. In my seven years of teaching I have never seen anything like this. I asked him what happened and he told me that he left it at his babysitters and when he woke up the next morning this is what it looked like. I asked if Dad had seen it yet and he replied no. I believe that we have some anger issues going on here. What do you think?

So needless to say I was going to talk to Dad after 1st Communion practice tonight, and they failed to show up. However we did have one student there with a professional photographer and videographer. Hello....it is practice!

Why is teaching getting weirder as the years go on?

Monday Musings

Okay I step into my classroom this morning at 7:20 and looked at the phone in the classroom. Yup the dang red light was lit up. That meant that somebody left me a message. Nothing like having a message first thing on a Monday morning. I was going to try to ignore it, but my senses came to me and I listened.

It was the same parent whose child was nutty last week (aka the one who called me such a lovely name). She asked me to move her daughter away from two other students. Okay so I complied with that. Then when I saw mom, she asked if I had gotten her email. I replied that I haven't yet checked my email. So I went and checked my email and read what she had to say. Oh the joys of teaching.

Just when I thought the day couldn't get any better, a student came up to me after morning recess to tell me that another student just flicked her off. Oh what the heck!?! I called the student over to me and asked if he just flicked her off and he said yes. (Heck the kid was honest, I have to give him props for that!) I just said in a very calm voice that he was going to talk to the principal later and told him to sit back down.

Needless to say the student that did the flicking missed lunch recess and afternoon recess. Also my principal came in with the student after lunch and personally moved his desk back to a corner of the room and told him that was his new spot until he learned to respect other students.

Gee whiz...I really didn't have this much trouble teaching junior high students. Heck I am already counting down the days until the start of summer vacation....19 days! It really couldn't come soon enough.

She Said What?

I have a second grader who is beginning to test her parents. Needless to say that she has begun using swear words around them and I was told yesterday that she really wanted to get in trouble at school. This is my student who couldn't be anything but nice.

Mom also told me that when her daughter walked out of school yesterday, she walked straight up to mom and told her nothing about her day and just whispered to mom that "My teacher is a *itch." Needless to say mom went home and had the girl put soap in her mouth for a minute, just like she warned her she would do.

Why the mom felt the need to tell me is beyond me, but I think the student is wanting some attention. However, I'm sure that is not the first time some student had called me that. Heck I taught junior high for five years! However it is the first time a second grader has called me that.

Shouldn't a second grader be happy go-lucky? Gee whiz!

Goodnight Stella

Bruno and Stella...these were two dogs that we had gotten when my parents moved us out into the country. They were just pups. Over the years they had gotten into plenty of trouble.

They loved to run, because that is what shepard huskies loved to do. They once crossed the toll road and made it to the State Police station with no problem, they have swum in other people's swimming pools because it was so gosh darn hot when they ran away, and they loved the rabbits.

Over the years the goat pasture was made for the dogs to run around in safe secluded area. Then eventually the entire back woods was fenced off so they could frolic in the woods.

Bruno passed away about a year and a half ago and Stella was still going. Though her body was slowing down, she no longer ran like she used to. We could leave her dog cage open and she would wander and make her daily trips around the house.

Her hearing eventually left her last summer and I'm sure her eyesight was not the greatest. She began having seizures and it would knock her down, but she would get back up after it was over and go about her business.

For the past few weeks she has been having seizures that left her down a little longer than usual. Until last week when she just couldn't get back up. Her back legs just wouldn't cooperate. She enjoyed the sunshine of Wednesday night and the following night my parents had her put to sleep.

While my dad was out feeding the goats and the sheep tonight, he got locked in the barn with them. Somehow the latch caught itself. He had to go out through the gate of the pasture and he came back into the house asking who went out and locked the door on him. We said it wasn't us and he told us it was probably the ghost of Stella watching over the barn.

Goodnight Stella you had a good 15 years! :)

Something to Smile About

Fire Codes

The school had a visit from the state Fire Marshall last week and we were updated about fire codes.

We were told at our meeting yesterday that we must keep our classroom doors closed at all times because they are fire doors and apparently fire cannot make their way through them. So I am guessing that the hallway doors must be closed too? Does that mean that we are going to whack a few unsuspecting students?

We have also been told that our bulletin boards must NOT have any paper backing and that only 20% of the board can be filled.

Excuse me but what in the heck am I supposed to do with my calendar and message center? "Sorry kids, we cannot learn the calendar because it takes up more than 20% of the bulletin board." Also my bulletin boards are over 50 years old and they are not the prettiest things in the world, so paper backing is a must.

As for displaying student work out in the hall, I guess I can forget that too because having 16 students would definitely cover up more than 20% of the board.

If there is a fire, do you think that 20% of a bulletin board is going matter in the long run? I swear that some people have nothing better to do.

Keep it on the QT

This is what my principal said to me today. I'm a little confused but I think she was referring to the information she gave me on next year's teaching status. At the moment, there really should be only one third grade classroom because of the numbers for next year, which is 29 students. But this is way too many third graders to have in one classroom and plus combining the two classes for next year would be disastrous. They really do need another year to grow.

So my principal asked me if I was looking into other schools. I said that I am, but I am just looking. (I did sign my intent form saying that I was coming back next school year.) She told me that the school that I interviewed at last year probably would not have any openings (at least what she has heard). I also threw in the comment that maybe many people would not be getting out of teaching because of the way the economy is at the moment.

She said she was going to ask if we could have two third grades next year, just so I could have a teaching position. Gee thanks, it all rests on me. So if I do get another job, you are just going to throw 29 students together who really shouldn't be together? Thanks!

I just cannot seem to win. I am hoping that the six resumes that I sent to schools all within 10 minutes driving distance hopefully come through.

Only time will tell. Keep your fingers crossed. :)

Thank Goodness for Weekends

I am itching to settle into reading this weekend, although it might not happen as long as I would like. I am on a new series called the Sookie Stackhouse books and I am hooked. I can see how Twilight was adapted from this series, although these books are for adults. :)

However, I need to catch up on bookwork on Saturday at the station because my parents are out of town again in Houston. Dad is getting more chemo and they are having it all done down there. He has to go through four treatments, this is treatment number two. He goes back at the end of April and then the middle of May. So hopefully it does stop the cancer from growing. In the meantime, I get to get caught up on the sheets that my mom usually does, but I am slowly teaching myself how to do them.

Then since the parents are away, we have orders from them to go to church on Sunday because of it being Palm Sunday. I think my mom just wants us to go to the bake sale after church for the yummy peanut butter pie that she got last year from there. :)

Rosie has decided to plan out the entire day for us. So we are going to church, going out to breakfast and then going to look at/buy furniture for Tony. (I still have his credit card) Then at some point I have to get my pizza dough started because I told my parents that I would make dinner for them on Sunday night at their house because they get back into town that morning and my dad is going to be bushed. So homemade pizza is in order and I cannot wait to make it!

Have a restful weekend!

Bomb Threat

As I was trying to get students situated on a Phonics paper, we get a message over the intercom saying that all recesses were to be held inside today. I look out the window and the sun is shinning and I know for a fact that it was above 20 degrees.

Then the students are convinced that it is an April Fool's Day joke. But after five minutes they weren't so sure because no one came back on to say April Fool's! I knew that there had to be something going on, but we were given no information. So as the students were having inside recess, I got onto the computer and went to a news site hoping for some information. Nothing.

So as I was beginning to teach a rousing lesson on adjectives, the other second grade teacher came over and told me not to say anything to the students, but the court house got a bomb threat called in.

So long story short, nothing was found and the students got to go outside for the rest of the day's recesses. Although now I am thinking that maybe we should have done things differently. It really would be nice to be informed.