Tag Archives: teachers live at school

>Things to do when the teen is sick

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>Read his cues.
How are you?
I don’t know. A little better.
Do you want to go to school?
Maybe. I don’t know.
(after breakfast of toast with jelly)
I feel weak and shaky.
Okay, I think you need to stay home.
He slept on the couch from 6:30 until 9:30 AM. He wanted to stay home, but wasn’t sure how to say it.

Make jello.
His stomach is feeling better, now he needs to fill it with safe foods that won’t irritate him and set him back to square one.

Work on schoolwork and other home projects while he sleeps.
He doesn’t really need me; he just needs the security of not being home alone.
I wrote a rough draft of a grant application, made jello, and drank half a pot of coffee while he was asleep. Still on my list: correct two stacks of papers, thaw something bland but tasty for supper, brainstorm a few fun blog posts just for fun.

Watch daytime TV.
Even in summertime, we don’t do this together very often. Today we watched The Price is Right and enjoyed seeing people get excited and jump up and down and win fabulous prizes while we snuggled up on the couch and drank coffee (me) and sprite (Amigo).

Chop ice on the driveway.
Well, any ice I chop will melt faster.
I only chopped a little because A.) it’s not really that warm out, and B.) I don’t want to reinjure my wrist or back. A little goes a long way.

Email his doctor about a related issue.
His acne medication can upset his stomach.
She agreed that he could stop taking it until he’s back to full strength because it could cause a relapse.

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>I’m not distractible, I can focus — look! a chicken!

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>Remember when I tallied a few of my report card comments and found these coming up frequently?
Easily distracted
Impulsive
Excess talking, needs better self-control
— and more like those?

Today I was reminded that I must, must talk with several parents about distractibility and the potential for medical intervention. If the child has a medical reason for restlessness and lack of control, it’s a whole different world from the child who chooses to act out.

The clocks were being reset semi-manually, from a remote controller in the school office. The kids pointed. “Look, it’s wrong!” “I know, kiddos, I have my watch on. I’ll take care of timing today.” “Look, it’s moving!” Sure enough, the clock was ticking, ticking, ticking along. But instead of seconds going by, the minute hand was moving steadily through its circles. Oh, I was so mean to insist they keep practicing their keyboarding skills on the computer when something so exciting was happening to the clock!!
One of the computers in my classroom pod was stuck in an endless loop of its boot-up cycle. I turned it off and called helpdesk. I had to: the kids were staring at it as it went through its cycle over and over and over and over again. I couldn’t imagine this being so entertaining, but I guess it was better than math class.
7 times 4 is — look! A spider! The girl nearest the spider panicked, turned so flushed I thought she’d throw up. Five – brave souls came running up to stomp it, followed by their best friends not wanting to miss anything. Solution? I picked it up and let it loose in the hallway to terrorize the girls’ bathroom across the hall.
Poor Charlotte. She never gets any respect. I know how she feels.

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>What a difference a year makes

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>I woke up Friday morning and didn’t feel the dread that used to envelop me after a difficult day. What was the difference? Location, location, location.
School personnel talk about building climate, and we don’t mean the heating and cooling systems. The current climate in my building is one of support and collaboration. My rough day was shared by others, and we got together to take positive action for change. Those changes were for kids, and we teachers were simply the means to the child-friendly end. Exhausting, yes, it was. I faded quickly after supper and didn’t even do my homework. Shhh…don’t tell my class!!
Now — yesterday, I woke up and went through my morning routine not whistling a happy tune, but at least looking forward to the day ahead. When I got to school, I had to let the bread supplier in the building. Poor guy was out there standing at the locked door in below-zero wind chill. Then I loaded two reams of paper into the copier as long as I was waiting for it to warm up. As I left the copy room through the cafeteria, a young girl had arrived at school much too early, so the chief cook and bottlewasher (don’t call her a lunch lady!) invited the girl to help set up for breakfast. It’s considered a privilege to Work Lunch or Breakfast, so this girl was smiling and feeling important.
Later that morning, the principal came zooming by and closed a few strategically located doors, letting us know that we should be prepared to secure the building if need be. I hurried my kids out of the gym and to the room, and they cooperated (for a change). Fortunately, the threat never became real, but I was relieved to know that my bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, bouncy bunch could handle a quick change like this without falling apart.
There were more issues and incidents throughout the day. It wouldn’t be teaching if a few memories weren’t created each day! But in the big picture, while I didn’t forget the difficult Thursday, I didn’t need to move to Australia, either.

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>No-Good Very Bad Days can happen to anyone.

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>Clues that my day wasn’t exactly stellar:

  • Getting out of the driveway was a major challenge (even for me!) because of the sheer size of the snowbanks.
  • I ran a yellow light rather than stop at the Longest Light in Town on the way to buy coffee from Jo to Go. Don’t tell the liaison officer from my school. She thinks I’m a law abiding teacher-citizen.
  • I touched base with five different staff members en route to the lounge to put my lunch in the fridge. At that point, I realized I was no longer holding my coffee.
  • The secretary (she was a bright point in my day!) made an all-call announcement that there was a cup from Jo to Go sitting behind her desk rapidly cooling. Mine!! My hazelnut!!
  • My students came in this morning with a major chip on their collective shoulders, making my work much harder and forcing me to be much meaner. Contrary to popular belief, “mean” is not good teaching.
  • Two computers in the lab were not turned off properly last night, leaving my youngsters to cope and wait. I can troubleshoot, but I can’t speed up the network. Fourth graders do not wait well.
  • Cardboard keyboard covers kept falling apart. I’ve asked and asked for replacements, but I haven’t gotten an answer — not even a definite no. I ran out of tape for repairs in the lab, and I’m doggone tired of fixing them every. single. lesson.
  • Four kids didn’t have their reading homework done, and that’s an improvement over yesterday’s seven. !!!
  • Instead of bringing a concern to the boss as a team, each team member ended up going in separately, therefore making the issue seem much less important.
  • Even though I needed to work at my desk over lunch, I needed the break more. I went to the lounge to vent a little and relax a lot.
  • Several students had put the chips back on their shoulders when they came back from lunch (see above). Not good.
  • I had to threaten detention to get one student to stop clowning around as he blew his nose. You don’t want the details: trust me.
  • A meeting was announced that I wasn’t certain included me, so I turned up just in case. Yes, it included me, but I didn’t have paper and pencil to take notes, so I’m sure I appeared clueless.
  • The coffee I bought at 6:45 and rescued from the school office at 7:30 was still 1/4 full and totally cold when the dismissal bell rang.
  • I drank it anyway.

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>Swag in a lunch bag

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>One thing that keeps me judging music festivals is this: festival managers treat their adjudicators (judges) like gold. They provide coffee, snacks, water, and more. Even when I’ve had a rough week at my regular teaching job, when I judge I feel like my time and my expertise is valued. This weekend was unusual even by those standards. At my most recent festival, there was a gift bag donated by one of our local music stores. Advertising aside (I’m already a faithful customer!), it outdid anything I’ve ever seen. In fact, it was almost overboard.

Here’s the basic inventory.
insulated lunch bag sporting name of music store
glass candy dish sporting store logo
tiny chocolate bars to fill dish (see above)
water bottle displaying logo and motto for store
week at-a-glance calendar with logo on cover
faux leather CD case, also with logo embossed on cover
several pencils and a ballpoint pen (suitably identifying their sponsor)
small notepad with logo watermark
folder boldly proclaiming store’s name, featuring young musicians enjoying their craft

I can’t complain about advertising when it’s on free and usable supplies. Most of the above will go to school with me or find a use at home (the chocolate? ahem). I must admit, though, even though I laughed out loud at the huge batch of goodies, it sure was nice to know they appreciated my work.

Photo from my new cell phone. Please excuse the blurriness; I’m still learning the ins and outs of the new phone and its camera.

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>I guess I won’t hog the microphone.

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>I’m sharing the stage with the Mayor tomorrow — for about 15 minutes. It’s Read Across America day, and our school is doing it up big. Read Across America celebrates uses Dr. Seuss’ birthday, March 2 as a target date to celebrate the love of reading. Since the magic date falls on a Sunday this year, we’re celebrating on February 29.
It’s a school spirit day, with everyone who cares to participate dressing in Cat in the Hat colors: red, white, and black. I hesitate to waste a casual Friday on a dress-up day, but since I dressed down for the talent show yesterday, I suppose it all evens out in the end. Husband asked if I was Thing One or Thing Two when I pulled out my red and white striped sweater to wear with my black pants. Most years I wear my official Seuss sweatshirt proclaiming One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish, but it’s a rather thick fleece, and the weather may be close to thirty degrees (that’s positively balmy, for those who were wondering).
So back to the staging of this event. We’ll open with a short talk by the mayor, possibly hear him read The Cat in the Hat, and then I’ll read my own Dr. Seuss tribute poem.
Then we’ll move from room to room and listen to a variety of Dr. Seuss books read by local volunteers and celebrity guests. After it’s all done, and the students have moved back to their classrooms, we’ll have cake. That may be the part the kiddos will look forward to the most! I plan a short period of SSR (Self-Selected Reading, also known as Silent Sustained Reading) to help my highly active class settle down after the excitement. I’d hate to send them home for the weekend wired to the max.
Then again, sending them home on a mild sugar high might be fair enough.
Back to the main topic, I won’t need to worry about upstaging the mayor. He gets top billing.
But can he rhyme?

Update–
I didn’t hog the microphone: he did. There wasn’t time enough for the poem, and I’m okay with that. The students enjoyed all of our guest readers, including two from the public library and one school board member. The board member complimented me on the poem; our librarian had included a copy in his “gift bag” for the day. Well, it’s not major swag like the Oscars, but we wanted to show our appreciation for their time. All in all, it was a good celebration.

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>Random thoughts on getting a passport renewed

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>I gathered everything I could possibly need for this application. Birth certificate, driver’s license, old passport, marriage license, proof of address, and more. I filled out the written form. I packed my checkbook.

It was much too easy.
When I arrived at the office, the official took my old passport, asked to see my driver’s license because my name had changed since the old passport, and that was all she needed.
But did she have to laugh at the photo?
I mean, really, we all looked like that in the late seventies, didn’t we? And the worker handling the application was my age, too. I’m sure her picture would have appeared just as dated as mine, if she had one from that era. The hair carefully feathered back from the face, big glasses with the photosensitive lenses (hot technology, it was), not to mention the plaid shirt with the solid color turtleneck under it. Hey, at least it was in black and white. That shirt had some pretty funky colors in it.

So she took my new photo, showed it to me, asked if it was okay (of course), and then took my money and handed over my receipts.
Sorry, I can’t post the old photo. The old passport is heading off to visit a few government offices while my new one goes through.
But it could be worse — it could be my school picture this year! Now that’s scary.

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>Fur Elise is not for amateurs

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(or) Reflections on a day spent judging piano solos

“Fur Elise” may be a standard, but it’s not easy. When middle school students realize this, maybe they’re stop butchering the piece. Poor Ludwig must be turning over in his grave — or at the least, decomposing.
Student performers introduce their own pieces before they play. This can lead to some interesting statements. “An interesting aspect of this piece is that it’s pretty.” “Something unique about this piece is, um, is, um — I’m sorry, I’ve done six of these intros today and I just can’t remember any more.”
Tears before the festival judge will not improve a rating — but it won’t harm it, either. We only judge the performance.
Excuses for mistakes will not improve a rating, either. See above.
Yes, I did overhear the neighborhood police liaison officer teasing the volunteer by telling her not to spill the donuts or she’d get a ticket.
Festival judges like coffee. At least I do. Keep it coming, and I’ll be more alert for much longer! (That’s a message to the festival managers, not to the performers, by the way.)

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>Kids these days

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>Kids these days. I was frustrated as all get out today, dealing with behaviors that were simply out of line and unacceptable. Most of all, I was sick and tired of dealing with the Diva/ Draft Choice type: those who decide that the rules are for everyone else. For example:
Despite the all-school assembly earlier this week discussing recent thefts and the tightening of rules and regulations, a student followed up immediately after the assembly by walking into the classroom unsupervised. When I reminded him firmly that he had broken the rule that we’d just reviewed, his response was, “But I needed my math book.” A few days later he and a friend turned up at the classroom door before the bell. “Oh, we were first in line.” Even after the principal pulled him into her office and issued a detention, he did it again this morning!! When I confronted him and asked him to tell me the rule about going into a classroom alone, he came back with, “But I needed an overdue book from my desk.” He spent afternoon recess in detention. Again.
Another student has been behaving badly and doesn’t respond to reminders and reinforcement. In fact, he talks back, making excuses and acting like he’s being picked on. The last straw came when I caught him throwing crayons. His “Uh-uh, I was just putting them back in the box!” did me in. He lost our end-of-the week reward, extra recess time, and had a note written to his parents. I know they won’t put up with this kind of rudeness and backtalk, and neither will I.
But really, kids these days. I’ve been allowing a small group to practice their talent show dance in my room at recess. A few of their friends stayed in and washed the chalkboards for me and then re-wrote the day’s date next to the daily schedule with a lovely flourish of well-practiced cursive writing. When I went to erase the board at the end of the day, I noticed they’d added a personal note. “Mrs. DaisyTeacher Rocks!”
Ah, kids these days. Aren’t they great?

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>Valentine, will you be mine?

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I’ve never been a big celebrator of Valentine’s Day. Husband and I used to go out for lunch or dinner when we were young and childless. Now and then we’d get a sitter and do the same thing. But now, we rarely celebrate this seemingly created-by-Hallmark date on the calendar. We have some nice Valentine stories in our past, and it’s a good time to look at wine glass as half full rather than half empty or (in engineering language) twice as big as it needs to be.

In the deep and philosophical approach, a day when Husband knew what I needed and took care of it, would be nice. But those days don’t happen very often because, well, we don’t need them very often. We take care of ourselves and each other a lot, but we also make sure there’s a little specialness now and then.

My February 14th would have been exhausting and crazy, if I’d been in school. I feel for my substitute! Being sick on Valentine’s Day was not in my planning book. My students are usually almost as hyped as they are for Christmas. Sugar, holiday, big snowstorm, long weekend ahead…oh, this sub might never speak to me again.

Husband has Friday, February 15th off, but it won’t be an easy day. He will be home with Amigo all day because teachers have staff development and students have no classes. They’ll probably sleep in, have a late breakfast, and then Husband will start packing for his weekend train show. As soon as I get home (if I’m well enough to go, that is), he’ll hit the road.

I don’t need a celebration of the hearts and flowers type. I’ll put a simple supper on the table Thursday as usual for a weekday, maybe simpler than usual due to the extra stress of being ill. If Husband is home early enough, maybe we’ll break open a bottle of wine and relax a little bit.

But I have to admit, he surprised me this morning with a coffee mug flower arrangement and a small package of really nice chocolates. What a sweetie!
Happy Love Thursday, everyone.

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