The Living's Easy-ish

Ah, here it is. Summer vacation.

It doesn't really feel like it's summer vacation. I wore jeans and a sweatshirt today. And yesterday. And probably the day before. And for about 75% of this month. It's cold and cloudy and rainy and I hate it. Tomorrow is July and I still haven't been in the pool or to the beach.

But it also doesn't feel like summer because I'm not really working, which is surprisingly a very unsettling feeling. The past few summers I was either taking classes and doing some kind of teaching internship, or I taught summer school. While it wasn't exactly the same as during the regular year, it still felt like regular old work to me.

This year was the first year that I could maybe squeeze by financially during the summer without needing to have a full time summer school position. Oh, and I was totally stressed and lazy and unmotivated this spring to apply for any sort of summer school job. And after working the hardest I've ever worked over the past 10 months, did I REALLY want to spend the only 2 month break still writing lesson plans?!

The past few weeks I put together a few days of regular babysitting. The idea of wearing a t-shirt and flip flops and spending my day with the under 7 crowd, putting on sun screen and playing "ice cream store" and reading books sounded perfect. Today that's exactly what I did. (For the record, I played "ice cream store" for a total of close to 2 hours today...I ate a whole lot of imaginary rainbow slushes and the three year old special: Rockety Trout ice cream sundae.")

I'm just not really sure what to do on the days I'm not working. It's weird. Even though it's nice not having any kind of schedule, I feel like I should be doing something. I went up to the roof to read before dinner last night and I had an unsettling feeling in my stomach, like maybe I had literacy tests to correct or a math lesson to plan.

I'm sure I'll get used to this.

Probably sometime mid-August.

Just about when I have to get back into it all over again.


P.S.: My mom and I ran a race this weekend! Naturally, I rewarded myself with a snickers bar and 1/5 of the cookie dough from the batch I baked.

Laundry list

In the past 36 hours I have...

-Given somewhere around 50 hugs. Some students didn't give hugs, but others went for seconds.

-Used a "firm voice" to tell my students their behavior was completely ridiculous and unacceptable for the last day of school.

-Canceled one of the fun games I had planned yesterday for the last day because my students were behaving so unacceptably.

-Gave my students a pencil, and eraser, an envelope, and my home address so they can write me a letter this summer and don't forget everything about letter writing that I taught them this year.

-Told two students, "No, you cannot visit my house this summer now that you have my address. But you can write me a letter! And you can visit my classroom when you're in 4th grade!"

-Got my class' results for our No Child Left Behind state testing for the reading portion. Found out my class did awesome, at least relatively speaking. The scores would probably be horrifying for an affluent, English-speaking district, but in my district the scores were pretty good. My students were great, and they worked their butts off (not counting our miserable day yesterday).

-Emptied out every single cabinet/closet/bookshelf in my classroom.

-Put the contents from every single cabinet/closet/bookshelf into boxes.



-Moved said boxes to my new classroom. Built up muscle. Do you know how heavy math textbooks are?



-Unpacked the boxes and then repacked their contents into new cabinets/closets/bookshelves in my new classroom.

-Decided my new classroom has a much nicer view outside than my old classroom.

-Received a dozen red roses from student G., a dozen white roses from E., and assortment of flowers from K., and gorgeous peonies (my new fave flower recently) from my very sweet roommate.








-Received a whoopie pie (also from very sweet roommate) that looked like cookie monster eating a cookie. I would have taken a picture, but I have since destroyed it with a fork and my mouth.



-Got a round of applause from some of my school's students at the teacher appreciation luncheon today, and a trophy from the parents. It's spending the summer in my desk so I don't forget to put it in a prominent place on my desk next year!

-Ate some really, really yummy Central and South American food made by parents at the luncheon and decided I need someone from that region to adopt me and cook for me. I looove pupusas and tamales!


-Finished being a first year teacher. Thank god.

Sugar Overload

Yesterday I had a giant bag of Skittles and a some lollipops next to me while I did work. I ate so many of both that my teeth started to hurt. The good news is that today I have no desire to have any more Skittles. But that's probably also because I ate all of the red and purple ones.

That's all.

I love to play. I think that's probably why I still babysit on occasion and I have a bin of toys in my bedroom. It's no different at school. Third grade isn't really very fun, like I remember it when I was 8, long before the days of No Child Left Behind. In fact, I have specific intructions that our last day of school on Monday needs to be academic. I'm not there to babysit them and play a movie and color, so I'm told.

So when a fun day comes along, it's a ton of fun for my students, and for me too. Today we had field day, which is really just Field 90 Minutes. When you're nine, that feels like a long time though. I played along for a lot of the games and had a blast, and my kids thought it was so funny. One told me that she didn't know old people could jump rope. She had the nerve to say that she thought old people start getting really weak bones and joints. I've written her report card already, but tomorrow I'll get on the computer and make a few adjustments.

Then, on top of an already fun morning, this afternoon was the annual student-teacher basketball game. My kids that were playing have been trash talking me for the past few days, but they were SO excited that I was going to play. They loved seeing their teachers and principal in gym clothes and running around the gym. I did a little trash talking myself right before I stole the ball from one of my top math students. I definitely don't remember getting to do anything like that when I was little. I wish they would have the game more than just once a year next year. There were 50 students who were at school until 4, getting exercise, connecting to their teachers in another way, and not just plopped in front of a totally inappropriate tv show (Family Guy? Not meant for 9 year olds.).

The best part? The teachers beat the students, 44-41. And Ms. G. scored 8 points.

Directions for making your friends get totally pissed off at each other

Directions for making your friends get totally pissed off at each other:

Ingredients:
5-10 friends
beer, preferably cheep
deck of cards
attitude

Procedure:
1) Get bored "just drinking."
2) Decide to play a drinking game from college.
3) Choose "Asshole"
4) Spend 15 minutes trying to remember the rules. Then realize that 6 different colleges are represented and everyone played with different rules.
5) Quickly decide which rules to follow and begin playing.
6) Get angry with each other because someone can't remember the rules.
7) Get angry with each other because someone else misinterpreted the rules.
8) Get angry with each other because it's no fun being the asshole.
9) Get angrier still, because it's no fun being the asshole 4 times in a row.
10) Make an asshole hat out of beer box for the asshole in an attempt to lighten the mood.
11) Cut eye flap in the box so the asshole can see when they deal cards.
12) Feel shocked when the asshole doesn't think it's funny.
13) Remember that there's a reason that people in their late 20s don't play drinking games. Get cab and go home.

Guess what I did Saturday night?

Changes are coming

I've been stressed out all year (which is pretty apparent looking at the few times I've posted during this school year). Besides the regular stresses of my first year teaching 3rd grade, I've been worrying all year that I would be one of the new teachers getting axed due to budget cuts.

A week ago, I met with my principal for my year-end review. I asked if he knew if I had a job and where I'd be (word on the street was that they were planning on moving people to new positions). He told me he loved the job I've been doing in the bilingual classroom at my school, and wouldn't think of moving me for a few more years--if I felt like I wanted a change at that point.

I breathed a giant sigh of relief. I finally feel like I know what I'm doing and I know I have plans for how I want to do things different next year. It's so unlike me to make plans this far ahead. Because I teach in the bilingual program, I knew exactly which kids from 2nd grade would be in my class next year, and spent some time talking to the 2nd grade teacher and hearing all about who needs to sit right by me at all times and who is already reading at a mid-third grade level. I got really excited. I had a job. And I knew how to do it.

Cut to this week. We had a staff meeting after school on Tuesday, where they announced some giant changes to improve special education at my school. They're restructuring all of the grades pretty drastically to include classes that are inclusive of students with special needs. I zoned out for a good portion of this because it wouldn't affect me in my bilingual program. The principal said he'd come around the next day to tell people verbally where they'd be next year. Ha! I already knew!

Well, shortly after the meeting, the principal came to my classroom to tell me I was being moved. I'm going to teach one of the inclusive classrooms in 3rd grade. I was totally stunned. I'm pretty sure I didn't say anything to the principal during our entire conversation. Just nodded my head.

I was so upset. I worked so hard this year to learn how to balance the two classes that I teach...how to deal with the transitions each week, how to keep 46 students straight, and how to work with the Spanish teacher.

My new class will have 5-8 students with IEPs, which basically means they're required to receive some sort of services for special education. My class this year? 0 students with IEPs. My class next year will have half of all of the English language learners in 3rd grade. My class this year? 0 technically had the label ELL, though some of them were labeled that last year. My class next year will have half of the serious behavior issues. My class this year? Mostly angels (until spring fever hit). Why he thought I can do this, I'll never know. I don't have a whole lot of confidence in my ability to teach this class well right now.

The good news is that since I'm not licensed in SPED, I'll have a liasson whose job it is to help me plan for my sped students. I'll also have a whole lot of people coming into my room to work with my sped kids. The other good news was that because my class and another 3rd grade class would have ALL of the students with IEPs, the English language learners (uh, there's a lot in my district...), and a good chunk of the behavior issues (again, a lot in my district...) I would have a very small class--about 18-20 students. Most classes in my school this year have 25.

But this changed again yesterday, when I found out they had to get rid of one of the "regular" classes in 3rd grade. Now I'll actually have 27 students. I don't know what to even think.

27.

That's a lot. It's a lot even in a town where all the students speak English and have parents who read with them every night and 9 year olds don't deal with issues like wondering when their dad who was deported to South America is coming back.

But throw in 5 to 8 sped kids on top of that? Awesome.