School, Meetings, Training, and PD

Friday, September 12 was an insane day. Something must have been in the water...really.

I go to school ready for a Friday. My kids start filling my room, when two students come in and tell me that they are suspended Mon/Tues because of a fight or something on the bus. Weird start to the day, but okay. Then, I take my kids to Art and go straight to my meeting, only to pick them up late from Art because the meeting ran long (they always do) and for those of you that know me, you know that I don't like to be late. I get back to my room and begin teaching. A little while into it, one of the boys turns into the hulk. This is the 3rd day of this. He bangs his head with both fists when he gets angry and scratches his nails down his face repeatedly. It may not sound too scary, but it freaked me out. I was honestly afraid that he was really going to hurt himself. I stopped everything and sat down by him trying to calm him down. Long story short, he calms down until we got into circle (about 5 minutes later), when he began it again. I had him sit next to me and told him that I was calling home because this was not okay. He actually calmed down after that.

As we are leaving the circle (about 10 minutes later), a girl asks if she can show me something. Of course. So, she hands me a piece of paper. From: NAME (I won't post his name) is on the front. I open it to find a picture that he drew of him on top of this girl, in bed. Let me just remind you....4th grade! I remember when I thought 14 was young to start that crap. Yikes. Where did their childhood go? So I take my kids to lunch and ask her to come with me (I got a duty-free lunch for the first time after 3 weeks). We go try to talk to the principal with no luck. I go back to my room, and come to find out I don't actually have duty free lunch. "Who is watching your kids?" Me: "Uhm, do I have to ask someone in particular?" "No, they just didn't show up today." Once again, no break in my day...at all. So I go back to lunch and at recess have another teaching watch my kids for a few minutes while I go talk to the principal. I end up sending 3 of my kids down because they were all involved and all lying about different things. While the Social Worker is with one of the students in my room, another student (the two that got in trouble this morning) threw a pencil at the other kid...and hit him in the eye. So I had to write up an incident report and deal with that and call home and whatnot. Finally, the kids left and it was time to go home. However, I had to go turn in my incident report and talk to the principal about what she decided. When I turned in the incident report, I got a, "Shame on you for letting him get hit with a pencil." Uhm, really? After the insane day that I just had and that's really what you're going to say to me? I was fine until she said that. They went to their cubbies to get their books and I turned around. Do I need to walk them over there and hold their hands? Kids are sneaky. Even if I saw him, it would have been impossible for me to stop him, except by just yelling at him.

*Sigh* Okay, I'm done. As for this week? Crazy busy. Mon-School/meeting, Tues-School/curriculum night(until 7:30) then progress reports that were due Wed until I went to bed, Wed-got up at 5:30/School/Professional Development, Thurs-School, Fri-School/Lesson Plans due(which means late night Thurs), Sat-Yeah, that's right, Saturday...Training from 8:30-3:30, which is when the Turkey Festival is. Turkey Festival? The single biggest event in Raeford. Boo. Oh, and Training next Sat, and then 3 more times.

But it's okay because it's all worth it. A parent yesterday: "Thank you for what you do."