Monday, January 19, 2009

Ick.

This lovely thought from one of my social studies students:

"Mrs. N! Can you just imagine if a horse had to use a litter box?!?!?"

Woohoo!!!

18 degrees, baby!

They're goin' out!

Here's hoping

I found little tiny tire tracks on my whiteboard this morning.

Indoor recess strikes again.

We're starting at -4 degrees today. Hoping, hoping, hoping it gets above 10 before noon.


Thursday, January 15, 2009

Day 3 - Please God, Make It Stop

Floating Golf Ball experiment knocked over by children throwing tennis ball. Water everywhere.
Autistic Child with hands in ears screaming, "I'M NOT LISTENING! SEE I'M BEING BAD!"
One of them has bad bad gas. Too afraid to light a candle and have open flame around spastic children.
Breathing through mouth.
E. wants help finding a hiding place for hide and seek.

I tell her I'm a little swamped.

Snow Day needed. Badly.

Day 3

Indoor recess makes us think that Mrs. N's scotch tape not only can, but should be used to tape our noses and mouths shut.

It's days like these that make me think I should have become an accountant.

Day 3

Indoor Recess: Day three and counting: -19 degrees

There is gasping with joy when a jar of suckers is held up. Only the gasping doesn't end, because they're entertained by trying to outdo each other. They may pass out before they actually stop.

We're so watching a movie until I can ship them off to Art.

Monday, January 12, 2009

...and so it begins...

I'm really not sure I like winter anymore. It started snowing way early this year, and just hasn't stopped. And now...the cold begins.
We're looking at indoor recess all week long, folks.

And that's never pretty.

***update***
It's noon and I'm listening to the fourth graders storm outside for recess.
Yahooo!!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Broken again

Sometimes I wonder...how do the teachers who have been doing this job for 20 or 30 years have any heart left? Every year seems to bring another student who takes a slice of that heart.

Yesterday it was D. I've been fighting all year to have him tested for special education services. The child can tell you the prime factorization of 84, but can hardly read or write, which is an enormous red flag for possible learning problems.

But...there are issues. Mom and Dad are divorced and NOT amicably. Older sister isn't even allowed to see Dad because he molested her, but the judge let the boys stay, saying they'd survive.

D was called down to the office yesterday. I didn't know why. He came back during recess. "Doooo you wanna know why I had to go down to the office?

"If you'd like to tell me."

"It was social services people. But for Mom's house this time."

"...oh..."

"It's all cause Doug was hitting my sister, like really hitting her, like he wouldn't stop."

"Who's Doug?"

"Doug is um...he's the...well...the one my mom likes."

He left then, in true ADD fashion - distracted by something else - while I sat there feeling kicked in the gut. How does this kid have a chance? Dad's an abuser, Mom seems to have a pattern of relationships with abusive men, relationships that obviously leave her kids confused since D has no idea what to even call the latest guy - is he a boyfriend, fiance, what? All I can do is cry out to Jesus for this child - that somewhere along the line, he'll see what normal looks like, he'll know he can make different and hopefully better choices than his parents did, he'll know that this lifestyle isn't all there is, that there's more, that there's hope.

I cry out - and then I ask him if there's anything I can do for him. A puzzled stare. "Nope, I'm fine," he says, and I realize he probably wouldn't know what fine was if it walked up and hugged him.

Another piece of my heart, gone.