Tuesday, February 1, 2011

A Day in My Life- Quit Whining

There are weeks that I set up for myself that are so busy and out of control, I don't know what my problem is.  I don't know why I don't have the power to say "no" and just not do things.  Probably because most of the time, everything has its special place and time and it all works out.  My weeks are reasonable and no one gets hurt.  It's only when things pile up that disaster is imminent.  Here's a view of today.  Tomorrow will tie for a close second, but then it's smooth sailing through the rest of the week.

Normal start to the day.  Got up, made lunches, ate breakfast, didn't get the newspaper because it's gross out.  Second day in a row.  I don't mind running out if it's cold or hot or raining or snowing, but when it's sloppy, icy and nasty, I choose ignorance.  Reading today's paper would have prepared me for what was to come.  Got dressed, realized I have a serious problem with hem length.  I have 2 pairs of pants that I love, that are nice.  I like to wear them with heels, so I hem them that way.  This means if I wear them with super flats, they drag.  I have done something weird to my knee, so I think flats are the way to go this week.  I still think I can wear the too long pants.  I put them on and then get mad that I have to change.

Got my stuff together for my day, knowing it wouldn't end until long after dark.  Almost bit it 3 times trying to get to my car and put things in.  At one point, it was like Bambi on the ice with limbs all over the place.  But I did not fall.  And my feet did not get wet.  I forgot there was ice under this snow we got today.  Made for great walking into school too.

Got into school and remembered this is day 2 of the Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) food tasting that 8th grade is doing.  Everyone had to make a dish from a website I put together and then bring it in to sample.  It was a banana fest, let me tell you.  So, everyone had to bring their food to me first thing, lest a dish needing refrigeration should sit in a locker all day.  So I had to be in my room during homeroom.  Except a girl needed to upload something to the internet and only one of my computers will do that and I needed to be logged into the one that does it.  So we went to the library.  While things were being dropped off in my room.  And when I got to the library, I thought the librarian was hiding, so I gave her a hard time.  But she was crying.  Because the school committee voted last night to can all librarians in grades k-8 due to budget cuts for next year.  This was a royal shock because they play this game every year because the budget is awful, but they always give a variety of scenarios and drag it out.  This year, no scenarios, no dragging out.  They just voted and that's it.  Thanks, see you later.  So now I have to worry that my job isn't safe because in the scenarios they create every year, foreign language is usually next on the block after librarians.  Tense times and it was only 8:22am.  Had I read the paper, I would have been prepared for this.

Left the girl with the crying librarian so I could maintain order among the bananas and honeydew concoctions.  Taught 2 6th grade classes with nary a problem.  Didn't make them laugh today though.  Usually I have at least one comedic moment.  I didn't flamboyantly grab a boy's pen (that he stole from a teacher)and then proceed to fall into a desk like I did last week.  Didn't say in French smart flag instead of smart board like I did yesterday and then caught myself.  I wasn't feeling too funny after my encounter with the librarian.

On to 8th grade, for another food fest.  We had 2 yesterday, one today.  This group was really very creative and the presentation was much classier.  You can go view the food here.  If I don't smell another banana for the rest of February, I won't cry.  They had a blast.  Why does food make them so happy?  Tried fried plantains again today and they were much better.  Like a hash brown.  Yesterday's was not good.  I try not to eat things kids bring in, but I tried things that I thought were pretty  hard to screw up or sneeze all over.  Who am I kidding?  People are gross and lick their fingers and touch food.  All the time.

On to lunch duty.  The highlight of my week.  7th grade lunch duty.  The first time I did lunch duty this year, I slid on a pea and thought I was going down.  It's awful.  I used to not mind lunch duty, under a different principal.  Now, kids are allowed to table hop and raise holy hell once they are done eating.  And the dean just stands there and says it's so hard to keep track of who leaves their trash where.  This is the perfect opportunity to also be groped or at least get to 2nd base because they are allowed to sit as many to a table as can fit on the benches. These are round tables, meant to sit 2 to a bench.  That means 8 kids max.  There are upwards of a dozen at most tables.  I just hate this duty so much.  Hate.  It.  Dangerous.  Gross.

Then on to my own lunch.  Fun to chat, but everyone's gotta run.  Gotta do this.  Gotta do that.  So much for a 30 minute duty free lunch.

Then my prep which really means getting finished with the labels for the paintings in the My Impression of Impressionism project which is being hung at the cultural center today and opening on Friday.

Then come 2 7th grade classes.  They are finishing posters so they are working and I don't have to talk.  Then the announcements start coming about cancellations after school.  Except there are no cancellations.  But everyone has to go back to homeroom 7 minutes early.  But it's expected that the buses will be late due to the snow.  But everyone MUST go back to homeroom at 2:35.  If you say so, dean.

Then it's time for technology club because after school activities were not canceled as I had hoped they would be.  So, we work on our blogs.  Except one boy was absent last week and wants to start his.  But he doesn't know what to write.  And he thinks people will just come and visit his blog from outer space.  He should read this so he'll know what to write about.  And 2 kids come in while I'm in the computer lab and want to take quizzes they missed.  So I have to run back to my room to get them.

I  have to tell this little aside.  So, then one kids goes off to running club.  Running club takes place inside on rotten days. They run around the halls.  Not usually a problem.  I asked who manages running club and was SHOCKED to find out it's our custodian.  He doesn't seem fit to me or much of a runner.  But I guess he does.

So, about 20 minutes later, we can hear the gym teacher at the foot of the stairs REAMING out someone.  All about "running your mouth"  "if you keep it up, you'll never be allowed to run every again, for the rest of your life" something about "making such a problem for everyone you might not be allowed to run in the halls again" and on and on.  She was really livid.  And I guessed it was the kid who had been with me.  The same boy who stole a pen last week and made me trip on a desk.  He is such a PAIN IN THE ASS.;  So I  said out loud who I thought it was.  And this kid said "OH I thought she was yelling at the janitor!!"  which had me ROLLING on the floor.  We were all dying.  Imagining one adult talking to another like that.  Saying such silly things.

Then it's 3:50 and I must escort my kids to the cafeteria for the late buses.  As though they were in 1st grade.  They manage to get around the building all day unescorted, but after school, we must escort them to the cafeteria, lest they find trouble along the way.  So I escort my kids, but most do not.  And I wait until the dean gets there because it's not fair to leave them with someone else who also thinks he/she needs to stay until the dean gets there.  Unlike the teachers who just let them go, or who escort them but drop them at the door.  And the contract says we can go at 3:50 but the dean is never there at 3:50 and so I wait.  Because I'm good like that.  But I stew.

And then I was off to teach Rock Bottoms at the gym.  Where I no longer can use balls in the class because it's too big.  34 people today.  RI.DIC.U.LOUS.  And so unsafe.  Everyone has their steps out and we pretty much have to do everything within the confines of the area of the step so no one kills anyone else.  I used to use the weighted bars for them to do lots of challenging things upright, but apparently they make holes in the floor so now I can't use them.  HOLES?  I searched for holes but could not find any.  I think the owner is crazy.  There are no holes in the floor.  So, I am supposed to make these women do 8,000 squats and lunges for an hour because all of the stuff I like to use to try to shake it up and make it less boring but more challenging are becoming forbidden.   Just do them on the floor, lying down, she says.  Really? We can barely fit everyone upright, let alone laying down.

And then I had to go to the cultural center to hang the paintings for the project.  And then put the labels.  This was much faster than last year, but still took too long.  I didn't know the center would be open for a while because there was ballroom dancing and Spanish and knitting, so I raced from the gym to the center.  I could have come home for supper first and then gone.

So there you go.  And tomorrow is a lot like this but without the gym.  A meeting instead and then crocheting and then a French group oh and one more class than today and another meeting. And more slushy, nasty ass snow that isn't pretty or quaint.  Sloppy and messy.  And brown.

I could really use a snow day.

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