My vacation/mental recuperation time has begun. I have a little over a week to finally get a hand on the chaos and confusion I've been feeling this school year. So how did I start it off. I got out of bed an hour ago. Breakfast is hot green tea and oatmeal cooling in the kitchen.

Quick Friday recap. Friday was the last day of school before the vacation. There was a lot of the usually nonsense, but I have to be honest, I seemed to be in a kind of daze -- that can happen with about 3 hours of sleep. I was just mentally counting down til 2:20pm. Through the temper tantrums, bickering, usual volume control issues, and bad behavior, I just felt happy for the coming break. After a $30 food frenzy/party, and hint of something more to come, I still had room reeking of ingratitude. The other 3rd teachers went on the field trip, with me left with their "no goes"(three in total). Five of my good kids (the only ones who paid), went with the other 3rd grade teachers on the trip to the community college performance of "The Nutcracker".

Also, a first grade teacher called to ask if she could leave two of her "button pushers" with me while her class did a Christmas show. Try not burning your bridges because you never know when you will need to cross one. I've needed to leave "button pushers" with her from time to time, so I did not hesitate for an instant to say yes. Since the upper grades were using the 90 minute literacy block for test prep, my time was not that bad. For me, I use the first part of the time for a practice test with testing conditions, then I use the second half for reviewing the practice test given. After that, we do a note-taking listening practice exercise. Day 2 of the ELA Test is a listening test. The kids are good at hearing but not listening. I also had my "Hypers" typing the character sketches of the absentees. I wanted my bulletin board finish before the start of the vacation, but I wasn't organized enough. I don't like having my students handwritten work up on the bulletin board. Besides, if they can spend hours online with the personal web pages and emailing, then they can type up a short assignment.

After lunch, my class had computer lab. Since my class is the last one on the schedule for Friday, the computer teacher lets us stay past the 45 minute time. Since I wanted my students to clean out their desks, I only gave them an extra 10 minutes. After cleaning out their desks, I quickly reviewed the math homework that I did not get to go over yesterday. To ensure that I had full 100% attention,I decided to use a bag of candy to "motivate" my students. One piece of candy for a correct answer. I purposely focused on the "button pushers", the old softy in me resurfaced. They got no party, and no present, I wanted them to at least feel like they got something. Dismissal went smoothly. Then Sticky Fingers almost ruined my post-day's end/vacation start" high. About 10 minutes after the class was dismissed, SF knocks on my classroom door saying "pencil case, pencil case, I'm here to get my pencil case". I had told her that she would not get it (nor the other junk) until her mother came to get it. Well, sure enough, mom was in tow. I explained to the mother the things SF was doing during my lessons and how she (SF) was playing not working, and the low scores were a warning that SF might fail because she doesn't take her school work serious. All I got from the mother was a gum chew um hmmm. Then they start talking in some African language Yoruba or Swahili (I'm not sure). This is the same woman who (in September)spoke fluent English and told her daughter to speak English in my presence. Also the same woman who told me to throw away anything not related to school work. As I handed her each item(make up, toys, kid's celebrity magazine, rubber bands, etc...) that I'd taken during my lessons over the months, the mother still with the extremely annoying gum chewing um hmms, just handed them to Sticky Fingers. What about the father? Remember the one who struck fear in SF. The last time I saw him was last month in the hallway (on his way to see about his other daughter). The standard unconscious question blurted out, "how's she(SF) doing?". My response of "Well, if you wanted to know...". His response, a nervous laughing "Oh, come on help me out". Don't you just love that support. This Christmas (according to SF), she will be getting her father's old computer for herself.

I have to say, that support at home really makes my job what it is. :(

After a 30 minute chat with ATH (with me devouring about 2lbs of leftover cake), and paycheck pick-up. Flittered away the time until about 4:30pm, then I got moving. I had to manual attach my flash drive to five different computers so that I could save a copy of my students' character sketches. Over the vacation, I will (I hope) correct them. Since the computers are old and frequently freeze, I had to pull out the computer tables and attach my flash drive as oppose to just emailing the documents to myself. Also the floppy drives don't work either. Also, I finally put up the manual pencil sharpener. The electric pencil sharpener on top of burning out too quickly, is too much of a toy for my students. I like the manual sharpener better. Since I am not very mechanically inclined it took me about 10 to 15 minutes to measure and drill the holes into the cabinet. Before that, I spent about 15 minutes removing the broken pencil that a student from last year had jammed in (eraser side first). With about an hour before the building would be likely closed. I changed tactics from end of the year cleaning to "next day" prep. In other words, pretending that it was just another weekend, and I would be back in a couple of days. I changed the (classroom) calendar(lots of pieces and bits of sticky tack). I washed the board and put up the Wednesday schedule (the day we return), put up a morning Do Now on the board. I was out of the building about 7:30pm. Since I had about 30 minutes in the Bronx for the next MN train, I went to the Chinese restaurant. Yes, I remember what I wrote in a previous blog entry. :) I ate a small greasy order of beef lo mein telling myself that I will start at the gym this coming week.

Home about 8:45pm. After a cup of prune juice (beginning a daily routine of drinking cup of prune juice in the evening and orange juice in the morning), I was out like a light. My goal this weekend is to continue my previous weekend routines acting as if school will be opened on Monday. With only 3 days to plan for the week school resumes, I should be able to plan for 3 days. If I accomplish nothing else this vacation, my one main goal is to have lesson plans, homework sheet done for the first week back to school, and laundry done. I know that if I don't do any of the above mentioned things these first couple of days, then those things won't get done until the last day of the vacation, then the stress resumes until the next vacation. I'm hoping that this is the time that I will finally get back to sanity. I like the idea that the "New Year" is coming. the best time to start new routines. For someone like myself who likes things orderly and neat (even when they are not), having a new year to begin new routines is very appealing. Considering I just spent a couple of hours at this computer with my breakfast still "cooling in the kitchen", I am not off to a good start. However, I did tell myself that I should treat this weekend like the previous weekend. Saturday for recuperation, and Sunday for recovery. If my lesson plans and laundry are done by Sunday evening, then I will be very, very happy. And I know, that 2008 will be my Phoenix Year. :)


Post Date - Saturday, December 22, 2007 3:47PM