Random thoughts for Thursday...
- I'm convinced that getting 3 children out of the house by 6:20 is impossible without making someone cry.
- Teaching as a profession has become more about butt kissing, teaching to a test, and making sure that everyone thinks that everything is just rosy. One of these days, that inevitable thing called REALITY is going to slap some of these folks across the face and they are going to wish that they'd seen the writing on the wall when their children were still malleable. As for now, I'm a nurse, waitress, statistician (one that needs to know how to skew data in many directions for many reasons), custodian, mama, teacher, and hopefully a miracle worker for a classroom full of students. It's no wonder the education system is such a train wreck. It's the darnedest thing! If teachers have to spend every moment trying to wade through red-tape and guess what the ever-changing rules are, they just can't TEACH!
- Grant's "know-it-all" attitude is bugging me. I told him that I'd pick him up in car line today because he had a music lesson. Nope. Dasha tried to tell him, too. I'd written everything down in HER agenda but he said it's too embarrassing for me to write it in his. Well, tomorrow, I'm thinking about using Sharpie to write it on his forehead. We'll see how embarrassing that is! I pulled up to pick them up and one of the SPED teachers was standing with a very distraught Dasha. Dasha just didn't understand why Grant wouldn't listen to her or even look at where I'd written the instructions in her agenda. Blah!
- Waiting at my school for an extra 40 minutes with the girls while waiting for Grant to show up proved to be nothing short of exhausting.
- I know I'm naive but I can't figure out if Grant is being serious about kids smushing up Smarties during lunch and snorting them. I can definitely see it happening in my mind but I don't want to believe it and I sure don't want to think that Grant finds it amusing.
- How is it that I don't have enough time during the instructional day to cover all of the standards I need to cover but Grant doesn't do a blasted thing at school? Today, he had "free time" for math period, and "free read" time during reading. He played badminton during PE and didn't do anything in SS because the teacher was dealing with a rogue student. When are they actually going to learn something (other than how to snort Smarties)?
- After a drama-free music lesson, Grant decided to use fingernail polish remover on his G.I. Joes to remove the Sharpie "blood" he'd spattered on them over the last few years. He didn't realize that finger nail polish remover would also take the paint off of the Joes, as well. Duh! To top it off, he poured the entire bottle of remover into a good bowl. Can you imagine what my bathroom smells like right now? If I don't make it into work tomorrow morning, someone might want to check on me. The acetone smell might have done me in during the night! Ugh
- I have to admit that most days, I'm pretty proud of the emotional damage I can take without flinching too much. I don't think I'm really becoming callused but I think some of the deeper wounds are healing nicely and can withstand a bit more poking. After receiving a tax bill in the mail with several digits in it and a note about where to remit payment to, I probably would have crumbled a few months ago. I didn't even lose my cool tonight, though. I was happy to learn that this sort of bill is already accounted for in my mortgage but, who knew? I sure didn't! Whew! There were some other bullets that came whizzing past me today, too, but I was able to watch them and then move on. Now, I was absolutely aware of the fact that those bullets were zipping very close to me but I maintained complete control (and no one was injured)! :)
- I'm looking forward to my break next week and I've got quite a "to do" list but I do plan on doing some fun things with the kids, too. Grant has a camping trip this weekend so it'll just me and the girls. I'm not sure what kind of mischief we can get into but I'm sure we'll figure something out!
