Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Crazy with a Capital C
Today was crazy. I woke up to find my knee totally swollen and stiff. Awesome. I called in to let my principal know I would be late. I knew my assistant would be out, so i had to go in or there would be no one to hold my class. (For those of you not familiar with DCPS, generally, if a class cant be covered, the children are split up and sent to other rooms... no matter what grade) I figured if I iced my knee and pumped myself full of advil, I'd at least be able to hobble enough to manage through the day. I figured right.
I got to school around 9:45 and I could literally HEAR my class from down the hall. I walk in to find an assistant from another class in my room with my children + children from another room. Oh, and two men are looking around my room, pointing at the walls.
"What is going on?" I managed to say in my calmest voice.
It turns out the two men are planning to paint my room in a few weeks. Seriously? Granted, my room is REALLY yellow, but I've grown to like it. More importantly, do you really think they can paint my room on a Saturday and I will be able to get it back together by Monday? I made a mini-fuss, so hopefully, they'll paint it over the summer.
On to the next issue. Why are there 6 extra children in my room? Another Montessori teacher is out, so they've split up her room. I now I have 29 children under the age of 5 in my room. With no assistant. Special is cancelled. And, remember, I'm hobbling.
Thankfully, a classroom grandparent came over to help out, and the extra 6 did get to go to special, which at least gave us some space for an hour. Phew.
During the mayhem (and yes, it was mayhem), there was, at least, some comedy.
My oldest third year is second planing on me. He is very bright and capable of doing advanced work, but all he wants to do is fidget and talk. This happens with at least one child every year. If I could, I'd send him straight to Elementary to put him at the bottom of the social pole and to be fascinated by others working with advanced materials. Sigh. One day.
Back to my second planer. After I talked to him multiple times about leaving other people's work alone (he can be quite smug about his intelligence), I gave him a blank piece of paper and asked him to make me a list of his favorite foods. You would have thought I asked him to jump into a bog of crocodiles by the reaction I got. I urged him just to "try", hoping it might spark something for him.
He actually did sit down and write something unassisted. He came up to me and announced in a very matter-of-fact tone:
"This says crap"
Indeed, the first word says "crap". I suppose he though I would be upset and would tell him to put the work away. (I told you this buggar is smart!) Instead, I returned his tone.
"Yes. It does. What else do you like to eat?"
Without flinching, he returned to his seat and promptly wrote: pancakes, sandwich, pizza and juice, which you can see in the picture.
This morning was not so much fun, but that was hilarious.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I got to school around 9:45 and I could literally HEAR my class from down the hall. I walk in to find an assistant from another class in my room with my children + children from another room. Oh, and two men are looking around my room, pointing at the walls.
"What is going on?" I managed to say in my calmest voice.
It turns out the two men are planning to paint my room in a few weeks. Seriously? Granted, my room is REALLY yellow, but I've grown to like it. More importantly, do you really think they can paint my room on a Saturday and I will be able to get it back together by Monday? I made a mini-fuss, so hopefully, they'll paint it over the summer.
On to the next issue. Why are there 6 extra children in my room? Another Montessori teacher is out, so they've split up her room. I now I have 29 children under the age of 5 in my room. With no assistant. Special is cancelled. And, remember, I'm hobbling.
Thankfully, a classroom grandparent came over to help out, and the extra 6 did get to go to special, which at least gave us some space for an hour. Phew.
During the mayhem (and yes, it was mayhem), there was, at least, some comedy.
My oldest third year is second planing on me. He is very bright and capable of doing advanced work, but all he wants to do is fidget and talk. This happens with at least one child every year. If I could, I'd send him straight to Elementary to put him at the bottom of the social pole and to be fascinated by others working with advanced materials. Sigh. One day.
Back to my second planer. After I talked to him multiple times about leaving other people's work alone (he can be quite smug about his intelligence), I gave him a blank piece of paper and asked him to make me a list of his favorite foods. You would have thought I asked him to jump into a bog of crocodiles by the reaction I got. I urged him just to "try", hoping it might spark something for him.
He actually did sit down and write something unassisted. He came up to me and announced in a very matter-of-fact tone:
"This says crap"
Indeed, the first word says "crap". I suppose he though I would be upset and would tell him to put the work away. (I told you this buggar is smart!) Instead, I returned his tone.
"Yes. It does. What else do you like to eat?"
Without flinching, he returned to his seat and promptly wrote: pancakes, sandwich, pizza and juice, which you can see in the picture.
This morning was not so much fun, but that was hilarious.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Wow, that is some morning! I hope your day got better after that! Visiting you from MBOB fb group.
ReplyDelete~ Ferly
Gifts We Use {to grow, love and serve}