Gripes of the Week... and It's Only Wednesday

Funny things (by funny I mean I have to laugh or I'll cry) have happened so far this week. Here's a brief taste since it is already past 11...

1- My kids and I had to wear coats during math time Monday morning because CMS is saving money by turning off the heat on the weekends. So if you had to pick how warm it would be at 5:30 am on Monday morning... yeah. Little do they realize that my classroom has two outside walls, one of which holds my whiteboard. The dry erase ink was FROZEN to the whiteboard... could not erase it.

2- I have now almost lost two scarves to near death school experiences, one with a forgotten hot glue gun and one with the industrial paper cutter in the media center.

3- One of my kids brought his backpack to school.... that his cat had peed in. Awesome that he didn't hesitate to put the urine soaked homework folder on my teaching table bright and early in the morning. I think I sprayed it with Lysol for approximately ten minutes.

4- When talking about intense lesson plan formats, another teacher exclaimed, "I mean, come on! We've all gone to school for this."

...Yeah, not really me so much. The other first grade teachers in the room and I thought it was unbearably funny.

5- My word family flip chart left on "g"-"art". I'm really proud of my kids for being mature and NOT flipping it to the previous letter when I wasn't looking. I was really tempted to do so myself.

6- I fell asleep at 7:04 pm last night, all ready to go to yoga... sort of. Something about eating a huge bowl of chili does NOT seem conducive to an hour and a half class. But really, asleep in a spandex suit and my Uggs (I mentioned how cold it's been in Charlotte, right?).

7- My kids' failure to understand what I'm asking sometimes. The question? "What are some places in your neighborhood that people all share?" One student's answer? "The United States!" This is the same one that told me Barack Obama had a jetpack in his Secret Lair beneath the White House... at least he's patriotic.

Gripes, but funny ones nonetheless. Nothing too serious. My kids have all been good this week, cute and funny (still driving me a little crazy, like always), but very good. I'll end on a few happy notes:

1- One student WHO never stops talking finally focusing during small group reading and PROGRESSING!!!

2- A student who hates writing apparently just hates writing in his chair. I let him sit in my spinny chair and he wrote more than I've ever seen him do... just great.

On that note, goodnight!