Monday, June 27, 2011

Summer time at last...

It’s finally summer!

I have been a bad blog owner for the past month, not because I’ve been neglecting to do so! No…my family has been hit with a bout of bad luck. It all started three weeks ago on a Friday night, when my mom tripped over the vacuum cord and fell. We had to take her to the ER – she ended up breaking her arm and smashing her shoulder into pieces. She was in the hospital for six days – four of those she was waiting to get operated on. I spent the night for 2 nights and my sister spent the night as well, she couldn’t move anywhere since she was lying in a bed with a broken arm. She needed help because the nurses were slow so we had to be there.

Fast forward to the next week, when my dad had scheduled surgery already planned. He has prostate cancer and he also needed a hernia repaired. Since my mom can’t drive, I was already doing all of the shopping and cooking once she got home. Now I am also chauffer to both my parents since my dad can’t drive either.

The day before my dad was supposed to be released from the hospital; my mom had another emergency and had to go to the ER. We ended up being in the ER until almost midnight that night. I needed a sweatshirt and some shoes since it got really cold, so my boyfriend took me home for a few minutes to grab some. On the way back we found my cat dead in the middle of the road. Someone hit him in the 5 minutes that we were at my house. I had to deal with that then pick up my mom who was waiting at the ER. Not a fun night.

The next morning, my dad got released from the hospital. We took him home, and about 2 hours later, his catheter stopped working. We had to take him back to the ER, and he was there for about 4 hours. We came home and ate dinner, and the same thing happened again. We went back at about 9:30 and didn’t get out of there until 2pm. This was a Saturday. The following Monday I started my summer job (Boys & Girls Club).

I also had a job interview for a teaching position at a charter school close by my house. It didn’t go so well, I was really distracted and couldn’t focus as much as I should have been able to. We will see what they have to say about it in a couple of weeks.

Things have finally started to slow down a bit…I’m dog sitting for a couple of days, but should be back to updating soon! xoxo

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Things I’ve learned working in a school



#5 – Children often times confuse poop for an art tool.
I cannot tell you how many times in a year I get an all-staff e-mail about a “poop artist” in the lower or upper el boys bathroom. More times than you want to know about!



#4 – Don’t assume a child knows how to do something – no matter how simple – because most of the time they can’t. Even after you teach it to them.
i.e. Today, at the end of fourth grade, one of my students couldn’t add 14 + 14 + 14 + 20 + 23. He put that the answer was 47, and then proceeded to tell me that he was “close” when I re-added it. 47 IS NOT ANYWHERE NEAR 85!! I was fuming.



#3 – Most kids are brutally honest.
They will ask you pretty much anything. The one question I got the most this year…”When are you going to make your hair yellow again? It looks better that way.” Brutally honest.



#2 – The gym teacher is always the favorite teacher.
There must be something inviting to a kid about a teacher who wears sweat pants and t-shirts to school every day of the week. In every school I’ve been in (with the exception of my middle school years) the gym teacher is ALWAYS the favorite. Kids love gym!! (PS - I know they get a bad rep from movies and tv shows...but in real life, they are the favorite!)



#1 – Never, and I mean NEVER, eat homemade baked goods for a student’s birthday.
You don’t know where those baked goods came from, and chances are they came from somewhere very unsanitary. I know it sounds mean, but in this year alone, I have seen students eating cupcakes and cookies with hairs baked on or in them on MANY occasions. It’s DISGUSTING. I don’t care how good they look, DON’T DO IT. You can eat baked goods from the store though! Those are usually safe J