Saturday, February 6, 2010

Trivial Pursuit

I am terrible at Trivial Pursuit. Those of you who know me might pause and think "wait a minute, she is awesome at Trivial Pursuit." I know what you are thinking...I do...but what I am terrible at is losing. In fact, when I play with someone who is better than me I turn into a sulky, ridiculous idiot. Case in point: This morning, I was playing with my man, who is definitely as good, if not a better, player than I am. He started beating me within a few rolls of the dice, up three pies to one. I lost it...I started yelling at him and telling him that he was getting easy questions, telling him it was no fun to watch someone else answer questions. He has put up with it in the past...but today was the final straw...he called me out on being a baby...which I was...

The game was no fun...but we kept playing and it came down to the final question...and here is the kicker...I always bust him for not going to a very diverse college...I specifically bust him about not learning about Langston Hughes. I got a question on Langston Hughes...and I got it wrong...

I am pretty sure the universe was trying to tell me what a jackass I am...oh great universe thank you for humbling me in front of my peers...I will promise to not act like an idiot over Trivial Pursuit again, no matter who gets lucky rolls and super easy questions...

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Best Days

Today was great because yesterday was bad. My students came in expecting me to be angry with them and to tell them how much I didn't like them...but they were wrong. The fact that I wanted to come to work to see them and to tell them that I still loved them and that I wasn't mad at them made them very happy. I didn't dwell on yesterday and I just told them that I knew things would be better from now on.

We are going to do team building and communication activities at least a couple of times a week until the end of the year.

I am also re-reading "Teaching With Love and Logic" just to remind myself how to act in the classroom.

Thank god for the support of colleagues, my awesome assistant principal and of course the parents.

It's a good day!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

My First Post

Today was a bad day. I basically walked out of my room. I was only gone for a few minutes and I went right to the office in order to get an adult to go into my room so the kiddos would be supervised, but I left. I just could not take the disrespect for one more second...and I cried in front of them. I shocked them as much as I shocked myself. I have been going back and forth trying to decide if I did the right thing. I think I did do the right thing. They were so surprised that it shocked them into actually listening for a minute. I am nervous and excited for tomorrow to see what their reaction will be after having thought about it for a night. I wonder what they will say? The lesson that I take away from today is that no matter what I may go through on a day to day basis, I still love my job and I still love my students. I still want to see them tomorrow and I want to talk to them about literature and about social studies. I guess that is all I can hope for in a job....