The first good cry of the school year

I wrote my brother (who is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) a letter and told him the following:

"Well – my life has reached the point where I am prone to some serious meltdowns. It takes very little to tip me off!.

Exhibit A: After 4^th period today, I realized that one of my classroom ipads was missing. I totally freaked out. I looked all aver my classroom and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I had planned on going to my apartment during lunch to put dinner in the slow cooker, and then I had to write an IEP (a document that includes present levels, goals, accommodations, etc. for a student with a disability) during my prep period. My meeting was after school at 3:00 and I needed to be ready! I went to my apartment and put dinner together, then I went back to school and heated up my lunch, then went into my classroom and just cried. I couldn’t believe I had lost one of the ipads. I felt like I had finally lost it. Grad school and full time work and the business of my schedule had finally gotten to me and I was performing insufficiently. I was so sad. I called in the students from my last class (I called their 5^th period teachers and had them come to my classroom). They were awfully confused, but when I started explaining what I needed and asked them to open their backpacks so I could check inside, I started bawling – in front of them. NBD. Seriously. It was terrible and embarrassing. I let the kids go because they didn’t have the ipad and we had looked all over my classroom. So again, I started crying, and then I realized I needed to write my IEP, so the ipad was going to have to wait. So I wrote my IEP and then went to find my facilitator. I had texted her about the missing ipad, and when she saw me, she asked about the ipad and I just started crying AGAIN. (Seriously – there was no end to the tears. It was terrible.) I had to have one of the classroom aides cover my 6^th period because I still couldn’t control my tears and my face was red and splotchy. Holy cow I was a mess. Right as 6^th period started, another classroom aide went into my classroom to look for the ipad and she found it on my desk. I couldn’t even believe it. Was I blind?! Who knows how it got there or if I’m truly blind. It was seriously ridiculous.

That is just one story of how my days seem to be going lately. It’s just one more thing every day. Yesterday I realized I had brought the wrong computer to work (because I have two matching computers now). I couldn’t access the internet (because my computer was not registered at the school), so I was on my own. My smart board (which uses a projector) is out of commission because the light bulb burned out last Thursday morning and in the chaos of things, no one ordered it (although I was under the impression that it had been ordered). So I’m going old school style because I don’t have my smart board that I can use to project my lessons on! Ack.

That sounds awfully complainy – I really am happy and satisfied with how things are going. It’s just been one of those weeks!" 

I am fairly certain that sums up my life right now. I am seriously embarrassed at how I reacted to the whole missing ipad thing. When I brought my 4th period students in for a poorly executed interrogation, one student said, "Don't cry Ms. Damron! Everything will be okay." Another student looked at me and calmly said, "Ms. Damron, the worst case scenario is that someone stole the iPad." He further explained that said thief could have put the ipad in a locker or placed it somewhere hidden where it would not be discovered. It was kind of cute. 

That same girl who told me not to cry stopped by 7th period and asked if I had found the ipad. She sounded very concerned. 

I really do have great students. I love teaching. (Really - I'm not just saying that to make up for the apparent stress that my job/current emotional state sometimes incurs.)

-Ms. Damron-

One of those weeks...

It has just been one of those weeks! I feel like I have been GOING - GOING -GOING literally all week long. I had another grad school class on campus on Wednesday, and let me tell you, the thought of biking up to campus after a full day of work is seriously exhausting. And along those same lines - doing homework after an entire day at work is almost impossible because sitting down and concentrating on such a quiet, non-active activity makes me fall asleep!

Fortunately, I love the people in my cohort, and the information given in class was good. Still, I sure was tired.
To top it off, I went to bed late one night, and then the following night I didn't fall asleep until almost 1:00 am because I had so much on my mind! (I don't care what some people say - you canNOT just turn your brain off when you want to.)

Last night I went to Salt Lake to visit friends (which again, was fun, but took effort, energy, and time) and this weekend I'm going to Moab. I'm excited for this trip, but we are leaving early, so I will have to leave right after the bell rings and rush to meet up with the carpool. Who knows when I'll do my homework or prep lessons for next week!

This is the first lunch and prep period I've had this week where I've been able to sit down and actually relax for a few minutes and get some stuff done. I've been administering a standardized test to a student whose 3-year eligibility for Special Ed is due soon and it has taken my lunch and prep period to get it all done.

(Sigh.)

Even though this entry sounds complainy and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, I am still so grateful for my job. I love my students and things have been going so smoothly. So far, this year has been great!

-Ms. Damron-

Sub day went well

I have the students in my Writing Skills classes write in their journal for 5 minutes at the beginning of every period. One the day I had the sub, I gave the topic: "What do you think Ms. Damron is doing today? You can make up a story or write what she is actually doing." Here are some good blurbs for you:

"Ms. Damron is sleeping because she stayed up late last night until 12:00 pm. And when she wakes up she is going to go sky diving. After that is going to a fancy restaurant and ordering everything on the menu."

"Ms. Damron is at a petting zoo. She is petting all of the animals like goats, lions, tigers, and white tigers. She is having the time of her life. That is what I think Ms. Damron is doing."

"Ms. Damron is on a crazy adventure in a tropical jungle. With pousiness creatures all around the jungle, and she has to make get out alive. Tune in on the next show Saturday at 8 pm."

(very clever. haha although I don't know what "lousiness" means...)

"Miss Damron decided to take a day off. When she woke up she decided to call the school and take a day off. Then she got out of her bed. She made pancakes and she ate them all and then she decided to go back to bed."

(I wish this one had actually happened.)

The day I got back, I had them write about this topic: "What was the sub like yesterday?"

These were a few of the responses:

"The sub was pretty cool. And I think we should get a better sub that gives us candy and chips and maybe money. And that she let's us do whatever we want."

"The sub was boring, slow, dull. If I wanted a sub I would want a fun, active boy teacher. I would want a fun teacher because little breaks try to like make a game out of the work! That we had to do that day. Most of the subs I had were very strict, "No fun you can't work in groups." It would be fun to have a chilled out teacher."

"The sub we had yesterday was meen. She would not let us do anything we could not do our little bit about us. She go mad at us if we did not follow along to the story about the Chicago fire. That is the sub we had yesterday."

"The sub was really dull. and not helpful."

Hopefully the next sub is a bit less monotone! haha

-Ms. Damron-