5 a.m. is awfully early . . .

We managed to roll out of bed at 5 a.m. -- on time and waking up without the benefit of the alarm (aside: Hubby gifted me some years back with a very expensive radio/CD player/alarm clock which is so complicated all I can do is set the time on it -- I've never gotten it to go off at any set time in the last three years -- which necessitated my learning to self-program getting up without alarm benefit). Hubby strolled to the kitchen in his undies to do the breakfast / lunch chores and I stumbled to the bathroom for the morning ablutions.
All dressed, dogs, Hubby, and I were out the door in the still dark, frigid wee morning hours and I was strolling down my classroom hallway by 6:15. The temps outside were 17 degrees and it wasn't that much warmer in my classroom.


The day ran fairly smoothly. The science teacher called to say one of mine refused to work and could she send him to me. Instead I suggested I come talk with him; sometimes it's as hard for the kids to get self-started as it is for the adults. When he found I wasn't mad, just rather amused that with only seven days left in the semester it was NOW that he decided not to work, he thought better of the situation. Seems he hadn't wanted to come to school today but his mother made him, so he conveniently left all his supplies at home. "Well, this is silly. You came. You knew we'd expect you to work. How do YOU want to handle this?" I queried and he agreed that getting pencil and paper from me and doing the vocabulary assignment wouldn't be such a bad deal.

In World History my two girls passed two benchmarks each. My student aid came in the last part of second block and instead of getting right to putting away Christmas decorations, came over and gave me a big hug from behind. Then she got right to work.

My para, who was absent the day before Christmas, was now absent the day after Christmas. My understanding is that you miss the day before AND the day after a holiday, the district will not pay you for the holiday. I hope she's found other employment because if she shows up this week without a doctor's note, the principal will suspend her for at least another two days without pay.

Third block completed all the assignments for Mockingbird. Now I'm just marking time with them. They work so diligently at this point that I hate to see them go. We have only the final left.

Lunch was taken up with a teacher from another community who is very, very unhappy with her life at my school and thought I might offer her some insight. I had little to contribute other than "hunker down, keep a low profile, and try NOT to piss anybody off." That's my current teaching philosophy, anyway. She wasn't really pleased that I wouldn't help her tilt at her windmills.

Fourth block went by quickly with the students working on a reading program on the computers in the lab. The kid from first block brought back the unused portion of his borrowed tablet just as the bell rang but had lost the pencil into the stratosphere. Then the SPED staff met for 30 minutes to review new procedures for alerting parents to IEP meetings. And it was time to go home.

My virus still hangs on. I feel crummy and on getting home went straight to bed. But I got an unsolicited hug from my student aid and that made the day all worthwhile.