Please Pray...

Please pray for those in Hawaii.  We have extended family members that live in Hawaii and hope that this tsunami will be minimal.   If you don't believe in praying then simply crossing a finger or two would be great also.  It should be hitting the state right about now so we're awaiting word on the strength of it. 

Understanding Mom...

 Years ago my brother had a toy that he loved.  It was great for creativity, fine motor skills, and skills such as sorting.   Despite the hundreds of little plastic bricks my mom bought for my brother, they still remained a pain.  The dreaded Lego's... or Toe Crunchers as my mom called them.   I LOVED them... even if I only built with the pieces my brother wasn't using.  That is unless I went into my brothers room when he was gone to build buildings.

However today... I felt my mothers distain for these plastic little blocks.  There was a total meltdown involving half of the class today on who gets to play with the new legos.  Nine kids with tears streaming down their face.   Not only that but we had a sub because the lead teacher was out today.  I had no clue what to do, so I followed what I thought the lead teacher would do, say "okay, we're going to fight then I'm putting the legos in the closet".  Mistake 1.

So my next solution was to divide up the tub into three big bowls (Seriously huge bowls) and put two kids at each bowl.  That meant almost half of the class would be at the legos and it was decided that I would put the kids at the bowls according to the class list.  Did this solve the issue? Not completely but the next meltdown only involved two students and lasted maybe 3 minutes max.  

Do I consider that a success... Absolutely.

Run of the classroom...

 Well today we had a sub lead teacher in our classroom.  What does that mean?  Usually it means that I am lead teaching all day and the sub is helping out in other ways.  However the best sub came in today and while I still directed most of the day, she was helpful with getting projects completed and keeping the kids distracted with a story time while I ran around turning in the lunch count and attendance.  However, the sub had never worked in a public school setting and has only worked with high school kids so my kids really tried to turn on the "charm" 4 year old style.  It worked for the most part with her because "they are so little! they are so cute!" which is true, but they are manipulative little kids if you don't watch out for yourself.  We had more "dramatic" tears than any other day that I've been there.  It was silly.  If a child didn't get their way... they cried... HARD.   However I showed her that if we just gave them a minute to cry and said something along the lines of "I'm sorry, we have to take turns and it is not your turn right now" the tears would stop and the evil little glare would appear.  It was as they they couldn't believe that we didn't fall for it.   The teacher inside of me was proud for that brief moment. I've learned their little tricks so that I cannot be manipulated by a 4 year old and passed on the info to a fellow teacher.   Watch out kiddos... Mrs. White is in the game.   We'll have a sub with us for probably the rest of the week but luckily it will be the same substitute all week.

   I have my ESL certification exam come up in two weeks so I'm starting to pick up on reading the study guide more.  I'm not too nervous because I've been lucky to be consistently in an ESL classroom since I started student teaching and now with this job.  Each teacher that I've been with has been amazing at sharing information in regards to ESL students and how to help with their learning.   I just need to work on the legal side of it all.   All of the studying reminds me of college, but luckily there is just one exam instead of five at the same time... wish me luck.

Operation Get Fit.... Failure.

    Operation get fit is officially a failure.  With strep throat and other stuff going on it just didn't work out yet. Plus I've just been lazy, i'm tired after work so I haven't been working out.  So I'm going to stop stressing about it and just relax for now. 

    Valentines day was kind of a bust too due to being ill but that is okay.  I didn't have the energy or opportunity to go out and get him a gift with being sick.  That sounds horrible but its the truth.  On a good note, I'm back 100% health wise, no more sore throat, sniffles, or stomach pains. 

    I keep meaning to write in here more, but life has been pretty boring lately.   Strep spanned a good two weeks and I still took it easy for another week to keep safe.  Meaning I went to work but I didn't do much of anything else. 

Work is getting pretty busy.  I'm back on bus duty, but have a new bus partner starting Monday.  That is fairly scary in itself because I'm still learning the route and pretty much 90% of the families only speak Spanish and I can only say "hello, how are you? I'm fine thank you" but in Spanish of course.  My partner is some new girl that was hired a week ago so I honestly haven't even met her.  This also means I'm no longer the new girl which is kind of neat.   We also have the book fair coming up soon so all of the assistants are broken up into committees to get it all ready.  I'm on the "Wish list" committee. We're in charge of the teachers wish list and decorating one of the hallways.   I'm curious on how well the wish list thing will go.  Will parents really buy the teachers books from the list?  This is an extremely poor neighborhood so I really can't imagine the teachers getting books except from a very few students in the school.  Maybe other coworkers kids, and a few families but for the most part who can afford a $14 book?  Many of these kids come to school dressed in summer clothes during the winter.  The director went out to buy kids coats this winter so they wouldn't freeze, I really think she paid for them with her own money but I could be wrong. 

I'm also slightly worried about getting a job for the spring.  To be hired on at this school then someone has to retire or transfer at the end of the school year.  Will that happen? Who knows.  So I still have applications everywhere and I'm just waiting to be contacted because that's all you really can do here in Houston.  Keep those fingers crossed.

     Well I made it back to work on Monday... only to start feeling cruddy by the end of the day Wednesday.  My strep came back and I'm now on round two of antibiotics.  This time I have a Z-Pac which everyone says is amazing however this is my first Z-Pac so we will see if it measures up to the hype.

     Luckily I have a great sub always lined up for me that is amazing and puts this classroom before anyone else.  Plus the kids LOVE her so that makes it easier on everyone.
    
     Husband is still winning the award for best hubby.  He picked up more fluids for me along with food to eat for lunch tomorrow and dinner for tonight.  I'm quite sure that this may be due to the fact that I'm asleep pretty much all evening which helps because he has a new Xbox video game that he is in love with.  Either way, we're both happy.

And The Best Husband Award Goes To....

Chris!!!    He has been wonderful in asking if I need anything and suggesting things that he'll get for me if I want.  So I've had shakes and slushes from Sonic recently due to feeling too hot and attempting to cool down.  I've pretty much freezed Chris out of whatever room I am in at the time due to having the fans on so high.  I have been so hot due to the fever that I turn on everything to help cool me down. So obviously you can tell I'm still  sick.  I feel quite a bit better but I'm still contagious for 24 more hours according to the doctor.  My throat hurts less and I can actually swallow real food finally.  I'm ready to go back to work, this stay home thing clearly isn't for me.  I need the social interaction and I need to be teaching.

 I miss my kids and I hate letting them down like this.   I feel blessed in having such a great school.  A few staff members have called me each day to check on me and reassure me that all is fine.  I seriously hate missing work, if I could have made it through the days this week and not been contagious then I would have gone back in ASAP.  So come on Strep, back down so nobody else gets hurt!

Snafu in Operation Get Fit...

We are now into Operation Get Healthy at the moment.  I contracted my first major illness from my precious four year olds, Strep Throat.  Okay so maybe it isn't technically considered major, but wow I can't imagine having this as a kid as uncomfortable as it is.  Oddly enough I contracted it during Germ Week.  This was a special week spent teaching 1 skill to keep healthy each day.  The last day I was there we talked about coughing and sneezing carefully.  How can you sneeze carefully? By sneezing into your elbow of course, unless you already have that tissue ready.  Well I lost count of the amount of kids that started coughing and sneezing on me.  The real mystery now is which kid was carrying the Streptococcal bacteria.  Apparently you can carry it but not have the symptoms and still pass it on.   I was sent home at noon on Monday for a low grade fever and being light headed, but I thought it was from another bug the night before.  Nope, but that bug I had the night before helped lower my immune system enough for the Strep to kick in rather than fight it from the start.   So I've been off work since mid-Monday and I feel horrible about that.  Luckily my teacher and co-workers are extremely supportive.  We had no clue that it was strep until today when I was able to get into a doctor who confirmed it and also banned me from work for the rest of the week.   I should be happy for the break right?  I would be except for the fact that I hate being home alone most of the day and not being there for my kids.  Luckily I have an amazing sub that was actually the long term sub for the class before I was hired so she knows the routine and really is a huge help to the other teacher in the classroom.  While it is not exactly healthy... I have already seen a little bit of weight loss since I've barely had any food since Sunday night due to lack of appetite which stems from the amount of effort and pain involved in swallowing anything other than icecream or apple sauce.  This is clearly not the way I planned it.  :(


On a really far off side note... Thank you to the lotto commission that allowed a second major million dollar lottery into Texas.  Hopefully the new Powerball lotto will bring in as much as they are saying for the Texas school fund.