What a Wednesday

Hi friends!
So today was quite a day! I had 5 students out today. 5!! And my student teacher was out too!! Flu shot, here I come!
Can you imagine what it was like in my classroom today?? It was so calm and quiet. We do centers each day for an hour and I usually have parent volunteers but my parent volunteer was sick today, too! So it was just me and my students today. It was so nice. After our calm centers, we started our Language Arts block. Do you remember D? Well this is the worst part of the day for him. Language Arts time is the time he dreads the most so he decided he wouldn't come back to the classroom. I gotta figure something out for that kiddo. Anyway, during our language arts block, it happened... dun, dun, dun! The fire alarm!!!! This was my train of thought: What's that noise? Is that the bell? What time is it? Are those more bells? Crap! (I go outside to make sure that those were bells because my classroom is far from the bells) Crap! What's today? Did I miss the drill? Crap! Then, "Ok boys and girls we are going to STOP what you are are doing, stand up and get in line." Yeah, I scared them a little with my serious-get-in-line-now voice. So D was already outside of our classroom, he saw everyone else and jumped in line (with a little prompting). We head over to the field to line up and D starts running. Running laps around the field. Just running. Having the time of his life. The entire school is outside at this point and D is running laps. What could I do? I giggled a little. There was nothing else. We figured out quickly that he just needed to let out some energy. When he was tired, he returned to class. After the drill- oh wait, it was a drill because a 4th grader accidentally pulled the alarm- we returned to class, finished out language arts lesson and moved right into Social studies where we continued to talk about the Statue of Liberty. No pictures of that today. Bummer. We watched a great youtube clip of a tour of the Statue. It was awesome, the kids were really excited about it. So during this lesson, I got a little surprise...I's parents showed up! With cupcakes, and juice, and goody bags for I's birthday. Surprise! Ugh. I hate when that happens. I really do. An entire hour before lunch. Double Ugh. We were still in the middle of the lesson. So I made them be volunteers for a few before I said we could actually eat those cupcakes and have those juices. Then I look over and mom is cutting I's statue for her. REALLY? Come on, mom, let your kid do her work. Can you tell I was annoyed?? So finally, I said it was ok to have some cupcakes BUT I had to inspect the ingredients first because I have students severely allergic to nuts including things that are made on shared equipment of nuts. Luckily, these were safe. Next, I had to inspect the ingredients again for gluten because I have a student severely allergic to gluten. Not safe. This student now has to eat fruit snacks while everyone else gets cupcakes. See why I hate these surprises? Then it was lunch time. Finally. But I have lunch duty today so I have exactly 15 minutes to heat up my food, get homework ready to be copied, help R find his lost lunchbox, scarf down my food, and report for duty. Ugh. After lunch, the birthday girl went home so now I have 6 students out and Art class. Pure bliss.
Here are some shots of my students at centers today. They were math centers 2 focusing on graphing, 1 reviewing patterns and 1 fun, creative one.

hmmm... one of these pages doesn't look right... We graphed the candy corn in our bags

We graphed the dinosaurs on the table

This one is from yesterday but I put it here because I love to see them on task and working together.

 Ok friends, be back soon!

You HAVE to hear about my day!

Hi Friends!
Seriously, I have to tell you all about my day because what. a. doozy!

Oh, Ryan! Thanks, running around my classroom and your mind can be quite exhausting.

I started my day running late because I wanted to make sure that I packed myself a lunch and a snack AND I wanted to make sure that I had breakfast. So, I was running a little bit late but that's okay, I'll still be there on time, just not as early as I wanted to. Then I got in my car. No gas. Great. Now I'm 15 minutes later than I want to be. I text my co-teacher to make sure that my classroom door was unlocked because I told my student teacher that I would be at school by 7:45 everyday and that was not happening today! The door was unlocked and she got in fine. In fact, she even took my chairs down and fixed up the carpets for me. So nice. The day begins with 7 8 adults in my classroom. Me, my co-teacher, 2 paraprofessionals, 1 new paraprofessional observing before she starts, a field work student, my student teacher and a parent volunteer. That's a LOT of people. That's a LOT of tall people. lol. So that was a disaster for one of my students. Let's call him D. D had 1 person working with him, 3 people watching them. He was not having it! D was putting on a show for everyone watching, it was called "The Watch Me Get Out of Working Show." So that was that. Today was a short day so our schedule was funky and the D wasn't having that either. We went on... Finished centers, did our SuperKids lesson, discussed C, O and G, O being a vowel... then we went to the library... fine... then I found out that there was an assembly after lunch. Crap! I haven't even taught my math lesson yet. UGH! Lunch goes as fast as it comes and then it's time for the assembly. An assembly about a fundraiser. UGH! Assemblies with kindergarteners are never fun AND it was a packed house. So packed that 2 of my students were scared because of the noise and chaos around. Then we head back to class, 30 minutes wasted... I praise the kids for sitting so nicely and now we have 20 minutes to start and finish our math lesson, pack up our things and count up our marbles and head home. So I start the math lesson. Remember D? Well he didn't want to do this math lesson so he decided that he wouldn't and he began to tantrum. D is a bright student who is more than capable of completing all tasks despite his disability. Remember "The Watch Me Get Out of Working Show"? well, it was back on. This time with screaming. I am teaching my math lesson, trying to at least, and the rest of my students are just a little distracted. We have been working through these type of distractions so they are practically un-phased  by the screaming. We continue with the math lesson...
Me: "Around the tree, around the tree, that's the way to make a three. You try it."
Class: (quietly to themselves) "around the tree, around the tree..."
We continue through the number 5. Then it begins.
D is screaming and my replacement para (oh yeah, my afternoon para called out today, double ugh!) is trying her best to get him to come back to join the class. Then E hears his screaming and begins to scream. The rest of the class is trying their very best to continue with me. D really wants to sit in a bean bag but he has to complete a number first. He doesn't like that idea so he screams. E screams too. The rest of the class carries on. D is still upset so he takes off his shoes and socks (which often happens). The rest of the class carries on. My para decides that the bean bags are too much of  a distraction so she takes them next door to be out of sight. The class carries on. As she does this D takes off ALL OF HIS CLOTHES!! All of them! This NEVER happens! D begins to run around the classroom. I catch him. Pick him up and take him to the para professional, demand that he put his clothes on and walk back to teach the rest of the lesson. The rest of the class is TOTALLY DISTRACTED!!! Oh my goodness. D had all of his clothes off, E was screaming each time D screamed, kids were trying to pack up their stuff and I'm trying to keep the class's attention! Can I remind you that this was within a 20 minute time block? OH MY!!!!! The rest of the class did a great job of keeping their attention on me. They were really respectful of the frustration that D was going through. I could see them glancing through the corners of their eyes but I couldn't blame them. This afternoon was a hot mess. I have to laugh about it now. I wonder what my students are going to say about their day today...
lol... I need a foot rub, a drink and a hug.

Good news though... my rock star student teacher from last year just got offered a long term sub position at my school!!! (Congrats Sandra! Start looking up those 3rd grade standards!) We talked about having her guest blog here to talk about her Adventures of a Substitute Teacher! I'm excited about that.

Ok friends, I hope that reading about my day made you feel a little better about yours. Oh! No! Wait one more thing! During all of this craziness, my sandal broke!

 Do you see that it is ripped there where the toe is? So, while D was screaming and disrobing and E was screaming and my students were losing their homework from the classroom to their backpacks, I was limping trying to make sure my foot didn't fall out of my sandals!! I was so sad. These were my favorite!!
Fingers crossing for a better day tomorrow, with everyone's clothes on. lol.