February 06, 2012

PRELUDE TO AN ANEURYSM : MONDAY


Mondays are usually my favorite.  I have great classes on Monday & I enjoy starting new/fresh lessons.  However, this Monday was a textbook "MONDAY" that most people talk about.  Have you had those "MONDAY"s before?  I honestly felt my blood pressure rise during 3rd grade(and I don't have high blood pressure)....and feared having a brain aneurysm!!!!!!  I explained the objectives for the day because we had two projects happening simultaneously.  After explaining everything, I asked if there were any students that weren't there the previous week so that I could get them paper & explain the project that the other students were completing.  Two students raised their hands.  I took care of those students, and then began walking around the room.  There sat a student doing NOTHING.  "Where is your picture?", I asked.  "I don't have one..I wasn't here."  WHAT?!?!?!  Did they not hear me?? I have a big voice...I find it hard to believe they didn't hear me?!?  I calm myself down and get the student a piece of paper and explain the project to them.  I begin to walk around the room again.  What do I see???? YES...another student just setting there.  I go through the same discussion with the student I had just had with the other....and say to the class...PLEASE LISTEN!!  I'M NOT SPEAKING JUST TO HEAR MY OWN VOICE.  I begin to walk around the room again......YOU GUESSED IT...yet another student just setting there without the project I had told them to be working on(we've had a lot of kids out the past couple weeks....lot of bugs going around).  I wish I could say that this was the only issue I had during that class time.....but it was really only the beginning(literally..first 15 min. of class).    God has blessed me with great patience & understanding when it comes to my students....but today pressed the limits of that patience & understanding.  

17 comments:

  1. I'm sorry Ted, but I started giggling when I saw the photo of your "anuerysm".LOL I TOTALLY have had that same experience! I actually catch myself yelling something like, "I'm not speaking RUSSIAN here, folks!" STAND UP IF YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS WORKING ON BECAUSE YOU WERE NOT HERE!!!!! That usually scares some of them out of their stupor:)

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  2. SO funny -- I can completely empathize!! The only thing that annoys me as much as that is a student who walks in 10 minutes before the period ends!!!

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  3. The full moon has given every1 a strange version of sleep this week. Expect it to continue for another day or so.

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  4. Been there. Done that. Today is a new day!!! Hooray!

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  5. Annoying!!! I always tell the kids, it never okay to sit there doing nothing. Speak up for yourself!

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  6. This is so true. What makes it worse is that the non-English speakers usually have it figured out before the only-speaks English ones.

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  7. I have been told many times that I must have the patience of Jobe to do what I must for my job. And I think it's funny you refer to it as an aneurysm...because I say the same thing all the time. It's just one of those days and it's a test to show how really awesome we are as educators. We are amazing problem solvers that know how to respond with ease no matter what the hurdle may be.

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  8. I definitely empathize. Sometimes I don't notice that a student doesn't have a project until halfway through the class period! They really need to speak up....it's not going to help them to get more behind than they already were!

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  9. Thanks for the giggles... that was my friday! We have all had those days. Thankfully the next day is always a new day! I just put up in my room a new sign that says "Listen, Think, Question, Create!" Too many times my kiddos skip the listen and think and skip right to question and create. Hope today is better!

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  10. YEP... been there and done that! It's a full moon for sure! We have had alot of kids out too. I feel like a crazy person trying to catch everyone up. My 6th graders are the WORST when it comes to letting me know that they were not here last class. Since I only see them once a week, I can never remember who was absent. I try to put a piece of paper with the kids name on the back into their table folder if they are absent to avoid this problem. That way I dont' have to go searching for more paper when they return. The kids at the table will remember that I put one in there for the absentee and they catch him/her up!

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  11. I can totally relate! In fact, I just experienced this 2 classes ago, luckily I had a student volunteer to help out the two who weren't paying attention and she saved my blood pressure. However, I'm now waiting for a class that is almost 15 minutes late. That is bumping it back up by the second! Valentine's Day is soon folks I need your kids at school or they are gonna have broken hearts!

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  12. I can relate . . . today I just wish things were that calm. . . that's all I'm saying (sitting here in my seat mums the word!) People would not be bad mouthing teachers if they had a day in our shoes! We really are amazing people to care deeply about 600 of their kids every week (even when they neglect them), while our kids go with babysitters. That's all I'm saying. Rough one.

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  13. Happens all the time...

    What really gets me, is the kids who DON'T KNOW if they were there for the start of the project. Please tell me HOW they don't know if they did something already!

    And then there's those band lessons that have kids coming and going during my 5th grade classes, and we are in the middle of a big papier-mache project. They NEVER know what we are doing and they are always behind.

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  14. Hysterical! Been there,done that! We have had a few weeks like that around here! I was blaming it on the solar flairs but this week its the gigantic full moon.(really they just DON'T listen!)

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  15. Tina said...I'm having that kind of Thursday!

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  16. I'm having that kind of a Thursday. Thank God Friday is coming...

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  17. LOVE you photo - and yep, don't we all have those days! My kinders are always my challenge - as you can see by my Kindergarten Monkey Business post! Hope your next Monday is a good one! http://josettebrouwer.edublogs.org/2011/01/28/kindergarten-monkey-business/

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