Stop!

I say "stop" a lot during my day. In the last 10 minutes, I've used this very important word in the following ways:

-stop talking
-stop clicking your pens
-stop drumming your pens
-stop slamming your books on your desks
-stop drawing on your arm
-stop whispering to your neighbor

AND my personal favorite
-stop coloring your hair

Perspective

I had what might be the most annoying parent conversation of my teaching career so far today.

Met with a student and his mom to discuss why he is going to fail my class if he doesn't start turning in homework. The mom acted as if this kind of thing had not been said to her before about her son...which I know is not true based on looking at his file. He's a great kid...he just doesn't turn anything in and that doesn't fly in my class.

Kid left so it's just me and mom. She proceeds to say that she wanted to "give me some perspective" on her son's schedule. She then tells me how much he loves sports...and how the amount of homework he has every night is conflicting with his sports. She said "i just want you to keep that in mind when you are planning...just some perspective."

In my fantasy I said "Are you freaking kidding me? I'll show you some perspective, the perspective of my hand hitting your stupid face."

In real life I said, "thanks, i'll keep that in mind"

I made the right choice not to give her a piece of my mind about how my job is to actually educate her son...not worry about how perfect his jump shot is.

What a joke.

When You're Fifty...

It's Wednesday, chapel day.

The guest is a musician and half way through chapel, he passes out four sets of instruments to students in the crowd. He tells each student to keep one instrument and give one to a teacher. Once they've done that, they're supposed to bring their teacher on stage.

Caroline decides to give her instrument to me so we walk up on stage. The singer directs us to his left and his right saying "I want two teachers and two students on each side." He looks to the left, confirms it's as he asked. He looks to the right (where Caroline and I are standing) and he put his foot in his mouth with the following statement "ok and I see three students and one teacher."

It takes me about two seconds to realize he's talking about me and has decided I'm also a student. So I laugh, tell him I'm actually the teacher and he is clearly mortified. Everyone's laughing except for a few of the girls in my "fan club" who are so offended on my behalf that they are actually screaming at him. I believe their cries of injustice went something like "NO THAT IS NOT A STUDENT, THAT IS MRS HASLAM"

It was great. He was major embarrassed, I was amused. So I look 12. Everyone says I'll appreciate it when I'm 50.

like mother, like son

We have conferences this Friday. They are student led meaning the student comes with his/her parents and lead each teacher through a conference handout that has been created by each teacher. Parents may opt to either have their conference at school with the teacher or at home.

The plan/schedule has been communicated to parents in a minimum of three ways so that there aren't any major questions. They've been emailed, sent a newsletter and been informed via our online grading system. I even sent them all an email on Friday explaining it a way that a preschooler could understand just in case there were any questions. (no offense to all my preschool aged readers)

Today I emailed a mom asking that she schedule a conference for her son. The primary reason I want to talk with this boy's parents is because he simply does not pay attention in class. This boy is the reason I repeat myself at least 10 times a class and it's starting to make me crazy. No matter how many times I have explained things, this students inevitably will ask a question that's been answered three times already. Bottom line, he's not paying attention.

In response to my email, the mom says "yes we are interested in a conference...but don't have any idea about them. when are they, what are they and how do we schedule one?"

while my response to her was helpful, what I really wanted to say was "well now I know where he gets it..."

School Starts Tomorrow...

I swear that just yesterday it was June and somehow I woke up this morning and it was the last day of August. That means that school starts tomorrow and I cannot wait! Given that it was not all that long ago that I was having my first day of school at King's as a student, I thought it would be fun to compare my first day of 6th grade with my first day tomorrow. here we go:

6th grade:

- first day of school outfit was picked three weeks prior and probably hanging on my closet for at least a week. it consisted of a one piece dress thing that had a floral top and a denim bottom. i also wore some very clunky white shoes that looks REALLY good with my white chicken legs.

- new backpack was my first Jansport. that was a BIG deal to me. in that Jansport was my cornucopia of new schools supplies which were still in their boxes b/c I wanted everyone to know they were fresh.

- lunch, as always, was WAY better than any other lunch I would receive throughout the year. pretty sure there was a squeezit and a dunk-a-roo in there.

-no friends yet. I was the new girl. one of the first people to say Hi to me is someone I still consider a close friend today, thanks Kristen.

-david h: back then he was just one of the cute rowdy boys in my class. if I had to guess, he probably had a girlfriend within the first 5 minutes of the first day.

flash forward.

first day of school 2009:

- i still don't know what I am going to wear because...well...i don't care. probably some classic khaki's and one of my TWO new sweaters. regardless my students will look better than me so why put in all that much effort right?

- lunch will consist of a diet coke, half a baguette (picture like 8 inches of bread) and some chicken soup left over from dinner since I'm a little under the weather. no squeezit or dunk-a-roo. shoot, serious downgrade.

- no backpack, just the same janky purse that needs to be replaced. but it's yellow and I love it.

- not only do i have a rather large following of now 8th grade girls who love me but i will also instantly become the buddy of all those sad looking terrified 7th graders. I love the first day b/c all of the students are still nice...

- david H is now my husband (upgrade!) but he is out of town so he misses all the first week of school stuff. lucky for him i'll have this blog so he won't miss any stories.

keep reading...i'm sure this years 7th graders are bound to be just as funny as last year's bunch!

god IS good

the past few days have been full of countless reminders that though He certainly has more important things to deal with, God loves even me and hears my prayers. Here are just a few examples of God's faithfulness over the last week:

-providing my sister with a grandmother willing to help out in a MAJOR way during a small financial crisis. bless you Jan Buck.

- seating Melissa next to a military girlfriend with an anxiety disorder on her flight to Texas. Given their similarities, Melissa talked to this girl the entire flight and didn't spend a minute worrying about her fear of flying.

- providing Melissa with a very nice lady from Texas who offered her a ride to the hotel so Melissa didn't have to take a creepy taxi

- rescuing the 17 year old cat from what seemed like a hopeless situation. <---- it is this particular instance that really made me smile b/c God cares enough about me to answer my prayer to get the freaking cat out from behind the tub

These are simple things, SO minor in the scheme of what other people are dealing with, and yet God is a loving, faithful God. What a blessing it is to know that I can call out on God no matter what the situation (including a tub trapped cat) and believing whole heartedly that He will hear my cry.

to Potter or not to Potter

at 12:00 tonight Harry Potter 5 is released. David is out of town so IF I want to see it asap, I'd have to go by myself. time to do some pros and cons:

Pros:

- i've been waiting forever for this movie to come out.

- i would be in a sea of other Harry fans where the chances of my getting recognized at a midnight showing would be pretty scarce

- i wouldn't have to sit by my hubby who would inevitably would do his best to embarrass me and my love of HP

Cons:

- people dressed up as characters. It might seem like I would enjoy this but even I, a super nerd, think this is beyond lame. The ONLY time I would ever dress up for anything Potter is on halloween. But I am too lame to go to parties and I teach at a Christian school where dressing up like a wizard is frowned upon so this is not really an option.

- when it comes to my bedtime, I'm like a ninety year old woman. I cannot stay up past midnight so I'd probably just fall asleep

- without David, I'd have to sit by myself. With my luck I'd end up by the stinky jr high boy who hasn't showered for a few weeks.

Whether or not I end up going, I do know this. I am SO lucky I got David on lockdown. If he knew I was seriously considering going to the first showing of HP 5 by myself, he might leave me if he didn't take our marriage vows so seriously.