my pink life, mi vida rosada

Y si, lo disfruté mucho. Estabamos trabajando para escribir escalas para usar para evaular el progreso de los niños entre kinder y quinto. Y una sustituta que al parecer no hizo mucho con mis niños... Por suerte mi otra mitad estuvo alli para ayudarla con mis niños malitos. En otras noticias... Este fin de semana a Swint! Voy a poder salir a correr con mi amiga, comer s'mores, y hacer muchas otras cosas divertidas. Mientras no me encencio, todo bien!

Semana larga. Parece que cada semana es larga, ahora. Un día más de escuela, y yo cansada para el fin de semana, ya. Un día más.... Lo que ha hecho sentir más largo aún a esta semana....Martes, cena con gentes de RISC que están de visita en la escuela, y miercoles, tutoria con una niña que conozco... Días largas, todas. Y los niños, locos con la luna llena....Aunque los niños me dicen que no deben hablar mientras hacen varias cosas, siguen hablando. Ni podemos terminar de decir que no deben hablar, y ya están hablando. No se si están demaciados emocionados por lo que estamos haciendo, o que por fin pueden ir a torturar a sus padres en vez de a mi, pero el volumen dentro de mi sala me hace querer morir. Oh, los niños.... Y siendo jueves, llegue tarde, otra vez, pero a una casa vacía....mi esposito anda en un asunto de la iglesia, y yo con ninguna gana de ver a otras personas. Tuve la idea de salir a correr, pero me senté un minuto para llamar a esposito, y todavia estoy sentada ...

Ayer fue el 18 de septiembre, el día más importante en la vida de muchos chilenos. Para mi chilenito, era un día triste, sin celebración, lejos de su familia. Y yo con otros planes, más encima. En la mañana, yo salí con dos amigas a correr un 5K. Cuando regresamos, mi esposito nos sacó algunas fotitos y nos regaloneamos un poco, y después tuvimos una pelea pequeña y me fui a buscar otra amiga para ir a la piscina (planes previas). Antes que volví de la piscina, esposito fue a vender asientos durante un partido de fútbol americano. Después de la pelea, no nos vimos en todo el día. Así que hoy, mi mamá me dijo que tenía algo para mi esposito.... Había encontrado empanadas chilenas aquí, y sola, sin que yo le acordara, sabía que fue el 18 de septiembre. Mi mamá es una mujer fantática. No hay nadie como ella. Siempre está pensando en otros -- como ayudarles, las cosas que les hacen feliz, los días importantes....Yo todavía estoy demaciado enredada en mi propio mundo, y la mitad d...

But probably a little better than last week. In fact, MUCH better than last week, but I'm still exhausted. At least I wasn't falsely accused again this week -- by the crazies. I'm still feeling really stressed out by the kids I'm teaching this year, and not having much success with behavior.... Oh, it's tough. My partner teacher thinks we are making progress, though, so I will pretend she's right, for now. We've at least figured out that certain kids LIKE to go to the office, so they misbehave on purpose, to get the extra attention. The more we ignore the problem behavior from those students, the easier it becomes to ignore in the future? Maybe not...But telling them straight out that if going to the office is a reward for them, they aren't going to go, and then tricking them into thinking they are getting pulled out of the classroom to go to the office but really having to finish their tests or classwork in another teacher's room...Is apparent...

Esta semana voy a llegar a la escuela con una actitud positiva. Voy a tomar la iniciativa y voy a demandar que mis estudiantes me muestran respeto. Today, as I was doing my homework for the "applying theory and research" class I'm taking, I read about the different parenting styles. I had learned about these a couple of times before, but the information had been shoved aside to make room in my brain for other, I'm sure, more pertinent facts.... So it was really interesting to me to read about the predicted behaviors that children will exhibit if/when their parents employ particular parenting styles. Watch out, indulgent parents -- you are basically teaching your children to become a menace to society. And you thought you were helping your baby become more creative.... It was particularly interesting to me after the week I had at school last week....And several different run-ins or conversations with parents over the last couple weeks. In my morning group of stude...

Holy Cow. Wonders never cease. My students are crazier than I thought. I had a great labor day weekend, relaxed, read books for fun, finished sewing a pretty skirt, got lots of sun, and in general, didn't want to come home -- love me some beach time. Nope, wrong. Love me some dock-time and house-time and mama's cooking. Yum. I didn't want to come home -- I was dreading this week. I just knew something was going to happen. And it did. Some of my students told lies to their parents, and I was falsely accused of doing things that I would NEVER do, and the principal of my school spent two days pulling kids out of my class to question them about how I behave at school. The guidance counselor got the ring-leading kid to confess that nothing had happened, finally, and as an added bonus I got 45 minutes of time outside of my classroom unexpectedly. Great -- I did 60 minutes worth of science in 25 today. I'm sure my students feel adequately prepared for their vocab. ...

Oh, school. Such a challenge, this year. If only my students would use their ears... Wait...Use their ears to listen to ME, not their classmates, when I want to give instructions so that we can do something FUN. In what was perhaps not my finest teaching moment ever, today, I lost my cool and SLAMMED the air conditioner-switch-lid very loudly. It was actually quite effective. The students jumped, sat quietly with looks of shock on their faces, and then listened in silence as I told them that they were acting like kindergarteners, not third graders. They stayed pretty well behaved for about half an hour, too, and we made it to lunch on time again. I like getting to lunch on time -- it means I actually get to eat. And amazingly, when the assistant principal walked in to check on my class this afternoon, she found my students working in pairs, actually doing what they were supposed to be doing. It was AMAZING. She saw me give the tail end of an example, then ask students who tho...