A Better Day

Today, for some reason, went MUCH better than yesterday. Perhaps it's because I tried to be in the classroom in a better mood... I cried a bit this morning, but I am trying very hard to NOT cry while at school. Though I wasn't happy in the morning, I was calm. The students worked relatively well in the morning, and for most of the afternoon.

After lunch/recess (read: my least favorite time of day up until recently), I've been reading them the Roald Dahl book mentioned earlier. They were REEEEALLY into it today, with almost every student looking at me, enthralled, as I read. It really is an entertaining book. I acted out the nasty grandma and the guilty-boy-who-plays-innocent. They loved it. I stopped after the grandma and a hen had consumed George's marvelous medicine, much to the chagrin of the class. "Just one more chapter!" they'd begged, after I'd already read one more than I had meant to. Oh, the power of reading. :)

I gave the class an extra-long recess as a reward for them (as well as myself- 25 minutes off my feet!!!). During recess, a group of students were playing basketball, and one bounced it too hard. Over the fence the ball went, into a HUGE ditch full of those stickler plant thingees. Two students came running up to me to see if they could go get it, a girl and a boy. I opted to let the girl go, since she behaves MUCH better than the boy does. She, in a long denim skirt, hopped over the fence and slowly descended into the dry ravine. The suspense nearly killed us; could she hear us? Was she OK? I called out to her every 30 seconds, and she said she was fine. Six other students and I waited, glued to the fence, to see what would happen. And then, the unexpected: a rattle from the ravine!! A rattlesnake!! One kid heard it, too, and looked at me, terror in his eyes, "Ms. Anderson, should we tell her there's a rattlesnake down there?!" I replied calmly, "No, but let's tell her to come up NOW. No sense in her freaking out." So the teeny 4th grader emerged quickly, orange ball in hand. She was triumphant!! She tossed the ball over the fence, and scaled over herself: success! I called her the "hero of the day" and told her that she is a trooper!

Dilemma solved, she held her hand up to me. "Four scratches, but I'm OK!" she had exclaimed. We all cheered, and I went back to sit on the bench with another teacher. A few minutes later, my little heroine approached us to ask me for a drink. "That was sure thirsty work! Can I go get some water?" How adorable is that?

The rest of the day went well, as the students came in and read silently while I conferenced about grades with students one-on-one. The end of the day was calm and quiet, and I think I'll end the days like that for a while.

I'm also leaving before 6pm, with the rest of the week fully planned out! Joy. I can go home and do WHATEVER I want for the next 4 hours!! Woo hoo! Off I go, a better day under my belt. (Wow, what a bipolar blog already!)