Ewww...

... Wednesday... shudder!

Today was a fascinating day, really. Again, I didn't particularly feel like being here in the morning, but when the class was at computer lab, I took a bathroom break. Then and there, I decided I could take a moderately crappy day and make it better. When I picked the kids up, we gathered all our reading books/materials and headed outside. Even though it's almost November, it's still beautiful here. I loooove being outside this late in the year.

Anyway, things improved a teeny bit. I had them all sit on the foul line on the basketball court, and we had a talk. I told them that we all have bad days, and that this was one for me. A lot of them seemed surprised, as if teachers aren't real people. Later, we played a game to get them to be quiet: I let them run around the court for 5 minutes, but they could NOT talk (or laugh or make noises or touch anyone else). It worked pretty well. Afterward, we had part of the reading lesson outside, part in, and then it was lunch.

During lunch, I commandeered a "Schoolhouse Rock" video from my next-door teacher. It was a grammar one (yay!!), and it went over pretty well with the kids. For Social Studies, we read a magazine on current issues about Iraq. This time, I tried to give them a less biased view, explaining how hard it is to be President and ALL the different motivations we have for being in Iraq. We took a class poll at the end, and more than half the class thought we shouldn't be in Iraq. Though the kids were talkative, they were very interested in world issues. I told them how glad I am that they care, and that they can help lead us to change. I actually really like these discussions, aside from the noise level.

Anyway, the rest of the day was annoying... We did some work (and they worked well for a while), but ended the day in silence because I was at my wit's end with all the dang talking. Bleh!!

After school, we had a quick briefing on how the lockdown drill is to go tomorrow. I have yet to discuss it with the class; oops! Should be an interesting day... for now, I take my leave.