A much-needed break!!!

Today was, for me, a pretty good day. We had the 5th grade field trip, which went probably as well as possible. The kids were loud on the bus (which is to be expected), but the field trip itself was very well organized and interesting. The kids were actually really, really good during the whole thing (even though we were only at the heart center for 2 hours). During the bus rides, I was able to polish off quite a bit of Stephen King's new book, Cell. It was a nice trip.

When we arrived back at school, reality hit. My sub, a woman who I esteem pretty highly, said my kids were awful today. Awful! Excerpts from her note:

"...as I said, Bad Bad day."

"Heads down for 15 min after lunch"

"many in class extreamly [sic] mean to guest student..."

"I could go on, but I'm gonna leave it there"

Yuck!!! Even some of my usual "angels" were cruel and crazy today. One girl who is usually shy and quiet got sent out of the room for 10 minutes! Unbelievable.

Anyway, after said nasty report from the sub, I went on to tutor the 4 students I work with once a week who are extremely low in reading. It went pretty well (and quickly, for once!!), and I was actually energized afterwards. It's SOOOO nice to put in a full day and NOT feel completely drained at the end of it. I feel good right now, despite the awful report from my sub.

Also, I asked the sub to leave me names of perpetrators (sp?). She gave me 3 "problem students" and "to a lesser extent" names. I called the parents of the "problem students," and discussed the matter with them. All the parents backed me, and those 3 will not be joining us tomorrow. Ha. (I did one of the calls en español, thankyouverymuch!)

Anyway, that means tomorrow I have 10 kids, 4 chaperones, and me! That's a 1:2 adult:student ratio!! Unbelievable!! :) The other 4th grade teacher (I call her "Crazy McCrazy Chore") and I were planning to join our classes together for this field trip. However, as it's all fallen apart as a result of her planning it (and not me), I've decided to keep our classes separate. Tomorrow should be awesome on my part... I'm excited! We're going to see two cool movies (an IMAX one and a planetarium one), and there are TONS of hands-on activities and explorations for the kids! I think it'll be a cool day.

Also, as an aside, we have 2 really hard working custodians here at the school who are getting a raw deal. They each labor to their potential every day (even staying over their time unpaid, as I do), and are only working 6.5 hours. This is the most they can work without receiving district-paid benefits. Go figure. I guess there's a huge pool of applicants, too, who would take the benefitless job in a heartbeat, so these people have to work EXTRA hard for a low wage. Sometimes I really abhor capitalism. One of the custodians was telling me tonight that her twin brother had a heart attack last night. They air-vacced him to a neighboring city (we're in the middle of nowhere), and he had some tests run. They then tried to transport him to a nearby city, but his insurance wouldn't cover the doctor's costs. This man works in our little town also with no benefits, but somehow makes *too much* to get on the state-paid healthcare plan. ARG!!! What the heck??? I can't stand it when hardworking people get the raw end of the deal. This must change!! (Not to mention that my own healthcare plan sucks; I have a $2,500 deductible. Awesome.)

Grr... Ok, social commentary aside, I suppose I'm grateful for a lot. It's nice to have good days and feel like I did all I could do as an educator and as a person. That's all for now. Good night!