The Never-Ending Week

. . .but wait, it's over. So all things DO come to an end, good or not. Let's run over a synopsis of this week. . .

Monday - I stayed home with a hoarse voice and a sore throat. I didn't feel like trying to control my 144 students without a working voice.

Tuesday - My day begins at 3:30 am when Brian calls to say he's run his truck into a tree. For the next 3 hours, I help him get a wrecker, etc. About 6:30 I come home for a fitful 45-minute nap before I get up and go to school. First hour is. . .horrible. My voice is still weak, I'm still coughing a bit, and I'm exhausted. My class is all attitude and talk. I finally resort to calling an administrator down, because they refuse to listen to me at all. The middle of the school day is better, and the last couple of hours are difficult again. I arrive home in time to go get dinner before we attend our weekly small group meeting. My mom calls as I'm about to go to bed around 10, and I finally crash around 11 pm. . .having been awake for almost 20 hours.

Wednesday - I do not want to get up. My throat is no better and is in fact starting to feel worse. However, I make it to school. First hour is not improved. I wind up writing one referral when an angry student threatens me and calling a couple parents of other students with severe attitude problems. The rest of the day is not too bad, although the last 2 hours are, as usual, difficult. I leave quickly after school to take Brian to work, then go to sleep in the living room at 7. At 9, I get up and go to bed. My throat is definitely worse, and my cough syrup (as if it were helping anyway) is almost gone.

Thursday - First hour is a little better today. They're starting to catch on. My throat is killing me, and I'm trying to decide if I can miss school again on Friday. The day progresses with little incident until 6th hour. I'm trying to get my oversized class's attentiont to actually teach when I realize 2 of my students are actually yelling at each other. Trying to calm them down, there is suddenly a sharp pain in my head and a shower of Mountain Dew over the rest of me. Apparently, one of the angry students decided to pelt a pop bottle at the other one and had very unlucky aim. Several other students clean up the mess while I get Security to escort Angry Students out. Class continues, with 2 students telling me how much they now respect me, apparently because I didn't join the fight and start throwing punches when I got. . .baptized. If only I'd known their respect was so easy to earn. . . .
I'm rather in shock from this whole occurrence and don't know quite what to think. I've decided some absurdities are indeed too absurd to even be laughed at. There are already several teachers out on Friday, so I guess I've got one more day to go.

Friday - My voice is almost gone. My head is bruised and sore to the touch. I have to spend my planning period filling out staff injury forms with the nurse. We survive the whole day with me maintaining as much control as possible. Mostly, it's not too bad. Several students are sorry I feel bad, hope I get better, etc., etc. One in 7th hour asks me if I can speak up more. Ha.
Once home, I become mute. Kevin reads my mind amazingly well. . .apprently I don't need to talk much anyway. After dinner, we experiment with a tiramisu recipe. It has to be refrigerated at least 4 hours, so I'll let you know later how it turns out.

That's my week in a nutshell. How many weeks of school do we have left???

Just a Tidbit

Friday is almost half-over. I might make it.

My throat is still rather sore, which makes talking (read: "yelling loud enough to be heard over a roomful of teenagers) painful. I'm also sounding rather hoarse. Only 4 classes left to go.

I'm afraid I have no amusing anecdotes to relate today. However, I will report that Kevin helped me plant my herb garden last night. Now if it will only live. I'll try to post a picture later. . .if I remember.

Please Yield

I was going to spoof a student-made sign I passed in the hall today which contains a large yellow diamond with the letters YIED on it. However, I decided I should not just take my lunchtime opportunity to ridicule people every day. So, on the bright side of things, allow me to share some encouraging news. My AP class today mostly agreed that profanity in public is disrespectful, rude, careless, and indicative of poor vocabulary and widespread poor public education. Hoorah for them!

As for other matters, I have none. My throat is feeling slightly sore, which I hope is from reading aloud to 5 classes yesterday and not from the beginnings of an illness. I have not talked to Brian since the weekend, since he inadvertently got "pushed" into the pool with his active cell phone in his pocket. (He doesn't have a landline, so I guess I'll have to go visit him if I want to know how he is.) Kevin scheduled an appointment for wisdom-teeth extraction in October, so I am set to enjoy my last month of wise wedded bliss. . .after this we'll just be foolish together, I suppose. (Why are they called "wisdom teeth" anyway?) My classes are still completely imbalanced, but there is a ray of light somewhere ahead, and I'm hoping they will be balanced by the end of next week. (That's only 4 weeks into the school year. . .way to safeguard instructional time!) I left for work without my rings this morning and had to go back to get them. (Of course, I wasn't out of the parking garage yet, so it wasn't actually far to "go back.") I'm supposed to start a novel with the AP class tomorrow. . .and haven't chosen one or, obviously, prepared any background notes. Oops. (Shall we go with "Brave New World?") Tonight is date night, so I'm not likely to get much of anything done for school.

Well, I still have 7 minutes of lunchtime quiet left, so I'm going to do something productive. . .like staple $*#%@! profanity assignments together. . .hee hee.

A Lunch Post???

Yes, indeed, I am still here. Perhaps I shall endeavor to post briefly at lunch. . .although today I only have 2 minutes left, so it shall necessarily be short.

I am in the process of making copies of articles that have to do with profanity, free speech, and offensive language. This is my new disciplinary plan for profanity in my classroom: read the article, answer the questions I assign. We'll see how it works. If you come across any articles. . .I'm sure to run out soon!

Time's up. Tomorrow, perhaps.