chick fight

First off...who is as excited as I am that the Seahawks won last night! What a good game!

Secondly, I have no voice today. Well, actually, let me rephrase that. I had a voice from 7:45am until 11:00am. Then, somewhere between 4th period and the beginning of 5th, my voice vanished. I feel fine but my voice is taking a vacation apparently. My students kept saying, "take a drink," "need a cough drop?" Nothing was helping. I was basically stranded at the front of the room with my lips moving but no sound (or scratchy sound) coming out. It was lovely.

Big news today, big news. Lots of big news. I broke up and was entangled in my first big fight. At the beginning of 6th period, right after the bell rang, I heard a loud comotion outside. I was trying to settle down my students, but worried that something serious might be going on. So, I walked out the door (my first mistake) and saw a group of girls going at each other. Seriously, there were about 20 girls. (And, not to sound rude or anything...they were big, tough, Polynesian girls). There was screaming and swearing. I saw a few other teachers lunge out of their rooms...and I think we all kind of just stood there in shock. Then, as naturally happens during fights at school, all my students rushed the hall to see what was happening. I tried to usher them back, but then three (big, tough, Polynesian) boys in my class saw that it was their friends (and family) who was fighting and they got involved, too. I ran up to my 3 boys (my second mistake) and grabbed one, yelled at the other two, all the while getting clobberded by students, teachers. By this time, the campus security was on the scene and the fight was breaking up. The three boys were riled up, upset...apparently, I learned later, the fight was over a boy, one of the boys in my 6th period...so it took an extra long time to get them settled down. I definitely don't like that part of my job. I'm not confrontational, generally, and when I have to I can be loud and rude and strict, but breaking up fights (even though it may sound exciting) gives me a heart attack and I fear for my life.

Other news. Yesterday I wrote about my student who went to Hawaii. (Dang! Still didn't read that report!). Today she pulled out a sack and said, "I have something for you Mrs. Hubert." She dumped the contents of her sack onto my desk; little Hawaiian key chains. She let me choose which one I wanted as a souvenier from her trip. I was very excited--my first trip souvenier from a student. I know I used to do that same thing, too, give my teachers gifts from trips. I hung it up on my wall next to my desk. It made my day.

I'm part of the school's book club for teachers. We started last month. You'd think I would enjoy this but for the most part it has been kind of stressful. First, they choose books that are really popular and hard to get at the library (and, I'm too cheap to buy books unless I know I like them). Then, the books have been 280 pages plus, which usually wouldn't bother me, but with the work load I am carrying, I don't have a ton of time to sit and read. I made the mistake (I seem to do that a lot lately) of signing myself up to be in charge of December...meaning, I'd pick the book, bring the treats, etc. I barely got the book for November two weeks ago (the whole library thing) and with me being sick and Thanksgiving, I just haven't had a good time to sit down to divulge myself in this book. So, yesterday I got an e-mail from our Media Queen (really, she's amazing) reminding us that we'd be meeting today for book club. I had every intention of reading the book last night but got caught up with life. Today, I wanted to spend some time reading during lunch, but then again, had to run errands and such (eating lunch? what's that?). Finally, 3 o'clock came and Media Queen announced that the book club was meeting in the library. I took the book, with a bookmark proudly stuck between page 46-47, and walked to the meeting. Obviously I couldn't engage in the discussion that much, but I'm getting really good at smiling and nodding. When they asked what December's book choice was, I gave out a big Homer-DOH! I totally forgot. I had to think quick! I remember my mom giving me the idea of doing a short story and Media Queen's idea about doing a Christmas story...so I put the two together in a split second and said, "I was thinking that since December is a crazy month, we'd each bring our favorite Christmas/Holiday story to share when we meet in December." They all loved the idea and I think it will be easier than the book thing, though I have ambitions to read the November book now.

Tomorrow I am teaching symbolism. Yikes. Happy Tuesday.