mrs. cranky-face

It has been a challenging week. I've been in a crummy mood and haven't felt the least bit excited about posting. I'm still kind of in a crummy mood, but, hey, it's Friday, so I thought I would post.

I'll start with a few good things about this week:

I had a student visit me at Parent Teacher Conferences last week who recommended I read a book he was reading. I asked him about it and he told me the title: "The Land of the Lawn Weenies." I thought for sure it was a joke, merely something of his imagination to get me to laugh. I told him to bring to me when he was finished and I'd read it. I totally forgot about it until yesterday, when he walked into my room and said, "Mrs. Hubert, here's that book I told you I'd let you read." Sure enough, in his little hand was, "The Land of the Lawn Weenies" paperback version. I chuckled and said thank you. The cover is great: a bunch of sun glass wearing-weenies walking on the lawn with, what looks like, hamburger flippers in their "hands." Last night after a bit of tv, I got into bed to read about these "lawn weenies." In reality, it's a series of short, short stories, but they are quite clever and funny. I haven't yet got to the part of the lawn weenies, but I'll be sure to let you all know.

Another good (and stressful) thing of the week is that my last principal observation was on Wednesday. I have to be observed twice every year for three years by the principal. I am a titch bit intimidated by him, so when he came, I was super nervous. Of course, he had to show up during 4th period, lately a trouble class, but they were angels! It was lovely. I did pretty well, too, I think, though I will find out more when I go in to talk to him and review the observation notes. The first one in November was fine, no major problems. I've had these horrible feelings lately that I'm really a crappy teacher and that my students aren't learning a gosh darn thing, so hopefully those little insecurities didn't shine through during the observation.

One more good (and stressful) thing of this week is that we had our second yearbook deadline on Monday. I asked a few students whose pages were due to stay after school on Monday to help. Not a single one showed up. Same thing Tuesday. So, I was at the school until about 8 both nights trying to get all the pages done and submitted. Luckily we have a few days leeway from the day of deadline, so I can't say that I was late, but it certainly is not the way to put together the yearbook. Now, there are only 5 pages left to finish and submit out of the total 76...so, in other words, we're very close to being finished! The students didn't really seem to care that I basically did their pages; even if they did, oh well. That's what they get for not staying after the help!

On another journalism/yearbook note--we've decided to do an April Fools day issue of the newspaper. The students will each write one "fool" story (one students idea: West Lake is being torn down and replaced with a Wal *Mart). I think it will be quite fun...hopefully they'll all follow through with their ideas; most of them are great.

Now for the not so good stuff of the week:

I hurt my back somehow and just haven't been feeling well all week, so during classes, especially in the afternoon, I was super cranky. On Wednesday the kids were totally crazy and I was raunchy. I felt really bad because I was downright rude to a few of the misbehaving students, so yesterday at the beginning of my classes I apologized and told the students that sometimes you just have a bad day. I had finally had enough of the disruptions and rudeness today in 7th, I walked right out of my room. I knew if I stayed in I would swear and curse and scream at them, so I gave myself a little bit of cool down time. I'm not so sure I handled it all that great, but at least I know I didn't loose it in front of them. The thing that really put me over edge was a student refused to put his iPod away while I was teaching ("But Mrs. Hubert, it's on low volume so I can still hear you.") and he was really rude to me when I asked politely for him to put it away. He came up after my mini-explosion and apologized. I had a good cry of frustration after they all left; it's just been (as they say) one of those weeks!!!!

Tomorrow (yes, Saturday), I'm attending the Utah Middle Level Association conference at one of the junior high's in a neighboring district. The UMLA is designed just for middle school teachers and focuses on what they call "middle level practices." It should be really good, though I'm wary about giving up my Saturday sleep in ritual (7:30 on Saturdays is sleeping in for me!). It goes all day (8-3) with breakfast and lunch provided.

I went to Rodizio grill tonight and now have tummy ache because of all the food I consumed, so now it looks like I'll just go grab the "lawn weenie" book and read a bit before falling into a deep, deep, happy sleep. Have a great weekend. Love ya. Bye.