Back to School

I’ve been out of school for winter break for two weeks, so when the alarm went off bright and early this morning I was truly and well befuddled.  What was that noise?  Ugh.  To top it off, about the time I realized that all that racket was simply the alarm clock and not a siren warning of impending nuclear attack…the cold slapped me in the face.  It was in the 30s outside and the house felt close.  Now I know those of you living almost anywhere but Florida are saying…so what’s your point?  My point is that I live in FLORIDA.  The SUNSHINE state.  It’s supposed to be freaking HOT here.  That’s why I live here.  Heat in the winter.  No snow.  No ice.  WARMTH.

I wasn’t the only one distressed by the temp outside.  I pried my dogs off my bed and literally shoved them out the door.  By the time I had showered and was back in the kitchen for a cup of cappuccino they were throwing themselves at the door, begging for re-entry.  I don’t leave my dogs in the house all day when I’m at work.  That’s a long day and I’m not quite sure they can behave in the house that long.  But they were looking at me with big pathetic eyes and BOOM BOOM BOOM slamming the door……….I caved.  The dogs came back in and I headed to work.  Of course I lectured them on proper behavior for long term house-i-ness before I left.  It might be my imagination but I am pretty sure they both said "yeah, yeah…..whatever"

It was cold in my classroom and I did something I never do – turned on the heater.  Just think how pleased I was as I went to adjust the thermostat to find that nothing I did enabled me to set it higher than 66 degrees.  66.  Great.  Is this a new energy saving cost cutting measure?  I am pretty sure that the Educational Powers That Be are not sitting in their offices downtown with their thermostats set on 66.

Fortunately my first class of the day is my best – I relate to them well and they are laid back and will go in which ever direction I choose with very little resistance.  It’s nice to start the day like that.  We planned out our week as we get ready to launch our Cookie of the Month Company.  The idea is that for a one time fee of $10 a teacher can receive a baker’s half dozen of the cookie of the month each month for the next 5 months.  There is also an option to purchase an individual month or months for just $3 each month.  We have plans for themes such as Sweet Potato Cookies in February for Blak History Month and Irish Lace Cookies for St. Patrick’s Day.  I hope the teachers will participate!  As a teaser we will be handing out a sample of the most wonderfully decadent cookie I make along with our advertising flyer – the White Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Drop.  It’s yummy all by itself but we kick it up a notch by icing it with cream cheese icing…..to die for!  The PE coach actually begs me for these on a regular basis.  I’ve never had anyone taste them that didn’t ask for more.  I’m hoping this will be sufficient motivation for teachers to buy into the program….

From there we went on about the day.  Crack-down on the 7th graders – they are such BUTT-HOLES!  lmao  Even more immature than the 6th graders, if you can believe that.

The first 6th grade class is small and we spent today playing games and hanging out with the TMH (Trainable Mentally Handicapped) class next door.  They don’t get to interact much with the ‘regular’ ed kids much, so everybody benefitted I think.

The last class of the day – 6th grade again.  We’ve been studying the Food Guide Pyramid…and so I gave them some very complicated recipes with foods they may not recognize and asked them to draw a Food Pyramid and classify each ingredient in the correct  section of the pyramid.  This class is largely English as a second language – so the questions just cracked me up.  They had never heard of such ingredients as horseradish.  Did I mention the questions?

"Miss – where would the salad bowl go in the food pyramid"?  (Uh…it’s a bowl….guess that makes it a protein?)

"Miss – are oranges fruit?"  Yes.  "But I thought they were citrus fruit!"  Uh yes.  The operative word in this case is FRUIT.

And then in comes a girl I had last year wanting to know if she could get back in my class this year.  I told her to check with her guidance counsellor.  Then came the REAL question – she wanted to know what grade another student of mine is in.  After all, she is in 8th grade and doesn’t really want to date a 7th grader.  She has a reputation, you know.  But he has such beautiful eyes………  Bad news, honey bunch, he’s a lowly 7th grader.

Having survived the day, I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and then crossed my fingers and held my breath as I opened the door to see what joys my puppies had enjoyed in my absence.  Halleluia – they were a perfect lady and gentleman!  I guess they’ll get to stay in again tomorrow cause it’s gonna be COLD again.

All in all a pretty good day!  So how was your day?