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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

An Open Letter to Block 7 & Translation

Open Letter:

Dear Students of Reading in Block 7,

Over the course of the past 10 months, I have made a point of getting to know each of you as readers, but also as individual people. In fact, I have come to love each of you dearly. Although the first 9 months of the school year have been quite productive and satisfying, the past month has caused me to reconsider my current occupation as I have become increasingly dissatisfied with the working conditions you provide. While your academic progress was initially very promising, it has recently been compromised by your inappropriate and unacceptable classroom behavior. This makes is increasingly difficult for me to provide quality educational experiences.

It is with great regret that inform you that I am no longer able to serve as your classroom teacher. Therefore, I am resigning as your reading teacher effective immediately. I regret the inconvenience this will cause, as you still have six more class periods scheduled before the end of the year. Unfortunately circumstances have left me no choice but to resign. If problems arise, you may contact the principal in the main office. He is aware that my sanity has been threatened, and is willing to help in whatever means he can.

Sincerely,
Miss S
_________________________________________________________________________

Translation:

Block 7,

I quit. I cannot deal with your rudeness or inappropriate questions for one more day. I informed the principal about your antics today, and he said he would deal with you.

Your ex-nicest teacher,
Miss S

PS. For the record, I am neither pregnant nor coming out of the closet. But thanks for asking.

Today's Holiday: National School Nurse Day

Yesterday was Teacher's day, and today is a day for celebrating other school personnel. It's National School Nurse Day. My school, understandably, doesn't do much to celebrate School Nurse's Day. However, I'm sure there are schools out there who have more to celebrate. I'll leave my commentary to that.

Suggested ways of celebrating this holiday: send a card, give a small gift, stay injury and illness free for the day. But there's always the option of getting hurt on purpose, so you can make a trip to the nurse's office to tell the nurse how much you appreciate him or her.

More on the importance of School Nurses.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Today's Holiday: National Teacher's Day

Today is a day to celebrate all that teachers do to enrich the lives of young (and not so young) people. I celebrated this wonderful holiday by taking the day off.

Not really. I actually took a professional day to identify and schedule my students for next year. I spent the morning collecting and sorting ISTEP scores and other test data. I made my list and checked it twice. With 10 minutes 'til the final bell for the day, I handed my list off to the seventh grade teachers to check for errors. Sounds exciting, no?

My students, on the other hand, celebrated National Teacher's Day by being ridiculously difficult for the subsitute teacher. Those punks are not going to be happy on Thursday when they have to deal with me.

This time of year can be especially stressful for those in the teaching profession. Your words of appreciation will mean the world to the teachers in your life. Take time this week to shoot an e-mail, send a card, or make a personal visit to a former (or current) teacher.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Counting My Blessings: Day of Rest

What a week! After standardized testing, tension among people I love, cranky teenagers and not enough sleep I am enjoying this glorious day dedicated to rest. The Good Lord certainly knew what he was doing when he made the seventh day of the week one of rest. I think I'll spend the afternoon reading a good book in the hammock in my backyard.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Today's Holiday: Brothers and Sisters Day

If you missed National Sibling Day on April 10th, today is the perfect day to show your appreciation to your brothers and sisters! Maybe you've always had a good relationship with your siblings, or maybe you'd like to disown them. Either way, they'll always be your siblings. Take time today to send a card, give 'em a hug, or invite them out dinner. What you do doesn't matter as long as you find a way to show some love.



Think I'm making this up? Check out the explanation behind this blog series.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Little Bits of Today

Student: Did you know diarrhea is hereditary?
Me: What?
Student: Yeah. It runs in your jeans.
Me: Pwhahahaha! That's hilarious. I think you just cured my bad mood.


Reading "Congratulations! Your Loan Account is Paid in Full." (The funky capitalization is just an extra bonus.)



Unpacking this:



And being reminded that "The only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love." (Galatians 5:6)


Today's Holiday: Mother Goose Day

Some of you may be celebrating May Day, but did you know that today also doubles as Mother Goose Day? This holiday was created by Gloria Delamar in 1987 with the purpose of giving people a day to enjoy all over again the nursery rhymes of their youth. Relish the nostalgia by digging out your old Mother Goose Rhymes book and rereading your favorites. My favorites were "Five little pigs" and "Jack be nimble" Oh, and who didn't like "Diddle, diddle, dumpling"?

Can't find your Mother Goose book of rhymes? Read through some of your favorites here.

Learn more about this holiday at The Official Home of the Mother Goose Society.