Best job in the world

Life can be overwhelming some days.  Many days I carry this guilt that I'm not being a complete human being because I'm so preoccupied with teaching.  I always have something to do... and most days I have something pressing or urgent to do.

Some days are really rough, and it makes it not worth it.  But today was a day that I will remember forever!  Today has made teaching and the sacrifices and the emotional turmoil WORTH IT.

Today two of my students who have really been struggling, smiled and laughed in class.  They were both engaged, they enjoyed the lessons, they both did work.  Without going into too much detail, I cannot begin to describe how significant this is.  One even gave a fist pump after class!  I seriously almost cried.  I'm emotional in general lately... but this just moved me, that these kids ENJOYED LEARNING today.  And at least for today they were happy, in my safe little classroom.  Today they were SEEN and ACKNOWLEDGED by others.  It just made me feel really really good.

After school, two other students came by to say hi, and they made me laugh.  I have the best job in the world, and I'm so glad that these moments happen to remind me of that.

Let me know if you've seen my brain...

This week has been a funny one.  I've had lots of different challenges, lots of hiccups and stressful moments, which in turn has produced a lot of laughs for me!  I cannot believe how much I've lost my brain!

On Tuesday and Wednesday I lost an important grade sheet, which it turns out I placed strategically in a Biology textbook.  It was the secret spot that was so secret I didn't know about it!

Driving home this week, I missed my exit for the I-90 and only realized it 2 or 3 exits later.  When I drive to and from school I'm always going against traffic (which is really nice).  But because I missed my exit, I had to turn around and sit in traffic.  It took me an hour to get home that day.  I honestly didn't care though, I just laughed and shook my head.  I truly feel I've reached a point where's there's just not too much I can do for myself.  I'm a lost cause :)

Minutes ago, I was told by a co-worker that the Mercer Island girls soccer team was in the hallway.  So I went outside to say hi to them because I taught many of them last year, and three of them are on my basketball team this year.  I locked myself out of my room.  No big deal!  I figured I'd walk around taking a short cut outside to get to another teacher's room.  As I walked outside, in the cool crisp fall air, I realized they close the school doors at 4:00 pm.  It's 5:15 pm right now.  So, because my life is in shambles, I also got locked out of the school.

Again, I just shrugged my shoulders and said "Whatever", because this is what I expect from myself these days!  I didn't want to go to the office to ask one of my principles to let me back in the school.  We just finished a meeting about teacher evaluations, and that would look REALLY GOOD if I asked my principle to let me back into the school, and back in my room.  Thankfully another teacher rescued me.

In my entire life, I've never been so absent-minded, so forgetful, so just not present.  I have mushy meninges in my brain, if it's even still there.  How students are learning from me is beyond my understanding!

R.I.P. Mr. T (the frog)

Today was a rough day.  I did not sleep well last night after a weekend of Homecoming bliss (two late nights).  I was dragging all day and then in my 7th period I hear,

"Mrs. Yuen your frogs are fighting!"

Now, I have seen my frogs fight before.  One time when I was feeding them, one frog bit the other's arm and started dragging it around it's little aquarium.  It was scary, I thought I was going to lose them both.  Thankfully the Hulk frog settled down and resided to eating the food I was putting in the water.

Anyway, I let the comment go as I was teaching and then I hear,

"No... wait... I think your frog is dead."

I hurried over to my desk, and there I see on it's back, completely motionless, one of my little dear froggies.  The other one looked like it was trying desperately to resuscitate it.  With its little webbed feet on placed on the dead frog's chest, it pushed and pushed, but it was too late.  My dead frog was a ghostly white color, it had already reached a state of rigor mortis.

I held myself together, seriously... I am so tired, I almost burst into tears.  Not because my frog died, just because it was one more thing to add to my plate.  I've got grading, planning, a teacher evaluation next week, labs to figure out how to do, a booster club meeting tonight, hiring new coaches sometime in these next two weeks, finding out who owes money from basketball, and I'm running on very little sleep.  Did I also mention that I am dieting?  Yes, so all the wonderful foods in the world that make me feel better about myself have lately been the cause of me not feeling so good about myself.  I have been such a slob these past two months because I just can't find the time or energy to workout.  So I've added working out and dieting to my schedule.

The frog dying just put me over the top, but I held myself together.

Then the kids asked me if they could dissect my dead frog.  To which I thought was a brilliant idea!  Why not turn this into an educational experience?  I told them we'd have to see if we can preserve the body.

I brought my little aquarium to the back room, and I asked my mentor teacher (who is a REAL biologist) if she could take my dead frog out of the aquarium, because the thought of it grossed me out so much I gagged.

My kids kept asking me: "Mrs. Yuen which frog died?  Which one was it?  Did Snoop Frogg or Mr. T die?"  So I asked them "Which one do you want it to be?"

And so it was Mr. T who died today, and who hopefully is in a better place.  R.I.P. Mr. T!

Homecoming Week

This week has been a totally cultural experience.  Canadian high schools do not really do a whole homecoming week, and most schools don't really have a homecoming game.  Needless to say, I feel like I'm on the set of  a movie!

Leading up to homecoming week I have been able to witness the many creative ways high school boys ask girls to the homecoming dance.  It's such a big thing, it's like a mini-competition to see who asks in the most creative/sweet way.  I have seen dozens of flowers (roses specifically) roll through my classroom.  Stuffed animals and balloons.... everyone can always tell which girl has been asked!  Oh the drama....

It makes me think, how would I like to have been asked to homecoming?  I know I for sure would NOT have wanted any flowers... it's just too easy.  You can get nice-looking flowers from the grocery store these days.... I need some effort!  I would not have wanted any big stuffed animals because that's just ridiculous!  I think I would have wanted some kind of treasure hunt, where I'd find clues and eventually come to a cool spot to find the guy who would ask me to Homecoming.  It would be fun, it could be competitive... I could time myself :)

This week, being homecoming week, is crazy busy!  I've had to plan my butt off because we have District Chemistry meetings on Friday (which means Sub Plans).  I am only one day ahead of my Chem classes because I have to learn the material well enough to teach it, I'm planning most of my lessons from scratch, and I'm trying to observe and run labs that I've never run!  Kind of exhausting.  On top of that, I attended a soccer game and volleyball game this week.  I reffed the "Buff Puff" game, it's basically senior dudes playing volleyball (it was hilarious).  I am attending the Homecoming parade and Homecoming football game, and I will be chaperoning the Homecoming dance.  It's been a whirlwind and I am definitely tired this week, but it's been well worth it because the kids are so into it!

Happy Homecoming Week :)

Grades & Planning

I truly believe for the month of September I've been living in Teacher La-La land.  It hasn't been too difficult, I've been on top of things and very organized.  Many of my co-workers have even commented on my "together-ness".

Well most of that changed this week, as I've been planning for the month of October.  In both my Biology and Chemistry classes we are changing units and I need to get Powerpoints done, lesson plans done, figure out what movies to watch on certain days etc.  At the same time, grades are due on Monday.  I am really on top of my grading, however I made a lot of things due last week (while I was sicker than a dog), and so I'm making up for the grading I have to do from last week, and trying to get them all in before Monday, while I'm planning 2 units in Bio and Chem for the month of October.

This is what real teaching is!  And blissful La-La land is over.  It was fun while it lasted :)

Thankfully though, I still love my job, and I still look forward to coming to work everyday!  I'd like to think I'm still in the "anticipation/reflection" stage (refer to Teacher Morale graph/pic).  I am trying to constantly reflect, so I can be better than I was the day before.  Does this make me a hero?  No... I just know where I'm at, and how much better I can be.  There's some pretty freaking awesome teachers at this school, and I'm still competitive so I know I've got a ways to go!

First Pay Day

Wow... this week has kicked my butt.  I don't even know where to begin... I guess we'll start with Monday.

Monday, I get back to school not feeling so refreshed because I had basketball tryouts on Mercer Island for the 4th-8th grade Select girls... the tryouts went well, but there was A LOT of discussion following the weekend from parents, coaches, and board members.  I have never been e-mailed so much in my life!  Handling that was definitely a big weight to carry this week.

This week, I quizzed all my classes, had papers and projects handed in, so grading has begun!  Now I feel like a real teacher, swamped with tasks of grading and planning all at the same time.  I am so useless at remembering anything at all, I have 3 planners (a planner that I write in, my phone calendar, and a whiteboard calendar in my office).  I have post-it notes all over my desk, with notes to myself that need to be very clear and specific.  My to do list is never-ending, and the time I have for my "to-do's" is never enough :) Yes... this is what it must really be like to be a teacher!

On top of all these things I have deathly ill this week, but could not put in for a sub.  There are two reasons for this: 1) I have no clue how to put in for a sub.  I haven't signed up for my online thingy yet, cause the time it would take to go to the office and handle that, is time that I need for something else!  and 2) I didn't want to leave my students writing quizzes and doing labs with a sub.  So I have trucked a long, and I would say that I have survived this week... instructing with my phlegm-filled man voice, and asking my students to feel very sorry for me and behave and be quiet.  The students have been awesome!  They are very understanding and mature young adults (this week).

Other adventurous things that have added to this fun-filled week:
- The copy machine jammed twice again this week, on particular days that I was desperate to make copies.  (I have not really been too far ahead on the copy-making).  We can now no longer use blue paper AT ALL. When we staple packets, they must be vertical staples not angled.  We have to copy from certain trays, and so on.  I loathe the copy machine.
- We had two back-to-back fire drills.... literally.  So I'm making tea at 7:00 am yesterday morning getting ready for the day to start and the fire alarm goes off.  Thankfully all I have to do is make sure all kids are out of the building.  We stand outside in the chipper morning air, get told we can go back into the building. Seriously after the last kid enters the building, the alarm goes off again, and we have to evacuate again.  It was awesome!

Just another Manic Monday....

Wow... so after a crazy busy weekend with Select basketball tryouts (tryouts for teams 4th-8th grade on Mercer Island), I was definitely  not feeling as recovered and restored as I usually feel on a Monday.  Anyway, I ran out of the house this morning, with all these plans to get grading and planning for October done in these next two days.

On my merry little way, as I am about 100 yards away from the school, I realize I left my work keys at home.  So begins my wheel-slapping, hands-in-the-air, screaming "NOOOOOO" response.  Then I tried to get myself together.  "Maybe the office will have extra keys?".  So I go in, and I'm embarrassed to ask for a set of keys, but that's taken care of.  Now I get to my classroom and here's the real kicker: my desk is locked (because I keep important documents in it), and my media equipment is locked.  The keys for both my desk and closet are at home....  Thus begins the scramble to see if I have a key lying around to open either of those.  Thankfully my mentor teacher had about 100 keys stashed away.  And one of them did open up my closet to access the media equipment.  I was showing a video in class, so this was great!  I also found the key to my desk, so crisis averted!!!!  I did not reach a state of complete frazzlement, but man was I ever annoyed with myself!

So at that point I had my life in order, and I went to use the paper cutter thingy in the copy room.  I was met with a frenzy of teachers trying to get the copy machine working.  My assistant principal is watching them try to figure out.... we're talking 3-4 women pulling papers out of the jammed spaces in the copy machine.  I just laughed because it looked as though Monday has been a rough day for everyone!  That copy machine is the devil...

Oh, I also just remembered that as I was leaving my house, I also had reminded myself to do something, but now I can no longer remember what that thing was. Needless to say, my brain has officially turned into absolute mush.  Hopefully whatever I had to do wasn't important.... for today's classes anyway!