First off, I’ve battled a cold/sinus infection since Wednesday night. My throat was a little soar at first, then that grew into sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head…wait a minute. HA! But seriously, those were many of my symptoms. By Friday morning, I had no voice whatsoever. It came back Friday afternoon, only to disappear again. This morning I could talk but as the day grew on, I started losing it again and coughing a ton from talking and teaching so much. I feel better, but still blah and have that “I would much rather be in bed” attitude. These kinds of days make it hard to be a teacher. Unfortunately, I can’t hide behind my desk or inside my cubical and not talk. I have to pretend to be chipper, happy, and attempt to be just as effective a teacher as when I’m not sick. Lucky for me, they had a language test today that allowed me some quiet time while they worked.
I got myself ready and got to school a few minutes early. I walked into my classroom to find every.single.desk piled on the carpet in the corner of my classroom. The chairs were in the middle of the room with neon green tennis balls inserted onto the botton of the chair leg. First of all, while that is an effective way to keep noise down and pencil lead from sticking to the bottom and making a huge mess, I think it looks awful. As for me and my classroom, I have always chosen to risk it and deal with the noise and the mess instead of be blinded by bright blurbs of cork on my floor. Somehow, this decision was chosen for me. I knew who the culprit was though- our precious, sweet custodian. How could I be mad?...I guess. But to me, if you’re going to do something nice for someone, clean up the mess too! it’s like someone coming to your house, cooking dinner, but yet leaving all the mess for you to clean up. The desks were in a pile, bags the balls came in were left on my bookshelf, the walmart bag they came in was left, and my classroom in general was left in shambles. Needless to say, it didn’t make for a happy morning when 18 kids came in and didn’t know where their desk was. Imagine the questions I had to answer.
Next, I was reminded early this morning that I have an essay to complete by Thursday for our school’s application to become a blue ribbon school. Yes, I am honored I was chosen as one to turn in the information and entrusted to write it correctly, but I’m also frustrated because that’s about the absolute last thing I want to think about on any day, let alone one like this.
I think the weather across the state is about the same today- COLD and RAINY! I don’t mind it when I can stay inside and admire the weather from afar. But when we get an unexpected fire alarm going off in the middle of class and have to take every single elementary student OUTSIDE in it, it’s not so fun. Yep- that’s what happened. Many of my kids were in short sleeved shirts. (Which by the way, do parents not look at their children before sending them out the door? I have students today, when snow is called for tonight, in summer clothing. I don’t get it.) Fortunately, I had on my anorak and could cover my head with my hood. I had nothing to share with the kids and felt bad they were cold and wet. It wasn’t long before we heard the sirens coming down the street. We were told it was a false alarm coming from the cafeteria and it was safe to go inside. Not so easy to calm kids back down to work after standing out in the rain and freezing.
As we were coming back in from the fire alarm, I met the sweet custodian who “rearranged” my room over the break. I felt the need to thank him, even though I didn’t like what he’d done, because I felt he probably believed he’d done me a huge favor. As I opened my mouth to tell him, he said, “Those tennis balls came from Mrs. X’s room, so you may want to check with her and see if you owe her anything.” UMMMMM- excuse me? Now I need to pay for something that I not only didn’t ask for, but don’t like? Not gonna happen, folks.
Thankfully, even though I experienced some definite stress throughout my seven hours at school today, I’m still ever grateful for my place of work, for my friends that are more like family that I work with, and for the fact that I feel extremely comfortable and relaxed in the place I call my home away from home. Today was just a typical day in the life of a teacher, and I know you all experience days similar to this at times, too. Praise be to God for the good days AND the bad. I am reminding myself of this as I type. Here’s to a better day, tomorrow!
