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Anxiety Overload

It’s the day before Halloween and all is not calm nor bright. I have to finish planning a big shindig party for the kids, plan my “superhero” costume for Red Ribbon Week, and finish my door decoration for RRW. Just as I was about to breathe a big sigh of relief, I did the unthinkable.

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Checking me work email last night resulted in a mini-panic attack. Our new interim-but-so-very-NICE principal was kind enough to give a heads up that she would be doing classroom observations today.

This was a big problem for many reasons.

1. The day before Halloween. Need I say more?

2. The week has been CRAZY with dress-up days, morning assemblies, and overall nothing-on-schedule. When you take gazillions of kids out of their routines and schedules, the result is chaos. It can be fun chaos. But not the kind of chaos that lends itself to great observation material for the purpose of judging determining my effectiveness as a teacher. It’s a little hard to let out the reins for 3 days then bring them right back into tight lines.

3. The day BEFORE HALLOWEEN PARTY. This is the first class party we have had in a few years. This is the first fun we have been allowed to have in a couple of years. We are all giddy on the idea of songs and games and FUN. I’m going to carve a pumpkin, for crying out loud.

4. Storm drill 15 minutes before observations are set to being. Are you kidding me?

No. There was no kidding. The observation was fine. The kids, as usual, were fabulous and flexible in their ability to put aside their excitement. I have such a great group of kids.

After the class observations, we had lunch and then a group from the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable grant came to our school to do a corn roast for the kids. They had some information about corn, the ways we use it (high fructose corn syrup was absent from the list, thank goodness), and how it is grown. They gave each kid an ear of roasted-in-the-husk corn and let me tell you..it was FANTASTIC. The mean teacher that I am, I then had them try to give me some feedback on it. They were on a corn sugar high and I’m trying to get some conversation from them. But what else was I going to do with my chart??

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During tutoring after school, I sent Stephen a text about having a rough day at school. An hour later, he sent this text back. I love him to pieces.

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He has a shredded shoulder but he managed to grill all this.

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With a long day and fantastic dinner, I slept like a baby. Tomorrow is going to be EPIC!!!