After Thanksgiving

I think that I've been telling myself so many times that it would get better after Thanksgiving...it did. Either that, or the kids were still tired from vacation today.

The end of last week was chaos in the classroom, but at 1:20 PM on Wednesday I booked it out of there. I drove home and spent a few days with my family. My weekend was wonderful. I had 2 home-cooked family dinners, one major medical emergency to respond to (5 patients and only 2 ambulances!), and a couple of days lounging with the boyfriend.

This morning started out with an accidental extra 30 minutes of sleep, and then a VERY hurried 10 minutes as I threw on clothes and ran out the door. I managed to make it to school with enough time to turn on my computer before meeting with my mentor.

Morning double-period lab ran smoothly, with a more challenging class of mine. I think I need to name my classes so you can identify them. I'll name them after colors. Here goes:

Red: My homeroom class. 7th grade. Certainly one of the more social and energetic groups. Loyal to me, usually.

Orange: The other 7th grade class. Usually, the most smoothly running class.

Yellow: 8th grade. The challenging class that required Adviser's help. Doing better.

Green: 8th grade. Really smart kids that need to be challenged constantly or chaos ensues.

Blue: 8th grade, with the four extremely social girls. Often at the end of the day.

This morning I had a smooth double period with Yellow.

During my first prep today, I had scheduled a "Cougar Coupon" event. When a student is good in class, they earn a Cougar Coupon (usually two students per period). At the end of the month, any student with 4 coupons or more can attend a special event thrown by us teachers. This month, I was in charge of the 7th grade event, so I planned a party that fit right within my budged: free time in the gym. I played basketball with my 7th graders and it was awesome. As in fun, not as in I'm awesome at basketball. I'm actually pretty terrible. After several chances of an unblocked shot, I finally scored once towards the end. My team lost about 10-5. I got sweaty and tired, but it was great. It also helped me connect with some of my tougher kids.

The rest of the day ran smoothly. It wasn't especially thrilling, and Orange proved a little more challenge than usual, but it was all pretty good. It's becoming more of a routine. Now it's time for my second try at sweaty yoga.