Cold

Today is one of those days when I have a cold, and it's not bad enough to take a sick day, but it is pretty annoying. I feel kind of drained. Yesterday's super detention was overall pretty easy on me, since I was sitting for most of the day, but it was also exhausting and left me with a lingering nonspecific sense of frustration.

I also had an extra class to cover today. Due to weird field trip scheduling (there are too many 5th graders to take all of them to Project USE on the same day, so the trip is split up between two days, meaning some 5th grade teachers are on the trip, even though there are some 5th graders around to teach), I was scheduled to teacher 5th grade science this morning. The class actually went extremely well, and I was happy with the students' focus and performance on their exit ticket (spinal cord and sensory/motor nerves, pretty awesome for 5th graders).

Teaching 5th grade is good practice for my behavior management techniques, because the 5th graders respond very well to the paycheck system. As long as I was consistent about taking and adding dollars as necessary, the students made sure to stay focused and do their work. I actually had a blast, and we got to have a class discussion about how oxtail demonstrates the shape of vertebrae, so they can see at dinner how the spinal cord is protected. I had fun, and teaching the human body is awesome. (Can't wait for sex ed in January!)

My own classes went well, although B came in a little cranky, but was able to recover the last 20 minutes of class.

Now I have regular detention. It's definitely less tedious that super detention yesterday, but I still have that feeling of walking on eggshells - one wrong move, and the next fifty minutes will be a painful and frustrating battle to stay sane and emotionally constant. But, it's good now. And I'm feeling a little better this afternoon, after a solid lunch. Maybe I will get a run in this afternoon. I'll feel good atoning all day tomorrow if I get a good run in today.