Week Back From Pesach

The week has been so insanely busy that I have not had any time to post.

Came back to school to find CFC being more annoying than ever. I wore a hooded sweatshirt one day with my sheitel in a ponytail and thought it was very important to tell me that I looked cute.

TG is a pest too, always calling out and totally coming up with weird topics to talk about in class.

8th grade is obsessed with the idea of my husband coming in to talk to them about the Great Depression, but the best I could do was pass around a photocopy of a real stock certificate he got for me to use.

They are all asking about my baby and are kind of shocked that I still call him Jellybean.

Last week Thursday the 8th grade learned about cancers and I gave my co some of the scans that I took when I was sick where you could see actual tumors in my body. The girls didn't know it was me in the scan, but I heard that they were fascinated.

Well this Monday I got an index card from TG that asked me if it was true that I'd had cancer as a kid. I was slightly shocked, but coming from TG it made sense... so I just wrote that yes, I had been sick.

BK is a brat who skipped a grade and thinks she is all that, but in reality she is just about average- even for her age, not to mention the grade, but she lords it over everyone else. She's always calling everyone "guys!!!" and tries to act like a big macher all the time. Gets on my flipping nerves.

She gave me an index card this week saying "just a personal thing, but I don't like you." I told her that it was okay for her not to like me.

She came over recess time to tell me that she just wanted to see my reaction. I told her that as a personal thing it was okay, but as a derech eretz thing that wasn't acceptable.

The class has been really bratty about going outside for recces so the principal threatened to take recess away. That got them going.

Yearbook is coming out soooo amazing, but the administrator of the school is sitting shiva so I don't know what's going to be with the stuff he has to give in for it. :(

I started driving to school again, which means that after not having slept all night, I still have to wake up early to take my husband to work so that I can use the car and then my mornings are pretty much shot. I found a babysitter for JB so I think I'm happy, but boy, I can't wait for summer vacation.

We did The Giver and had a really great discussion about how a child is not an adult and that its not fair to ask one to grow up too quickly. The girls had to admit at the end of that lesson that it was indeed a privilege to come to school every day- homework and all.

Seventh grade.

CSS has been so calm the past week. I don't know if this is for real or if she's just resting while the gathers her strength for a whopper. She's been writing notes and paying attention and acting sincere. I'm impressed. She's becoming quite lovable.

EL and SE and some of the other girls are OBSESSED with finding out when my birthday is. They make me laugh, but I won't tell them.

I went to Philadelphia with the grade this Tuesday, and it was a really nice trip. We left the school at 7am, and the principal was telling me that she was a bit nervous because she had planned this trip months ago and it turned out that just this week the administrator's father passed away and he wasn't here to mind the school while she was away on the trip. She hoped that the Hebrew principal could manage.

Half an hour later the Hebrew principal called in that her water broke and that there was no way she could come into school LOL. (She had the baby 3 hours later... I could KILL such people!)

The principal called up the secretary, but she was stranded in Cleveland because she had gone in last night for a wedding, and because of heavy rains and flooding, her plane was delayed.

The other secretary had to leave early so pretty much the school was run by the janitor all day.

The principal then had a very interesting conversation with me about all her birth stories and whether epidurals are worth it etc. OMG I love this school.

I told her that this school was such a different place than my old school. In my old school I had to wear a suit every day. The principal was shocked. She told me that she came to school in knee socks and a slinky skirt every day because she feels that by dressing casually the kids identify with her more and by feeling comfortable she got more done.

I love this school more!

She asked me questions about when I was sick too. I don't know why that always comes up...

Once we got to Philli we hung out in the visitor's center while a mad black woman was cursing and shrieking about her rights. My kids took lots of pictures....

We saw independence hall and the Liberty Bell and took a horse and buggy ride around the historical part of town. The girls were so thrilled to see a bunch of places they had learned about and I was thrilled that they remembered everything I had taught them. The principal was thrilled too about how great of a teacher I was.

I'm a bighead.

The buggy driver we had was sooo annoying she didn't shut up for a minute and kept teasing me because I was the teacher. Grrrrrrr.

We went to the Franklin Institute where we watched an Imax about Hurricane Katrina.

As I entered the Imax I got really really dizzy and sort of (okay, not just sort of) blacked out in front of all my students. The principal told me to go wait outside while the class watched the Imax , but I insisted that if I sat down and didn't move and didn't talk it would be fine.

RA and NN plunked themselves down on either side of me and didn't shut up for a minute while I puked into a bag. I don't even think they noticed.

There were two 80 year old women walking up the Imax stairs and RA said to me, "Look, if they can do it, so can you! Compare the skills of the 80 year olds vs. the 19 year old."

I could have slapped her if I hadn't been too busy trying to keep my lunch down.

She was absent on Thursday and I have to say it was the best day of my week.

On Wednesday RA kept trying to teach the class. She kept answering everyone's questions even before I opened my mouth.

I finally walked over to her desk and dumped my book on it. I told her that I was way to tired to fight it out with her and that I wanted to go home and take a nap and would she mind teaching the class as she seemed she thought herself capable.

She was quiet and I left my book on her desk to make her feel stupid and taught the rest of the lesson without it.

After class she came to insist that she was right about some of the things she had said and in less than two seconds I told her why she was wrong. She asked me why I didn't tell her that during class so I told her that I didn't want to embarrass her. I told her that she had to start thinking seriously into some of the things she said because although she thought she knew everything she didn't. She claimed that she reads a lot and that she knows more than the average girl, but then I pointed out that knowledge isn't everything, that social capabilities are important too.

I think it went over her head.

I finished two chapters in history in the seventh grade this week and both grades are having tests scheduled for next week.

I started reading "The Wave" to the 8th grade because we're going to be starting the Holocaust shortly. They're loving it.

Today I taught them how to sit through a high school discussion class and look interested, and still come away enjoying it. The girls felt huge at the end of the lesson.

I had two girls in each class make up a review game for history for Monday because I won't be there- I need to go in to the hospital for scans. :(

The principal asked me to take some time off from school because I looked awful and she said that recovering from a baby isn't easy. I don't want to take off, and school is almost over- another couple of weeks. I told her thanks, but I'd sleep it off over Shabbos.