It's Friiiiidaaaaay!

Well...the bloom is off the rose with the 8th grade, as of now. All year long, I've been bragging on this year's kids...how they have been better behaved than last year's crew, in spite of admonitions from the 7th grade teachers that the group was, overall, not good. I'm not bragging anymore! Since Wednesday, I have had to write up six kids for misbehavior that was more than just classroom highjinx. And it isn't even February yet! (February is the worst month for student behavior.) I rarely send kids to the office, so they have to be pushing the limits in order to get in trouble with me. There are two days left of school before Thanksgiving break. Hope the four days off will inspire the kids to get their acts together when they get back. Otherwise, it's going to be a loooong rest of the year!

Had a strange thing happen today. One of my team members was absent, so she had a sub. During our study period, I went to her room to call out one of her kids to work with one in my room, just to be nice. (Usually, my student goes to her room to work with her student.) I stuck my head in the door and asked for the student, saying that I didn't want to send my student to her room with the "poor sub in charge". Well! The sub immediately thought I was criticizing her as a poor sub, when I was really just trying to be sympathetic...as in "poor you". She jumped on me in front of the students. "Excuse me? I take offense to that! This is game day!" I didn't have a clue who she was...and apparently she didn't know who I was, either. I was shocked. I stammered that I hadn 't meant to be offensive, then turned around and let the door slam behind me. At the end of the day, she came to me to apologize for her instant assumption that I was accusing her of being a bad sub. It ended okay, but she needs to learn that those kinds of things should NOT occur in front of students! As it turns out, she is the mother of one of my favorite former students! I felt bad about the whole deal...

Meg was home sick today. She has the intestinal heeby-jeebies that I have somewhat shared. Robin is coughing. Ryan has a nasty nose. Still, we have endeavored to have a good evening. When I picked the kids up from the other Grandma, I took them to McD's for dinner and play. They were good. At home, we had clean-up time, then "movie night". Meg has a bunch of kid shows recorded on the TiVo. The kids get in their jammies and lie down to watch movies, with popcorn and drinks. They love it! (They are enjoying the last of them now.)

We will be trying (all four of us) to get the leaves raked this weekend. Lots to do. Always lots to do!