Crickets. I'm getting pretty ticked off at crickets.

The crickets are swarming now..everywhere, including in my classroom. Every time one crawls out it seems that I lose the attention of the whole class. It's really annoying. The reactions range from curious staring to screams of terror. Dang crickets.

The other day we were reviewing the 4 natural regions of our state. One of the regions is the High Plains. I was writing them on the board. I wrote them up there and turned around. When I turned back around to look I realized I'd written "High Plains Drifter" on the board and was completely unaware of it. I guess I've seen too many Clint Eastwood movies.

This morning during reading time someone was passing gas the whole time I was reading to them. Silent but deadly. The whole reading area just reeked. These kids are little fart machines.

Tonight was parents night. Last year this lasted one hour total. It's supposed to go from 6:30 to 7:30. This year they kept the parents down in the cafeteria being talked to by the principal, the music teacher, the PE teacher and the PTA president so that they didn't even get up to our rooms (where they're supposed to endure another meeting, which is supposed to be the focus of the whole night) until after 7:30. So that really stunk for those that had only booked babysitters until 7:30 as well as for those of us who had dinner and spouses waiting at home (just to clarify, I only have one spouse).

This afternoon I started feeling really light-headed for some reason. I started walking down the hallway to go get my class from PE and suddenly the hallway started moving and I had to lean against a wall. I don't know what the deal was. I was able to go get my class and stay with them until the dismissal bell but I continued to feel like that for an hour and a half. I had my blood pressure and blood sugar checked and they were both fine. It was weird..that's never happened before. I think it might possibly be due to fatigue.

This morning I had the kids reading out loud out of their social studies book. This one kid started reading and he just went nonstop, zooming through periods and all. So I stopped him and said "I need to hear the punctuation when you read!" meaning he needs to pause with periods etc... So he started back up again, got to the end of the sentence and said "period." I laughed but he seemed kind of embarrassed. Ok, I need to go address that fatigue I mentioned right now.

Good night.

The first two days have gone very well. Yesterday there was an incident that was a little sad though. I was asking the kids in the other class that I trade with to each tell me something interesting about themselves. One kid raised his hand and said "My mom said that some day we'll move into an apartment with air-conditioning." The highs around here have been over 100 degrees for the last few days. I can't imagine... He then said "Last week my dad got paid and he took my sister and I somewhere." I said "Where'd he take you?" (in hindsight I shouldn't have asked) He said "Long John Silver's."

Yeseterday the girl that sits next to my super-hyper kid raised her hand and said "He called me a dead cow somethingorother" (didn't catch the last part but it was pretty creative). The hyper kid immediately said "I DIDN'T SAY THAT!!" I looked at him and said "So she raised her hand so she could lie about you calling her a dead cow somethingorother?" He looked at me for a minute and then lowered his head and said "I said it."

He's always bothering this poor, sweet little girl that sits next to him. I may have to move him so he's not sitting next to anyone.

Anyway, two good days so far.

Oh yeah, I do have one somewhat amusing story. The talky kid (who wrote on his info sheet today that his favorite animal is a Liger) told me that his granddad was an archaeologist who died as a result of an ancient booby trap at an old, forbidden ruins. Now, I guess if that's true it's not funny but he said a LOT of things today that make me feel it's probably not true. I'm tempted to ask his mom though..

Today was the first day. I think it went very well. I seem to have some real sweet kids in my class. There is one though who has some real hyperactivity and attention issues. He talks NONSTOP. Seriously...it's just constant. He also doesn't want to do any work and he seems to try and do things to sort of sneak out of it already. I wouldn't say he's a bad kid (At least not yet), he just has some issues that are probably out of his control.

I can't really think of anything funny to share from today. It is so freaking HOT this week! I had to wear a tie today and we were doing afternoon duty and the heat was just oppressive. Mrs. Principal said we can wear jeans the next two days though. That means I can wear a t-shirt too. YES! That will be much better than the button-down and tie. At least our AC works...after all, we DO have the oldest building of any in our district.

later

Tonight we had a sort of meet-and-greet kind of thing where the kids and their parents come and go, bring supplies and the parents fill out forms.

One of the mothers told me that she heard a couple of students telling some other students that I'm "the meanest teacher in the whole school." The only thing I have to say to that:

Mission Accomplished.

I was setting up my phone in my new room yesterday and realized that there were all these new ringtones available on my classroom phone that were not previously there. Someone over in the technology dept. must have been bored. I could choose from various tones including clips of songs from Jay- Z, Method Man, Homer Simpson's "DOH!", Bart Simpson saying "Ay Carumba", Curly from the Three Stooges going "Whooop, whoop, whoop...", the alien notes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Dubya saying "God bless Amurica," etc... I ended up choosing the opening notes of the song "Two Turntables and a Microphone" by Beck. It's pretty laid back sounding. I dig it.

So anyway, the ringtones were a cause of excitement. That's how exciting my day was..it was mostly full of meetings. Late.

Summer is over. :( School is about to start back up again. I've been trying to stay awake in meetings all week plus organize and decorate my new room (Which isn't any prettier than my old room, btw). I don't really know how often I'll update my blog this year. Maybe every once in a while. I don't know. Anyway, although I hate to say goodbye to summer I am kind of excited to start a new year. Wish me luck!