alala, alala

Holy moly, it's been a week since I've updated. Hah. It's not like Williamsburg is that incredibly exciting that we have so much stuff to talk about.
This weekend was a three day weekend for me though, thanks to MLK day. It's pretty awesome that they give the school a day off, Norfolk does tons of stuff on that day. The kids even knew why they had the day off! Fantastic! Let's see. I finally finished The Fountainhead, I watched all the movies that have been sitting around from Netflix, I lazed about and I changed up the patio stuff. Now it looks like we have more space and it's more comfortable. It was in the high 60s, low 70s this weekend, so I spent some time sipping wine and mimosas on the porch with David at night and reading in the morning with some coffee. Wonderful! I didn't have that much work to do for school, so it was a very lazy (and, at times, restless) three day weekend.
The prepping I had to do was mostly for the tea party. It was a theme to make it more fun and silly for the kids to start off their review for their semester exam. Yesterday went really good. Today... not so good. It was a combination of factors: My first bell complaining a LOT about theirs being cancelled due to behavior and one of my students being in a funk because of issues with his mom, one of my students in my third bell being in a funk because his grandpa died this weekend, and my fifth bell being pretty crazy and disappointing (they saw the very mean side of Mrs. P, unfortunately, but it needed to be done, I guess). For the most part, the kids did good and were helping each other out with their review. My 8th bell sillypants kids had way too much fun with the "tea party" theme. They took to sipping with their pinkies up (out of styrofoam-like cups... ultimate class!) and some amazing vocabulary appeared! "Mrs. P, this tea is simply exquisite!" "Excuse me, young lady, could I trouble you to tell me about coordinating conjunctions?" and the sort were what I heard a lot of. Those kind of days are why I love my 8th bell. My even day kids (2nd and 8th) are forgetful and hyperactive, but they are incredibly creative and silly, which I love. I couldn't take any pictures of them (consent issues! ugh! written consent needed! but no one knows where the forms are! what?!?), so I substituted this picture of me doing my best air tea sip. Enjoy.
What is causing a behavior problem now is the fact that they have exams all next week! EIGHT OF THEM!! My kids are stressed(!!) now that every class is devoted to putting pressure on them to pass every exam. That is so crazy. Eight exams. One week. Holy crap. I was talking to a few kids in my first bell who were complaining and wishing they could have the 4 class per semester schedule and that when they were in other districts in the area with that type of block schedules their grades were higher. They also wanted required planners, provided by the school (a system like we had in KPS), so they could keep track of their assignments. I was talking to another few students in my 8th bell yesterday about the no iPod/CD player stuff and the pros and cons of allowing that. I encouraged all of them to look into what they could do about that. Some of them automatically dismissed the idea. One girl said that there was a woman on the school board that outright said that students have no rights in the school. So I told her to talk to her mom about it. They still didn't think there was anything to do about it, but I'll keep nagging at them to give it a try. I am such a bad first year teacher. Look at me: encouraging my students to question authority and push for answers. Bad, bad teacher.
Anyway. We have visitors coming! In February and in March! I am so totally excited! I have a three-day weekend for Presidents' Day, which is the same weekend as David's birthday, so Miss Fancy Pants herself is coming for a visit! Perfect! Then, we have Meg and Mike coming down early March to spend their spring break with us. Hopefully we will find enough for them to do for that whole week, haha! Especially since we'll both be in school for that week (or part of it, in David's case. I believe his spring break starts the end of the week that they'll be here). Some of my students are excited to meet Megan since I have referred to her many, many times. Hopefully, they don't embarass me in front of them. I can only imagine...