Yucky Friday :(

It hasn't been that great of a Friday yet and it's only 10 AM, so I'm really hoping things change.

First period precalc was fine. We started talking about vectors yesterday, though, and I've been doing too much of the talking. Hate that. But how else do you get through the basic terminology/notation/operations? Next week will be better because we'll start using the vectors.

I had to go to an IEP meeting during second period. (My plan period is from 8:28 - 9:18. It is seriously the worst time to have off because that's when parents can come in for meetings. I've been to more IEP meetings this year than ever!) The student in question is much brighter than he acts but has quite an attitude. Yesterday he refused to put away one of those little finger skateboards. I asked him twice, then told him that he needed to give it to me. He refused, saying that he would rather be written up than give it to me. Not a problem. I started to write him up and noticed him still playing with it. After telling him that even though I was writing him up he needed to put it away, he got belligerent and I had the special ed teacher in here with me escort him to the office. The mom at the meeting was upset that I hadn't let her know, even though this was 7th period yesterday and I knew I'd be seeing her 2nd period today.  She calmed down, though, and told me she'd "deal with him" later.

Then I messed up, which makes me feel bad. A friend of mine across the hall has a rough 2nd period class - there are a couple of boys that really act up and she's had a tough year with them. After my IEP meeting I was finishing up some things in my room when I heard a lot of commotion from her room. I wanted to make sure everything was ok, so I went over just to pop in. She was fine, but one of the boys was making some rude comments about her needing some mental help... and he just kept talking. I said something to the effect of, "Why are you being so rude? I don't even know you but I'm getting a bad impression." Probably not the best thing to say. He kept going off so I escorted him down to the office. (They weren't surprised to see him, so I'm sure he's a frequent visitor.) I just feel badly that I interfered in something that wasn't my business but I didn't want her to have a rough time and no help.

I apologized to her, but I'm going to head over with some chocolate here in a few.

Hoping that today gets better!


I can't end it like this. Some good stuff:
1.  I've worn sweatpants all week to school (it's our "OGT Training Camp Week"). And had a snow day on Weds.
2.  Next week because of the OGT I'll have a 2-hour period each morning to sit in the hall and give breaks to those people who have sophomores testing. And get a lot of work done during the day (which means no taking papers home to grade!).
3. My Intervention class is a weird variety of kids all working on different math topics. But they get along fantastically and we have a good time.
4. My precalc kids did horribly on their weekly review (this week was exponent rules). The good news? I decided that I'm going to make them do them again next week so I don't have to make up a new review for them. Less work for me! I'll replace their quiz score with next week's.
5. I apologized (again) to my friend across the hall and took her chocolates. She's not mad and thinks I'm dumb for feeling bad.
6. Next week is pi day and I found out today that Graeter's celebrates it by selling $1 pies.
7. I'm feeling better now.