Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Anyone have any explosives handy?

Six weeks to go.

Or, as the optimists put it, only 28 days - with kids. The days without kids don't really count.

The kids came back, whining and moaning about how bored they'd been over the break. The weather started off fantastic, and then we ended up with what they call a Dogwood Winter. Temps dropping to 17 degrees overnight, even a bit of snow there towards the end of the week. So the kids apparently spent most of the break freezing and whining about how cold it was and stayed inside the house playing video games.

I guess very few of them thought of taking advantage of the time to read a book.

Mr. Bluebird and I spent the last few days of break working on landscape projects - in the freezing cold - which I suppose is better than working on them when it's in the 90's and humid. Fortunately we didn't go nuts and plant anything (just laying brick, digging, and all the hard work before you plant things). What we already have - the crepe myrtles, the hostas, the fall mums, the tulips, the hibiscus, lilac, butterfly bush, and even the ireses - all got hit hard by the deep freeze.

I also think the kids' brains got hit by the deep freeze.

We're still reviewing for the Big Deal State Mandated Test which will be next week. We try to make the review as fun and as interesting as we can - lots of mini-labs, hands on activities, discussions, and so forth. It usually works out pretty well, the kids like it, and it's effective.

On Monday morning I felt like I was teaching a bunch of zombies.

They sat there. They didn't raise their hands. They didn't blink. They just starred blankly ahead of them. I finally got so frustrated with my first period I simply stopped, told them to stand up, and made them flap their arms and jump up and down to get the blood flowing.

Of course they all thought I'd lost my mind.

And truth be told, I thought I might just have. Finally by fourth period the kids perked up a bit and actually began to show some life and weren't some little oxygen thieves sucking the energy out the room. Thank goodness. I thought I was going to have to start doing magic tricks or setting off explosions to get them to wake up.

I need to stock up on Diet Coke and Mentos.

28 days....

1 comment:

CaliforniaTeacherGuy said...

"The days without kids don't really count."

That sentence, Ms. Bluebird, is probably the most important observation in your post. I suspect you wrote it out of frustration and meant it in an entirely different way than I take it. But here's my take:

The life of a K-12 teacher centers around children. Even when they're being zombies or the victims of oxygen thieves, they are they reason we do what we do.

Persist, my friend. You care about them, even on the homeward stretch. May these last 28 days--with children--bestow upon you unexpected wonders and rewards.

:-)