And excuse me? WHERE WERE YOU!?

The ice storm hit St. Charles pretty badly, while St. Louis apparently wasn't so much as touched. As a result, I missed work on Monday, and the two subs I called already had work. My kids were split up among the team as a result.

I caught hell from the kids the very next day.

"Excuse me, Miss Franklin, but where were you yesterday? We had to go to Mrs. Stanley (computers)/Walker (health)/Wayne (librarian)/Dobrivichkova (music)/YAY FOR GOING TO JOHNSON (aka gym), LEAVE AGAIN PLEASE."

"I do not like Mr. Walker/Ms. Wayne/Stanley (etc.), so why did you write down that we had to go there?"

"Um, Ms. Franklin? I missed you yesterday."

"You got to take a day off yesterday, so today we get off too, right? So, where are the Uno cards?"

"Wait... wait... you live in St. Charles!? WHY DO YOU COME OUT HERE TO TEACH!? Don't they have schools there? How far away is it? FOURTY-FIVE MILES!? What are you, nuts?"

Yes, I might be nuts, but I'm not nutty enough to have driven here when I couldn't even get out of my own driveway. I literally had to explain to every single class of my little learners as to why I was not here, and describe in detail how I had slipped and fallen on the ice three separate times at 5 a.m. just trying to get to my car. They listened patiently, probably thinking happily, "Yesss, yessss Misss Frankle, keep talking about your missssshapsss and tumblessss... keep usss from learning about main idea and detailssss..."

Yes, they are hissing like snakes. Because they are sneaky and don't like to learn. I overheard one of my students saying, "I love Ms. Frankleen's class." And when my heart was filled with warm butterflies and happy thoughts, elated by the love I was receiving by a student who apparently likes my class, it was crushed by the snort and response of another girl who I don't have as a student, "Probably because you said you don't do anything in that class."

heart. crushed. smooshed. like a little, sad bug.

How could she say that!!! Apparently I am going to be forever plagued with students thinking they do nothing in my class. Which perhaps should make me re-think if whether we do... do things in this class. Which, if my planner is correct, we do do things. Perhaps just not very well.

When I confronted the girl about it, she exclaimed, "What!? I never said that about your class. She was just saying that! I love this class! I promise! We do stuff! I just did the journal that listed five things about me, and then I did Read180 on the computer! We do stuff!"

Right now, I'm having kids alternate between the rBook, which we are learning about Main Idea and Details through the theme of immigrants, the computers where they work on the Read180 software that is now up and running, and the reading center which is apparently also a napping center.

Gah. I hope that classroom management happens like a swish of magic after Christmas break, because I'm in dire need of some serious classroom management with my little lower-level-learning hellions.

YAY ONLY 7 MORE DAYS LEFT UNTIL CHRISTMAS BREAK BEGINS!!!

(And for anyone curious, my mole was really agitated so I had to wear a bandaid over it for a week, and then I apparently broke out in an allergic reaction to the bandaid so it's still healing. I'll take that over the mole having to be removed or it being infected!!)

Really, doctor, I'm positive that I'm not insane. It's the kids. THE KIDS.

We finally got Read180 functioning, and yesterday and today I've been having my students take the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI). I'm not the only class that they're testing in, so needless to say, they've been rather crazy. There are a large chunk of my students that I'm going to call their parents. It is just unacceptable for them to be this silly and distracted.

My third hour has been psycho ever since Friday... and Friday was a bad day. Students were screaming obscenities at one another, throwing pencils, pens, calling each other nappy-headed, the n-word, grabbing each other's hair and pulling... I still get tears in my eyes just remembering it, and a tight feeling in my chest. I called the security guard, and while she was there they were okay, but then she left and it was pandemonium again. Friday, I cried after my third hour ended, huddled down into my tiny bathroom, sobbing on the floor. I calmed down enough to walk to Ashley Crawford's room on the other side of the freaking school (I brought my own toilet paper in case she didn't have tissues), but then I just broke down again; all I'd wanted to do was just talk about it, not cry anymore. She called Laurencia, who then came and took over for me during 5th hour (because they're generally crazy as well). It was bad, and as a result that class is still un-tamable. Even Laurencia is having a hard time getting them to listen to her, and that's near impossible not to do because she's just one of those people you listen to.

Anyhow, I'm doing my best to take things a day at a time, and to be as positive as I possibly can be. And I'm so damned grateful that Laurencia is back from her health sabbatical (doctor imposed), because she's got me functioning like a normal human being now that she's back. It makes me want to call up Jesus and say, "Now, I know that Laurencia is human, but right now she's practically a saint. Without that whole martyrdom-thing-that-most-saints-have-to-experience, can she be sainted? Cause... she deserves it."

I have a mole that's been killing me; it's burning like crazy. I'm gonna go and see my doctor tonight about it.

THIRTEEN DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS BREAK!!!