4 day weekend

I am so happy this is a 4 day weekend.  We are celebrating Presidents' Day and it couldn't have come at a better time.  Between all of the sickness going around school and the beautiful weather we are having here in Northern California, it is the perfect time to get away from each other for a few days and take a mental and physical break.  The kids need it and the teachers do too.  It seems that whenever we have a long weekend like this there are quite a few families who like to extend the holiday by a couple of days of even a week.  I have two students who took the whole week off and there were quite a few absent on Thursday.  It's great for the kids to get to spend extra family time, but hard when they expect that we don't do anything while they are gone.  Some expect to not have to make up any work when they come back to school and then wonder why their grade suffers from the extra holiday days.  I often wonder what kind of employees they will make as they get older if they aren't learning the responsibility early on.

This week I had the nice surprise of some former students coming to visit me at lunch and talking about some of their favorite memories from my class last year.  These two girls said how much they looked forward to coming to my class every day.  They weren't outstanding students, but I guess I really made an impression on them.  So much so, that they took time out of their lunch to stop by to say thanks.  It was a welcomed break from having to scold naughty kids who don't do their work.

My 6th period class this year is quite the challenge and on Wednesday they were being especially chatty.  I was getting a bit frustrated with them and using up all of my 'teacher looks' by the end of the period trying to keep them quiet so I could finish the lesson.  I was afraid my face would get stuck like that.  The next day, one of those students came in and told me I was his favorite teacher.  I had to laugh, because I thought I was being so mean!  I guess he thought my mean teacher face was funny or entertaining or something.

And some people say they have no idea how I could be a teacher!  The kids make me laugh every day.  You can't put a price on that.