I know...crazy

TWO blog entries in one day!

Pretty interesting day, so I thought I'd share.

I returned to my classroom today to find that the Heli-Mom was the ONLY parent to ask for a phone call before classes start. Wow, interesting since she was in our classroom twice and spoke to the Principal. I'm actually kind of curious about what she would still want to talk about.

My son's open house was also interesting. He'll be attending morning daycare at one elementary school and then he'll be bused to his school for Kindergarten in the afternoon. I first visited his daycare school and checked my messages while driving to Kindergarten only to get an interesting message from the Principal. Apparently they have more kids than they thought and so they added one more class. My son has been placed into this new class which will actually meet at one of the other elementary schools. Interesting. So, they are taking a class of Kindergartners from one school and busing then to another. They also offered to bus him to his original school for a bus ride home. Hummm, that would mean ending class 20 minutes early, which is actually alot when you're talking about a 3 hour day. The upside is that he will be in a classroom where the ratio is 16:1. AMAZING for public school. We'll see how it all turns out. As a new employee, I don't feel like I have much say in the matter. Actually, I'm really not sure how I even feel about it anyway. Tomorrow is our orientation so I'll get to visit with his teacher then, although I'd bet she doesn't have alot of answers for my questions.

I received my newest class roster today. 32 kids in science. 32! 6 who are special ed. Hummmm. I guess I'll get extra pay for the extra kids, but honestly I'd prefer less students. I think things won't be set in stone until the end of the first week, so I guess I'll just go with the flow. And those of you who know me IRL know that "going with the flow" isn't my strong suit :0

The First Week

Well...my first week as a teacher is underway. Meetings, meetings, and more meetings. Last night I met the kids and parents. I think we had about 75% attend our open house. It was a blast. I was very nervous and didn't expect to have so much fun. I did have one interesting episode where a mother who appeared to be very "intense" approached me. This was going to be her child's first public school experience, lots of concerns all around. I didn't get a great vibe from Mom, but the student seemed shy but nice. After she left the room, my team teacher approached me to tell me there was some parent who was talking with OTHER PARENTS about how her daughter was friends with another student who said I was mean and yelled a lot at the kids!! Guess which Mom this was. What is more annoying is that the kid talking about me is my cousins daughter. Who has NOT had me for a teacher and who doesn't know me, except for when I'd say "Hi" to her in the hallway last year (she always looked the other way and ignored me). My other cousins kid who attends this same school LOVES me and would always run up and hug me when she would see me in the hallway.

Turns out this Mom also approached the Principal about me and my "yelling" (The principal defended me AND pointed out that my cousin DID NOT have me for a teacher last year). BTW the same woman said she heard that the Principal is also mean...I guess everyone is just mean. Not a great way to start off the year.


That said...the staff is wonderful. My teaching team is even more wonderful and my Principal is very supportive and approachable. So, other than my "Helicopter Mom" things are shaping up to be a great year. Well, I am a little concerned about the kid with SERIOUS health issues( I'm a little nervous to discuss any details on my blog, even anonymously, but I'm pretty sure I'll be calling 911 at least once this year), don't know why they put him on the new teacher team...hummm.

Tonight I get to meet my son's new teacher, which should be interesting. She is a devout Mormon by the sound of her letter (son at BYU, son on a "mission" and daughter in Private School.. O.K. as I type that I'm getting more freaked out). My experience with Mormons tells me that they might be the least "accepting" religious types when it comes to "alternative" family situations. Ijust hope there are no issues. I like to think my son is pretty lovable and cute, regardless of his family situation.

Super Mario Bros.

My son and I enjoy video games, especially Super Mario Bros. In fact, after he first discovered Mario he made a cute request.

Dec "Mom, lets put a picture of Mario on our door. Then people will know how much we love Mario."

It was no surprise that when shopping at Target recently he saw the 4 DVD collection of "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show" and begged to get it. I said we'd have to wait...I'm always buying things like that for 1/2 price used.

A week later I saw it at my local game store for less than 1/2 price and snatched it up. Declan was thrilled. I popped in the first disc and watched the first preview for "The Electric Company" and then started cleaning, barely listening to the audio, and this is what followed:

Some Preview on the DVD " blah, blah blah....Condoms.....8 condoms

Me: (thinking to myself) Did I just hear the word condom...what the heck.

Dec: "Mom, what's a condom?"

Me: casually "I don't know" I don't loose a beat and continue cleaning.

When Declan wasn't home, I reviewed the preview to find out what the heck was going on. It was for some show called "Undeclared" The full line was "Want to have sex? Do you have a condom? I have 8 condoms."

So, I pulled the first disc and let him watch the other 3 (no previews) I just called the company that manufactures the DVD, the woman was shocked and is looking into it...they'll call me back.

Other than that...life has been very busy. I worked 3 days last week, two were attending a training session for my science curriculum. Today I'm headed out to buy a fish tank for my classroom and then I'll spend the day putting on the finishing touches. It's basically ready to go, but I'm also going to work on curriculum for the first week, which is all fun team building activities..and one math test :)