No, not that way.  

On March 8th, I got my official email stating that I was now in proud possession of a California Preliminary Level I Education Specialist Instruction Credential, valid dating back to December 20, 2005 through January 1, 2011.  You can even look me up on the state's website.

Cool.  Now our fearless President and his trusty Congress can pass whatever brilliant educational laws they please; I will still be able to get a job, at least in the state of California.  At least until 2011.

The other day it occurred to me that my job requires a different outlook on life than other people's jobs.

I was out at P.E. with my students, and one of the kids had a tantrum of sorts because she didn't like being told she could not play catcher in our kickball game.  She ran to the sidelines and refused to rejoin the game.  This is not the first time something like this has happened with her, and I decided that this time when the power struggle ensued, I was going to win.  I insisted that she go back and play; she had to get in line to kick the ball at least once.

Needless to say, this did not go over well with her.  She intermittently screamed, cried, swore at me, and made threats, but I held fast to my demand that she kick the ball at least once.  P.E. was over; the other kids had already lined up and gone back to the classroom with my aide.  Ultimately in a burst of final rage, she screamed "Fine!" and ran over to the plate so I could pitch her the ball.  Yelling at the top of her lungs, she kicked the ball (I think she was actually trying to kick it at me, but this is a small kid, and it barely made it back to my feet).

So what was my reaction to the crying, screaming, swearing, and threatening when all was said and done?  I praised her for following a teacher direction she didn't want to follow for the first time since she had been in my class, possibly for the first time in her several years at our school.  I also gave her a pencil from the pocket of prizes in my apron. 

Totally different outlook on life.  But at least it was a cool pencil.

Hi.  You many not remember me.  My name is Lauren.  I used to have a blog around here, but some time during the last two weeks I fell off the face of the earth.

Actually, I didn't fall off the face of the earth (although the two earthquakes we had last weekend made me seriously think I was going to).  It's just that during the last two weeks I finally felt the effects of being seriously over-committed.  Apparently, working as a full-time teacher, taking four graduate classes, attending physical therapy three times a week, attending regular therapy once a week, and being married with a dog doesn't leave you a lot of time for blogging.  Who woulda thunk it?

Word of the Day:

harass (verb) - to bother repeatedly

What a day! 

I started off kind of bummed over some personal stuff I won't get into here.  Went off to work, same old, same old.  Had a nice chat with my mom this morning - I love her so much! - so that kind of lifted me back up and made me happy.  The kids came to school, and we actually got to all parts of my lesson plan for Language Arts, so that made me happy, but then things were a bit difficult for my Reading group, so we ended a little behind.  That happens sometimes, so I wasn't too bummed.  I got my students ready to line up for lunch and then stepped into the hall to ask another teacher a question.  When I came back one of my students was throwing a tantrum that eventually involved him grabbing my arms in an attempt to drag me down the hall.  Kind of a bummer.  He's only 82 lbs., so not too much physical damage to me, but any aggressive incident means lots of cumbersome paperwork.  Lunch was great - one of the other teachers and I set up this great Social Studies project for our kids to work on later - so I was happy about that.  Social Skills and Math were without incident.  Science was kind of tough due to student behaviors - bummer -  at the beginning, but half of my group got pulled out for independent services, so I let the two I had left catch up on some assignments while I wrote the incident report from earlier - definitely happy to get that out of the way.  Social Studies came around, we got the project going and it was fairly successful, but then one of the students (thankfully not mine) got really frustrated and threw a calculator at me, hitting me in the stomach - big bummer, it HURT!  More paperwork, of course.  The kids went home soon, yadda yadda yadda, I eventually left work and drove through traffic to my evening masters program class (which is a constant bummer, but we won't get into that here) and then I found as I walked into the classroom that it was cancelled!  Though I was bummed that I had driven there in the first place, I was so happy that I didn't have to spend 3 hours listening to the idiocy that is a constant factor of my program.  Plus, now I get to spend the evening with Lex (if he'd ever get home from work) and Charlie!  Definitely happy.

I hope tomorrow is a little more constant!  I don't particularly like rollercoasters, emotional or otherwise

(I realized the above is not quite true - I actually do enjoy many rollercoasters.  Ah, well.  I can't even spell Britney.  Clearly I make mistakes.)

Word of the Day:

I totally shouldn't be blogging right now.

I should be:

1.  Writing two "abstracts" for research articles about transition from special education to employment, especially since they're due tomorrow

2.   Paying my bills

3.   Learning from my mistakes, as I lost this blog post the first time (again!!!)

4.   Going to the gym

5.   Finding ways to make my life more interesting, since judging from the above, I'm really boring

Word of the Day:

You know your job is "special" when you were late to class because you had to leave work late because you were trying to convince one of your students to cease from rubbing his head on the computer lab TV in an attempt to make his hair stand up.

Word of the Day:

deceive (verb) - to make someone believe something that is not true; to trick

I am a full-time teacher and (technically) a full-time student as well.  But I bet you didn't know about my third occupation - I am a self-proclaimed fully certified doctor of internet-based self-diagnoses!

I've used the internet for lots of ailments - there was one difficult winter when my chronic coughing must have been cough variant asthma.  Then there was a period when I was convinced the shortness of breath I was experiencing when I walked up the stairs had to be due to a mitral valve proplapse, and not merely the fact that I was out of shape (I'm still wavering on that one).  This time, however, there's no doubt in my mind that I have chondromalacia patellae, also know as patellofemoral syndrome.  I have all the symptoms; it must be true.  And to think my doctor spent all those years in medical school to learn how to diagnose these things, when I figured it out in 2 minutes!

The ironic part of my most current absolutely definite, without a doubt, no arguments here ailment is that the pain I get in my knees occurs most frequently after prolonged sitting.  So I'm on my feet, running around all day, legs tired and feet aching, and when I finally get the chance to sit down - for example, when I spend 3 hours at one of my classes - I get up again feeling like both of my kneecaps have been made one size smaller and then as an added bonus have had sandpaper placed behind them.  Working wears me out, and resting causes me pain!!!  But I'm not worried; I figure that within a few months I'll have my do-it-yourself on the internet physical therapy degree, as well as my license to administer x-rays and practice orthopaedic surgery.  I'll also be sure to get an online law degree so I can sue myself for malpractice - I have to cover all my bases!

Word of the Day:

elated (adj.) - filled with joy

I just finished the first week of my fourth year teaching in a 4th-6th grade elementary special education class.  

 I am VERY tired.

 Part of my new language program includes using a book called "A Word a Day" to enhance vocabulary.  We started on Friday:

 luminous (adj.) - giving off light

 As we were working through the activity, I was thinking that it was very selfish of me to limit the benefit of learning these words to my eight students.  Why shouldn't my blog readers gain as well?

I hope both of you appreciate it  :o)

Sometimes I think the world would be a better place if there was one day a year when I could take everyone that bothers me, sit them on a couch, and make them listen to all the things they do that annoy me or are stupid without them being able to interrupt.