I'm absolutely exhausted. I'm going to bed. Nite!

I got a lot of work done over the weekend! Poured over all the data reports and workshop planning sheets...very impressive reports. I appreciate teachers being thorough with their noticings and interventions...excellent! I managed to get all the intersession class lists and permission slips filled out...what a headache! Today was the first day with our new half time VP. It's going to be very nice to have the extra help. We really need it. The kids seem completely out of control at times. I can't put my finger on what's happening. We're implementing Tribes, we have a lot of positive reinforcers in place...I'm thinking it's because all of the kids are at school at the same time. The more kids you have, the more problems you're going to have. It's very frustrating. It seems like we've had more discipline issues and more parent complaints than last year. Hopefully things will settle down once we get back from our November/December break...I hope!

What a day! Lots of discipline issues today. Of course, it's the same kids over and over. It's very exhausting. So many of the kids have deep rooted emotional issues that need to be dealt with. And of course, getting them the help they need takes time. Sometimes the parents have issues as well that need to be dealt with. I have to keep reminding myself that 99% of the kids make good choices every day. The 1% of the kids that don't make good choices sure take a huge chunk of our time. I really wish I (we - the support team) could spend my (our - the support team) time doing something else besides calling parents to come pick up their kids or filling out suspension forms. **sigh**

I was on a roll there with the posting, but then I just fizzled out. The week days are absolutely exhausting. It's hard work trying to think of interesting and/or witty things to say. I'm feeling really really guilty right now. I only accomplished half of the work I needed to get done this week...oh well. I wanted to comment on all the data reports this weekend. Didn't get to them. I'm sure the teachers are devasted that no comment sheets will be waiting for them in their mailboxes come tomorrow morning. Sorry guys. I'm sad too!

I want to thank everyone for the very nice cards and gifts today. And thank you for a great lunch. It was nice having a real lunch, with real food, sitting next to real people. Thanks to Cheryl and Clarissa for handling the discipline today. You two are amazing! You know, I don't really feel like a boss. I tried yelling at Lili to get me some coffee, but she just laughed at me and told me to get it myself. Oh well, I tried.

For this entry I'm going to channel Andy Rooney. Stay with me. You ever wonder why people wear the t-shirts they do? I've been thinking about this since Thursday. Thursday and Friday were picture days at school . Just about every boy decided to "dress up" in his finest t-shirt. I saw two t-shirts that had pictures of those large hip hop chains...one of them actually had rhinestones to represent the bling. Of course, a few Spongebob shirts (gotta love the Spongebob!). I even saw one kid with an evil Spongebob shirt. Is nothing sacred in this world anymore? How could someone make Spongebob evil? Anyway, the best and worst t-shirt worn said "Enough With The Learning Already." This shirt made me laugh, but it also made me want to cry. I'm hoping the boy was wearing the shirt because he understood the humor and irony in it...not that he was sick of learning. I wonder if I'm being too philosophical by analyzing the meaning behind this shirt. Could be he was wearing it because it was the only clean shirt around. Or maybe he was wearing it because he indeed wanted to send the message, enough with the learning already. Maybe he was telling us, let me be a kid for a while why don't you! Are kids burned out with the learning? Are we pushing them too much, too fast? Are we giving them enough opportunities to just be kids? Are all the assessments we administer to kids getting out of hand? These are good questions (if I do say so myself). Hopefully, we can make sure kids are learning the skills they need to have a successful future AND also give them plenty of opportunities to have fun so they won't grow up to be Republicans. Just kidding. I'm sure Republicans have tons of fun. ;)

This has been a week from the hot place where the devil drives knives into the hearts of evil doers. (The previous sentence contains an example of circumlocution.) It's amazing how dealing with one kid can take so much time. What a nightmare. Today I spent over three hours working on my goals. I hope I did them right. I guess my main goal is to stay out of program improvement. I was going to just write that on my goals sheet, but I didn't think it would fly with the boss. So far one person has made a guess as to my old treasure word. So sorry Mr. C...guess again. I think many of you would be shocked and maybe even outraged at my old favorite treasure word. Get your minds out of the gutter, no it's not GOP. (Apologies to my conservative friends and colleagues. Yes, I'm a liberal leaning moderate.)

Today was a very exciting day! I learned a new word! ~Circumlocution~ I can't wait to insert this word into my many daily conversations! I think it's my new favorite treasure word! Yes, yes it is! I wonder if anyone can guess my old favorite treasure word? I should give a prize to the first person who correctly guesses my old favorite treasure word. Yup, I think I will. Hmmm, maybe I should give a hint. Or maybe not.

I love Ralph Marston's inspirational words. Here's a recent Marston inspiration..."You have the power to make this the very best, most joyful and fulfilling day you've ever lived. And then, you have the power to make tomorrow even better." I try to make every day the best day I can. And I always hope that tomorrow will be even better. I was thinking...I wonder if Ralph Marston has ever had a bad day. I mean he always has these uplifting, inspirational words of wisdom. I wonder if he's ever wanted to tell someone to f*%k off? Personally, I've never wanted to do that ;). I'm just going to keep trying my best to make tomorrow better!!!