Friday, October 15, 2004
We have a teacher workday today, which is an excellent opportunity to lesson plan and get organized. Of course, mine is almost over and I have spent the last four hours creating a QuoteBoard (something that I wasn't even planning to do), but it could have been an excellent opportunity to lesson plan. So now I have to (pretend that I am going to) lesson plan on Saturday.

Meeting with parents is such a mixed bag. I have the parents that think their kid is a genius and should be in gifted classes, but really their kid is just obsessed with questioning everything for the sake of being annoying. I also have the parents who take one look at the report card and get a wild "I'm gonna spank the hell outta him when I get home" gleam in their eye and make me feel bad. Then I have the "I'm a single mom at the end of my rope and how can we help him but no I can't bring him early and no I can't let him stay late and did you know that he stole my car and you see by my screaming, yanking on my shirt-sleeve out of control toddler that I have my hands full and can't really be bothered with him anymore because I have more kids and I give up" parents. Then there are the blessed "I don't want to take up too much of your time" parents who understand that I don't care to hear a life story and only want their signature on the report card. Bless them, bless them, bless them.

I have the most difficult time staying put on workdays. Every fiber of my being wants to run out of here even though I still have an hour to go. ¶ 11:17 AM