Today kind of sucked.

Today was the day that I promised my first block candy if they behaved for an entire class period and they didn't manage to do it. Today was the day that a student asked me why they're allowed to wear all this crazy stuff during spirit week because it's frustrating how bad everyone is when they don't have to be in uniform. Today was the day that I had a serious conversation with a colleague about not staying at this school another year. Today was the day that a student told me at lunch that if he was dying he would want me to be the one to do mouth to mouth on him. Today was the day that the entire school was packed into one room for the purpose of trying to outscream each other. Today was the day that a group of extremely attractive high school girls came to dance in front of a gym full of middle school boys...which went about as well as you might expect. Today was the day that I slammed a door in order to get the attention of my students who were running around the classroom, screaming at the top of their lungs, and climbing on chairs because they were waiting to be released to the pep rally and they thought that was a logical way to react. Today was the day that I broke up the beginning of a fight that one of my favorite 7th graders was about to start.

But...today was also the day, though, that one of my girls did a hands-free cartwheel in the middle of the gym during a step team performance, and I couldn't have been more of a proud momma. Today was the day that a legitimately awesome drum line from our high school came and performed for our kids, and half our football team decided to spontaneously break it down and have a dance party in the middle of the gym. Today was the day that my fifth block kids had to come back to my room after a pep rally and even though I was DREADING it because they were acting like crack addicts, they ended up making me laugh for fifteen minutes with their silly attempts at stepping and dancing like a bunch of goofballs. Today was the day that gluten free brownies came in the mail from my Grandma. So...I guess it didn't completely suck.

Peggy Anne McKay

Two brief windows into my morning, revealing my lack of health and sanity:

Today is jersey day for spirit week and I'm, naturally, wearing my Donald Driver jersey. An 8th grader who I've never had a conversation with ever in my life walked by and said "The Green Bay Packers?" And I screamed "WE'RE 7 AND 0!" after him at the top of my lungs in the middle of the hallway.

We did grammar packets all during first block today and kids kept asking me about the contractions, so I had them all stop and look up at the board so I could give them a hint. I explained that even though it doesn't always work, you can sometimes figure out where the apostrophe goes in a contraction by dropping the vowel at the beginning of a word and putting the apostrophe there. Example? Okay. I wrote "who are" on the board. And then explained that you can drop the "a" (I crossed out the "a") and put an apostrophe. Then I wrote the new word, which is "who're," which looks an awful lot like "whore." It was literally all my 7th graders could handle to not completely lose it.

Yeah...it's probably best I called it a day after first block and came home. I have SO much work hanging over my head and stressing me out so much, but the flu-like symptoms I'm feeling are hopefully going to win out and let me rest. I need to just be able to pause time so I can catch up on sleep and rest and stop this beginning-of-the-flu before it really gets started...AND get caught up on the literal mountain of papers and documents starting at me to grade.

Where You Invest Your Love, You Invest Your Life.

Two posts in one is a little excessive, I agree. But I was driving home from Bible study just now, feeling refreshed and reflective, and remembered something else that a student said today. And the full weight of his comment hit me again and it needs to be shared.

In the middle of a writing workshop class period when the kids are all working on their short stories and talking quietly to each other and I'm circulating throughout the room, I keep having to talk to Dahryus about getting back to work and making sure he's writing. After the sixth or seventh time talking to him, Alejandro - who sits next to him - says something about how this is nothing compared to other countries. No one at his table responds and I'm not really sure what he means so I just let him explain. He said "people in other countries would kill for the kind of education we get here." It made my heart absolutely melt, and it still does.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I teach.

My Life.

Actual sentences I heard and conversations I participated in today, all of which involving my 12-year-olds:

"I found you on Facebook. Your profile picture is you in a dress standing with your sister on a farm."


Female Student: Miss Melchione, are you single?
Me: Yes.
Female Student: Have you met [long term math sub who looks like a fourteen year old model]?
Me: Whatever your next question is, the answer is no.
(later during the day I ended up in the same hallway as this student and that long term sub. It was awesomely awkward.)


Male Student: Miss Melchione, are you coming to the game tonight?
Me: No I can't. I already had plans.
Male Student: Oh. I'm going to be there, and I was hoping we could hang out. And go to 7 Eleven to get some Slurpees.
Female Student: ARE YOUR PLANS A DATE?!


Tomorrow's Friday. PTL.

Creepy McGee

So Martin - I only keep using his name because you need to see the consistency of this young man's impact on my life - pulls me aside today during short story writing workshop that his character's name is going to be William Melchione. I looked at him with a look that I'm sure was both confused and impressed and said "...that's my dad's name." And the whole table said "Whoa! Really?!" and Josh said "he should go by Bill." Seriously. After saying that my dad goes by Bill, I also told both boys that they were really freaking me out and to get back to work. And then walked away.

Now that time has passed and I've recovered from the shock of the moment, I'm finding young Martin at his locker tomorrow morning and asking him if he googled me. That's the only explanation I can think of. There's no way that was a coincidence.

Kids say...things.

As a follow-up to this weekend's blog, I suppose today was better than I'd anticipated and I'm feeling better about things I suppose...time will tell with a lot of this stuff. Something happened in my last class, though, that needs to be shared. Insight into who and what I'm dealing with all day every day:

Martin, Jesse, Brenda and Sophie were whispering at the beginning of class in the back of the room. It was bugging me because I was trying to get them to be quiet to start silent reading time and those particular kids are chatty but usually stop when I've asked them multiple times. Today they weren't. And I did notice they were glancing at me periodically too. I finally called them out specifically and told Martin - the supposed ringleader in this discussion - I was tired of seeing his mouth move, and he said "I'm sorry. We were discussing biology. And how things happen scientifically. And how things are made." At this point, Brenda is hushing and poking Martin but he isn't quite getting it. He must have thought I wasn't understanding what he was saying because he added "We were talking about reproduction" for good measure. I told him to hush and save it for health class because I didn't want to hear it. Then they had silent reading time and I kept having to make eye contact with Martin and point at his book because I kept catching him looking weirdly at me. What is this kid's deal? After silent reading time when I was taking page numbers from the kids and the class was basically quiet Martin raises his hand. When I called on him he said "Miss Melchonee (how he pronounces my name even though he knows how to say it right)...are you pregnant?" Brenda and Sophie bury their faces in their hands but Jesse and Martin stare at me fully serious and expecting an answer. I shot daggers into them and said no. And then the rest of the block I pretended to be VERY angry with Martin, and one time even did the Runaway Bride "I'm watching you" move.

I'm fairly certain I'm losing weight, so I can't figure out what the heck is wrong with Martin. Brenda apologized after class and said that he is stupid. And that the style of my dress must have thrown him. And that my straightened hair made me look so different that he was confused.

I kind of love 7th graders.

A different kind of post.

I'm not going to be one of those people who uses her blog to whine and complain about her job. People like that annoy me for so many reasons, the first of which being that it's the opposite of any kind of professionalism. So I won't whine and complain about my job, and I certainly won't use any specifics. What I will say, though, is that I had been feeling so much better about work and about the kids and about classroom management....things have been going smoothly, I've been able to actually teach, and the minor discipline issues that have come out have been (basically) easily diffused. This week, a bomb went off in my nice little work world, though, and now I have no idea what the rest of this school year will be like. On the one hand, my kids behaved terribly on Friday and made me crazy trying to get control back every three minutes and there really isn't an option as far as disciplining and corrective action that is working or that is available. So it's frustrating, but it doesn't even really compare to the rest of the issues. In the last day and a half I've been thinking for the first time about whether I want to stay at my school next year and whether I even want to stay in my county...I sat in stopped traffic yesterday in the middle of six thousand cars and surrounded by orange construction cones and orange construction signs and construction cranes and construction dump trucks and all I could do was sob. I miss my mountains. I miss my cute little downtown and I miss having only one store in all of town and I miss my family. I miss actually being around my family for longer than a day at a time. I miss NOT being surrounded by asphalt and buildings and other people. And I know that there's a definite correlation between my job taking a sudden turn for the worse and my new strong dislike for my surroundings, and I know that I'm also just in my October slump of unhappiness and it will surely pass...but I also feel like possibilities have opened back up again. If I don't stay at my school another year, then why couldn't I look for a job somewhere else? What do I really have tying me to this area that I seem to not love? But then the avalanche of thoughts (that are completely unnecessary considering it's only October) start crashing through, like: my queen bed came with my apartment so if I move then I'll have a queen sheet and comforter set but no queen mattress. I guess that's the stuff I'll realistically have to think about if I move...but not yet. Now I just need to think about...tomorrow.

And I need to talk about something other than the fact that Friday was a really bad day. So I'm just going to type and fill you in on all the random pieces of my life as they pop into my head. Feel free to read or not read as I start to become uninteresting.

I got to see some dear old friends this weekend. One of said friends, who I went to both high school and college with, came up from Winchester Friday night to visit. She hadn't been to my new place yet and it was so good to hang out with her, to sit and catch up with her, and to have an old animated movie from our childhoods playing even though we're not really watching it because I'm painting and she's trying to fix the Amazon Downloader on my computer. I love just being able to BE with friends like that and not feeling like you have to be doing something special. Another one of the friends I got to see is almost 8 months pregnant and there was a baby shower for her friends and family up here in Nova. After completely mismanaging my morning and getting stuck in the stupid traffic I mentioned earlier, I was a half hour late for the baby shower, and I had also had a brain shut down when I was getting dressed that morning and showed up to a formal baby shower in jeans...but there's grace from good friends and no one seemed to notice or care except me. But it was so good to see her and to be able to share in that experience with her. The third dear friend I was able to see was the best because it was a complete surprise. Becca Popp (who technically isn't Popp anymore but will always be in my heart) is the college best friend of the honoree of the baby shower. She lives pretty far away now though so I haven't seen her in a year and a half and wasn't expecting her to be at the shower. It was so good to see her and catch up and to hear about her life.

If you're looking for some fall listening music, I have several recommendations. I made a playlist this week that includes: Mumford and Sons, The Civil Wars, Adele, The Avett Brothers, Brooke Fraser, and John Mark McMillan. There's a fall playlist if I've ever seen one. It's kind of guaranteed to make your iPod or car stereo blow up from happiness, though. So be warned. I've also went ahead and made some music purchases last night that include Amos Lee and Johnny Cash. Because few things make me happier than Johnny Cash. Let's be serious.

Okay...time to start my Sunday of productivity.