Boy, what a convoluted, crazy day we've had. Actually, it hasn't been that crazy. It just felt different than normal.
Last night, I called the sick student's mom to see if she'd be in school today (so I could let the para know). Her mom said that she'd probably keep her home another day. I called the para and left a voicemail for her. Then, this morning, her mom called again and said that the student was feeling better and wanted to come to school (I guess my phone call the night before meant a lot to her so she really, really wanted to come back to school). We came up with the plan to have her come to school at 9:30ish. One problem. The para didn't answer her phone. I left a voicemail again and told her she could come in if she wanted to. Just now, I checked my phone and saw she left a message at 12:45. Her phone stopped working yesterday and she didn't notice until about 12:30 that I had called this morning. Oops!
Our day was... okay. The student had some trouble focusing during Daily 5, took a long time to eat, and dragged her feet in math. It was about what I expected. I do know that I definitely underestimate how much help my para is. Most of the time this morning I couldn't redirect/keep the student on task because I was busy helping other classmates.
Before PE, the 5-8th graders have to run 10 laps. This student said her tummy hurt so she couldn't run. I'm pretty sure she was trying to get out of running. I told her she could walk her laps. She started walking with her stocking cap pulled down over her eyes, making some kind of statement I guess. It took FOREVER, but she got them done! It helped that one of the 7th grade boys ran some extra laps calling out, "I'm gonna beat you! Look, I'm passing you!" That made her pick up the pace.
Then after PE, she took her time in the bathroom, so she didn't make it back to pack up her stuff in the two minutes that were on the timer. She asked if we could still watch the video. Nope. She pretty much shut down after that. She did get her stuff written in her assignment notebook and her homework shoved in her backpack. But highs and lows did not go well. She had about five lows and said she didn't have a high for the day. Well, that's not what highs and lows are all about. I told her she couldn't leave until she thought of a high. Kind of silly when you think about it, but for some reason I didn't want her to leave without thinking of a positive thing about the day. We skipped her and let the rest of the class and say theirs. Then we said our end of the day prayer and she still didn't think of one. Not couldn't think of one. Didn't think of one. Her classmates and I gave her tons of options, but she didn't like any of them, "they're too boring." Finally I let all the others go so they wouldn't be late for practice. Then she came up with one that someone had suggested a long time ago, "My high is that I got to come to school today."
She tried to use, "I might not come to school tomorrow." as her high, so I'm a little worried she'll tell her mom that she isn't feeling well again and her mom will keep her home. Which will cause a lot more stress and confusion between Ms. J and me figuring out whether she should come to work or not. Sigh.
In other news, I got a refresher course on how to use the projectors at church (for my presentation to the Men's Club/Immanuel-lites on my trip overseas).
Chapel today brought me back to my childhood. Remember that song "Jesus Loves the Little Children"? When I was little, my mom taught me the words, "red and yellow, black and white; they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world." Well. I did not like it at all that the brunettes were kept out of the song altogether. So I added in the word brown so my hair color would be represented, "red, brown, yellow, black and white; they are precious in his sight." Mom tried to tell me that the song was about skin color, but I was positive we were singing about hair. Anyway, we sang that song in chapel today, and Pastor sang it with the right words, including the word brown. That kept me smiling for a good long time.
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