Bookends of Drama

My school day was bookended with drama today...


We'll start with the end of the day because it was less traumatic (for me).  One of the 5th graders brought a butterfly enclosure to school today.  In it was a monarch chrysalis that was about to hatch (you can tell because the chrysalis becomes clear).  All day we waited for this butterfly to pop out.  And then while we were stapling our church year chain together... it hatched!  I raced to grab my camera.  The student named the butterfly Queen Immanuel, since she hatched at our school.  Well that was all fine and good.  Everyone wanted to know when this kid would release it.  I think he ended up doing it right before going onto the bus.  I'm a little hazy on those details. 


Anyway, as my class marched out to the bus, Mr. E stopped me to talk about the new volleyball nets (The principal from MLHS drove up to our school this afternoon to drop off a bunch of their old volleyball nets and poles and stuff... his car was a super fancy blue classic car... I couldn't tell you what model it was.  But it captured the attention of my entire class when he pulled up).  So while I was talking with Mr. E, the buses were waved off.  Annnnnd left one of my students behind.  She was off watching the butterflies and didn't get on the bus like she was supposed to.  Oh the poor girl was bawling her eyes out!  We didn't have a number for the bus driver.  We couldn't catch up to him.  So we called her mom... who told us it would be 45 minutes before they could get to school to pick her up.  *Wince*  As soon as we made the plan to call the parents, this student calmed down and stopped crying.  She got her homework done in the room and read some books, so it was time well-spent.  But I bet she'll never dink around off the bus ever again!  One of those tough life lessons you have to learn from experience.


Other non-traumatic events today: Reading Buddies with the 1st and 2nd graders went well.  Lots of loud reading going on, but everyone had a great time!  The church year chain is hanging up in our room.  I love the bright colors!  More books were added to our library today (I found some good ones for sale at the library yesterday).  And everyone did well on their spelling tests and memory work!  We "officially" found out two of my students' moms are pregnant (rumors had been floating around).  The 5th grade girls and I had fun weeding the prairie garden during noon recess.  We only pulled out a few of the prairie plants...


Okay, I guess I'm ready to talk about the morning's trauma.  I walked into school and found that all my computers had been moved.  Instead of being in nice back-to-back stations, they are now ALL SIDE BY SIDE! I HATE computers side by side.  The students are way too distracted by what their neighbors are doing, plus there's less room to write/be in groups, and they can see each others' screens!  I have a bunch of other reasons.  The worst part is, the IT guys didn't even call me to ask if I wanted them like that!  They did it in the dead of night and called Mr. E over to ask him about it.  He was noncommittal and didn't say whether I'd like it one way or the other.  Oh I wish they would've called me!!!  They thought because I moved the coat hooks out into the ball room that I was making more space for computers!  I had asked if we could get a few more, maybe even some laptops; the IT guys shot me down on those.  So.  They took the two unrelated events of me asking for more computers and me moving the coat hooks out of the classroom to mean that I wanted more computers all put in one row against the wall.  They put in sturdy tables attached to the wall and added pipe for the cords.  All I know is it looks really permanent.  And I want them to change it back.  They even took down some of my decorations!!! (okay, so it was just one big decoration, but still). 


I was literally shaking with anger this morning.  I had to take more deep breaths than I could count before I was ready to even see another teacher, let alone talk to them.  I thought about emailing the IT guys right away, but I put myself into a timeout.  I'm feeling more calm about it now, although even writing about it is starting to get me worked up.  Sigh.  The 6th graders had computer time today and they were WAY chattier than usual.  And there was more arguing.  Proof side-by-side computers are not a good fit for our classroom.  I just want it to go back to the way it was!  And I'm scared the IT guys aren't going to do it.