Scarecrows

Well, the end of the week was pretty crazy.  My kids were back to nitpicking again.  Yesterday's ride arrangement back from the soccer game resulted in an altercation involving a Gatorade bottle, an untwisted cap, and liquid splashed all over the inside of a fancy new vehicle.  Yeah.  Not good.  Mr. E chewed them out for about 45 minutes.  And it still didn't stick!  The two kids got into it again when they switched between 5th and 6th grade math.


The last hour of the day was spent filling old clothes with straw and attaching them to posts in the prairie garden.  Mrs. E had given each class a pillowcase earlier in the day to color for their heads.  At 1:30, we split into chapel groups and spread out to make the scarecrows.  And chaos ensued.  It turns out "chapel groups" aren't very well defined.  Kids didn't know which group to go to, or which post they should go to, or how to put the scarecrow together.  I forgot to bring a scissors out (and safety pins).  Mr. D was the only one to remember, so kids were clamoring for a turn with the scissors.  Then there were too many groups and not enough poles/clothes for each.  We had to mash groups together as best we could.  Next time, we need to be more organized.


Meanwhile, hearing and vision screening was going on in the gym.  Classes would traipse back into school to get checked out and then come back out to continue building.  Of course, the screening took way longer than planned.  Thankfully, all the teachers decided to have their classes go to recess at the end of the day, so after being screened, they could run outside and burn off some energy.


I finally got ahold of the IT guys.  I called them after school to tell them I was taking the computer tables down on Sunday; I didn't expect them to answer.  But I guess it's a good thing they did.  He seemed really freaked out at first, probably expecting me to yell at him or be mean or something.  I think we're on the same page now, (a little reluctantly on his end).  He still can't wrap his head around the fact that I don't want the computers in a row.  He kept saying, "In all the classrooms I've dealt with, the computers have been linear and they've worked just fine.  So I don't see how it doesn't work in your room.  I don't see why your room is different."  I'm sure he thinks I'm a horrible teacher with such awful classroom management skills that I can't keep kids quiet/focused while working on the computer next to each other. 


He went on to tell me that the counter tops had been scheduled to be put in the 5th and 6th grade room before I was hired as a teacher.  And then when I came and got the computer tables and put them back to back that wasn't really what the plan had been for my room (note: I didn't buy the computer tables myself; one of the school board members bought them for me so I could have the computers the way I wanted).  So really (in the IT guy's mind) I'm being unreasonable and I should just learn to live with the counter tops so that all the classrooms look the same and the counter tops can be used.  But, since he is so flexible and willing to please, he and his partner are going to take the counter tops down "sometime this week".  I'm really hoping they actually mean it this time.


Another irksome thing is that I called and emailed them multiple times about setting up a meeting and THEY NEVER GOT BACK TO ME.  Not even a "Sorry, none of those times work for us. How about this?"  They didn't even let me know they saw my message.  And then when I brought up all the times I tried to contact them, the guy I was talking to said he never saw my messages.  Huh. 


Anyway.  I think the air is cleared now.  The IT guys might not be happy; they're going to "sleep on it a fourth time" to try to come up with a better way to have the computers.  I don't think they're going to find it.  So now it's a waiting game once again.