I was competent today!!

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

What a delightful, delightful surprise. The technology behaved. The kids mostly behaved. I just typed that, then stopped. I thought about it. Yes, the overall behavior was so much better than it has been, but still pretty crazy. Today I just thought it was funny crazy. There are two extra desk chairs in my classroom – you know, the kind with wheels and arms and comfiness. Everyone would like to sit in those chairs, but they do not fit at any desk in the room (other than mine, and mine already has a comfy chair. Total of three comfy chairs in the room). I kinda hate the extra comfy chairs, because there is nowhere to put them out of the way (36 filled student desks, one table in front of the white board with a chair for my class of 37, pretty much fills the room). There are very few moments of the day that someone is not sitting in the two comfy chairs. I am constantly shooing the kids back to their seats. Today, I was talking about Gross Domestic Product when I realized there was a kid just spinning in a circle in the tall comfy chair – in front of the class, about 5 feet to the side of me. I almost burst out laughing when I realized that I had seen him doing it for several minutes but hadn’t really paid any attention. (Okay, that does NOT go with feeling competent. Other moments I was competent.) No one else seemed to care (about the chair spinning or me talking about GDP).

Anyway, I finished grading all of the giant stack of packets. I got 17 people in for WIN (What I Need) (a one-hour study time we have every Tuesday and Thursday at the end of the day. It is superior) time to make up tests and get packets done. IT WAS QUIET. Kids who came just to waste time and play on their phone were successfully sent away – oh, they tried…”Pleeeease…” “I promise to do…something…” “I don’t have anywhere else to go,” but I held my ground. I got a kid who hasn’t turned in ANYTHING yet this year to take a test and finish five pages of a packet. It felt like a miracle.

I used a bunch of different programs on my school computer without having to wonder where? what? which? I just did it. I felt COMPETENT! I did not call the teacher next door Pam, which is especially good because her name is Tina. All day yesterday, I thought of her as Pam. There was a sub a bit ago named Pam. I have no idea why Tina became Pam yesterday, but she did. I told her, and she said it was okay – a lot of times students call her Mom. Half my students call me by my co-teacher’s name (I just say, “I’m the other one”). I handed back packets without having to say, “Who’s Madelyn?” (Okay, in 4 of 5 classes. In the last one, I used the seating chart to fill in the blanks. There were pretty many blanks).

After school, I went over to a friend’s to do a little 6th-grade math coaching. One-to-one math coaching is MY FAVORITE THING. It was a little sad that my companion was good at what he was working on – I didn’t get to make any little drawings or recite rhymes or be extra enthusiastic – but it was still best. I am hoping to get to do it again soon.

I realize this does not sound particularly competent, but yesterday was a wreck and today felt SO GOOD!