The workings of a 5th grade

So what do you do when in the middle of talking about Jamestown in 5th grade a student raises his hand and asks you what all the Indians and Kings will do in the 2nd coming? We can't have all those kings in charge and Indians have never seen a car and where will they live when they all come back to life?
What do you do when you class develops a black market? See we have class money, and they can use their class money at our class store, our auction at Christmas and the end of year carnival. BUT now they're using their class money to buy and sell things of their own: snacks, origami, etc. They think I don't know but I do. Do you view it as capitalism and decide that you can't shut down, you can't have a communist classroom right? But what if I really want to shut down their black market/entrepreneur endeavor? Does that make me a power hungry dictator, or just a control freak? Can I justify it as preventing fights and disagreements when someone wants a refund and the seller refuses?
Do you see the dilemmas I face daily? These are tough decisions...

Off-Track

Last year while teaching I always loved going off-track but after 3 weeks was always ready to go back. As this first off track of the new school year is almost over, I am NOT ready to go back at all. I actually have no desire to go back. This has been a fabulous off-track. I will give you the Reader's Digest version:
1: Park City: zipline and the new alpine slide
2: Seven Peaks Salt Lake (previously Raging Waters)
3: Crazy, Stupid, Love (good movie)
4: Slept in
5: Sat by the pool
6: Swam in the pool
7: Texas Rode House
8: Brian not working for a week
9: New shoes
10: Dyed hair
11: Charmed
12: Buffy
13: Cleaned house
14: Kept house clean
Again, I have no desire to go back to work. I also know that summer is quickly coming to a close, which means winter is on its way. I HATE winter! It is cold, dark, and depressing. Sure fall comes before winter and I like fall but it is too short. We did not get enough long summer days. Winter is taking over the calendar. November-April is 1/2 the calendar! GRRRR but on the bright side this was a great off-track and another one is only 9 weeks away.

Adjustment

As of about 9:00 am this morning Brian officially signed and swore in for the Army...as a diver (think scuba diver, not coast guard rescue diver) . Apparently, the army has lots of ships. Divers maintain and repair the ships with underwater welding, do search and rescue and deep sea recovery. It was an interesting morning and definitely a reminder of how the Lord directs our path. On Monday Brian finally got to pick a position after lots of time and needing more or different papers for his packet. He tentatively picked Calvary Scout. Tuesday morning at 6 am we are at MEPS ready for him to sign and swear in. 7 hours later we discover he is missing a paper his recruiter should have taken care of and he can't sign. We went home tired and grumpy. Then today we were back at MEPS at 6 am to try again. This means we had to re-select a job. Today, diver showed up on the list. None of the recruiters at MEPS had ever seen diver come up as an option (it rarely does). There were 4 slots total for the whole nation. We almost didn't even consider it. But the more we talked the more it seemed right. Last night Brian was up until midnight because something seemed "off" about signing as a Calvary Scout. Divers have a low deployment rate, outside the military they are in high demand for search and rescue, cruise lines, and the oil industry (most start at $50 an hour). We started to wonder if maybe all the waiting and nothing seeming to work out had been for a reason. Today is the only day that diver will be available. We needed to be there today and sign for this job. Amazing how everything works out. So on January 4th he'll leave for basic at Fort Jackson and then 29 weeks of training. He has to make it through the first 3 weeks in Missouri (its apparently not easy) then he'll finish in Florida and we'll go to...we don't know where but I'm hoping for Hawaii

Sometimes...

Most of my time as a teacher is spent jumping through hoops. I teach what the state says I need to, my students take tests the district and state say they have to. Some of it is important, a lot of it I think 4th graders could do without (Does a 4th grader really need to know the distributive property?). I also am often times put in a position that makes me have a classroom that is just like all the others: sit, don't talk, work on a worksheet. I can go a whole day and never hear or see the class across the hall from me, they are in their learning. Peek your head in their classroom... perfectly clean desks, perfectly clean classroom, perfectly silent scribbling away on papers. It is those times when I walk back to my room and catch myself starting to demand the same things. I get frustrated when I don't get the same results. And then I have days like today, when I stop and think we should do this everyday! It would have been hard around 11:30 to get to my classroom. You would have had to wiggled around 11 boys, huge sheets of paper, rulers, tape, notebooks, etc. These 11 boys weren't working silently, they weren't even whispering but they were measuring, problem solving, working together and creating. If you had made it to my classroom you would have seen every desk pushed up against the wall. Kids would have been working all around the floor. It looked and sounded like chaos, it was play practice for today. We still took a math and spelling test today (in silence). But I didn't have any kids ask if they could come in during lunch recess and do more math, I had 27 begging me to skip my meeting so they could come in during recess and work on their play. I love it. I love it enough to stop hearing the voice in my head that says every other teacher's room is silent and perfect and we should be like them and I remember this is how learning is supposed to be.

If my sister gets to brag, I get to complain. I will complain about male metabolisms. See Brian and I finally joined my family's weight loss, get fit trend.Brian has lost 10 pounds, (in less than a month). His pants are literally falling off of him. He looks visibly smaller. I started 2 weeks before Brian, I work out longer, I eat less but I loose no weight, my capris from last summer still do not fit. I know guys have different/faster metabolism. It is just unfair. GRRRR.
The end.

I should be working...

Okay, so I am working, sort of... my class is working I am sitting at my desk, reading blogs. I go off track in 2 1/2 days and I am not in the mood to read with groups. Plus I haven't gotten new books for my group. I should read with groups it is the most important part of the morning but... I hate it. Overall, I am bored. I am sick of the same routine. Get up, go to work (which is the same most days), drive home, get dinner, watch TV, grade papers, sleep. I am bored with my same old clothes, I am bored with my apartment. I tell my one of my students everyday that life is not Disney Land. If it was, we would get bored with Disney Land too. Right now though I would like a little Disney Land. Also, when I get bored, I start to look ahead and plan ahead which makes me antsy. I start planning for next school year instead of for what we are doing tomorrow. I start getting antsy for going back to school (someday it will happen).
Have you ever noticed that when you're bored or stuck in day to day routine it seems like everyone around you is doing great things and moving forward. While this is probably not true, that is what it seems like.

TGIF

I am so excited that it is Friday. Not only is it Friday but it is Conference Weekend Friday, I love Conference. AND its 70 degrees outside AND in 1 week I go off-track for a month AND tonight I get to go to Red Robin and a Grizzlies game. Happy Friday everyone!