Saturday

      I did not get a ton of doll and miniatures work done this week. Wednesday I scrambled all day at school to get some plans together so I had some idea what to do with the kids when I started teaching on Thursday. And even though I said I wouldn't, and I really didn't have time, I did do some more work when I got home. 

     Thursday went fairly well. I basically just did a chat and reset day with all of the classes. Which meant talking a lot, all day, with the first cold I have had in forever. I survived. The kids seemed to like that I asked what they wanted. There were some silly answers, but I had a lot of real stuff too. No homework (homework pretty much hasn't been a thing in a couple of years. And I always hated trying to figure out homework anyway) so that was an easy yes. Some of the kids asked for things like not to get called on unless they raise their hand. Some of them asked for not too much work (um, yeah, you learn better when you are not overwhelmed), and some other really reasonable things. One of my classes started out badly. The kids came in, were very obnoxious, half of them were late, they were CONSTANTLY on their phones, and it took about 10 minutes to get them to be quiet and listen to any of what I had to say. But we made it through. I decided that instead of starting off with yelling (not gonna yell, I hate yelling) I would have a reasonable conversation with them. It was challenging because they were so loud, but I got it to work. I managed to plan out some lessons, found some worksheets, figured we would do Bill Nye videos and questions yesterday in science to ease in to working and having a restart. It was a good plan. 

      Friday I woke up early so I had time to do a really excellent blend on my eyeshadow (which sadly does not look quite as awesome in my photo). And I need a bit of a brag, I am only wearing eye makeup. I have nothing on my skin except the smallest bit of highlighter on my cheeks. I just have really good skin. Plus I figured some really well done makeup would make me happy and confident. I was not wrong. 

      The flaw in the plan was I have some kids who basically hate every single assignment. It doesn't matter if it's a fun thing, like watching a video, they are mad about it because they don't want to do the questions that go along with it. They don't like Bill Nye (who doesn't like Bill Nye?) or they are just so much more intent on being on their phone and screwing around than actually paying attention. Some of the kids were excellent, and some of those excellent kids surprised me a bit. They did not respond well to the old teacher. At all. But they were polite to me and participated, paid attention... it was an interesting twist. 

      I had a class where I had to call the principal (really fast) to come in because one kid went after another and was throwing things. No one was hurt and the kid that was not the aggressor showed great restraint and just moved away from the other one. That was definitely not a great situation. The rest of the class was just fine. 

     My class that had been really tough on Thursday was not too bad yesterday. I figure if I pick away at the learned bad behaviors things will get better. My hallway neighbor commented to me that it has been so quiet for the last two days. I said I'm trying. Once there is some classroom management and cooperation, we can actually get into some learning. And that will be excellent. 

     Yesterday I did finally get into some miniatures. I made a couple more lunch bags and got some of those sets put together. I also decided to make some lunch sets that don't have the bags. Sometimes people just want miniature food. And I don't have time to make a ton more lunch bags, lol! I have one more surprise item, but I will do another post about that one. 

     So I am officially back to teaching, at least until they hire someone new. So it could be a while. It could be the whole year. I have a renewed love for Teachers Pay Teachers and really need to be careful that it doesn't turn into an addiction. One class has earned themselves a whole bunch of boring lessons out of the book by screwing around too much during the more fun lesson, but I will think of something a bit more interesting for them soon.