I think this has been the longest week in the history of my entire life. After the drunken debacle, I wanted this week to be over as quickly as possible. I was surprised how sweet everyone was to me. People actually seem far more friendly than they ever were before, which seems funny. The girl who I was talking to a lot of the night even called me over to sit with her during a staff meeting. Apparently, I am very fun and enjoyable to be around when I am drinking, at least until I start throwing up. But anyway, I did see the principal and vice principal, and they didn't say a word about it. I did decide to sign up for the Christmas party, too. I am going to go and get dressed up, not drink, and have a great time.
About this week being the longest week ever, besides the fact that teachers like me are acting foolish, the kids have been foolish as well. We had six fights this week (four in one day, two involving my students). We also had harrassment issues yesterday. We cancelled their break until Christmas. So, is that bad enough? No. Today was the nightmare that we called a field trip. I have never seen anything like this field trip. It was a field trip to go see speakers at a college. We were each in charge of different groups of kids, but it was nearly impossible to keep track of the kids because the kids were divided by what they signed up to see, not just by whether they were on our team or not. So I was with two parent volunteers and about forty or so kids, many of whom I never met before today. I joined up with another teacher, meaning that between us we had sixty kids. We had to go to two different sessions with lunch inbetween. One speaker never showed up. There were kids from other schools there as well. It was complete and total chaos, and kids kept disappearing. Luckily, we managed to get them all there and take them all home, but I thought the trip was a nightmare and not worth the trouble. To top it all off, I had this one child who acted as if he had never been in public before. I sent him with the designated jail keeper, my teammate, but he was such a nightmare before then that I wrote a referral that said he should not be allowed to go on field trips ever again. The vice principal agreed with me, luckily, and he is banned from all future field trips. He is also suspended from school.
If I still drank wine, I would be consuming the bottle of white wine in my fridge right about now. I just felt completely inexperienced (this is the second field trip I have ever been on) and inadequate. I am so glad that today is over, and I hope that we don't do it next year.
We also ended up coming back to school earlier than we even expected. We had to teach two periods of class. The kids were pretty good and worked well on their projects, but I was so frazzled by the whole experience that I was a mess. Not to mention that I had to go to the bathroom so bad that I thought I was going to die. Going all day without going to the bathroom really sucks.
I also find it hilarious that middle school field trips of this nature have to have a "jailkeeper." There are so many parts of my job that the common person would find completely hysterical. I guess days like this are the ones that make it interesting, because you really do never know what to expect. Every day is interesting and crazy and usually fun.
Today the kids in homeroom were waiting for me to release them to the buses, and they were trying to get me to let them go early. They pleaded with me and said that I was their favorite teacher (lie), but I overheard one of my boys say, "She really is my favorite teacher." So, there's always something good that happens.
I'm so happy that I have the weekend. I am thinking of giving myself the present of having my hair professionally highlighted/dyed for the first time. I also have to figure out what I am wearing to the Christmas party. I am so glad there is only a week of school left.
