"...No Good, Very Bad Day"

I had a terrible day today. It's the kind of day that reminds me of one of my favorite childhood books, Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. As much as I love that book, I don't like to have days that remind me of it. Like today, I subbed in a 4th grade classroom today, and although it wasn't my worst experience, it certainly ranks up there. I had to write office referrals for two kids, two other kids got in trouble at recess and were sent to the principal, one kid threw up and her mom refused to pick her up... so she stayed at school all day. I'm praying I don't get the stomach virus that's making it's way around here. I also spent most of my lunch time supervising kids get their lunch, gathering work for ISS, and tracking down the ISS teacher.

I think I usually do a pretty good job about building a good rapport with students, so having so many problems today really upset me. I felt like a failure that I had to spend so much time trying to regroup and refocus the kids. I talked to the teacher after school and she assured me that they are the same with her, but still. At one point, the assistant principal came to drop off two of the boys after they had a "talkin' to," in the office, but still needed to talk to the principal. She dropped them off, let out a big sigh, looked me in the eye and said, "good luck..." That's a nice feeling to get from an AP... like it's hopeless. Great! And I get to do this all over again with the same class on Thursday and and Friday!

So to make myself feel better, I bought a Blizzard and ate in my pajamas, watched Gayle and Oprah's Big Adventure, cried a little bit, and then took a nap. I'm feeling much better now.

Please pray that I survive Thursday and Friday. I'm so grateful that that classroom isn't part of my regular life.