February Mid-Month Confessions

I am sooooo excited for the partnership this year between E at Teaching Sam and Scout (a person I actually met in my real life when we both taught at the same school) and Heather, the super cute blogger at Notes from the Nelsons that I have been stalking following for about a year now.

They have brought back E's Confessions series but only on a monthly basis.  Y'all know these are my favorite posts, so I'm pumped to link up with them. Seriously, if you aren't reading Teaching Sam and Scout and Notes from the Nelsons every day, go add them to your blog feed.  Now.  You can come back to my confessions later!

So here goes:

1. I had a fantastic list all typed up in my blogger app, and forgot to hit save, so I'm making this up on the fly.
2. I am like a kid when it comes to snow days.  We had a 4 day weekend already scheduled, so Thursday was the last day of the week for us.  With approximately 30 min left of 4th period, it started snowing outside.  I officially was done.  As in, my kids were supposed to be working quietly in pairs on an assignment and I'm not sure they, or I, got anything else done that day.
3. Also on Thursday, I spent 45 minutes going over MLA formatting.  I teach history.  My pre-AP freshmen claimed to have never heard of in-text citations, and certainly didn't understand why it was that I was asking them to give credit within their papers to information.  The quote that drove me to the discussion "Well doesn't the url at the end of the paper tell you that?" NO.  NO IT DOES NOT.  IDK what's happening in younger grades, but if you teach middle school English (or high school, for that matter, or history at any level), could you please make a better attempt at teaching them how to properly cite information?
4. We throw away obnoxious amounts of food.  It's been better post-Advocare, but I just dumped out the equivalent of 3 chicken breasts.  Why?  Because we didn't put it away after we ate it.  So chicken breasts just sat in our crock pot.  Overnight.  And then all the next day.  And maybe a few more nights and days.  Gross?  Wholeheartedly yes.  I'm trying to be a better wife/cook and D is trying to be a better husband/kitchen helper.
5. I am a terrible reverser.  As in, I cannot for the life of me back my car up in any decent way.  Recently, I began parking in our garage.  It's been at least a month, and probably 5 of every 7 times I have to pull up and do it again, and I still end up in the garage crooked.  It's terrible.
6. I went to Wal-mart at 7:00 this morning.  Un-showered.  Yogas & Uggs (or, well, fake Uggs.).  No makeup.  Total Noke student status.  I put way too much trust in the meteorologists, and I assumed the snow we are getting wouldn't start until lunch time.  So, I stayed home yesterday, and when Dusty got up it was already snowing.  So there I was, in line at Wal-mart at 8 something in the morning, with all the other crazies.

And there you have it!  I'm sure I could think of more, but it's snowing, so I can't focus on anything.  Want to join it?  Use the button above to link back to either E or Heather!

Weekend WrapUp

This will be a boring one folks!

Friday: we got another day off from school because Mother Nature has had it out for us! At my house, we got less than 1" of snow. At my in-laws, which is in the county I teach for? 4". That's right folks. FOUR. We live 45 minutes away. So I spent Friday grabbing some free wi-fi, and a great lunch, at the local Panera. Caught up with a student from last semester, graded a few projects, mostly piddled around. Friday night we, gasp, had dinner at home and caught up on some TV. 

Saturday: IHOP & errands for breakfast!  My hubby & his dad have been working on rebuilding a truck D bought. Not the new one that I told D we would have til he died, but a beater that will, hopefully, cut down on the fuel bill. It also gives us an extra 4 wheel drive, and an extra car so we can stop borrowing D's Nana's. I think we had her car for 2 months this fall. Thanks Nana!

So while they worked, I did the sort of procrastination I'm good at. I cleaned the house & watched reruns of Will & Grace. I also may have taken a nap. I grabbed a pizza & a free RedBox, which gave us our evening plans. By the way, watch Captain Phillips. It's great. Maybe a touch long, but great. I also went to bed before 10:00. I told D it was to prep for Spring Forward. In actuality? I was just sleepy & didn't want to watch whatever he had recorded. 

Sunday: I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast (I have a great recipe: open pop can. Bake. Smother in icing from the can) before grabbing my laptop & heading to the local coffee shop. While there, I finished up grading 1 of the 2 projects I have (42 power points of the same material). I also relearned a valuable lesson about headphones at the coffee shop. Luckily, D was headed into town so he dropped mine off for me! Grabbed some DQ & headed home. Once there, and post ice cream, I spent a while digging these plants out of my flower bed. Idk what they are called, but they are big balls of grass. The previous owner planted them along the side walk, which left them taking over the walkway & they were enormous! I'm exhausted now, but they are gone! And, yes, I was able to spend time outside 2 days after it showed. It snowed Friday & then Saturday & Sunday were over 60 degrees. 

Tonight's plan: popcorn for dinner, bad tv, or maybe a movie, and early bed. That alarm clock will be way too soon, since I'm sure I won't fall asleep at what my body thinks is 9:00. 

How was your weekend?

Midweek Confessions

It's that time again! As always, don't forget to go check out the link ups over at emyselfandi! 

1. I'm not a Downton Abbey watcher. Or a Scandal watcher. Or an Orange is the New Black watcher. What do we watch in my house? Duck Dynasty. Two and a Half Men. Big Bang Theory. The entire CBS Monday lineup. Shows about cars. Shows about gold mining and trucking and I don't even know what. And most recently: Modern Family. High brow stuff? No. Entertaining? Generally. 

2. We haven't had a home cooked meal this week. I haven't been to the gym. Well. I did on Monday, but not to work out. More on that later. I feel disgusting. 

3. I made my test copies for first period at 8:15. Class starts at 8:25. The worksheet they did after their test? A student assistant (not mine, but my classroommate's) made those WHILE my kids took their test. Oops. 

4. I started my day yesterday by waking up, getting in the car, and heading to the gym. Impressive? Not so much when you know that I did so in order to shower. We didn't have any electricity (line down across the road at the elementary school)     I also left my washrag there. 

What fun things have you done recently? 

Midweek Confessions

Hey everyone! Just a quick check-in with the one thing I seem to be good at: Midweek Confessions!

1. I left home today without my cell phone. I noticed when I was about 7 minutes down the road & wanted to call my mom like I do every day. After a quick mental calculation, I realized that turning back to retrieve my phone would equate to me being late, so a day without my phone was ahead of me. I can't tell you how many times I either looked for it or wanted to add something to my grocery list & couldn't! I did manage to get a message to my mom by emailing her cell, and I asked her to text the hubs. Which brings me to confession 2

2.  I don't know my husband's phone number. Recently, the bank gave me a "new access code" for my financial downloads. I used it 4 times before I realized it was his number. Probably something I need to commit to memory!

3. I've been working really hard on my New Year's ReVolution to not stop at Starbucks more than once per week. (I modified that to mean I also can't stop and get a frappe from McDonalds either.) I've been saving up a free drink star for a day I really thought I would need it (and if you are a Starbucks frequenter & don't know what this means, message me. It's life changing!) Tuesday morning I was dragging around, while also knowing it was my morning for duty (read: my morning to be at work 10 min early & spend the 30 min before the kids arrive monitoring the hall) and also recognizing that I had a set of copies to make for 1st block because the packets I sent off a week earlier hadn't arrived. So Tuesday was an excellent candidate. I ordered a very specific Iced Venti Nonfat No Whip Caramel Flan Latte, got it for free, and reveled in a few small sips on the road. As I walked through my classroom, I set my coffee down, turned to set my back down, and knocked my coffee on the floor. I stood in shock as my entire gorgeous free caffeine spilled out, and then spent the next 10 minutes cleaning it up. Thankfully, my secret pal had given me some glass bottle frappachinos earlier, which I had been using as emergency drinks. I had ONE left. It's now gone. 

3. Today, day 6 with my new students, was the first day I have been able to look at each of my students and know their names. Very sad. To my defense, the first "week" went as follows: 2 hr delay, closed for polar vortex, closed for polar vortex, regular day, 2 hr delay. It was rough. In those 3 school days, we had 3 different bell schedules. 

4. On the first day of the semester, I miscounted the bells and only sent my kids to lunch when my classroom mate came to get hers out of her desk. On the third day, I thought I had been counting correctly, but a hallmate accidentally let hers out a bell early, so I did too. This split class for lunch thing is going to take some getting used to. I've never had that as a teacher!

5. On Monday, I left a new recipe in the crock pot. After arriving home, we went to Mcdonalds because I misread the instructions and cooked it til the cheese burned. On Tuesday, after the sadness of my coffee incident, I ordered curbside takeaway at Outback. Today, I grabbed one of those rotisserie chickens, and fixed Spanish rice & Carrots to go with it. Only problems: I didn't actually turn the burner on for the carrots & the leg/thigh area of one side of the chicken looked like this 

Gross. 

6. E said, "hey do 10 quick things" and I have, now 6, long ones. Why? Idk. Maybe I'm an oversharer with a poor memory. 

Taking a cue from E: on a positive note: I've been to the gym 6 times in 2014 already, including 2 consecutive days this week! I'm also noticing that I am getting more full than I used to despite smaller portions! Also, I feel better physically. I'm still clutzy & forgetful, but hey, I can only hope for so much right?

Also, and this is more to spread a laugh than anything else: I have this desk chair that was D's that he took to college. It has a design flaw that means that if you lean back to rest, you'll find yourself on the floor. To my knowledge, 4 students and myself have all done so this year. I even sent 2 kids to get me a newer, free, and still design flawed desk chair so it wouldn't happen to me, but have kept the other one for, well, I'm not sure why. But the kids sit in it, and some make a game of seeing how far they can lean back without tipping. I should probably get rid of it before someone cracks their head. 

Don't forget to head over to emyselfandi.com to check in on other midweek confessions!

Random Ramblings

Hey everyone! I'm going to apologize in advance for the complete lack of a general theme for this post. I basically have a handful of random thoughts, and about 30 min to kill, so here goes.

- I feel like my life has taken a weird circle backwards. Currently, I'm sitting at a hotel about 30 min from my parents' house waiting for a conference to begin. Sometime in the early 2000s, I attended a different conference (or the appropriate word is probably convention) in this. Exact. Hotel. The difference: that one was for Beta, this one is for my state education association. Also, I'm choosing to stay at home tonight rather than at the hotel, and in high school I certainly chose to stay at the hotel. (My friend S & I may or may not have attempted to make coffee, then ice it down, then add the hard peppermint candies to make it taste better. It was disgusting.)

- I've hit an invisible wall of sorts where my students are driving me insane at no fault of their own. They're done with this semester; I am done with this semester; we have 12 more class periods before our state SOL and another 5 more before Christmas Break. 

- You know what I'm hoping cures that? The fact that I left work today after 2nd block. I took a gorgeous backroads drive to my parents house on a 70+ degree day. I then got to swing and ride bikes and play with a plastic toolbox and a matchbox car for a few hours. I also got to be greeted by 3 running children, grinning & shouting my name. That's true therapy. 

- I hate that my baby boy is growing up. My oldest nephew is in 1st grade. He has adult conversations. He has lost teeth. And today, I had to actually pedal quickly to keep up with him. What happened to my little mini me? The one that exhausted me by chasing me with the plastic popper all through the house? I definitely want to freeze time. Today though, as we put the bicycles up, he pulled on my hand, and when I looked down his little lips were puckered up for a kiss. Heart melting. 

- I have been riveted by the JFK coverage recently. I find it so fascinating and so saddening at the same time. Thankfully, I teach high schoolers, so I can do things like show actual assassination footage and discuss the implications on current security. And they ate it up. Standardized testing can be on hold. My freshman learned today; it didn't have anything to do with Renaissance Europe. It did, however, have 20 14 year olds riveted. Some went googling more information on their phones. Some of my sophomores have on their own watched Kennedy footage that I suggested in class. That changes lives. That infuses a lifetime love of learning. Not a forced discussion of economic interdependence, regardless of it's relevance. 

- I am a born and bred don't decorate until after Thanksgiving girl. It angers me to see commercials and decorations, and especially hear Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I will fully embrace Christmas the minute I wake up on Black Friday (though, I will not attend shopping events. I have a horrible crushing panic in that environment). I just want people to appreciate Thanksgiving. You know that picture of the Turkey yelling at Santa to back off? I am on Team Turkey. 

- I have a piercing and crippling fear of stingrays. It's bizarre. It came up in class this week as we were discussing global food supply and a student said he wanted to move to Australia so he could eat kangaroo and those horrible sea creatures. I cringed involuntarily. I was then called out on it as a 15 year old asked if I was aware that the fear was irrational. I'm now that teacher who is afraid of something my students thing is stupid. Yep. Yay me. 

That's all for now, my conference will start in a few minutes. If you are still reading this, thanks for sticking around so long!

Midweek Confessions

These are going to be short, so be sure to go check out E's page for extra entertainment!



 - My uncle is coming to visit on Friday, stay the night, and participate in this cool competitive pistol shooting thing (very technical name, I know).  Great right?  Except that there are 2 cycles worth of laundry on the guest bed, and my hamper has overflowed to the ground.  And there are dishes in the sink from 2 days ago.  And I didn't vacuum at all this weekend.  And some people think that I should have my students actually learning in my classroom.

- Speaking of learning, I had my first informal evaluation of the year.  In my previous teaching roles I either (a) never turned in lesson plans because they weren't required, or (b) was always late or forgot to turn them in, facing reprimand from administration.  Here, I only need them completed when I get observed.  Today, we started a new unit in WHI and I hadn't planned out the unit yet (on paper).  Fabulous.  Granted, I did give over all my lessons, including WHII, which were done, so maybe she'll be sort of okay with it.  Yeah...probably not...

- I am not happy about this cold weather.  At all.  Except one thing, my usually sweltering classroom was finally comfortable.  Well, it was comfortable, and then in 2nd block the students opened the windows, so by the end of the block I was freezing.  I'm usually cold though, so I can deal with that.

How's your week going?

Midweek Confessions

It's that time again y'all.  And as, always, definitely go check out E at www.emyselfandi.com, because she's adorable and there's a whole link to other Midweek Confessors for your viewing pleasure.

1. I hate doing laundry.  Hate hate hate it.  Always have.  I tend to either (a) put it off until I have no more suitable options or (b) wash it, wait 2 days, fold it, wait until I need to do laundry again, put it away.  It drives my husband crazy. It drove him so crazy that instead of doing our laundry, I do mine, and he does his.  It drove my parents crazy.  It's something I just can't seem to change.  For example, 2 weekends ago, I started doing laundry, and ran out of time.  I left the dirty whites in a pile in our bedroom.  They are still there

2. I misplaced my glasses on today.  The ones I can't legally drive without.  I dug up an old pair that I keep in the bottom of my glove box.  I, in my frustration, worried that maybe my husband accidentally threw them away when he was taking out the trash.  I still haven't found them

3. I am ready for a snow day.  Not in the, I can't wait for winter way, because I hate the cold.  In the, I really need a break from my kids and work way.  We have a 2 hr early dismissal on Friday, which is great except that we have staff development.  We don't get to go home early.

How's your week going?

Midweek Confessions

For those of you who don't know, E over at emyselfandi does this hilarious midweek confessions series. I'm linking up with her to dish out some self-deprication. (And, E, I'll add one of your cute buttons tomorrow...)

1. I did not cook a meal once last week. We ate out every. Single. Day. Granted, one night I was out with D's mom & Nama. But still. We ate a lot of fast food. 

2. I also didn't do any dishes or unload the dishwasher all week. It took a long time on Saturday to go through a week's worth of breakfast, lunch, & water bottles. 

3. I left my laptop at home yesterday. As in, omgwhatamigoingtodo all my notes and prep stuff is on my laptop, which is 45 minutes away and class starts in 3 minutes. Luckily, only one student knew. She happened to be standing in front of me when I reached down into my bag and panicked. Today, she didn't bring in her homework. Guess who didn't collect homework today, largely as a result? Also luckily, my freshman class had a search through the book assignment that took them 30 minutes, so I had time to remake my French Revolution notes, which were more boring, but at least they existed!

4. I'm typing this in bed. At 9:45. Because I just can't stay staring at my computer working on grades or the next unit any longer. 

5. I cuss myself every time I give a project. Really, the technology challenged of the high school seem to land in my class every semester. 

6. My flower bed is a garden of grass calf-high. And I'm cool with that. My new goal: save enough money to totally rip it out and start over. Maybe pour concrete down to keep the wire grass out next time. I really just don't remember to weed anything. Or water it. Oops. 

Have some funny things to share: Confess away below!!!!

Midweek Confessions

I just love these! I'm a day late, but these are funny. At least to me. 

-I haven't put laundry away since teacher workdays started. For 3 weeks now, I have gotten up in the morning and sorted through the pile in the guest bedroom. Terrible, yes. Maybe that can be a weekend to do item

-I went to a volleyball game today where the school I currently teach at played a team with several of my former players on it. It was torture. I wanted to run down  to the court screaming, "I can coach!!! Please let me coach!!!" Rest assured, this was only a thought. Not an action. 

-On Tuesday, I went to hand out the tests for my 1st block to take. There weren't any. I hadn't printed the tests and copied them. I had to leave my kids with a worksheet and the teacher on my hall who has planning while I sprinted through the halls to make copies. 

-On Wednesday, in the same class, I misplaced their vocabulary quizzes. A student and I spent 5 minutes searching my classroom for them. We found them in my teacher binder. 

-We have eaten one home cooked meal this week. Just one. Granted, Wednesday was my birthday. But still. That's pretty terrible. 

Hope your week had less confessionable moments!

Back to School

I haven't posted anything in a while, and if you're wondering why, I'll give you a rundown. 

In the past 2 weeks, I've had my first week of teacher workdays and the students first week of classes. I've spent countless extra hours at work, including staying 3 hours late on the 1st student day because I, along with all the other 1st year teachers, had to be introduced to the school board. It's also where they officially approved us, despite the fact that we had all already put in 7 days of work. 

I've been very diligent this year in not leaving work without my desk clean and my handouts ready for the next day. I also made sure that the work turned in that day was in the grade book before I left for the day. The only exception was Friday when I had 26 projects and 67 tests submitted in one day. Those came home with me. I'm loving being absolutely totally prepared when I walk in the door each morning, but it's giving me some late afternoons. The earliest I have left is 4:00 (one day), and we are allowed to leave at 3:30. 

I wanted to share a link that E had shared on her blog. It's beautifully written and expresses so much of what I think every teacher wants to say. I hope you enjoy it! 

http://jenniechastain.blogspot.com/2013/08/why-teaching-is-so-doggone-hard.html?m=1

First Day(s) of School

Hey everyone!

As the new school year quickly approaches me (T minus 8 days of summer before my new teacher orientation!), I have been thinking about outfits for the first few days/weeks. 

For those who don't know me personally, I am one of those people who always gets mistaken for younger. When I was 18, my cousin, 12 at the time, was often mistaken for my older sister. At my first teaching job (and second), I was stopped in the hallway and asked to present my hall pass. Granted, I teach high school, so at least people don't think I'm 10. I had hoped that 6 years post COLLEGE graduation, I was past that stage of my life. 

Skip ahead to yesterday. A wonderful classmate of mine from college volunteered to give me a tour of my ginormous new school. (Here's perspective: the high school I'll be at is more than 4 times larger than the last one I taught at full time.) In the hallway, we met up with another Social Studies teacher, who very politely asked me if this was my first year teaching. Seriously. My first year teaching was in 2008. But hey, I guess she didn't think I was a student. (Though I was introduced as the new social studies teacher.)

So that leads me to my big questions: Does anyone else out there have this problem? Not just in the classroom, but any workplace. 

How do you dress to overcome some of that? 

Young, young looking, or young at heart teachers, how do you dress at the beginning of the year to have visual leadership in your classroom? 

I always buy a new first day of school outfit, so I'm looking for some inspiration for my upcoming year. 

Oh, and feel free to leave any stories you have of being mistaken for much younger. The only time it really doesn't happen to me is when I'm with my nephew, who has my eyes (they're pretty common in my family). Then people at least don't openly state that they think I'm young. They probably just think I'm a teenage mom, with a 6 year old. 

Update: New Job

Last week I posted about all the career changes that have happened for me in the past year. 

And I now have an update! Drumroll please....

I will be teaching Social Studies full time once again beginning (gasp) August 5th!!!  It's at a not so local, full 55 minutes away school, but that's a minor issue. I am PUMPED. 

I'll be teaching WHI (which I have never taught before. Ever.) and WHII (the only course I've had regularly). I have to call in tomorrow to complete the official paperwork. Hopefully, once the principal returns from her vacation, I can head down and pick up some prep materials.  

Thank you to everyone for all of the support you have given me over the past year! I am so looking forward to an exciting new journey. 

Changes

Can you believe it, but D & I have been married for almost an entire year.  Seriously.  That's like, incredible to me.

And in that year, things have been a little different for me professionally.  This time last year, I was confident that I would find another full time, in the classroom, teaching job.  Very confident.

Then came July.  I got married.  I applied for what felt like a bazillion non-relevant positions, and one teaching job.  I was asked to consider coaching a JV volleyball team 30 minutes away.  I interviewed for ONE teaching job, that was part time, within that school's district.  Turns out, it was for the ONE high school social studies course I haven't taught yet.  I didn't get the job.  I didn't take the coaching position.  I took another one, with a local community college.

Then came August.  I found a teaching job!!! Well...sort of...  I was asked to become a homebound teacher with a local district.  (Find more about that job here.)  This has been a great experience, with awesome students, with a fantastic supervisor, with at BEST 1/2 of the take home pay I'm accustomed to (and at worst, didn't cover the full 4 wheeler payment one month.)

In December, I quit the coaching job, which offered up more opportunities to tack on more students, leading to the better paychecks.  Awesome for the wallet, and the relationship with the hubby since I could see him more and more.

In January, I was notified by several former colleagues that a school I have taught at previously was going to have an opening!  I immediately contacted the principal in excitement.  I continued to contact him monthly.  At the same time, I applied for an opening in my current school district.  (That one, I'll go ahead and tell you, I never even got an email about, much less an interview.  In questioning the principal later about why I maybe didn't get an interview, he answered in a nutshell, "We had a lot of applicants.  I don't remember anything about you."  Only nicer, and more politically correct)

In May, I was notified of a coaching opening in the same district as the former school (and about 15 minutes closer to my house).  I interviewed there, was asked to consider teaching Special Ed, and asked to notify them of my decision The. Next. Day.  In what seemed a brilliant stroke of luck, I secured an interview that next day with the school I'd been in touch with for weeks.  The interview: teach the same subject I taught there before. YAY.  Notified the school that was interested in me coaching of my new interview, and told them I would definitely want to coach there if I got the teaching job.

Cut to 3 weeks later.  No notification from the school with the Social Studies job. The coaching job went to someone else.  No prospect for summer work.  I get notified, unofficially, from someone who technically wasn't supposed to know, that I didn't get the job, after nearly 6 months of corresponding with the principal about returning to my former position.  I sobbed.  I sobbed again when I got the official notice 2 weeks later.

Cut to the present: my homebound supervisor gave me some part time summer work (like, way part time, like at MAX if there are no absences from anyone I'll get 16 hrs per week.  It's day 1 and I'm already down 3.75 hrs.)

So I'm starting a temp office job.  That's right, a temporary, answerthephonesandmakecopies, office job.  And I am very grateful for it, because I will have steady employment that I can depend on.  Also, it will allow me to continue to work with the homebound students, even after the school year has started.  And I'm pretty stoked.  I bought a few new shirts.  The first new clothes I've bought in 2013.  I told you, I'm stoked.

Oh, and also:

 I have a Social Studies interview in TWO days.

So fingers crossed for that one!!!!

Teaching

Recently, I read a comment on Facebook, which really struck a nerve with me. It stated something along the lines of never hearing about a teacher doing his or her job.

Now, I will be the first to say that teachers, including myself, make mistakes. We are human, and some are better at our jobs than others. However, it seems ludicrous to me that there are parents out there who think teachers don't do their jobs.

I thought I would elaborate here on what, in my experience, are the responsibilities of a teacher.

1. Teach. We must engage upwards of 25 students at a time with material they may or may not have any interest in. In doing so, we must relate to each student's unique prior knowledge, adjusting for the advanced student, the learning disabled student, the physically challenged student, and the ADD/ADHD student. We must do this without obviously treating any student differently. To do this, we spend hours after school planning, organizing, and reconfiguring activities to best fit our students, while ignoring our own families.

2. Communicate. In any given day, a teacher must communicate with students, colleagues, parents, administration, and, often, the public. This communication varies according to level, but includes written, oral, and electronic communication, and definitely doesn't end with the 3:30 bell. (Think I'm wrong? Has anyone ever gotten an email from a teacher outside of school hours? Have you ever spoken to a current or former teacher in the grocery store? I rest my case.)

3. Parent. This may be the most difficult concept for a child's parents, but it is a crucial part of the school environment. A parent provides love and support for their child unconditionally right? Guess what, in the hours your child is at school, his or her teachers are also providing unconditional love and support. If they didn't love your kid, they wouldn't be teaching. The pay and hours are terrible, the rewards of seeing someone we care about excel are why we do it.

4. Nurse. I realize that the school has nurses who do this, but I cannot tell you the number of times I have served as a nurse. From, "Do you have a bandaid?" to "Do you think this is infected?" and "I just threw up a lot, should I go home?" So yes, we are nurses. And the answers? Yes. Ew, gross, yes. And Dear God, please go call your mom. And I teach teenagers. I can not imagine what kinds of nurse things elementary teachers deal with.

5. Confidant. Again, this is another thing that worries parents. It happens all the time. Students spend so much time with their teachers, that teachers can tell at a glance if something is wrong. Students also have so much trust in their teachers, (as they should) that when asked, "Are you okay?" They spill. We then have to determine what is appropriate as a response, and if necessary, who to turn to next with the students' problem. I guess that's why we have to take psychology classes in order to get a license.

6. Disciplinarian. Teachers at all levels have to enforce rules. Every student at some point must be disciplined. Teachers must do so regardless of the support of the parent. Many parents are extremely supportive of the rules. Unfortunately, some parents blatantly allow their children to break rules. For instance, at the high school level, students are generally not allowed to use their phones. It varies by school, but as a general rule, phones are supposed to be silent and away at al times. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times I heard a student discussing something their parent had told them via text during the day. To be more specific, I emailed a mom around 10:30 about a question I had. Her daughter came to me 2 hours later with the answer. Clearly that parent blatantly disregarded a rule, which makes it extremely difficult for the school to enforce.

7. Learn. As a teacher, you must constantly learn. We learn names of students, which we are expected to retain for years. (Case in point, earlier this week I was stopped by a former student in the grocery store. I taught her 4 years ago, and she remembered me, therefore I am expected to remember her.) We learn about the students' character and family. We learn new curriculum, only to have it or our assignment changed, sometimes mid year. We learn new technologies and are expected to implement them immediately, despite the plans we spent hours on just last week. We take undergraduate and graduate level classes to maintain our certifications. (Which, thanks to budget cuts, we spend half a month's salary per course on.) We are perpetual students.

Now, these are not all the responsibilities of a teacher, but they are a large portion. Next time you feel frustrated by your child's teacher, think about this list, and remember that their line of communication is always open. Try talking, try offering how you can help, most definitely, try to encourage your child to learn!

I leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

If you can read, thank a teacher. If you can read in English, thank the US Military.