Just Another Beautiful Saturday

Oh my goodness...what a breathtakingly beautiful morning it is this morning.

The weather feels like Fall is slowly starting to wake up, and Summer is slowly starting to fall in to her slumber.  The temperature this morning was in the upper 50s, and it's barely in the 60s now.

I could get used to sitting on the patio with my coffee in this type of weather, I tell you what!

Yesterday, it rained for a good part of the morning, but had stopped by the time recess rolled around.  I'm a firm believer that unless there's some torrential rain, heat wave, or below freezing temperatures outside - we do recess.

The temperature at our 11:30AM recess time was 67 degrees.  And the whole time, there were kids complaining about how cold it was.  Well, they were dressed in shorts and t-shirts...so it probably did feel a little chilly to them.  But to me, it was absolutely beautiful and PERFECT weather for recess.

We're getting the pool all cleaned up and will be hopefully buying the chemicals today to close it for the season.  It's about three weeks overdue.  Even though the weather has been swim worthy the last few weekends, the pool hasn't been used...and it's just been sitting there eating money with the pool pump running.  Its time to call it a season, and just wait until next year to enjoy it again.

Today, after I've exhausted my time writing my blog, drinking my coffee, and enjoying the peace and quiet of the patio, I'm going to be paying some bills and probably sitting at my computer for a while to get some work done.  Or, we'll go grocery shopping.  One or the other.  Probably both.

Peanut and Butter are both away this weekend, so it's just Hubby, Jelly, and I at home.  The house is quiet.  And even though I said last weekend that I couldn't take another weekend of just sitting at home... I'm not really sure what to do this weekend.

My first thought was to take a trip to the pumpkin patch.  It's a beautiful day for it, and the pumpkin patch close to us is a full blown day long trip.  Corn maze, hay rides, petting zoo, stuff for the kids to play on, stuff to make, etc.  But, I just visited their website and found out that they don't open until next weekend.  Blah.  

So, maybe with Peanut and Butter being gone, it won't be too bad to limit our time away for grocery shopping and just enjoy the rest of the weekend at home.  

It's not like I don't have plenty to keep me busy.  There's tons of grading to be done, lesson plans to write, and grades to enter in to the computer.  If only I could set my office up on the patio, it would be perfect.  That's the only sucky part about having a laptop that needs a battery...it's no longer portable, so I have to use it as a desktop.  

This whole week has been pretty awesome.  Not too much has been crammed in to my schedule, and it's gone by rather smoothly.  I haven't lacked any sleep.  My kiddos have all been pretty good at school.  My children have all stayed out of trouble (as far as I know..HA!).  

I did have to get a little mean with my class yesterday afternoon, which really ticked me off because it's been such a good week.  

For the third time this week, my class's specials teacher told me that my class had been super difficult.  Too much talking, not doing what they were asked to do, etc.  Which totally blows my mind, because they are so good for me.  But, I guess being so good for me comes at a cost.  They've got to let their crazy out somewhere.

I warned them both other times this week that I better not get any more complaints.  I hold them to high standards in the classroom, but even higher standards when they are away from me.  They represent me and our class...and it's my mission to be the best behaved class in the entire school.  When a teacher then turns around and tells me that I have one of the worst behaved classes in the school...that gets me pretty upset.  And I made sure my class knew it yesterday.

Due to the fact that it was the third time for receiving such complaints in a week, I laid down the law to them yesterday afternoon.  Friday afternoons are usually a pretty upbeat time in my room.  We work in groups, do some kind of hands-on project, finish up anything we need to do, and then spend the rest of the time reading or writing... or basically just "hanging out" until that final dismissal comes.

Not yesterday.

They had to spend their entire afternoon working on a science test.  Once they finished their test, they were to sit and read.  In silence.  An hour and forty minutes of absolutely no talking, unless it was to me.  It was torture for me, so I can only imagine how they felt.  

One student completely blew me away by how he decided to spend his time after he finished the test. He approached me after I'd noticed him writing for a while with a piece of paper in his hand.  He asked me if he could take the piece of paper to the specials teacher that had made the comment about us being one of the worst behaved classes in the school.  I asked to see it, and it was a letter to her...an apology letter.  All on his own, he had decided to try and make amends by writing a very heartfelt letter.  I told him how much it meant to me that he had chosen to use his time for that purpose, and how proud I was of him.  I let him deliver the letter to the teacher.

And, once again, another reason why I know how awesome my kids are... I just wish they'd show that awesome off to everyone else!!

Before dismissal time, I asked them all how much fun it had been to sit that long without being able to talk.  They didn't like it.  I then gave them the lecture about how I like to treat my students they way they treat me.  Meaning, I don't automatically DEMAND respect from them, I have to respect them for them to respect me.  And they don't just show respect to me when they are with me, they also show it by behaving when I'm not around... showing how well behaved they can be, following directions, and treating any other teacher, staff member, or administrator even BETTER than they treat me.  

I told them how much it means to me that any person can look upon our class as the best class in the school, because that's what they are.  They are smart, and well behaved, and I love to brag on them and receive compliments about them.  And that behavior ALWAYS gets rewarded.  But, in the same way, the opposite also has to happen.  There are consequences to their actions, with or without me.

I told them that Monday would be a brand new day...it would be all left behind us, and we'd start over. They'd get their chance to show the specials teachers just how awesome they are.  

As they left for the day, almost every child gave me a hug and told me that they were sorry and that they would be better next week.  The hugs and apologies meant a lot to me.  They really are an awesome bunch of kids...they just need a little more guidance from me.  And I'm going to make sure to pick up some goodies for them this weekend so that I'm ready and prepared for the good news I KNOW I'm going to get next week after they've gone to specials.

OK, that about wraps up my week and my plans for the weekend.  I guess I should probably get around to putting the wheels in motion.  

Have a great Saturday!!