Exercise

"Biggest Loser." I can not wait until I hear those words. I want to be the biggest loser in my district's biggest loser competition. This is the reason I have been killing myself at the gym. This is the reason I can't raise my arms above my head (stupid tricep exercises). I am going to look ridiculous tomorrow pointing at students with my elbow...

Job Hazards

Yesterday Yannette told me that I too should start a blog. A blog?!? What on earth would I write about? (Well, I have lots to write about but not much that anyone would actually want to read, that is why I have a journal!) So I dismissed the idea. Who would have thought that within 24 hours I too might have stories that others might want to read.

This morning started like every other, I was running late. I couldn't find my car keys and I had to do my makeup in the car. I finally pull into the parking lot at work, throw on some mascara, grab my "teaching bag" (yes, I have a teaching bag) and head towards my classroom. Anyone who has ever stepped onto a middle school campus knows that before the first bell rings the quad is an utter zoo. Anyone over the age of 13 avoids this area at any cost - even the campus supervisors avoid it if they can. With much on my mind and just a few minutes before the bell is going to ring I decide to chance it and am quickly swallowed up in a crowd of 12 year olds.

I almost made it safely to my classroom door when 1 student starts an all-out-drag-out fight. He is punching a kid like his life depended on it. I (stupidly) step over to try and stop it and without touching the kid (touching a student- even if it is in an effort to save another students life- is a great way to get sued) tell him to stop it. Before I even knew what hit me, I was hit in the stomach! I have been punched by a student- my first injury as a teacher! Does that make me a real teacher now?