Snain during recess duty

He was not at school today. I don't want this blog to be all depressing though. I know where he is and he safe. That is all that matters right now. On to more joyous news.

I totally won a raffle prize tonight. I had to go to my first year teacher's meeting with over 70 people, so the odds were stacked against me. I was all cynical right before they did the drawing, telling myself I'm not going to win anyway. There were six prizes, but still. Well, I guess God decided to give me a little pick-me-up because I was the third winner. They mispronounced my last name (as most do). I don't even know why I wrote my last name on my slip of paper. It's not like there are any other Joelles in the district. I won this book called Miss Alaineus: a vocabulary disaster. I totally wanted it. Ha!

Also, I meant to write about this last week but forgot. So in my classroom kids can earn points, and if they get 65 points in a week then the following week they get the privilege of using a pillow during the time we sit on the floor to read. This boy (who has autism), let's call him Brice, had earned the privilege, but right before our group started he and another boy (Carlos) were hitting each other with pillows. I had seen the thing myself, but when I confronted them, Carlos said Brice was doing it. I told them they both lost the pillow privilege for the day. Well, Brice was upset about it so he kind of sat back from the rest of the group while we tried to spell words using letter cubes. All of the other kids were participating, trying to spell as many words as they could with three or four cubes. I tried to get Brice involved, so I said "Will you please spell ship?" He said "how about I spell Carlos-stop-lying?" I was laughing on the inside, but what I said back was "I don't think you have enough cubes for that," and went back to spelling words with the other kids. It's really hard to get Brice to do his work, but sometimes he just says the funniest things.

Tommorow is Wednesday. It feels like the week should already be over, and that it should be Thursday instead. I have recess duty and today it snowed. Or rather, it was "snaining" as Natalie would say. I still had to be outside (under the covered area). I forgot my gloves, and all the poor kids were bored because there were 90 of them under this tiny area with only basketball, jump ropes, and foursquare. To entertain themselves, some of my boys decided to tie the sleeves of their jackets and sweatshirts together to create a human link. Then three of them got all tied around a pole and screamed for help, but they liked it because when another kid came over to untie them, they didn't want to be untied.

Also, last night I decided that when I turn 29 I am going to register to be a foster parent.