Patience is a Virtue

Yes, patience is a virtue; and I sure didn't have a whole lot of it today. I try to keep my posts positive and encouraging, but tonight I just need to vent. I love my job, and I would not trade it for the world. However, today it was hard to be that good and patient teacher I strive so hard to be.

Here are some of the things that made today difficult...
*An administrator had to redirect two of my kids at different points in our day.
~One had his coat over his head on the way back from lunch. Yes, this seems to be a good idea in the first grade. The administrator removed the coat from the child's head and said to be careful, as he could not see walking down the hallway. So what does my student do the minute she walks away? Oh yes...he puts the coat BACK on his head. Hmmm. This warrants another talk from her. How embarrassing...
~On the way to buses, I see a different child running to his bus the minute he is free from my WALKING line. I am one of the few teachers at my school that actually cares what my students do on the way to buses, and I immediately say, "Joe, you need to walk! Try that again!" Joe gives me a blank stare. "Try that again!" I scream. With my luck, the administrator is standing near Joe's bus. She starts yelling, "Joe, your teacher is talking to you! You need to walk!" Oh boy. Well, at least I care enough to have him try it again. Eventually Joe gets the drift and shows us how to walk to his bus.

*Five of my girls have somehow magically turned into drama queens/tattle tales over Thanksgiving break. If I heard one more "Miiiiiiiiiss Ruuuuuuuwe" (say that to yourself in a drawn out, whiny voice), I think I would have pulled my hair out.

*While reading a book, I noticed a child pick up a piece of snow removal salt off the carpet. Remember that the only reason this salt is on our carpet is because it traveled via dirty shoe and fell off onto our nice, clean meeting carpet. Anyway, I saw the child put the salt into his MOUTH! "Jacob!" I screamed. "Take it out!" Ewww gross, I know. But it gets worse. Throughout the day I saw TWO MORE children attempt to eat the salt off the carpet! And those are only the three instances I saw! Who knows how much salt was consumed when I was looking at the books I was reading to them! Note to self : We need a class chat about why it is not okay to eat salt off the carpet tomorrow.

I could go on and on about why my day was a rough one, but I don't want to bore you! ;) Yet I must remind myself that in addition to these instances, the following good things happened:

*After reading a looooong story to them at reading (a Patricia Pollacco book, for all you teachers out there!), a little girl raised her hand and said, "Miss Ruwe, we love when you read books to us. Can we read another one?" This caused the entire carpet to go into an uproar of, "Yeah, read another one!" Unfortunately, we needed to get moving with our workshop. But I did make sure to read a quick book for Word Work shortly after. And I felt special that they apparently like my reading so much!

*I got a multitude of hugs throughout the day...always a mood-lifter.

*My kids made me laugh. Honestly, when DON'T they make me laugh?!

*We played "What Changed?" for our morning activity, and Emma took her shoe off as the thing she changed. Honestly, did she think we wouldn't notice that she took her entire shoe off?! But we all laughed and smiled, including Emma, and so it was a good part of our day!

Today reminded me that everyone has good days and bad days. But even on those "bad" days, there are positive things that happen. It's just a matter of noticing them. Hopefully I will notice a lot more of the positive things tomorrow!

I am grateful for...
1.) Funny stories to share.
2.) Panera's potato soup...mmmm!
3.) The ability to start fresh every day.