Friday Night Lights

I can't believe I'm saying this, but my day ended a lot better than it started and it was because of a football game!

Mornings begin with my two groups of seventh-grade students. The kids in the first group are quiet as mice and I never have to remind them to work. My second group is another story. Today they were "lucky" enough to stay after class and miss out on some of their lunch break. I'm curious to see what next week brings. I'm sure I'll be ready to do battle and they will be little angels. They will have that twinkle in their eye and beautiful, innocent smiles on their faces. Then, when I (in a moment of stupidity) let my guard down, they'll strike! They can't add or subtract to save their lives, but they know exactly what to do when they see a defenseless teacher!

So, after my crazy little 7th-graders left, I had my Consumer Math class. Today's lesson was nothing short of a disaster. If they gave out a "Most Painful Lesson" award, I would have won first place. The problems in the book consisted of monthly calculations, but for my example I threw in weekly and yearly calculations. Why did I do this? Well, I hate my students and wanted to confuse them as much as possible. Of course that's a lie (or is it?) but confuse I did. I should not be around young, impressionable minds. To top things off, I had three boys who, every time I opened my mouth to talk, would look at one another and smirk or say something under their breath. So being the big fan of laughing that I am (I actually had a boyfriend tell me that I laughed too much!) I had to ask what was so funny. I've never seen smiles leave faces that quickly. I wasn't trying to be mean - I just really wanted to hear the joke. Okay, that's a lie. I knew I was the joke (as I should have been today) but I had lost my sense of humor by this point in time.

Following the train wreck: a boring lunch, 8th-grade students who are not yet taking Algebra I seriously, and 9th-grade Algebra students who just don't care. On top of all this, my stack of papers to correct continued to grow and grow (I'm thinking of just entering in random grades from now on - it will keep things interesting and save me a lot of time. Time that could be better spent counting down the days until May 22). These were all thrown haphazardly onto my collection of lesson plans, paperwork for the principal, and schedules for the special ed teachers. I have never seen my desk so messy or unorganized. By the time I left the school, I was feeling a little insane.

Things made a complete turnaround when I went back out to the school this evening for a football game. The evening was perfect. The sun was on it's route to setting and along the way provided us with beautiful colors and interesting shadows to watch. (Well, at least those of us not interested in the game.) The air smelled wonderful and the temperature was that lovely degree of 'brisk' where all you need is a sweatshirt and jeans to stay warm.

The weather itself was enough to make me forget my crazy day, but I also had a chance to relieve some stress by talking to the science teacher (found out that she is having the same problems with the 7th-graders) and work out my future plans with my 8th-grade students ("Mrs. W., do you live in an apartment or house?" "Mrs. W., are you going buy or build a house?" "Mrs. W., are you and your husband going to have a family?" "Mrs. W., are you going to teach your kids math?"). Why these kids were so interested in me, I'll never know.

The second half of the game was spent with two of my cousins who came out to keep me company. Our attention was rarely given to the game, other than the girls commenting about the players and me taking pictures of a game I know nothing about, but it was a lot of fun just sitting on the bleachers and being part of a small-town event.

I knew my day was going to end with a football game. I, however, did not realize how the game would end my day on such a wonderful note. There must have been some magic in those Friday night lights.