All The Lights Are On; Yet No One’s Home

“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign of? “

-Albert Einstein

Guys! The struggle bus is real these days. We’re almost done with week three of Kindergarten Prep and my coworker and I are baffled and stressed to the max. We’re on the struggle bus and this time we’re the passengers trying to get off this roller coaster of a ride we’re on.

As a teacher, you come to know each and every student’s strengths and weaknesses. Each student is unique and has subjects that they excel in and others that they need help in.

And then you have those students who seem to be there physically but not mentally. It’s as if all the lights are on up there, yet no one’s home. 

And there are only a few things worse than that!

We have a few students who are with us physically but mentally, they’re a million miles away.

Yesterday, my coworker and I both separately spent roughly 30 minutes with one student working on tracing his letters. No matter how many times we said “Just one trace down or just one trace across,” it ended as a bunch of scribbles.

I started to question my teaching abilities after the 35th time repeating myself. After the 36th time, I walked away. Obviously, I either can’t teach or he has no interest in learning how to trace properly!

We have a few students like that.

You can give them simple instructions like “walk to the sink” or “please come sit down on the carpet” and they’ll look at you as if you just spoke to them in a foreign language.

Even our mandarin speaking student knows what we mean when we say sit down or come over here in English.

So they have NO excuse whatsoever!

I just can’t.

Those lights are slowly turning off one by one. Slowly but surely!

That’s when you as a teacher want to go find a 2 by 4 and wack yourself in the forehead with it. Just one good time. That’s all I’d need. Possibly a concussion and a migraine. That’d get me sent home for a few days on bed rest, right?

But WAIT!

You have those children who have all the lights on upstairs and yet no one’s home and then you have those children who have all the lights on and EVERYONE is home. 

Their mom, dad, sister, brother, pet gerbil and frog are home. Hell, even their grandparents and twice removed cousin Frank is home.

It’s a party in their brain!

And sometimes that can be worse than having no one home upstairs.

For one of my student’s has a party going on in her brain all day. Every day!

You never know what she has up her sleeve!

Yesterday, my coworker was sitting beside her (not even 2 feet away) during naptime. Instead of saying “Ms. ____, I have to use the bathroom,” she looked her in the eyes and took it upon herself to pee on her mat. Right In Front of HER! 

Like what?! Why?! I can’t even!

Have you ever met a child whose brain is constantly turning over and over, never stopping, coming up with sneaky ways to make your day tougher? If so, raise your hand.

✋🏻 I have!

And ladies and gents, it is tough! It’s miserable and stressful. It makes coming to work a nightmare and one that seems to repeat itself every day. Over and over again.

So if you find that I’m on bed rest with a migraine and concussion, you’ll know why!

The struggle is real and it’s one that seems to never end.

All my ducks are in a row!

Ladies and Gents, I have found the newest and latest best thing since Chick Fil A and texting. 

As I told you last week, I’ve been on the struggle bus with my class for the last two weeks. 

The same can be said about yesterday but I can proudly say that I was not the driver. At least not yesterday morning. I was merely a passenger just passing on through. 

For I had all my ducks in a row.

At least that’s what I thought until one decided to make its grand escape. 

I made it to lunch (1 pm) with absolutely no problems. I was having a fabulous day.

But all good things must come to an end. After lunch, I was no longer a passenger for I was now driving the struggle bus!

One of my ducks had made its escape!

At lunch, I usually eat beefaroni’s and yesterday was no different. I pulled my can of beefaroni’s out of my bag and attempted to open it. 

When I say attempted, I mean I tried as hard as I possibly could to open that sucker and it just wouldn’t budge. 

So my bright self decided to pick it up off the table and I continued to try to pull the top off of the can. 

To my relief, it finally popped off. Unfortunately, when the top popped off, half of the can spilt out. Not only did it land on the floor, it landed on my nice khaki pants and white jacket.

I was mortified! Tomato sauce stains and I had just spilt it all over my WHITE jacket (Story of my life!) and my work pants. 

So the first thing I did after I got home from work later that evening, I rubbed stain remover on both clothing items and threw them in the wash. 

As you may have learned by now, I’m a bit of a ditz. The stain remover didn’t come with instructions which in my opinion, it should have because it wasn’t the normal stain remover. I think it was a mixture of stain remover and laundry detergent but it didn’t say. I need things written out for me so just in case it wasn’t a mixture of both, I totally used laundry detergent too. So you already know my clothes were extra clean by the time I was done.

Now I’m not sure what the stain remover is called. I think it was either Shout or All (maybe a mixture) but when I say it worked wonders, dear Lord, it worked a miracle! 

Not only did the tomato sauce come out of my pants, it also came out of my white jacket! Hallelujah! 

So that last little duck that made his grand escape is back in its proper spot and I can say I’m starting today off with all my ducks in a row and it better stay that way!

Just in case, please say a little prayer for me today as I brought spaghetti and meatballs for lunch. We don’t need a repeat of yesterday’s incident!

The wheels keep a Rollin’

If you’re a teacher or an individual who works and interacts with children on a daily basis, you know that some days are a struggle. It’s as if nothing you do gets through to the children and you’re constantly fighting to keep their attention or even gain their attention.

Unfortunately, my class seems to have the case of summer fever. We have been on the struggle bus for two weeks now. 

For two weeks. Two whole weeks! 

And if I’m honest, it’s not just the children on the struggle bus. They’re simply the passengers. We all know there must be a driver and between my coworker and myself, we’ve been switching off as drivers. 

But today, I couldn’t help but laugh at them. 

As you may know, it is Teacher Appreciation Week. For today, we had a teacher luncheon. That meant that while we were out of our classrooms for almost two hours enjoying lunch and games, we had two parents come in for each class to watch our students. 

Dominique and I had just gotten our children settled down for nap when our parents arrived for us to exit the room. Mind you, they were peacefully laying on their mats when we walked out of the classroom. 

Within five minutes of being outside, we were called back in because our class had gone wild. Completely wild. 

So for the next 45 minutes, we traded on and off every five minutes to check in on our class. 

But I didn’t mind it at all.

I couldn’t help but laugh everytime I went in to check on my class. It was as if they had elected someone as the look out person because every single time I got close to my classroom, you heard someone yell “Ms. Cassie is coming!” and everyone scrambled to their mats as fast as they could!  

Can you imagine 22 students running for their mats all at once? It’s quite a sight! 

Now my students aren’t stupid by any means and you can tell by how they reacted. They’re intelligent! They know what is expected out of them! They could tell you exactly what they should be doing even when they are doing the complete opposite. 

They know what’s right from wrong and what they should and shouldn’t be doing!

But trust me when I say if there’s a loop hole, they’re going to find it and use it to their advantage! 

And they found the loop hole today! We had two of the sweetest parents watch our class today and those jokers took full advantage of the situation. 

But at the end of the day, whether they behaved as well as they should have or not, knowing that I’ve earned their respect in such a short period of time and seeing them scramble to their mats gave me some entertainment in a stressful situation. 

We may be on the struggle bus but we’re on the struggle bus together. Teachers and students alike. We’re ready for summer and even if we barely make it through the last three weeks of school, we’ll make it. 

At times we’ll do exactly what we’re supposed to do. Sometimes we’ll scramble to do the things we’re supposed to do but no matter what, we’ll find something to laugh about along the way.

For no one said the struggle bus couldn’t come with a little fun along with the struggles.