Face Palm

And just like that summer is over.

I wish I could say that I did something glorious on my last day of summer but I went and finished my classroom, worked out and I am planning an early bed routine. Planning key word, haven't been to bed before midnight in over six weeks.

We have all day professional development for the next two days 8-4 with a little 30 minute lunch. Yippie. And then we get two days to complete the two page admin checklist we are given. And I guess the expectation is that we spend all weekend setting up our classroom and writing lessons.

Hence why I carved eight days of my summer to set up my classroom, cover my first two weeks lesson plans and all of my pbis responsibilities. #lifeofateacher

My main focus this year is to prevent all of the things that annoy me from happening. Happy teacher = happy life. Someone should start texting students that now...

And my students have the power to annoy the sh*t out of me sometimes. I love them but goodness they can be annoying.

So all of my little Monday Made It's are focused around preemptively saving my sanity. Real talk I am sure my students will figure out other ways to annoy me but that's another story for another day.

Annoyance one picking up the paper at the door. We need paper about once a week in my classroom, generally at the beginning of a unit. Let me lay out exactly what happens:

I set a stack of papers at the door.

I greet the students at the door and ask them each individually to pick up a copy.

The first five students accomplish this like pros.

Then a student needs to talk to me about something: the sky, the weather, what I am wearing...

And the next 15 students fail to pick up the copy.

The bell rings, we do the warm up and I start explaining the paper.

"Miss I don't have a paper."

Me: They were at the door.

And so now 10 students all get up and mosey to the door for the paper.

I try again.

"Miss I don't have a paper."

Me: They were at the door, we just covered this.

If I had the money I would have neon lights flashing around the paper, but I don't, so I used neon duct tape and wrote all around it to get the students attention. It might not be the ultimate fix but it has to be better than the scene above. #Fingerscrossed

A nice new metal shelf appeared in my room so I claimed it as my own, possession is nine tenths of the law right and that shelf is now directly across from the pick up spot. I used duct tap across the top to create three sections for each of my preps copies. And then have folders for each periods copies later on in the week. The joys of teaching three preps that are never back to back.

Annoyance two the tardy students. We have a really really big tardy issue at school, we have a set tardy consequence system but it is so hard keeping up with which consequence each of my 180 students is on. Then there is the awesome arguments about which tardy the student is on because they have the memory of a inebriated person. Let's pull out the old tardy sheet, that has a spot for the reason for the tardy on it (school wide form)...

Me: You were tardy last Wednesday, you signed your name First Name, Last Name sorry you forgot that.

Student: Nope that wasn't me.

Me: You wrote that you were bitten by a dog as the reason for your tardy.

Student: Oh yea...

Student 2: Oh yea and I was late because I helped him...

Student 3: I was late cause I killed the dog.

Insert all students laughing.

Thank you student for wasting the last 5 minutes of my time, now please call home.

This semester I am doing something a little different starting with a Tardy Binder. It's divided out by period and each period has enough sheets for all of the students. There is no space for the reason why they were tardy ps I don't care and the student just adds the date for each tardy. I then can go back through and check off as we cover each consequence. And each six weeks we start over with new copies. This will make writing up referrals super easy as all the data is in one place and not on five different weekly rosters. I made this little nifty spreadsheet which is fully editable and free if you are interested.

All I need to do now is find a way to tie a pen to the binder so the student can't use the "I don't have anything to write with" excuse. #iamsmarterthanamiddleschooler

My last and final annoyance has nothing to do with the students and everything to do with the word wall. The stupid thing melted during the summer. Last summer I accidentally ripped the old one. So basically I hate the stupid word wall that the students never bother to look at but admin expects to be up and current. 

Last year on my word wall rant a fellow teacher suggested using scrapbook paper and adhering it individually to the wall I figured it was worth a shot so why not. I laminated all of the paper, cut them out and then hot glued clothespins in order to hold the actual words. I then both taped and hot glued them to the wall. Better safe than sorry. 

I ran out of scrapbook paper about half way through Friday so I figured I would finish up today, I was welcomed by a half hanging word wall poster and border. So I retaped it and then sprayed clear spray paint over it all. This wall seriously hates me. I do like the way it turned out just need to add a few more clothespins. And now I perhaps need to do some sort of voodoo witch craft spell to keep the darn thing up throughout the year.

And that's it. Here's hoping there will be little actual face palming this semester. A light beating of the head against brick perhaps but I have always been a realist.

Linking up with Tara.