Survival of the fittest.

I passed the test! Wahooo! The test of what you may ask, the test of this week. It was my responsibility to get my 18 little angels ready to be observed by people from the state, the dreaded state, the state that wants to close us down. (To which I say you can bring the horse to water, but you can't make him drink.)

Monday was as expected, chairs were being thrown, desks were pushed over and my little angels much more resembled something in a circus and I, an unsuccessful ring leader. The act came together when it was time to draw, butterflies almost floated off the paper, shouts of protest followed after encouraging them to write a sentence about their butterfly and name it. Overall a good day.

Ah Tuesday, math was a positive thing today, They loved it! Two of my high spirited ones discovered that they are good at math and now live for it :] Success!

The day of THE VISIT. Three of the four wild ones came in calm, the fourth came in throwing chairs and proceeded to tear posters off the walls and yell at me. I promptly had him removed to preserve the sanity and peace of the class. Guess what?! It worked. The visit came and went the students were mildly well behaved. Prior to the guests coming I bribed them with the opportunity to see pictures of my puppy. It worked well.

Thursday, my breakdown and a blessing day. Once again 3 out of the 4 wildones came in with a peaceful nature about them, the 4th was wilder than before. After about 40 minutes of trying to calm him down and plead with him and him almost succeeding in stabbing someone with a pencil, I had him removed from the class. Once again the waters calmed, teaching and learning resumed and we made it to lunch. I ate my lunch in tears and defeat. It feels impossible to teach while chasing a student around,and typically he is brought back to me and ready to resume his destructive behaviors. This time was different, his mom was finally located and he was sent home for the day. Praise the Lord!

Friday was wonderful. Everyone came in calm, teaching happened, learning was present. Students felt successful. As a class we laughed, we smiled, we were really glad to be there.

What week :] Oh and I finished all my lesson plans for next week by 6:30 Friday night!