Potential Dog Mauling

So, the neighborhood where my school is often has stray dogs running around. These people don't believe in spaying or neutering, leashes, or licenses. Anyway, every now and again a dog will wander on to campus. Usually we can either chase it off campus or our Jack-of-All-Trades, Armando, does this fabulous lassoing and we call the pound. In fact, last Monday, while on duty, a lab puppy was galloping around campus. Ms. Brooks and I tried to catch it and shoo it away, but it wouldn't heed our yelling. Some children told us the dog's name was Noodles. Imagine, if you will, two grown women running around trying to chase a playful puppy while screaming, "Noodles! Noodles! Noodles" repeatedly! The dog's name probably isn't even Noodles.

On Thursday, while at recess, a colleague and I saw two German shepherds on the other side of the fence. Before we could process this, they were on the interior of the fence, squeezing through a hole some escape artist fourth graders were working on. The dogs then decided to chase our third graders, I guess thinking it was playing time. I used my whistle, as the children screamed, and shouted for them not to move. Most of the kids were disobedient and just ran closer to the buildings. Now, only Luis Fernando, one of darlings, was out with the dogs. I told him to freeze, and he did so. The dogs sniffed him and walked away.

Now that our children were relatively safe, I went over to shoo them off campus. One ran away immediately, but the other couldn't seem to find the way out. He ended up next to the gate. I thought I would just open the gate and let the dog out, but the dog felt threatened by my approach and snarled at me. I backed away, but the dog was still angry and he lunged at me. I put my hands up in a gesture that I hope every species recognized as surrender, and plastered myself to the edge of the tree. In my mind I was thinking, "this is how I'm going to die. I will be eaten by a stray German Shepherd while my students watch". Luckily, our other Jack-of-All-Trades, Mitch, came and was able to successfuly get rid of the angry dog. I was really scared! So were my kids.... I got a lot of hugs and "I thought they were going to eat you, Miss Sells!"s when I went back to my class.

All in a day's work...?

Non-school related

Here's the newest addition to my household!

Meet Karma!

Summer School

Day Two of Summer School:

Although I have the largest summer school class in the school (14 students enrolled), this has been my most positive experience yet. I'm finally organized, prepared, and armed for anything summer-school-related. Last year, when I foolishly expected given curriculum and/or general expectations on what I was to teach, I found myself scrambling for something to fill what seemed like an eternal four hours of school. Now, my students are saying, "We go home now?" as if we'd only been in class for an hour.

For those of you on a similar conflict, here is my schedule:
8:00- Attendance and Sonday System (phonics review program)
8:30- Computer
8:55- Journal writing with Mix-Pair-Share
9:30- Centers (while I pull them for reading fluency testing)
9:55- Reading of decodable book, copied so they can take home
10:30- Make Your Own (a time where we make our own flashcards)
10:50- Math (On a stroke of pure genius, I have purchased a set of playing cards for each student from the dollar store. Each day, I teach them a new review game they can play with the cards. Then, they can take it home and practice the games... So far, so good!)
11:30- Lunch
11:50- Review
12:00- Dismissal

P.S. I am picking up my dog at 2:30 today! News to come on that front, I suspect!

Some musings

Yesterday we had a Pretzel Party in class to celebrate all of the students passing their Binky words (the first set of sight words they practice; they are categorized by Arthur characters- the lowest is Binky, the highest is Bionic Bunny)! It was a proud moment for me, since the last one to move from Binky to Prunella was my resource student. The other members of his group worked with him daily since the day he came (about two weeks ago) to help him pass. It warms my heart!

So, my life revolves around school, as you all know. But--- the date of my dog-getting is fast-approaching. I want to make sure I have enough time to bond with him/her, so I'm going to get her the day after the last day of the school year: mid-May! Thanks for asking, Melissa!

Super-embarassing moment: Before school yesterday, I was in the office and the secretary (a woman who's been working at the school for forever, and speaks very bluntly) asked me if I had a boyfriend. When I answered in the negative, she asked why. What am I supposed to say? I do nothing but work? I don't have a life? Guys don't find me attractive? Well, I forget what I mumbled out, but then she asked if I was interested in anyone "around here." At first I thought she meant the Phoenix-area, but she meant within the school! First of all, even if I was interested in someone, how unprofessional would it be to tell our school secretary that? She began to list through the men at our school (most who are either married or in some other form of relationship). Those few minutes seemed to last FOREVER. Why must it be so hard to be single in a life of people who look down on singlehood?