Fist fights, Shootings, Rumors, Oh my....

So we're already pretty much done with the week. I can honestly say I don't know how that happened. Do you ever wake up and wonder where the time has gone? Or drove home from somewhere and can honestly not remember actually driving home. That's how I feel. I don't know how in the world it got to be November (ok, so I know it's not technically November... but it's close enough). Here's how I know that I have majorly lost track of time. I started planning my daughters birthday party a month in advance. I wanted to have everything figured out so I wasn't sitting there scrambling at the last minute. I figured out where we were going to have it, what times, and who was going to be invited. I did everything but print out invitations for it, because I figured I could do that when we got closer. Well, I finally handed out the invitations on Tuesday. Her party is on Saturday. How this happened, I have no idea. But somehow, the end of October came out from no where. But I digress.

I have come to a certain realization in the last couple of days, and I am not entirely sure how I feel about it. I have figured out that in order to be an elementary school teacher, especially one for a foreign language, you need to be creative. My CT has posters and drawings and songs... Not songs like the ones that you search for on the internet, but songs that she has invented and written herself. Now, this is all fine and dandy. If you're creative. Listen people, I'm going to tell you a little story that you probably don't know about me. I got a letter sent home to my parents once and received a "zero" on a project, for cheating. When I was in the first grade. No, I don't think I actually got a zero, I think this was just the threat so that we felt really bad about cheating, but that's not the point. The point is, that I was a first grader, in trouble for cheating. Why Heather, how could you get in trouble for cheating at such a young age? I'm sure this is your question. Let me just tell you. We had to create an Alphabet book, you know the one where you have a letter on each page and draw a picture to match up with the letter. Well, the girl sitting next to me had the most magnificent looking acorn I have ever seen, followed a pretty spectacular elephant. Looking down at my paper, I had millions of different erased lines of my millions of attempts to draw an acorn, and ending up with a nasty looking blob. So naturally, I told my neighbor that I would color her pictures, if she would draw mine. Now come on, you have to give me some credit here, what kind of 1st grader comes up with a plan like that? I should have gotten some points for creativity. Anyway, my point is, is that I am completely, 100%, artistically illiterate. This is not a joke. If you still don't believe me, please look at Exhibit A:

The monsters I drew for my third grade class. Now granted, I threw these puppies together in a matter of minutes, but even if I had hours to spend, I really don't think I would have come up with anything much better. And writing my own song? Forget about it, not only can I not carry a tune, but I'm pretty positive I couldn't throw a song together if I tried. So that's that. What I'm going to do about it, I have no idea, but at this point I'm thinking that when I get a "real" job, I'm going to make sure my best friend is the art teacher.

Well anyway, I'm sure you are wondering what the title here is all about. Let's just say, Monday was a very interesting day. And I had fully intended on updating on Monday, but of course time got away from me so I never did. My CT was gone Monday, so I pretty much lead all of the classes and there was a substitute teacher that just kind of floated around to make sure everything was going as planned.

Every morning my CT and I have bus duty. Well of course, something interesting just has to happen on the day that my CT isn't there. Two boys got off the bus, and got in a fist fight. In elementary school, a fist fight. Not a huge one or anything, but still, a fist fight. Then, my substitute teacher came in and said that she passed a bunch of crime tape on her way in to school a few streets away. Apparently, three people were trying to shoot one person, and he shot them. No one died, everyone involved was over the age of 20. Anyway, the reason why I am telling you this, is because of the ridiculous rumors that were flying around by the time my fifth graders came to me. One girl told me that she heard that a little girl got shot, and that the guy that shot her chopped her up into little pieces and put her into a bag... I mean, really?? Where do these kids come up with this stuff!

So that was my week. Pretty exciting, intense... Whatever you want to call it. I start teaching 4th grade full time tomorrow, so I'll pretty much have a full schedule... wish me luck!!