The day of Crying Fits

Well, today was not such a great day for me. I really thought it was going to be, because it was my last day of school, but it was definitely not!

Crying Fit #1: This morning when I was getting ready for school, I could not find any shirts that would fit over my ginormous drooping belly. Everything I put on came up too high and left my belly hanging out. So I did what any logical pregnant person would do, and burst into tears. The thing that made me laugh though was Kailey. I heard her say from the other room: "Settle down mommy! Settle down!". haha. So funny!

Crying Fit #2: For any of you that pay attention to my facebook statuses, I have been anxiously (or think of a word that means 10 times whatever anxiously means to you..) awaiting my TAKS scores. I could not make my maternity lesson plans for next week without them, because our incentives are based on those scores, our exam exemptions are based on them, etc. So I've been on pins and needles! Well, today the scores came in. However this morning, instead of passing along the info the counselors and principals all had their doors closed scouring over the scores, which honestly just means they were checking and comparing all the teachers to each other. It was just really hurtful that even though they knew all of us were anxious, and they know all the teachers work their tails off all year for these scores, they were keeping them a secret. I have no doubt they were under strict instructions from the district to keep them from us, which made it even worse. It is so hurtful the way the administration at district level sits in their offices and compares teacher to teacher without ever seeing our classrooms, our students, or even us! It is just really hard to take sometimes. I had heard that one of the counselors was allowing teachers to look, so I tried to find him, but he wasn't in his office. So I went in the other counselors office and she like tried to hide them from me and it was just really frustrating. So, I did what any logical pregnant woman would do, and I locked myself in my classroom, hid in the corner, called my husband, and burst into tears.

Crying Fit # 3: Ok so I didn't actually cry this time. By now, I had no tears left. They finally let us see the scores. I had more kids fail than I ever have. 14 out of 106 to be exact. I attribute this to two things: 1) My kids are more apathetic about life in general than I have experienced EVER and 2) The state raised the "met expectations" percentage to 70% instead of 63%. I was extremely disappointed, and that just made me feel like a horrible teacher, even though I know that I really worked hard to help the kids pass. The kids that I pulled for my extra tutoring did really well, with the exception of a couple, so that was good.

Crying Fit # 4: When I left my students for the last time...

JUST KIDDING. I have never been so ready to get rid of a group of students as I was this year. I know that sounds horrible, but seriously...you have no idea. For a little snapshot: My 7th period had 25 students. 4 of them were special ed. 14 of them were boys. 3 of them were diagnosed ADHD, that is not counting the others that I just think probably are ADHD. 2 of them had parents that thought their precious children could do no wrong, and if they disrespected me, it was me not allowing them to express themselves. Anyway....it was a pretty bad year. I am truly glad it is over!

Now...onto Tuesday and having this baby!