Tuesday, Tuesday

I am grumpy. I should be at Disneyland with how Grumpy I am. I have to give my students this dumb-ass, big old long test, called the Supplemental B. I started it today. It's RIDICULOUS! It's about 70 something reading questions. A lot of it is stuff that hasn't been taught yet, as I still have 89 days left to teach. I don't know what my district wishes to accomplish with such a stupid test. We test these kids far too much. Too much importance is placed on testing. I am trying to educate children who will grow up and become functioning members of society. When they grow up and have jobs, in the business world, it will not matter one bit how they did on the Supplemental B test or the STAR test, when they were in 2nd grade. Our district is all about test scores. It's a feather in their cap, because we perform well, but it's killing us teachers and stressing out the kids. It's just not right. My job used to be fun. It's not. I'm spent. I have never worked harder in my life, on testing. The kids are the easy part-well most days anyway. Today I sent one of my girls to the office when she called a boy, "bitch." Most days aren't like that though. Most days are fun, with the kids. Anyway, I don't mean to be a "Debbie Downer," but I am frustrated. I feel unappreciated, and overworked by my school district. I SO need to improve my attitude. Ok, here are some things that made me happy today...

Quinn, at the party store. He tried on a million pairs of glasses-well, maybe not a million, maybe more like five. We got all of the party favors and things for his birthday party Saturday night. He's super excited. We are having a sleepover.

I bought 4 packages of Chewy Nerds. The party store had them. I haven't been able to find them since Halloween. Imagine my excitement! I'm trying not to eat them all now. I am eating them slowly.

Arden got some new clothes. Cute huh?

Quinn will be 8 in 2 days. The Olympics start in 10 days. Valentine's Day is coming in 12 days. Riley will be 12 in 41 days. I have 59 days until spring break, 134 days until I see U2, and 136 days until summer. There. I feel better. Sort of.

Here's to a GREAT Wednesday! It's a short day at school. Quinn gets to go shopping with Grandma for his birthday, Riley has an orthodontist appointment, and the cub scouts are going to the fire station.