Chalkdust & Apples

• I accidentally fell asleep watching the evening news at 5 pm and woke up at 8:30. Goes to show how exhausted I am. Summer needs to hurry up and be here already.
• Kaleb said to me before leaving today, “Have a great weekend, Miss Hsieh!” Yes, he was totally serious. I guess someone needs the weekend to arrive now.
• I learned a new word today: rax. Example sentence: “The yoga instructor teaches her students how to rax.” A prize for the person who guesses the meaning! No cheating!
• Meetings galore this week… Wednesday lunch meeting with science department. Thursday lunch meeting with math department. Friday morning faculty meeting with superintendent. Somebody save me.
• I hate preparing my students for TAKS as much as they hate preparing for it.
• I am reluctantly offering extra credits and test corrections to my math students because they bombed their last two tests and most of them are failing or close to it.
• I think I am about to lose my voice… definitely been overworking it the last couple weeks. Crossing my fingers it doesn’t happen. I can’t teach without my voice… or maybe I can just point.

• “OH! I forgot we had homework yesterday!” - Audrea
  Oh dear, definitely not something a teacher wants to hear on the day the homework is due.
• “Why am I so early? I walked real slow too.” - Kris
  He said something to this extent the entire week. You would think he really wanted to be late.
• “Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” - Ozzy
  Haha… Ozzy’s seat is right in front of where I sit when I give notes. His head was propped up by his arms, and I heard this great snore coming from him. The other kids and I woke him up. He rubbed his eyes and looked guiltily at me. I wanted to laugh too much to be truly angry with him.
• “Miss Hsieh, can I do your hair? Your hair is pretty.” - Kim
  This was said while she was supposed to work with her group on a poster. Kim is a chatterbox and seems to never be able to focus on her work. She says the most random things all the time. This is just one of those.
• “Glue stick it! Glue stick it!” - Estephanie
  It was getting close to the end of class when Estephanie yelled this out. Her group was trying to get their poster done. I guess she was trying to get them to glue their graph down fast. I never knew “glue stick” was a verb… LOL.

We returned to school from spring break Monday. As I entered room S230 for 4th period, a pungent smell hit me immediately. It soon dispersed as I moved to the front of the room, and I didn’t think much of it. Some of my students, particularly the ones sitting near the door, complained about the room smelling bad. But that was soon forgotten as I began to teach, and the kids dismissed it as the general “odor” of the Science building.

After school, I posted the classes’ average on my bulletin board, which was located right by the door. As I neared the general area of the door, I noticed the smell again. It really was quite foul - a blend of gas leak and rotten egg.

When I got to the room today, the smell hit me again. Dewey was in the room. As I set up and he pack up, we chatted a little. I asked him if he knew what the smell was, and he said he had no idea. I pointed out that it seemed to be coming from the bookcase by the door. So he checked behind it…

… And his discovery confirmed my suspicion: A DEAD RAT!!!

As I started 4th period, Dewey got a plastic bag and a broom and took care of the thing. I am glad I didn’t see it at all. The smell by itself was enough. For the rest of the afternoon, I kept the door and windows open to air out the odor. I allowed the students sitting by the bookcase to move to empty seats in other parts of the room for the day. My female students, meanwhile, sprayed their body sprays and perfume. For once, I didn’t mind the overwhelming scent of Sweet Pea blended with Warm Vanilla Sugar mixed with a dash of Cucumber Melon.

Never again will I allow my students to eat in the classroom.