...Is Something Burning?

Well, I realize that I have not been keeping up with this blog regularly but that's because I really haven't had anything interesting to write about!  My days are very routine which makes my day fairly uninteresting.  Everyday small interesting things happen, and I believe I finally have enough to fill up a post!

First of all, my year is not going well.  My second year of teaching has been far more difficult than my first year.  Due to circumstances beyond my control my job has become very stressful.  I have twenty very busy four year olds in my class who really need constant attention.  Without going into detail I can say that I do not have the help I need to keep my classroom running smoothly.  Since this post is open for anyone to read that is all I can say about that matter.  I can also say that teaching pre-k is not joke.  Many people think that my students play all day, but that is absolutely not true.  There is a lot of teaching going on during the day, even during "work time".  My lesson plans may be written for me, but implementing those lessons is a lot of work!  There is a lot of preparation that needs to be done, but no planning time!  That's right folks!  I have no lunch break, and no planning period!  It's no wonder I am stressed!  That is all I'm going to vent about for today. 

Even though my students drive me crazy, they also make me smile and laugh.  The other day two of my students invited me into their "restaurant" for some strawberry soup.  Well that soup sounded so delicious that I couldn't refuse the invitation!  I sat down at the table and my order was taken.  KS promptly brought me a bowl of his famous strawberry soup.  After requesting a spoon I began eating my soup.  After about my third taste of soup KS informed me that the soup had germs in it.  Not only were they germs, they were worm germs!  Can you believe that boy fed me worm-germ soup!?  I quickly spit out my soup and asked for my money back!  He then informed me that there was a no refund policy!  He did offer to replace my worm-germ soup with a turkey sandwich.  After he assured me that the sandwich had no worm germs, I agreed to eat the sandwich.  After several bites he admitted that the sandwich also had worm germs!  I told him that he was going to have to clean up his restaurant or else I'd have to report him to the health department!

My dear sweet MB is the reason I have five more gray hairs on my head!  Even though he drives me nuts, he is absolutely my favorite student.  He throws tantrums, tells me how angry he is at me, kicks, hits, and pushes people, (he has not bitten in weeks), he knocks down block structures, and sometimes dances on the carpet with no pants on, but I love him!  He is one of the sweetest, kindest children I have ever met.  Yesterday we had a student with autism come visit our class during rest time.  She saw my students laying down and decided that she also needed to lay down.  She happened to lay down next to MB.  That sweet little boy not only offered her his mat, but he also offered her his blanket AND told her that she could have one of our snacks when she got up!  Today we ate lunch in our classroom and I rescued his lunch bag from falling on the floor.  He looked at me with those sweet eyes and said "Mrs. Hainey, thank you so much for catching my bag".  He is VERY polite, and gives the sweetest apologies.  Even though he repeats the naughty behaviors I still think his apologies are sincere, he just doesn't have the strategies needed to behave.  I am afraid that his future teachers will not see him for the sweet person he is, and will break his spirit.  He really needs  someone who will see his strengths and love him.  He is a very special person and I believe he can be a very successful person in the future if he is handled with care during these early learning years.

Now I will address that crazy blog post title.  Let me start by telling you that technology has not been my friend lately.  I have put in tickets to the I.T. department because of SmartBoard issues several times in the past two weeks.  The first problem occurred because the bulb blew on my projector.  When the tech came in to replace it dust flew EVERYWHERE!  About an hour after the bulb was changed a "clean filter" warning popped up on the board and the projector turned off after about ten minutes of use.  I put in another ticket for that issue.  Every time the projector turned off I blamed my student ES.  I told the class that she used her magic powers to turn it off.  She told me that it was the dust that turned it off ( I don't know how she knew that) but I still blamed her every time.  Anyways, the tech eventually came in and told me that we needed canned air to blow into the vents of the projector in order to clean the filter.  I told him that I did not believe that was sufficient.  I let him know that the last guy who cleaned my filter opened the projector and took the filter out to fix it.  He insisted that his way would work.  After he "fixed" the problem, the problem persisted.  In the mean time, my SmartBoard stopped responding to touch, so I had to put in ANOTHER TICKET!  The same darn technician came in and told me that I needed a new SmartBoard and that he'd expedite a ticket to the person in charge of Smart Technology.  He also told me to get a can of air and blow it into the vents to see if the projector problem would go away.  Well, after he left I restarted my computer and magically fixed the touch feature on the SmartBoard.  What does this have to do with burning you might ask?  Well, ten minutes is not a very long time to have the SmartBoard on and I was getting irritated with it turning off in the middle of  my lessons, so I decided to take the technicians advice and blow it out.  THAT WAS A BAD IDEA!  He neglected to tell me that I needed to make sure the projector had completely cooled off before blowing it out.  After thoroughly blowing air into the vents (and blowing tons of dust out) my classroom began to smell like an electrical fire.  I immediately unplugged the projector, opened my outside door, and quickly took the kids outside to finish our ELA lesson.  I went back inside to make sure the room wasn't smoking and realized that the stench had made it's way into the hallway!  I heard someone say "Somethings burning".  I didn't really want anyone to know that it was my room, so I closed the hallway door!  I was afraid the fire alarm was going to go off!  I went across the hall and got some air spray to get rid of the stink and decided it was safe to bring my kids back inside.  About an hour or two after the incident I nervously turned the projector back on, and guess what?  IT WORKED!  I no longer have a "clean filter" warning, and the projector stays on for as long as I need! The moral of the story is: Technicians don't know how to fix stuff, and don't put canned air on a hot electronic.