A crash and burn teaching kind of day

I am an absolute creature of habit--I drink one cup of coffee every morning at about 8:30, right when the kiddos are arriving. I set it down at 8:45 when we gather for prayer, and I heat it up in the microwave at 9:15 before I give my second grade math lesson. Sometimes a kiddo even warms it up for my and brings my cute yellow mug over before I even get a chance to. It is completely adorable.

I had decided by 9 o'clock that it would be a two cups of coffee kind of day. The crew settled into their morning work. One dude was out sick (which actually throws the entire day off). One little guy was limping (insisting that he hasn't been able to bend his knees for two days. Hmm.), another looked like a ghost and a third was beating one of our pretty red chairs with a metal ruler for 10 minutes before I gave him the teacher look of the century. I had taken two temperatures by 9:30, sending one kiddo home, and making tea for another with no temperature but a whole lot of puniness. And if you make tea for one, it generally means tea for all.

And that was about when I lost them for the day. As such a creature of habit, this is usually quite stressful. But everyday I get a chance to do this job that teaches me how to let go. I get to learn how to let go of things being any semblance of "perfect"when life just...happens. When kids are sick, or antsy, or hyper, or bored, or uninterested, or, just, kind of annoying :/ And I get to learn how to love them in that.

Just a paint a picture of how gone this day actually was, by 2:45 the classroom looked like this:

-One dude burping the ABCs.
-Another dude teaching a buddy how to do the Dougie. (Seriously?)
-This quote..."Miss Rachel. I am ready for summer."
-The majority of the class crawling all over the classroom.
-And this quote (from my teenage Haitian lady)..."Miss Rachel, I really think we need to celebrate that Martin guy. Seriously Miss Rachel. He, like, do so much for black people. I am black. I really need to stay home tomorrow so I can celebrate." Nice try, missy.



Praise the Lord--today is Tuesday. And tomorrow will be Wednesday. And Wednesday means I get another chance to be a better teacher. I get a chance to try this patience thing again--even if I wasn't the best at it today. God is good!