until they graduate from elementary school

August 25: Nick keeps telling me that when he tells his coworkers about my job, they want him to relay to me how much they appreciate the work I do. Each time, I just really want to ask them exactly what they are doing to show that appreciation. Are they doing something active about it or just shooting off a vague secondhand compliment to someone they have never seen?

August 26: Today, I was surprised to discover that I am getting a new student. I was not informed until after he was already in my class. It’s hard to tell what to make of Raoul so far. He’s hasn’t talked much and he cried already, but he also got really into classroom agreements Jeopardy and told me his whole life story within the first few hours of knowing him.

August 27: I would have thought by now my kids would have learned to take the things I say with a grain of salt. But, for some reason, they always accept my remarks without any hesitation. Fernando told me earlier that they are all really convinced that what I said about how I became the fifth grade teacher was true. They all believe that we were fighting over who go to be with them. They truly think that Melissa put us through a series of tests to see who would win the opportunity to be their teacher and that I won the arm wrestling contest, the pop quiz, the karaoke contest, and the foot race, but that he won the dance contest.

August 28: Every day this week, the man who lives in the house on the other side of the back yard wall has been yelling at the children. He climbs up a ladder to tell them all to be quiet. A few parents have been fighting with him. Apparently, he has been living there for years and has on and off spells of being weird about it.

August 29: Luna, Milo, and Joanna borrowed my phone at recess. They took selfies and made themselves my lock screen and my background. They told me that I’m not allowed to change either of them until they graduate from elementary school.

August 30: We had our first Fun Friday already. When asked how many children we should prepare for, we were only told “quite a few”. We ended up with 60, twice as much as we were usually sent. It didn’t help that most of them had just come in from recess. They were all overheated and their warm little hands made the slime we handed them instantly melt back into glue.

August 31: I was hoping to get through the first meeting with the new therapist without crying. I think I lasted about ten minutes.




much love,
hedgie