Election Night, Part 1...

Today I hit the brick wall. I ran slap into it and then it crumbled on top of me.

For some reason, I just kept waking up last night. Six times before 5:30, I awoke and had trouble getting back to sleep. When I finally did get out of bed at 5:20, I felt very tired and my sinuses were already in full rage. All day today, I was fighting to have the energy to do anything.

Blocks 1 and 2 were tough. I fought tooth and nail to keep their attention and get them excited about the lesson that I was actually pretty proud of. But then it was all over in Block 3. No matter what I tried, I never had full control of the class. At some point, my AP walked into the room and I almost just threw my hands up and walked out. She said that she was just "walking through" and did just that as she entered my classroom. I'm positive she could see the chaos that was my classroom, as well as the complete dispair that was my face.

The thing is, it was a good day today. Considering the worst that happened was that I had trouble keeping Block 3 in their seats, it wasn't that bad. Things could have been, and have been before, very worse.

Once I got home, I started getting ready for our election watch party and received a rather disheartening phone call.

It was Renece's mother. She called to apologize for Renece's absence today and for the fact that her Science Fair project will now be late. Her reason: Renece's mother was arrested last night for disturbing the peace and her car was therefore impounded. What am I suppossed to say to that?

Sadly, this is the second parent that has called to apologize to me for being arrested. I had another student whose parent called to explain why she wouldn't have her homework - her father had been arrested the night before. That happened during my first month of teaching - they don't prepare you with what to say to a student that tells you this. How can they?

Thank God for politics; my respite in all this bedlam.

To Be Continued...