the best and the worst

We are making up our parent teacher conferences right now because of the snow last month which caused us to miss several days of school. I enjoy talking to the parents of my students. I repeatedly hear phrases like this "My son/daughter adores you." "My child talks about you a lot." All of which are wonderful things to hear, but very typical. Of course their children are going to like me (that is one of my goals). If they don't like their teacher, they probably won't like school either. Of course they are going to talk about me, they are around me for almost more than half the time they are awake.

Then, on Thursday I speak with another parent, and what was said is still tugging on my heart. I have had her son in my room almost two months now. He moved in from another school after Christmas break. The first day I had him I was on the verge of panic. He was very outspoken and behaving in ways that were interrupting our classroom. I have worked so hard getting my 28 students where I want them and I was not going to have one person undo all of this. From somewhere I pulled out all of the patience in the world for this student, and somehow it worked, and he responded to me very well. (Thank you God).

I could see this parent was quite anxious coming in. She was waiting to hear all the bad things about her son. She point blank asks me if he was bad in my class. My answer was no. This woman's face was full of relief and shock. She asked me if he did his work because at his other school he would just shove it in his desk. Again I surprised her by telling her, yes your son does his work. She tells me she dreads coming to conferences because they always tell her all the bad things about her son.

I also told her I can tell he has had a hard time in the past, but I am working with him and he is responding very well to me. The woman was still shocked, but no longer in disbelief. I did caution her that even though he is doing very well for me, I could see him getting into trouble again next year in middle school, but I will continue to work with him this year to help him with that.

She leaves and is still visibly full of happiness and relief. Now I am sitting in my classroom full of mixed emotions. I am thinking things like "Score for me. Best teacher ever! I am so good with kids." Then I am full of sadness for this woman. Her child has been in school for more than five years and she expects to hear all of the bad things about him at conference night? What kinds of teachers has he had? That goes completely against everything I have been taught about working with parents and students.

Actually, I was at a workshop earlier that day and we were asked this incredibly typical teacher workshop question, "How have you impacted someone's life...this week." Well, now that I had that conference with that parent, I have a better answer to that question.

That is my profession in a nutshell. Even the big "wins" I have are coated in sadness. Yea for me! But how incredibly sad for this parent and child. My best successes sometimes come from the worst situations. However, I must continue on.

Happy Snow Day/Birthday!

Lucky me! I have celebrated my birthday two years in a row now with a snow day, meaning a day off from work.



It has been a glorious day of eating and relaxing. Often when I am browsing my facebook on days like this, I see people post about how they are bored. My advice to them is to make sure you marry your best friend. We have so much fun on days like this. With it being my birthday and all, my wonderful hubby has made me souffles for breakfast and pepperoni rolls for lunch, and there are also birthday cookies on the agenda.

I am a very blessed lady.

Even more odd kitty behavior

As shown from the post 'odd kitty behavior,' occasionally when the cat becomes incredibly restless we find a roll of our toilet paper unraveled. This afternoon she decided to do something different.




I really wish I could have seen how she did this, but some how she managed to roll the paper back up after she unrolled it. Usually there is a pile of toilet paper on the floor, but not this time.

I don't know if this is just another game she came up with or if she's trying to hide any evidence of her mischief. Either way, she definitely left her mark.

on the cover of a magazine

It's been a busy semester in pharmacy school and in my fifth grade classroom. We (the Kennedy's) have been going non-stop since October. In the middle of all the business, we had a fun surprise. The College of Pharmacy has put out a new magazine for recruitment and look who's on the cover!




Yup, that's my hubby! I am so proud of him. My low-key sweetie on the cover, ha ha! He is just so "thrilled".

odd kitty behavior

Last Friday our cat, Miss Swarley, had been alone most of the day. I did not get home and stay there until around 10 pm. We were waiting for "daddy" to come home and she starts being all cute with her tongue hanging out.








The next morning she had been not so cute.



Let's just say I had pre-unrolled toilet paper for the next 3 days.

A few days later she decides that a freshly laundered pair of khaki pants would make for a good place to sit. She seriously, will not budge.




Then yesterday she plays "fraidy cat" during the rain and hides under our wine table the whole time. Here she has finally emerged from hiding.



Swarley is a pretty good cat and she is never really a huge problem. I guess you just accept cats as they are with all their little quirks and moods.

Race for the cure

This weekend was the Race for the Cure in Bricktown. It is quite an amazing social event and supports a wonderful cause. I was on a team with several people from my gym, Fit for Her and Bob was with a team from the College of Pharmacy. It was a great experience.

I had a hard time concentrating on running because I kept reading the backs of people's shirts and seeing their loved ones they were honoring. So emotional!

If you want to ignore your emotions (like I tried to) check this out...



Me running


Hope that makes your day! Such unflattering pictures, just proving to everyone my non-athleticism. I foresee a dramatic decline in my readers after putting you through that.

weekend fun

This weekend we were in Texas, but it wasn't because of a football game... and luckily we flew and didn't have to drive through Dallas traffic.

Actually, we got to go to Houston to visit Bob's parents. A weekend is never enough time to spend with them, there's always so much to do. This time we went over to the Kemah boardwalk and ate sea food at Landry's right by the water. The weather was very atypical for Houston, it was not humid and around 75 degrees.

Saturday evening we were able to enjoy the evening sitting around a fire in the backyard.




It was nice seeing the Sooners win while in the great state of Texas. My condolences go out to the Longhorns. It's okay Texas, you still win... for having big malls...