Hit the ground running

I'm contracted to be at school 45 minutes before the students arrive.  My gift isn't punctuality, so I usually have 25-30 minutes before the students arrive. :)  Thankfully, I DO have the gift of an hour prep time 15 minutes after the students arrive, so anything I need done I do then.(no lines at the copier!)

This morning, I actually arrived BEFORE my contracted time, and just as the principal was walking in.. sweet. Hopefully early points deduct from my late points - or the 3-4 extra hours I put in almost every night.  Anywaaaaay.  I'm attending a conference tomorrow, so I knew in addition to all of the regular school day stuff plus preparing for a sub.  I hate preparing for subs - it's the reason I take next to no days off.  It's easier just to come in. I started getting that together before the kids came in.

I have about four million students in my homeroom, and approximately three million of them are ADHD. They are extremely active. I have to be on top of them for those 15 minutes or everything quickly decends into chaos.

This morning, one student came in with The Funk.  I could see it in his face as soon as he walked in. He is famous for The Funk and The Funk will ruin his day (and any nearby innocents). I tried to get his spirits up. A parent walked in to ask me about an assignment RIGHTNOWTHISMINUTE, and when I turned back around The Funk had crumpled up the papers on the desks around him.  Rrrgh. Naturally, this got the other millions all riled up.  I sweetly asked the father if I could get back to him in about 15 minutes. I stood next to The Funk and hoped that would be enough to get him on task.  He stayed on, until I walked away. He was then back to his antics. I did this about three times before I had enough. I grabbed the assignment that the father wanted to discuss, handed it to him, stood by The Funk, went back over to the father, discussed the assignment to his satisfaction, walked back to The Funk, and started dismissing for Spanish. Kept The Funk back, and tried to fix his mood before his day totally went down the toilet.  When I was confident he could get through Spanish without causing a riot, I left him there.

I needed a cup of coffee.

That was only the first 15 minutes of the school day.  The rest of my day was just as frantic and insane. I had an interesting IEP meeting, an abbreviated lunch, and a rushed afternoon getting ready for my day out tomorrow.

And The Funk got funkier.  He had a terrible day! The poor sub has my prayers tomorrow!