Morning sickness

Just a couple of quick hits today:

First, the new Carnival of Education is up and running over at Bellringers. The theme is Meet the Teacher Night, and there are several great posts to check out.

Next up, I had to call in sick yesterday due to feeling like crap. Felt like it today too, but since the doctor told me yesterday that I didn't have strep, I figured I needed to go and face the children.

However, the best piece of news I got also came yesterday, when my wife and I went to HER doctor and confirmed that she (my wife, not the doctor) is indeed pregnant! I'm gonna have a kiddo of my own!

I'm thankful for the last nine years of seeing various examples of how NOT to raise a child. I can't wait to be a father! :)

Down with the sickness

**Big news! For whatever reason, Amazon.com has discounted Learn Me Good from $11.99 down to $8.63! I have no idea how long this will last, but please spread the word! ****

Last year, as I recall, I made it about 2 days into the school year before getting sick. Whether it was a cold, allergies, "the crud," whatever, I'm not sure. I'm never sure, as they all seem to have the same symptoms, and they all make me feel the same way.

This year, I managed to make it into the 5th week before succumbing to the evil illness. Maybe it's marital bliss that staved it off for so long, or maybe I really have built up a better immunity. But it was finally my time to fall victim. Several kids had been absent, or even worse, PRESENT with sniffles and wet hacking coughs.

I started to notice that scratchy tickling in the back of my throat on Monday, and Tuesday was worse. It probably didn't help that I stayed up way to late on Monday night, watching the exciting end to the Saints-49ers football game, and then I had to get up for early morning duty the next day. On Wednesday, after school, I felt like I had hit a wall. My head was on fire, my whole body felt foggy, and my throat was on fire. When I got home, though, I had no fever, I just felt miserable. I have never taken a nap between school and actual bedtime, but I did that day.

Yesterday (Friday), I just drifted through the day, trying to make it to 3:00. I went home and took a nap again, and then slept till 10:30 this morning.

I'm hoping a good 2-day blast of sleep and non-activity will kick this thing on its rear.

Linking while sick

I called in sick today for the first time this year. I very rarely miss school, but I was just feeling horrible yesterday, and being able to sleep in till 11 this morning certainly seemed to help that some. I'm still stuffed up and I still have a sore throat and a headache, but at least I'm not having to deal with unruly children on top of that.

So, since I'm home, I figured I'd go ahead and make a new blog post, pointing over to our good friend Tom deRosa's page -- I Want to Teach Forever (FAME!). Tom has hosted the Carnival of Education this week, and it's got some great posts, including Sum Wrong Answers from here at Learn Me Good. Now if Mr. D would just add me to his blogroll! :)

I've also been slowly coming into my own in the Twitter-verse, but I'm still learning gradually. I know there are lots of you out there that are using Twitter that I have not hooked up with yet, so I wanted to send an open invite to anyone reading this to follow me @learnmegood and to leave a comment on this post with your twitter name so that I can follow you.

Twitter Me Good!

Down with the sickness?

Is it just me, or has this been the worst year for health in the classroom? I have not felt well since school started on August 24th. I've had a persistent cough, alternating runny/stuffy nose, watery eyes, and a general head fog. Yet I don't think I have a cold or flu or ebola -- I think it's just allergies from my really really awful classroom.

Of course, it's not that true sickness is not going around, so I could be mistaken. 3 of my homeroom kids were out sick yesterday, along with one girl from my afternoon class. Plus one boy who has been IN class for the past two days, but making loud retching sounds before I finally convinced him to go to the bathroom if he was going to throw up.

I had to stop my whole morning class yesterday and do guided practice on how to cough and sneeze into the crook of your elbow, and NOT into the general air supply, as had been the norm.

Here in Dallas, there are people dying from Swine Flu, regular flu, AND West Nile Virus!! I just want to survive the school year!!

Cleanup on aisle three

This past week was an incredibly long one. On Monday, I was already tired from a lack of sleep, and then it just so happened to be the last instructional day before the math TAKS, so there was that pressure of trying to squeeze in as much knowledge as possible around the cracks in my students' brains.

Tuesday, while my kids were scratching their heads and racking their brains for the test, I was in Ms. Five's fifth-grade classroom all day long, working with her kids, since they weren't taking a TAKS that day.

On Wednesday, eight fifth-graders came down to my classroom to take the reading TAKS retest, since they didn't pass the first time. Mrs. Educator also had eight students in her room. The third graders who hadn't passed the first time were taking the retest in other rooms down the hall. So Wednesday was a day of being on my feet all day long, doing nothing but watching the kids work on their tests.

On Thursday, I was back in Ms. Five's room to monitor her class while they took the science TAKS. They are a well behaved group, but it certainly made for another long day.

As long as my week was, it could have been a lot worse. Poor Mrs. Educator had a MUCH worse week in her classroom. Three days out of five this week, somebody barfed in her room.

One of our little girls had leg surgery a couple of weeks ago and came to school on Monday in a wheelchair. She also had some brand new medication that she needed to take; medication that apparently did not sit well with her. Sometime before nine o'clock on Monday morning, Mrs. Educator came over to tell me the news that her class had been evacuated due to massive hurling. Not a pretty thought.

On Wednesday, one of the fifth-graders taking the TAKS in her room clearly had a bad case of the nerves, and he spewed chunks all over his test booklet, desk, and the surrounding floor. She had to move her testing group into the vacant room next to mine. And if you happened to read my brother's comment on my last posting, he wasn't exaggerating about the procedure involved when a kid pukes on his test. In addition to cleaning up the mess in the room, someone had to come in and clean off the test booklet as much as possible, and secure the test booklet in a plastic baggie to be sent back down to Austin with the rest of the test materials. CSI-style, as Phin says. I guess they did everything except dust the vomit for prints.

On Friday, our sweet little ralfer from Monday returned to school, this time with a walker instead of a wheelchair. She took the TAKS in the morning with a couple of other kids that had missed test day, and she was with us in Mrs. Educator's room in the afternoon when we were having our popcorn party and watching Aladdin. She was actually sleeping in the back of the room. I was sitting in the back enjoying the antics of Genie, Carpet, and Abu when I suddenly heard a sound that made me think someone had knocked a drink over on the table. I looked over, only to see that poor little A had completed the hat trick for the week (the Vom-hat trick, if you will).

I can only hope that next week puts people back in better health. And barring that, that they continue to review their stomach contents somewhere OTHER than my room...