Sugar subbed Woes

Just when I was thinking to myself, "time to get started on my bathing suit belly," I get NINE boxes of cookies in the mail.

While I joke of this being a bad thing, in reality the timing of this delivery was perfect.

Ninth graders can really suck. In fact, public school students of all ages can suck when put in charge of by a substitute teacher.

Today (one 1.5 hour period, actually) was enough to ruin my entire afternoon. I pity any substitute who thinks that this is how life as a teacher really is yet it is something I struggle with daily. It is important not to take subbing too seriously because for some strange reason, students suddenly think they can do whatever they want when put in charge of by a sub. It's as if they don't realize that we DO communicate with their teachers. We DO know the rules. We can hear them whispering and see them cheating or texting. We WERE students once ourselves. Sheesh.

My students today had a three-part test to work on silently. And what did they do? Talk, goof-off, cheat, talk more, come in late from lunch, talk, throw things, curse, etc..... It's not like they were necessarily rude to me and I HAVE had much, much worse. Something about my emotional state today and the fact that I couldn't get them to be quiet for more than 1 minute on a test made me doubt my abilities as a teacher and created a tearful, red-faced Jennifer by lunchtime.

I regained composure and put on Nazi-Jen for the last period, still having trouble keeping them fully on task until the end of the day.

What's a girl to do when a bunch of smart-ass hooligans wont listen to her? Well, she's gonna go home and lay in bed and sulk.

Enter: Semi-Mysterious package on my doorstep waiting for me when I got home.

Addressed to one "Jennifer "Yoga" Blount," from my mother. I knew this package's contents would cheer me up. I also had an inkling that the contents would be edible. And have pictures of cute little girls in uniforms on the cover.

Sure enough, NINE boxes of Girl Scout cookies. None of those nasty lemon ones or peanut butter sammy ones. Only my favorite flavors. Even two boxes of a few.

Is it a bad thing that I instantly felt better?

I don't think so. I mean after-all, my mamma loves me.

Now I will go soak in an Epsom salt bath (I'm still yogaing- still sore), eat cookies, watch Fringe, and forget about the kids from today. Because tomorrow bright and early I'll be subbing for more students, hoping for the best. And I'll probably bring a bag of cookies with me.

Love to you on this gray and fuzzy Monday.