Monday, November 19, 2007

"God bless you."

What a refreshing phrase to hear in a public school towards the end of a very long day of conferences!

The dad of one of my TM kids, who is one of the top in her class, came by for a conference after our dinner break. Before I even started talking, he commented on the fact that we are teaching without a contract right now and how disgusted he was with that fact.

I asked him if he had any concerns about his daughter in my class and the joking started from there. He asked, very seriously, if his daughter was talking too much or majorly misbehaving in class. I shot back at him that she was one of the worst kids in my class!

We chatted for a few moments about what a great kid she is and he said that it was all from her mother, who is the serious one; he's the goofball in the family. I then told him that it took a combination of the two personalities to make a kid like his daughter work. He agreed with the comment, "It's a God thing." Yes!!

We chatted for a few more minutes about how she was doing in class. Before leaving, he thanked me again for my time and doing what I do - teaching - even with how little I get back in return. I thanked him and he left with the words, "God bless you."

*sigh* Ahhh...

Music to my ears. :)

I think I can get through the last couple of hours of conferences with that one.

I know that he, nor any other student's parent, will ever read this, but I still want to say it:

Thank you for your thanks - I don't think you will ever know how much your verbal appreciation for me and my profession means to me, but that and your blessing at the end made all the difference in the world to me today.

Thank you. :)

Monday, November 5, 2007

"I don't think I got the whole test..."

Oh, dear. Thank goodness for honest students!!! I was just about to start writing an entry in here about the darn s*** that started falling from the sky before last hour today. Yes, I am sadly talking about that horrible four-letter word: snow. And to think I was thinking about wearing sandals to school today!! (I totally should have....)

One of my sweet algebra students came up to with her test and looked really confused. I was just about to ask her what was up when she held the test out to me and said, "Um, I don't think I got the whole test." Here, she had the first page, staple and all, but no second page! Poor kid. I ran across the hall to my colleague's room to grab another test. She just laughed when I told her what had happened.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Hair

"Ms. Grivna! Did you cut your hair?!?"

Why, yes, I did get it cut. Just yesterday afternoon, actually. And you're the first person at school to notice.

"It's really cute!"

Thank you. :)

Ah, 7th graders. heh

After giving a re-take test after school yesterday, I decided to leave school and get a couple things done before pit rehearsal. Oh, right. That's why I haven't posted anything in...forever. I'm playing in the pit orchestra for a community theatre production of the musical "State Fair." We open the show on Friday.

Anyway...

I stopped at Target to see if I could find a Halloween-ish bowl to put the candy in that I had bought about a week ago for the pit and some non-chocolate treats, since we had a four-hour tech rehearsal scheduled on Halloween. I found a really cute Halloween punch bowl that was perfect for my candy bowl. I found my old college roommate, who now works at Target, and went to her register to buy my stuff and say hi.

After Target, I found I had enough time to stop at Great Clips (yay for cheap haircuts!) to get a couple inches cut. I hate pulling my hair back and I've found that I've needed to do that in pit this week to keep cool on stage and not get the hair flying in my mouth. Ick.

So it's nice and short now and my family has NO idea about it! Hahahaha They won't see it until sometime on Saturday, unless Mom is downstairs before I leave tomorrow morning. It'll be a great shock to them when they see it!!