I WILL SURVIVE!

I am heading around the back stretch now! Tomorrow is wacky hair day and the beginning of our Pumpkin and Boo-Gram Sale. We have 50 pumpkins ready to be sold, a $25 gift certificate for more, and I am going to BEG the produce manager to order an entire shipment of the mini pumpkins immediately. I have to get a flyer out to the school advertising the sale. I still have to come up with a shift schedule for tomorrow through October 30. Tomorrow I have to call and confirm with parents their times for working our Trunk-or-Treat on Friday night. I THINK that is it for now. Oh crud, I also have to get Veteran's Day activities and the Canned Food Drive started soon. That's it though, I see the light!

The Sign Language Club was a HUGE success! I split up the kids into two groups. The Monday group meets for 45 minutes and the Tuesday (the original day) group meets for one hour. I about died when the office told me that some parent wanted to know why their kid only got 45 minutes when other kids were getting one hour. OH MY GOSH, IT'S FREE, PEOPLE! It's not like I had them pay me for this club. I told them to let the parent know that it was due to my schedule and this was an added day. The only other alternative was to do what the Art Club did. That teacher is going to take the first two groups for the first half of the school year and the other two groups will go the second half of the year. I was trying to make it so that all of the students could participate the entire year if they choose to.

I really am excited at how the session went today. I learned a few lessons from yesterday, like how to check the kids in and out faster. I received a huge compliment from our principal on our way out. She said that she was sitting in her office as the kids were leaving the building with their parents. She said their hands were moving so fast as they showed their parents what they had learned. Could it get any better than that?!

My biggest worry was that I would lose the interest of the older kids. That didn't happen at all! We started with Signing Time Volume 1. In between the words being taught, we did a sign review. As soon as the kids learned the signs for "more" and
"want," they were able to string together short phrases.

I also love the fact that more kids are coming up to me to say hi on the playground. This is a switch for me. Last year I used to play goalie on my morning duty (unofficially of course). This year I went back to my normal lunch duty. The kids KNOW when I am on duty. Kids will warn each other that it's my time. I am a stickler for the rules. I don't like some of the rules, but it's my job to enforce them. Now I have students coming up to me and asking me about sign language or just stopping for a chat. I LOVE IT!

The million sheets of paper work is still coming in slowly. I might actually be able to find my desk by this weekend. Most likely not, but one can hope. Someone asked when the classes will end. My response was when the kids want it to end. I have no desire to ever stop the kids from learning sign language.