Finally

Today was an awesome day at school. So, I've felt really down because there's ways for admin to pull these reports on what my kids have been doing in reading and math. My class is really low and it's been such a struggle to get them motivated. We have a reading program where they check leveled books out at the library and then take comprehension tests on the computer. It calculates their average and all kinds of stuff. Well, as a general rule, we want all of our students at least at an 85% average. I have about 3 kids with that. So we've been working REALLY hard at this. I've bribed them and encouraged them in any way I can. I even bring in my ps2 and Guitar Hero every other week to reward those that have improved their overall percentages. Well, yesterday I printed off my own report and marched it right down to my assistant principal to show him that over the course of a month, my kids brough their collective average up almost 10%. That's HUGE. So I just asked him if he could come in and give my kids a pat on the back and tell them to keep it up. Any kind of recognition or encouragement goes a LONG way with these kids. He came in first thing this morning and started off like they were in trouble, but then got really excited and congratulated them and they all just had the BIGGEST smiles on their faces. He gave them all a special pencil and right before he left, he congratulated me in front of my kids and told me to keep up the good work too. I even got a gift certificate for a dessert and coffee at a local restaurant. I thought that was really cool of him to do that, considering all I really wanted was for the kids to be recognized for their efforts. But it still felt really good to be given a pat on the back. It's about freaking time this year. My kids were all excited for me too so we had a big celebration after he left. I challenged them again that if they bring it up another 10% by the time we have spring break in a month, I'll buy them pizza. Hopefully that'll do it!

I got alot of news today, some awesome, some terrible. It's been a mixed emotions kind of day. I'm really irritated right now because Pat came over after work so we could go running at my gym. I got about a mile into it and got the most horrific cramp so I had a terrible workout. Not a good way to start the weekend. We're going on a date tonight to dinner and a movie. We're gonna see Vantage Point and I'm super excited. I've been waiting for it to come out. :)