Corporal Punishment

In North Carolina, teachers are allowed to use corporal punishment on their students. Parents have to sign off on it first. Naturally teachers are not allowed to whip the child. They can hit their bottom if they act up. A teacher told me I should do that if parents signed off in the beginning of the year. I do not feel comfortable doing that even with parent permission. I could still smell a lawsuit coming even if I had proof that the parent was alright with it. I don't want to be known as the teacher who beats his kids. Although that could be a title for my next book! Not really. Anyway, I don't judge people who use corporal punishment in their classrooms. I won't be one of those people.

Panic Attack

About an hour and a half ago, I almost had a really bad panic attack. I was editing my book. I have had the document open on my computer for a long time. It's easier to keep it open rather than to open it up each time I come back to editing it. After each chapter that I make edits, I save it. When I went to do it this time, it didn't work. It said something about it being two different versions of Word. I had to change a setting. I changed the setting and the entire formatting of my book went off. That means I would have had to respace everything I had already spaced. It would have taken forever. I almost freaked out. Then I realized that I only made a few small changes to one chapter. If I closed the document without saving it, and opened it again, it would be fine. I did that, and it still wasn't saving right. I decided to turn off my computer and try again after I ate dinner. I did that, and now the document saves without any issues. I'm absolutely thrilled that it is working properly again. Months of work almost went down the drain and my laptop almost went out the window. I'm so close to being done. I don't need any computer or document issues! I am going to read my book through one more time, then publish it! So close!

No Voice

I tried something today. I pretended to have no voice during school. I spent the entire morning and a little bit of the afternoon whispering to my kids. The goal in doing that was to get them to be quiet so that could hear me. It kind of worked for a little while. Since they are so young, they believed I had no voice. I even kept the act up when a teacher would come in the room and ask me something. In the afternoon, I had to stop. They needed to hear my real voice yell at them. It was hard to whisper all morning. I was whispering really loudly when I was angry at them. Another teacher saw me standing on a chair talking to the kids today and asked if he should be scared. I told him no. I have been trying my hardest to come up with unique ways to get my kids to focus. Many seem to work for all of 5 minutes. Then they start talking to one another. I am determined to get my students to pay attention to me.

Fight

Each day at work, I fight. I fight to stay awake. I fight to stay calm. I fight to keep my students focused. I fight to get them to learn something. I fight to stay positive. I lose many fights each day. I do stay awake. I never stay calm. My students don't know how to top talking when I tell them to. I never stay positive. I feel useless. I feel like I haven't taught my kids a thing. The struggle will continue the rest of the school year. I have no choice but to keep fighting and attempting to teach my first graders something.

Meals for Under $4

As we all know, food is expensive. Yes, even in North Carolina, food costs a lot of money. The prices of meat make my eyes pop out of my head. I'm still pretty good at keeping my entire dinner under $4. I typically buy packages of meat with three or four pieces in them. It might cost more per pound, but I get two meals out of it. I bought 4 steaks the other day for $4 and change. I'm getting two meals out of it. I made a sweet potato and a side veggie yesterday with my two small steaks. That meal was just under $4. My problem is that I buy a lot of snacks that are way more than $4. If I stopped doing that, I'd probably be saving a lot of money. I also don't get fast food or take out too often. I try to limit myself to less than once per week for take out. That definitely adds up quick. Saving money is the name of the game.

Winter Olympics

Tonight is the end of the Winter Olympics. I didn't really watch too much of them this year. I watched the US hockey game against Russia and against Slovenia. I didn't get to see the semi finals because I was at work. I also watched a little bit of some speed skating. I turned on the Olympics randomly. I much prefer the Summer Olympics than the Winter Olympics. Winter just doesn't catch my attention. I'm just excited that Saturday is March becuase then Madness will begin!

My 1st UNC Game

Last week, I was trying to get a ticket for the Pitt at UNC game last Saturday. I had many opportunities but tried to hold out for a cheaper ticket on Stubhub. I didn't get one. It's hard to get a ticket for one person. They typically sell 2 or 4 tickets at a time. Last night, I had an opportunity to get a ticket but waited for cheaper. They never came. I ended up paying $2 more than I did for the Billy Joel concert. However, I sat at center court! Of course I was upper deck, but only row G. The seat was great. The arena was loud. I had an outstanding time even though UNC won by 33 points. It was a much better atmosphere than a Siena game. Siena is my former local college basketball team that I still root for. I hope to go back to another game next season.