Day 2: Well it's official. The kids thought I was their punk cuz I won't scream and yell at them and hurt their feelings. I know they are used to that, but guess what? Your girl is waaaaay to old to be carrying on like that any more! So I just trotted out some o' that old school stuff. Write 25 times : I will walk quietly in the hallways and I will not disturb others" or something to that affect. Ask me if they were mad? They were, and I kid you not, H-O-T hopping M-A-D! One little girl had the nerve to roll her eyes, please understand that I was looking dead in her face, she rolled her eyes and when I said " Why are you rolling your eyes at  me? you are the one misbehaving" she said just as quick and fast as I don't know what " I wasn't rolling my eyes!" So of course I just looked at her, you know the look...the one that says " You must really think I 'm dumb!" and then I said ' You know...I was 9 years old once, so I know from eye rolling. Keep messing with me and you all will be writing 25 more times!" Honey, you have never seen 17 children roll around in their chairs in agony at the thought! 4 different teachers just went off on my kids, one made a little girl cry. But there are other ways to get at them. See, I know "THE SECRET"...and it is these simple facts:

1. I am the adult. I was alive for at least 40-45 years before these children were born.

2. That means, I have 40-45 years more experience in this, what we call, life.

3. And one thing I know for certain there is more than one way to skin a cat!

I told them: If you want to spend your 4th grade year writing all day long stupid sentences.....OK! I don't mind. I can come in, put a few sentences on the board, tell you to write them 500 times and I can read a book. Now, we all know I wouldn't do that...mostly cuz it would bore me to tears, but they don't know I wouldn't!!! You should have seen their faces when I said 500 times! I thought a couple of them were gonna have strokes for sure.

But, I have one kid who really I am sure has something very wrong with him. Yesterday I told the children because it was hot, I did not mind if they bring water in containers/bottles that can be sealed so they do not leak. So of course everybody had water. Well my little friend, who wants to create as much havoc as he can, gets out two of his three water bottles( the third was a two liter soda bottle that had been filled with water and put in the freezer). He quickly guzzled down one of the two pint bottles of water, after I very clearly instructed the children to sip their water, so that they wouldn't have to go all of a sudden urgently to the bathroom. I said to my little friend " So...ya guzzled your water huh? It's 8:30 now. In about an hour you are going to want to go to the bathroom. Guess what the answer to your question is going to be?" He just grinned and I thought OK..you think I'm playing. Around 9:30 or a quarter to 10 he very politely put his hand in the air and asked if he could go to the bathroom. I just as politely told him "NO!" Here's why. After he drank the water we went downstairs to breakfast. On the way, we passed 2 bathrooms. He actually went into one and washed his hands, but did not attempt to empty his bladder. On the way up, we passed the same two bathrooms...he never said a word. Once we got back into the class, I gave everybody who wanted to a chance to go the the bathroom. Guess what my friend did not do? Yep! You guessed it. And every time I mentioned the bathroom, he just looked at me and smiled. He wasn't smiling after I said no, and, he proceeded to try and disrupt the whole class, thinking this would piss me off. Guess what I did? I asked the class what they thought of him not listening, not using the four, excuse me five opportunities he had to go to the bathroom. They were very vocal about telling him how silly he was. He got so mad at me...but ya know what? You need to listen! I said " I could see if I was telling you to, oh I don't know...build a rocket ship and go to the Moon,...and you not listening to me...but I told you to go to the bathroom and you did not! Oh well!" And I proceeded to continue with class. He was so mad at me, he almost fell asleep...except he had to go so bad it kept him awake.

But...I love those kids already! They are soooo cool. At one point, because they got sick of me lecturing them, I said " Line up at the door single file. No talking." Guess what they did? Lined up and didn't say a word! I gave them the two thumbs up and said " You guys rock so hard!" Ahhhhhhh, the smiles on their little faces......I just wanted to bite them! But I restrained myself, I forced the Vampire/Werewolf in me to subside...and I just gave them a friendly pat on the back...hahahahahaha! Cute little things!

Oh yeah and let me tell you about the garbage, the door and the pencil sharpeners. I looked up and two of the boys were, get this, standing at the door, looking out, while they sharpened their pencils with sharpeners that had a cover over them, and the cover was see through so I could see that they did not need to empty the cover so there was no need for them to be standing by the garbage can. I said " Uhhhhh...whatcha doin?" to which they quickly went to their seats. Funny thing is, I have said "Uh whatcha doin" so much, that it has become the class saying already. If somebody is doing something obviously wrong, I kid you not, those children will all say, in unison, exactly the way I say it, " Uhhhhh...whatcha doin?" It's hilarious and they are dead serious when they say it too!!! I love those kids! They are Ferny's lekker poepies!!!!! Hahahahahahah! Thank God it's Friday!

Oh yeah, prayer....they have prayer once a day and service on Friday afternoon. So I sat through my first Muslim service. Guess what? Reminded me of the Catholic Church service, if it was all in English, and shouted out kinda baptist style( no response from the members except during prayer). Lots of standing up and bowing down ( Catholic Church has standing and kneeling) and it was interesting. As someone who loves to visit different churches and observe different worship services, I enjoyed seeing the people worship. That's my thing, I like seeing people who truly believe worship. To me, that's is what being close to God is about, truly believing and worshiping.

Next week, real work! Boy am I tired.......