week 2

So it's been a couple of weeks since I've written in here. I've been busy with starting a new teaching job and all. I'm into week 2 now and though I still feel like I have a million things to do, I'm trying to stay calm and be patient with myself. I have immense patience for other people but I always seem to have trouble being patient with myself. I wonder why that is? I mean I wonder why I put such high (and often realistic) expectations on myself when I don't do that with others? Strange. It is something that I continue to struggle with but am slowly working through. It is hard to change old habits and old ways of thinking.

Things were a little stressful for me at work this afternoon. Just as I was dismissing some students and talking to some parents at the door, I looked over at a group of my students who were still in the classroom and saw one of them push the other into one of them shelves. I thought that they were just horsing around and was about to ask them to save that stuff for outside but soon realized that they were having a real, physical fight. Fists were flying and faces were angry and words were exchanged (which i didn't understand because they weren't english) It was surprising! I asked the boys to stop and they didn't so I quickly chose the smaller one and tried to pull him away from the bigger one to somehow force them to physically stop. Fortunately it worked, after a few struggles. I calmly asked the boys to sit at separate tables and take deep breaths to come down. I didn't trust to leave them on their own in this state so I asked another student to go and get another teacher. I had to leave then to talk to a parent about another manner but this teacher talked with the boys and so did the principal.

Anyways, this is probably the second fight that I have had to break up in my teaching career so far - well physical fight anyways. It is an unnerving experience. I'm not hurt or anything and I am not afraid of the boys, but it is the fact that they can get soooo angry that they start physically beating on one another that is unnerving. I just don't understand it. How can someone get so angry that they somehow choose violence?

On my way home today a lane was blocked off on the Burnette road so it was very, very slow going on there and then another lane was blocked off on Columbia way. AND for some reason people were driving so slowly and to top it all off the lane that leads onto Marine way from NEW WEST was blocked off AND there weren't any signs saying that it would be AND two semis were stopped in front of me!!! AHHHH! I WAS SO FRUSTERATED!!!! I muttered some choice words under my breath - that's how frustrated and irritated I was. Then when I came home there was poo on the floor and some more of it hanging from Izzy's butt. She hasn't had problems with this kind of stuff since she was a kitten....strange.. anyways I had to drop my things and clean her up and clean the floor up before I could sit down and eat. Gross!