Welcome Back Parents Night

I am exhausted!! Working three days in a row is hard!!! No, I’m kidding of course. Summer didn’t make me that lazy, but things have definitely been different the last few days. 

Tonight we had Welcome Back /Open House/Chaos Night.  It was… nuts.

Okay, I should probably start off with an apology to any parents that had to come watch me present to them.  I do know what I teach, I  am fairly professional, and I am not a total idiot, but I completely understand if I didn’t come off that way tonight.  Parents make me nervous. In a room full of 50 kids I would have been fine but throw a bunch of parents in the mix and I apparently turn into a rambling maniac who loves her job a bit too much. (I’m sorry. I like research papers. It’s nerdy. I know.)  I tried to be upbeat and positive while fitting a year’s worth of information into 8 minutes. I talked a million miles an hour, I was sweating like an animal because there was no A/C, and I was already tired from a long day at work. I probably looked like the energizer bunny on crack.

I’ve noticed that the jokes I tell the kids don’t go over as well with the parents. Occasionally, I would get a courtesy chuckle but not often. They seem to take their child’s education very seriously. And it’s not that I don’t take it seriously, but, I mean, come on people! We’re working with kids here. It has to be fun too!! Even people who are friends of mine outside of school wouldn’t laugh at my jokes tonight. Heck, by the end of the presentation they were barely making eye-contact with me.

I did meet one student’s dad that didn’t seem to think I was too weird. He liked the fact that I was from Jerome, Idaho and we played the “Do-You-Know-So-and-So-Game” and we totally know the same people. So that was good.

Oh well. Luckily it is over for now. If they don’t all un-enroll their children from my class tomorrow that will be a good sign. In the meantime, I need to go to bed because I’m exhausted.

And on a separate note – having teacher friends at school, and friends to meet up with after school, is a great way to let off that extra energy.  Thank goodness for the people in my life who keep me sane.