Twas the Day Before Christmas Eve, and All Through The School...

So, what is the point of having school on December 23? NOBODY wants to be there. Anything you teach will just have to be re-taught (either they aren't paying attention or they'll just forget over the next 12 days.) Several kids are missing anyway.
It was pretty ridiculous.
However, let me just reiterate--I freaking LOVE these children.
You take the biggest gangsters with the filthiest mouths, give them some crayons and a coloring book and they are all over it. During my planning period, I went upstairs to another class (8th graders that I used to teach), and started coloring. I colored a picture, wrote "Merry Christmas! From: Ms. Vinson" on it and gave it to a 14 year old boy. He hung it up in his locker! How cute is that?!

Also, some stupid crap is in the process of happening, but I'll get to that later.
Merry Christmas!

Pretty Much The Best Day Ever

So, today we took 33 8th graders to Outward Bound. They were in 5 separate groups. Each group did either a rock climbing activity or a ropes course, and several strategy/team-building activities. I looooooooove Outward Bound. It is perfect, perfect, perfect for my kids. We went 3 years ago and it was fantastic.

But today, in each group of about 6-7 students was also 5-6 city police officers. They spent the whole day together encouraging each other and working through problems. The kids were fantastic and as Devin said, "Them cops was cool, yo."

<--The boy in the blue could talk, but he couldn't see. Everyone else couldn't talk, but they could see. They were trying to tell a cop, who was blindfolded, behind the boy in the blue how to get to the prize.

William and the police officer are harnessed together.

Run to the middle and high-five if you're a

Steelers fan?

Tatianna climbing the tree and onto the wire.

I believe his exact words were, "No, no, no. Get me down. No, no, no. I hate you." And then after it was over, "That was fun, can I go again?"

What the-- How the-- Who would--- Why??

Today.

A teacher.
found CRAYFISH.
in a girl's.
PENCIL CASE.
She said it was from Sunday night's dinner.

That's What I Get For Trying To Look Nice

Terrell is the funniest person I have ever met. Seriously, he is going to be famous someday.

Yesterday I wore black dress pants, dress shoes, and a maroon shirt with frilly things on it.

"Ms. Vinson"

"Yeah?"

"Are you about to go dance with the stars?"

Maurice In Charge

Maurice is one of my 6th graders. He's really small and pretty much a super genius. He's also a little bit nuts. He annoys the crap out of all the girls and he finds everyone annoying.

Today was Charles' first day. He's really annoying. I saw Maurice in the office after lunch.

Me: Maurice, what are you doing in here?
Maurice: Me and Charles was fightin'. He's comin' in here all gettin' on everybody's nerves and botherin' the girls. He can't be all doin' that on the first day! He needed to know I get on they nerves! not him! he ugly anyway.

Roll Tide?

So my first year teaching, this kid named Chris was kindof my archnemesis. He was one of the first kids to call me names and tell me hated me. Ahh, good times.

He's something like 17 now and in the 11th grade. I taught him as a 7th grader and I haven't seen him since.
However, he sends one of my students (Jermaine) with a message to me every single Monday about the weekend's Alabama football game.
"Miss Vinson, Chris said to tell you that Alabama is going to lose this weekend and you should forget about that national championship."
"Miss Vinson, Chris said to tell you that your quarterback is stupid and slow."

Glad I made an impression. :)