Grouchy Christmas Tree?

It's a good thing it's a short week this week. The end of the quarter snuck up on me, and I got sick, so CTE is waaaaay behind. Tomorrow is my last day with my 7th graders, and we haven't finished testing bridges yet. Usually by now I'm through with grades and playing CTE Bingo with them. Agh! So I've had two days in a row staying after school for an extra hour while kids scramble to finish their projects. I'm pooped.

Monday was Halloween, and I dressed up as a Christmas Tree. Most creative idea I've ever come up with, and I was sooooooo excited to go to school decked out in Christmas lights (LED lights re-wired to run off 10 AA batteries in a parallel circuit), garlands and golden thingies (in my hair to make it look like a "star"), but once school started...wow, was I ever in a bad mood. I think it was a little too chaotic for me, since the majority of my classes were working on projects (while dressed up as chick magnets, zombies, beauty queens, hippies, shooting-range targets, etc). And in Engineering I tried to introduce the CAD program, Inventor, which meant lugging out my 50-lb Windows laptop of evil so I could show the software on my projector. Problem was, I couldn't get the (*&@$%! thing to clone the screen onto the projector--it only gave me the option to extend the desktop. Therefore, I had to look off the projector screen to see what I was doing. Plus a whole lotta other annoyances. Grrrr. I lost my temper 3 times in 2 hours. Not my best day ever, that's for sure.

And then Tuesday...the horror continued. I spent my entire hour before school started trying to figure out the laptop/clone/projector thing and did not solve the problem. I was about ready to throw my laptop at the wall when 1st period started. I emailed a couple of my counterparts at other schools for help--we all got the same laptop from our district when we went to Engineering training a couple of years ago--and my friend Bryan suggested I use it as a boat anchor.

Wednesday came...more horror, but also a solution to the projector thing. And then ANOTHER problem! I decided to be nice and let one of my lazy-bum students make up starters. I go into my office and turn on my emergency printer/copier to make a copy of my starter questions. The printer goes crazy with the blinky lights and alert messages. I turn it off and on...now the cartridge is incompatible. I take the cartridge out and put it in again...now the cartridge is empty. And now the blinky lights are going nuts again. I reached my boiling point. I had to give myself a time out. I seriously sat in my office breathing deeply for five minutes, turning away any students who came looking for help (my poor 9th graders. I have been such an awful teacher to them this week).

One more day to go, the worst of all of them--the last day of the quarter. I told my students I was printing off my grades at 2:50 sharp and turning them into the counseling office. I told them that I would chase them out of my classroom with my homemade pin-grabber if they tried to come in after school. You'd think they'd know better than to poke the fire-breathing dragon, but I'm probably going to have to carry out my threat. WOW I really need a vacation.

Anyway. Happy Christmas!

PS The homemade pin grabber is my latest invention. A block of wood with magnets screwed into the bottom, with a 3/4" dowel attached, so I can walk around and pick up pins from the balsa bridge project without having to bend over a million times. It's quite hefty.