Spring fever

Take a good look of this picture I found on google images. Colorful, springy....and yet. Slightly disturbing.
Half-formed flowers.
A bug crawling up the side.
Grass that looks like it's encroaching upon the words, the very literary soul of the icon being encompassed.....

It's amazing how perception can skew an image. Maybe your day has been a little easier than mine, so you see prettier things in this picture. (Would that I could send a wink electronically without the use of the semi-colon+parentheses).

My kids HAVE IT. Spring fever. I get math and language arts done very quickly in the morning, and then I try to fill the afternoon with fun activities--science videos, group projects, art lessons.... and still. They won't stop talking, and unfortunately the talking has started edging on some gossiping and ridiculing. I sit there and start thinking, "what's going on? Who are these kids that come out after 11:3oam? Where's my class? When did I fail them?"

And then I remember. It's four weeks until school's out. It's not snowing anymore. No management trick, no extrinsic motivators will consistently work anymore. They're done.

It makes me laugh a little bitterly. Five weeks ago, they would have drooled over the Eric Carle art lesson we did today.

I hope tomorrow's a little better.

One super-plus, however, is that it is teacher appreciation week at school. My mornings start out with getting a box of pencils, a few notes, some daffodils, and I even got a chocolate bar today! Maybe I will make it to May 29th after all.

One day at a time, eh? It's a great adventure.

But I kind of wish it would snow right about now...just to calm everyone down a bit.