How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?

Why, do you ask, do I care how many licks it takes to get the center of a tootsie roll pop? Well, that would be because today was one of those school days where I wanted to run as far away from the school building as possible screaming “How it can only be TUESDAY????” Yes, I admit it, today was one of THOSE days. A day where my students saw the true nature of my inner beast and were warned to never awaken her again.


Now, the great thing about days like today, where everything that can go wrong or irritate you, does, is that you can blog about it! And it only seems appropriate that after sharing about the joys of teaching, that I would honestly admit the struggles of teaching.


You see, as much as I love my students, there are those moments when you wish they were you own children so you could hit them! And no, I don’t actually hit my children, but there are times when the idea of it or duck tape on their mouths is rather appealing. You see, there are times, when I want to look at my students and say “SERIOUSLY???!!! You are mad at me because I can’t stay after school the day you want me to because you missed the original school day? I’m here an extra 6 hours so you can make up time, though I was here for the first 8 hours, but you are the one who gets mad??”


And then there are the substitutes, who though I love substitutes, occasionally make me wonder why they even come? If you ever want to make me not like you here the three things you can do: 1) Make racist remarks about my students. 2) Call my students dumb. 3) Tell me how to do my job. Those are three sure fire ways to make sure that your name is added to the “no call” list. Now, I am not hard to please. All I ask is that you follow the directions the teacher left for you and be respectful to my students. It’s really not that hard!


And then there is that evil species that some like to call biology. If you teach biology or have a love for biology, I do apologize, but this English teacher hates it! You see, one of my responsibilities as an educator is to ensure that I help my students succeed in every way possible, even if it is not my designated specialty. As an ESL teacher, I frequently have to stretch my mind to assist my students with their other courses, but today was the day that my students got to see just how little Mrs. Surprenant’s mind can be stretched. Biology, biology, how I wish it was classified as the foreign language that it really is, so that my student’s could skip it and just take Spanish! Because, to me, biology is another language and I wonder how on Earth the state could expect my students to understand it, but then again, I also wonder why English as a SECOND language doesn’t get to count as their FOREIGN language credit!


Alas, all of this to say, that at the end of today I found myself sucking on the tootsie roll pops (that are meant to be motivation for my students, not me) wondering “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop??........I hope that the misery of my day brings humor to yours!