But on the bright side...

Today was a gong show. Absolute, total gong show. The past two weeks, things have been escalating in my class to a point where I am on the verge of l-o-s-i-n-g it. Kids who run away and hide in the school. Kids who just decide to wander the class, play with toys, and bang on instruments in the middle of a lesson... aaaaand, I could go on for days, but you know what, I wasn't going to focus on that.

Instead I was going to focus on the two things that brightened my day. Cause that's always a better way to go!

The social committee (of which I am a part) decided last month to do a "Secret Angel" program for anyone who wanted to participate. So I made up a questionnaire and asked whoever would like to participate to fill it out nad return it to me. Then we did a secret draw and everybody got thier recipient. The idea is that you use the questionnaire and pay attention to the person you have andthroughout the year, you give little gifts - just little, no breaking the bank necessary - or notes or whatever to that person to encourage them and to just genreally brighten their day.

It got off to a bit of a rocky start (asking the change the person you drew cause you've had a conflict with them? Not quite the point. Oy vey.), but it's underway, and I've seen thank you's "to my secret angel" popping up in the communication book. Hooray! I'm really glad it got of the ground!

So today, in the middle of all the insanity - behavoiurs, runaways, meetings (straight through my prep, straight through recess, straight through between recess and lunch, and all the way through lunch - I'd had to pee since 10am. I got to at 4. And I have yet to eat my lunch... but right, I wasn't going to rant!)... where was I? Oh yes. In the middle of the insanity. I checked my box for a form I needed forone of the meetings, only to find something from MY secret angel. Three somethings, in fact.

Once I had a chance to breathe, I took them back to my room and opened them up. When I think "Secret Angel program" I think notes, maybe a candy bar here or there, little stuff like that. But what I recieved was way above and beyond. I was truly overwhelmed by the thoughfulness of my secret angel.

First, I opened up a little mini book called "The Little Book of African Wisdom." It's full of sayings and proverbs from Africa and the African diaspora. Second, I opened a large, decadent dark chocolate bar (that I'm trying very hard not to just scoff down right here and now!) called "Divine - Heavenly chocolate with a heart," a fair trade chocolate company. Third, I recieved a CD from one of my favourite music publishers, Putumayo, called African Playground. It's a collection of kids songs by African artists from all over the continent. I have their "World Playground" CD and LOVE it. I'm listening to my new CD right now, and it, too, is FABULOUS. How blessed am I!

And then of course, the kids... they always give me lots to laugh about, but sometimes there are gems that just need to be shared...

We had all gathered on the carpet to begin the day and before I could get out a "good morning," grade two "Kianna" asked the question that would make me giggle all day long:

"Miss Hillary, are you having a bad hair day, or is that just a new look for you?"

(The difference? I had actually had enough time to both wash and blow dry my hair this morning. I actually thought it looked ok for once in my life! Ha!)