have you ever had a spicy mexican margarita? ay yi yi!!!
you can get a really good one at senor fish in little tokyo.
i know because i went there after school with a teacher buddy of mine.
hot & delicious. here are the ingredients:
Real De Mexico Reposado,Fresh Pineapple,Cilantro, and Serrano Pepper with a Splash of Fresh Lime, Pineapple Juice, and Agave Nectar
we sampled several different types of margaritas. their classic on the rocks version was good too.
i had a wild day on several fronts and an ice cold spicy hot drink was just what i needed to soothe my savage inner beast. ahhhhhh.
a nice cantina full of boisterous laughing people. so refreshing!
relief is on the way. it may take a month, but mr. ODD{oppositional defiant disorder} will be leaving for a special school soon that is better suited for his particular set of issues.
i'm trying something called The Nurtured Heart Approach. susan w., a teacher i met right here on DFLA, recommended it. i've enrolled in a free online class to learn more and got a book too. i'm a total novice, but one of the tenents of the approach is not to excite negativity. if you walked in my room you would not know i was losing my mind. i appear calm. i am devising my unfathomable plans. and in the meantime am doing my best to CALM my hot writhing cadre of special needs children.
the life of a monkey whisperer is never boring. never. ever.
i drove home through a maze of traffic.
i should have swung by and picked this fellow up on my way to the cantina.
we could've sat on the patio and painted cardboard signs. discussed sun tzu or the mars rover – curiosity.
~
another quiet but large thank you for the well wishes. there are so many. i am so touched. and as betsy wrote below, the ideas are germinating.
yes, they are!
Mary Ann, there are a lot of good ideas in these comments. Ideas like seeds planted in your mind. Surely something is taking root and starting to push it's way up. I await what you come up with.
also thanks to dear gwen delmore for telling me about this book:
i just started it and can't read it fast enough. thrilling!
jewellery
Dispatch From LA: thursday
jewelry
Dispatch From LA: thursday
I had the great good fortune to attend the World Domination Summit this year. 200 people all intent in making their unconventional way in a conventional world. I’ve never been more inspired. Plotting and planning, plotting and planning.
So, I love that you are reading this book, it’s exactly what I was thinking. You are brilliant and so talented, and funny, there just HAS to be a way that you could make a living with your creativity. I see you sitting in peace and at peace doing what you are great at, a contented cat smile on your face…I know you are thinking, keep it up ’cause there is an answer out there!
Ps. This doesn’t fix your job at the moment, but I just must say that your stitching is not only handsome, it’s stunning!
Thank you for your posts and inspiration…
Marianne
I cannot even begin to imagine how you are able to face your class every day. How in the world could they have put all of these kids together in one class. The Insantiy is unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THey are going to lose you and the kids are going to be left with nothing after you are done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so sad about this!!
Can you enlist the help of some of the parents to get the classes resorted?? They have to see what their kids are doing to you and how the kids with severe problems are effecting their children.I am sending positive calming thoughts and prayers everyday to you!! You are awesome, amazing and one of the most generous souls I have ever known!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear Mary Ann, when things aren’t right with you, it all seems wrong. I’m really sorry the new school year has started off in such a stressful and sucky way. Do give yourself the gift of a year off if you can. Would you be interested in coming to Australia to teach? Our local scrapbooking shop has hosted Donna Downey over the past couple of years. I’d be more than happy to go and suss them out for you. I went to a couple of Donna’s classes and a local teacher did a fab mixed media canvas class that I loved so much that I signed up to do it again and took two of my girlfriends with me. They have a fantastic, dedicated workshop area upstairs and such an array of product downstairs. The first time I went in there, my eyes nearly fell out of my head and my brain fried. My husband couldn’t believe that I didn’t buy anything. I actually had to go home, calm down and then go back to make my purchases! If you come over to teach, you can definitely count me in as one of your students and I’ll round up the girls too. We’re on the beautiful Central Coast, two hours north of Sydney.
Hi Mary Ann, LOVED this post!!!!! Thinking of you as you deal with your classroom challenges. Your courage and HUTSPAH inspire!
Spicy margaritas are an EXCELLENT part of the intervention process. Write that in the referral packet
Yum to that margarita!! I am so happy it is Friday and there’s a new post from MAM to pour over. I read medical records for a living as a Disability Claims Examiner and ODD is much more prevelant than some might imagine. It’s like the world’s worst allergy ever to the word “NO” to these kids. It’s sad really. I am so relieved that your particular Mr ODD is moving on…sounds like you have enough to deal with. Get those horse blinders out again and have a wonderful art-filled weekend!!
The twin pleasures of alcohol and the internets….
Well I just had to download that book to my Nook, and I can’t wait to read it! I truly appreciate your blog posts Mary Ann! I always find a nugget of wisdom, a bit of whimsy, a lovely photo, or just something that makes me smile when I stop by Dispatch from LA!
I hope you’re able to resolve the classroom issues and settle into a happier place at school, but I deeply respect you and all educators who give so much of yourselves to your students. I hope you’re able to make your dream of a sabbatical into reality and I look forward to reading more of your adventures.
I’ve taken 2 of your online classes and I watch them over and over! I hope you are planning more!
MAM, you are my heroine for life. ODD boy – watch out! Sending you white light from the Universe to illuminate all the good wishes that will help you stay in Moss Cottage and do your art. AND remain a wonderful teacher on some level to the kidlets, whom you have obviously so art-fully inspired with their journals over the years.
By now it’s your weekend – I am so impressed with your ability to cope and your determination to come to grips with this group! Start the scissors and paste!
Glad to hear Mr. ODD will be leaving your classroom? In my day, a VERY long time ago, we never had this kind of behavior problem in our classrooms. Yes,
our classrooms were quiet, teacher was THE authority figure. I don’t know what to attribute this to…food additives? environmental issues? What?
I hope your Nurtured Heart approach helps your class and you. Can you give us the drift of what this is? Is ODD an new behavior problem? That’s a new one on me. I’ve heard of ADD. My grandson suffered from this. I thought it had something to do with his mother’s drug addiction to Crystal Meth. I have no proof of this, just a gut feeling.
Ahhhhhhh……Friday!
Good for you sweet Mary Ann, a few cold drinks, company, changes brewing and better days ahead. I’d say things are looking up. Have an awesome weekend. You earned it 100 times over I’d say.
Congrats on finding another perfect solution to what ails you – I’m sure the chapter about having a cool margarita after a stressful day was merely left out by some overly zealous editor, Sun Tzu would no doubt approve. Let’s all raise a glass to painted cardboard signs and hanging tissue flowers. Keep up the good work, girlfriend, we are all here cheering you on and wishing you nothing but success on all fronts!
The year at taught at Stevenson Junior High in East LA I had a student in my band class the first couple of months. He was trouble everyday. Threw a cherry bomb into a tuba, stood up on the cabinets and tossed music stands down on the other kids, and culminated by setting the piano on fire. He was transferred shortly after to a private Catholic school, we heard a few weeks later that he’d set fire to one of the nuns!
Hang in there, better times coming!
Erin in Morro Bay
Don’t know the book(haven’t taught in 100 years and the kids are grown) and can’t do spicy(Rosacea) but it sounds like the first two steps in a plan to me! Here’s to Mr. ODDs move,to Ms.Moss’s zen and to after work relaxation. Sweet Mary Ann,you are on your way!
So happy I found your blog. I love real people.
Be careful, ve-e-e-e-ry careful. The gal who brought Nurtured Heart to our school and taught SusanW and SusanS everything we know about nurtured heart got a concussion from having a stool thrown at the back of her head just minutes after she nurtured the heart of our ODD boy. And would you believe the principal did NOTHING? Said principal is now retired, thank the good Lord.
I’m not sure if this is a nurtured heart saying, but I adored the way this teacher caught her kids doing or saying something exceptional and named it. She would say, “WOW, you just showed me self control! I LOVED it! Kiss your brain for that!” and then she would kiss her fingertips and plunk them on the kid’s head.
Gifted teachers make my heart sing-SusanW is surely one of them, too.
Hang in, hang in…You’re tougher than a puny bunch of 2nd graders!!! I know you will whip them into shape in no time with you zen calmness. Soon they will be expressing their angst and anger in their art rather than in their actions. You will be the hero. I feel sure that is why you got the bunch in the first place.
You will LOVE that book. I thought of you when I was reading it awhile back…glad someone had the common sense to recommend it to you! So happy the ODD boy will be placed elsewhere and I’m so glad you discovered the rejuvenating powers of margarita therapy. Study that book and find your way. I know you will.
You may lose,a battle or two but you will win the war with your energetic, ants in the pants craft monkeys. When in doubt run the little people every hour if only to get up,and walk around the room. Start a walk around the room club. Oh yeah, the after work refreshments got me through a couple of tough years. Calm, think calm and bang your head as you drive home.
Hah, that book might be what I need too. I just posted a wedding album as e-book… I had 480 people visiting and no sales. The price is 6.99 dollar… Either I suck or my pictures must suck big time… What is it with people these days? I know there is a world wide recession, but come on, 6.99 for a wedding album is too much???? The paper version is 100 dollar… Mary Ann, you seem to be the only one selling… grin. SIX NINETY NINE, for crying out loud… And yes, a day of shooting in 90 degrees weather, 14 days of processing… and did I mention it: NO SALES ON 480 VISITORS…. On to Chris Guillebeau…
Glad you found a solution to cope with your special little monkey. I hope it will fit in somewhere!