Assalamu alaikum
Wow, it has been a week since I last posted! I had another busy week, and weekend... Last weekend, on Saturday I went to a Malay gathering. Alhamdulillah, it was great to see everyone again, and the food was wonderful! Sunday the school had a Bazaar and the teachers worked in shifts at the various booths. My shift was to give everyone breaks, and make sure it was going smoothly. I got to sale food, operate the Moon walk, sale jewelry, cook, clean, take out trash....MashaAllah, it was a wonderful day with nice weather and many people came and ate the delicious food. My poor wife made the egg-rolls that morning, but since I needed to stay all day she elected to stay at home with baby.

Last week I was a grumpy teacher. Something about fall is making students more talkative and I have to be meaner to get them to do work. I don't like to yell, but sometimes I have to, especially when students are being unruly and even talking back... I want to move to a country where I can carry a ruler, and use it on naughty students!!! I couldn't believe it, a teacher asked for help with computers for her class, and I was gone for less than 5 minutes and two girls were pulling each others Hijabs off in a mixed classroom. I made them both eat lunch in my classroom as a lunch detention.

Sunday, a student threatened to beat my son up. I hunted him down and yelled at him, the principal punished him and made him apologize, then his mother and aunty heard about it, and fussed at him again. Then he goes to his father and says my son was teasing him and he is just a poor innocent kid. So the father comes and tries to convince me that the 3-4 witnesses are wrong and his son is a poor innocent kid that is always picked on blah blah blah. This kid is a trouble maker, and has the reputation of being a bully. I told him I will fail him for bad conduct if he doesn't behave while on masjid property but I bit my tongue while talking to his father and let the dad live in his own fantasy world. The mom knows how the student acts, and doesn't put up with it.

Anyway, enough complaining... inshaAllah this week will be better and I am learning from the experiences to become a better teacher.

Assalamu alaikum!

Bleh, I didn't get any work done this weekend. Actually it is my own fault, but alas, now I have regrets. A friend visited on Saturday, and I rented Bullet Proof Monk, so it was either relaxing with the family, or cleaning house, except for the eating part. Sayang made lasagna  for all of us, and they brought some delicious white chocolate chip cookies :-).

Sunday, we went to the Masjid to visit friends, and go to the near by butcher. When we got home, it took the afternoon off and played with my kids instead of doing my school work.

Assalamu Alaikum!
Jummah Mubarak

I was late for Friday Prayer :-(. All I have to do is walk upstairs, but alas, my other responsibility is to chase the boys upstairs, make sure they behave while taking Wudu, and be an over-all hall monitor. Then I heard the Imam start, and was thinking "wait wait, I still need to talk Wudu also" (Teachers can not use the student bathrooms for our own safety because of the perverts in recent history) But Alhamdulillah, I get to yell at kids to hurry to Jummah :-), Can't exactly do that in public school :D

I agreed to visit my Grandmother more often while my parents are traveling, and take her for her errands. Last night, she was telling me about when her and grandpa were squirrel hunting, and trying to clean it for dinner. They were in the process of pulling the skin off when my mom (as a 3-4 year old) came out and asked "Papa, why are you taking that squirrel's britches (pants)" I enjoy hearing the positive stories of when she was growing up. Unfortunately, she grew up during the Great Depression, so there is a lot of sad stories that she sometimes dwells on too much... My parents have to keep reminding her to think of positive times and to stop depressing herself.

Assalamu alaikum All!
Eek! Yesterday, I was helping monitor a computer lab presentation to 1st graders. One student kept causing trouble, so he ended up in the office with his head down on the table (time out). The little ***** fell asleep and wet himself!! One of the other office workers cleaned up the rest of the mess :-( (I wasn't really thinking of a bad word, but I couldn't think of an appropriate name so you get to fill in the blanks.)

Yea, a student called me mean today! I told them that I would try to live up to the expectation and be extra mean. I guess this spread around school as the rest of the day, students kept commenting on how nice I was as if I should live up to that expectation instead of the mean one. Teaching... I get to tell kids what to do, and get money for it :D

Assalamu alaikum
Alhumdulillah! I have survived three weeks of teaching and so far I love it! We had our first excitement this year. The school is in the progress of building a new addition, which will more than double our space! After labor day, we had more rain than usual and with the water being rerouted because of the building effort, it came into the school. By lunch time, we had school cancelled, the students out, and about two inches of water on the floor. My first job was to get all the computers and power cables off the floor before the water covered them. Then five of us (two teachers, principal, and a couple of volunteers) started moving water outside, while the construction company started these big pumps to move that water into the nearby creek. After 4-5 hours of hard work, the school was ready for the students to come back the next day.

Muahaha, I am such a mean teacher :-) The school uniform is navy pants, and a light blue oxford cloth shirt. I came to school wearing the same type of shirt and a little first grade girl came up to me saying "Amu, why are you wearing the school uniform? You're a teacher, not a student!" I knelt down beside her, put my finger over my lips to quiet her and whispered "Don't tell anyone, I beat up a kindergartner, and took his shirt" Her eyes got real big as she started thinking about what I said and she looked at the kindergarten classroom for a kid without a shirt! As she was looking in the classroom, I sneaked away...

I want to write more, but I haven't gotten my time organized yet :-( so inshaAllah, later...

Hope everyone has a good day!