Today was crazy.

First off - I am pretty sure I created two blog accounts. But I have only been writing on this one. Oops. Obviously I am new at this...and not so skilled with the blogsphere yet....so keep reading this blog, and I'll try and get rid of the other one. Sheesh.

So, I am a teacher. Which, today, I was reminded of again, means so much more than just teaching kids Spanish. Whew. Where do I begin?

First, you've got to know that I teach Spanish, in a classroom that contains SINKS. For some reason, my adminstrators/building managers/whoever thinks that a classroom with SINKS qualifies as a Spanish classroom AND a science classroom. Which means - second period every day I trek over to my friend's classroom, kick her out, and another teacher uses my room to teach science. Now, most days I just gather up my stuff and head out - no big deal. However today I ended up having to take away a cell phone (not all that uncommon) and deal with that whole situation.

THEN - it's lunch time and I am "on duty", sitting in a chair observing a pavillion kids sit at to eat lunch (yeah, it's California, kids eat outside under pavillions every day...) I notice a bit of a dispute going on. I observe for a few minutes, thinking, "Is that from my pavillion or the other guy's? It's mine. Unfortunately. So I walk over to them, try to calm them down, and walk them to the principal's office (my second time today...) and he walks them to the counselor's office. I go back to my chair and pat myself on the back for a job well done - conflict contained. However...I ended up having to mediate the conflict a bit more than that. Yep, I am a teacher - which apparently means I am a disciplinarian, enforcer of rules, AND counselor. I thought of my awesome social worker sister Heidi who is super qualified and super smart in all this stuff - and I just try to say what Heidi would say. 15 minutes later - we resolve it. OK. Call it a day.

So apparently I am a teacher - and one of my friends reminded me tonight that all the stuff I dealt with today IS in my job description. Whew. For some reason God has put me in these difficult and challenging situations - just another reminder that I need to be in prayer for my students, and remember that I am not the only person who struggles or is in pain.

OK, time to watch the Office.