Survival of the fittest

This whole beginning the school year is truly about who can survive.  I did, with all the excitement on the first day I was not sure how I was going to manage the rest of the week.  I did manage to get all core subjects taught to some extent this week.  I think this also correlated with the amount of whining that was occuring in my classroom. The whining, which I might add, is not tolerated.  My teaching ears cannot hear whining students! Shock!!!  The students are slowly starting to discover that I can understand some of what they are saying to their siblings in German and that it is not a great advantage to do this.  What they don't know is that most of the time it is the tone of their voice and the reaction of their sibling that gives away what they are saying; not what they actually say!!!  Social cues are so cross culturally normative!! I am really beginning to understand all this teacher stuff about outsmarting and outwitting the students.  It is really what it is all about.  They started out the year with being allowed to chew gum. The restrictions were that I couldn't see it, hear it or see them putting it into their mouth.  I knew this wouldn't last long and sure enough, yesterday morning, one of my students blew a bubble! So, no more gum!!  A few of my students had the guts to chew gum today and so on Monday I am going to have to stand at the door in the morning and do mouth checks.  Seriously, I did not know that this was part of my job but apparently since they couldn't handle the privilage, it had to be taken away.  Bummer for them. 
Okay, enough of my sarcastic realism remarks about my students and more about the perks.  I get a delicious meal ever day for lunch.  Today it was corn on the cob (I always cut mine off-old habit) chicken (suprise!!!) rolls and pickled cucumbers that weren't quite pickled. I also got some homemade rolls to take home and I have been told that this is a wekly occurance!! Yummy!!!!  I was also gifted with a bag of fresh garden veggies. I now have: carrots, green beans, onion, green pepper, lettuce, zucchini, cabbage and corn!!! I put some of it in the freezer because I would be eating veggies for a week solid if I didn't!!!! Oh yea, and I got squash which I made for dinner!!!! OOhh....I am going to get so spoiled with these yummy meals that I get. Even better, the lunch gets delivered to my room!! The other teacher and the para and I always have lunch together! Not much else going on!  The weather is cooler and we had a thunder and lightening storm roll over town today. That was pretty cool.