Yes it’s finally here. Winter Break has arrived and not a moment too soon! After a week of festivities and craziness, the kids were dismissed and the staff breathed a collective sigh of relief. Winter break, we thought you’d never come!

The kids have been hyper for quite a while. They knew Christmas was coming and with it, a vacation from school. We as teachers and staff, have been biding our time waiting for Friday to arrive. We are tired and deserve this much needed break.

The teacher I work with is from Brazil and she flew home for the holidays . Which means that I worked with substitute teacher for most of this final week of school. The substitute I worked with on Wednesday is fabulous and I was very glad to work with him. Thursday however was a different story. I was supposed to work with a different substitute but he never showed up( I found out the next day he had been sick). I was getting worried. Who would they put in with me? Would they even be able to find another substitute? Luckily for me they found someone. This new substitute seemed very nice and I was just glad to have someone with me. We took the kids to breakfast in the cafeteria, got them settled then I went on my 15 minute break. Had I known what was going to happen I would have stayed on my break and not come back. But alas, I had a job to do so I went back to the cafeteria once my break was over.

While I was on my break, one of the kids had an accident ( they are only three after all), and had to be taken to the clinic. A couple of others had been moved to another table to to behavior issues, which is all par for the course. When I approached the table, the substitute informed me that she couldn’t/wouldn’t stay with my class because they were all sick. They were not sick so that was  just an excuse because she obviously didn’t want to be with the little ones. So she left to go speak to the assistant principal. By this point I was on the verge of a breakdown. I did have some help from people who stayed with me until yet another sub could be found. And a few minutes later a good substitute was found and he stayed with my class for the remainder of the day. By the time I left work Thursday, I was a stressed out wreck.

On Friday the substitute I was supposed to have showed up which made me very happy. The day passed pretty much uneventfully which I was extremely grateful for.  Now I have two weeks of relaxation to enjoy. No getting up at the crack of dawn, no worries about substitutes , no worries period. 

I intend to relax and enjoy every minute of my time off. Hopefully I won’t break any bones like I did last Winter Break. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all !!