Very Hard Start to School

My positive attitude about school is still here...but I'm finding it harder and harder to keep it. My class is actually great this year. I have a crazy mix of kiddos who can't even recognize the letters in their own name, to kids who are reading at a 4th grade level. I have kiddos who don't speak any English, to kids who are identified Gifted and Talented. I have a kid who was born addicted to meth and therefore incredibly mentally impaired, to a kid who is probably the smartest 2nd grader I've ever seen.

Should make for an interesting school year...

Yesterday was rough. I have 29 kids this year and that's a crazy amount for a primary classroom. Research shows that 18 is the optimal number for kids who are still learning how to read and write. Our curriculum is late arriving this year so we don't have enough books or materials. My computers are all broken and no one seems to know when someone will be in to fix them so I can't set up my technology for the kids to use. I'm going to a training next week (which is insane that they scheduled it for us) so I have to create 3 days of sub plans and hope that the kids haven't lost all the rules when I get back.

And...

My car was spray-painted in the parking lot yesterday. We left around 12 to go get lunch (we didn't have kids yesterday...all the kids in the district were off), and I walked by my car to get into my friend's car. When we got back around 12:45, this is what I saw:

I was shocked. Speechless. WHO would do that? We called the cops and they think that some punk kid (probably a middle-schooler as it's right across the street) started to tag my car with something awful and was scared away. I'm lucky it isn't worse. However, we don't have the $250 to fix it so I'm thinking about just going to Hobby Lobby and buying some red paint and touching it up myself. What do you think about that??? :-)

We're off to go camping this weekend with my family to get away for a bit. I'm excited: Maelin LOVES the mountains and we haven't been able to get up there as much as I would like. She'll be able to play with her cousins and Uncle and Auntie and have a great time...and I'll get to sit and watch the river and the campfire and try to forget (if even for a night) about the paint and the challenges that await me.

...and the painting I need to do.