It's getting Chili outside

I have had a pretty good week so this blog is actually hard for me. Let me start by saying that I stress a lot and I do mean alot but it rarely keeps me awake or makes me feel like I do not want to do this again. I work some ridiculous amounts of hours but when I finish late at night, I am done and don't think about it any more. Also, everything that goes wrong sends me searching for a way to fix it because I am determined to eventually get my program on some sort of auto pilot so all that I am creating is new ways to teach the kids.

With all that said, there was one situation that caused me anger this week which is a little different but that is all I can give you. One of my students is entering the chili cook off at the Georgia fair on Tuesdsay and we have been practicing quite a bit since this will be our first competition that we have entered. She has shown up every time that I have scheduled a practice and has done everything that I have asked her to do to get ready for competition. This young lady is a great student for me. She works most of my caterings, is a strong leader, considerate, and hard working. She unfortunately is not a great student throughout the entire school and has gotten herself into some trouble. I knew about one of the incidents but was not aware of a more recent one. One of the ladies going on the trip came and talked to me and I assured her that the young lady would be fine. Then I get a phone call from the other lady going on the trip and she starts yelling at me about my choice to bring this girl and how I better keep an eye on her because if she makes one wrong move, I will be held responsible. It made me so mad because one thing I pride myself on is being an advocate for my students and if I made the choice to take her then I obviously felt that it was ok.

I decided to have a heart-to-heart with the student and explain that I know that she has made some bad decisions recently but that she needed to be certain that she did not take those habits with her to the fair. I explained that she is representing herself, me, and Marietta High School and needed to act completely professional. She said she understood and would do only her best on this trip. I then emailed the two ladies explaining that I had talked to the girl, thinking that would ease their minds but I walked in on Friday just to hear more complaining. Seriously, sometimes people just need to let things be.