one of those days

What a day! Not to complain because I know that things could have gone a lot worse, but here it is:

1. My grade 12 chem class was doing some rate labs with 2M nitric acid, and spectrophotometers. I had never really used a spectrophotometer before and so as I explained it I tried to have the students do something fun to see how cool the instruments are...it was a total bust because I evidently didn't know what I was doing. The students were likely wondering: "why is this crazy our chem teacher?" (I too was wondering the same). [See # 3 for more on the nitric acid]
2. Two students who are notoriously late to class were late once again, and so as a consequence they were given detention. One of them completely flipped out on me, and I had such a difficult time staying calm and not arguing with her. She went and complained to two other teachers about the situation, and in turn they came and asked me for my side of the story. I felt frustrated by this because I felt like the "bad guy" who was being questioned about the necessity of the consequence given. I don't blame the two teachers for talking to me, but it made me doubt myself in that I felt they were implying that I had made a bad decision. Difficult to explain...but it stunk anyway. (The student has since written me an apology email, so that was nice.)
3. Apparently my grade 12 students didn't get enough direction from me about how to clean up after working with acids. During my next class, a student put his elbow in a couple of remaining drops of acid on the desk, and in a couple of minutes his jacket sleeve had literally melted. Thank goodness he had his jacket on, but even still I feel so terrible! I may need to replace his jacket depending on what the assistant headmaster says.
4. I have homeroom in a different teacher's classroom, and this afternoon he approached me to tell me that a pair of headphones had been stolen off of his desk - presumably during my homeroom. What is worse is that they were not even his headphones, but another teachers, and so again I may need to replace them.
5. The father of one of my students passed away this morning. Please pray for opportunities to share the love of our heavenly Father with her....not sure how to considering the circumstances.
6. Something else happened but I cannot write about in case the recipient of this 'surprise event' is reading. But just know that there was one more dramatic event for the day.

This post, as I mentioned, is not to seem full of complaints, but it was a ridiculous day. My dear friend Risa consoled me though, and assured me that I will soon forget all these events. I did, on a brighter note, also get a big box of delicious cookies as a gift from a student today. They were purchased from "the best baker in town" said my colleague Mrs. Postema. I left them at school so that I would not consume them all on my own in my distress. haha!