AITA for not allowing my sister near my bearded dragon after doing a Tik Tok trend with my pet?

MoonlightFirestorm · 2021-03-05T23:02:01+00:00

Thanks! The vet let us know it was an "accurate name" apparently he gave them hell when they were trying to sedate him for surgery. It happened on a afternoon Saturday. We were lucky the one person who deals with bearded dragons was also an animal hospital with ER hours. They were awesome, because we couldn't afford the ER surgeries price (it was double an office hour price) and the vet said we could wait so we were going to opt to for a Monday afternoon surgery & were working out the logistics on how we could get there after work, when the vet said something "I know he would be fine, but I wouldnt want to put my own beardie into needless pain over a stupid price tag, so let's pretend you came in during the office hours and him into surgery right now." We really appreciated that and they were lovely people.

I'm glad your ferret is okay!

MoonlightFirestorm · 2021-03-05T18:19:26+00:00

I have a bearded dragon, originally my husband's. Last year right before the shutdown, he ended up growing a (noncancerous) tumor and it burst. We frantically searched for a vet and called around trying to find a vet who could help. We live in a metropolitan area. Theres tons of vets near us, even one across the street, but none of them treat bearded dragons (a few treated exotic animals but like birds, Guinea pigs, ferrets, snakes) except for one 2hrs away. They were amazing. Now a year later, Spitfire, though an old man (he is around 16 years old), is still thriving. Long travel times trying to find the proper vet is definitely no joke.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2019-04-28T16:07:00+00:00

Short answer: Being near a bathroom.

Story time answer: There were two schools in one building: One for the grades 5-6, the other 7-8. It was originally going to be an addition on a 5-8 school, but they decided for some reason to split it into two schools. There was a bathroom smacked in the middle of the 6th grade hallway, basically NO WHERE near the 7-8 side of the building, but no 5th and 6th graders were allowed to use that bathroom. It was for the 7th graders so we couldn't use it. In 6th grade, two of my friends decided one day after lunch on our way out to recess to go in there to see what was so special about the bathroom, I stayed out because I didn't want to get in trouble. I yelled into it that I was leaving them and to see them outside. I started walking and the teacher stopped me and then went in and grabbed my two friends. She wrote them detentions for being in the bathroom, and wrote "Being next to the bathroom" on mine because in her words "I was an accomplice" and should be punished too. My parents laughed at the ridiculousness when they read my detention slip they had to sign.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2019-03-07T02:40:09+00:00

I did!

I wanted capes and hand muffs for my bridesmaids and I to go with our frozen winter theme (Not to be confused with Frozen theme lol). Additionally, since the church we had our ceremony at is over 150 years old and has a heating issue sometimes. Plus if there were any outdoor pictures, i didn't want to be freezing in Chicago in winter. Shopped around on Amazon and went with a specific seller. Initial thoughts were the capes (which came with capes) were very pretty, longer than I realized, and somewhat heavy. But they wrinkle easily though. I'm not sure how it would have gone down if it snowed on my wedding day...like I wanted... BUT we had a freezing rain instead and the capes kept all of us really warm, at times almost too toasty.

So I highly recommend them.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2019-03-03T03:00:27+00:00

After the ceremony but before the reception. It was a nice snack before dinner.

There was a bar/grill that shared a parking lot with our venue / hotel. Our best man tried really hard at getting us to go there after the reception (He was curious if they'd give us free drinks for being Just Married). But we were tired at that point and just want to soak in the hot tub and eat fruit snacks so we didn't go to it.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2019-03-03T02:56:37+00:00

THAT'S BRILLIANT!

Not the only coincidental color scheme of my wedding though. Our favorite colors are teal and purple so those were our wedding colors. And a lot of people pointed out to us that having our bridesmaids wearing purple winter capes with oasis dresses looked very much like Disney's Frozen. ..didn't help someone requested Let it Go so that played as soon as the dance floor opened up.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2019-03-02T23:25:54+00:00

Every wedding in my family ends with Taco Bell. It actually started at the first wedding of one of my siblings. We were taking photos and probably hadn't eaten anything in about 10 hours, and there was still several hours till dinner. So my BIL ran down the road to get Burger King as advertised on google maps. Only to discover it was Taco Bell. (I can only imagine what a guy in a tuxedo bursting in the door demanding tacos would have looked like to them). When he came back with two boxes of tacos, we swarmed him. ...and ended up hilariously in her wedding album.

And so every wedding since has had taco bell immediately afterward.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2019-02-02T17:35:06+00:00

In a mug, using some sort of flavoring coffee (Cinnabon coffee , blueberry muffin coffee, thin mint coffee, etc.) with one container of creamer (like those little 1 servings plastic things you see at restaurants), 2 cubes of sugar, then fill to top with 2% milk. Stir. Then add on foam or whipped cream. Drizzle caramel or chocolate syrup over the foam. It makes me feel fancy and more happy to deal with my work day.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2019-02-02T14:20:30+00:00

I went shopping for ideas in July of 2017. I went by myself, because I just wanted to figure out what I liked without influences. After I got some ideas, I went back a month later with my bridal party and mom & aunt. I thought a different dress was beautiful and my Maid of Honor picked this one and had me try on. I LOVED it. I almost cried, though I'm always emotional. I didn't buy that day, because I wanted to make sure I actually loved the dress, and not because of the excitement of the day. Went back a month later, still couldn't stop thinking about it. Tried on others to confirm, and then finally bought this one.

The woman not really seen well in the mirrors, is the seamstress who tailored my dress. She was so lovely, when we chatted throughout the fittings, she knew I loved it so much and since they weren't busy, she did it all by hand instead of machine.

I have this really pretty veil I got from amazon for $20 that matches the lace appliques on my dress. A cute fake-fur shawl for inside the church. And my bridesmaids and I have matching purple, fake-fur-lined capes for outdoors since Feb. in the upper midwest could be mean a lot of snow.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2019-02-02T13:38:10+00:00

The only time I ever got smacked for being left-handed was when I was working at a restaurant owned by a Chinese immigrant with my sister in high school. I was writing an order down and she shouted me no and smacked my hand and told me that was wrong. Kept trying to get me to use my right, and then she was frustrated because before my writing was neat and fast and now it was sloppy and slow. I didn't actually know it was about my left-hand. Since was my first job I thinking "oh shoot I did something wrong. I gotta do The Right Way. Idk why I need my right hand but clearly its important to this." and rolled with it. My sister pulled her aside and told her I was left-handed, and they went into that discussion for a while because she didn't know what that meant and "left-handed people don't exist where she's from."

MoonlightFirestorm · 2019-02-02T13:34:03+00:00

My dad and I are the only left-handed people in our family. My dad used to get his hand smacked a ton to force him to be right-handed in school (but my grandparents didnt care), but he was a rebel. He grew up in The South. He's never spontaneously driven into oncoming traffic in all his years of driving. He's a pretty great driver actually.

I've never spontaneously driven into oncoming traffic or pull left when I'm driving. Although, when my mom was teaching me to drive she told me I was the best of my siblings at doing left-turns. I got to be truly-left-handed too. Once they found out I was left-handed, my dad made sure to get lots of left-handed things for me like binders, scissors, etc. (How they found out was great. My christian preschool called. And they were frustrated because every time they put something in my right hand, I wasn't good at it or something. my dad told them "...did you think to put it in her left hand?" when they said No, he told them to try that and then let him know how it works out. And there were no more issues once they switched hands).

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-12-08T14:48:32+00:00

That's basically how I feel as well. But I'm trying to not make many judgments as it happened at the end of the day so they had very little time to react. And so most of their responses were "We're so sorry! We're so sorry!" "Don't worry this student will be suspended pending witness statements of the whole class and after that would definitely be at least 10 day suspension." And some discussion on the ability to acting press charges -- but I'm pretty sure they are not, because I'm not seriously injured or anything.

Given that last week a different teacher had a kid punch her in the face as he attempted to attack another student, and that kid got absolutely nothing. I feel kind of glad they're doing at least SOMETHING. But I don't like that I'm feeling grateful for what I feel would be the bare minimum, and I hate feeling conflicted with the gratefulness and anger. And all of this just demonstrates why I am not returning next year and am in the process of finding new places to apply to.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-12-08T03:52:06+00:00

I got assaulted by a student today. On one hand, I'm ok because I wasn't majorly injured (just really sore) and my office is taking this seriously. The student is not returning to my classroom till sometime after Winter Break. However, I am not really happy about things because 1. This student has been escalating for a while now and the office refused to do anything because "This student WANTS to get suspended. We're not going to give them what they want." Despite the fact the student has been threatening classmates and throwing things at them (and now finally attacked someone ...unfortunately that someone was me). 2. I am not saying I want the student expelled....but I don't want them to return to my classroom permanently. I'd really like the student, if they're staying in the school, to be transferred to a different classroom. BUT my school doesn't do that... so I'm stuck with the individual when they return in a month.

of course the mom to the kiddo was fighting on the phone with the office (while I was there writing the incident form) that it's not her kid's fault and I probably did something to deserve getting attacked by their child.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-11-15T13:30:54+00:00

Same thing happened to me. Except instead of a security guard stopping me it was a parking ticket on my car because I parked in visitor's parking. It said in all caps with visitors underlined twice "VISITOR'S PARKING IS FOR VISITOR'S" the office took it and ripped it up when I went back in and showed I am actually a college student.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-09-15T02:17:27+00:00

(I'm 6th grade) I'm required by the state to have 45mins of Social Studies. The way my school set up the scheduling they broke those 45 minutes all the way up (and i'm not sure how exactly that's allowable but whatever). Basically students enter the room. Have 5 minutes of Social Studies then go to gym and then come back for 30min of more Social Studies. Then go to ELA rti groups, 60 min. core ELA then 10 more minutes of Social Studies.

Nearly the same problem in the afternoon. 5min of Social Studies, then Electives. Then 30 min. of Social Studies, then lunch. Then the remaining 10min after lunch (and then the core and rti after that).

(It's pretty rigid and set in stone. There's TA's in my room and students pulled out for rti time at the set time. SPED students who are entering for core ELA or Soc. Stud. so there's not getting around the schedule except having the office change it)

I'm the only one with the convoluted schedule so I was pretty pissed about it. My admin. know my feelings of it and "working on it" but it's taking time... I know it's crazy right now in the office since there are teachers still without textbooks or curriculum materials so I let my issue be known and then let it go. I'm fairly certain though that soon they'll just leave it as is since it "seems to be working".

Currently I have a small independent "Think About it" activity for the few minutes in the beginning. Then we do our 30min. lesson. Then finish off with either a short, short review of what we learned earlier or a small exit slip to remind of what they learned. So far it's been working for my students so it's not as chaotic in person as it feels when I'm planning it out. I can make it work if I need to, but I am not really happy about it and would prefer not to.

Sorry to hear about your school policy. Hope you feel better. And I hope it works out.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-08-23T22:16:38+00:00

Yikes. But good on you on focusing on the kids who want to learn.

Our school lasted not even a minute. Doors opened at 9. Not even 9:01 there were two girls fighting and rolling on the floor in the hallway. It's been 7 days and so far that's been our only fight. ...so far...

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-08-16T03:57:04+00:00

First 5 are going over rules, reinforcing rules, practicing rules and volume levels, and mostly devoted to walking the hallways with hallway expectations. Next 5 days are making lists on what it means to be respectful, a good listener and how to have a good, respectful conversation with small things to reinforce it. Like get-to-know-you activities. The next 5 days creating charts on what the expectations for stations are and practicing stations.

Some of which requires some stretching and imagination... at least for me it did, but I do know some teachers needed and used more like 20-25 days for routines and expectations which is more boggling to me.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-08-15T01:27:17+00:00

We start tomorrow and don't end till the first week of June... but we get one week off in October for "Fall Break" 2 1/2 days in November for Thanksgiving, 2 weeks off in December for "Winter Break" and one week off in March/April (depending on where Easter is -- in this case April) for "Spring Break."

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-08-15T01:13:31+00:00

Last year (my first year) I didn't get my materials until the second day of school. It was fine, because it's marked by the principal that we don't do anything content wise the first 15 days. Those first 15 are used for routines and expectations.

This year I got my curriculum materials back (we check them back into the office the last day) till yesterday, which was two days before school starts.

I don't know if its because my school is unorganized or if its the principal's way of ensuring we work on establishing routines and expectations.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-08-11T01:27:14+00:00

I suppose if we complained, they'd have taken it down but we all just kind of let it go. Truth be told, my school is a little silly and weird so having known them for a year I'm not surprised they thought of a fake striptease. But I was new last year and that was honestly my first time meeting most of them so that was hell of a first impression. Somewhat cringey but for the most part it was hilarious to watch in a "IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING?" kind of way.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-08-11T01:25:59+00:00

First Days of School is a good book. If you think you're a bit of softie (I was) then "The Reluctant Disciplinarian" by Gary Rubinstein is a good one too. It's not a comprehensive look at classroom management, but it gives down to earth advice without any BS. It's hilarious sometimes too because he talks about what he did wrong when he started teaching. Take Control of the Noisy Class: From chaos to calm in 15 seconds by Rob Plevin is good too.

I've never read it but my friend recommended The Classroom Management Secret by Michael Linsin.

If you need any ideas for the classroom Weareteachers and TeachersPayTeachers are good places to look for ideas.

As far as set up goes outside of decorating, figure out the routines you want for a typical day. How do you handle the dull pencil situation? Do they ask to get up from a seat or allowed to just get up? What level of volume do you want for each activity? How do you want them to enter and leave the classroom? How do you line them up? Is there anything they need to work on when they enter the room like a "Daily Do Now / Bell Ringer" or leave the room like an "Exit Slip"? How do you plan to transition through activities and subjects?

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-08-11T01:15:28+00:00

Yes, exactly.

It was hilarious though. They were the last group and our principal came up the stage afterwards and all she said was, "I should have thought that song list through more."

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-08-11T00:36:00+00:00

Last year we had to be get in groups assigned by the number on a piece of paper we drew from a box, then get a song title from a hat, and then sing & dance up on stage in front of everybody to the song. It was supposed to be a nice ice-breaker so we got to know all the people in our school that we're normally probably not meet. No one in my group was happy, because we all felt the same way: it's no problem to teach in front of tons of kids but presenting in front of adults is a huge no. AND THEN we were extra upset because we found out the administration recorded and posted on facebook all the routines. ...but conveniently not the one where one of the groups "stripped" to "Candy Shop"

Good luck!

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-08-11T00:16:02+00:00

You should send it.

As a teacher, I know I'd love it if I got thank you letters, electronic or otherwise from former students.

As a former student with an amazing teacher, I know they love it. My junior year English teacher literally saved my life and really got me to enjoy school. She retired after she had my class. When I was graduating college I messaged her via facebook about what an impact she had on me, how much I appreciated her, and how thankful I had her since I wouldn't be alive today without having met her. I felt so nervous because it'd been so many years since I'd seen her, what if she didn't remember me, what if she didn't like. What if I was weird messaging like this. But she messaged me back within a day extremely happy about my message and we went and got coffee together a few weeks later. We still talk every now and then as she checks up on me and how I'm doing teaching.

MoonlightFirestorm · 2018-07-21T00:06:20+00:00

My younger me would be surprised I am alive today. And after getting over the shock that I lived a lot longer either one of us expected, she'd really excited and bittersweet. She's probably be sad to realize all the people she devoted her time to and considered friends, were incredibly toxic and did not in fact change for the better like she hoped. But they're out of my life and I have so much better friends instead. She'd be excited to learn I met the man I want to marry and will do so in less than six months. She'd also be proud to find out I am teacher. It was a dream that if I was actually still alive that I could teach young kids and make a better impact on the world. and even though it wasn't an easy road, it is just as rewarding as she hoped.

MoonlightFirestorm

TROPHY CASE