Kitchen Meets Culinary Clutz

Ingredients:
1-lb boneless skinless (uncooked) chicken breast, chopped into small pieces

1-pkt Grill Mates Peppercorn & Garlic marinade (plus ingredients to prep marinade)

8-10 Burrito size Flour Tortillas

Shredded Colby-Jack Cheese

Instructions:

1.  Preheat family sized skillet to med-high heat.

2.  Prepare marinade according to package directions. Add to chicken breast pieces and turn to coat all 

     pieces.

3.  Add chicken to skillet and cook, turning often, for 15 minutes. Remove from heat.

4.  Place a flat skillet over medium heat. 

5.  Once heated, place 1 - 2 tortillas on the skillet. 

6.  Add cheese and about 2 oz of cooked chicken to one half of each tortilla. 

7.  Fold each tortilla in half to form a half-moon shape.

8.  When the cheese begins to melt, 1 -2  minutes, flip the quesadillas over to heat on the other side for about 

     30 seconds to a minute.  Remove from heat when the tortillas start to get a little crispy.

9.  Slice each tortilla into 4 pieces. 

10. Repeat process with two more tortillas until all quesadillas are done.

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Quesadillas make an excellent after school snack. Or in our case, it makes a quick-fix meal for busy families on nights when there isn't time to prepare a traditional family dinner. 

It's Wednesday, our week is half gone and it sure has been a busy one for us! Track season's begun. Lil'Bit is in training for the sprinting events as well as the long jump and triple jump events.  It's also time for Choir Solo Contests.  Thankfully KtBug's singing coach trains with her before school each week. With as busy as we've been this month it isn't nearly as hectic as it will get when Spring training begins for the kids in football and volleyball!  

 I hope all my readers are having a good week. I'm having an excellent week! My classroom finally has a permanent lead teacher. She is a first year teacher who, before earning her certification in early childhood education and special education, was a paraprofessional just like myself. My students really seem to be warming up to her, Yay!!! 

After dealing with a bad hat and all of us paras having to turn into Mama Bears on survival mode, in an effort to protect the welfare of our students for the past 2 1/2 months, Mrs. C's new friendly face and fresh ideas have been a "Godsend".

I actually dreaded the thought of going to work for the past few months after our last teacher left last November and her position was taken over by an abusive substitute teacher.

 Every day was so stressful my stomach would gnarl up as I pulled into the school parking lot.  I didn't want to be there.  A job I've always boasted to be a joy was anything but when an impostor moved her way into the classroom dawning a dagger-like tongue. The substitute teacher was extremely abusive and we were rendered helpless because of the control she possessed.  We all wondered how she managed to weasel her way into our classroom and gain access to the teacher database as well as being given her own official email account. What was her motive? And why did it seem like her very existence was to cause chaos in what used to be a peaceful classroom?

I don't know how she was able to manipulate others into thinking she was harmless. Behind closed doors she turned into a monster, casting orders, belittling the staff and scaring the students.  I almost lost all faith in my bosses when we pleaded with them to help us after our work environment became hostile.  Little did we know that they were in the works of finding us a new teacher to rescue us. :)

I don't know how, or who our saving grace was, but the substitute was dismissed last week. According to the Substitute teacher, as she bawled her eyes out and forced a hug upon me last Friday morning, the administrators forced her immediate removal from the classroom. The unwanted hug felt uncomfortable. I had to squirm out of her grasp, and she had a tight grip on me. If any tears formed in my eyes it was because I was, 1. forming tears of joy because she was leaving, and 2. shedding tears of pain because my arm was twisted up and tightly pinned between her arm and body. If I were a coyote I would have gnawed my arm free that very instant, but I'm human and I gently pulled free so as not to cause any conflict and rubbed the bright red pressure mark that was left on my arm. 

We all worried as to whether or not the substitute teacher would return on Monday and prayed that we would never have to see her again.

Today we are inching our way back into trusting people. It's hard after the craziness we experienced. Who would've known that so much damage could be done to people, by one person, in such a short amount of time. We are excited to have a new teacher in our classroom but at the same time we are slow at letting down our guard.  We're warming up to her slowly but surely. I just hate the fact that the substitute teacher ruined us into becoming capricious in trusting new people. She took that from us and it will take time for us to heal from that. 

Nonetheless, we have a new teacher who our students have immediately taken a liking too (That alone tells A LOT about our new teacher, which definitely gave us a good feeling about her!) We all agreed that we have faith that our new lead teacher will be a perfect match for our class.  We are also extremely optimistic that this is going to be a fantastic second half of the school year!