After school a student and I sang the twenty-three helping verbs as a way to make sure she was ready for her quiz tomorrow. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. All four of my classes went well. Was it that the book on tape was better to listen to than my reading voice? Was it the clipboards nailed to the wall that my collegue drilled in for me before I'd even arrived at school? Was it just my attitude? I did decide not to let things get to me. I decided that what mattered most was not that every second was a learning moment, but that the chaos was controlled. I let some of the foul language slide, I let some of the innappropriate behaviors go in the name of getting some of the work done. And some of the work did get done. Not all of it. Not enough to compete with the rest of the world, the one outside the lives of kids who are more worried about violence than numbers, but enough to make me take stock a moment and say, yeah, this was a good day.