Sharing

I realize it has been a century and half since I have posted. I never knew 17 five year olds could keep a person so busy or so SICK! That's right, my first year immune system has finally been shot to heck.

It started about 4 weeks ago when for a solid week my voice slowly disappeared into nothingness. I actually enjoyed that because they kids were just angels! They had to be so quiet so they could hear which complete cut back on the talking! THEN it was Thanksgiving break and I'm very much enjoying doing nothing when I get slammed with a sinus infection. I guess I can't blame the kids too bad except when it turns into a cold as I return to school the next week. I couldn't take off because we were giving the CoGAT test and I was the only one who could administer it to them. After a week of that I finally was better. Then suddenly towards the end of that week, my kids were dropping like flies. Either they were home throwing up, or they threw up at school and were sent home. Wednesday night was my turn, so I took the past 2 days to recover. I come to find out that Thursday 5 kids were absent along with myself!!! Good gracious!! THEN today, I found out that my sub went home throwing up! SERIOUSLY??What is living in my room that is making everyone so sick?? My mom had my dad drive up a can of Lysol which she sprayed everywhere in my room, and hopefully that will kill everything before Monday. I'm glad I taught the kids to share, but I'd rather them share crayons or pencils than nasty stomache bugs.

Other than the sickness, I am absolutely LOVING my class! They finally got the hang of how the whole school thing works and since they have their writing has improved, their reading has improved, and they keep becoming more independent!! It's GREAT!

Other good news-the teacher next door to me had her baby boy on Tuesday! We went to the hospital to see the new mommy and baby. The rest of my team and I consider ourselves "aunts" to baby Will also known as T-Rex. Don't even ask....

And the very last bit of good news..............................5 MORE DAYS UNTIL WINTER BREAK!!! :)

Lions and Hugs

First, I apologize for not posting for a while. My new goal is to try and post once a week. Everyday is just NOT possible.

Second, I've learned that no two days in Kindergarten are ever the same. One day can be pure bliss and harmony in the classroom, and the next can be like a wildfire-unpredictable and scary. BUT the good thing is that for the most part life in my room has been going better than I expected. I'm so blessed to have the kids I have. There are hardly and "major" discipline problems. Yes, they have their bad moments, but I've learned those moments are those teachable moments to help them be successful not just in the classroom but in life.

And third, I left my kids for the first time today with a substitute while I went to a Growing Writers workshop that was held in our multipurpose room. Funny story about the sub though.....

So I asked my friend to sub for me since she'd put herself on the sub list while she was in town for a month, she agreed to do it. I should let you know that this was probably 2 weeks before the actual day I was going to be absent. So over the weekend, I texted her to make sure she'd still be able to sub when she tells me...."I thought it was Wednesday, not Tuesday, because I can't do it on Tuesday, I'll be out of town."

"Ok, don't panic, you'll find someone" I tell myself. Wrong. Since it was a district wide workshop, all Kindergarten teachers were absent, so pretty much all subs were taken. One of the wonderful ladies on my team, assured me that I would definitely be going to the workshop even if it meant that someone on our team had to give up their sub since I was the new teacher and needed the information the most. So I show up to school this morning, still with no sub lined up, go straight to the office to tell the secretary my delihmma (sp?). She said that the Kindergarten aide was free for the day to cover my class. Usually she has to help out in 3rd grade for a while with a student, but that student was going to be out for the day. Is God watching out for me or what?? SO, she covered my class, she said the kids were AMAZING for her.....and the best part was when I walked in the room to help with dismissal at the end of the day (we got out of the workshop early), I got bombarded with the sweetest hugs and was told to read the story they wrote together as a class. Ok, so in the story I was eaten by a lion, BUT apparently the lion took me to Africa. But hey, I got hugs! Maybe I am doing something right after all....

Uphill

Forgive me for my lack of posting. As you can see from my lack of time and exhaustion, last week did NOT go as smooth as anticipated. The further into the week I got, the most discouraged I seemed to get, I was even wondering why the heck I wanted to be a teacher in the first place....and then the weekend came.

Unintentionally, I ended up rearranging my entire classroom on Saturday. (I will post pictures once I take some.) Who would have thought that by giving the kids some more boundaries for centers and a bit more space at the group rug and tables, all my problems would be solved. Today could not have gone any better. For the very first time, I've had FUN teaching, and the kids had FUN learning. Wow, what an incredible feeling. I knew my day was going so much better when I could almost laugh at the fact that one of my kids whacked another kid in the head with his lunchbox. (He at lunch at a table by himself). That was the biggest problem I had all day- so AWESOME! I wasn't tired after school, in fact, I couldn't stop smiling! I'm finally going uphill on the teaching rollercoaster. :) I even learned how to start my report card files on my computer and set up my class lists on my palm for TPRI testing!

I hope the rest of the week goes this well!

It will be alright.

I have come to the realization that everything is going to be alright.

I met with one of the teachers on my team today, and we went over everything on the lesson plans for next week.....in MUCH more detail than last week. I'm so grateful to her for taking time out of her 3 day weekend to answer the millions of questions I had, so that next week will go much smoother. I came home and got everything ready and organized for next weeks lessons. Tomorrow I'm going to run up to school for a little while to get things in my classroom back in order and organized. I'm excited and completely inspired all over again and I couldn't be happier!

Treading Water

It all just kind of hit me today. The craziness of these past 6 weeks- workshops, meetings, trainings, setting up 2 classrooms, scrambling to get things ready, and starting my career. It was not the good kind of feeling that you want to get hit with. It was the feeling of just complete confusion, frustration, even failure. That last part is probably me just being hard on myself. I just wish I had known I was going to be teaching Kindergarten all summer that way I could have been more prepared. I just feel like I've playing catch up all week long, and not even impacting the kids. I know that they're 5, and for some this is the first school experience, but I don't want them to even waste a minute in the classroom because I'm not prepared, or because I could have done something better.

Everyone has been saying all along that the first week is the hardest, boy were they right. I'm just glad that tomorrow is Friday, and that it's a 3 day weekend. I can regroup, reorganize, and walk into next week feeling completely ready and sure of what I'm doing instead of just treading water.

The First Day of School

Of course I didn't get much sleep last night, but that didn't stop me from being completely WIDE awake this morning when my alarm when off. I left my house at 7:00 to get to school early to shake the nerves and things ready. Boy was I NOT ready. We weren't supposed to pick up the kids until 7:55 in the cafeteria, but at 7:35 kids and parents start streaming into my room as I am trying to get ready for the day. No big deal, I tell myself, just give them Play-dough to keep their little hands occupied. That worked for the most part, but I still felt flourished as I helped each child unpack and say goodbye to their parents. I was SO SO SO lucky that absolutely NONE of my kids even shed a tear when their parents left! What a blessing! I was the most nervous about that I think. I didn't know how I would console 17 sad kindergartners with just 2 arms.

Today was a lot of going over procedures of the school and the classroom, and my class probably could have cared less about it all. We did have fun doing the calender, having visits from principals and other teachers, singing Dr. Jean songs, coloring pictures of ourselves to tape on the Expectations poster, sharing little tidbits of our lives, taking tours of the school and classroom, and of course in exploring manipulatives and the centers.

I really do have a cute group of kids. However, there's a handful of them that don't feel its necessary to listen to me when we're at the group rug, so after school, I readjusted the way our group rug was set up. I made a box on the carpet with masking tape, and inside the masking tape put even smaller strips of tape even spread out and labeled them with their names. In doing so, I seperated all the kids that don't need to be next to each other, and put the ones that need the most attention right up front next to me. I think this will make a HUGE difference in their behaviors at the group rug. If not, we'll just try other strategies.

I definitely think today was such a great learning experience. There's about a MILLION things I would have done differently, but I can't change that now and I probably wouldn't if I could. I can only improve and get better for tomorrow and the days that follow after that. And I will, if anything, I'm even more excited to actually start teaching reading and math tomorrow instead of just going over rules and playing. But don't worry, we'll review all that tomorrow too!

Falling into Place

It was amazing meeting 16 out of the 17 kids on Meet the Teacher night. I could finally put faces to the names I have been writing on name tents, cubbie name tags, and stars all week long. They were so cute, and the parents couldn't have been nicer. All day long I had the biggest knot in my stomach because I was so nervous to meet the parents, but that knot went away the minute the first parent walked in the door with her 3 daughters. The middle one was the lucky one that gets to be in my class all year long. Soon after, more parents and their kids trickled in. We spent 2 hours just talking, touring the room, and sorting the millions of school supplies that accompany one little five year old. The time flew by quickly, but my feet were the brutal reminder of how long I had been standing on them all day.

There was one moment though that just made the entire night so memorable. There was a mom who brought her little boy in somewhere during the middle of the night. The little boy had been crying, and looked as if he had seen a ghost when he had walked in the classroom. I slowly knelt down to get at his level and told him that I was his teacher. I asked him if he wanted to help me find his name on one of the tables. He shyly nodded yes, and his mom and I walked to his table where his name was. He was looking less and less frightened as he got acquainted with his chair and the contents in his spot. His mom quietly told me that his favorite color in the whole entire world was yellow. His spot just happened to be at the "Yellow Star" table. I think this was the sign from God telling me that His hand is in all of this, that He's taking care of me, and the 17 precious kids that He has placed in my classroom.

Tomorrow is the first day of my teaching career, and I feel nervous and excited at the same time but even more blessed to be at Story Elementary, in the room that I'm in, and the team that I'm on. It's all fallen perfectly into place, just as I have always imagined it would.