Back in the Saddle Again

Tomorrow is, yet again, the first day of school! I have 17 boys and 7 girls on my class list, and even though that's a LOT of boys, it's my smallest class size EVER. I also have a monolingual Chinese student. I'm really worried about how she'll adjust/pick up the language!

The kids are cuter than ever (I met them Thursday during Meet the Teacher), and I feel like I finally have this ELD thing down. Now I just need God to grant me some more patience and a lot more energy.

I'm going in to school this morning (on a Sunday! bleh!) to do some last minute prep and finish sorting out math assessments for our new math standards.

By the way, teachers. I found this cool website: www.ixl.com Check it out!

Hope everyone's doing well!

First Week Finished!

I have officially survived the first week of school, though it's been rough. I really miss my students from last year, and this batch needs a LOT of help- in in-class behavior, focusing, writing, spelling, math- pretty much everything but virtue. Does that make sense? They are all pretty good kids, but they don't know how to keep their hands out of their desk, pay attention to a lesson/story/speaker, raise their hand, stay quiet during independent work, etc.

I have thirty students, as of right now, but it may flop upwards of 35 by September! It's this new ELD structure the state of Arizona has applied this year- I am only allowed to take in ELD students, and the rest of the third grade teachers are teaching non-ELD, which means any new enrollments who are ELD get automatically placed in my class! YIKES!

Ughhhhhh!

I officially hate teaching! Okay, I don't hate it, but I'm getting really frustrated. I go back to work next week and the following week is the first week of school. Although I worked at home to prepare and this will be my third year teaching, I'm completely overwhelmed and I forgot about all the crap that goes with this: new schedules, changing schedules, new staff members who don't care, new standards, new state mandates, huge class numbers (I'm already at thirty), shortages of supplies, broken promises.... The kids- the real reason I put up with this stuff- aren't here to remind me of my calling, so I'm just becoming embittered- after only one day working in the classroom.

Grrrrrrrrr!

First Day

Today was the first day of school! It started as crazily as always: students in the wrong classrooms, non-English speaking parents coming into the room to make sure their child- I don't know - knows they are at school? My students are pretty adorable: 25 eight to nine-year-olds eager to be at school and start a new chapter. They are at many different academic levels. Most seem to be pretty low, but I also have one girl who is reading "Chronicles of Narnia."

The day passed very quickly, but I was still completely exhausted afterwards. Being cheery for so long takes something out of you.

It was also the first day of our conversion from a K-6 to a K-8. I am not the biggest lover of the junior-high crew: they are pompous, egotistical, wanna-be-adults. It's strange having to walk my kids past a bunch of gossiping 13-year-olds. I've had to tell students taller than me to tuck in their shirts... I also hurt my feet by playing tag in fancy professional shoes. I think the blisters are worth the connections I made with my third graders!