An Upward Swing

I've almost made it to that one month mark. The first two weeks were by far the hardest two weeks I've ever experienced. I knew they would be hard but I wasn't expecting to feel so discouraged. Every night for those weeks I questioned what I was doing and if I was truly ready for my own class. But clearly I made it through and this week I started feeling like I was starting to get it. Those first two weeks I was getting to school around 6 and staying to almost 5. Even being there that long I still felt like I was behind and was just trying to get through each day. This week I still get there pretty early so I can beat traffic and use the copier without anyone being there. But I'm able to leave close to 4 and I even left my laptop at school one night because I didn't feel like I needed to work at home. 

There are still some aspects of the job that I'm struggling with. My team lead is in her second year and is following a different curriculum than the rest of the team. She also was as she said, "screwed" with having so many high kids who won't show as much growth. So she isn't someone who can provide me with much support or even someone who I can relate to with our teaching styles. This week I also started filling out the CST  paperwork for a student but it's been tough figuring out what I need to have for it and having to wait and keep teaching while she is struggling and needing interventions and modifications that I can't provide. 

This week though I also started to really get to know my kids and see them settle into the classroom and the routine. During meet the teacher night a mom told me her son barely talked and never really spoke to his kinder teacher. However, this week he was talking and when he was calendar leader he was able to talk in front of the entire class. I have seen students start to really use the material we have learned and use the vocabulary across subjects. We have been learning about community and yesterday one of my girls commented that the character from our read aloud was a community helper. 

I'm hoping that this upward swing continues and the rest of this month continues to get better. 

Week 1

Well I survived. It was one tiring, amazing, nonstop, and chaotic week. Here's some of the highlights of the week:

• On Monday despite my planning I went through my activities too fast and had to make copies in the middle of the day. 
• I had a "crier" whose grandma said I wasn't nice enough and tried to go behind her parents back and get her transferred to another class. 
• First fire drill of the year happened and I was more freaked out than the kids. 
• I found out that scarlet fever still exists and already have a student out sick.

Despite all of that I still think it was a good week. I already love my class and can't imagine having a different group of kids. I could have had some back up worksheets ready and practiced lining up more for a fire drill. But now I know and know I will have things set up for the second week. 

The hardest part has honestly been keeping track of all the school/district/state pre-tests. I swear in the first three weeks those kids have to take about eight tests. And most of the material is stuff they don't know and I can't answer questions about. They get so stressed out and I hate that I just have to sit there. They are also annoying because about half of them need to be done one-on-one. The rest of the class isn't independent enough to do much meaningful work so I feel like it's wasted time for them. 

Starting on Monday I am beginning my first thematic unit, community. During student teaching this was one of my favorite units I observed my mentor teach. I love seeing the kids think about jobs and discuss citizenship. I also thought it would build on the first week stuff on rules and procedures. Hopefully getting into more of a routine next week will help cut back on the chaos. 

But now I need to finish getting my lesson plans typed and make a better seating chart.