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.