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.