I Love Being a Teacher!!!

2 days down, a whole lot more to go!!!

School started on Thursday and for the most part, it went really well! I must say, however, that the first day of school isn't really any fun. All I did was teach them procedures and play get to know you games, which isn't that bad, but it just wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. I felt like I was a really mean and strict teacher the first day, because I knew that I had to get a handle on management from day 1 or else I feared that the kids would walk all over me from then on. But, day 2 was much better and I was able to be myself more and be more fun with the kids. That's how I want to be every day!!!

The first day was an extremely stressful day because everything seemed to go really, really fast and I wasn't able to do a lot of the things that I had planned. In my school district, most elementary schools do what's called "Track Time" which means that 1/2 my kids come at 8:00 in the morning and I have them for an hour and 15 minutes before the rest of the kids come. Then, the second set of kids stay for an hour and 15 minutes after the first track kids leave. Well, anyway, my second trackers came at 9:15 and we had Specialties at 9:30. That meant that I had 15 minutes to teach my kids:

1) that they would be split into thirds and each go to a different Specialty which will switch every trimester,
2) how to line up (quietly, without touching each other, in two lines, etc.) and
3) how to walk in the halls.

Plus, I had to get them to each of their specialties within that 15 minute time-block!
That's what I mean when I say it was stressful! I felt like I had so much to teach them (because they had to know it that first day) and so very little time!

Like I said before, Day 2 was much, much better. I didn't plan as many things and even though we had an assembly that was a bit stressful, overall, it was a very relaxed day compared to Thursday. I was able to be myself and be the kind of teacher that I truly want to be. For homework on the first day, I gave each student a sack and they had to fill it with 5 things that represented them. When we were sharing the next day, I kept singing the kids names as they were getting ready to come up! At first, the kids kept looking around with confused looks on their faces like, "Is she for real?" but then they started laughing every time I did it! It was really fun and silly!

There are a couple of stories that I wanted to share from the first two days (many of which are pretty funny!)

1. First of all, I lost a kid on the first day...that's right, lost one! He is a second track student but I wasn't paying attention as well as I should have been and he left when all the first track students were leaving. He is new to the school, so he didn't know he was doing anything wrong, but I still had to walk to the office and get them to call his name over the intercom. Pretty funny. Then, I had a kid that stayed all day. He came at first track even though he wasn't supposed to come until second track. The office lady came in and kind of chewed him out saying that he needed to only come at 9:15 and leave at 3:30, so, he did stay until 3:30, meaning I had him the entire day! He is one of those "hard" ones so it was pretty funny that first day!

2. On the second day of school, the kid with a mohawk brought me an apple. That's right...he brought me an apple! I wanted to laugh so hard but instead I made a big deal about how nice it was! I was so excited because it felt like I was a real teacher. Kids bringing me apples and all!

3. Our air conditioner is a little slow so in the morning it is freezing cold because the trailer has had all night to cool down but as the day wears on, the air conditioner can't keep up with all the hot bodies that come in after recess so it gets really, really hot. Like 90 degrees hot! I was telling one of my colleagues (that's right, I have colleagues!) about how hot it was and he told me that if I needed to, I could come in and use his room (he is doing a pilot testing program for our school so he is in the computer lab, but there isn't any testing going on so his room is empty). That second day I decided to take him up on his offer and since my students were just doing show and tell, I didn't think it would be a big problem. Well, four adults were in the classroom when we got there but they just sat in the back while we did our show and tell. One of the kids brought a cell phone and I quickly asked if the phone was off. He told me it was and he seemed a pretty trustworthy kid so I believed him. A few minutes later, another kid was presenting, and a cell phone went off. The people in the back looked at me and I was absolutely mortified! I walked over to the kid and just held my hand out so he knew to give me the dang phone NOW!!! I put it in my pocket and moved on. Later, after school was over, I saw Boyce, one of the adults in the back of the room, and I said, "How about when my kid's cell phone went off!" He just laughed and said, "Yeah, it had to happen then didn't it? When we were all in the back watching you! It had all day to go off, but it just happened to go off then!" Seriously! I mean, I am judged on how well my kids behave and on the second day of school, one of my kids' cell phones rings in front of 4 other teachers! Awesome!

Well, that's all I can think of right now. I know that a lot more happened during the last two days, but I can't remember all of it. All you need to know is that I love being a teacher!