Fall Break began on Friday for the kids, but with the professional development I’ve been to, today was really the first day. Sleeping in was glorious and I felt ready to tackle some of the projects I’ve been meaning to get to. Some of these projects are a result of the professional development I’ve had…
read more »Even though I hope my kids are learning from me, I’m amazed at the number of things that I learn from them on a daily basis. Things as mundane as their favorite colors, songs, and dances, to the truly saddening such as an already jaded perspective on life and how things are. Should nine and…
read more »This week and last have been rough. TFA shows you a projection of the first year teacher’s satisfaction/happiness and it says that in about October it gets rough. Well, we got started second week of August so about end of September is right. There’s a lot of things that I’d like to say, but this…
read more »This week has been a rollercoaster of everything. For the first time, I felt really solid about some of my plans in Language Arts and the kids seemed to respond well. My kids were happy for the most part and motivated to do well behaviorally because of parties at the end of the week. I…
read more »My training has made me prepared for many of the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants moments that have occurred thus far. I’ve had crying kids, lessons that tanked, procedures that failed, classroom discussions about not using gay as an insult, and other hormonal issues of 4th graders. Friday was, on the outset, a typical Friday: quests, kids going nuts,…
read more »I went in to school today to make some copies and bumped into the new 4th grade teacher. My school has added at least one new teacher onto every grade level, as well as some special ed teachers. They start sometime this week which I think most of the teachers are eagerly anticipating. I unfortunately…
read more »I broke down and bought three things this weekend: A thermometer, a bathroom scale, and some powerful meds. I could feel myself getting worse and worse this week so I decided to be an adult and in true TFA fashion, went to get myself some data. Here it is — this weekend my temperature reached…
read more »I’ve been going to lunch with my kids all week because their behavior was so bad that I felt I needed to be an extra pair of eyes and ears in the lunchroom. While I was a huge fan of Jamie Oliver’s miniseries on cafeteria lunches in the US, I hadn’t had much experience with…
read more »One full week of school down, and I can tell you this. Despite all technical difficulties, I am already in love with all 24 little (well, some not so little) bodies that sit in my classroom. We’re still working on listening and following directions, especially “Stop Talking”. I did feel a bit like one of…
read more »It’s the day before school starts. As a kid, I was always super excited for the first day of school. Now that I’m a teacher, the feeling is a bit different. Perhaps, to be fair, it won’t always feel like an all-encompassing fear and panic. It may just be that being a brand new teacher…
read more »