Sunday, September 7, 2008

The Return...

Hello everyone (or...maybe there is just one of you actually out there who cares that I updated once in the last 8 months...hi!).

This past week was the first week of my SECOND year of teaching and I really want to do better this year with posting. That way I can remember stuff...because when I say, "Oh, I'll remember THAT" it really means that I will try really hard and not be able to recall what it was.

Just a couple of highlights from the first week:

  1. I have 7 kids whose names begin with the letter "J" which means I have to break out my "alphabatizing by the second letter" skills every single day.
  2. I have three kids who names end with "-ia" which means that when I call one of them, at least two are going to come because they weren't really listening
  3. One of my boys draws his "wee wee" on every self portrait he draws. I asked him what it was and he told me all matter of factly. So, I just said, "Okay" and moved on!
  4. I am noticing that most of my kids actually seem to care if they break things that belong to me, which is a welcome change. I had to explain to more than one teary-eyed kid that accidentally dropping the chalk and breaking it was NOT a big deal. I only want them to let me know it happened; there will be no punishment if it's an accident and you tell me about it!
  5. I have to be mentored. Again. Well, kind of for the first time. My mentor last year "kind of dropped the ball" (her words) so I was assigned another mentor for this year. I Really like the woman who is my mentor this year, but seriously...why do I have to go to workshops about "Effective parent communication" and stuff like that? Obviously I have figured something out in the past year and having to go to these things just annoys me because it is not my fault. I was the poor, confused mentee who just went to other people for information. And now I have to go to meetings as punishment. Ugh.
  6. My Friday schedule rocks. In the morning, I literally have my kids for 30 minute intervals, then they leave to go to other places! I got SO MUCH DONE while they were gone all morning!
I guess that's about all for now...tune in next week for more info about being a second year teacher!

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